Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Joan Micklin Silver on the set of Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979). Trailblazing filmmaker Joan Micklin Silver, best known for films Hester Street (1975) and Crossing Delancey (1988), has died. In an interview with Film Comment in 2017, Silver described the will she possessed as a woman filmmaker who wished to spotlight stories about female relationships and women's labor: "I didn’t want to feel like the woman director. I wanted to feel like one of many women directors."The 71st edition of the Berlin Film Festival will be replacing this year's physical event with a virtual European Film Market in March, and a "mini-festival with a series of onsite world premieres" in June.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has also announced the lineup for this year's hybrid multi-part 50th edition, to be presented between February 1-...
- 1/6/2021
- MUBI
Jon Jost's All the Vermeers in New York is exclusively showing on Mubi starting December 28, 2020 in the series Rediscovered.
I lived in New York for a year before shooting this film, observing, nosing around, and researching. While much of the research is present in the film, fortunately it is nearly invisible—the tulip proffered by Mark on meeting Anna at a café, the mere conjunction of choosing Vermeer as a topic in a city once called, in his time, New Amsterdam—each carries a submerged bit of information utterly unnecessary for the viewer.But the research was needed for me as a kind of invisible spine on which to place a totally improvised film, which from its formalistic appearance, and the seeming exactitude of its talk, its images and its structure, would seem to have been highly calculated. But there was never a word of dialog on paper, nor...
I lived in New York for a year before shooting this film, observing, nosing around, and researching. While much of the research is present in the film, fortunately it is nearly invisible—the tulip proffered by Mark on meeting Anna at a café, the mere conjunction of choosing Vermeer as a topic in a city once called, in his time, New Amsterdam—each carries a submerged bit of information utterly unnecessary for the viewer.But the research was needed for me as a kind of invisible spine on which to place a totally improvised film, which from its formalistic appearance, and the seeming exactitude of its talk, its images and its structure, would seem to have been highly calculated. But there was never a word of dialog on paper, nor...
- 12/28/2020
- MUBI
Whether a viewer in 1896 or 2020, cinema has always been a dynamic and variable experience. Cinema as an event—as a manifestation of a meeting point between the art of moving images and an audience, big or small—has never fit any one definition, and this last year, so severely disrupted by a global pandemic, has deeply underscored the versatility and resilience of our great love.Our viewing this year, like that of so many, has been strange: compromised, confrontational, escapist, euphoric, painful, revelatory—encompassing all of the reactions one can have to film. How we encountered our favorite movies and most meaningful cinematic experiences of the year was hardly new: A by-now-normal mix of festivals, theatres, various subscription and transactional streaming services, as well as private screener links and gems buried on over-stuffed hard drives. But for most of the year, the communal experience shrunk to living rooms and glowing screens.
- 12/23/2020
- MUBI
Mubi, the premier streaming service for curated independent films, has revealed its picks for December. The selection of films coming exclusively to Mubi includes the world premiere of Benoit Toulemonde’s “Tripping With Nils Frahm,” an extraordinary musical trip that brings a unique concert experience to the screen, and “Cold Meridian,” the latest experimental short film by acclaimed director Peter Strickland. Mubi will also exclusively present “Liberté”, a period-piece provocation by visionary Catalan filmmaker Albert Serra as well as Kirill Mikhanovsky’s award-winning comedy “Give Me Liberty.” For those in the mood to relive the vibrant 90’s rave scene, Mubi is excited to present the streaming premiere of “Beats” from Scottish director Brian Welsh and executive producer Steven Soderbergh.
Also in December, Mubi is proud to launch a retrospective dedicated to prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. Capturing the pleasures and perils of attraction in anti-romantic comedies, this selection includes...
Also in December, Mubi is proud to launch a retrospective dedicated to prolific South Korean director Hong Sang-soo. Capturing the pleasures and perils of attraction in anti-romantic comedies, this selection includes...
- 12/2/2020
- by Grace Han
- AsianMoviePulse
Nope, this isn’t the new Bong Joon-ho movie, but a 3-D oldie from 1982. Although it’s by no means a great picture, fans equipped for Blu-ray 3-D will want to take a look — the depth effects fashioned with the over’n’under Sterevision system are some of the best yet. Stan Winston provides director Charles Band with the ‘Alien’ rip-off title critters, and added interest is provided via an early appearance by Demi Moore, who sleepwalks through her part but certainly looks good. A full complement of extras tell the making-of story; the feature is also encoded in 2-D, for really imaginative viewers.
Parasite
Blu-ray 3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1982 / Color & 3d / 2:35 widescreen / 85 min. / Available from Kino Lorber / Street Date October 22, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Robert Glaudini, Demi Moore, Luca Bercovici, James Davidson, Al Fann, Tom Villard, Scott Thomson, Cherie Currie, Vivian Blaine, James Cavan, Joannelle Nadine Romero, Freddy Moore, Natalie May,...
Parasite
Blu-ray 3-D Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1982 / Color & 3d / 2:35 widescreen / 85 min. / Available from Kino Lorber / Street Date October 22, 2019 / 29.95
Starring: Robert Glaudini, Demi Moore, Luca Bercovici, James Davidson, Al Fann, Tom Villard, Scott Thomson, Cherie Currie, Vivian Blaine, James Cavan, Joannelle Nadine Romero, Freddy Moore, Natalie May,...
- 10/19/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
At the conclusion of Wednesday’s morning Cannes press conference for Asghar Farhadi’s latest film, the festival opener “Everybody Knows,” the Iranian filmmaker snuck in one last comment, unprompted by the assembled crowd of international press or his starry cast of heavy-hitters like Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem. After the conference wrapped, the “A Separation” filmmaker requested to have his microphone back, so that he could issue a comment on a situation clearly close to his heart.
“I thought perhaps we could go on to one last point,” he said. Farhadi pointed out that his is not the only Iranian film in competition this year, but that his fellow countryman Jafar Panahi was not in attendance to support his film “Three Faces” because of his ongoing house arrest in 2011 for charges of making propaganda.
The “Offside” and “The Circle” filmmaker was also banned by his own country from making films for twenty years,...
“I thought perhaps we could go on to one last point,” he said. Farhadi pointed out that his is not the only Iranian film in competition this year, but that his fellow countryman Jafar Panahi was not in attendance to support his film “Three Faces” because of his ongoing house arrest in 2011 for charges of making propaganda.
