Closed Curtain
Dir. Jafar Panahi & Kamboziya Partovi
Though it may lack some of the urgent potency of This Is Not a Film's profound implications, both political and philosophical, Jafar Panahi's second "not-a-film" is more formally sophisticated and intricate, an elegantly and movingly directed confession of the director's declining morale. If This Is Not a Film was a "statement" movie that took its limitations and Panahi's situation to make broader points about art and cinema, Closed Curtain sets itself apart as a more introspective look at a man prohibited from the world of work that has defined his life. Less concerned with playing up the restrictions on Panahi, which have been overblown since his film was smuggled into Cannes two years ago, the film emphasizes not the lawful limitations of his life but instead an existentially crippling alienation.
The film begins with a man (co-director Kamboziya Partovi) and a...
Dir. Jafar Panahi & Kamboziya Partovi
Though it may lack some of the urgent potency of This Is Not a Film's profound implications, both political and philosophical, Jafar Panahi's second "not-a-film" is more formally sophisticated and intricate, an elegantly and movingly directed confession of the director's declining morale. If This Is Not a Film was a "statement" movie that took its limitations and Panahi's situation to make broader points about art and cinema, Closed Curtain sets itself apart as a more introspective look at a man prohibited from the world of work that has defined his life. Less concerned with playing up the restrictions on Panahi, which have been overblown since his film was smuggled into Cannes two years ago, the film emphasizes not the lawful limitations of his life but instead an existentially crippling alienation.
The film begins with a man (co-director Kamboziya Partovi) and a...
- 2/18/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
New York-based film journalist, programmer and newbie video store owner Aaron Hillis, is nothing if not an underdog. "I have this bad habit of getting into failing industries," he told Filmmaker Magazine, shortly after purchasing the established Cobble Hill business Video Free Brooklyn. "I started in print journalism in 2002, got into DVD distribution with Andrew Grant in 2006, then theatrical exhibition in 2010 and here we go, I'm buying a video store in 2012." If you've been following the indie film newswire for the past several weeks, chances are you've read something about the cinephile. Shortly before heading off to Cannes, Hillis attracted a good deal of attention for buying (with his wife Jennifer Loeber) the aforementioned video store from Dan Wu, the previous owner. His Indiegogo campaign to raise $50,000 to "overhaul and modernize" the shop made waves among cineastes, and even drew the attention of The Wall Street Journal. And...
- 6/22/2012
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
While in Cannes I bumped into critic and programmer Aaron Hillis, who told me about the new Brooklyn-based endeavor he’ll be starting upon returning home — running a video store. Hillis, who already programs reRun, the independent cinema and gastropub located in Filmmaker’s building in Dumbo (and currently playing Contributing Editor Brandon Harris’s debut feature, Redlegs), recently bought the established Cobble Hill business Video Free Brooklyn. At a time when the independent film world is obsessed with VOD, downloads and streaming, Hillis is time-traveling back to the world of plastic cases, late fees, and, on the more positive side, savvy clerks who know you, your tastes, and are vocal in their recommendations. I’ll let him fill you in on the rest.
Filmmaker: So, you bought a video store?
Aaron Hillis: I did buy a video store. I have this bad habit of getting into failing industries. I...
Filmmaker: So, you bought a video store?
Aaron Hillis: I did buy a video store. I have this bad habit of getting into failing industries. I...
- 5/28/2012
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
In 2009, the best film in Competition at the Berlinale was Maren Ade's Everyone Else (Fwiw, it came away with 1.5 Silver Bears, the 1 for Best Actress Birgit Minichmayr, the .5 for tying with Adrián Biniez's Gigante for the Jury Grand Prix; the Golden Bear that year went to Claudia Llosa's The Milk of Sorrow). Three years on (!), the trio that made Everyone Else worth talking up to this day (see, for example, Kevin B Lee's new video essay on a key scene at Fandor; see, too, Mike D'Angelo on the same scene a year ago at the Av Club) is back in Competition, albeit in three different films. Lars Eidinger has drawn the shortest straw, taking on the lead in Hans-Christian Schmid's rather dismal Home for the Weekend. Minichmayr's fared better opposite Jürgen Vogel in Matthias Glasner's new film, though I seriously doubt many of us will...
