Today I am going to continue looking at small production companies and today I have pick Ugly Duckling Films because I recently watched and enjoyed their latest offering Coherence.
This company goes out its way to bring eclectic mix of contemporary films. Founded in 1995 the company gather success with short films with ‘Cashback’ being nominated for an Oscar. They made their first feature film in 2002 and this leads us to look at the feature films they have produced.
Boxed (2002)
Stealing Rembrandt (2003) – Mick and Tom are an unlikely father-son team of petty thieves. They’ve been hired to steal a painting from a museum. By accident, they steal the wrong painting: Denmark’s only original Rembrandt masterpiece, worth millions. Which starts Nikolaj Coster-Waldau from Game of Thrones.
Oh Happy Day (2004) – A Baptist preacher from Harlem gets stranded in a provincial Danish town, after a bus accident involving his touring gospel choir. Alone amidst suspicious Danes, he teaches the local church choir to sing gospel music and touches the life of one bored housewife in particular.
Cashback (2006) – After a painful breakup, Ben develops insomnia. To kill time, he starts working the late night shift at the local supermarket, where his artistic imagination runs wild. This was a feature film based on their Oscar winning short film.
Broken (2008) – In London, the radiologist Gina McVey organizes a surprise birthday party to her father John McVey with her boyfriend Stefan Chambers, her brother Daniel McVey and his girlfriend Kate Coleman. On the next day, she sees herself driving a car on the street and she follows the woman to her apartment, where she finds a picture of her father and her. While driving back, she has a car crash and loses parts of her memory; further, she believes Stefan is another man. Gina decides to investigate what is happening and unravels a dark reality. This also stars a Game of Thrones star in Lena Headey.
Flashbacks of a Fool (2008) – A fading Hollywood star looks back at the days of his youth as he returns home from his best friend’s funeral. This features the current James Bond Daniel Craig.
Coherence (2013) – Strange things begin to happen when a group of friends gather for a dinner party on an evening when a comet is passing overhead.
Each of these films offers something different and shows that they are willing to work with other companies from different countries to bring a fresh approach to cinema. Having only seeing one of these films I would like to see this rest I feel they will all offer something different and all be very rewarding.
Which of these films would you most like to see?
