As part of this year’s Variety Global Conversations at the Cannes Film Festival, representatives from the Czech Republic engaged in a lively discussion about the industry’s state of affairs and celebrated 20 years of involvement at the Marché du Film.
Markéta Šantrochová, head of the Czech Film Center at the Czech Film Fund; Pavlína Žipková, head of the Czech Film Commission at the Czech Film Fund; and Petr Tichý, CEO of Barrandov Studio, participated in the talk, moderated by Variety’s Leo Barraclough.
According to Zipkova, the Czech delegation wanted to make one key point clear to everyone in attendance: “If there is only one thing you need to remember from this session, it is that the Czech Film Fund production incentives scheme is open. It’ll never close again. Let me repeat. It is opened; it’s not closing down,” she insisted.
Her confidence in making such a...
Markéta Šantrochová, head of the Czech Film Center at the Czech Film Fund; Pavlína Žipková, head of the Czech Film Commission at the Czech Film Fund; and Petr Tichý, CEO of Barrandov Studio, participated in the talk, moderated by Variety’s Leo Barraclough.
According to Zipkova, the Czech delegation wanted to make one key point clear to everyone in attendance: “If there is only one thing you need to remember from this session, it is that the Czech Film Fund production incentives scheme is open. It’ll never close again. Let me repeat. It is opened; it’s not closing down,” she insisted.
Her confidence in making such a...
- 5/21/2024
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
Superstar is my favorite new-to-me film of 2023. What's yours?
As the year draws to a close, it's time for reflection and hopes for the year to come. All over film publications, lists dominate, cataloging the best pictures of 2023, rushing to proclaim their champions before the ball drops. Here, however, let's do another exercise. Looking back at the past twelve months, I like to think about my favorite first-time watches of years gone by, classics and other sorts that were new to me, even if they were well known to everybody else.
I think of Brian De Palma's Body Double, a perverse predilection I discovered on my travails through Erotic Thrillers. Then, there was Labyrinth of Cinema, Nobuhiko Obayashi's swan song, and a wild counterpoint to Nolan's Oppenheimer. While I wrote about those two, I have yet to mention my affection for Jafar Panahi's rebellious...
Superstar is my favorite new-to-me film of 2023. What's yours?
As the year draws to a close, it's time for reflection and hopes for the year to come. All over film publications, lists dominate, cataloging the best pictures of 2023, rushing to proclaim their champions before the ball drops. Here, however, let's do another exercise. Looking back at the past twelve months, I like to think about my favorite first-time watches of years gone by, classics and other sorts that were new to me, even if they were well known to everybody else.
I think of Brian De Palma's Body Double, a perverse predilection I discovered on my travails through Erotic Thrillers. Then, there was Labyrinth of Cinema, Nobuhiko Obayashi's swan song, and a wild counterpoint to Nolan's Oppenheimer. While I wrote about those two, I have yet to mention my affection for Jafar Panahi's rebellious...
- 12/31/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
There's a wonderful little indie distributor based in NYC called Zeitgeist Films, founded in 1988. If you're a die-hard cinephile, you probably already recognize the name. They've supported amazing filmmakers and little films that deserve to be seen in US art house cinemas. From their website, they explain Zeitgeist as: "Distributed over 200 of the finest independent films from the U.S. and around the world including the early works of Todd Haynes, Christopher Nolan, François Ozon, Laura Poitras, Atom Egoyan and the Quay Brothers. Their catalog has also included films from the world's most outstanding filmmakers: Agnes Varda, Guy Maddin, Olivier Assayas, Jia Zhang-ke, Abbas Kiarostami, Derek Jarman, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Peter Greenaway, Philippe Garrel, Yvonne Rainer, Jan Svankmajer, Margarethe Von Trotta, Andrei Zyvagintsev and Raoul Peck." To celebrate their 35th anniversary, Metrograph is hosting screenings of some of their finest gems. "We're particularly looking forward to reuniting with some of...
- 11/6/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
With 42 short films across six programmes representing 23 countries, this year’s Short Cuts lineup at the Toronto International Film Festival continues its tradition of profiling a wide variety of world cinema from new and established filmmakers. And like in prior years, we were lucky enough to watch this year’s selection and report on some of the best short films playing at TIFF this year. Here are ten shorts that constitute some highlights from this year’s programme.
1001 Nights (Rea Rajčić)
In Rea Rajčić’s documentary, two octogenarian women get together every day to sit down and watch Turkish soap operas, a routine that proves to be more than just appointment viewing. Cutting between gorgeous shots of peacocks roaming the streets of their city and the two women seated in an apartment living room––sleeping, commenting, and bickering as they watch their stories––Rajčić highlights the strong connection between her subjects.
1001 Nights (Rea Rajčić)
In Rea Rajčić’s documentary, two octogenarian women get together every day to sit down and watch Turkish soap operas, a routine that proves to be more than just appointment viewing. Cutting between gorgeous shots of peacocks roaming the streets of their city and the two women seated in an apartment living room––sleeping, commenting, and bickering as they watch their stories––Rajčić highlights the strong connection between her subjects.
- 9/5/2023
- by C.J. Prince
- The Film Stage
With horseback riding comes pleasure, pain, and the kind of purpose that could only be derived from the bond between a woman and a horse. It’s with this in mind that Berlin-based visual artist Ann Oren co-wrote and directed her feature debut “Piaffe,” which is also inspired by the concept of a female centaur, or a woman whose sexual organs are, well, horse-like.
“Piaffe” premiered at the 2022 Locarno International Festival, where it became a critical hit. Co-written by Thais Guisasola, Oren’s “Piaffe” may sound like a surreal drug-induced fantasy: An introverted woman named Eva (Simone Bucio) grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug. Eva becomes part of a Bdsm relationship with a botanist (Sebastian Rudolph) that involves auto-erotic asphyxiation, whipping, and more kinks.
But while Eva is the submissive subject in the relationship, Oren explained to IndieWire that “Piaffe” is...
“Piaffe” premiered at the 2022 Locarno International Festival, where it became a critical hit. Co-written by Thais Guisasola, Oren’s “Piaffe” may sound like a surreal drug-induced fantasy: An introverted woman named Eva (Simone Bucio) grows a horse’s tail while foleying sound for a commercial about an equine-inspired drug. Eva becomes part of a Bdsm relationship with a botanist (Sebastian Rudolph) that involves auto-erotic asphyxiation, whipping, and more kinks.
But while Eva is the submissive subject in the relationship, Oren explained to IndieWire that “Piaffe” is...
- 8/24/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
In Robert Hloz’s sci-fi feature debut “Restore Point,” second chances are big business.
