Dead Souls review – Alex Cox rides into sunset with anti-Trump spaghetti western

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Rotterdam film festival The Repo Man director relocates Gogol’s surreal novella to the old west in what he says will be his final film English film-maker Alex Cox comes riding into town with this jauntily odd and surreal western which he has indicated will be his swansong, shot on the rugged plains of Almeria in Spain and also Arizona. Cox himself is the star – an elegant, dapper presence – and his co-writer is veteran spaghetti western actor Gianni Garko. The story has obvious relevance to contemporary America, and a flash-forward makes some of this clear. But it is also inspired by the classic novella of the same name by Nikolai Gogol, a mysterious parable of greed and vanity about a man who travels around offering to buy the souls of dead serfs on various estates in pre-revolutionary Russia so landowners can lower their tax bills, but plans to claim that they are still alive and therefore pass himself off as a wealthy man. Continue reading... from Film | The Guardian https://i...
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Barbie, Bridgerton and billions of pounds: how streaming – and tax breaks – fuelled the UK’s ‘Brollywood’ screen boom

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Great locations, experienced crews and juicy incentives have made UK studios increasingly attractive, and brought Hollywood stars to the unlikeliest locations. But with budgets falling and a lack of skills training, could the bubble be about to burst?

When Peter Vardy joined Calderdale council 46 years ago, his job mostly involved maintaining local parks and, later, organising the occasional firework display. But these days Vardy’s CV can truthfully boast that he has shut down roads to stage car crashes and found the perfect bridge for a fictional detective’s (fictional) suicide. The West Yorkshire borough where the 64-year-old works has become a filming hotspot, home to big-budget productions such as the Disney+ superhero series Secret Invasion and the Paramount Plus period drama A Gentleman in Moscow. Residents have spotted Hollywood stars relaxing in local restaurants – Samuel L Jackson is apparently partial to fried seafood, lemonade and tiramisu.

Since 2013, Vardy has acted as the council’s film officer; he manages applications for shoots, which back then were “few and far between”. A decade on, 2023 saw a total of 31 productions and 100 days of filming – partly because the BBC’s Happy Valley put Calderdale on the map in 2014, but largely because Hollywood has a new home. Generous tax breaks, the rise of streaming services and an ever-increasing demand for high-end TV have suddenly collided to make the UK a very attractive place to film.

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