No reasonably intelligent person imagines an artist’s statement about the horrors in Gaza would, in fact, end those horrors, but there are always limits to what one can take and hopes for what one could do. It might even be said that, as observers of the world and human behavior, filmmakers are especially inclined to recoil. When I interviewed Pedro Costa last month he spoke, unprompted, of a situation that’s only grown worse: “It’s very clear that we cannot stand images anymore. I can’t. I can’t. The images of the world for me [Exhales] I can’t. I turn my eyes, and I’m sure you do the same. It’s unbearable.” When I spoke with Anthony Dod Mantle a couple of weeks later it, again, emerged––vis-a-vis The Zone of Interest, whose own cinematographer alluded to it the next day. It’s difficult being a person in the world,...
- 12/29/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
After over 14 months of no cinema-going, 2021 finally marked a return to theaters. The first film back––something every cinephile will forever have etched in their memory––was not a movie I heavily anticipated but one that thoroughly entertained: Guy Ritchie’s delightfully nasty B-movie Wrath of Man.
While the rest of the movie-going year had its ups and downs (the uncertain future of the arthouse marketplace as they attempt to find a footing in Disneyfied world), 2021’s cinematic output certainly wasn’t lacking for quality.
Looking back at the new releases, there’s a number of films that narrowly missed my top 15, including The French Dispatch, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, Days, The Beatles: Get Back, Annette, West Side Story, Siberia, Procession,...
After over 14 months of no cinema-going, 2021 finally marked a return to theaters. The first film back––something every cinephile will forever have etched in their memory––was not a movie I heavily anticipated but one that thoroughly entertained: Guy Ritchie’s delightfully nasty B-movie Wrath of Man.
While the rest of the movie-going year had its ups and downs (the uncertain future of the arthouse marketplace as they attempt to find a footing in Disneyfied world), 2021’s cinematic output certainly wasn’t lacking for quality.
Looking back at the new releases, there’s a number of films that narrowly missed my top 15, including The French Dispatch, What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, Days, The Beatles: Get Back, Annette, West Side Story, Siberia, Procession,...
- 1/14/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The state of surveillance, intimate music celebrations, Helen Keller’s socialist ethos, refugee tales, examining the scars of abuse in the Catholic Church, and living a life solely through cinema—just a few of the subjects and stories this year’s documentaries brought us. With 2021 wrapping up, we’ve selected 16 features in the field that left us most impressed. If you’re looking for where to stream them, check out our handy guide here.
All Light, Everywhere (Theo Anthony)
Seemingly birthed from some kind of virtuosic computer algorithm or beamed directly from outer space, Theo Anthony’s debut feature Rat Film was a peculiarly engaging, wholly fascinating documentary. Using the population of rats to chart the history of classism and systemic racism throughout Baltimore over decades, it heralded an original new voice in nonfiction filmmaking. When it comes to his follow-up All Light, Everywhere, Anthony casts a wider focus while...
All Light, Everywhere (Theo Anthony)
Seemingly birthed from some kind of virtuosic computer algorithm or beamed directly from outer space, Theo Anthony’s debut feature Rat Film was a peculiarly engaging, wholly fascinating documentary. Using the population of rats to chart the history of classism and systemic racism throughout Baltimore over decades, it heralded an original new voice in nonfiction filmmaking. When it comes to his follow-up All Light, Everywhere, Anthony casts a wider focus while...
- 12/15/2021
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Last year, IndieWire’s annual critics survey was a squeaker, with two equally beloved films vying neck-and-neck for the top spot. In 2021, though, the final result has been anything but a photo finish. With 187 critics and journalists voting on the best films and performances in this year’s survey, Jane Campion’s Western character study “The Power of the Dog” was the landslide victor, winning Best Film, Best Director, Best Performance (for Benedict Cumberbatch), and Best Cinematography. It’s the second time in the history of this poll, and the second year in a row following “Nomadland,” that a film directed by a woman topped the list, and it also topped IndieWire’s own staff list of the The Best Movies of 2021. Staffers from IndieWire, Variety, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, and Entertainment Weekly voted, as well as freelance and staff writers for newspapers, websites, radio, and TV from across Europe,...
- 12/13/2021
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)
“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness; this being the new film by Roy Andersson, it is delivered in a doctor’s waiting room, over and over again, in a creaky voice, by a dumpy man in late middle age who continues his plaint even after the doctor and his receptionist gruntingly force him outside into the hallway, from whence they can hear him scratching at the door like a zombie. About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this century; it looks much like the previous three, and nothing like anything else ever made. – Mark A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Candyman (Nia DaCosta...
About Endlessness (Roy Andersson)
“What should I do now that I have lost my faith?” is the question that animates About Endlessness; this being the new film by Roy Andersson, it is delivered in a doctor’s waiting room, over and over again, in a creaky voice, by a dumpy man in late middle age who continues his plaint even after the doctor and his receptionist gruntingly force him outside into the hallway, from whence they can hear him scratching at the door like a zombie. About Endlessness is Roy Andersson’s fourth film of this century; it looks much like the previous three, and nothing like anything else ever made. – Mark A. (full review)
Where to Stream: Hulu
Candyman (Nia DaCosta...
- 9/17/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The U.S. lineup for films coming to Mubi this September has been announced, featuring some of my personal favorites of the last few years, notably Philippe Lesage’s severely overlooked coming-of-age drama Genesis, John Gianvito’s Helen Keller documentary Her Socialist Smile, Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten’s formally thrilling Slow Machine, and Robert Greene’s documentary Bisbee ’17, as well as Jia Zhangke’s latest release Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue.
