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Recorded Picture Company is a British film production company founded in 1974 by producer Jeremy Thomas.
Recorded Picture Company (RPC) is an independent production company that makes feature films for worldwide theatrical release. Jeremy Thomas founded the London-based company in 1974, and remains chairman. Its first production, The Shout directed by Jerzy Skolimowski, went on to win the Grand Prix de Jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 1978. Thomas has since produced or executive-produced over 60 films through RPC, of which all but one have obtained North American theatrical release.[ citation needed ]
RPC is a director-driven company, and has close relationships with a number of leading directors including Bernardo Bertolucci, Phillip Noyce, Terry Gilliam, Stephen Frears, David Cronenberg and Takeshi Kitano. Its films have achieved commercial success and critical acclaim, with the best-known being Bertolucci's The Last Emperor , winner of nine Academy Awards including 'Best Picture'. Other notable productions include Bertolucci's Stealing Beauty and Little Buddha , Cronenberg's Naked Lunch and Crash , Sexy Beast by Jonathan Glazer, Brother by Kitano, and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence by Nagisa Oshima. RPC's films have garnered numerous prizes at Cannes and other major festivals and awards ceremonies.[ citation needed ]
Jeremy Thomas later remembered forging the reputation of the company in the 1970s:
At the beginning I didn't really understand what I was doing. I didn't understand business terms and I probably didn't understand taste or cultural terms, but it was about now I was beginning to refine what I was trying to do. I was trying to think what sort of films that I wanted to make, what sort of audiences I was trying to find. And I am the type of independent producer, I am looking for a film to make my next film and to make profits and successful films, but I am not working in the arena of super profits. I am not working in an industrialised process. I am making global films but not films for a globalised market. [1]
RPC's releases include Bertolucci's The Dreamers , Terry Gilliam's Tideland , Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking , Richard Linklater's Fast Food Nation , and Jon Amiel's Creation, about the life of Charles Darwin starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly, which was the Opening Gala of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival. 2010 saw Takashi Miike's samurai epic 13 Assassins and Jerzy Skolimowski's Essential Killing had their world premieres in Competition at the Venice International Film Festival, with both films going on to feature in Official Selection at Toronto. In 2012, Miike's Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai premiered in Competition at the Cannes International Film Festival, the first 3D film ever to do so.
Recent releases include David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method , which premiered at Venice and Toronto Film Festivals in 2012, and the epic adventure Kon-Tiki , based on Thor Heyerdahl's best-selling book, which was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2012. The company premiered Jim Jarmusch's vampire opus Only Lovers Left Alive In Competition at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival, the black comedy Dom Hemingway written and directed by Richard Shepard at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, the dark fantasy Tale of Tales by Matteo Garrone In Competition at the 2015 Cannes Film festival, the sci-fi period thriller High-Rise by Ben Wheatley at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival, and Blade of the Immortal by Takashi Miike which had its world premiere In Selection at Cannes 2017. Upcoming projects include titles from Matteo Garrone and Julien Temple. RPC's head of development Alainée Kent works closely on the slate with Thomas. [2]
Bernardo BertolucciOMRI was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in Italian cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international acclaim. With The Last Emperor (1987) he became the first Italian filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Director, and he received many other accolades including a BAFTA Award, a César Award, two Golden Globes, a Golden Lion in 2007, and an Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2011.
The Last Emperor is a 1987 epic biographical drama film about the life of Puyi, the final Emperor of China. It is directed by Bernardo Bertolucci from a screenplay he co-wrote with Mark Peploe, which was adapted from Puyi's 1964 autobiography, and independently produced by Jeremy Thomas.
Takashi Miike is a Japanese film director, film producer and screenwriter. He has directed over one hundred theatrical, video, and television productions since his debut in 1991. His films run through a variety of different genres, and range from violent and bizarre to dramatic and family-friendly movies. He is a controversial figure in the contemporary Japanese cinema industry, with several of his films being criticised for their extreme graphic violence. Some of his best known films are Audition, Ichi the Killer, Visitor Q, the Dead or Alive trilogy and various remakes: Graveyard of Honor, Hara-kiri and 13 Assassins. He has directed over 100 movies and also plays as an actor in 20+ more.
