hell yeah, and yes a film about the Maidens
thought fisrt it was out today, but it's next month !!!
8.05.2026. watch your cinema screens !!!
hell yeah, and yes a film about the Maidens
thought fisrt it was out today, but it's next month !!!
8.05.2026. watch your cinema screens !!!
Eagles of the Republic is a terrific political thriller by Tarik Saleh (third part of his Cairo trilogy), about Egypt's political and military machinations involving a film star (Fares Fares, the lead in all three Saleh films and a film star in his own right), caught in the middle of the manipulative crossfire.
Would've been worth more attention in the actual climate, premiered in Cannes last year in competition, and it was Sweden's entry for best foreign film -did not make the short list. Shades of early Costa-Gavras. Also of Das Leben der Anderen. Gave me goosebumps in parallel with what happened in communist Romania and all dictatorships alike.
Great score by Alexandre Desplat on his 1st collaboration with Saleh and great widescreen cinematography by Pierre Aïm (shot on 65 mm, 2.39.1). Pierre Aïm shot also the other two Saleh films in his Trilogy -The Nile Hilton Incident (2017, which I saw at TIFF) and Cairo Conspiracy, aka Boy From Heaven (2022, seen briefly on Romanian screens). Of course this film could not be shot in Egypt, so it is all dressed up in Turkey -great job by Saleh's production design Roger Rosenberg. The director is a very persona non grata in Egypt...
Fun fact: Saleh and Rosenberg shot the action thriller The Contractor (2022) in Bucharest for Berlin !!!
Now in Romanian cinemas -very limited-see it on the big screen !
4 out of 5 / 8 out of 10 !!!
****
the press confrence in Cannes here
and an interview in Variety with the director here
Angine de Poitrine ... this name is showing up all over, today I studied them more and I agree...
Microtonal duo from Quebec. Fantastic. Plus a gimmick they have, playing incognito under weird carnival masks and pointilist costumes ! It seems they are brothers and they play:
"un répertoire d'anti-aréna-rock instrumental cartonneux qui, à la manière de la musique techno, s'articule autour d'un jeu dynamique d'ajout et de retrait de motifs sonores en constante métamorphose."
Khn de Poitrine - Microtonal Guitars
Klek de Poitrine - Drums
check out the whole KEXP concert here.
They describe their music as: "Dada Pythago-Cubist Mantra-Rock".
Here's Rick Beato take on them:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO8bt94-ybg
...Missing in Action....
Chuck Norris became legendary through the jokes about him, that he is invincible and imortal. He was Not. But gone now at 86, he was an inspiration to many, especially in the 80's Romania.
I first saw him in the cinema in Breaker ! Breaker !, translated as Orasul fantoma -Ghost town (1977), which I tremember cleartly they had a print in Black and white. Re-saw that on video later on. The battle with the broken bottle stayed vividly in my mind. He had no moustache at the time. Then on video fisrt films I saw was The Way of the Dragon, his first part in the 1972 Bruce Lee film (also directed by Lee), where he battles Lee in the Colosseum. The Colosseum would never be the same again. Oh, yes, for a bit, in Double Team where JCVD, a huge Norris and Lee fan, battles Mickey Rourke again in the Rome Arena.
He was a Karate champion and he became Steve Mc Queen's instructor and McQueen adviced him to go into acting.
Here's some Chuck Norris jokes:
Chuck Norris didn't die, God called him for backup!
Chuck actually died about 15 years ago. Death was too afraid to tell him
Chuck Norris went to Heaven to Judge God for his sins
RIP to the man who can put out a fire with a gallon of gasoline
The man who can beat the sun in a staring contest
The man whose diary is called the Guinness Book of World Records
How to Make a Killing is in cinemas now. This is John Patton Ford's second film. Loved his first effort, Emily the Criminal back in 2022, it made my Top Films list.
This is Film Noir, dark comedy, thriller, and most of all an homage of Kind Hearts and Coronets (1959), the classic Ealing comedy with Alce Guiness es ;), based on the novel , it says on the credits. "Insiperd by" those two.
Also has an 80's air, it's cynical and politically incorrect, stylish and crisp.
Finally a good part for Glen Powell as Becket Redfellow (cool names in this family !), after the huge misfire of new Running Man-Liked the guy in his SNL episode, I think he has more comedic potential than action chops, definetly romantic too.
Margaret Qualley is the bad femme fatale in the story, another good part in her resume after Honey Don't, Drive-Away Dolls, Kinds of Kindness, Poor Things, The Substance. I first liked her in Once Upon A Time in...Hollywood.