In the year 2041, anyone who has an unnatural death has the right to be brought back to life, provided they’ve dutifully created a backup of their personality called a “restore point.”
Naturally, some object to the notion of artificially extending life ad infinitum, wherein the story begins to get complicated.
“I wanted to make a sci-fi film since I was a little kid,” Hloz says, “but I would never guess that it will happen to be my debut. I thought maybe third, fourth film.”
But, as the Czech director recalls, he found himself going through notes for film ideas from screenwriter Tomislav Cecka and one of them began to loom large.
“He came up with an idea for a very realistic sci-fi about our society in the near future, where people can be restored if something bad happens to them,...
In the year 2041, anyone who has an unnatural death has the right to be brought back to life, provided they’ve dutifully created a backup of their personality called a “restore point.”
Naturally, some object to the notion of artificially extending life ad infinitum, wherein the story begins to get complicated.
“I wanted to make a sci-fi film since I was a little kid,” Hloz says, “but I would never guess that it will happen to be my debut. I thought maybe third, fourth film.”
But, as the Czech director recalls, he found himself going through notes for film ideas from screenwriter Tomislav Cecka and one of them began to loom large.
“He came up with an idea for a very realistic sci-fi about our society in the near future, where people can be restored if something bad happens to them,...
- 7/3/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
by Cláudio Alves
Dear reader, if you've noticed my relative absence in these early days of May, I can only apologize. I've been busy covering the 20th edition of the IndieLisboa film festival in the Portuguese capital. The event is a grand affair for the celebration of national and international independent cinema, with multiple competitive sections and prizes at the end of it all. This year's international competition winner was Juraj Lerotic's Safe Place, which I wrote about last year when reviewing various International Film Oscar submissions. Other titles should be less familiar to The Film Experience's readership, so this feels like an excellent opportunity to offer recommendations and spread the word on some nifty flicks.
From an out-of-focus Hong Sang-soo experiment to an extensive Jan Švankmajer retrospective, from shorts to features, a little over 300 films made up the festival's program. Having watched roughly a third of those, here are ten highlights…...
Dear reader, if you've noticed my relative absence in these early days of May, I can only apologize. I've been busy covering the 20th edition of the IndieLisboa film festival in the Portuguese capital. The event is a grand affair for the celebration of national and international independent cinema, with multiple competitive sections and prizes at the end of it all. This year's international competition winner was Juraj Lerotic's Safe Place, which I wrote about last year when reviewing various International Film Oscar submissions. Other titles should be less familiar to The Film Experience's readership, so this feels like an excellent opportunity to offer recommendations and spread the word on some nifty flicks.
From an out-of-focus Hong Sang-soo experiment to an extensive Jan Švankmajer retrospective, from shorts to features, a little over 300 films made up the festival's program. Having watched roughly a third of those, here are ten highlights…...
- 5/11/2023
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Norwegian animation “Pesta,” directed by Hanne Berkaak, will head to the Frontières Platform in May. Directed at genre film professionals, the event is organized by the Fantasia International Film Festival with the Cannes’ Marché du Film.
The film, set in 1349 during the outbreak of the Black Plague, will see two teenagers, Astrid and Eilev, fighting for their forbidden love among the apocalypse as Astrid, a nobleman’s daughter, struggles with her growing desire for “the outcast heathen.”
Granted development funding from the Norwegian Film Institute, “Pesta” is produced by Mikrofilm’s Tonje Skar Reiersen and Lise Fearnley. It’s also named after a shadowy figure from Norwegian folklore, a personification of the plague itself.
“She was depicted as an old woman travelling from farm to farm, carrying a rake and a broom. Where she used her rake, some would survive. Where she swept her broom, everyone would die. Dark stuff,...
The film, set in 1349 during the outbreak of the Black Plague, will see two teenagers, Astrid and Eilev, fighting for their forbidden love among the apocalypse as Astrid, a nobleman’s daughter, struggles with her growing desire for “the outcast heathen.”
Granted development funding from the Norwegian Film Institute, “Pesta” is produced by Mikrofilm’s Tonje Skar Reiersen and Lise Fearnley. It’s also named after a shadowy figure from Norwegian folklore, a personification of the plague itself.
“She was depicted as an old woman travelling from farm to farm, carrying a rake and a broom. Where she used her rake, some would survive. Where she swept her broom, everyone would die. Dark stuff,...
- 4/5/2023
- by Marta Balaga
- Variety Film + TV
In a major shift one of the nation’s premier arthouses, Karen Cooper will be exiting as director on June 30 after 50 years running the Film Forum in New York City. Deputy Director Sonya Chung will assume the role.
Cooper has led the nonprofit cinema since its first iteration in 1972 as a 50-seat loft space on the Upper West Side open only weekends, to a multi-million dollar operation with four screens and 500 seats in lower Manhattan. She’ll remain an advisor to Chung with a focus on programming premieres and fundraising
“To say this is a transitional moment would be a vast understatement – for virtually all of its history, Film Forum has been energetically and most ably guided by Karen, not least during the very challenging pandemic period from which we are emerging. My board colleagues and I are extremely grateful for her tenure, and excited that in Sonya we have...
Cooper has led the nonprofit cinema since its first iteration in 1972 as a 50-seat loft space on the Upper West Side open only weekends, to a multi-million dollar operation with four screens and 500 seats in lower Manhattan. She’ll remain an advisor to Chung with a focus on programming premieres and fundraising
“To say this is a transitional moment would be a vast understatement – for virtually all of its history, Film Forum has been energetically and most ably guided by Karen, not least during the very challenging pandemic period from which we are emerging. My board colleagues and I are extremely grateful for her tenure, and excited that in Sonya we have...
- 1/9/2023
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
Grimmfest, Manchester’s International Festival of Fantastic Film have announced the first wave titles for the 2022 festival – which will be returning to regular venue, The Odeon Great Northern, in Manchester on October 6th – 9th, for four high-impact, fear-filled days of the very best in genre cinema. Check out this opening barrage of international frights:
A young girl, struggling to awake from a coma, navigates the nightmare-freighted world of her own subconscious, in Ryan Stevens Harris’s astonishing steampunk gothic fairy tale, Moon Garden, which evokes the best of Jan Svankmajer and Terry Gilliam, Cronenberg and Clive Barker, for an emotionally charged, deeply personal narrative of redemption and renewal, that will enchant and haunt in equal measure. Grimmfest are thrilled to be hosting the film’s international premiere.
An international premiere, too, for Scott Slone’s whip-smart, genre-savvy reinvention of the perennially popular Paranormal Investigation Found Footage trope, Malibu Horror Story.