- 2/18/2012
- MUBI
Editor’s note: Critical Consensus is a biweekly feature in which two critics from Indiewire’s Criticwire network discuss new films with Indiewire’s chief film critic, Eric Kohn. Here, we offer an analysis of this year's Berlin International Film Festival. Film critics Shane Danielsen (whose thinkpiece on Berlin's 2012 competition section ran today) and Andrew Grant (covering the festival this year for Filmmaker magazine, and producing the upcoming doc "Cause of Death: Unknown") discuss some of running problems with the festival as well as their favorites from the current lineup. Shane, in your new dispatch from the festival for Indiewire, you wonder if there's really any point to Berlin--or any other festival, aside from Cannes--having an official competition. If critics think, as you and several others do this year, that Berlin's competition films don't deserve such lofty placement, is it worthwhile to simply ignore them? ...
- 2/17/2012
- Indiewire
Just ten days ago, we were pointing to an interview in which a lively-sounding Theo Angelopoulos was telling David Jenkins in Sight & Sound about his plans for his next film, The Other Sea. Now word comes via, among others, Kevin Jagernauth at the Playlist that the 77-year-old filmmaker was struck by a motorcycle near the set not far from Athens' main port of Piraeus and has died of his injuries. At the moment, the AP has only a few other details on the accident.
Acquarello in Senses of Cinema in 2003: "From the absence of the conventional word 'End' at the conclusion of his films to his penchant for interweaving variations of episodes from his earlier films (which, in turn, are often culled from personal experience) to create interconnected 'chapters' of a continuous, unfinished work, Angelopoulos's cinema is both intimately autobiographical and culturally allegorical and, like the children of Landscape...
Acquarello in Senses of Cinema in 2003: "From the absence of the conventional word 'End' at the conclusion of his films to his penchant for interweaving variations of episodes from his earlier films (which, in turn, are often culled from personal experience) to create interconnected 'chapters' of a continuous, unfinished work, Angelopoulos's cinema is both intimately autobiographical and culturally allegorical and, like the children of Landscape...
- 1/24/2012
- MUBI
Berlin's festival of American independent film, Unknown Pleasures, runs from January 1 through 15 at the Babylon, and co-programmers Hannes Brühwiler and Andrew Grant have put together a lineup for this fourth edition that's a little more adventurous that the first three:
Dustin Guy Defa's Bad Fever Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene Todd Haynes's Mildred Pierce Monty Hellman's Road to Nowhere Azazel Jacobs's Terri Aaron Katz's Cold Weather Laurel Nakadate's The Wolf Knife Mike Ott's Littlerock Tristan Patterson's Dragonslayer Matt Porterfield's Putty Hill Peter Bo Rappmund's Psychohydrography Lee Anne Schmitt's The Last Buffalo Hunt Joe Swanberg's Silver Bullets Sophia Takel's Green Frederick Wiseman's Boxing Gym Zach Weintraub's Bummer Summer
There are also two special programs, one highlighting Martin Scorsese's recent documentaries (George Harrison: Living in the Material World, A Letter to Elia and Public Speaking). And for the other,...
Dustin Guy Defa's Bad Fever Sean Durkin's Martha Marcy May Marlene Todd Haynes's Mildred Pierce Monty Hellman's Road to Nowhere Azazel Jacobs's Terri Aaron Katz's Cold Weather Laurel Nakadate's The Wolf Knife Mike Ott's Littlerock Tristan Patterson's Dragonslayer Matt Porterfield's Putty Hill Peter Bo Rappmund's Psychohydrography Lee Anne Schmitt's The Last Buffalo Hunt Joe Swanberg's Silver Bullets Sophia Takel's Green Frederick Wiseman's Boxing Gym Zach Weintraub's Bummer Summer
There are also two special programs, one highlighting Martin Scorsese's recent documentaries (George Harrison: Living in the Material World, A Letter to Elia and Public Speaking). And for the other,...
- 12/22/2011
- MUBI
From Team America: World Police (2004)
"The task set before the cinema today is one of contributing to people's development into true communists... This historic task requires, above all, a revolutionary transformation of the practice of directing."
That's from the preface of On the Art of Cinema (1973) by Kim Jong-il, North Korea's Dear Leader, who, as you'll have heard by now, died this weekend at the age of 69. His "love of the cinema bordered on the obsessive," notes the BBC in its obituary. "He is said to have collected a library of 20,000 Hollywood movies…. In 1978, he ordered the abduction of a South Korean film director, Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee. They were held separately for five years before being reunited at a party banquet. They said afterwards that Mr Kim had apologized for the kidnappings and asked them to make movies for him. They completed seven before...
"The task set before the cinema today is one of contributing to people's development into true communists... This historic task requires, above all, a revolutionary transformation of the practice of directing."