The “Offside” and “The Circle” filmmaker was also banned by his own country from making films for twenty years,...
- 5/9/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe great French actor Stéphane Audran has died at the age of 85. David Hudson provides a thoughtful remembrance and career overview for The Daily.Following their producer-director collaboration on Amazon's underrated Red Oaks series, 90s contemporaries Gregg Araki and Steven Soderbergh are re-teaming for a most promising new Starz series entitled Now Apocalypse. Recommended VIEWINGFilm critic and Museum of Modern Art curator Dave Kehr investigates the many aspects that compose a western, and more largely, the genre's influence, origins, legacy, and future, in this wonderful video essay:The first trailer for Under the Silver Lake, David Robert Mitchell's long anticipated (and Thomas Pynchon inspired?) follow up to It Follows:Kino Lorber is re-releasing Personal Problems, a forgotten masterwork by Bill Gunn (Ganja & Hess) and an early and essential experiment in video filmmaking. Here's...
- 3/28/2018
- MUBI
Blake Eckard’s Coyotes Kill For Fun screens Saturday, November 4th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.
In “Coyotes Kill for Fun,” the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost — passed the baton behind the camera. Despite the prolonged production, “Coyotes” maintains a totally consistent — and utterly original — vision. The film features such Eckard regulars as Tyler Messner,...
In “Coyotes Kill for Fun,” the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost — passed the baton behind the camera. Despite the prolonged production, “Coyotes” maintains a totally consistent — and utterly original — vision. The film features such Eckard regulars as Tyler Messner,...
- 11/2/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Blake Eckard’s Coyotes Kill For Fun screens Saturday, November 4th at 7:00pm at The Tivoli Theater (6350 Delmar Blvd, St. Louis) as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found Here.
Blake Eckard’s Backroad Blues screens Sunday, November 5th at 1:30pm at the .Zack (3224 Locust St.). The Backroad Blues screening is a free event.
In Coyotes Kill For Fun, the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost...
Blake Eckard’s Backroad Blues screens Sunday, November 5th at 1:30pm at the .Zack (3224 Locust St.). The Backroad Blues screening is a free event.
In Coyotes Kill For Fun, the latest from Northwest Missouri indie filmmaker and Sliff favorite Blake Eckard, a backwoods babysitter agrees to help an abused mother of two escape her lunatic boyfriend, but his psychotic brother is headed back to the area, and he has a fraught history with everyone involved. Filmed over three years in Missouri, Montana, and La, “Coyotes” had a long gestation: Two-thirds was first shot back in March 2014, and a trio of cinematographers — Eckard, St. Louisan Cody Stokes, and American-indie legend Jon Jost...
- 10/31/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Round-up of news from the sixth American Film Festival and Us in Progress showcase.
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
Shaz Bennett’s Alaska Is A Drag was the big winner at the fifth edition of the Us In Progress showcase during Wroclaw’s sixth American Film Festival (Oct 20-25).
The strand’s jury awarded post-production services worth up to $40,000 to the project. This will include colour correction from Chimney Poland, a score composed by Maciej Zielinski from Soundflower Studios, and a final sound mix from Toya Studios, as well as an offer to acquire TV rights from Ale Kino+.
The film, which is writer-director Bennett’s feature version of her 2012 short of the same name, was produced by her 4248 Productions with Melanie Miller’s Fishbowl Films.
The cast of the $700,000 project includes Matt Dallas, Jason Scott Lee, Margaret Cho, newcomer Martin L. Washington Jr. and Christopher O’Shea.
Daniel Grove, an executive producer on acclaimed horror A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night,picked...
- 10/26/2015
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
While acting in Blake Eckard’s Ghosts of Empire Prairie, the quintessential American independent writer-director Jon Jost consumed endless stories about Stanberry, Missouri. Jost's They Had It Coming absorbs those stories and spins them into fictional tales, purposefully accentuating the grandiose storytelling aspects of small town gossip. The resulting experimental visual poem captures small town middle America with more authenticity than any documentary possibly could.
- 5/5/2015
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
First Look, which New York's Museum of the Moving Image calls "not just a festival of new films" but "a festival about new approaches to filmmaking," opens tonight with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and runs through January 18. We're gathering overviews ranging from Tony Pipolo's for Artforum, wherein he writes about Jon Jost’s Coming to Terms with James Benning, Kyle Turner in the Notebook on two new shorts by Gina Telaroli, Sam Weisberg in the Voice on Omer Fast's Everything That Rises Must Converge, Max Nelson in Reverse Shot on two 3D films by Ken Jacobs—plus interviews and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
First Look, which New York's Museum of the Moving Image calls "not just a festival of new films" but "a festival about new approaches to filmmaking," opens tonight with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and runs through January 18. We're gathering overviews ranging from Tony Pipolo's for Artforum, wherein he writes about Jon Jost’s Coming to Terms with James Benning, Kyle Turner in the Notebook on two new shorts by Gina Telaroli, Sam Weisberg in the Voice on Omer Fast's Everything That Rises Must Converge, Max Nelson in Reverse Shot on two 3D films by Ken Jacobs—plus interviews and more. » - David Hudson...
- 1/9/2015
- Keyframe
Opening on January 9 with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and running through January 18, the fourth edition of the Museum of the Moving Image's "annual showcase for new, inventive international cinema (and more)" marks a sort of promotion, or at least an expansion. First Look is now "officially a festival," and the lineup for the 2015 edition includes work by Denis Côté, Heinz Emigholz, Aleksey German, Ken Jacobs, Jon Jost, Ulrich Seidl and many, many more. » - David Hudson...
- 11/22/2014
- Keyframe
Opening on January 9 with Jessica Hausner's Amour fou and running through January 18, the fourth edition of the Museum of the Moving Image's "annual showcase for new, inventive international cinema (and more)" marks a sort of promotion, or at least an expansion. First Look is now "officially a festival," and the lineup for the 2015 edition includes work by Denis Côté, Heinz Emigholz, Aleksey German, Ken Jacobs, Jon Jost, Ulrich Seidl and many, many more. » - David Hudson...
