More than 200 international filmmakers have rallied in support of ousted Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian, pledging their names to an open letter imploring the cultural organization to keep the artist director in place. Among the first signatories were Martin Scorsese, Paul Schrader, Joanna Hogg, “Corsage” director Marie Kreutzer, Andrew Ross Perry, and Olivier Assayas. Over the course of the day on Wednesday, another 130 directors joined them, the list swelling to include M. Night Shyamalan, Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Tilda Swinton, and Claire Denis. 260 filmmakers have now signed the open letter.
“We, a diverse group of filmmakers from all over the world, who have deep respect for Berlin International Film Festival as a place for great cinema of all kinds, protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract,” says the letter.
Chatrian...
“We, a diverse group of filmmakers from all over the world, who have deep respect for Berlin International Film Festival as a place for great cinema of all kinds, protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract,” says the letter.
Chatrian...
- 9/6/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Stewart, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Margarethe von Trotta are among the international filmmakers and talents who have signed an open letter in support of Carlo Chatrian whose mandate as artistic director of the Berlinale will come to an end next year. The number of signatories has now exceeded 400 names and keeps growing.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (Kbb), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
- 9/6/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Documentary looks back at a mysterious Lisbon through the lens of a 60s cult film, a very specific focus that’s likable even if you haven’t seen the earlier movie
Since his first film in 2000, the mesmerising O Fantasma, Portuguese auteur João Pedro Rodrigues has continually cast his gaze over the ever-changing landscape of Lisbon, its physical transformations and its well of mysteries. Co-directed with his longtime partner and artistic collaborator João Rui Guerra da Mata, this evocative documentary views the city through the lens of both autobiographical and cinematic nostalgia.
The film’s starting point is a personal one. Having inherited his grandparents’ flat, Rodrigues is intrigued by the fact that the window of this complex looks over the location of Paulo Rocha’s The Green Years, a 1963 cult classic that spearheaded Novo Cinema, the Portuguese new wave. Antonioniesque in its cinematography and plot, Rocha’s film charted a doomed working-class romance,...
Since his first film in 2000, the mesmerising O Fantasma, Portuguese auteur João Pedro Rodrigues has continually cast his gaze over the ever-changing landscape of Lisbon, its physical transformations and its well of mysteries. Co-directed with his longtime partner and artistic collaborator João Rui Guerra da Mata, this evocative documentary views the city through the lens of both autobiographical and cinematic nostalgia.
The film’s starting point is a personal one. Having inherited his grandparents’ flat, Rodrigues is intrigued by the fact that the window of this complex looks over the location of Paulo Rocha’s The Green Years, a 1963 cult classic that spearheaded Novo Cinema, the Portuguese new wave. Antonioniesque in its cinematography and plot, Rocha’s film charted a doomed working-class romance,...
- 7/10/2023
- by Phuong Le
- The Guardian - Film News
Southern Californian director Jamie Dack’s coming-of-age drama “Palm Trees and Power Lines” was crowned best film as the 40th edition of the Torino Film Festival wrapped Saturday. The award is worth €18,000.
Dack, winner of the Sundance Film Festival directing award in the U.S. Dramatic section, also received Torino’s prize for best script, shared with her co-writer Audrey Findlay.
Based on the 2018 short movie of the same name, Dack’s film stars Gretchen Mol, Jonathan Tucker and Lily McInerny, who plays a 17-year-old who has a life changing encounter with a man twice her age.
“Palm Trees” was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, including first feature for Dack and Leah Chen Baker; first screenplay for Dack and Audrey Findlay; supporting performance for Tucker; and breakthrough performance for McInerny.
The jury awarded “Rodeo,” the debut feature from French photojournalist-turned-filmmaker Lola Quivoron, with the special jury award, and the...
Dack, winner of the Sundance Film Festival directing award in the U.S. Dramatic section, also received Torino’s prize for best script, shared with her co-writer Audrey Findlay.
Based on the 2018 short movie of the same name, Dack’s film stars Gretchen Mol, Jonathan Tucker and Lily McInerny, who plays a 17-year-old who has a life changing encounter with a man twice her age.
“Palm Trees” was nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards, including first feature for Dack and Leah Chen Baker; first screenplay for Dack and Audrey Findlay; supporting performance for Tucker; and breakthrough performance for McInerny.
The jury awarded “Rodeo,” the debut feature from French photojournalist-turned-filmmaker Lola Quivoron, with the special jury award, and the...
- 12/4/2022
- by Davide Abbatescianni
- Variety Film + TV
“Where is This Street? or With No Before and After,” co-directed by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, is screening in competition at Locarno.
The pic revisits locations and themes from Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film “Os Verdes Anos” (“The Green Years”), a best first film winner at Locarno in 1964 and considered to be a point of departure for Portugal’s Cinema Novo movement.
“We believe that the film works at its own level, and also gains further levels of meaning when viewed in conjunction with ‘Os Verdes Anos,’” explains Rodrigues. “By revisiting locations from the 1963 film, but without people, we planned to make an ode to Lisbon, a symphony of the city, working in the tradition of directors such as Walter Ruttman. This idea, that predated the pandemic, foresaw the atmosphere created by the lockdown which suddenly emptied the city.”
Rodrigues studied under Paulo Rocha at Lisbon...
The pic revisits locations and themes from Paulo Rocha’s 1963 film “Os Verdes Anos” (“The Green Years”), a best first film winner at Locarno in 1964 and considered to be a point of departure for Portugal’s Cinema Novo movement.
“We believe that the film works at its own level, and also gains further levels of meaning when viewed in conjunction with ‘Os Verdes Anos,’” explains Rodrigues. “By revisiting locations from the 1963 film, but without people, we planned to make an ode to Lisbon, a symphony of the city, working in the tradition of directors such as Walter Ruttman. This idea, that predated the pandemic, foresaw the atmosphere created by the lockdown which suddenly emptied the city.”
Rodrigues studied under Paulo Rocha at Lisbon...
- 8/5/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman).The lineup for the 75th-anniversary edition of the festival has been announced, including new films by Helena Wittmann, João Pedro Rodrígues, Aleksandr Sokurov and others, alongside retrospectives, tributes, and much more.Piazza GRANDEAlles über Martin Suter. Ausser die Wahrheit. (Everything About Martin Suter. Everything but the Truth.) (André Schäfer)Annie Colère (Blandine Lenoir)Bullet Train (David Leitch)Compartiment tueurs (The Sleeping Car Murder) (Costa-Gavras)Delta (Michele Vannucci)Home of the Brave (Laurie Anderson)Imitation of Life (Douglas Sirk)Last Dance (Delphine Lehericey)Medusa Deluxe (Thomas Hardiman)My Neighbor Adolf (Leon Prudovsky)Paradise Highway (Anna Gutto)Piano Piano (Nicola Prosatore)Printed Rainbow (Gitanjali Rao)Semret (Caterina Mona)Une femme de notre temps (Jean Paul Civeyrac)Vous n'aurez pas ma haine (You Will Not Have My Hate) (Kilian Riedhof)Where the Crawdads Sing (Olivia Newman)Human Flowers of Flesh (Helena Wittmann).Concorso INTERNAZIONALEAriyippu (Declaration) (Mahesh Narayanan)Balıqlara xütbə...