A young girl, struggling to awake from a coma, navigates the nightmare-freighted world of her own subconscious, in Ryan Stevens Harris’s astonishing steampunk gothic fairy tale, Moon Garden, which evokes the best of Jan Svankmajer and Terry Gilliam, Cronenberg and Clive Barker, for an emotionally charged, deeply personal narrative of redemption and renewal, that will enchant and haunt in equal measure. Grimmfest are thrilled to be hosting the film’s international premiere.
An international premiere, too, for Scott Slone’s whip-smart, genre-savvy reinvention of the perennially popular Paranormal Investigation Found Footage trope, Malibu Horror Story.
- 7/11/2022
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
Clam Happy: Fleischer-Camp Fleshes Out His Amusing/Absurd Sketch of a Precocious Mollusk
On paper, the inevitability of something like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On straying into either frivolity or teeth gritting tweeness seems a given. Such cynical expectations actually serve to heighten an unexpected poignancy and abundance of charm to be experienced in this mockumentary of an anthropomorphized mollusk voiced by Jenny Slate, a character she developed with director Dean Fleischer-Camp across three short films (from 2010 to 2014).
Although more of an escapist bit of sweetness, this mix of stop-motion animation plays like Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky (2018) as a Jan Svankmajer exercise, a surprisingly adept and ultimately infectious jolt on endings, beginnings and friendship amplified by a depiction of hyper articulate behaviors used to circumvent melancholy and desolation.…...
On paper, the inevitability of something like Marcel the Shell with Shoes On straying into either frivolity or teeth gritting tweeness seems a given. Such cynical expectations actually serve to heighten an unexpected poignancy and abundance of charm to be experienced in this mockumentary of an anthropomorphized mollusk voiced by Jenny Slate, a character she developed with director Dean Fleischer-Camp across three short films (from 2010 to 2014).
Although more of an escapist bit of sweetness, this mix of stop-motion animation plays like Mike Leigh’s Happy Go Lucky (2018) as a Jan Svankmajer exercise, a surprisingly adept and ultimately infectious jolt on endings, beginnings and friendship amplified by a depiction of hyper articulate behaviors used to circumvent melancholy and desolation.…...
- 6/25/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The Egg & I: Bergholm Births Straightforward Tween Body Horror
Finland’s Hanna Bergholm makes a splash with her interesting, if ultimately one-note debut, Hatching, a metaphorical horror film borrowing folktale elements to provide a meaningful template examining familial and emotional dysfunction. At its core, Berholm’s film employs a phenomenal use of practical effects, and anyone with a soft spot for creepy creature features will enjoy this throwback to Cronenberg and Jan Svankmajer.
Although not nearly as layered a narrative as it could be, with events unspooling as expected once all the prime elements are introduced, scribe Ilja Rautsi’s sentiments about parent/child relationships, repressed personalities and the toxic superficiality of social media bolster significant empathy for a young protagonist consumed and disfigured by her internalized distress.…...
Finland’s Hanna Bergholm makes a splash with her interesting, if ultimately one-note debut, Hatching, a metaphorical horror film borrowing folktale elements to provide a meaningful template examining familial and emotional dysfunction. At its core, Berholm’s film employs a phenomenal use of practical effects, and anyone with a soft spot for creepy creature features will enjoy this throwback to Cronenberg and Jan Svankmajer.
Although not nearly as layered a narrative as it could be, with events unspooling as expected once all the prime elements are introduced, scribe Ilja Rautsi’s sentiments about parent/child relationships, repressed personalities and the toxic superficiality of social media bolster significant empathy for a young protagonist consumed and disfigured by her internalized distress.…...
- 4/27/2022
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Seymour Wishman, a longtime producer, writer, legal expert and president of First Run Features, died on Jan. 29 at a family home in Bridgewater, Conn., his daughter Samantha confirmed to Variety. He was 79.
Over the past 38 years, Wishman had served as president of First Run Features. During his time at the N.Y.-based independent film distribution company, Wishman brought Michael Apted’s “28 Up” (and later the entire “Up” series) to the United States and helped Ross McElwee finish and release “Sherman’s March” — as well as McElwee’s other films, including “Bright Leaves” and “Six O’Clock News.” Wishman also released Spike Lee’s “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” (the director’s first feature film and his graduate school thesis), Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice” and many other independent pictures.
On the production side, Seymour co-directed and produced “Sex & Justice,” a documentary on...
Over the past 38 years, Wishman had served as president of First Run Features. During his time at the N.Y.-based independent film distribution company, Wishman brought Michael Apted’s “28 Up” (and later the entire “Up” series) to the United States and helped Ross McElwee finish and release “Sherman’s March” — as well as McElwee’s other films, including “Bright Leaves” and “Six O’Clock News.” Wishman also released Spike Lee’s “Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads” (the director’s first feature film and his graduate school thesis), Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” Jan Svankmajer’s “Alice” and many other independent pictures.
On the production side, Seymour co-directed and produced “Sex & Justice,” a documentary on...
- 2/14/2022
- by Wyatte Grantham-Philips
- Variety Film + TV
French helmer Bertrand Mandico has achieved a cult following for his gender-bending sensorial surrealist visions, with more than 20 short films and two feature films completed to date.
His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.
His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.
The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...
His first feature, “The Wild Boys,” about five wealthy adolescent boys sent to a tropical island, all played by actresses, premiered in Venice. It won the Louis-Delluc 2018 prize for best first film and topped Cahiers du Cinéma’s 2018 list of Top 10 films.
His sophomore feature “After Blue (Dirty Paradise),” is a sci-fi western, again primarily with a female cast, including Mandico’s fetish actress Elina Löwensohn. It had its world premiere at Locarno in 2021, where it won the Fipresci prize, followed by its North American premiere in Toronto’s Midnight Madness sidebar, and U.S. premiere in the Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Film. It won the Special Jury Prize at Sitges.
The helmer is now completing post-production on his third feature,...
- 1/13/2022
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
One of the most inventive, stunningly nightmarish animations of the last decade, The Wolf House was the work of Chilean filmmakers Cristobal León and Joaquín Cociña. Now, quickly after their debut feature film, they are returning with their follow-up, the 14-minute short Los Huesos, and they’ve found a perfect pairing with another director whose horror creations have left a vivid mark: Hereditary and Midsommar helmer Ari Aster, who has executive-produced the Venice-bound short alongside Adam Butterfield and Lucas Engel. Ahead of the premiere, we’re delighted to exclusively present the trailer.
Shot on a 16mm Bolex, the short is a fictitious account of the world’s first stop-motion animated film. Dated 1901 and excavated in 2021 as Chile drafts a new Constitution, the footage documents a ritual performed by a girl who appears to use human corpses. Emerging in the ritual are Diego Portales and Jaime Guzmán, central figures in the...
