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Back in 1973 legendary Roman folk singer Gabriella Ferri gave life to one of Italy's summer anthems by definition. “Tutti ar mare, tutti ar mare, a mostra' le chiappe chiare”, she sang with her distinctive hoarse voice, inviting everyone to go to the beach, to show off their “pale buttocks”.

There was not much movement this week – just like in the US charts the top five spots held steady with no debut releases breaching the list. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness stayed in the top spot for its second week with Fantastische Tierwesen 3: Dumbledores Geheimnisse (Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore) holding on to second and The Lost City – Das Geheimnis der Verlorenen Stadt placing third, followed by Downton Abbey 2.

In 2020, China passed the US to become the biggest box office territory in the world. In 2021, the China Film Administration put out a five-year plan to “adhere to the party’s total leadership over film work.

Alicia Silverstone stars in three new films this year – the terror/adventure The Requin (on Amazon), the comedy Senior Year and soon, the crime drama Reptile. Some time ago, the journalists of the Hollywood Foreign Press interviewed her twice, in 1997: when she was 20 years old, about playing Batgirl in Batman & Robin directed by Joel Schumacher – with George Clooney as Batman and Chris O’Donnell as Robin –  and when she had produced, through her company, First Kiss Productions, the romantic comedy Excess Baggage in which she acted opposite Benicio del Toro.

Pacific Islander actress Frankie Adams will be playing next to Sigourney Weaver and Alycia Dednam-Carey in the adaptation of Holly Ringland’s debut novel The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart. The seven-part series follows a young woman named Alice, who moves to live with her grandmother after a family tragedy and whose adult life is highly affected by a violent past.

Breaking into Hollywood is challenging enough for a woman, much more if you are Asian, colored, or minority female. But pioneering Asian women in Hollywood broke the ceiling and opened the doors for other Asian actresses to come in.

Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgård returns to his Viking roots as Prince Amleth in the long-awaited drama, The Northman, where he takes on double duty as star and producer. Helmed by writer-director Robert Eggers (The Lighthouse), who co-wrote the script with longtime Bjork collaborator and Golden Globe nominee Sjon, this project is about the legend of Viking prince Amleth (the inspiration for Shakespeare’s Hamlet), who sets out to avenge his father’s murder.

“As the Manila bureau chief for the Agence France-Presse [AFP], I was going to do a story on eco-tourism in Palawan. I thought it would be a fun story about this beautiful place.

A 75th birthday should be enough reason for a big celebration, but after being forced into a very much reduced and belated edition in 2021 due to the Covid pandemic, Cannes will this year pull out all the stops, starting on opening night. Michel Hazanavicius’ newest film Final Cut, starring his The Artist discovery Bérénice Bejo, will open the festival on May 17.

Alfred Hitchcock made two attempts at directing before his first wide release, The Pleasure Garden, was made in 1925. 1922’s Number 13 stopped in mid-production because of budget problems after he had shot only two scenes, and that footage is lost.