- 7/13/2022
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Joaquim Pinto and Nuno Leonel's Fish Tail (2015) is showing April 16 - May 16, 2018 in the United States as part of the series The Unusual Subjects.When I was a child, my dreams had me follow the mysterious shadows of one Long John Silver. I used to sit in my bed in the south of Germany late at night, hundreds of miles away from any sea or real adventures. However, I was under the spell of Robert Louis Stevenson, his written feelings, and those mysterious figures that came from many dangerous journeys undertaken and many more ahead. Emotions lingered on obscure horizons, emotions that I now find only in a kiss or in filmmakers such as Fritz Lang or Jacques Rivette. Nothing related to these feelings can be called "real," but still there are only a few childhood memories more...
- 4/16/2018
- MUBI
Emiliano Torres’ The Winter [pictured] was named best film at the first edition of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam).
Emiliano Torres’ The Winter [pictured] was named best film at the first edition of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam), while Saint George (Sao Jorge) won best director for Marco Martins and best actor for Nuno Lopes.
British film Trespass Against Us also received two awards, best actress for Lyndsey Marshal and a jury prize.
Jennifer Yu won best newcomer for Macanese director Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, which also received the Macao Audience Choice Award.
Best screenplay went to UK director Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump for Free Fire, while Brazilian drama Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death received the best technical contribution award for its original music and sound design.
The new festival was co-organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office (Mgto) and Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (Mftpa).
“First...
Emiliano Torres’ The Winter [pictured] was named best film at the first edition of the International Film Festival and Awards Macao (Iffam), while Saint George (Sao Jorge) won best director for Marco Martins and best actor for Nuno Lopes.
British film Trespass Against Us also received two awards, best actress for Lyndsey Marshal and a jury prize.
Jennifer Yu won best newcomer for Macanese director Tracy Choi’s debut feature Sisterhood, which also received the Macao Audience Choice Award.
Best screenplay went to UK director Ben Wheatley and Amy Jump for Free Fire, while Brazilian drama Elon Doesn’t Believe In Death received the best technical contribution award for its original music and sound design.
The new festival was co-organised by the Macao Government Tourism Office (Mgto) and Macau Films & Television Productions and Culture Association (Mftpa).
“First...
- 12/14/2016
- by screenasia@yahoo.com (Silvia Wong)
- ScreenDaily
Nicolas Winding Refn, Karim Ainouz and Lu Chuan are among the directors of projects selected for the inaugural Crouching Tigers Project Lab at the 1st International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam).
The new lab, which takes place December 9-11, will present 12 projects, separated into genre, auteur and projects from partner organisations (see full list below).
Selected filmmakers will be able to interact with potential funders and distributors, as well as participate in script consultations, a pitch forum and workshops. The 12 projects will also vie for three cash awards of $20,000, to be presented by Fox International Productions, and one award of $10,000 each from Ivanhoe Pictures and China’s Huace Media.
The lab has been structured around three concepts:
*Innovative perspectives on the integration of Asian and non-Asian elements in film script and production.
*A special focus on genre cinema, including both its classic forms and contemporary trends originated by new technologies and formats.
*Effective networking...
The new lab, which takes place December 9-11, will present 12 projects, separated into genre, auteur and projects from partner organisations (see full list below).
Selected filmmakers will be able to interact with potential funders and distributors, as well as participate in script consultations, a pitch forum and workshops. The 12 projects will also vie for three cash awards of $20,000, to be presented by Fox International Productions, and one award of $10,000 each from Ivanhoe Pictures and China’s Huace Media.
The lab has been structured around three concepts:
*Innovative perspectives on the integration of Asian and non-Asian elements in film script and production.
*A special focus on genre cinema, including both its classic forms and contemporary trends originated by new technologies and formats.
*Effective networking...
- 11/10/2016
- by lizshackleton@gmail.com (Liz Shackleton)
- ScreenDaily
The first reviews are in, and we begin with Jorge Mourinha, introducing his interview for Filmmaker: "The last few years have been truly a whirlwind period for Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues, with career retrospectives in the Us and Japan, filmmaker residencies at France’s prestigious Le Fresnoy and at the Harvard Film Archive, and even a competition slot at Locarno for his 2012 fake-noir playful docu-fiction hybrid The Last Time I Saw Macao, co-directed with his long-time creative and life partner João Rui Guerra da Mata." In The Ornithologist, competing in Locarno, the titular character's "scientific expedition in search of an endangered species becomes (in line with pretty much all of the director’s work) a fantastic journey of self-discovery and awakening, shot mostly on location with French actor Paul Hamy." » - David Hudson...
- 8/8/2016
- Keyframe
The first reviews are in, and we begin with Jorge Mourinha, introducing his interview for Filmmaker: "The last few years have been truly a whirlwind period for Portuguese director João Pedro Rodrigues, with career retrospectives in the Us and Japan, filmmaker residencies at France’s prestigious Le Fresnoy and at the Harvard Film Archive, and even a competition slot at Locarno for his 2012 fake-noir playful docu-fiction hybrid The Last Time I Saw Macao, co-directed with his long-time creative and life partner João Rui Guerra da Mata." In The Ornithologist, competing in Locarno, the titular character's "scientific expedition in search of an endangered species becomes (in line with pretty much all of the director’s work) a fantastic journey of self-discovery and awakening, shot mostly on location with French actor Paul Hamy." » - David Hudson...
- 8/8/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
The twelfth entry in an on-going series of audiovisual essays by Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin. Mubi will be showing João Pedro Rodrigues's To Die Like a Man (2009) March 4 - April 2 and Two Drifters (2005) March 5 - April 3, 2016 in the United States.The concept that unifies the work of Portuguese filmmaker João Pedro Rodrigues (signed alone or in collaboration with João Rui Guerra da Mata) is that of shifting: a shifting of gender (in any direction from male to female, via all hybrid possibilities in-between), and of genre (romantic melodrama crossed with the fantastique, or documentary sliding over into fiction as in The Last Time I Saw Macao, 2012), even of species (confusion of human and animal realms in O Fantasma, 2000). Most gripping and beguiling of all is the director’s fondness for unexpectedly supernatural themes—all the better to blur the distinction between mortality and immortality, a key theme...