Jessica Henwick is the romantic interest, Ruth. Bill Camp has a nice part as Warren Redfellow, also Topher Grace as one of the Redfellows (Steven) and Zach Woods (from Sillicon Valley) another one (Noah). Also Ed Harris' part as the patriarch Whitelaw Redfellow is more like a cameo, but he's effective as ever.
Amazingly enough this was shot in South Africa instead of New York and New Jersey !!!
Great score by Emile Mosserri and effective soundtrack-The Clapping Song (Shirley Ellis) , the Brazilian classic Take Me Back to Piaui by Juca Chaves, No Fear by Inflo, etc.
George Harrison would've been 83 today....Living in the Material World...
When he died George was only 58....He became my hero in highschool with his hit album Cloud Nine (1987). I love most his stuff with The Travelling Willburys...
Now only Jeff Lynne and His Bobness still around here....
Tom Noonan, most famously known as Francis Dollarhyde/ The Toothfairy in Michael Mann's Manhunter, the first Hannibal Lecter (spelled Lektor) film in 1986, is gone at 74. I re saw the film last year...It's the best Lecter / Thomas Harris film for me still. And Noonan is pretty scary.
Great character actor , he was also iFrankenstein's monster in The Monster Squad, the baddie in Robocop 2. He returned for Michael Mann in Heat.
In his youth, Noonan was a guitarist and a composer and a theatre actor. He directed 2 indie feature films, a play and some shorts.
...when in Rome...just landed and in the taxi I hear the news, celelbrissimo attore Robert Duvall, etc..surely I get it. Gone. I mean he was 95, lived a great and long life and his films are immortal.
But why everytime I go somewhere this kind of news get heavier and harder?
Last year was just tough and brutal: Gene Hackman in Barcelona (also at 95, also in February), Brian Wilson when we were at night in the middle of nowhere in Ireland, Michael Madsen when I was to see Iron Maiden in Belfort, Remo Girone in Tramonti, Rob Reiner in Porto...Just when Ozzy left I was in Brasov...
Crime 101 is a little LA neo-noir gem directed by the Brit Bart Layton (American Animals). Heist, angst, existentialism, it's based on a novella by Don Winslow (Savages). The title refers to the 101 Freeway in Southern California, entering Los Angeles, and the faved heist location of the blue-eyed Thief Davis (Chris Hemsworth, reminiscent of another Michael Mann pic, Blackhat).
The ensemble casting is cool: Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, and Halle Berry, Barry Keoghan, Monica Barbaro, Jennifer Jason Leigh (more like a cameo cos she has only one scene, surely cut for time), and Nick Nolte in a part sim lliar with Jon Voight's in Heat.
Produced by Working Title Films, Crime 101 was bought by Amazon MGM, outbidding Netflix,. which is great cos they also distributed in Theaters (through Sony).
Mostly a Heat homage, plus elements from Mann's Thief, Walter Hill's The Driver, even a scene fromTrue Romance ;)
A nice conversation on Steve McQueen and the iconic Mustang from Bullit add on.
See in in the cinema, it's great widescreen and sound and score- Blanck Mass.
7 out of 10 / 3 1/2 out of 5 !
Islands is an odd piece, film noir under the sun, actually much at dusk. Shot all in location in Corralejo, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain, it premiered at Berlinale 2025 as a Special Presentation.
The director is German, Jan-Ole Gerster (also co-writer), the actors are Brits, Sam Riley, Stacy Martin and Jack Farthing. Shades of Ripley (Highsmith's) and Hitchcock. Well acted, existential slowburn anti noir ;). Atmospheric score and sound design.
3 1/2 out of 5, 7 out of 10 !
"With No Power Comes No Resposibility"
The Nicolas Cage is back with something cool in black and white (and color) but I'd rather see it Noir as in the title. Premieres May 24th on Amazon Prime as in in collaboration with Sony, who's only Marvel character they got rights too...
From the looks it's more of a Sin City / Frank Miller, The Spirit / Will Eisner.
Breendan Gleeson is the villain.
Hopefully this will rock, as gamebased Fallout TV series did, or DC / HBO recently two interesting spinoffs, The Penguin and The Peacemaker and Marvel/ Disney did mega meta Wonder Man.
Cliff Booth aka Brad Pitt, the stuntman from Once Upon a Time in...Hollywood is back in the new Netflix film The Adventures of Cliff Booth, written by Quentin Tarantino and directed by David Fincher !!!
Timothy Olyphant is also back as western TV actor James Stacy (Lancer).
Here's the teaser trailer. Coming soon this year !!!