Shot on a 16mm Bolex, the short is a fictitious account of the world’s first stop-motion animated film. Dated 1901 and excavated in 2021 as Chile drafts a new Constitution, the footage documents a ritual performed by a girl who appears to use human corpses. Emerging in the ritual are Diego Portales and Jaime Guzmán, central figures in the...
- 8/19/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Winners of an Annecy Animation Festival best feature jury distinction, Chile’s Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña (“The Wolf House”) have wrapped shooting on a new short, “The Bones,” a stop-motion piece for adult audiences with a bold auteur aim.
“Bones” is produced by Lucas Engel’s new company Pista B in co-production with Diluvio. Director Ari Aster and Adam Butterfield are executive producing the short. It will be ready to premiere in the second half of this year.
“With ‘La Casa Lobo’ (‘The Wolf House’), Cociña and León struck me as the clear successors to Jan Svankmajer and the Quays,” Aster told Variety of his decision to board the film. “Here they seem to be channeling Ladislas Starevich and Joel-Peter Witkin, while sharpening their uncanny and unmistakable signature. ‘Los Huesos’ is a brilliant film by two utterly singular filmmakers.”
American composer and charismatic violinist Tim Fain created the film...
“Bones” is produced by Lucas Engel’s new company Pista B in co-production with Diluvio. Director Ari Aster and Adam Butterfield are executive producing the short. It will be ready to premiere in the second half of this year.
“With ‘La Casa Lobo’ (‘The Wolf House’), Cociña and León struck me as the clear successors to Jan Svankmajer and the Quays,” Aster told Variety of his decision to board the film. “Here they seem to be channeling Ladislas Starevich and Joel-Peter Witkin, while sharpening their uncanny and unmistakable signature. ‘Los Huesos’ is a brilliant film by two utterly singular filmmakers.”
American composer and charismatic violinist Tim Fain created the film...
- 7/7/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga and Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
This mix is a focus on moments of Johann Sebastian Bach’s neverending filmography that have stuck to memory. The opener belongs in my mind to Kinji Fukasaku’s Battle Royale (2000). “Air on D String” has over 30,000 titles featured on an IMDb search and I find myself thinking of Scorsese's After Hours (1985). Bach’s sound is sacred, a fact that two of cinema’s beloved philosophers, Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky responded to throughout their careers. This mix includes Bach in Persona (1966) and The Sacrifice (1986). The earliest use in horror, in Rouben Mamoulian’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931) with the “Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Bwv 565” is now synonymous with the macabre. A piece which fans of Fantasia (1940) and Sunset Boulevard (1950) will recognize too. And an audience may feel differently about “The Goldberg Variations” upon watching Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of The Lambs (1991). The sounds of Bach...
- 7/1/2021
- MUBI
The wondrous, sometimes bizarre work of the celebrated Czech animator and surrealist Jan Svankmajer has inspired admirers far and wide for two generations, from Terry Gilliam to the Brothers Quay. A new doc, “Alchemical Furnace,” about the maestro’s processes and inspirations played at the Ji.hlava Intl. Documentary Film Festival, made by two close colleagues of the 86-year-old artist.
Svankmajer, whose roots lie in the revolutionary Laterna Magika theater of the 60s, is studied around the world for his use of handheld 16mm cameras, a wood shop and freezers full of meat to create films such as 1988’s loose interpretation of the Lewis Carroll fairy-tale “Alice,” the 1996 tribute to carnal obsession “Conspirators of Pleasure” and the 2000 fairy-tale of an insatiable demon baby “Otesanek.” His last film, 2018’s “Insect,” casts a host of Czech stars in a theater production that becomes terminally infested.
Cinematographer and director Adam Olha and editor...
Svankmajer, whose roots lie in the revolutionary Laterna Magika theater of the 60s, is studied around the world for his use of handheld 16mm cameras, a wood shop and freezers full of meat to create films such as 1988’s loose interpretation of the Lewis Carroll fairy-tale “Alice,” the 1996 tribute to carnal obsession “Conspirators of Pleasure” and the 2000 fairy-tale of an insatiable demon baby “Otesanek.” His last film, 2018’s “Insect,” casts a host of Czech stars in a theater production that becomes terminally infested.
Cinematographer and director Adam Olha and editor...
- 11/1/2020
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Stars: Anastasiya Yevtushenko, Darya Tregubova, Maria Bruni, Anna Sukhomlyn, Sergey Kalantay | Written and Directed by Dmitriy Tomashpolskiy
Written and directed by Dmitriy Tomashpolskiy (Promenade a Paris), Stranger is a mysterious science fiction thriller from Ukraine. Six swimmers go missing in the middle of a synchronised swimming performance and a woman appears to have dissolved into thin air whilst in a bathtub. An investigator, with no unsolved cases, attempts to look into these odd disappearances in an attempt to figure out what the hell is going on.
Stranger is a mind-bender of a film, that much is certain, and the curious plot and surreal feel to the film go into creating something very unique. This is the kind of movie that doesn’t follow a linear line and give you all the answers to those questions you have. It doesn’t have a start, middle or end that will quell your thirst for knowledge,...
Written and directed by Dmitriy Tomashpolskiy (Promenade a Paris), Stranger is a mysterious science fiction thriller from Ukraine. Six swimmers go missing in the middle of a synchronised swimming performance and a woman appears to have dissolved into thin air whilst in a bathtub. An investigator, with no unsolved cases, attempts to look into these odd disappearances in an attempt to figure out what the hell is going on.
Stranger is a mind-bender of a film, that much is certain, and the curious plot and surreal feel to the film go into creating something very unique. This is the kind of movie that doesn’t follow a linear line and give you all the answers to those questions you have. It doesn’t have a start, middle or end that will quell your thirst for knowledge,...
- 10/27/2020
- by Chris Cummings
- Nerdly
Pioneering Czech animator Jan Švankmajer has inspired devoted fans of his work around the world. And if your response to that statement is: "who?" it just shows that you haven't been introduced to any of his films yet. Now is a splendid time to get acquainted with Faust (1994), his timeless adaptation of a classic tale. It will open in Virtual Cinemas in the U.S. tomorrow. What is the movie all about? Per the official synopsis: "Jan Svankmajer's Faust is a rendering of the infamous Dr. Faustus fable of temptation and damnation. Borrowing freely from both Marlowe and Goethe and ancient folktales and timeless myths, the story follows a lonely Czech businessman who sells his soul to the devil in return...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/17/2020
- Screen Anarchy
Jan Svankmajer’s Faust (1994) starts playing on the Webster Film Series Virtual Cinema on 09/18. Please visit webster.edu/film-series for more information. A link to the screening room can be found Here
Review by Stephen Tronicek
I’ve heard my father’s home country of the Czech Republic (Czechia) called, “The Wild West of Europe.” That people went there when they, “wanted to do drugs and shoot illegal fireworks.” It’s quite fitting then, that whatever Czech cinema I have experienced tends to break rules and throw all genre constraints out the window. From the groundbreaking satire of Miloš Forman, to the surreal experiments of Věra Chytilová, Czech cinema has never feared being different.