- 3/4/2016
- by Cristina Álvarez López & Adrian Martin
- MUBI
Anti-Nazi satire from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Bruggemann and a new documentary from Mark Cousins among titles.Scroll down for competition line-ups
The 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 3-11) has unveiled the competition titles in its Official Selection, East of the West, Forum of Independents and Documentary sections.
The main competition will comprise seven world premieres and six international premieres, including the new film from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Brüggemann, Heil, a satirical comedy centred on neo-Nazis.
Polish documentary director Marcin Koszałkaʼs will present his feature debut, The Red Spider, a psychological thriller inspired by true events from the 1950s that delves into the mechanisms that give rise to a mass murderer.
Danish documentary maker Daniel Dencik will present his first feature, Gold Coast, about a young anti-colonial idealist who sets out for Danish Guinea to set up a coffee plantation - but not everything goes to plan. The music is...
The 50th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (July 3-11) has unveiled the competition titles in its Official Selection, East of the West, Forum of Independents and Documentary sections.
The main competition will comprise seven world premieres and six international premieres, including the new film from Stations of the Cross director Dietrich Brüggemann, Heil, a satirical comedy centred on neo-Nazis.
Polish documentary director Marcin Koszałkaʼs will present his feature debut, The Red Spider, a psychological thriller inspired by true events from the 1950s that delves into the mechanisms that give rise to a mass murderer.
Danish documentary maker Daniel Dencik will present his first feature, Gold Coast, about a young anti-colonial idealist who sets out for Danish Guinea to set up a coffee plantation - but not everything goes to plan. The music is...
- 6/2/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
The second edition of Art of the Real opens tomorrow at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center with the premieres of new short films by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, Eduardo Williams and Matt Porterfield, all of whom will be present for a Q&A. Closing on April 26 with Jenni Olson's The Royal Road, the series features a tribute to Agnès Varda and a spotlight on reenactments. Other highlights include films by Peter Watkins, James Benning, Harun Farocki, Jill Godmilow, Derek Jarman and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The second edition of Art of the Real opens tomorrow at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center with the premieres of new short films by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, Eduardo Williams and Matt Porterfield, all of whom will be present for a Q&A. Closing on April 26 with Jenni Olson's The Royal Road, the series features a tribute to Agnès Varda and a spotlight on reenactments. Other highlights include films by Peter Watkins, James Benning, Harun Farocki, Jill Godmilow, Derek Jarman and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/9/2015
- Keyframe
Goings on over the next few days: Walerian Borowczyk and Wojciech Bąkowski retrospectives in New York, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Hal Hartley series in Los Angeles, Orson Welles in Austin, Barbara Stanwyck and Noah Baumbach in Nashville, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata at Harvard, Robert Siodmak and the final cut of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in London—plus Frank Mosley's Her Wilderness, Noir City, a "journey of 12 nights and 26 films through the side streets and back alleys of film noir," and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/2/2015
- Keyframe
Goings on over the next few days: Walerian Borowczyk and Wojciech Bąkowski retrospectives in New York, Hou Hsiao-hsien and Hal Hartley series in Los Angeles, Orson Welles in Austin, Barbara Stanwyck and Noah Baumbach in Nashville, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata at Harvard, Robert Siodmak and the final cut of Ridley Scott's Blade Runner in London—plus Frank Mosley's Her Wilderness, Noir City, a "journey of 12 nights and 26 films through the side streets and back alleys of film noir," and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/2/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Read More: MoMA and Film Society of Lincoln Center Announce Complete New Directors/New Films Lineup New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center announced the complete lineup for the second annual Art Of The Real documentary film festival. The nonfiction showcase will premiere a trio of shorts to open the festivities, including João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata’s "Iec Long", Eduardo Williams’s "I Forgot," and Matt Porterfield’s "Take What You Can Carry." Jenni Olson's "The Royal Road" gets the closing night honors after having its world premiere at Sundance in January. The festival runs April 10-26 and the rest of the newly announced films can be found below. Visit filmlinc.com for more information. [Synopses courtesy of the Film Society.] Opening Night Opening Night Shorts Program:Premiering new works by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata, Eduardo Williams,...
- 3/5/2015
- by David Ballard
- Indiewire
Below you will find our total coverage of the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival. New interviews will be added to the index as they are published.
Correspondences
Between Adam Cook and Daniel Kasman
#1
Introduction by Daniel Kasman
#2
Adam Cook continues the festival introduction
#3
Daniel Kasman on Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#4
Adam Cook on Jem Cohen's Counting, Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#5
Daniel Kasman on Berlin Critics' Week, Nathalie Nambot and Maki Berchache's Brûle la mer, Kevin B. Lee's Transformers: The Premake, Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth
#6
Adam Cook on Pablo Larraín's The Club, Kidlat Tahimik's Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III, Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, Wim Wenders' Everything Will Be Fine
#7
Daniel Kasman on Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, Patricio Guzmán's The Pearl...
Correspondences
Between Adam Cook and Daniel Kasman
#1
Introduction by Daniel Kasman
#2
Adam Cook continues the festival introduction
#3
Daniel Kasman on Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#4
Adam Cook on Jem Cohen's Counting, Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#5
Daniel Kasman on Berlin Critics' Week, Nathalie Nambot and Maki Berchache's Brûle la mer, Kevin B. Lee's Transformers: The Premake, Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth
#6
Adam Cook on Pablo Larraín's The Club, Kidlat Tahimik's Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III, Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, Wim Wenders' Everything Will Be Fine
#7
Daniel Kasman on Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, Patricio Guzmán's The Pearl...
- 2/24/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
"Art of the Real" is returning to the Film Society of Lincoln Center with a celebration of Agnès Varda (who will attend!) and more:
"The 2015 edition, taking place April 10-26, will again feature dozens of new works from around the world and in a variety of genres alongside retrospective and thematic selections. Opening Night will premiere new works by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (The Last Time I Saw Macao, Mahjong), Eduardo Williams, and Matt Porterfield (I Used to Be Darker), with all filmmakers attending the evening."
Above: For The Criterion Collection, kogonada's new video essay, "Mirrors of Bergman." Abderrahmane Sissako, the director of Timbuktu, will be heading Cannes' Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury. In his NY Times home video column, J. Hoberman writes on Richard Linklater's Boyhood and Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg. Richard Brody writes about Spike Lee's Da Sweet Blood of...
"The 2015 edition, taking place April 10-26, will again feature dozens of new works from around the world and in a variety of genres alongside retrospective and thematic selections. Opening Night will premiere new works by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (The Last Time I Saw Macao, Mahjong), Eduardo Williams, and Matt Porterfield (I Used to Be Darker), with all filmmakers attending the evening."