That's from the preface of On the Art of Cinema (1973) by Kim Jong-il, North Korea's Dear Leader, who, as you'll have heard by now, died this weekend at the age of 69. His "love of the cinema bordered on the obsessive," notes the BBC in its obituary. "He is said to have collected a library of 20,000 Hollywood movies…. In 1978, he ordered the abduction of a South Korean film director, Shin Sang-ok and his actress wife Choi Eun-hee. They were held separately for five years before being reunited at a party banquet. They said afterwards that Mr Kim had apologized for the kidnappings and asked them to make movies for him. They completed seven before...
- 12/19/2011
- MUBI
"It has been a season of cults and extreme religious visions," writes Andy Webster in the New York Times. "Vera Farmiga wrestles with faith in Higher Ground, and Elizabeth Olsen escapes a charismatic leader's grip in Martha Marcy May Marlene. In Preston Miller's dramedy God's Land, a commune of Taiwanese immigrants in Garland, Tex, waits for a spaceship to descend and deliver it to the promised land. Or dimension, rather." Ultimately, Webster finds that "Miller is far too leisurely — and takes far too much time — with a story largely blind to the sometimes fatal cost of fanaticism."
For Andrew Schenker, writing in Slant, "while Miller has his share of fun reveling in the absurdity of the group's belief system and behaviors, he's far more interested in both the fraught interaction of alien cultures and the emotional toll the need to believe can exact on individuals and families. Organized into...
For Andrew Schenker, writing in Slant, "while Miller has his share of fun reveling in the absurdity of the group's belief system and behaviors, he's far more interested in both the fraught interaction of alien cultures and the emotional toll the need to believe can exact on individuals and families. Organized into...
- 10/28/2011
- MUBI
Sion Sono, whose Himizu sees its world premiere in Venice next week before screening in Toronto, wasn't much known outside of Japan "until 2002's Suicide Club, which famously opened with a chorus line of angelic schoolgirls cheerfully leaping into the path of a subway train," writes Dennis Harvey in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. "Since then he's made the first of two projected Suicide sequels, the surreal psychosexual nightmare Strange Circus (2005), and deadly-'do J-horror exercise Exte: Hair Extensions (2007), to name a few. Though not in the Miike league of complete unpredictability (let alone productivity), Sono's films have been a diverse lot, not excluding an exercise or two in straight-ahead naturalism. The mega-dose of Sono that the Roxie offers this month, however, feels like two very large pieces cut from the same pie. Opening Friday is 2008's Love Exposure, clocking just under four hours (not counting intermission); next up is 2010's Cold Fish (starting Sept.
- 9/2/2011
- MUBI
While the Edinburgh International Film Festival won't open until June 15 (site), its cross-platform initiative, Project: New Cinephilia, has launched today. Curators Damon Smith and Kate Taylor have been furiously building a unique microsite hosting "original essays, roundtable discussions, and film-related artworks by a roster of international contributors." The first item on the agenda, of course, is to begin work towards a definition of "New Cinephilia"; Damon and Kate have sketched the historical background, while Girish Shambu sinks his formidable teeth into a profile of the 21st century cinephile. Chris Fujiwara, meantime, opens a debate "on the current situation of film criticism, cinephilia, and academic film studies" in the form of a response to David Bordwell.
Damon and Kate: "As we've noted in our Curatorial Statement, the festival-sponsored conversation about film criticism has in recent years focused mainly on the perennial 'future of criticism' question and print-versus-blogger debates. While these welcome...
Damon and Kate: "As we've noted in our Curatorial Statement, the festival-sponsored conversation about film criticism has in recent years focused mainly on the perennial 'future of criticism' question and print-versus-blogger debates. While these welcome...
- 5/27/2011
- MUBI
Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film’s first entry in the Project: New Cinephilia roundtable is now online. In the piece, editor Mike Everleth ruminates on his zine background, why he writes about the underground and wonders if “cinephilia” even needs the cinema anymore.
Project: New Cinephilia is a collection of essays on modern film writing and how it’s been affected by the Internet. The essays and roundtable discussion are being curated by the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will be held on June 15-26.
Mike is participating in the roundtable with fellow film writers Neil Young, Frances Morgan, Mathieu Ravier, Andrew Grant and Damon Smith. While you can certainly just read Mike’s first piece, it’s really a great discussion that you can follow here.
Read More:The New Cinephilia: Part II (The Revenge)Introducing: Bad Lit Video Promo #1Bad Lit Editor Participating In Cinephilia RoundtableIntroducing: Movie...
Project: New Cinephilia is a collection of essays on modern film writing and how it’s been affected by the Internet. The essays and roundtable discussion are being curated by the Edinburgh International Film Festival, which will be held on June 15-26.