This brings us to Jan Švankmajer, the stop-motion animation guru behind some of Czech cinemas best films. Švankmajer’s approach to allegorical storytelling comes with the same tongue in cheek demeanor of Forman and Chytilová, but...
Review by Stephen Tronicek
I’ve heard my father’s home country of the Czech Republic (Czechia) called, “The Wild West of Europe.” That people went there when they, “wanted to do drugs and shoot illegal fireworks.” It’s quite fitting then, that whatever Czech cinema I have experienced tends to break rules and throw all genre constraints out the window. From the groundbreaking satire of Miloš Forman, to the surreal experiments of Věra Chytilová, Czech cinema has never feared being different.
This brings us to Jan Švankmajer, the stop-motion animation guru behind some of Czech cinemas best films. Švankmajer’s approach to allegorical storytelling comes with the same tongue in cheek demeanor of Forman and Chytilová, but...
- 9/15/2020
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
If cinema can be viewed as an evolutionary form, a missing link would certainly be Czech director Karel Zemen. One must first ruminate on the necessary inspiration of classic literary figures whose words provided the impetus for visual storytelling. If Zeman can be cited as the successor to Georges Melies, we must include cinematic precursors like Jules Verne, whose texts provided the backbone for Zeman in particular, employing a pronounced hybrid style of live-action and animation. And extending from Zeman, we see his fingerprints on the works of his fellow countryman Jan Svankmajer and a host of American iconoclasts, from Terry Gilliam to Wes Anderson to Tim Burton.…...
- 3/24/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
An utterly bizarre, frequently grotesque, occasionally obscene singularity, Polish artist Mariusz Wilczynski’s abrasive animation “Kill It and Leave This Town” exists so far outside the realm of the expected, the acceptable and the neatly comprehensible that it acts as a striking reminder of just how narrow that realm can be. Occupying a conceptual space several universes away from “reality,” the scratchy, hand-drawn interior epic is alarmingly niche in appeal, but if you can slip into that tiny schism, it certainly rewards with one of the most nightmarishly original dystopian visions you are likely to encounter this year.
Willfully lo-fi, rendered in often crude black and white lines and smudges occasionally accented with tiny spots of color — a pilot light, a row of cigarette packs, a fizzing neon sign in the shape of a ram — the film is noted animator Wilczyński’s first feature, but has been in the works for 11 years,...
Willfully lo-fi, rendered in often crude black and white lines and smudges occasionally accented with tiny spots of color — a pilot light, a row of cigarette packs, a fizzing neon sign in the shape of a ram — the film is noted animator Wilczyński’s first feature, but has been in the works for 11 years,...
- 3/10/2020
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Ikeda Akira began to make his own short films while studying English literature at Bunkyo University. After being involved in various fields such as theatre, music, and dance, he directed his first feature-length film “The Blue Monkey” in 2006. “Anatomy of a Paper Clip” (2013), his second feature.won the Tiger Award at Iffr. “Ambiguous Places” is his third feature.
On the occasion of “Ambiguous Places” screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam, we speak with him about his career, the movie and its strangeness, Japanese cinema and his future projects.
“Ambiguous Places” screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Why did you decide to become a filmmaker and where do you draw inspiration from, for your films? What about Ambiguous Places?
Since I was a child, I wanted to create something. I think any genre or method was good for me, literature, music or art. I think film is my favorite and easiest to create.
On the occasion of “Ambiguous Places” screening at International Film Festival Rotterdam, we speak with him about his career, the movie and its strangeness, Japanese cinema and his future projects.
“Ambiguous Places” screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam
Why did you decide to become a filmmaker and where do you draw inspiration from, for your films? What about Ambiguous Places?
Since I was a child, I wanted to create something. I think any genre or method was good for me, literature, music or art. I think film is my favorite and easiest to create.
- 1/5/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
In the past four months or so since I last did this, the following on my @movieposterofthday (leave off the last e for elegance) Instagram has more than tripled, which makes this best-of round-up more competitive. Sadly, as is often the case, a lot of my posts were occasioned by the passing of an actor or director, or, in the case of the most popular poster yet, by a composer. The lovely two-color American half sheet for The Umbrellas of Cherbourg was posted in honor of Michel Legrand, who passed away in January at 86 just the day after Serbian director Dušan Makavejev, who was also 86 and whose ribald German poster for Sweet Movie also made the top 20. Other passings recognized were Stanley Donen (with a Japanese Funny Face), Nicolas Roeg (a Us Performance), and Bruno Ganz (a French Wings of Desire). It’s impossible to tell if people are liking...
- 3/22/2019
- MUBI
Fred Mogubgub is primarily known for his television advertising work, but he also made underground short films that combined animation, illustration and live action, such as The Pop Show (1966).
Mogubgub’s name does not appear in most — if any — texts discussing avant-garde and experimental film made in the late ’60s and early ’70s, even though the Underground Film Journal has found that his work was included in “underground” screenings in 1970.
A night of Mogubgub’s films was included in the 1970 New York Underground Film Festival that screened at Max’s Kansas City on October 12-19. Mogubgub’s films screened on the 14th and it’s fairly likely that The Pop Show was included in the event, but cannot be verified. Mogubgub passed away in 1989.
Most notable about The Pop Show is the appearance of Gloria Steinem, who appears in the film uncredited.
Mogubgub is possibly most famous for a mural...
Mogubgub’s name does not appear in most — if any — texts discussing avant-garde and experimental film made in the late ’60s and early ’70s, even though the Underground Film Journal has found that his work was included in “underground” screenings in 1970.
A night of Mogubgub’s films was included in the 1970 New York Underground Film Festival that screened at Max’s Kansas City on October 12-19. Mogubgub’s films screened on the 14th and it’s fairly likely that The Pop Show was included in the event, but cannot be verified. Mogubgub passed away in 1989.
Most notable about The Pop Show is the appearance of Gloria Steinem, who appears in the film uncredited.
Mogubgub is possibly most famous for a mural...
- 1/21/2019
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Caleb Landry Jones would like you to know he’s not a tortured artist. The confusion is understandable: A decade into his career, the Texas native has been the guy selling viruses for fun and profit (“Antiviral”), the homeless heroin addict (“Heaven Knows What”), a ruined soldier (“Queen and Country”), the even-creepier son in a racist family (“Get Out”), and the dude who gets thrown out a window by Sam Rockwell in “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” To be fair, he also made a 2010 appearance on the Nickelodeon show “Victorious,” in which he played “Adorable Guy.”