- 11/22/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Two years ago, almost to the day, I posted a piece about the Mondo poster for Ben Wheatley’s Kill List on the day of that film’s opening. The poster was designed by a new up and coming designer named Jay Shaw whom I interviewed for the piece. At the time he’d been designing posters “for a little over a year.” Two years later and a new Wheatley film, A Field in England, opens today (in between Wheatley made another Mpotw favorite, Sightseers) with an official release poster by Jay Shaw for Drafthouse Films.
In the interim, Shaw has become one of the most exciting and sought after movie poster designers in the country. His work is consistently witty, arresting and superbly executed. His uncharacteristically colorful poster for the psychedelic war story A Field in England nods to the lysergic fever dreams of Jodorowsky (and also has an interesting,...
In the interim, Shaw has become one of the most exciting and sought after movie poster designers in the country. His work is consistently witty, arresting and superbly executed. His uncharacteristically colorful poster for the psychedelic war story A Field in England nods to the lysergic fever dreams of Jodorowsky (and also has an interesting,...
- 2/7/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2014
Bright Future
World Premieres
Above: The Pinkie
About Sarah (Elisa Miller, Mexico, United Kingdom)
Bella Vista (Vera Brunner-Sung, USA)
Creator of the Jungle (Jordi Morató (Spain)
La distancia (Sergio Caballero, Spain)
Dzma/Brother (Téona Mghvdeladze & Thierry Grenade, France, Georgia)
L’éclat furtif de l'ombre (Alain-Pascal Housiaux & Patrick Dechesne, Belgium, Germany)
Edén (Elise DuRant, USA, Mexico)
Helium (Eché Janga, Netherlands)
History of Eternity (Camilo Cavalcante, Brazil)
Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, Cuba, Spain)
The Iranian Film (Yassine el Idrissi, Morocco, Netherlands, Egypt)
Jacky au royaume des filles (Riad Sattouf, France)
L for Leisure (Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn, USA, Mexico, France, Iceland)
Little Crushes (Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland)
Masked Monkey - The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Indonesia)
Oilfields Mines Hurricanes (Fabian Altenried, Germany, Iceland)
The Pinkie (Lisa Takeba, Japan)
The Quiet Roar (Henrik Hellström, Sweden, Norway)
Sitzfleisch (Lisa Weber, Austria)
The Songs of Rice (Uruphong Raksasad,...
Bright Future
World Premieres
Above: The Pinkie
About Sarah (Elisa Miller, Mexico, United Kingdom)
Bella Vista (Vera Brunner-Sung, USA)
Creator of the Jungle (Jordi Morató (Spain)
La distancia (Sergio Caballero, Spain)
Dzma/Brother (Téona Mghvdeladze & Thierry Grenade, France, Georgia)
L’éclat furtif de l'ombre (Alain-Pascal Housiaux & Patrick Dechesne, Belgium, Germany)
Edén (Elise DuRant, USA, Mexico)
Helium (Eché Janga, Netherlands)
History of Eternity (Camilo Cavalcante, Brazil)
Hotel Nueva Isla (Irene Gutiérrez & Javier Labrador, Cuba, Spain)
The Iranian Film (Yassine el Idrissi, Morocco, Netherlands, Egypt)
Jacky au royaume des filles (Riad Sattouf, France)
L for Leisure (Lev Kalman & Whitney Horn, USA, Mexico, France, Iceland)
Little Crushes (Aleksandra Gowin & Ireneusz Grzyb, Poland)
Masked Monkey - The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (Ismail Fahmi Lubish, Indonesia)
Oilfields Mines Hurricanes (Fabian Altenried, Germany, Iceland)
The Pinkie (Lisa Takeba, Japan)
The Quiet Roar (Henrik Hellström, Sweden, Norway)
Sitzfleisch (Lisa Weber, Austria)
The Songs of Rice (Uruphong Raksasad,...
- 1/13/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Picks include the latest documentary from Ai Weiwei [pictured].
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the selections for its Bright Future and Spectrum programmes (list of premiere titles below).
Across both sections there are 37 world premieres.
Bright Future is comprised of 63 films, all first and second features. Bright Future includes five films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, including Carlos Armella’s Las voces.
Five films from Bright Future will compete in the Big Screen Award Competition, including telepathic dwarf thriller La distancia by Sergio Caballero; and Riad Sattouf’s Jacky au royaume des filles starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Other notable seelctions include Burrowing director Henrik Helstrom’s second feature The Quiet Roar, about a dying woman who reconnects with her past through an acid trip.
Spectrum, focusing on artistic and experimental cinema, includes 69 films, including three supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Five Spectrum Films, including Jos de Putter’s See No Evil and Oxana Bychkova’s Another...
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has unveiled the selections for its Bright Future and Spectrum programmes (list of premiere titles below).
Across both sections there are 37 world premieres.
Bright Future is comprised of 63 films, all first and second features. Bright Future includes five films supported by the Hubert Bals Fund, including Carlos Armella’s Las voces.
Five films from Bright Future will compete in the Big Screen Award Competition, including telepathic dwarf thriller La distancia by Sergio Caballero; and Riad Sattouf’s Jacky au royaume des filles starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.
Other notable seelctions include Burrowing director Henrik Helstrom’s second feature The Quiet Roar, about a dying woman who reconnects with her past through an acid trip.
Spectrum, focusing on artistic and experimental cinema, includes 69 films, including three supported by the Hubert Bals Fund. Five Spectrum Films, including Jos de Putter’s See No Evil and Oxana Bychkova’s Another...
- 1/13/2014
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
Experimental narrative filmmaker Jon Jost recently announced on his blog that he is retiring from the social aspect of being a filmmaker, but that he will continue making things. He told Indiewire that he will retire from the "festival hustle and the other PR/survival/money-oriented stuff that encrusts film/media-making (and for the most part all of our commercialized society)." He has given Indiewire permission to reprint his original blog post which charts his nearly 50-year filmmaking career. Read his entire post below: In a few months, come January 2014, I will finish 50 years of filmmaking, and trundle on, inshallah, to number 51. Back in 1963, arriving with $50 to my name in Italy, and put up by a generous family, the Rebosio’s of Cassina Amata, Paderno Dugnano, in what is now the suburbs of Milano, I made my first film. It was a portrait of their 12 year old daughter, Matilde. Silent,...
- 10/21/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
News.
