27/Carlsbad, Calif.: The First Annual Entertech Conference on new technologies and issues shaping entertainment production, postproduction, marketing and distribution. For details, (877) 223-9753….April 27/New York: 3rd Annual Schmio Awards at Cantor Film Center. www.mediademocracy.org.schmio/….April 29/New York: 35th annual International ANDY Awards at Town Hall Theatre. For reservations, (212) 533-1570 or www.andyawards.com….May 3-5/San Francisco: @d:tech, the Internet Marketing Conference & Expo. (800) 535-1812 or www.ad-tech.com….May 5: London: The 37th Annual British Design & Art Direction Awards. Info, 44 (171) 840-1111 or www. dandad.org…May 6/Miami: 6th Annual Anti Film Festival’s Animation Station. Contact Noreen Legault, (305) 674-9998…. May 15-16/Minneapolis: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Jennifer Jacovsky, (212) 420-8900…. May 17-21/New York: The 40th Clio Awards Festival. Info, (212) 683-4300….May 17, 19 and 21/Dallas: AICP Commercial Production training seminars. Contact Jennifer Jacovsky, (212) 420-8900….June 8-9/New York: 8th Annual AICP Show & Lecture Series at MoMA. Sheri Kent, (212) 475-3910….June 9-12/San Francisco: PROMAX & BDA’s 1999 Conference & Exposition at the Moscone Convention Center. Info, (310) 788-7600…. May 23-25/Miami: 1999 Film Florida Conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Info, Annie Perez, (305) 375-3288…. June 10-15/Montreux, Switzerland: Montreux Symposium ’99 looking at the challenges arising from digital and HD technology. Info, 41 (21) 963-3220 or email message@symposia.ch….July 21/ New York: 1999 ITS Annual Forum at the Waldorf-Astoria. Contact Monica Mathis, (703) 319-0800….July 13-19/Sydney, Australia: SMPTE ’99 Conference at the Darling Harbour Exhibition and Convention Center. Info, 61 (2) 99.77.08.88 or www.exevents. com.au…. August 8-13/Los Angeles: SIGGRAPH 99 at the L.A. Convention Center. Info, Sheila Hoffmeyer or Ann Kilhoffer, (312) 644-6610, fax: (312) 245-1083, or email media-s99@ siggraph.org….
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.
The one rule to follow is that... Read More