Above: For The Criterion Collection, kogonada's new video essay, "Mirrors of Bergman." Abderrahmane Sissako, the director of Timbuktu, will be heading Cannes' Cinéfondation and Short Films Jury. In his NY Times home video column, J. Hoberman writes on Richard Linklater's Boyhood and Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg. Richard Brody writes about Spike Lee's Da Sweet Blood of...
- 2/18/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Chinese rockets explode in front of our curious eyes, and disappear in the black clouds of a nocturnal sky. The past haunts our ruins, overlapping times consisting of moving photographs and still film images. An old man has worked in the "Iec Long Firecracker Factory" since he was a child. He tells us about his daily life and work. In their latest exploration of the ghosts of Macau, Portuguese filmmakers João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata visit an abandoned firecracker factory and pay tribute to the lost souls of the workers who helped to establish this massive industry that shaped the former Portuguese colony in the first half of the 20th century. In their essayistic documentary, the filmmakers combine photographs, Super 8...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/16/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Dear Danny,
I'm glad you speak of the small things that stand out, separate from the overall quality of a film. In a festival drowning with content, sometimes it's hard to remember the particular details that struck us, especially in the late-going where we find ourselves now. In Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, a film otherwise lacking the filmmaker's eccentric touches, a short sequence involving a vulture is the best in the entire picture. Known for his penchant for filming animals, and moreover, filming them with a strange, alien gaze, Herzog brilliantly stages a romantic scene between Nicole Kidman and James Franco. The couple are climbing a winding stairway to the top of a tower (which Franco's character describes as being a place where the dead are brought), and waiting for these whimsical lovers is an intimidating vulture chewing on hot, rotting flesh. The abrupt cut from their...
I'm glad you speak of the small things that stand out, separate from the overall quality of a film. In a festival drowning with content, sometimes it's hard to remember the particular details that struck us, especially in the late-going where we find ourselves now. In Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, a film otherwise lacking the filmmaker's eccentric touches, a short sequence involving a vulture is the best in the entire picture. Known for his penchant for filming animals, and moreover, filming them with a strange, alien gaze, Herzog brilliantly stages a romantic scene between Nicole Kidman and James Franco. The couple are climbing a winding stairway to the top of a tower (which Franco's character describes as being a place where the dead are brought), and waiting for these whimsical lovers is an intimidating vulture chewing on hot, rotting flesh. The abrupt cut from their...
- 2/14/2015
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Last week we saw the lineup for the main program of the Berlinale Forum; today, the festival's announced the works to be presented in the tenth edition of Forum Expanded. Je proclame la destruction by Arthur Tuoto consists of two shots from Robert Bresson’s film Le diable probablement (1977) repeated in an endless loop. Martin Ebner’s installation Ein helles Kino challenges the cinematographic setting, while Leila Albayaty steals her very own film images in her film Face B. The program also features new work by Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/20/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Last week we saw the lineup for the main program of the Berlinale Forum; today, the festival's announced the works to be presented in the tenth edition of Forum Expanded. Je proclame la destruction by Arthur Tuoto consists of two shots from Robert Bresson’s film Le diable probablement (1977) repeated in an endless loop. Martin Ebner’s installation Ein helles Kino challenges the cinematographic setting, while Leila Albayaty steals her very own film images in her film Face B. The program also features new work by Michael Snow, Ken Jacobs, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/20/2015
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Reverse Shot's Martin Scorsese symposium rolls on. Twin Peaks will be a book before it returns. Jonathan Rosenbaum's posted excerpts from his conversations with Jean-Luc Godard. J. Hoberman reviews two films by Fritz Lang. The Nation reviews poetry by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Criterion's Peter Becker interviews Volker Schlöndorff. João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's A Última Vez Que Vi Macau sweeps awards in Portugal. A Marguerite Duras series opens in New York. Plus, remembering Pavel Landovsky, Marie Dubois and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/17/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Reverse Shot's Martin Scorsese symposium rolls on. Twin Peaks will be a book before it returns. Jonathan Rosenbaum's posted excerpts from his conversations with Jean-Luc Godard. J. Hoberman reviews two films by Fritz Lang. The Nation reviews poetry by Pier Paolo Pasolini. Criterion's Peter Becker interviews Volker Schlöndorff. João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's A Última Vez Que Vi Macau sweeps awards in Portugal. A Marguerite Duras series opens in New York. Plus, remembering Pavel Landovsky, Marie Dubois and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/17/2014
- Keyframe
Co-directors João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata are first and foremost cinephiles, and make no bones about invoking the classic Josef von Sternberg and Nicholas Ray directed, Robert Mitchum and Jane Russell starred Rko feature, Macao, throughout their own shapeshifting exploration of the post-Portuguese protean city. But The Last Time I Saw Macao is much more than just an homage to beloved cinema greats. Like it’s cinematic ancestor, the film delves into the darkness of film noir, but it also passes like a shadow from underground thriller to personal documentary, city symphony to action shoot-out at any given moment, all while acting as a cinematic travelogue for Guerra da Mata, who grew up in Macao, but hasn’t been back in thirty years.
In the last three decades the city has changed quite a bit, and in the film’s parallel universe, it’s fallen into shadow...
In the last three decades the city has changed quite a bit, and in the film’s parallel universe, it’s fallen into shadow...
- 4/15/2014
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
This year, Chicago’s durable Onion City Experimental Film And Video Festival is celebrating its devotion to challenging, exciting and entertaining experimental and avant-garde films for a quarter of a century. Hosted, as always, by Chicago Filmmakers, the 25th annual edition of the fest runs at several locations around the Windy City — the Gene Siskel Film Center, Columbia College and the Music Box Theater — on September 5-8.
The opening night program is a terrific lineup of eclectic short works from some of the giants of the experimental film world, such as animators Jodie Mack and Lawrence Jordan, documentarian Deborah Stratman, British filmmaker Ben Rivers, Indian filmmakers Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel, classic experimental filmmaker Phil Solomon and several more.
The rest of the fest is also jam-packed with other terrific short films and videos, from filmmakers such as Jennifer Reeder, Stephanie Barber, Mike Hoolboom, Lewis Klahr, Scott Fitzpatrick and tons more; plus,...
The opening night program is a terrific lineup of eclectic short works from some of the giants of the experimental film world, such as animators Jodie Mack and Lawrence Jordan, documentarian Deborah Stratman, British filmmaker Ben Rivers, Indian filmmakers Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel, classic experimental filmmaker Phil Solomon and several more.
The rest of the fest is also jam-packed with other terrific short films and videos, from filmmakers such as Jennifer Reeder, Stephanie Barber, Mike Hoolboom, Lewis Klahr, Scott Fitzpatrick and tons more; plus,...