Those characters, however, are not Jones.
“I think people want to put that on [me], because it’s easier. I don’t know, but maybe there is a bit of it,” Jones told IndieWire when asked about the perception that he’s that kind of dude in real life. “I think it’s easy for people to do that,...
Those characters, however, are not Jones.
“I think people want to put that on [me], because it’s easier. I don’t know, but maybe there is a bit of it,” Jones told IndieWire when asked about the perception that he’s that kind of dude in real life. “I think it’s easy for people to do that,...
- 7/10/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
How did the idea for ‘The Ultimate Guide to Strange Cinema’ come about originally?
Well like I explain in my foreword I gained a lot of inspiration from fanzines which was where you had to get film education pre-Internet age. Also, this book is sort of a love letter to my VHS renting days at my local mom and pop store. Writing this book brought me right back to being young and sitting in my room devouring every fan zine I could and the excitement of learning about films like The Beyond and going to the rental shop and checking out crazy stuff like Psychos in Love. I wasn’t sure if other fans would also get a nostalgic thrill out of a reference guide, but a number of people have really respond to it, which they consider a lost art.
What can people expect from the book?
Expect to...
Well like I explain in my foreword I gained a lot of inspiration from fanzines which was where you had to get film education pre-Internet age. Also, this book is sort of a love letter to my VHS renting days at my local mom and pop store. Writing this book brought me right back to being young and sitting in my room devouring every fan zine I could and the excitement of learning about films like The Beyond and going to the rental shop and checking out crazy stuff like Psychos in Love. I wasn’t sure if other fans would also get a nostalgic thrill out of a reference guide, but a number of people have really respond to it, which they consider a lost art.
What can people expect from the book?
Expect to...
- 7/6/2018
- by Philip Rogers
- Nerdly
Stars: Bryan Cranston, Koyu Rankin, Kunichi Nomura, Greta Gerwig, Liev Schreiber, Jeff Goldblum | Written by Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman, Kunichi Nomura | Directed by Wes Anderson
Isle of Dogs? I love dogs, too. There’s something about their wide-eyed inquisitive faces that makes them an ideal fit for Wes Anderson, the modern master of deadpan whimsy. Using stop-motion puppetry techniques (as simultaneously ultra-modern and old-fashioned as the name of his hero, Atari) Anderson crafts an animated odyssey which is wholly original in art design and conception, if not its broader structure.
Anderson and co-writers Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura throw in a ton of world-building exposition, but the film is visually compelling and strange enough that it never feels like a drag.
Though the chronology hops about like an excited puppy, the basic story – set twenty years in the future – is that dogs have been outlawed in the Japanese archipelago,...
Isle of Dogs? I love dogs, too. There’s something about their wide-eyed inquisitive faces that makes them an ideal fit for Wes Anderson, the modern master of deadpan whimsy. Using stop-motion puppetry techniques (as simultaneously ultra-modern and old-fashioned as the name of his hero, Atari) Anderson crafts an animated odyssey which is wholly original in art design and conception, if not its broader structure.
Anderson and co-writers Roman Coppola, Jason Schwartzman and Kunichi Nomura throw in a ton of world-building exposition, but the film is visually compelling and strange enough that it never feels like a drag.
Though the chronology hops about like an excited puppy, the basic story – set twenty years in the future – is that dogs have been outlawed in the Japanese archipelago,...
- 3/29/2018
- by Rupert Harvey
- Nerdly
Czech director Jan Svankmajer is probably best known for his two freewheeling adaptations of literary favorites: Alice (1988), from the Lewis Carroll book, and Faust (1994), inspired by the writings of Goethe and Christopher Marlowe. Both films were surreal, darkly comic retellings of classic stories that mix live action with stop-motion and claymation animation techniques to memorable effect.
The 83-year-old Svankmajer, whose work has inspired filmmakers ranging from Terry Gilliam to the Quay Brothers to Benh Zeitlin and his Court 13 collective, has made several movies since, including the underrated 2005 whatchamacallit Lunacy. For his latest effort, the director decided...
The 83-year-old Svankmajer, whose work has inspired filmmakers ranging from Terry Gilliam to the Quay Brothers to Benh Zeitlin and his Court 13 collective, has made several movies since, including the underrated 2005 whatchamacallit Lunacy. For his latest effort, the director decided...
- 2/2/2018
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
When iconic Czech filmmaker and animator Jan Svankmajer launched a crowdfunding campaign for his latest effort, Insects (Hmyz), it was with the news that this would be the final film of Svankmajer's illustrious career. And if that ultimately proves to be true then he is going out in true Svankmajer form, blending styles and techniques including quite a lot of experimental animation to create something utterly unique and very, very weird. A local pub in a small town. It’s Monday and the bar is closed, chairs are turned up on the tables. The pub is empty except for six amateur actors sitting in a corner. They've met to rehearse “The Insect Play” by the Čapek Brothers. On a raised platform across the room we see...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/5/2018
- Screen Anarchy
The Insects
Legendary Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, at the age of 79, has been working what’s been announced as his last project The Insects for the past five years (and his first film since 2010’s Surviving Life (Theory and Practice).
Continue reading...
Legendary Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, at the age of 79, has been working what’s been announced as his last project The Insects for the past five years (and his first film since 2010’s Surviving Life (Theory and Practice).
Continue reading...
- 1/2/2018
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
A deeply peculiar folklore-informed picture in which unrequited love is more troubling than the plague, the Devil and a forest full of ghosts, Rainer Sarnet's November upends any expectations moviegoers may have when they hear the words "black-and-white film from Estonia." Its stranger notes may initially put viewers in mind of early Guy Maddin or even Czech animator Jan Svankmajer, but November (adapting Andrus Kivirahk’s novel Rehepapp) proves a bit more accessible than either, ultimately boiling down to a universal story of yearning. Winner of a deserved cinematography prize at Tribeca, the film should do well for the eclectic and...
- 5/10/2017
- by John DeFore
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Mubi is showing Lamberto Bava's Demons (1985) from February 26 to March 28 and Demons 2 (1986) from February 27 to March 29, 2017 in the United States as part of the series Due Demoni.Horror movie viewing as societal disease in Lamberto Bava's Demons (left) and Demons 2 (right)The opening shots of Lamberto Bava’s Demons contrast the film’s adorably ingenuous protagonist with the ragged punk hordes of the subway car she’s riding. She stares at them with equal parts fascination and doe-in-headlights dread. It’s a concise visualization of the simple social commentary driving Bava the Younger’s trashterpiece diptych, Demons and Demons 2. The two make an excellent double feature of midnight flicks about the perils of daring to dip even passingly into the lower depths of subculture and the, well, demons that society risks releasing when willing to dabble in The Weird. But cautionary tales are rarely this batshit and never this fun,...