The 66th issue of Senses of Cinema is now online, and features pieces on Chris Marker, David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock—among many others. The Mark Rappaport-Ray Carney saga continues (if this is new to you, see here) with Carney's first time on record about his controversial decision to hold onto creative materials once (and, according to the filmmaker, still) belonging to Rappaport. We won't editorialize here, so we'll let you read the rather gigantic essay from Carney, and make up your own mind. In our forum, both Rappaport and Jon Jost (who has been actively bringing this issue to the public eye) have chimed in and others are joining into the conversation.
News via the "Free John McTiernan" page on Facebook: the filmmaker is working on developing a script for a project titled Warbirds, in spite of the upcoming jail time he's facing. Not a lot of details on the film,...
The 66th issue of Senses of Cinema is now online, and features pieces on Chris Marker, David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock—among many others. The Mark Rappaport-Ray Carney saga continues (if this is new to you, see here) with Carney's first time on record about his controversial decision to hold onto creative materials once (and, according to the filmmaker, still) belonging to Rappaport. We won't editorialize here, so we'll let you read the rather gigantic essay from Carney, and make up your own mind. In our forum, both Rappaport and Jon Jost (who has been actively bringing this issue to the public eye) have chimed in and others are joining into the conversation.
News via the "Free John McTiernan" page on Facebook: the filmmaker is working on developing a script for a project titled Warbirds, in spite of the upcoming jail time he's facing. Not a lot of details on the film,...
- 3/20/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Whether you were aware of it or not, there was a major upheaval in the Internet last week that — among other things — seriously affects Bad Lit’s links posts.
Once again proving the old adage “The Internet doesn’t owe you anything,” Google decided to shut down their Reader app for the reason, it is assumed, that it wasn’t making them any money. (They publicly claimed not that many people were using it anymore.)
For those who didn’t use Google Reader, it was a free RSS feed app that compiled and saved in a very organized, neat and helpful way the posts from the websites that one subscribed to. Plus, Reader had the ability to scan the Internet for keywords — like, lets pick two at random, “underground” and “film” — that would display articles from other websites that contain those keywords. Over the past few years, Bad Lit has...
Once again proving the old adage “The Internet doesn’t owe you anything,” Google decided to shut down their Reader app for the reason, it is assumed, that it wasn’t making them any money. (They publicly claimed not that many people were using it anymore.)
For those who didn’t use Google Reader, it was a free RSS feed app that compiled and saved in a very organized, neat and helpful way the posts from the websites that one subscribed to. Plus, Reader had the ability to scan the Internet for keywords — like, lets pick two at random, “underground” and “film” — that would display articles from other websites that contain those keywords. Over the past few years, Bad Lit has...
- 3/17/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
“Maybe I was straitjacketing myself because even back when I was doing Tulsa or Teenage Lust, I wouldn't go see movies about teenagers. I wouldn't look at books if they were about teenagers, because I was afraid that either I would be influenced or that someone had already done something that I had done, or someone was doing it better. I was just afraid to look at anything, because I didn't want any ideas. I don't know why, but I didn't. Just frightened. Scared to death.”
—Larry Clark
“I am a complete man, having both sexes of the mind.”
—Jules Michelet
When you have nothing, the very wise Luc Moullet tells us, you should cultivate relentless artifice. These days, Larry Clark is almost there, down to one thing: Marfa, a bitty town in Texas. And Marfa has been oft blessed, first just obliquely by Edna Ferber, then harder by George Stevens,...
—Larry Clark
“I am a complete man, having both sexes of the mind.”
—Jules Michelet
When you have nothing, the very wise Luc Moullet tells us, you should cultivate relentless artifice. These days, Larry Clark is almost there, down to one thing: Marfa, a bitty town in Texas. And Marfa has been oft blessed, first just obliquely by Edna Ferber, then harder by George Stevens,...
- 2/4/2013
- by Uncas Blythe
- MUBI
I really wanted to break my link posting hiatus on its traditional Sunday yesterday, but a technical crisis prevented me from doing so. But, here we are:
The other reason I only wanted to come out of hiatus was to share this brilliant article by donna k. giving advice to young filmmakers. I was particularly taken with her 3rd note regarding asking oneself the ever important question “Why make this film?” That’s something I’ve come across on my own as a paid screener for a festival, too, but also checking out the films submitted to Bad Lit via email. When a film doesn’t work, the first question I typically ask myself is: “Why did that person even bother?” And I usually assume the answer is just to regurgitate other shit seen in our culture. So, please take Donna’s advice: Be introspective, thoughtful and have a Pov.
The other reason I only wanted to come out of hiatus was to share this brilliant article by donna k. giving advice to young filmmakers. I was particularly taken with her 3rd note regarding asking oneself the ever important question “Why make this film?” That’s something I’ve come across on my own as a paid screener for a festival, too, but also checking out the films submitted to Bad Lit via email. When a film doesn’t work, the first question I typically ask myself is: “Why did that person even bother?” And I usually assume the answer is just to regurgitate other shit seen in our culture. So, please take Donna’s advice: Be introspective, thoughtful and have a Pov.
- 1/21/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
For the rest of the Notebook's Fantasy Double Features of 2012, see the poll's main index.
***
New: Far from Afghanistan (John Gianvito, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo, Travis Wilkerson)
Old: Allons enfants... pour L'Algerie (Karl Gass, 1961)
Two works of international(ist) solidarity made exactly half a century apart (Far from Afghanistan was already shown on the net last year in the so-called October Version), both dealing with a colonial war and its ramifications for the victim—as well the aggressor and collaborator state. Two works, also, of fragmentation, multitudes of voices, dialectic pluralism; Gass sub-divided his film into three parts (actually, it's more like two halves and a coda), while the Gianvito-masterminded project consists of five quasi-independent segments (working also quite well as stand-alone shorts) plus half a dozen interludes. Yet, in one—maybe the most—crucial way they're light years apart: Gass lays it down smack from the center...
***
New: Far from Afghanistan (John Gianvito, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo, Travis Wilkerson)
Old: Allons enfants... pour L'Algerie (Karl Gass, 1961)
Two works of international(ist) solidarity made exactly half a century apart (Far from Afghanistan was already shown on the net last year in the so-called October Version), both dealing with a colonial war and its ramifications for the victim—as well the aggressor and collaborator state. Two works, also, of fragmentation, multitudes of voices, dialectic pluralism; Gass sub-divided his film into three parts (actually, it's more like two halves and a coda), while the Gianvito-masterminded project consists of five quasi-independent segments (working also quite well as stand-alone shorts) plus half a dozen interludes. Yet, in one—maybe the most—crucial way they're light years apart: Gass lays it down smack from the center...