Also in the lineup is Bill Forsyth’s delightful Gregory’s Girl, Ari Folman’s hybrid feature The Congress, and Manoel de Oliveira’s Visit, or Memories and Confession, which was made in 1982, and only allowed to screen after his death.
See the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
September 1 | Yellow Cat | Adilkhan Yerzhanov | Festival Focus: Venice
September 2 | Visit, or Memories and Confessions | Manoel de Oliveira | Rediscovered
September 3 | Slow Machine | Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten | Mubi Spotlight
September...
Also in the lineup is Bill Forsyth’s delightful Gregory’s Girl, Ari Folman’s hybrid feature The Congress, and Manoel de Oliveira’s Visit, or Memories and Confession, which was made in 1982, and only allowed to screen after his death.
See the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
September 1 | Yellow Cat | Adilkhan Yerzhanov | Festival Focus: Venice
September 2 | Visit, or Memories and Confessions | Manoel de Oliveira | Rediscovered
September 3 | Slow Machine | Joe DeNardo, Paul Felten | Mubi Spotlight
September...
- 8/21/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Asako I & II (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)
Full-fledged, complicated, rapturous romance is relatively rare in cinema nowadays, and one of the very best examples is Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II, which uses its doubled lovers as a way to reflect back upon its main character, in all of her doubts and uncertainties. Deeply rooted in its present moment, yet prone to flights of fancy as transportive and unreal as any in contemporary filmmaking, the film delights as much as it aches, staying in close step with the turns caused by the whims of the self and the other, moving back and forth in rapture. – Ryan S.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)
Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti)
With Nanni Moretti’s latest film,...
Asako I & II (Ryūsuke Hamaguchi)
Full-fledged, complicated, rapturous romance is relatively rare in cinema nowadays, and one of the very best examples is Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s Asako I & II, which uses its doubled lovers as a way to reflect back upon its main character, in all of her doubts and uncertainties. Deeply rooted in its present moment, yet prone to flights of fancy as transportive and unreal as any in contemporary filmmaking, the film delights as much as it aches, staying in close step with the turns caused by the whims of the self and the other, moving back and forth in rapture. – Ryan S.
Where to Stream: Mubi (free for 30 days)
Caro Diario (Nanni Moretti)
With Nanni Moretti’s latest film,...
- 7/16/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: The Cinerama Dome in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). Decurion has announced that it won't be reopening its Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theatres locations. The theater chain's most famous location is its Hollywood Arclight multiplex on Sunset Boulevard, home to the Cinerama Dome. Arte France Cinéma will be co-producing three new features: Valeria Bruni Tedeschi's Les amandiers (starring Louis Garrel), Arnaud Desplechin's Brother and Sister (which stars Marion Cotillard and Melvil Poupaud), and Pietro Marcello's L'envol (the filmmaker's first feature in France). The Workers of the Cinemateca Brasileira have released a manifesto calling attention to the many risks facing the Cinemateca's unattended collection, equipment, and facilities due to its "current state of abandonment" by the Ministry of Tourism. Backed by TCM, documentarian Josh Grossberg and his...
- 4/14/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: George Segal and Elliot Gould in California Split (1974). Actor George Segal, a "defining face of 1970s Hollywood" known for his roles in films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? and Robert Altman's California Split, has died. The 2021 Jury and Special Award winners of the 28th SXSW Film Festival have been announced, with winners including Megan Park's The Fallout and Jeremy Workman's Lily Topples the World. Recommended VIEWINGFor the series A One-Woman Confessional: Eight Films by Cecilia Mangini, Another Gaze's streaming project Another Screen has also made available a video of Mangini and Agnès Varda's first meeting in 2011. Metrograph's official trailer for Claire Denis' L'Intrus, her 2004 adaptation of an essay by philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy. The film will be available at the cimema's virtual theatre from March 26 to April 8. A fan-made...
- 3/28/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Michael Apted by Andrew H. Walker. Filmmaker Michael Apted, best known for an eclectic filmography that includes Coal Miner's Daughter, The World is Not Enough, and the Up documentary series, has died at 79. In his obituary, Peter Bradshaw writes that the Up series, Apted's epic masterpiece, "had an incalculable effect on [...] the thinking of the British progressive left – as it asked us to ruminate on the inescapability or otherwise of class, and what narratives were possible for working people."Recommended VIEWINGAbove: John Gianvito's Her Socialist Smile (2020). John Gianvito's Her Socialist Smile, one of the best films of 2020, is now playing at the National Gallery of the Arts' website. Read our review of the film by Michael Sicinski here.To commemorate avant-garde filmmaking titan Stan Brakhage's birthday on January 14, Re:voir will be...
- 1/13/2021
- MUBI
We recently shared our list of the best undistributed films of 2020 and at the very top of my personal list for the ones I hoped would get picked up first was John Gianvito’s Her Socialist Smile, a fascinating documentary exploring Helen Keller’s life-long passion and activism for socialism and fighting for the working class. Thankfully, it’s now available to stream for free courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, with this wide accessibility hopefully serving as an education for some.
Mark Asch said in his New York Film Festival review, “You may have known that Helen Keller was a comrade, a life-long socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World; in Her Socialist Smile, John Gianvito assembles Keller’s political addresses and writings into a portrait of a warrior for social justice and a passionate, insightful proselytizer of Marxist thought. She instigated a Braille translation...