Jerzy Skolimowski is a Polish film director, screenwriter, dramatist, actor and painter. Beginning as a screenwriter for Andrzej Wajda's Innocent Sorcerers (1960), Skolimowski has made more than twenty films since his directorial debut The Menacing Eye (1960). In 1967 he was awarded the Golden Bear prize for his Belgian film The Departure (1967). Among his other notable films is Deep End (1970), starring Jane Asher and John Moulder Brown.
IZO is a 2004 Japanese film directed by Takashi Miike. The main character of the film is Izo Okada (1832–1865), the historical samurai and assassin in 19th-century Japan who was tortured and executed by beheading in Tosa.
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival (TIFF) is a film festival held every November in Thessaloniki, Greece. It is organized by the Thessaloniki Film Festival under the auspices of the Greek Ministry of Culture. It features international competition sections, and its program includes tributes to major filmmakers and national cinemas, as well as sidebar events such as masterclasses, exhibitions, live concerts and workshops. In addition to TIFF, the Thessaloniki Film Festival holds the annual Thessaloniki Documentary Festival (TDF) in March.
Gohatto (御法度), also known as Taboo, is a 1999 Japanese film directed by Nagisa Ōshima. Its subject is homosexuality in the Shinsengumi during the bakumatsu period, the end of the samurai era in the mid-19th century. The production was Õshima's final film before his death, thirteen years after Gohatto's premiere.
Yakuza film is a popular film genre in Japanese cinema which focuses on the lives and dealings of yakuza, Japanese organized crime syndicates. In the silent film era, depictions of bakuto as sympathetic Robin Hood-like characters were common.
Jeremy Jack Thomas, CBE is a British film producer, founder and chairman of Recorded Picture Company. He produced Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which won the 1988 Academy Award for Best Picture. In 2006 he received a European Film Award for Outstanding European Achievement in World Cinema. His father was director Ralph Thomas, while his uncle Gerald Thomas directed all of the films in the Carry On franchise.
The Shout is a 1978 British horror film directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. It was based on a short story by Robert Graves and adapted for the screen by Skolimowski and Michael Austin. The film was the first to be produced by Jeremy Thomas under his Recorded Picture Company banner.
Paulo Branco is a Portuguese film producer.
Toyomichi Kurita is a Japanese cinematographer who has worked in both Japan and the United States.
Matteo Garrone is an Italian filmmaker.
The 54th annual Venice International Film Festival was held between 27 August to 6 September 1997.
The 40th Cannes Film Festival was held from 7 to 19 May 1987. The Palme d'Or went to the Sous le soleil de Satan by Maurice Pialat, a choice which was considered "highly controversial" and the prize was given under the jeers of the public. Pialat is quoted to have retorted "You don't like me? Well, let me tell you that I don't like you either!"
HanWay Films is an independent British international sales, distribution and marketing company specializing in theatrical feature films.
13 Assassins is a 2010 samurai film directed by Takashi Miike, and starring Koji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Sōsuke Takaoka, Hiroki Matsukata, Kazuki Namioka and Gorō Inagaki. A remake of Eiichi Kudo's 1963 Japanese period drama film 13 Assassins, it is set in 1844 toward the end of the Edo period in which a group of thirteen assassins—comprising twelve samurai and a hunter—secretly plot to assassinate Lord Matsudaira Naritsugu, the murderous leader of the Akashi clan, to thwart his appointment to the powerful Shogunate Council.
Essential Killing is a 2010 Polish survival political thriller film co-written and directed by Jerzy Skolimowski and starring Vincent Gallo and Emmanuelle Seigner. Gallo stars as an Islamic insurgent who finds himself fighting for survival in a frozen woodland, pursued by soldiers.
Hara-Kiri: Death of a Samurai is a 2011 Japanese 3D jidaigeki drama film directed by Takashi Miike. It was produced by Jeremy Thomas and Toshiaki Nakazawa, who previously teamed with Miike on his 2010 film 13 Assassins. The film is a 3D remake of Masaki Kobayashi's 1962 film Harakiri.
Le Pacte is a French motion picture company headquartered in Paris. It specializes in film distribution, co-productions and international sales. It was founded by Jean Labadie in November 2007, shortly after he was forced out of his previous company, BAC Films. Since its creation, it has become one of the largest independent French distribution companies. It had a record number of admissions in 2019 with more than 6.5 million cumulative admissions.