- 1/7/2013
- by The Ferroni Brigade
- MUBI
This week’s Must Browse is the new Tumblr blog by the Anthology Film Archives, which you must bookmark, add to your feed reader, etc.! The site has, of course, notes about upcoming screenings, plus lots of great film stills posters, notes, anecdotes and more. (Wish they had a sidebar calendar of their screenings on the blog, tho’. Something to think about…)Donna k. jumps into the “death of cinema” fray and finds life! Albeit in a film about death: V/H/S.In all articles about comics made into films, all journalists must include this one dug up by the Temple of Schlock: Sex in the Comics!One+One Filmmakers Journal’s latest film primer is on Ralph Bakshi’s Heavy Traffic. Also, a couple of big updates re: the Journal.366 Weird Movies has a capsule o’ weirdness devoted to Hollis Frampton’s Zorns Lemma.As he promised, Jon Jost...
- 11/11/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
News.
Above: Harris Savides. Photo by Brigette Lancombe for Interview magazine.
We were saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of one of film's great cinematographers, Harris Savides. Our brief note includes an indelible clip from Gerry, one of his collaborations with Gus Van Sant. David Hudson has rounded up commentary at Fandor.
One of Savides' chief collaborators, director David Fincher, is also in the news with an animated film project that's appealing to Kickstarter to get funded.
Two big trailer debuts have sprung on us over the last week. One's the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained:
...and the other is the first full trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty:
Filmmaker Jon Jost has started a petition calling for Ray Carney to return underground director Mark Rappaport's film materials. As the petition explains:
"In 2005, when Mark Rappaport moved to France, Ray Carney,...
Above: Harris Savides. Photo by Brigette Lancombe for Interview magazine.
We were saddened and shocked to hear of the passing of one of film's great cinematographers, Harris Savides. Our brief note includes an indelible clip from Gerry, one of his collaborations with Gus Van Sant. David Hudson has rounded up commentary at Fandor.
One of Savides' chief collaborators, director David Fincher, is also in the news with an animated film project that's appealing to Kickstarter to get funded.
Two big trailer debuts have sprung on us over the last week. One's the second trailer for Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained:
...and the other is the first full trailer for Kathryn Bigelow's Zero Dark Thirty:
Filmmaker Jon Jost has started a petition calling for Ray Carney to return underground director Mark Rappaport's film materials. As the petition explains:
"In 2005, when Mark Rappaport moved to France, Ray Carney,...
- 10/17/2012
- by Notebook
- MUBI
So, I was on vacation last week and ill this week, so our links are kinda spotty…
This week’s Must Read: Jaimz Asmundson goes into great detail on the making of his amazing film The Magus, which he made in collaboration with his father, artist C. Graham Asmundson. Even if you haven’t seen the film — and you can here — the making of article is a fantastic insight into artistic process and choices one must make as a filmmaker.Electric Sheep reports on the Trent Harris retrospective at the 20th annual Raindance Film Festival, describing how his films “all easily engage the audience.”Jon Jost continues to up the ante in his efforts to get Ray Carney to return the films of Mark Rappaport to the filmmaker, saying he’ll start an online petition if Carney doesn’t step up.Donna k., like us, has been under the weather,...
This week’s Must Read: Jaimz Asmundson goes into great detail on the making of his amazing film The Magus, which he made in collaboration with his father, artist C. Graham Asmundson. Even if you haven’t seen the film — and you can here — the making of article is a fantastic insight into artistic process and choices one must make as a filmmaker.Electric Sheep reports on the Trent Harris retrospective at the 20th annual Raindance Film Festival, describing how his films “all easily engage the audience.”Jon Jost continues to up the ante in his efforts to get Ray Carney to return the films of Mark Rappaport to the filmmaker, saying he’ll start an online petition if Carney doesn’t step up.Donna k., like us, has been under the weather,...
- 10/14/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This week’s Must Read: Making Light of It has posted another one of its wonderful filmmaker profiles, this time for Marie Menken.Here’s a new site to take notice of: The Avant-Garde Film Index, which does exactly what its name implies, indexing experimental, avant-garde and underground films. The site appears to be in its very early stages, but we wish them the best of luck and we’ll keep our eye on it as it grows into the essential resource we’re sure it’ll become.At the Chicago Reader, Ben Sachs interviewed filmmaker Lori Felker about a program of films by Robert Nelson that screened over the weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center.The Tucson Weekly profiles the Arizona Underground Film Festival, which is going on right now and is having its biggest year ever, especially focusing on the film The Exhibitionists.For the next couple of months,...
- 9/23/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Krivina
Written by Igor Drljača
Directed by Igor Drljača
Canada/Bosnia/Herzegovina, 2012
For many, to be in any major city can be at once unusual, intimidating, awesome and inspirational in its pace, arrangement and overall mentality. Walking streets is a humbling experience as you learn your given metropolis’ endlessly stacked ins, outs, corners and nuances – either arms-length hovels or comfort zones you simply haven’t yet had the pleasure of comforting yourself in.
Toronto is a perfect place to see gracious young Sarajevo-born, Canada-raised director Igor Drljača’s debut feature which succeeds a recent history of shorts at Tiff. Though the increasingly popular festival seems to draw its majority of attendees locally, a considerable number of us are strangers in the quintessentially Canadian hub. For the greater part of its length Krivina (roughly translated to “the curve” or “the bend”, but holding far greater weight in its original Serbo-Croatian) takes...
Written by Igor Drljača
Directed by Igor Drljača
Canada/Bosnia/Herzegovina, 2012
For many, to be in any major city can be at once unusual, intimidating, awesome and inspirational in its pace, arrangement and overall mentality. Walking streets is a humbling experience as you learn your given metropolis’ endlessly stacked ins, outs, corners and nuances – either arms-length hovels or comfort zones you simply haven’t yet had the pleasure of comforting yourself in.