Mark Asch said in his New York Film Festival review, “You may have known that Helen Keller was a comrade, a life-long socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World; in Her Socialist Smile, John Gianvito assembles Keller’s political addresses and writings into a portrait of a warrior for social justice and a passionate, insightful proselytizer of Marxist thought. She instigated a Braille translation...
- 1/10/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Whether a viewer in 1896 or 2020, cinema has always been a dynamic and variable experience. Cinema as an event—as a manifestation of a meeting point between the art of moving images and an audience, big or small—has never fit any one definition, and this last year, so severely disrupted by a global pandemic, has deeply underscored the versatility and resilience of our great love.Our viewing this year, like that of so many, has been strange: compromised, confrontational, escapist, euphoric, painful, revelatory—encompassing all of the reactions one can have to film. How we encountered our favorite movies and most meaningful cinematic experiences of the year was hardly new: A by-now-normal mix of festivals, theatres, various subscription and transactional streaming services, as well as private screener links and gems buried on over-stuffed hard drives. But for most of the year, the communal experience shrunk to living rooms and glowing screens.
- 12/23/2020
- MUBI
Moments ago, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association finished unveiling their 2020 awards on Twitter. As always, some of their choices were a bit out of left field, but also far less so than in years past. Consider it a side effect of the year being so unique, since a broader range of movies are being considered. The top prize went to Steve McQueen’s Small Axe, while other films and performances cited included Carey Mulligan and Promising Young Woman in Best Actress (Emerald Fennell also took Best Screenplay for her work writing the flick), Chloe Zhao for Nomadland in Best Director, as well as Chadwick Boseman and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in Best Actor. Read on for all of the winners… Here now are the results of the Lafca voting for 2020: Best Picture Winner: “Small Axe” Runner Up: “Nomadland” Best Director Winner: Chloe Zhao – “Nomadland” Runner Up: Steve...
- 12/21/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
Members of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) are gathering Sunday to vote for their annual year’s best in movies. The group will begin deliberating over winners in 14 categories, honoring a winner and a runner-up.
Lafca named Steve McQueen’s Small Axe as Best Picture with Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland as the runner-up. The two films switched places with the Best Director category going to Zhao while McQueen was the runner up.
Last year, the Los Angeles critics tapped eventual Best Picture winner Parasite as its choice for Best Picture. That film’s director Bong Joon Ho won Best Director.
Other big winners included Promising Young Woman’s Carey Mulligan nabbing the Best Actress award while the late Chadwick Boseman earned Best Actor for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The organization gave the New Generation Award to Radha Blank, the director, writer and star of The 40-Year-Old Version.
Lafca named Steve McQueen’s Small Axe as Best Picture with Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland as the runner-up. The two films switched places with the Best Director category going to Zhao while McQueen was the runner up.
Last year, the Los Angeles critics tapped eventual Best Picture winner Parasite as its choice for Best Picture. That film’s director Bong Joon Ho won Best Director.
Other big winners included Promising Young Woman’s Carey Mulligan nabbing the Best Actress award while the late Chadwick Boseman earned Best Actor for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
The organization gave the New Generation Award to Radha Blank, the director, writer and star of The 40-Year-Old Version.
- 12/20/2020
- by Bruce Haring and Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
The voting for the Los Angeles Film Critics Association’s (Lafca) best films and best performances of 2020 took place virtually on Sunday. The awards were announced via the group’s Twitter account. The top prizes went to Steve McQueen’s Amazon Prime Video anthology film series “Small Axe” for Best Picture, plus Best Director Chloé Zhao, Best Actor Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), and Best Actress Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”). See the full list below.
The Lafca vote arrives on the heels of Friday’s New York Film Critics Circle announcements, which crowned Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” as the best film of the year, and Chloé Zhao as the best director of the year for “Nomadland.”
These awards are a chance for voters to shine a light on under-appreciated gems, or throw support behind films already gaining steam in a long awards season ahead. With the Oscars...
The Lafca vote arrives on the heels of Friday’s New York Film Critics Circle announcements, which crowned Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow” as the best film of the year, and Chloé Zhao as the best director of the year for “Nomadland.”
These awards are a chance for voters to shine a light on under-appreciated gems, or throw support behind films already gaining steam in a long awards season ahead. With the Oscars...
- 12/20/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca), one of the most important critics groups in the awards season, announced their favorites films and performances, following Boston and New York last week. They managed to shake things up considerably with Prime Video’s “Small Axe,” a collection of five films directed by Oscar-winner Steve McQueen (who was the runner up in best director), won two big awards including best picture and cinematography (Shabier Kirchner).
The only individual citation for one of the films was for “Lovers Rock,” whose composer Mica Levi was the runner up in best music. Amazon Studios has submitted “Small Axe” to the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards in the limited series categories. The plans have been to submit the series for the Emmys next year.
Other winners included Chloé Zhao winning once again for “Nomadland” in the directing category. She is the first Asian woman...
The only individual citation for one of the films was for “Lovers Rock,” whose composer Mica Levi was the runner up in best music. Amazon Studios has submitted “Small Axe” to the Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild awards in the limited series categories. The plans have been to submit the series for the Emmys next year.
Other winners included Chloé Zhao winning once again for “Nomadland” in the directing category. She is the first Asian woman...
- 12/20/2020
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
Beanpole named best foreign language film, MInari’s Yuh-Jung You wins best supporting actress.
Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, which has not been submitted for Oscar consideration, was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) on Sunday (December 20).
Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao earned her second best director prize from a major critics group in three days, and the late Chadwick Boseman was named best actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Carey Mulligan won best actress for Promising Young Woman, MInari’s Yuh-Jung You was named best supporting actress for Minari, Beanpole best foreign language film,...
Steve McQueen’s Small Axe anthology, which has not been submitted for Oscar consideration, was named best picture by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) on Sunday (December 20).
Nomadland’s Chloé Zhao earned her second best director prize from a major critics group in three days, and the late Chadwick Boseman was named best actor for Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
Carey Mulligan won best actress for Promising Young Woman, MInari’s Yuh-Jung You was named best supporting actress for Minari, Beanpole best foreign language film,...
- 12/20/2020
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe 49th annual New Directors/New Films (Nd/Nf) has been rescheduled from March to December 9-20, with films slated to premiere in the Film at Lincoln Center Virtual Cinema. The line-up includes Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s The Cloud in Her Room, Maya Da-Rin's The Fever, and Alexander Nanau’s Collective. Lynne Ramsay, who last directed You Were Never Really Here, will be adapting Steven King's psychological horror novel The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, about a young girl who becomes lost in the woods. Recommended VIEWINGAbel Ferrara's new documentary, Sportin' Life, which premiered out of competition at the Venice Film Festival in August, has gone an unusual premiere route, streaming first through Indiewire (currently unavailable), and now at The Film Stage. Shot by Sean Price Willaims, the documentary follows Ferrara as he...
- 11/18/2020
- MUBI
John Gianvito's Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (2007) is showing November 3 - December 2, 2020 on Mubi in the Rediscovered series.Let’s start with the title—a shotgun marriage between two omnipresent yet far from equally featured players in these unremarked, meditative spaces: an abstract impulse that supposedly keeps our American republic healthy and vital (while producing a lot of junk along with more helpful items) and a concrete force that softly caresses everything in its path, keeping us alive and alert. More specifically, an encounter between the cause of many of the deaths that are being commemorated in John Gianvito’s film—especially those relating to the genocide of Native Americans and many of the massacres occasioned by slave revolts and labor protests—and what D.W. Griffith lamented he found missing from modern cinema, the wind in the trees, found in the vicinity of most of the dozens of gravesites visited.
- 11/13/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe prolific, captivating Sean Connery has died. As critic Glenn Kenny writes in his obituary for Decider, Connery will always be "tied to the role of James Bond, [but] so many of Connery’s non-Bond roles were [...] fascinating, challenging, and cinematically important." Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films' official trailer for the new 4k digital restoration of Manoel de Oliveira's 1981 Francisca, an adaptation of Agustina Bessa-Luís’ acclaimed novel. Oscilloscope has released the first trailer for The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankine's dark comedy-drama that reimagines the life of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The film won the Fipresci prize in the Forum section of the 2019 Berlinale. The Asian Film Archive has announced Monographs 2020, a series of video essays commissioned and conceived during lockdown. Featuring a wide range of filmmakers, the series aims to offer "an...
- 11/4/2020
- MUBI
John Gianvito's Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind (2007) is exclusively showing November 3 - December 2, 2020 on Mubi in the Rediscovered series.Above: John Gianvito and Howard ZinnThis year marks the 40th anniversary of the first publication of Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, the inspiration behind my 2007 film Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind. With over two and a half million copies sold, Zinn’s chronicling of over 500 years of the stories of individuals, events, and movements that have contributed to the fight for economic justice, racial equality, voting rights, labor protections, universal health and safety standards, has lost little of its pertinence or utility. Having spawned a Young Adult reader’s version, a graphic novel edition, and multiple other off-shoots, Zinn’s epic recounting of American history from below continues with each passing year to find its way into numerous high school and college reading lists nationwide.
- 11/2/2020
- MUBI
Mubi has revealed its picks for November with a slate packed with recent festival hits and rediscovered classics. Nimic, the latest work by award-winning director Yorgos Lanthimos, premieres exclusively on Mubi November 27. Starring Oscar nominee Matt Dillon and written by Lanthimos with frequent collaborator Efthimis Filippou, Nimic is a compact thriller about identity, perception, relationships, and circularity.
November will kick off with the exclusive online premiere of Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But…,an enigmatic story of family and loss that confirms the German auteur’s status as a modern master. To coincide with the US election on November 3rd, Mubi is proud to exclusively present a new restoration of Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind. Making its way through 400 years of American history, this thought-provoking documentary by John Gianvito visits the resting places of such famed figures as Malcolm X, Mother Jones, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony and Crazy Horse,...
November will kick off with the exclusive online premiere of Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But…,an enigmatic story of family and loss that confirms the German auteur’s status as a modern master. To coincide with the US election on November 3rd, Mubi is proud to exclusively present a new restoration of Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind. Making its way through 400 years of American history, this thought-provoking documentary by John Gianvito visits the resting places of such famed figures as Malcolm X, Mother Jones, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony and Crazy Horse,...
- 11/1/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Time (dir. Garrett Bradley)Top Picksdoug DIBBERN1. Time (Garrett Bradley)2. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)3. Gunda (Viktor Kossakovsky)4. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-Soo)5. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)6. The Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel)7. Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)8. The Calming (Song Fang)9. Night of Kings (Philippe Lacôte)10. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)Daniel KASMAN1. Figure Minus Fact (Mary Helena Clark)2. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)3. Untitled Sequence Of Gaps (Vika Kirchenbauer)4. Labor of Love (Sylvia Schedelbauer)5. Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)6. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)7. Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)8. Isabella (Matías Piñeiro)9. The Calming (Song Fang)10. Humongous! (Aya Kawazoe)Michael SICINSKI1. Figure Minus Fact (Mary Helena Clark)2. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)3. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)4. The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili)5. Apiyemiyeki? (Ana Vaz)6. The Human Voice (Pedro Almodóvar)7. Time (Garrett Bradley)8. Isabella (Matías Piñeiro)9. The Last City (Heinz Emigholz)10. Trust Study #1 (Shobun Baile)Correpondences#1 Daniel Kasman introduces the 2020 festival and reviews Lovers...