Mike is participating in the roundtable with fellow film writers Neil Young, Frances Morgan, Mathieu Ravier, Andrew Grant and Damon Smith. While you can certainly just read Mike’s first piece, it’s really a great discussion that you can follow here.
Read More:The New Cinephilia: Part II (The Revenge)Introducing: Bad Lit Video Promo #1Bad Lit Editor Participating In Cinephilia RoundtableIntroducing: Movie...
- 5/26/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Mike Everleth, the editor of Bad Lit: The Journal of Underground Film, is honored to have been asked to participate in a new online discussion forum called Project: New Cinephilia, which is being sponsored by the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Mike will be taking part in a virtual “roundtable” discussion with other with other online film writers Neil Young, Frances Morgan, Mathieu Ravier, Andrew Grant and Damon Smith. Each writer’s contribution will be posted to the P: Nc website later this week.
However, one can go right now and read other articles by writers such as Girish Shambu and Chris Fujiwara. Plus, one can also participate in a discussion forum linked to each article that is being hosted by the site Mubi.com.
Links to the roundtable discussion will be posted on Bad Lit later.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival will take place on June 15-26 and will includes films such as Page Eight,...
Mike will be taking part in a virtual “roundtable” discussion with other with other online film writers Neil Young, Frances Morgan, Mathieu Ravier, Andrew Grant and Damon Smith. Each writer’s contribution will be posted to the P: Nc website later this week.
However, one can go right now and read other articles by writers such as Girish Shambu and Chris Fujiwara. Plus, one can also participate in a discussion forum linked to each article that is being hosted by the site Mubi.com.
Links to the roundtable discussion will be posted on Bad Lit later.
The Edinburgh International Film Festival will take place on June 15-26 and will includes films such as Page Eight,...
- 5/23/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Only days ago "The Deadly Affair" arrived at my doorstep, yet another of Sidney Lumet's films I had never seen before since having been born two-thirds of the way into the director's legendary career, it's always been a game of catch-up. Then again, it was that way for most in his field, even if they were contemporaries.
After passing away far too soon at the age of 86, Lumet leaves behind a half-century-long career that will no doubt be scrutinized for being inconsistent, a richly ironic assessment given that in person and on film, he was known as a straight shooter, and perhaps one of the only filmmakers who could say their final film ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead") was as vital and strong as their first ("12 Angry Men"). However, that certainly isn't the only reason why Lumet was a rarity.
In a world full of auteurs, Lumet was a collaborator,...
After passing away far too soon at the age of 86, Lumet leaves behind a half-century-long career that will no doubt be scrutinized for being inconsistent, a richly ironic assessment given that in person and on film, he was known as a straight shooter, and perhaps one of the only filmmakers who could say their final film ("Before the Devil Knows You're Dead") was as vital and strong as their first ("12 Angry Men"). However, that certainly isn't the only reason why Lumet was a rarity.
In a world full of auteurs, Lumet was a collaborator,...
- 4/14/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Photographer Andrew Grant's "Rover" is a museum-quality, hardcover tribute to man's best friend -- in all its many colors, shapes and sizes.
With over 400 up-close images in stunning detail, Grant truly captures the unique exteriors of dozens of dogs and their diverse personalities and emotions. Nearly all of the dogs featured in Rover once lived in a rescue or shelter. All proceeds from the book are going to pet charities.
"Extra" stopped by a...
With over 400 up-close images in stunning detail, Grant truly captures the unique exteriors of dozens of dogs and their diverse personalities and emotions. Nearly all of the dogs featured in Rover once lived in a rescue or shelter. All proceeds from the book are going to pet charities.
"Extra" stopped by a...
- 3/28/2011
- Extra
Before Google, there was Factsheet 5.
Factsheet 5 was a magazine published in the ’80s and ’90s that listed about a gazillion hand-produced, personal ‘zines in every issue. It came out a couple times a year and, if you were interested in zines, it was like discovering the Holy Grail each and every time.
You’d pour through each issue, highlight a couple zines that sounded cool, send off a couple of bucks to each publisher, then wait a few weeks for the goodies to arrive in your mailbox. That might sound like a long, irritating process in these Internet instant opinion days, but it was quite fun and it was one of the only ways at the time to commune with people who had similar interests as yours all over the country.
Back in the mid-’90s, Factsheet 5 was the way I was introduced to the seminal film zine Cashiers du Cinemart,...
Factsheet 5 was a magazine published in the ’80s and ’90s that listed about a gazillion hand-produced, personal ‘zines in every issue. It came out a couple times a year and, if you were interested in zines, it was like discovering the Holy Grail each and every time.