Toronto is a perfect place to see gracious young Sarajevo-born, Canada-raised director Igor Drljača’s debut feature which succeeds a recent history of shorts at Tiff. Though the increasingly popular festival seems to draw its majority of attendees locally, a considerable number of us are strangers in the quintessentially Canadian hub. For the greater part of its length Krivina (roughly translated to “the curve” or “the bend”, but holding far greater weight in its original Serbo-Croatian) takes...
- 9/13/2012
- by Tom Stoup
- SoundOnSight
As I mentioned in the preface to the first part of my Wavelengths preview (the one focusing on the short films), there are significant changes afoot in 2012. Until last year, the festival had a section known as Visions, which was the primary home for formally challenging cinema that nevertheless conformed to the basic tenets of arthouse and/or “festival” cinema (actors, scripting, 70+minute running time, and, once upon a time, 35mm presentation). This year, Wavelengths is both its former self, and it also contains the sort of work that Visions most likely would have housed. While in some respects this can seem to result in a kind of split personality for the section, it also means that Wavelengths, which has often been described as a sort of “festival within the festival,” has moved front and center. Films that would’ve occupied single slots in the older avant-Wavelengths model, like the...
- 9/12/2012
- MUBI
Above: Ernie Gehr's Auto-Collider Xv.
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
The vast bulk of Tiff's 2012 has been announced and listed here, below. We'll be updating the lineup with the previous films announced, as well as updating links to specific films for more information on them in the coming days. Of particular note is that the Wavelengths and Visions programs have been combined to create what is undoubtedly the most interesting section of the festival. Stay tuned, too, for our own on the ground coverage of Tiff.
Galas
A Royal Affair (Nikolai Arcel, Demark/Sweden/Czech Republic/Germany)
Argo (Ben Affleck, USA)
The Company You Keep (Robert Redford, USA)
Dangerous Liaisons (Hur Jin-ho, China)
Emperor (Peter Webber, Japan/USA)
English Vinglish (Gauri Shinde, India)
Free Angela & All Political Prisoners (Shola Lynch)
Great Expectations (Mike Newell, UK)
Hyde Park on Hudson (Roger Michell, UK)
Inescapable (Ruba Nadda, Canada)
Jayne Mansfield's Car (Billy Bob Thorton, USA/Russia)
Looper (Rian Johnson,...
- 8/22/2012
- MUBI
The 37th Toronto International Film Festival® will roll out the red carpet for hundreds of guests from the four corners of the globe in September. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Rian Johnson, Noah Baumbach, Deepa Mehta, Derek Cianfrance, Sion Sono, Joss Whedon, Neil Jordan, Lu Chuan, Shola Lynch, Barry Levinson, Yvan Attal, Ben Affleck, Marina Zenovich, Costa-Gavras, Laurent Cantet, Sally Potter, Dustin Hoffman, Francois Ozon, David O. Russell, David Ayer, Pelin Esmer, Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Andrew Adamson, Michael McGowan, Bahman Ghobadi, Ziad Doueiri, Alex Gibney, Stephen Chbosky, Eran Riklis, Edward Burns, Bernard Émond, Zhang Yuan, Michael Winterbottom, Mike Newell, Miwa Nishikawa, Margarethe Von Trotta, David Siegel, Scott McGehee, Gauri Shinde, Goran Paskaljevic, Baltasar Kormákur, J.A. Bayona, Rob Zombie, Peaches and Paul Andrew Williams.
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
Actors expected to attend include: Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Jackie Chan, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Bill Murray, Robert Redford,...
- 8/21/2012
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
By merging the former Visions into the Wavelengths section, Cameron Bailey has essentially made a new incontournable programme. Headed by Andréa Picard, the section which at a time was populated by medium to short run times now includes some of the bigger names in innovative feature film filmmaking who have no qualms about bending the medium. This year the sections includes long, medium and short length works from the likes of Ben Rivers, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Carlos Reygadas (pic of his controversial Post Tenebras Lux above), Wang Bing, Mati Diop (actress from Claire Denis and Antonio Campos films) and our very own writer Blake Williams who makes it two for two at Tiff with Many a Swan – he previously had Coorow-Latham Road programmed last year. Here’s the complete A to Z listing and well-worth reading descriptions.
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
Pairings
The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece, 37’ A bevy of gorgeous Gothic...
- 8/14/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Editor’s Introduction: With his first feature in 1974, Jon Jost launched a filmmaking career that can be proudly described as fiercely independent. His work has been seen at festivals all over the world, the Moma in New York, AFI Film Theater in DC, and the UCLA Film Archive in La. He’s made dozens of short films and dozens of features, although his most famous are probably All the Vermeers in New York and The Bed You Sleep In (for which he won respective awards at the Berlin Film Festival). And he continues to make movies at a furious pace. Normally we comb interviews and quotes for this feature, but for this entry, Jost himself contacted us with the desire to share a few tips. So, it’s with great honor that we present a bit of free film school (for fans and filmmakers alike) from an American indie icon. Now...
- 7/25/2012
- by Jon Jost
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
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
Amy Monaghan, first known to most of us as the cinetrix, is high-tailing it from Boston, where she presented a paper at Scms, to New York for this afternoon's launch of the new issue of Black Clock, the literary journal edited by novelist Steve Erickson. You've got to love the promo blurb they've written for themselves:
In a movie issue like no other, Black Clock 15 features Geoff Nicholson's meeting of two film pioneers in "Buster Keaton: The Warhol Years," David Thomson's journey up the Amazon with Warren Beatty, and Anthony Miller's history of the cinema — from Dw Griffith's adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (presenting Louise Brooks as Lady Brett) to Don Siegel's 60s cult B-movie Bonnie and Clyde with Tuesday Weld and Clint Eastwood, to the 2010 Academy Award-winning portrayal by Chris Farley of silent comedic actor Fatty Arbuckle in Milos Forman's The Life of the Party.
In a movie issue like no other, Black Clock 15 features Geoff Nicholson's meeting of two film pioneers in "Buster Keaton: The Warhol Years," David Thomson's journey up the Amazon with Warren Beatty, and Anthony Miller's history of the cinema — from Dw Griffith's adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (presenting Louise Brooks as Lady Brett) to Don Siegel's 60s cult B-movie Bonnie and Clyde with Tuesday Weld and Clint Eastwood, to the 2010 Academy Award-winning portrayal by Chris Farley of silent comedic actor Fatty Arbuckle in Milos Forman's The Life of the Party.
