Mary Ford, formerly head of sales at bicoastal 1/33 Productions, has moved into independent repping. Her first client is New York-headquartered Piper Productions for which she will handle the East Coast and Texas. Pipers directorial roster includes Jonathan Darby, Iain Mackenzie, Kevin Molony, Eric de la Hosseraye, Hugh Hudson and Kristian Levring. Ford plans to focus exclusively on Piper the next couple of months before looking to add to her indie repping rosterA.Robin Hauck, formerly of Claire Garrett Alden, New York, has joined bicoastal Chelsea Pictures New York office as East Coast rep. She will be working with Chelseas head of sales Lisa MehlingA.Rich Trenbeth & Associates, Chicago, has signed director Mark Schimmel of Schimmel/The Imagemakers, Glenview, Ill., for representation in the MidwestA.Susie Goldberg, senior agent of the DP division at The Directors Network (TDN), Studio City, Calif., has commissioned Jeff Lewis to serve as a field rep who will match TDN DPs with jobs and directors. Lewisawho earlier repped Tony Kaye Films (now Tony K., Santa Monica and London)awill work out of his Westside officeA.Bicoastal Dattner and Associates has signed DPs Jim Denault, Stephen Harris and Tony Molina for representationA.Lighthouse Artists, New York, has signed DPs Kyle Kibbe, Manny Miranda, Evan Estern and Chris Bierlein for representationA.
Review: Writer-Director Coralie Fargeat’s “The Substance”
In its first two hours, "The Substance" is a well-made, entertaining movie. Writer-director Coralie Fargeat treats audiences to a heavy dose of biting social commentary on ageism and sexism in Hollywood, with a spoonful of sugar- and sparkle-doused body horror.
But the film's deliciously unhinged, blood-soaked and inevitably polarizing third act is what makes it unforgettable.
What begins as a dread-inducing but still relatively palatable sci-fi flick spirals deeper into absurdism and violence, eventually erupting — quite literally — into a full-blown monster movie. Let the viewer decide who the monster is.
Fargeat — who won best screenplay at this year's Cannes Film Festival — has been vocal about her reverence for "The Fly" director David Cronenberg, and fans of the godfather of body horror will see his unmistakable influence. But "The Substance" is also wholly unique and benefits from Fargeat's perspective, which, according to the French filmmaker, has involved extensive grappling with her own relationship to her body and society's scrutiny.
"The Substance" tells the story of Elisabeth Sparkle, a famed aerobics instructor with a televised show, played by a powerfully vulnerable Demi Moore. Sparkle is fired on her 50th birthday by a ruthless executive — a perfectly cast Dennis Quaid, who nails sleazy and gross.
Feeling rejected by a town that once loved her and despairing over her bygone star power, Sparkle learns from a handsome young nurse about a black-market drug that promises to create a "younger, more beautiful, more perfect" version of its user. Though she initially tosses the phone number in the trash, she soon fishes it out in a desperate panic and places an order.
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