You’d pour through each issue, highlight a couple zines that sounded cool, send off a couple of bucks to each publisher, then wait a few weeks for the goodies to arrive in your mailbox. That might sound like a long, irritating process in these Internet instant opinion days, but it was quite fun and it was one of the only ways at the time to commune with people who had similar interests as yours all over the country.
Back in the mid-’90s, Factsheet 5 was the way I was introduced to the seminal film zine Cashiers du Cinemart,...
- 9/30/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
School may be out for summer, but you can get some cinephile extra credit in by reading/listening up on today's new releases: Andrew Grant introduces us to early Kurosawa, Jesse Eisenberg discusses The Living Wake in this podcast, and our pal James van Maanen reviews Sweetgrass. Lots of other goodies this week, too, including A Prophet, Ghost Writer, and re-released b-movie classic Humanoids from the Deep. Enjoy! ...
- 8/3/2010
- by weezy
- GreenCine
Originally appeared on GreenCine Daily for release of the AK100 set. They are now being issued as part of Criterion's The First Films of Akira Kurosawa set.
1. The Most Beautiful By Andrew Grant
Likely the rarest and least-seen title in the Ak 100 box set, The Most Beautiful (1944) is Kurosawa's second directorial effort, made one year after his successful debut, the Judo-themed Sanshiro Sugata. A bit of a sophomore slump, this overt bit of war propaganda is hard to praise from both an aesthetic and narrative perspective, but it's not without its merits.
1. The Most Beautiful By Andrew Grant
Likely the rarest and least-seen title in the Ak 100 box set, The Most Beautiful (1944) is Kurosawa's second directorial effort, made one year after his successful debut, the Judo-themed Sanshiro Sugata. A bit of a sophomore slump, this overt bit of war propaganda is hard to praise from both an aesthetic and narrative perspective, but it's not without its merits.
- 7/29/2010
- by underdog
- GreenCine
Think of this as an addendum to our podcast recorded during last year's New York Film Festival, in which Armond White, Andrew Grant and myself (along with party crasher Sylvia Miles) debated Welcome to the Dollhouse and Palindromes auteur Todd Solondz's newly released Life During Wartime:
Part sequel, part variation on his acclaimed and controversial Happiness, the newest film from celebrated director Todd Solondz assembles an amazing ensemble cast including Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciáran Hinds in an utterly hilarious exploration of the boundaries of forgiveness, family, and love.
Ten years have passed since shocking revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family, and now sisters Joy (Henderson), Trish (Janney), and Helen (Sheedy), each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas, struggle to find their place in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past now haunts their family both literally and otherwise,...
Part sequel, part variation on his acclaimed and controversial Happiness, the newest film from celebrated director Todd Solondz assembles an amazing ensemble cast including Allison Janney, Shirley Henderson, Paul Reubens, Michael Kenneth Williams, Ally Sheedy, Charlotte Rampling, and Ciáran Hinds in an utterly hilarious exploration of the boundaries of forgiveness, family, and love.
Ten years have passed since shocking revelations shattered the world of the Jordan family, and now sisters Joy (Henderson), Trish (Janney), and Helen (Sheedy), each embroiled in their own unique dilemmas, struggle to find their place in an unpredictable and volatile world. The past now haunts their family both literally and otherwise,...
- 7/25/2010
- GreenCine Daily
For all his lucid dreams. They will be remembered with Godard, Varda, Lanzmann, Straub & Huillet, Rivette, Truffaut, Garrel, and the rest of cinema, which will not be the same.
Top: From Jacques Rivette's The Story of Marie and Julien (2003); featuring Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Emmanuelle Béart; cinematography by William Lubtchansky.
* * *
"I met him only once, in 2001, when he granted me an interview that turned into a long and amicable talk at his home in Paris (concluding with directions to the nearby Poîlane bakery)." The New Yorker's Richard Brody: "[A]rguably, no cinematographer in the history of cinema has photographed a more significant set of movies.... As a cinematographer, Lubtchansky may not have brought about as manifest a technical revolution as did Gregg Toland and Raoul Coutard, but he played a crucial role in the work of the most historically-informed and classical-minded of modernist filmmakers, by infusing traditional cinematic craftsmanship with a decisively modernist spirit.
Top: From Jacques Rivette's The Story of Marie and Julien (2003); featuring Jerzy Radziwilowicz and Emmanuelle Béart; cinematography by William Lubtchansky.