- 3/25/2012
- MUBI
A day after Greg Smith rattled the financial sector with his New York Times Op-Ed, "Why I Am Leaving Goldman Sachs," claiming that "the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it," Deadline's Mike Fleming reminds us that Wall Street was pretty toxic and destructive long before Smith even began his 12-year run at the company. Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio "are committing to make The Wolf of Wall Street their fifth collaboration. The film is based on the Jordan Belfort memoir of his days as a hard partying, drug addicted stockbroker who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering and served a 22-month federal prison stretch. Shooting will begin August in New York." The Playlist's Kevin Jagernauth posts a 2007 interview with Belfort.
Also at the Playlist, Jagernauth reports that Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala) will likely direct Michael Fassbender in J Mills Goodloe...
Also at the Playlist, Jagernauth reports that Gerardo Naranjo (Miss Bala) will likely direct Michael Fassbender in J Mills Goodloe...
- 3/15/2012
- MUBI
Blue Velvet remains a masterpiece of American cinema – one of the defining films of the 1980s, and arguably still director David Lynch’s best work (personally, I actually slightly prefer Lost Highway, but I’ve become gradually fatigued over the years with people looking at me like I’m insane when I divulge that) – and it still retains every bit of its power today. But to have seen it upon its original 1986 release was like experiencing a bomb going off inside the theater. American films during the conservative Reagan decade were going through an awkward transitional period (and, outside of the interestingly thriving horror genre, one would be hard pressed to cite many great American movies from that era, although there were occasional exceptions such as William Friedkin’s riveting To Live and Die in L.A.). The Young Hollywood “golden age” of the 1970s was clearly experiencing its death throes,...
- 11/16/2011
- by Travis Crawford
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Donal Foreman's cut-to-the-bone report on the five-day Filmmaker Conference at last month's Independent Film Week pits Jon Jost against Ted Hope, weighs the effect of Michael Tully's "Take-Back Manifesto" and explains why Antonio Campos prompted another panelist to ask, "Are you saying we should all become communists?" A lively must-read for anyone interested in the current state of independent filmmaking.
Also in the October issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Tom McCormack remembers Robert Breer, who "pioneered a form of cinematic collage that used single-frame editing and omnium-gatherums of chaotic imagery to shape the quotidian into whirligig treatises on the nature of perception." Plus: Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes on Harun Farocki's Images of War (at a Distance), on view at MoMA through January 2, and Emily Apter talks with Silvia Kolbowski about two of her works, A Few Howls Again? and After Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Los Angeles Filmforum...
Also in the October issue of the Brooklyn Rail: Tom McCormack remembers Robert Breer, who "pioneered a form of cinematic collage that used single-frame editing and omnium-gatherums of chaotic imagery to shape the quotidian into whirligig treatises on the nature of perception." Plus: Leo Goldsmith and Rachael Rakes on Harun Farocki's Images of War (at a Distance), on view at MoMA through January 2, and Emily Apter talks with Silvia Kolbowski about two of her works, A Few Howls Again? and After Hiroshima Mon Amour.
Los Angeles Filmforum...
- 10/9/2011
- MUBI
"The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than in lone bedrooms where there's a mirror. People's faces are in naked repose down in the subway." —Walker Evans
"So, have you ever smoked?" I laughed when James Benning asked me this question at the end of our conversation. "Honestly, I've probably smoked about twenty cigarettes," I told him. "I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. Nancy Reagan told me to say ‘no.'" That was almost the full extent of our discussion of smoking, despite the fact that Benning's feature-length video, Twenty Cigarettes, is constructed solely of portraits of smokers. The duration of each of the twenty shots is determined by the length of time it takes each subject to light, smoke, and discard a cigarette. Benning composed each shot, staged the person in front of a flat backdrop, and then walked away from the camera.
"So, have you ever smoked?" I laughed when James Benning asked me this question at the end of our conversation. "Honestly, I've probably smoked about twenty cigarettes," I told him. "I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. Nancy Reagan told me to say ‘no.'" That was almost the full extent of our discussion of smoking, despite the fact that Benning's feature-length video, Twenty Cigarettes, is constructed solely of portraits of smokers. The duration of each of the twenty shots is determined by the length of time it takes each subject to light, smoke, and discard a cigarette. Benning composed each shot, staged the person in front of a flat backdrop, and then walked away from the camera.
- 10/7/2011
- MUBI
I've only just now caught up with David Jenkins's interview with Charlie Kaufman for Time Out London in which Jenkins has "asked him about some of the dos, don'ts and more don'ts of his very personalized trade." That alone makes it a must-read, of course, but Kaufman also talks a bit about the project he's working on now, Frank or Francis, noting that "the scope of it and the world it inhabits is very, very large. In the broadest possible sense, it's about online film criticism, but as usual, the world that I'm writing about is not necessarily the world that I'm writing about. It's just a place to set it. There's a lot in there about the internet and anger: cultural, societal and individual anger. And isolation in this particular age we live in. And competition: it's about the idea of people in this world wanting to be seen.
- 9/30/2011
- MUBI
I want to bang the drum a bit for Far From Afghanistan, a project inspired by the 1967 omnibus film, Far From Vietnam. The roster of contributing filmmakers is impressive to say the least: John Gianvito (Profit motive and the whispering wind), Jon Jost (All The Vermeers in New York), Minda Martin (Free Land), Travis Wilkerson (Distinguished Flying Cross) and Soon-Mi Yoo (Dangerous Supplement). You can read about each of their new films here, but overall, the goal is "to contribute to the international effort to redirect Us policy away from military and political intervention toward true humanitarian and developmental care-giving." If that strikes a chord, you might consider chipping in to the Kickstarter campaign. For one week, starting on October 6, you can watch the works-in-progress.
Isabelle Marinoni's essay "Surrealism in the Service of the Fantastic: Jean Rollin, a 'Parallel' Director in Libertarian French Cinema" makes for a nifty supplement to Arena,...
Isabelle Marinoni's essay "Surrealism in the Service of the Fantastic: Jean Rollin, a 'Parallel' Director in Libertarian French Cinema" makes for a nifty supplement to Arena,...