- 10/14/2020
- MUBI
Given the complicated situation with film festivals this year, there were obviously a lot of films from 2020 that might have potentially fallen through the cracks. They might have premiered at Rotterdam or Berlin, only to vanish without a trace. Or they could have simply remained on their maker’s hard drive, waiting for next year’s round of submissions, when they’d be competing with a new spate of other films. In light of this, the New York Film Festival is providing a public service with its rather swollen Currents lineup. Without inclusion in this year’s NYFF, many of these films would not receive another high profile screening, and this has consequences for future programming slots, distribution, as well as simply getting seen by viewers like you. Going forward, it’s unlikely that the Currents section will be so sprawling. After all, selectivity is NYFF’s brand.Having said that,...
- 10/7/2020
- MUBI
Just judging by the slate, last year’s New York Film Festival offered a testament to the nearly six-decade-old fest’s place in the fall awards circuit firmament, and in New York filmgoing culture. Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” world premiered on opening night last year, and a strong slate of future Oscar nominees all had their Gotham bows at the fest.
This year is a different story, for reasons that should be all too obvious, and the festival is making no bones about its off-year status, right down to a cheeky John Waters-designed poster that brags: “No awards! No world premieres! Fewer films than Toronto!” Not that many New Yorkers are likely to care about such old-normal measuring sticks, especially when the festival is offering a cornucopia of well-curated cinema that will unspool over a leisurely pace, starting Sept. 25 and extending through Oct. 11. Below are some highlights.
At...
This year is a different story, for reasons that should be all too obvious, and the festival is making no bones about its off-year status, right down to a cheeky John Waters-designed poster that brags: “No awards! No world premieres! Fewer films than Toronto!” Not that many New Yorkers are likely to care about such old-normal measuring sticks, especially when the festival is offering a cornucopia of well-curated cinema that will unspool over a leisurely pace, starting Sept. 25 and extending through Oct. 11. Below are some highlights.
At...
- 9/24/2020
- by Andrew Barker
- Variety Film + TV
“I was blind, now I see. I was deaf, now I hear. I was dumb, now I speak,” said Helen Keller in one of her most quoted orations, in a speech telling how the “miracle” of her journey from darkness to light, worked with the aide of Anne Sullivan and others, teaches that “we all live by and for each other,” and led her to her ultimate, though less quoted awakening: to socialism.
You may have known that Helen Keller was a comrade, a life-long socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World; in Her Socialist Smile, John Gianvito assembles Keller’s political addresses and writings into a portrait of a warrior for social justice and a passionate, insightful proselytizer of Marxist thought. She instigated a Braille translation of Bakunin and advocated for a general strike during the first Red Scare. Now, in a time of national self-criticism,...
You may have known that Helen Keller was a comrade, a life-long socialist and member of the Industrial Workers of the World; in Her Socialist Smile, John Gianvito assembles Keller’s political addresses and writings into a portrait of a warrior for social justice and a passionate, insightful proselytizer of Marxist thought. She instigated a Braille translation of Bakunin and advocated for a general strike during the first Red Scare. Now, in a time of national self-criticism,...
- 9/21/2020
- by Mark Asch
- The Film Stage
Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that directors Garrett Bradley (Time); Ephraim Asili (The Inheritance); Valeria Sarmiento (The Tango Of The Widower And Its Distorting Mirror); Nicolás Pereda (Fauna); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile); Matías Piñeiro (Isabella); Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno) Heinz Emigholz; Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski; Tsai Ming-liang (Days), Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile), and Christian Petzold (Undine) will participate in Free Talks during the 58th New York Film Festival. In addition, Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue; Steve McQueen speaks about The Making of Small Axe, and Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk.
Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
“Several roundtable discussions highlight thematic trends within this year’s program: Outside the Canon,...
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that directors Garrett Bradley (Time); Ephraim Asili (The Inheritance); Valeria Sarmiento (The Tango Of The Widower And Its Distorting Mirror); Nicolás Pereda (Fauna); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile); Matías Piñeiro (Isabella); Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno) Heinz Emigholz; Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski; Tsai Ming-liang (Days), Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile), and Christian Petzold (Undine) will participate in Free Talks during the 58th New York Film Festival. In addition, Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue; Steve McQueen speaks about The Making of Small Axe, and Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk.
Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
“Several roundtable discussions highlight thematic trends within this year’s program: Outside the Canon,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As the New York Film Festival readies to roll out its 58th edition tomorrow (and running through October 11), IndieWire is pleased to share an exclusive look at the many festival-sponsored Talks which will roll out during this year’s event. HBO serves as the presenting sponsor of Talks, which supplement NYFF’s screenings with a series of free and live panel discussions and in-depth conversations with a wide range of guests.
As announced by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins. The Talks are taking a new shape, too, and while they are not available as in-person events, as they have been in years past, the festival is hoping to turn them into “an essential live, online meeting place for audiences,...