- 9/5/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Watch the new trailer for João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's The Last Time I Saw Macao. Cinema Guild distributes the film, which opens September 13th. The Last Time I Saw Macao is a wonderfully mysterious, shape-shifting feature and a detective tale that blends film noir, documentary footage and personal travelogue to intoxicating effect. Lydie Barbara, João Rui Guerra da Mata, João Pedro Rodrigues and Cindy Scrash star.
- 8/24/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
News.
Issue 67 of Senses of Cinema is now online for your reading pleasure. Highlights include an interview with Matthew Porterfield (pictured above) by Brigitta Wagner, a piece on Assault on Wall Street by Celluloid Liberation Front, and a "Great Directors" article on Christian Petzold by Jaimey Fisher.
John Woo is set to make his next film, The Crossing, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi, and Song Hye Kyo. From the press release: "The Crossing is about three couples from different backgrounds whose lives are affected by the tide of history. They survive war and disaster to finally find happiness." Jafar Panahi made a surprise appearance at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival via Skype. According to Variety, Panahi introduced a screening of his new film, Closed Curtain:
"Karlovy Vary festival is one of the festivals I truly love, and when I was here I had the chance to meet with great filmmakers...
Issue 67 of Senses of Cinema is now online for your reading pleasure. Highlights include an interview with Matthew Porterfield (pictured above) by Brigitta Wagner, a piece on Assault on Wall Street by Celluloid Liberation Front, and a "Great Directors" article on Christian Petzold by Jaimey Fisher.
John Woo is set to make his next film, The Crossing, starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhang Ziyi, and Song Hye Kyo. From the press release: "The Crossing is about three couples from different backgrounds whose lives are affected by the tide of history. They survive war and disaster to finally find happiness." Jafar Panahi made a surprise appearance at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival via Skype. According to Variety, Panahi introduced a screening of his new film, Closed Curtain:
"Karlovy Vary festival is one of the festivals I truly love, and when I was here I had the chance to meet with great filmmakers...
- 7/10/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
★★★☆☆ The critical success last year of Miguel Gomes' Tabu (2012) and fresh appreciation for the works of Pedro Costa and Raoul Ruiz has seen Portuguese cinema quietly re-introducing itself on the festival circuit. Continuing this trend, João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's The Last Time I Saw Macao (2012) opens with a magnificent dance routine set in front of caged tigers, before venturing down a rather more ambiguous course. The last Chinese outpost to be handed back to its owners, Macao was previously a Portuguese administrative region. Once a gateway to the East, it's now a monument to the West.
Our window into this world is Guerra da Mata, a former resident who's returning to his homeland in response to a letter of distress he receives from an old friend, Candy - who may have been involved in a murder. Drenched in memories and past regrets, his...
Our window into this world is Guerra da Mata, a former resident who's returning to his homeland in response to a letter of distress he receives from an old friend, Candy - who may have been involved in a murder. Drenched in memories and past regrets, his...
- 7/4/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata's The Last Time I Saw Macao has a new, theatrical poster. The Cinema Guild distributed musical drama, which at this time has no set U.S. release date apart from opening in the summer, made its world premiere at the 2012 Locarno Film Festival and was an official selection of the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Starring in the film also known as A Última Vez Que Vi Macau are Lydie Barbara, João Rui Guerra da Mata, João Pedro Rodrigues and Cindy Scrash. The Last Time I Saw Macao is produced by Daniel Chabannes, Corentin Senechal and Rodrigues. I really love the design of this poster which harks back to the days of many beloved classics.
- 4/26/2013
- Upcoming-Movies.com
News.
Just in time for Kenya's national election this weekend, Mubi will be specially showing a new film, Something Necessary (Judy Kibinge, 2013), produced by Tom Tykwer, about the country's last elections, in 2007. Something Necessary premiered in January at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and will be free to watch globally on Mubi for 24 hours starting Sunday, March 3. Russian filmmaker Aleksei German has passed away at the age of 74. We've shared one of our favorite scenes of his and would like to point to a piece we published by Maxim Pozdorovkin last March, occasioned by the traveling retrospective of German's work.
We are terrifically happy for and proud of David Cairns—Notebook columnist of The Forgotten and author of the Shadowplay blog—who has just seen the premiere of his new film co-directed with Paul Duane, Natan, at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The documentary is on Bernand Natan, a...
Just in time for Kenya's national election this weekend, Mubi will be specially showing a new film, Something Necessary (Judy Kibinge, 2013), produced by Tom Tykwer, about the country's last elections, in 2007. Something Necessary premiered in January at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and will be free to watch globally on Mubi for 24 hours starting Sunday, March 3. Russian filmmaker Aleksei German has passed away at the age of 74. We've shared one of our favorite scenes of his and would like to point to a piece we published by Maxim Pozdorovkin last March, occasioned by the traveling retrospective of German's work.
We are terrifically happy for and proud of David Cairns—Notebook columnist of The Forgotten and author of the Shadowplay blog—who has just seen the premiere of his new film co-directed with Paul Duane, Natan, at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival. The documentary is on Bernand Natan, a...
- 2/28/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Alvorada Vermelha – Red Dawn
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata
28 minutes, 2011
A documentary on a meat market in Macao evokes question of life, death and morality.
Opening with a high heeled shoe in foreground in a presentation of the mundane, we are introduced to our world under the pretense of new perspectives. More than just documentary, this film is shaped and formed by associations, magical tangents and powerful compositions. The film’s first part anticipates the meat market with baroque compositions, reminders perhaps of Vermeer and the works of the Renaissance. They are contemporary locales, composed using variations on single and multiple point perspective, which brings poetry and discomfort to the documentary footage. It takes almost ten minutes for it to become apparent that we are in a meat market, and the film takes on new meanings as we plunge into a world unseen in the West.
Directed by João Pedro Rodrigues & João Rui Guerra da Mata
28 minutes, 2011
A documentary on a meat market in Macao evokes question of life, death and morality.
Opening with a high heeled shoe in foreground in a presentation of the mundane, we are introduced to our world under the pretense of new perspectives. More than just documentary, this film is shaped and formed by associations, magical tangents and powerful compositions. The film’s first part anticipates the meat market with baroque compositions, reminders perhaps of Vermeer and the works of the Renaissance. They are contemporary locales, composed using variations on single and multiple point perspective, which brings poetry and discomfort to the documentary footage. It takes almost ten minutes for it to become apparent that we are in a meat market, and the film takes on new meanings as we plunge into a world unseen in the West.
- 12/15/2012
- by Justine
- SoundOnSight
After stops in Locarno, Tiff and Nyff, The Cinema Guild have The Last Time I Saw Macao , João Pedro Rodrigues was born in Lisbon. His feature films are and “The Last Time I Saw Macao” (2012). João Rui Guerra da Mata has co-written with João Pedro Rodrigues the feature film “To Die Like a Man” (2009). “The Last Time I Saw Macao” (2012) is his first feature film as director.