- 3/2/2017
- MUBI
Sean Wilson Sep 16, 2016
With Kubo & The Two Strings now playing, we salute some of our favourite stop motion animated movies...
With Laika's visually sumptuous and breathtaking stop motion masterpiece Kubo And The Two Strings dazzling audiences throughout the country, what better time to celebrate this singular and remarkable art form?
The effect is created when an on-screen character or object is carefully manipulated one frame at a time, leading to an illusion of movement during playback - and such fiendishly intricate work, which takes years of dedication, deserves to be honoured. Here are the greatest examples of stop motion movie mastery.
The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898)
What defines the elusive appeal of stop motion? Surely a great deal of it is down to the blend of the recognisable and the uncanny: an simulation of recognisably human movement that still has a touch of the fantastical about it. These contradictions were put...
With Kubo & The Two Strings now playing, we salute some of our favourite stop motion animated movies...
With Laika's visually sumptuous and breathtaking stop motion masterpiece Kubo And The Two Strings dazzling audiences throughout the country, what better time to celebrate this singular and remarkable art form?
The effect is created when an on-screen character or object is carefully manipulated one frame at a time, leading to an illusion of movement during playback - and such fiendishly intricate work, which takes years of dedication, deserves to be honoured. Here are the greatest examples of stop motion movie mastery.
The Humpty Dumpty Circus (1898)
What defines the elusive appeal of stop motion? Surely a great deal of it is down to the blend of the recognisable and the uncanny: an simulation of recognisably human movement that still has a touch of the fantastical about it. These contradictions were put...
- 9/8/2016
- Den of Geek
The Quay Brothers, or The Brothers Quay as they were introduced to me, have been working in stop-motion for over 3 decades yet most horror fans do not know of them. This could mainly be because their work is in the short film format which is hard to gain a audience outside of film festival circuits. Some light was brought onto them when they made the cover for the Canadian horror magazine, Rue Morgue, back in November of 2005 – along with other stop-motion artists like Robert Morgan (The Separation from ABCs of Death 2) and Jan Svankmajer. Earlier this year, director Christopher Nolan took on the project of compiling some of the shorts from The Quay Brothers over their 30 years of filmmaking in addition to Nolan’s short documentary on the brothers. If you weren’t lucky enough to see this collection, which was only exhibited via 35mm, the good news is that...
- 10/27/2015
- by Andy Triefenbach
- Destroy the Brain
Christopher Nolan's follow up to "Interstellar," "Quay," a documentary short about filmmakers Stephen and Timothy Quay, is but one of the many highlights of "The Quay Brothers: Collected Short Films," a new Blu-ray due Nov. 24. The London-based identical twins and stop motion animators, born in Norristown, Penn. in 1947, have long-flourished outside the mainstream bubble, contributing to stage plays and paying homage to their favorite obscure directors, including surrealist Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer in a 1984 short. "Duke of Burgundy" director Peter Strickland told us in an interview that "Street of Crocodiles" is one of his favorite films, and here's why: "I don't understand it at all but that's one of my favorite films. Mood and atmosphere: you can't put a price on that, you can't put it on the page. It's really about going with those highs and lows, almost like music in a sense." Nolan, whose...
- 10/27/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Rocks In My Pockets will screen Tuesday, September 29 at 7pm at Emerson Auditorium in the Institute for Health Education at St. Luke’s Hospital
In the new animated gem Rocks In My Pockets, Latvian-born artist and filmmaker Signe Baumane tells five fantastical tales based on the courageous women in her family and their battles with madness. With boundless imagination and a twisted sense of humor, she has created daring stories of art, romance, marriage, nature, business, and Eastern European upheaval-all in the fight for her own sanity. Employing a unique, beautifully textured combination of papier-mâché stop-motion and classic hand-drawn animation (with inspiration from Jan Svankmajer and Bill Plympton), Baumane has produced a poignant and often hilarious tale of mystery, mental health, redemption and survival.
The critics are praising Rocks In My Pockets
Simon Foster at Screen-Space wrote:
“….Baumane draws upon a rich history of European animation to propel Rocks in My Pockets,...
In the new animated gem Rocks In My Pockets, Latvian-born artist and filmmaker Signe Baumane tells five fantastical tales based on the courageous women in her family and their battles with madness. With boundless imagination and a twisted sense of humor, she has created daring stories of art, romance, marriage, nature, business, and Eastern European upheaval-all in the fight for her own sanity. Employing a unique, beautifully textured combination of papier-mâché stop-motion and classic hand-drawn animation (with inspiration from Jan Svankmajer and Bill Plympton), Baumane has produced a poignant and often hilarious tale of mystery, mental health, redemption and survival.
The critics are praising Rocks In My Pockets
Simon Foster at Screen-Space wrote:
“….Baumane draws upon a rich history of European animation to propel Rocks in My Pockets,...
- 9/25/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Stephen and Timothy Quay are twin animators who have worked in both short and feature forms for decades, creating striking and unusual images such as the one above, from The Comb. While their style is indebted to other directors such as Jan Svankmajer, whose work is namechecked in an early Quay short, Brothers Quay films are […]
The post Christopher Nolan Has Directed ‘Quay,’ A Short Doc About Animators the Brothers Quay appeared first on /Film.
The post Christopher Nolan Has Directed ‘Quay,’ A Short Doc About Animators the Brothers Quay appeared first on /Film.
- 7/27/2015
- by Russ Fischer
- Slash Film
Takashi Miike‘s The Happiness of the Katakuris begins with a woman probing a freshly delivered bowl of soup only to fish out a miniature angel/gargoyle/teletubby? whose presence seems to instigate the onscreen conversion of the world into claymation before tearing out the poor woman’s uvula and tossing it into the air to float away like a heart-shaped balloon. This is a film that, even in an oeuvre that includes works as disparate as gross out shocker Visitor Q and the kid friendly The Great Yokai War, is pure unpredictable insanity that baffles as much as it entertains. Essentially a horror comedy musical, Miike’s genre mashing farce is loosely based on Kim Jee-woon’s The Quiet Family, in which a family owns a remotely located bed and breakfast whose customers always happen to die during their stay, yet takes that simple premise to its outermost extremes in the silliest of ways.
- 6/30/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
A furious slew of titles in the works would seem to prophesize a robust main competition slate for Cannes 2016. Though our initial list will eventually be pruned down as the year progresses (Berlin may snag something in here, especially if their 2016 lineup looks anything like their landmark selection from this past January), we’re confident that we will be seeing another round of heavy hitting auteurs unveiling their latest bits on the Croisette.