As announced by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins. The Talks are taking a new shape, too, and while they are not available as in-person events, as they have been in years past, the festival is hoping to turn them into “an essential live, online meeting place for audiences,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
I'm drawn to Straub-Huillet’s usage of direct quotations rather than adapting or interpreting original material for a film. To me this is, among other things, a very straightforward and concrete way of highlighting that people are much less original than they are often assumed to be. (I think that Danièle Huillet once said this, but she was certainly not the first one.) It might be worth being reminded of this, especially today, in a time where we see and seek constant innovation and renewal everywhere while nothing really changes at the core. But for Straub-Huillet, quotation is also about something else. Every film of theirs is a documentation of their loving relationship to a preexisting text, artwork, or artist. The films are more genuinely about the work of the other and less about the couple's so-called vision. Quotation, to Straub-Huillet, is an act of respect, one...
- 2/7/2017
- MUBI
MartírioWhat does a film festival mean after the election of Trump? This is perhaps too far-reaching to expect to be resolved in a mere matter of some hundreds of words, let alone with the President-elect having not taken office yet. And, indeed, I wouldn’t fault a reader for rolling their eyes at such a query, asking: “What does one have to do with the other?” The answer is everything, especially when you get on a plane only a few days after said election to travel to the Mar del Plata Film Festival in Argentina. Mar del Plata can’t be faulted for being viewed in the lens of extreme political angst, having only born the poor chance of being scheduled in close proximity to November 8, 2016. However, this reality meant that it was only a matter of time before casual conversations turned to the topic of Donald Trump and what to do next,...
- 12/19/2016
- MUBI
The Masked MonkeysThe cutting edge of cinema culture at this moment is not what’s premiering in competition at Cannes or picking up the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance. Rather, it is at the quietly flourishing but deeply influential genre of film festival focusing on new and adventurous work in documentary filmmaking. More than any red carpet extravaganza, this type of festival is consistently challenging audiences to expand their understanding of how the art of cinema explores reality and how reality complicates moviemaking. Whether big, like Copenhagen’s Cph:dox, or smaller, like Missouri’s True/False Film Fest, these events go further than the traditional and staid vision of festivals devoted to documentary film, whose emphasis is above all on the camera as a bland tool to invisibly tell a nonfiction story, and instead present more closely curated programs that showcase the infinite nuance and complexity—not to mention shades...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
I’ve been making 16mm durational urban landscape voiceover films, slowly but surely, since the late ‘90s. My short film Blue Diary premiered at the Berlinale in 1998. My two features, The Joy of Life (2005) and The Royal Road (2015) both premiered in the prestigious New Frontiers section at the Sundance Film Festival and have been as wildly successful as experimental films can be. Which is to say, they remain fairly obscure. My small but enthusiastic fan-base frequently asks me for recommendations of films that are similar to my own in terms of incorporating durational landscapes and voiceover and a meditative pace. While it is certainly one of the smallest subgenres in the realm of filmmaking, here are a handful of excellent landscape cinema examples by the practitioners I know best. I confess that my expertise here is limited and hope that the learned Mubi community will chime in with additions in the comments field below.
- 10/11/2016
- MUBI
Starting tomorrow, May 6, and on through June 6, MoMA will present the first complete North American retrospective of the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. The program will then tour North America and Europe and coincides with the Austrian Film Museum's publication of Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, a collection of essays by John Gianvito, Harun Farocki, Jean-Pierre Gorin and others edited by critic, translator and filmmaker Ted Fendt. We're collecting critical assessments, beginning with J. Hoberman's for the New York Times. » - David Hudson...
- 5/5/2016
- Keyframe
Starting tomorrow, May 6, and on through June 6, MoMA will present the first complete North American retrospective of the films of Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. The program will then tour North America and Europe and coincides with the Austrian Film Museum's publication of Jean-Marie Straub & Danièle Huillet, a collection of essays by John Gianvito, Harun Farocki, Jean-Pierre Gorin and others edited by critic, translator and filmmaker Ted Fendt. We're collecting critical assessments, beginning with J. Hoberman's for the New York Times. » - David Hudson...
- 5/5/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
The 45th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam runs from January 27 through February 7 and in the past week or two, Iffr has rolled out lineups featuring new work by Takeshi Kitano, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Jerzy Skolimowski, Hashiguchi Ryosuke, Billy Woodberry, Grant Gee, Philippe Grandrieux, Arturo Ripstein, John Gianvito, Ben Rivers, Philippe Garrel, Laurie Anderson, Brady Corbet, Claire Simon, Jeremy Saulnier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nicolás Pereda, Ben Wheatley, Mike Ott and Nathan Silver—and many more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/16/2016
- Keyframe
The 45th edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam runs from January 27 through February 7 and in the past week or two, Iffr has rolled out lineups featuring new work by Takeshi Kitano, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Jerzy Skolimowski, Hashiguchi Ryosuke, Billy Woodberry, Grant Gee, Philippe Grandrieux, Arturo Ripstein, John Gianvito, Ben Rivers, Philippe Garrel, Laurie Anderson, Brady Corbet, Claire Simon, Jeremy Saulnier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Nicolás Pereda, Ben Wheatley, Mike Ott and Nathan Silver—and many more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/16/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
The New STYLEThis is the second year that the New York Film Festival has presented Projections, its extensive showcase of experimental film and video that for years had been called Views From the Avant-Garde. The name change (or "rebranding," in the parlance of our ugly times) corresponded, of course, to the departure of longtime programmer Mark McElhatten. Under his stewardship, Views became one of the premiere experimental film festivals in the world, a long weekend of high caliber dispatches from established masters, alongside bracing discoveries by up-and-coming makers whose work somehow caught Mark's eye. His programming partner, Film Comment's Gavin Smith, often brought along selections that complemented Mark's, even as they were out of his usual bailiwick.The Views era was not without its dissenters. Some complained that McElhatten rounded up the usual suspects year after year, sometimes without regard to the relative quality of their latest offerings. Others, most prominently Su Friedrich,...