This just in, as y-day it was the 45th anniversary of the release of the KILLERS album (2.02.1981) !!!
The life and career of pioneering heavy metal frontman Paul Di'Anno, the powerhouse voice heard on Iron Maiden's early albums, will be celebrated in the forthcoming documentary, Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, to be released by Cleopatra Entertainment this summer.
Hmm, the doc does not apperar on imdb at all... :(
I met Wes Orshoski (and his co-director Greg Olliver in Cannes 15 years ago !!! when they premiered LEMMY in the market, wanted to bring him to Brasov to Doc and Roll to present his film, which we did (show the film that is..)
In a strikingly raw and intimate film, director Wes Orshoski captures the late singer riding an emotional rollercoaster toward the end of his life. Featuring appearances by James Hetfield (Metallica), Gene Simmons (Kiss) Maiden's Steve Harris and members of Exodus, Slayer, Megadeth, Overkill and Sepultura, the film chronicles how two Iron Maiden fans encounter Di'Anno at the lowest point of his life and then set out to restore his health and relaunch his career.
Wheelchair-bound since the mid-2010s, Di’Anno’s health nosedived during the Covid-19 pandemic, when those two fans launched a crowdfunding campaign which ultimately led to him relocating to Croatia, where - through the help of those fans and doctors - he made a dramatic turnaround while running out of money, reuniting with his former Maiden bandmates, and falling in love. Eventually he makes a heroic and drama-filled return to the stage. All of this is captured in Di'Anno: Iron Maiden's Lost Singer, which Orshoski began shooting in 2017.
“For years there wasn’t much to capture,” says Orshoski, whose credits include Lemmy, a study of Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister and The Damned: Don't You Wish That We Were Dead. “Paul was waiting for surgeries that doctors in the U.K. would not green-light. He was in an incredibly dark place. But once he got to Croatia, fans and doctors gave him the hope he was desperately searching for. It was beautiful to witness. I wanted to make a film that was unlike any rock doc you've ever seen. And in the end, I think we got there.”
One of icons of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, London-born Di’Anno helped launch Iron Maiden around the world, appearing on two of the most foundational metal albums ever released: Iron Maiden’s 1980 self-titled debut and the celebrated follow-up, Killers, released in 1981. In one of the most epic sagas in metal history, Di’Anno left Maiden in 1981 and was replaced by Bruce Dickinson, leaving metal fans around the world to debate which line-up and which singer was/is better. It’s a debate that continues to this day, almost 50 years later.
Orshoski finished work on the film (which was shot in England, Croatia, Brazil and the United States) shortly before Di’Anno’s death at 66 in October 2024. Di’Anno: Iron Maiden’s Lost Singer has been screening at European film festivals and will be released worldwide on both streaming services and on Home Entertainment DVD and BLU RAY formats.
My obit on Di'Anno here: or:
https://aldmovieland.blogspot.com/2024/10/rip-paul-dianno.html
***
Trailer here:
oh, how we should reboot Doc and Roll ! Esp. now when Iron Maiden playes again Bucharest and Sunete is prepping another Special Edition mag, this time Up the Irons !!! ;)
Recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai spectaculoși chitariști de blues-rock contemporan, Eric Sardinas revine în fața publicului din România pentru un concert-eveniment la București, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights, marcând prima sa apariție în România după 2012, când a concertat ultima dată în București. Revenirea sa este așteptată de peste un deceniu de fanii blues-rock-ului autentic.
Artistul american este celebru pentru stilul său electrizant și tehnica explozivă de slide guitar, prin care îmbină blues-ul tradițional cu energia rock-ului. Influențat profund de maeștri precum Elmore James, Johnny Winter și Son House, Sardinas duce mai departe tradiția blues-ului electric într-o formă contemporană.
Cu o carieră de peste două decenii pe marile scene ale lumii, Eric Sardinas s-a impus ca un performer de referință, cunoscut pentru intensitatea concertelor sale live și pentru modul visceral în care folosește chitara, adesea apelând la tehnici neconvenționale și o expresivitate rar întâlnită. De-a lungul timpului, a colaborat și a împărțit scena cu artiști legendari precum Steve Vai, Charlie Musselwhite, Marco Mendoza, David Coverdale și John Sykes, consolidându-și reputația internațională.
Eric Sardinas este considerat un artist care aduce blues-ul în prezent fără compromisuri, păstrând respectul pentru tradiție, dar împingând constant limitele expresiei muzicale. Fiecare concert este o experiență intensă și memorabilă.
Un concert-eveniment la București dedicat iubitorilor de blues-rock, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.