* * *
"I met him only once, in 2001, when he granted me an interview that turned into a long and amicable talk at his home in Paris (concluding with directions to the nearby Poîlane bakery)." The New Yorker's Richard Brody: "[A]rguably, no cinematographer in the history of cinema has photographed a more significant set of movies.... As a cinematographer, Lubtchansky may not have brought about as manifest a technical revolution as did Gregg Toland and Raoul Coutard, but he played a crucial role in the work of the most historically-informed and classical-minded of modernist filmmakers, by infusing traditional cinematic craftsmanship with a decisively modernist spirit.
- 5/11/2010
- MUBI
Movies are made up of images, even the bad ones. But the bad movies rarely leave any images lingering in your brain. The great films are the ones making great images. A great image is many things, by nature diffuse, and we might agree that any great image moves even when stopped still, opening its own cinematic world. Thus, The Notebook's decision to celebrate our recent decade not with a list but with this stream. Each contributor was asked to pick 1 film he or she wants to remember from the 2000s, select 1 image from that film to remember it by, and write one sentence to supplement their selection. We've done our best to craft not simply a grab bag but a cogent flow of the indelible, one image speaking to the next on a variety of registers: from film to film, between color and compositional rhymes, and, as you'll read,...
- 1/16/2010
- MUBI
Last week I posted my selection of the decade's best movie posters: a post which attracted a remarkable amount of attention, not least from the estimable Roger Ebert, who posted his rival choices on his blog. The Auteurs contributor Andrew Grant, a.k.a. Filmbrain, was also inspired to post his own favorites, many of which are absolute knockouts. We also received a phenomenal and rather humbling response on our forum, enough to convince me that I need to do a follow-up post. There were some rather dubious choices which I won't name, but there were also plenty of stunning foreign posters that I had never seen before, which is what we were really hoping to see. I'd like to give a special shout-out to “Samantha” who has posted an extraordinary selection of good stuff.
More than a few people suggested that I should have included the poster for Vincent Gallo...
More than a few people suggested that I should have included the poster for Vincent Gallo...
- 12/20/2009
- MUBI
by Andrew Grant
[In celebration of Criterion's Ak 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa box set, GreenCine Daily will be looking at four rare films only now available on DVD this week.]
Likely the rarest and least-seen title in the Ak 100 box set, The Most Beautiful (1944) is Kurosawa's second directorial effort, made one year after his successful debut, the Judo-themed Sanshiro Sugata. A bit of a sophomore slump, this overt bit of war propaganda is hard to praise from both an aesthetic and narrative perspective, but it's not without its merits.
Opening with a title card that reads "Attack and Destroy the Enemy" and set entirely in an optical instruments factory that makes lenses for assorted Japanese weaponry, The Most Beautiful is a self-described Information Bureau "Movie of the People," designed to stir up nationalist fervor for the Imperial war effort. After a rousing speech about spiritual power producing material might and a need to increase quotas, the film follows the lives of the female factory workers who are disappointed to learn that their expected productivity increases aren't as aggressive as their male coworkers.
[In celebration of Criterion's Ak 100: 25 Films by Akira Kurosawa box set, GreenCine Daily will be looking at four rare films only now available on DVD this week.]
Likely the rarest and least-seen title in the Ak 100 box set, The Most Beautiful (1944) is Kurosawa's second directorial effort, made one year after his successful debut, the Judo-themed Sanshiro Sugata. A bit of a sophomore slump, this overt bit of war propaganda is hard to praise from both an aesthetic and narrative perspective, but it's not without its merits.
Opening with a title card that reads "Attack and Destroy the Enemy" and set entirely in an optical instruments factory that makes lenses for assorted Japanese weaponry, The Most Beautiful is a self-described Information Bureau "Movie of the People," designed to stir up nationalist fervor for the Imperial war effort. After a rousing speech about spiritual power producing material might and a need to increase quotas, the film follows the lives of the female factory workers who are disappointed to learn that their expected productivity increases aren't as aggressive as their male coworkers.
- 12/9/2009
- GreenCine Daily
indieWIRE has conducted a survey of various bloggers and critics, surveying the films from the 2009 New York Film Festival. We asked them to grade all of the films that they’ve seen at the festival, and have averaged the grades of each film. Antichrist (Film Page) [indieWIRE review] Eric Kohn, indieWIRE: A- Eugene Hernandez, indieWIRE: A- Andrew Grant, Like Anna Karina’s Sweater: B+ Ben Kenigsberg, Time Out Chicago: B+ Eric Hynes, …...