- 10/2/2015
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
Sixty years ago a team of radical, blacklisted filmmakers made Salt of the Earth, a powerful representation of the agency of Us workers. Sukhdev Sandhu celebrates a talisman of the American left
Demonised and hounded off screen on its release, Salt of the Earth, released in almost impossible circumstances 60 years ago, has a strong claim to being the most ambitious American film ever made. According to its director Herbert J Biberman and screenwriter Michael Wilson, it was the "first feature film ever made in [the Us] of labour, by labour, and for labour". More than that, it was "a film that does not tolerate minorities but celebrates their greatness".
Biberman, Wilson and producer Paul Jarrico had all been exiled from Hollywood for their politics. Biberman had worked in theatres in Moscow and co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League before being jailed for six months for refusing to testify before the House Committee on...
Demonised and hounded off screen on its release, Salt of the Earth, released in almost impossible circumstances 60 years ago, has a strong claim to being the most ambitious American film ever made. According to its director Herbert J Biberman and screenwriter Michael Wilson, it was the "first feature film ever made in [the Us] of labour, by labour, and for labour". More than that, it was "a film that does not tolerate minorities but celebrates their greatness".
Biberman, Wilson and producer Paul Jarrico had all been exiled from Hollywood for their politics. Biberman had worked in theatres in Moscow and co-founded the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League before being jailed for six months for refusing to testify before the House Committee on...
- 3/11/2014
- by Sukhdev Sandhu
- The Guardian - Film News
The Museum of Modern Art has announced its 12th annual Documentary Fortnight festival, a two-week showcase of nonfiction film and media that kicks off on February 15. This year's festival will open with Chico Pereira's "Pablo's Winter," winner of the Competition for Student Documentary at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Idfa) and Ilian Metev’s "Sofia's Last Ambulance," which premiered at Cannes. Among other notable films screening at the festival are John Gianvito's examination of the war in Afghanistan, "Far from Afghanistan," which premiered at Tiff and Tinatin Gurchiani's Sundance winning "The Machine Which Makes Everything Disappear" which captures lives of Georgian youth in an experimental casting call. Along with the festival's 22 international feature-length films and two shorts this year's special events include New Cuban Shorts, a spotlight of nine emerging Cuban...
- 1/30/2013
- by Erin Whitney
- Indiewire
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
For the rest of the Notebook's Fantasy Double Features of 2012, see the poll's main index.
***
New: Far from Afghanistan (John Gianvito, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo, Travis Wilkerson)
Old: Allons enfants... pour L'Algerie (Karl Gass, 1961)
Two works of international(ist) solidarity made exactly half a century apart (Far from Afghanistan was already shown on the net last year in the so-called October Version), both dealing with a colonial war and its ramifications for the victim—as well the aggressor and collaborator state. Two works, also, of fragmentation, multitudes of voices, dialectic pluralism; Gass sub-divided his film into three parts (actually, it's more like two halves and a coda), while the Gianvito-masterminded project consists of five quasi-independent segments (working also quite well as stand-alone shorts) plus half a dozen interludes. Yet, in one—maybe the most—crucial way they're light years apart: Gass lays it down smack from the center...
***
New: Far from Afghanistan (John Gianvito, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo, Travis Wilkerson)
Old: Allons enfants... pour L'Algerie (Karl Gass, 1961)
Two works of international(ist) solidarity made exactly half a century apart (Far from Afghanistan was already shown on the net last year in the so-called October Version), both dealing with a colonial war and its ramifications for the victim—as well the aggressor and collaborator state. Two works, also, of fragmentation, multitudes of voices, dialectic pluralism; Gass sub-divided his film into three parts (actually, it's more like two halves and a coda), while the Gianvito-masterminded project consists of five quasi-independent segments (working also quite well as stand-alone shorts) plus half a dozen interludes. Yet, in one—maybe the most—crucial way they're light years apart: Gass lays it down smack from the center...
- 1/7/2013
- by The Ferroni Brigade
- MUBI
As I mentioned in the preface to the first part of my Wavelengths preview (the one focusing on the short films), there are significant changes afoot in 2012. Until last year, the festival had a section known as Visions, which was the primary home for formally challenging cinema that nevertheless conformed to the basic tenets of arthouse and/or “festival” cinema (actors, scripting, 70+minute running time, and, once upon a time, 35mm presentation). This year, Wavelengths is both its former self, and it also contains the sort of work that Visions most likely would have housed. While in some respects this can seem to result in a kind of split personality for the section, it also means that Wavelengths, which has often been described as a sort of “festival within the festival,” has moved front and center. Films that would’ve occupied single slots in the older avant-Wavelengths model, like the...