B. There & Let There B. Blues!
7 februarie 2026 | ora 20:00 (open doors 18:00)
THE PUB – Universității, București (Bulevardul Regina Elisabeta 9)
Bilete: ambilet.ro
Presale: 150 lei până la 02.02.26 inclusiv | apoi 180 lei până în ziua concertului online & at the door în limita disponibilității
Eveniment Facebook: Concert Eric Sardinas @ Transilvania Blues Nights – Back to Romania
Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights
all nominations here.
watching them live on Voyo for the 1st time, interesting to see the breaks without commercials, really, some candid scenes. Even saw Sean Penn smoking at the table !!! And monsieur Cannes, Thierry Fremaux, talking cordially to Guillermo Del Toro ! And later on to Sean Penn.
the Big winners:
#OneBattleAfterAnother #sinners #Hamnet #Adolescence #ThePitt/#TheStudio
One of the greats and Only Ones, Bobby / Bob Weir, the legendary guitarist of Grateful Dead and later on Dead & Company, Kingfish, etc, is gone at 78 (on Jan. 10th 2026).
He survived Jerry Garcia (dead at 53 in 1995!!!) for another 31 years !!!
He was still playing last year.
Obit in Rolling Stone
Dead & Company - 08/03/25, Recorded live at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, CA
Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, THE KING OF BOOGIE-WOOGIE – premieră în România!
9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov
Exclusive European Tour 2026:
Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne vine în premieră în România pentru un concert-eveniment la Brașov, fiind recunoscut drept unul dintre cei mai importanți pianişti de blues și boogie-woogie ai lumii.
Cu o carieră ce depășește 50 de ani, Kenny a împărțit scena cu legende ale blues-ului
și rock-ului, precum Jimmy Reed, Pinetop Perkins, Johnnie Johnson, Big Joe Duskin,
Joe Louis Walker și Floyd Dixon, dar și cu artiști celebri de soul și rock, printre care Ike
Turner sau membri ai Santana și Doobie Brothers. Virtuozitatea sa la pian și vocea sa
expresivă au cucerit publicul pe patru continente, fiind apreciat de critici și fani deopotrivă.
Născut în Spokane și crescut în New Orleans, Los Angeles și San Francisco, Kenny a
început să cânte la pian la doar 13 ani, inspirat de gospel-ul tatălui său și de boogie-
woogie-ul descoperit mai târziu. Stilul său combină energia boogie-woogie, eleganța
jazz-ului, ritmul swing-ului și profunzimea blues-ului clasic, transformând fiecare concert
într-o experiență completă și memorabilă.
Duke Robillard îl descrie astfel:
“Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne is a monster piano player, imaginative
songwriter and soulful singer who captures the essence of old school blues
and boogie, while simultaneously sounding totally fresh and contemporary.”
De-a lungul carierei, Kenny a primit numeroase distincții internaționale, printre care:
� Blues Music Award 2024 – Piano Player of the Year
� Blues Blast Magazine – Piano Player of the Year 2023, 2024, 2025
� Living Blues Magazine – Most Outstanding Musician (Keyboard) 2024
� Bobby Blue Bland Lifetime Achievement Award 2023
� Boogie-Woogie Piano Hall of Fame 2017
� Juno Award 2006 – Best Blues Album
� 7 Maple Blues Awards – Piano Player of the Year
Kenny este considerat un maestru care readuce pianul în prim-planul blues-ului contemporan, combinând respectul pentru tradiție cu o energie proaspătă, care face ca fiecare piesă să sune atât clasic, cât și actual.
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Un concert-eveniment în premieră națională și la Brașov, în cadrul Transilvania Blues Nights.
B. There & Let There B. Blues!
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Un eveniment marca Transilvania Blues Nights recomandat de Rock FM și Zile și Nopți
Sponsori: BCR, ButanGas, Dräxlmaier, Tehnic Mihor, BitDatamining, Aplind
Parteneri de ospitalitate: A-Ha Bistro, Coliba Haiducilor, Brașov Old Town Apartments
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9 ianuarie 2026 | ora 20:00, open doors 18:00 | Transilvania Blues Nights / Clubul Rockstadt, Brașov
Bilete: pre-sale 150 lei aici/ 180 lei at the door
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https://www.facebook.com/events/1413774146817012
https://get-in.ro/eveniment/concert-kenny-blues-boss-wayne-the-king-of-boogie-woogie-clubul-rockstadt-09-ianuarie-2026/
Albums:
1. The Waterboys -The Life and Death of Dennis Hopper
nothing gets closer to this. 5 stars out of Five !
If there ever was a musical biopic this is it...