- 10/14/2009
- Indiewire
Is Welcome to the Dollhouse auteur Todd Solondz a misanthrope, or a humanist whose characters just happen to engage in ugly, perverse, cruel behavior? For me, the answer has been made clear with Life During Wartime (screening Saturday, Oct. 10 at 9pm), Solondz's quasi-sequel to 1998's Happiness, in which all of the characters are now played by different actors: Todd Solondz starts his latest and finest film to date by introducing us to Joy (Shirley Henderson), whose husband Allen (Michael Kenneth Williams) is not quite cured of his peculiar "affliction." Joy's sister Trish (Allison Janney) is hoping to stabilize her family life by marrying the recently divorced Harvey (Michael Lerner), but her soon-to-be bar-mitzvahed son Timmy (Dylan Riley Snyder) isn’t sure he wants another man in the house—especially as it seems his dead father, Bill (Ciarán Hinds), might not be dead after all. His portrait of these and several...
- 10/9/2009
- GreenCine Daily
By Andrew Grant
[Nb: Sion Sono was in New York last week for the New York Asian Film Festival, promoting his two latest films, Love Exposure and Be Sure to Share. I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss these films as well as his career as a whole, but our time was cut short owing to an overbooked schedule. Our too-brief interview was mostly spent discussing Love Exposure.—Andrew Grant]
Japanese director Sion Sono is fascinated with borderlines. Whether addressing love and hate, good and evil, the individual versus society, or even the distinction between art and commerce, it's the precarious balance between the two that defines and runs through most of his work.
Though he's directed nearly twenty films over the past thirty years, Sono's work remains relatively unknown in the States outside of the fanboy/J-Horror circle, with whom he made a splash in 2001 with the cult film Suicide Club. Several other titles have found a life on DVD, but unlike his peer Takashi Miike, he's never found acceptance from the arthouse crowd. However, that may change with Love Exposure, his 2008 four-hour near-masterpiece that has been picking up praise and awards at festivals worldwide, and which was a surprise hit at the Japanese box office.
[Nb: Sion Sono was in New York last week for the New York Asian Film Festival, promoting his two latest films, Love Exposure and Be Sure to Share. I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss these films as well as his career as a whole, but our time was cut short owing to an overbooked schedule. Our too-brief interview was mostly spent discussing Love Exposure.—Andrew Grant]
Japanese director Sion Sono is fascinated with borderlines. Whether addressing love and hate, good and evil, the individual versus society, or even the distinction between art and commerce, it's the precarious balance between the two that defines and runs through most of his work.
Though he's directed nearly twenty films over the past thirty years, Sono's work remains relatively unknown in the States outside of the fanboy/J-Horror circle, with whom he made a splash in 2001 with the cult film Suicide Club. Several other titles have found a life on DVD, but unlike his peer Takashi Miike, he's never found acceptance from the arthouse crowd. However, that may change with Love Exposure, his 2008 four-hour near-masterpiece that has been picking up praise and awards at festivals worldwide, and which was a surprise hit at the Japanese box office.
- 7/7/2009
- by underdog
- GreenCine
By Andrew Grant
[Nb: Sion Sono was in New York last week for the New York Asian Film Festival, promoting his two latest films, Love Exposure and Be Sure to Share. I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss these films as well as his career as a whole, but our time was cut short owing to an overbooked schedule. Our too-brief interview was mostly spent discussing Love Exposure..Andrew Grant]
Japanese director Sion Sono is fascinated with borderlines. Whether addressing love and hate, good and evil, the individual versus society, or even the distinction between art and commerce, it's the precarious balance between the two that defines and runs through most of his work.
Though he's directed nearly twenty films over the past thirty years, Sono's work remains relatively unknown in the States outside of the fanboy/J-Horror circle, with whom he made a splash in 2001 with the cult film Suicide Club. Several other titles have found a life on DVD, but unlike his peer Takashi Miike, he's never found acceptance from the arthouse crowd. However, that may change with Love Exposure, his 2008 four-hour near-masterpiece that has been picking up praise and awards at festivals worldwide, and which was a surprise hit at the Japanese box office.
Continued reading Jesus Christ, Rock Star: Sion Sono...
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[Nb: Sion Sono was in New York last week for the New York Asian Film Festival, promoting his two latest films, Love Exposure and Be Sure to Share. I had a chance to sit down with him and discuss these films as well as his career as a whole, but our time was cut short owing to an overbooked schedule. Our too-brief interview was mostly spent discussing Love Exposure..Andrew Grant]
Japanese director Sion Sono is fascinated with borderlines. Whether addressing love and hate, good and evil, the individual versus society, or even the distinction between art and commerce, it's the precarious balance between the two that defines and runs through most of his work.