Gist:
Worth Noting: Rodrigues’ previous films are available for viewing: “O Fantasma” (2000), Two Drifters aka “Odette” (2005), “To Die Like a Man” (2009)
Do We Care?: Although our Blake Williams does have some reservations about the film (Tiff ’12 Daily recap), he thinks that “the disappearance of history and culture (Macao was a Portuguese colony for 4 centuries, ending in 1999, so the filmmakers are playing with their own genuine and personal nostalgia from its past), these little bursts of light infused a visual poeticism that made the overall viewing rewarding.
Gist:
Worth Noting: Rodrigues’ previous films are available for viewing: “O Fantasma” (2000), Two Drifters aka “Odette” (2005), “To Die Like a Man” (2009)
Do We Care?: Although our Blake Williams does have some reservations about the film (Tiff ’12 Daily recap), he thinks that “the disappearance of history and culture (Macao was a Portuguese colony for 4 centuries, ending in 1999, so the filmmakers are playing with their own genuine and personal nostalgia from its past), these little bursts of light infused a visual poeticism that made the overall viewing rewarding.
- 12/5/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
The Cinema Guild has acquired U.S. distribution rights to "The Last Time I Saw Macao," directed by João Pedro Rodrigues ("To Die Like a Man") and João Rui Guerra da Mata. Ryan Krivoshey of The Cinema Guild negotiated the deal with Jean-Christophe Simon of Films Boutique. The film, an official selection of the 50th New York Film Festival, will receive a theatrical release in 2013, followed by a DVD/VOD rollout. "'The Last Time I Saw Macao' is an evocative, entertaining and genre-bending work from two dynamic filmmakers," Krivoshey said of the Portuguese film, which explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony. João Pedro Rodrigues ("O Fantasma," "Odette") was born in Lisbon; "Macao" is João Rui Guerra da Mata's directorial debut. The Cinema Guild's upcoming releases include Raul Ruiz's...
- 12/4/2012
- by Justin Krajeski
- Indiewire
What follows is an exchange between Josh Timmermann (a fellow critic and Vancouver resident, who you may recall from this) and I, wherein we discuss the Vancouver International Film Festival and its individual parts, a chance to color outside the lines a bit and discuss the ins and outs of our festival experiences.
Context!
Above: Granville 7 Theatre, Viff's primary venue.
Adam Cook: I’ve been attending Viff since 2008—and you’ve been attending since 2007—so it seems kind of safe to say we’re well on our way to being veterans of the festival; although, this claim is humbled when encountering someone like Chuck Stephens—a member of this year’s Dragons & Tigers jury—who has been coming (from out of town, no less) for something like twenty years. However, five years of Viff-going has equipped me with a knack for knowing how to approach the festival, how to navigate the programming—and,...
Context!
Above: Granville 7 Theatre, Viff's primary venue.
Adam Cook: I’ve been attending Viff since 2008—and you’ve been attending since 2007—so it seems kind of safe to say we’re well on our way to being veterans of the festival; although, this claim is humbled when encountering someone like Chuck Stephens—a member of this year’s Dragons & Tigers jury—who has been coming (from out of town, no less) for something like twenty years. However, five years of Viff-going has equipped me with a knack for knowing how to approach the festival, how to navigate the programming—and,...
- 11/8/2012
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
There is no such thing as “pure documentary.” While classified as “non-fiction,” documentaries ultimately form narratives depending on how the director chooses to cut the footage together. In The Last Time I Saw Macao, co-directors Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Joao Rui Guerra da Mata, conversely, draw attention to a fictional framework, a man searching for his troubled friend in Macao. However, this framework opens up to an honest documentary portrait of a city. Last Time I Saw Macao does indeed find a clever fashion in which to photograph its eponymous city, but sometimes lacks a certain ability to entertain. The film begins with a rather compelling opening sequence. Transgendered woman Candy (Cindy Scrash, star of Rodrigues’ To Die Like A Man) lip-synchs to Jane Russell’s “You Kill Me” from Josef Von Sternbergh’s film Macao (1952) in a direct homage to both the film and the city (many references are made to Von Sternbergh’s film throughout...
- 10/12/2012
- by Caitlin Hughes
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
The New York Film Festival is celebrating its 50th birthday this year while at the same time saying goodbye to Richard Peña, who served as Program Director for the last 25 years. This year’s festival is packed with films from all over the world, bringing the best of the best from Cannes, Berlin, and other renowned festivals to a New York audience. Peña, who also teaches in the Film Department at Columbia University, has long championed Latin American cinema, in particular. After traveling in the region as a young undergrad he decided to focus his academic research on Latin America. Peña has gone on to not only spotlight Latino films in the classroom but also carved out a space, year after year, for Latino films to shine at the New York Film Festival. This year is no exception. Now in its second week, the fest has some exciting Latino premieres that will close out its 50th edition.
Here and There
Aquí y Allá | Antonio Méndez Esparza (2012)
Mexico/Spain/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Having won the top prize at the Critic’s Week sidebar at Cannes, this debut feature from Antonio Méndez Esparza looks at immigration from a different point of view--what happens when you go back? Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico after a stint working in New York. When he arrives he is surprised to see how different things look, how things have changed. He has little to say to his daughters and has to get to know his wife all over again. He feels detached, lonely, alienated. He feels distant from his family--and in parallel, the camera stays far away from the characters. In a series of long takes, conversations amongst family and friends are seen from a distance and the camera remains stationary. People walk in and out of scenes, have their backs turned to the camera, or are just too far away to see clearly. We rarely get a glimpse of those who talk and without close-ups of their faces--miss out on facial expressions and the nuances of the nonverbal. Just like Pedro--the audience, as a result of the camera work--has trouble emotionally connecting with the people on the screen.
No
Pablo Larraín (2012)
Chile/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Pablo Larraín and Gael García Bernal in person at both screenings and at the SoHo Apple Store on Thursday, October 11 as part of NyffLive.
“In 1988, in an effort to extend and legitimize its rule, the Chilean military junta announced it would hold a plebiscite to get the people’s permission to stay in power. Despite being given 15 minutes a day to plead its case on television, the anti-Pinochet opposition was divided and without a clear message. Enter Rene Saavedra, an ad man who, after a career pushing soft drinks and soap, sets out to sell Chileans on democracy and freedom.” Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) stars as Rene Saavedra. His performance is said to be the major reason behind the standing ovation it received at the Cannes Film Festival, its world premiere. It also was just announced as Chile’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
The Dead Man and Being Happy
El muerto y ser feliz | Javier Rebollo (2012)
Spain/Argentina/France | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 94 minutes
“For his third feature, the gifted Spanish director Javier Rebollo (Woman Without Piano) has decamped to Argentina and created a literate, screwball road movie that Borges surely would have loved. The “dead man” of the title is Santos (veteran Spanish screen star José Sacristán), a cancer-stricken hired killer who flees his Buenos Aires hospital bed and sets off on one last assignment. It is a journey that takes him through an interior Argentina rarely glimpsed in movies, from the Cordoba resort town of La Cumbrecita (with its disproportionate—and disconcerting—population of elderly Germans) to the northern province of Santiago del Estero. Along the way, Santos finds himself joined by Alejandra (the wonderful Roxana Blanco), an attractive middle-aged woman who impulsively jumps into his vintage Ford Falcon at a gas station and soon thwarts him from his intended path.”