- 9/12/2012
- MUBI
Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
- 8/22/2012
- MUBI
The 37th Toronto International Film Festival® will roll out the red carpet for hundreds of guests from the four corners of the globe in September. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Rian Johnson, Noah Baumbach, Deepa Mehta, Derek Cianfrance, Sion Sono, Joss Whedon, Neil Jordan, Lu Chuan, Shola Lynch, Barry Levinson, Yvan Attal, Ben Affleck, Marina Zenovich, Costa-Gavras, Laurent Cantet, Sally Potter, Dustin Hoffman, Francois Ozon, David O. Russell, David Ayer, Pelin Esmer, Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Andrew Adamson, Michael McGowan, Bahman Ghobadi, Ziad Doueiri, Alex Gibney, Stephen Chbosky, Eran Riklis, Edward Burns, Bernard Émond, Zhang Yuan, Michael Winterbottom, Mike Newell, Miwa Nishikawa, Margarethe Von Trotta, David Siegel, Scott McGehee, Gauri Shinde, Goran Paskaljevic, Baltasar Kormákur, J.A. Bayona, Rob Zombie, Peaches and Paul Andrew Williams.
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
- 8/21/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
By merging the former Visions into the Wavelengths section, Cameron Bailey has essentially made a new incontournable programme. Headed by Andréa Picard, the section which at a time was populated by medium to short run times now includes some of the bigger names in innovative feature film filmmaking who have no qualms about bending the medium. This year the sections includes long, medium and short length works from the likes of Ben Rivers, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Carlos Reygadas (pic of his controversial Post Tenebras Lux above), Wang Bing, Mati Diop (actress from Claire Denis and Antonio Campos films) and our very own writer Blake Williams who makes it two for two at Tiff with Many a Swan – he previously had Coorow-Latham Road programmed last year. Here’s the complete A to Z listing and well-worth reading descriptions.
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
- 8/14/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Noble in theory, erratic in execution, the omnibus documentary "Far From Afghanistan" is a classic case of too many cooks in the kitchen. The sprawling concept, overseen by John Gianvito ("Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind"), draws together the considerable talents of five established non-fiction filmmakers and several Afghan journalists for an essayistic exploration of the war's debilitating impact on both the local population and U.S. citizenry. It's also a far-reaching treatise against all acts of war, with detailed observations that are alternately provocative and obtuse. As with many anthologies, there's just too much stuffed into a single package. At best a stirring look at the inherently destructive impact of any incursion, the movie suffers from frequent didacticism. Numerous segments use onscreen text to share figures and quotations that often distract from the sheer power of the footage. This tendency to complicate the material with...
- 8/7/2012
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
While Cannes’ Quinzaine struggles to reframe its identity, its former artistic director Olivier Père continues to impress in his new job at the Locarno Film Festival. On Wednesday, he and his programming team unveiled a lineup that is absolutely salivatory, a who’s who for high-minded cinephiles. Perhaps most impressive of all, he has managed to once again nudge the festival’s selection aesthetic even deeper into esoteric ‘experimental’ territory without seeming all that radical. More than any other festival, Locarno is the home for the edgy projects that are too sophisticated for Cannes, whose cold shoulder to avant-garde narrative filmmaking becomes more glaring with each passing year. Check out the complete line-up at the bottom of this page.
In their International Competition, in which films compete for the increasingly prestigious Golden Leopard, we have a collaboration between João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata called...
In their International Competition, in which films compete for the increasingly prestigious Golden Leopard, we have a collaboration between João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata called...
- 7/13/2012
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Nicole Brenez by Alexia Villard
Nicole Brenez is in New York and she's very, very busy. This evening, she's delivering a talk at Columbia University on Recent Developments in Political Cinema (with a response by Kent Jones), followed by another tomorrow afternoon, "An Incandescent Atmosphere": Internationalist Cinema for Today. Then it's off to Anthology Film Archives to launch the series Internationalist Cinema for Today, running through March 11. Off again to Microscope Gallery to introduce a screening of selected works by filmmaker, poet, musician Marc Hurtado (from the group Etant Donnés). And then on Saturday, she'll introduce two more programs in the Anthology series.
Cinespect's Ryan Wells has asked Nicole Brenez to explain the concept of Internationalist cinema and the ensuing interview's an engaging read, but for brevity's sake, I'm turning to her introduction to the Anthology series:
it is a way to move beyond the ego and think of others,...
Nicole Brenez is in New York and she's very, very busy. This evening, she's delivering a talk at Columbia University on Recent Developments in Political Cinema (with a response by Kent Jones), followed by another tomorrow afternoon, "An Incandescent Atmosphere": Internationalist Cinema for Today. Then it's off to Anthology Film Archives to launch the series Internationalist Cinema for Today, running through March 11. Off again to Microscope Gallery to introduce a screening of selected works by filmmaker, poet, musician Marc Hurtado (from the group Etant Donnés). And then on Saturday, she'll introduce two more programs in the Anthology series.
Cinespect's Ryan Wells has asked Nicole Brenez to explain the concept of Internationalist cinema and the ensuing interview's an engaging read, but for brevity's sake, I'm turning to her introduction to the Anthology series:
it is a way to move beyond the ego and think of others,...
- 3/1/2012
- MUBI
I've only just now caught up with David Jenkins's interview with Charlie Kaufman for Time Out London in which Jenkins has "asked him about some of the dos, don'ts and more don'ts of his very personalized trade." That alone makes it a must-read, of course, but Kaufman also talks a bit about the project he's working on now, Frank or Francis, noting that "the scope of it and the world it inhabits is very, very large. In the broadest possible sense, it's about online film criticism, but as usual, the world that I'm writing about is not necessarily the world that I'm writing about. It's just a place to set it. There's a lot in there about the internet and anger: cultural, societal and individual anger. And isolation in this particular age we live in. And competition: it's about the idea of people in this world wanting to be seen.
- 9/30/2011
- MUBI
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