Though he's directed nearly twenty films over the past thirty years, Sono's work remains relatively unknown in the States outside of the fanboy/J-Horror circle, with whom he made a splash in 2001 with the cult film Suicide Club. Several other titles have found a life on DVD, but unlike his peer Takashi Miike, he's never found acceptance from the arthouse crowd. However, that may change with Love Exposure, his 2008 four-hour near-masterpiece that has been picking up praise and awards at festivals worldwide, and which was a surprise hit at the Japanese box office.
Continued reading Jesus Christ, Rock Star: Sion Sono...
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- 7/6/2009
- GreenCine Daily
As Andrew Grant, David Fear and I discussed in our podcast last October, Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larraín's Tony Manero was my favorite feature at the 2008 New York Film Festival, a marvelously unhinged study of pop-culture obsession in a suffocating environment (if I may crib myself). From All Movie Guide: As Augusto Pinochet holds Chile in the grip of dictatorship, a fifty year old man obsessed with John Travolta's character from Saturday Night Fever imitates his idol each weekend in a small bar on the outskirts of Santiago. Each weekend, Raúl Peralta (Alfredo Castro) and his friends—a devoted group of dancers—gather in a small bar and act out their favorite scenes from Saturday Night Fever. Raúl longs to become a showbiz superstar, and when the national television announces a Tony Manero impersonating contest it seems like he may finally have a shot at living his dreams. But...
- 7/2/2009
- GreenCine Daily
By Aaron Hillis
Last December, I met filmmaker Azazel Jacobs at a coffee shop just down the street from the Tribeca loft he grew up in, and where his parents . avant-garde cinema icon Ken Jacobs and longtime collaborator Flo . still rent. Though he now lives in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, Aza was back in NYC for final tweaking on his third feature, "Momma's Man," before its unveiling at Sundance '08. The reason for our meeting was mostly professional, as Benten Films (a DVD label I run with film blogger Andrew Grant) had fallen in love with Jacobs' previous film, "The GoodTimesKid," starring his real-life girlfriend Sara Diaz, "I'm Going to Explode" writer/director Gerardo Naranjo, and himself. (Benten will release "The GoodTimesKid" in early 2009, so let the shilling stop here).
Several months later, after a distribution deal with ThinkFilm fell through and Kino picked up the slack, "Momma's Man...
Last December, I met filmmaker Azazel Jacobs at a coffee shop just down the street from the Tribeca loft he grew up in, and where his parents . avant-garde cinema icon Ken Jacobs and longtime collaborator Flo . still rent. Though he now lives in L.A.'s Echo Park neighborhood, Aza was back in NYC for final tweaking on his third feature, "Momma's Man," before its unveiling at Sundance '08. The reason for our meeting was mostly professional, as Benten Films (a DVD label I run with film blogger Andrew Grant) had fallen in love with Jacobs' previous film, "The GoodTimesKid," starring his real-life girlfriend Sara Diaz, "I'm Going to Explode" writer/director Gerardo Naranjo, and himself. (Benten will release "The GoodTimesKid" in early 2009, so let the shilling stop here).
Several months later, after a distribution deal with ThinkFilm fell through and Kino picked up the slack, "Momma's Man...
- 8/20/2008
- by Aaron Hillis
- ifc.com
Relativity Media has acquired the rights to David Anthony Durham's fantasy novel "Acacia: Book One: The War With the Mein."
Published by Doubleday in 2007, the volume is the first installment of a projected trilogy set in the fantasy empire of Acacia.
Andrew Grant, repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, will adapt the first book in the series, in which four royal children band together to restore their father's kingdom.
The project will be produced by Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh and Michael De Luca, with Du Luca Prods.' Zach Schiff-Abrams, who brought the project to Relativity, and Tucker Tooley of Relativity as exec producers.
Durham, repped by Icm, penned such historical novels as "Gabriel's Story" and "Walk Through Darkness."...
Published by Doubleday in 2007, the volume is the first installment of a projected trilogy set in the fantasy empire of Acacia.
Andrew Grant, repped by CAA and Brillstein Entertainment Partners, will adapt the first book in the series, in which four royal children band together to restore their father's kingdom.
The project will be produced by Relativity CEO Ryan Kavanaugh and Michael De Luca, with Du Luca Prods.' Zach Schiff-Abrams, who brought the project to Relativity, and Tucker Tooley of Relativity as exec producers.
Durham, repped by Icm, penned such historical novels as "Gabriel's Story" and "Walk Through Darkness."...
- 7/28/2008
- by By Gregg Kilday
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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