- 9/23/2011
- MUBI
Sorry to all for the week off. A little festival called Sundance was happening, and this column would have been lost in the hustle and bustle. Plus, I’ve become agoraphobic after editing Orphaned for three weeks straight now. I no longer possess social skills and hygiene. (But the movie looks good so far!) After our second article posted, Blake Eckard contacted me and thought I needed to talk to someone Asap. It could only be one person, Jon Jost (pictured below). Jon is one of Blake’s favorite film directors and he is a legendary indie filmmaker. It was a no-brainer. But what did he want to talk about? Jon (who’s last name is eerily similar to mine.) was on his way to premiere his latest film Imagens de uma cidade perdida at this year’s Rotterdam Film Festival, and had festivals on the brain. He sent me...
- 2/1/2011
- by John Yost
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Tony Palmer started it, Scorsese and Peckinpah refined it, but John Patterson reveals his most brutal head shot of them all
The best scene in Anton Corbijn's The American is its first, when contract killer George Clooney, ambushed by gunmen during a stroll with a new lover, shoots his two unknown assailants before dispatching, with extreme and chilling pragmatism, said lover and sole witness with a bullet through the back of the head. Surprise and moral revulsion are what make the moment so potent, but the horror of it is undoubtedly magnified by the fact that the bullet goes into her brain.
I'm obsessed with brutal head shots in movies, perhaps even become a connoisseur of them, because I've watched their rise from rarity to ubiquity, marvelling at how used to them I've become, despite once hating them so much. My obsession began when I first saw Tony Palmer...
The best scene in Anton Corbijn's The American is its first, when contract killer George Clooney, ambushed by gunmen during a stroll with a new lover, shoots his two unknown assailants before dispatching, with extreme and chilling pragmatism, said lover and sole witness with a bullet through the back of the head. Surprise and moral revulsion are what make the moment so potent, but the horror of it is undoubtedly magnified by the fact that the bullet goes into her brain.
I'm obsessed with brutal head shots in movies, perhaps even become a connoisseur of them, because I've watched their rise from rarity to ubiquity, marvelling at how used to them I've become, despite once hating them so much. My obsession began when I first saw Tony Palmer...
- 11/20/2010
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
The Limits Of Control gives us a frustrating glimpse of the conspiracy-therory thriller that the cult director will never make
We expect the work of our favourite directors to develop and expand with each new movie, not deteriorate. An artist's career should ripen before us, not rot, as seems to be happening with Jim Jarmusch.
In his latest, The Limits Of Control, Jarmusch intimates the outlines of a widespread international conspiracy – a lone contract killer stalks his target across an arid Spain – by letting us see only fragments of it. But, frankly I'd rather see the pulse-pounding, cliche-ridden thriller he scorned trying to make. As with much of his increasingly mannered "mature" work, in Control, Jarmusch peppers a trite, transcendently unenlightening and uninvolving script with the usual distracting bits of business (here, the hitman, who spends much time receiving cryptic messages in matchboxes, needs his double espresso served in two separate cups … um,...
We expect the work of our favourite directors to develop and expand with each new movie, not deteriorate. An artist's career should ripen before us, not rot, as seems to be happening with Jim Jarmusch.
In his latest, The Limits Of Control, Jarmusch intimates the outlines of a widespread international conspiracy – a lone contract killer stalks his target across an arid Spain – by letting us see only fragments of it. But, frankly I'd rather see the pulse-pounding, cliche-ridden thriller he scorned trying to make. As with much of his increasingly mannered "mature" work, in Control, Jarmusch peppers a trite, transcendently unenlightening and uninvolving script with the usual distracting bits of business (here, the hitman, who spends much time receiving cryptic messages in matchboxes, needs his double espresso served in two separate cups … um,...
- 12/5/2009
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
If you're going to ask me (once again) who I considered to be one of the most controversial filmmakers today, then I would name Michael Haneke (right after Lars von Trier, of course). While von Trier's movies can be overwhelming at times, Haneke's can be very daunting and just like subjecting one self to torture. If von Trier loves to portray America without touching American soil, Haneke loves to teach his viewers a dose of their own medicine - patronizing American escapist movies is like committing a crime, there will be punishment sooner or later.
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- 10/26/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
If you're going to ask me (once again) who I considered to be one of the most controversial filmmakers today, then I would name Michael Haneke (right after Lars von Trier, of course). While von Trier's movies can be overwhelming at times, Haneke's can be very daunting and just like subjecting one self to torture. If von Trier loves to portray America without touching American soil, Haneke loves to teach his viewers a dose of their own medicine - patronizing American escapist movies is like committing a crime, there will be punishment sooner or later.
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- 10/26/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
If you're going to ask me (once again) who I considered to be one of the most controversial filmmakers today, then I would name Michael Haneke (right after Lars von Trier, of course). While von Trier's movies can be overwhelming at times, Haneke's can be very daunting and just like subjecting one self to torture. If von Trier loves to portray America without touching American soil, Haneke loves to teach his viewers a dose of their own medicine - patronizing American escapist movies is like committing a crime, there will be punishment sooner or later.
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- 10/26/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
If you're going to ask me (once again) who I considered to be one of the most controversial filmmakers today, then I would name Michael Haneke (right after Lars von Trier, of course). While von Trier's movies can be overwhelming at times, Haneke's can be very daunting and just like subjecting one self to torture. If von Trier loves to portray America without touching American soil, Haneke loves to teach his viewers a dose of their own medicine - patronizing American escapist movies is like committing a crime, there will be punishment sooner or later.
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- 10/26/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
If you're going to ask me (once again) who I considered to be one of the most controversial filmmakers today, then I would name Michael Haneke (right after Lars von Trier, of course). While von Trier's movies can be overwhelming at times, Haneke's can be very daunting and just like subjecting one self to torture. If von Trier loves to portray America without touching American soil, Haneke loves to teach his viewers a dose of their own medicine - patronizing American escapist movies is like committing a crime, there will be punishment sooner or later.
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- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- - -
- - - But how to begin? Perhaps a look at The White Ribbon, his latest would be a good way to start. Instead of a chronological set of events, we start from the most recent.
More about The White Ribbon, Haneke's previous movie Funny Games and some insights into the Austrian filmmaker after the jump!
- 10/26/2009
- by modelwatcher@gmail.com (Jed Medina)
- The Movie Fanatic
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