The cinema essay is a rare form. Few examples come to mind: Welles' "F for Fake," Scorsese's films on American and Italian cinema, some works by Marker, Godard, and Rossellini. The cupboard is not well stocked.
Ross Lipman's NOTFILM can stand with the best of them. It is so much more than a "making-of" documentary about what may seem a minor effort in the careers of four great artists: Buster Keaton and Boris Kaufman from film, Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider from theater. It is a profoundly personal meditation on the cinema and life, at once melancholy and exhilarating. Everything about this film is first-rate, from the selection of archival clips, to the narration (spoken by the director himself,)to the marvelous score.
To say more would be to deprive the reader of the thrill of discovering a most surprising work of film art. See it and judge for yourself.
Highest recommendation.
Ross Lipman's NOTFILM can stand with the best of them. It is so much more than a "making-of" documentary about what may seem a minor effort in the careers of four great artists: Buster Keaton and Boris Kaufman from film, Samuel Beckett and Alan Schneider from theater. It is a profoundly personal meditation on the cinema and life, at once melancholy and exhilarating. Everything about this film is first-rate, from the selection of archival clips, to the narration (spoken by the director himself,)to the marvelous score.
To say more would be to deprive the reader of the thrill of discovering a most surprising work of film art. See it and judge for yourself.
Highest recommendation.