Films from Portugal are often excluded from a discussion of Latin American or Latino films. But, in the same way that we include Brazilian films even though they are in Portuguese and Spanish films because of the country’s colonial ties to the Americas--i personally think that films from Portugal should also qualify as Latin American or Latino. Maybe, I’ll just start calling them Ibero-American films.
Tabu
Miguel Gomes (2012)
Portugal | Portuguese with English Subtitles | Format: 35mm | 118 minutes
“Shot in ephemeral black-and-white celluloid, Tabu is movie-as-dream—an evocation of irrational desires, extravagant coincidences, and cheesy nostalgia that nevertheless is grounded in serious feeling and beliefs, even anti-colonialist politics. There is a story, which is delightful to follow and in which the cart comes before the horse: the first half is set in contemporary Lisbon, the second, involving two of the same characters, in a Portuguese colony in the early 1960s. “Be My Baby” belted in Portuguese, a wandering crocodile, and a passionate, ill-advised coupling seen through gently moving mosquito netting make for addled movie magic.”
The Last Time I Saw Macao
A Última Vez Que Vi Macau | João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012)
Portugal/France | Portuguese with English Subtitles | 85 minutes
“This stunning amalgam of playful film noir and Chris Marker–like cine-essay from João Pedro Rodrigues (To Die Like a Man, Nyff 2009) and João Rui Guerra da Mata explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony. After a spectacular opening scene, in which actress Cindy Scrash lip-synchs, as tigers pace behind her, to Jane Russell’s “You Kill Me”—from Josef von Sternberg’s Macao (1952), a key reference here—the film shifts to da Mata’s off-screen recollections of growing up in this gambling haven in the South China Sea.”
The New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs through October 14.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
Here and There
Aquí y Allá | Antonio Méndez Esparza (2012)
Mexico/Spain/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Having won the top prize at the Critic’s Week sidebar at Cannes, this debut feature from Antonio Méndez Esparza looks at immigration from a different point of view--what happens when you go back? Pedro returns home to his family in Mexico after a stint working in New York. When he arrives he is surprised to see how different things look, how things have changed. He has little to say to his daughters and has to get to know his wife all over again. He feels detached, lonely, alienated. He feels distant from his family--and in parallel, the camera stays far away from the characters. In a series of long takes, conversations amongst family and friends are seen from a distance and the camera remains stationary. People walk in and out of scenes, have their backs turned to the camera, or are just too far away to see clearly. We rarely get a glimpse of those who talk and without close-ups of their faces--miss out on facial expressions and the nuances of the nonverbal. Just like Pedro--the audience, as a result of the camera work--has trouble emotionally connecting with the people on the screen.
No
Pablo Larraín (2012)
Chile/USA | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 110 minutes
Pablo Larraín and Gael García Bernal in person at both screenings and at the SoHo Apple Store on Thursday, October 11 as part of NyffLive.
“In 1988, in an effort to extend and legitimize its rule, the Chilean military junta announced it would hold a plebiscite to get the people’s permission to stay in power. Despite being given 15 minutes a day to plead its case on television, the anti-Pinochet opposition was divided and without a clear message. Enter Rene Saavedra, an ad man who, after a career pushing soft drinks and soap, sets out to sell Chileans on democracy and freedom.” Gael García Bernal (Y Tu Mama Tambien, Motorcycle Diaries) stars as Rene Saavedra. His performance is said to be the major reason behind the standing ovation it received at the Cannes Film Festival, its world premiere. It also was just announced as Chile’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.
The Dead Man and Being Happy
El muerto y ser feliz | Javier Rebollo (2012)
Spain/Argentina/France | Spanish with English subtitles | Format: Dcp | 94 minutes
“For his third feature, the gifted Spanish director Javier Rebollo (Woman Without Piano) has decamped to Argentina and created a literate, screwball road movie that Borges surely would have loved. The “dead man” of the title is Santos (veteran Spanish screen star José Sacristán), a cancer-stricken hired killer who flees his Buenos Aires hospital bed and sets off on one last assignment. It is a journey that takes him through an interior Argentina rarely glimpsed in movies, from the Cordoba resort town of La Cumbrecita (with its disproportionate—and disconcerting—population of elderly Germans) to the northern province of Santiago del Estero. Along the way, Santos finds himself joined by Alejandra (the wonderful Roxana Blanco), an attractive middle-aged woman who impulsively jumps into his vintage Ford Falcon at a gas station and soon thwarts him from his intended path.”
Films from Portugal are often excluded from a discussion of Latin American or Latino films. But, in the same way that we include Brazilian films even though they are in Portuguese and Spanish films because of the country’s colonial ties to the Americas--i personally think that films from Portugal should also qualify as Latin American or Latino. Maybe, I’ll just start calling them Ibero-American films.
Tabu
Miguel Gomes (2012)
Portugal | Portuguese with English Subtitles | Format: 35mm | 118 minutes
“Shot in ephemeral black-and-white celluloid, Tabu is movie-as-dream—an evocation of irrational desires, extravagant coincidences, and cheesy nostalgia that nevertheless is grounded in serious feeling and beliefs, even anti-colonialist politics. There is a story, which is delightful to follow and in which the cart comes before the horse: the first half is set in contemporary Lisbon, the second, involving two of the same characters, in a Portuguese colony in the early 1960s. “Be My Baby” belted in Portuguese, a wandering crocodile, and a passionate, ill-advised coupling seen through gently moving mosquito netting make for addled movie magic.”
The Last Time I Saw Macao
A Última Vez Que Vi Macau | João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rui Guerra da Mata (2012)
Portugal/France | Portuguese with English Subtitles | 85 minutes
“This stunning amalgam of playful film noir and Chris Marker–like cine-essay from João Pedro Rodrigues (To Die Like a Man, Nyff 2009) and João Rui Guerra da Mata explores the psychic pull of the titular former Portuguese colony. After a spectacular opening scene, in which actress Cindy Scrash lip-synchs, as tigers pace behind her, to Jane Russell’s “You Kill Me”—from Josef von Sternberg’s Macao (1952), a key reference here—the film shifts to da Mata’s off-screen recollections of growing up in this gambling haven in the South China Sea.”
