Hollywood
Eminent filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who became the voice of the inner woman, is dead
New Delhi, 7 October: Renowned filmmaker Chantal Akerman, who presented her last film No Home Movie on her own mother Natalia at Locarno last month, is dead.
The Belgian-born, Paris-based director Akerman who figured among filmmakers who have delved deeply into the psyche of the woman died on 5 October at the age of sixty-five.
According to Isabelle Regnier of Le Monde, Akerman committed suicide.
Born in 1950, she is also remembered for one of the most original and audacious films in the history of cinema, “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” which premi?red at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1975, the month before her twenty-fifth birthday.
Akerman presented monumentally composed, meticulously observed, raptly protracted images of a woman’s domestic routine; and that the pressures of women’s unquestioned, unchallenged, and unrelieved confinement in the domestic realm and in family roles.
In effect, Akerman transformed the visual styles and narrative forms, the dramatic syntax and artistic codes of the modern cinema, into a woman’s cinema. Her films include “Je, Tu, Il, Elle” (I, You, He, She) made in 1976, “News from Home”, “Toute Une Nuit” (One Whole Night) in 1982
She made one of the great cinematic coming-of-age dramas, “Portrait of a Young Girl at the End of the Nineteen-Sixties in Brussels,” one of the great documentary self-portraits, “L?-Bas,” and, in 2011, an ecstatic, hallucinatory yet trenchantly political adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s novel “Almayer’s Folly.”
Akerman also made a wildly rapturous, sinuously erotic Proust adaptation, “The Captive,” which came out in 2000 and was premi?red at Cannes.
Her last film ‘No Home Moive’ is a video essay about her mother Natalia who was an Auschwitz survivor who died in 2014.
Akerman also served on film festival juries and lectured widely. In 2011, she joined the staff of New York’s City College full time.
Hollywood
Disney unifies streaming, film, TV and games under Dana Walden
Debra O’Connell to chair Disney Entertainment Television in new setup
LOS ANGELES: The Walt Disney Company is pressing play on a more tightly woven future. As audiences hop between cinema screens, streaming apps and game worlds, the media giant is stitching its storytelling arms into one coordinated machine under Dana Walden.
Set to take charge as president and chief creative officer on March 18, Walden will oversee a newly unified Disney Entertainment structure that brings together streaming, film, television and the company’s fast-expanding games and digital business. She will report directly to incoming chief executive officer Josh D’Amaro.
The thinking is simple. Whether viewers are watching on Disney+, heading to the cinema or diving into a game, Disney wants the experience to feel like chapters of the same story. Walden summed it up as strengthening the emotional thread between Disney’s characters and its audiences, wherever they choose to engage.
The leadership reshuffle reads like a carefully cast ensemble. Alan Bergman continues as chairman of Disney Entertainment, studios, steering film production, marketing and distribution while sharing oversight of direct to consumer.
Streaming gets a dual command. Joe Earley and Adam Smith step in as co-presidents of direct to consumer, jointly handling strategy and financial performance across Disney+ and Hulu. Earley will also guide content strategy, while Smith retains his role as chief product and technology officer across Disney Entertainment and ESPN.
A new chair enters the frame with Debra O’Connell taking on the role of chairman, Disney Entertainment Television. She will oversee an expansive slate that includes ABC Entertainment, National Geographic and Hulu Originals, while continuing to supervise ABC News and owned stations.
Gaming, once a side quest, is now a central storyline. Sean Shoptaw, executive vice president, games and digital entertainment, moves into the Disney Entertainment fold. His remit includes partnerships such as the collaboration with Epic Games, aimed at building a Disney universe linked to Fortnite.
Elsewhere, John Landgraf remains chairman of FX, reporting to Walden, while Asad Ayaz continues as chief marketing and brand officer, reporting to both D’Amaro and Walden.
The message behind the reshuffle is clear. Disney is no longer thinking in silos of screens but in stories that travel. And with Walden at the creative helm, the company is betting that a single, seamless narrative can keep audiences hooked, whether they are watching, scrolling or playing.