The New York Film Festival, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, runs through October 14.
Written by Juan Caceres and Vanessa Erazo, LatinoBuzz is a weekly feature onSydneysBuzzthat highlights emerging and established Latino indie talent and upcoming trends in Latino film with the specific objective of presenting a broad range of Latino voices. Follow@LatinoBuzzon twitter.
- 10/10/2012
- by Vanessa Erazo
- Sydney's Buzz
Above: Passion (Brian de Palma, France/Germany).
Tonight the 50th incarnation of the New York Film Festival gets underway at Lincoln Center, and for the third year running I have tried to find posters for all the films in the festival’s main slate (see 2010 and 2011). Poster art not being what it used to be, these inevitably pale in comparison to the posters I collected last week for the very first Nyff of 1963. For starters, most of those were illustrated, whereas only two of this year’s batch are hand drawn: the folk-art Filipino design for Bwakaw and Spanish artist Riki Blanco’s illustration for The Dead Man and Being Happy. But there are some other standouts, like the striking UK quads for Holy Motors and Ginger and Rosa, the near-abstract monochrome and gothic lettering of Leviathan, the unconventional titling for Barbara (coupled with that can’t-lose photo of Nina Hoss on a bike,...
Tonight the 50th incarnation of the New York Film Festival gets underway at Lincoln Center, and for the third year running I have tried to find posters for all the films in the festival’s main slate (see 2010 and 2011). Poster art not being what it used to be, these inevitably pale in comparison to the posters I collected last week for the very first Nyff of 1963. For starters, most of those were illustrated, whereas only two of this year’s batch are hand drawn: the folk-art Filipino design for Bwakaw and Spanish artist Riki Blanco’s illustration for The Dead Man and Being Happy. But there are some other standouts, like the striking UK quads for Holy Motors and Ginger and Rosa, the near-abstract monochrome and gothic lettering of Leviathan, the unconventional titling for Barbara (coupled with that can’t-lose photo of Nina Hoss on a bike,...
- 9/28/2012
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Montreal’s Festival Du Nouveau Cinema (10.10 – 10.21) announced their line-up today for their 41st edition and among the smorgasbord of subtitle offerings dating back to this year’s Rotterdam, Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Venice and Tiff editions, we’re knee-deep in avant-garde world cinema from the established auteurs Assayas, Vinterberg, Ozon, Sang-Soo, Joao Pedro Rodriguez, Larrain, Loach, Reygadas, Ghobadi, Mungiu and Miguel Gomes. Heavy on offerings from Quebec and France, the fest also manages to offer a stellar snapshot of the up-and-comers from all corners of the globe. Among the notable titles in the (Competition category) International Selection we’ve got Pablo Berger’s Blancanieves, Ursula Meier’s Sister, Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky’s Francine (which received its theatrical release earlier this month) and Rodrigo Plá’s La Demora. Loaded in Cannes items, the Special Presentations is the fest’s A-list selections (see filmmakers named above) and the one pic...
- 9/25/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
We are again partnering with Queer Lisboa—Festival de Cinema Gay e Lésbico de Lisboa—to bring you over twenty films from its 2012 program for free. The festival, now in its 16th year, is not only the oldest film festival in Lisbon, but it is also the sole Portuguese film festival dedicated exclusively to screening gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and transsexual themed films.
Films will be available from now until the end of the festival, October 5. One particular gem, is Happy Birthday!, an early short by João Pedro Rodrigues, the director of To Die Like a Man who has a new film in the festival circuit this year, The Last Time I Saw Macao, co-directed by João Rui Guerra da Mata. See the full lineup here.
Films will be available from now until the end of the festival, October 5. One particular gem, is Happy Birthday!, an early short by João Pedro Rodrigues, the director of To Die Like a Man who has a new film in the festival circuit this year, The Last Time I Saw Macao, co-directed by João Rui Guerra da Mata. See the full lineup here.
- 9/23/2012
- 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
11:59 pm - The long day closes, and it was a 5-film crescendo in quality, from the borderline inane by a master this morning (Capital) to the rather strong debut ported from Cannes’ Critics’ Week (Augustine) that just let out half an hour ago. The latter was preceded by another strong (albeit heavily flawed) film, The Last Time I Saw Macao, which premiered last month at Locarno and is the first feature-length collaboration between Portguese festival ‘it’ boy (or man; he is in his mid-40s afterall) João Pedro Rodrigues and his partner João Rui Guerra da Mata. The film is a hybrid of several genres – essay film, city symphony, queer noir – and has varying degrees of success with the lot of them. The worst – and unfortunately most prominent – would be the noir – a diaristic search for a transvestite-in-trouble named Candy by her Portuguese friend (played and narrated by Guerra da Mata...
- 9/11/2012
- by IONCINEMA.com Contributing Writers
- IONCINEMA.com
This week's announcement that Olivier Père, former programmer of Cannes's Directors' Fortnight, will be stepping down from his post at the helm of the Festival del Film Locarno marks the end of brief but important era for this film festival, one of the longest-running in the world. In just three years, Père has helped to put the annual event back on the festival map, drawing an annual influx of celebrities and industry-types for red-carpet world premieres, jury prizes, and lifetime achievement awards. Perhaps more than ever in its sixty-six-year history, Locarno is an important station on the fall festival circuit, forecasting the slates of Toronto and New York and providing useful international gateway for cinema from all over the world.
This year's festival featured a characteristically dizzying mix of international festival ephemera, an Otto Preminger retrospective, and much-heralded appearances by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Alain Delon, and Harry Belafonte on the festival's main stage,...
This year's festival featured a characteristically dizzying mix of international festival ephemera, an Otto Preminger retrospective, and much-heralded appearances by the likes of Kylie Minogue, Alain Delon, and Harry Belafonte on the festival's main stage,...
- 8/29/2012
- 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
A provocative cinematic poem in the tradition of the late Chris Marker, "The Last Time I Saw Macao" valiantly attempts to dissect an entire metropolitan history. Perhaps because it aims so big, not every fragment connects, but Portuguese co-directors Joao Pedro Rodrigues and Joao Rui Guerra da Mata unload an intriguing collection of attitudes, themes and memories based around a largely effective combination of nostalgia and colonialist regret. While Rodrigues's previous film, "To Die Like a Man" (which was art directed by Da Mata) contained plenty of stylistic indulgences, it looks fairly conventional when compared with "The Last Time I Saw Macao," which followed the directors on a voyage to the former Portuguese colony, marking Rodrigues' first time visiting the city since his childhood 30 years earlier. The filmmakers couch their story in a playful nod to film noir, proclaiming that an old friend named Candy has contacted them...
- 8/11/2012
- 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
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