Absent from the main competition in 2015 were the Romanians (Muntean and Porumboiu were assigned to Un Certain Regard) and any trace of Latin filmmakers. The 2016 edition looks to make up for lost ground. For the Romanians, a couple heavy hitting titans from the New Wave will be ready. Cristi Puiu, who previously won Ucr in 2005 with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu should hopefully be getting a competition invite for Sierra Nevada. Meanwhile, previous Palme d’Or winner...
Absent from the main competition in 2015 were the Romanians (Muntean and Porumboiu were assigned to Un Certain Regard) and any trace of Latin filmmakers. The 2016 edition looks to make up for lost ground. For the Romanians, a couple heavy hitting titans from the New Wave will be ready. Cristi Puiu, who previously won Ucr in 2005 with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu should hopefully be getting a competition invite for Sierra Nevada. Meanwhile, previous Palme d’Or winner...
- 6/29/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Oh Them Silly Unicorns: Meyerhoff’s Coming of Age Debut Prizes Style Over Substance
Director Leah Meyerhoff most effectively conveys the nature of her debut film, I Believe In Unicorns, in its opening credits, which features a host of (mostly feminine) childhood fantasies revolving around celebratory effects, such as sparklies, cakes, and (yes) unicorns, all eventually melting down into smeared goo. Memories and dreams evaporate into the mess of reality, it seems to say, and we’re thrust into the late adolescence of a protagonist who, on the cusp of adulthood, seems to be getting her first taste of that. Skirting between vaguely morbid instances and sometimes carefree tempos, Meyerhoff’s narrative seems to lose focus, petering out into a gasp of profundity that would have felt much stronger had it been preceded by more remarkable characterization.
A sheltered, lonely young woman, Davina (Natalia Dyer) is forced to take care of her sickly mother.
Director Leah Meyerhoff most effectively conveys the nature of her debut film, I Believe In Unicorns, in its opening credits, which features a host of (mostly feminine) childhood fantasies revolving around celebratory effects, such as sparklies, cakes, and (yes) unicorns, all eventually melting down into smeared goo. Memories and dreams evaporate into the mess of reality, it seems to say, and we’re thrust into the late adolescence of a protagonist who, on the cusp of adulthood, seems to be getting her first taste of that. Skirting between vaguely morbid instances and sometimes carefree tempos, Meyerhoff’s narrative seems to lose focus, petering out into a gasp of profundity that would have felt much stronger had it been preceded by more remarkable characterization.
A sheltered, lonely young woman, Davina (Natalia Dyer) is forced to take care of her sickly mother.
- 5/25/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Though the Czech New Wave of the sixties was not as addicted to anthology films as the Italians (any major Italian director could have called a film Eight and a Half, since they all directed episodes at one time or another), they did make Pearls of the Night (1966), which showcased nearly all the major graduates of the national film school, Famu (a.k.a. the Kids from Famu): Vera Chytilová, Jaromil Jires, Jirí Menzel, Jan Nemec and Evald Schorm.Three years later, Schorm was back, collaborating with new chums Jirí Brdecka and Milos Makovec on a raunchy supernatural triptych, Prague Nights. An international traveller picks up a strange woman, determined to enjoy a night of illicit passion during his Czech stopover. Driven through a green-tinted sepia night in her vintage limo, he's told three tales of murder, lust and the supernatural, and, at the end, as in any Amicus...
- 4/2/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Ryan Lambie Feb 10, 2017
From the creators of LittleBigPlanet Vita comes platform-puzzler Little Nightmares. Here's the game in action...
Originally called Hunger, Little Nightmares was picked up by publisher Bandai Namco last year. Under its new title, it's scheduled for release this April - and if you like platform-puzzlers, it could be well worth a look.
Set in a nightmare world called The Maw, it offers up a string of environmental, physics-based puzzles made all the more engaging by its surreal level design. The rain coat-clad protagonist appears to have wandered into a land of giants who love Victorian decor - and among the fussy wallpaper and leather chairs, danger lurks at every turn.
Certain aspects of Little Nightmares' design may look familiar - a bit of Limbo here, a splash of Bioshock there - but overall, it looks so polished and downright gorgeous that we can't wait to find out more.
From the creators of LittleBigPlanet Vita comes platform-puzzler Little Nightmares. Here's the game in action...
Originally called Hunger, Little Nightmares was picked up by publisher Bandai Namco last year. Under its new title, it's scheduled for release this April - and if you like platform-puzzlers, it could be well worth a look.
Set in a nightmare world called The Maw, it offers up a string of environmental, physics-based puzzles made all the more engaging by its surreal level design. The rain coat-clad protagonist appears to have wandered into a land of giants who love Victorian decor - and among the fussy wallpaper and leather chairs, danger lurks at every turn.
Certain aspects of Little Nightmares' design may look familiar - a bit of Limbo here, a splash of Bioshock there - but overall, it looks so polished and downright gorgeous that we can't wait to find out more.
- 2/26/2015
- Den of Geek
From the creators of LittleBigPlanet Vita comes Hunger, a spooky-looking third-person action game. Here's a first trailer...
Imagine if BioShock wasn't a first-person shooter, but a third-person action adventure with lots of climbing and jumping. Now imagine if it had been designed by some stop-motion animators from eastern Europe (Jan Svankmajer, or someone like that). That's what Hunger looks like: a creepy, off-kilter game set in a wonderful-looking undersea world.
It's from Tarsier, the developer behind LittleBigPlanet Vita and The City Of Metronome, and this is another original venture for them. It follows a little girl, clad in a yellow rain coat with the hood obscuring her face, who's journeying through a place called The Maw. As you can see from the first trailer below, it's an incredibly spooky place where all kinds of weird characters lurk.
There's no word on a release date yet, but we'll get back to you when we learn more.
Imagine if BioShock wasn't a first-person shooter, but a third-person action adventure with lots of climbing and jumping. Now imagine if it had been designed by some stop-motion animators from eastern Europe (Jan Svankmajer, or someone like that). That's what Hunger looks like: a creepy, off-kilter game set in a wonderful-looking undersea world.
It's from Tarsier, the developer behind LittleBigPlanet Vita and The City Of Metronome, and this is another original venture for them. It follows a little girl, clad in a yellow rain coat with the hood obscuring her face, who's journeying through a place called The Maw. As you can see from the first trailer below, it's an incredibly spooky place where all kinds of weird characters lurk.
There's no word on a release date yet, but we'll get back to you when we learn more.
- 2/26/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
The Insects
Director: Jan Svankmajer // Writer: Jan Svankmajer
Earlier this year it was announced that legendary Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, at the age of 79, was working on a new project, his first since 2010’s Surviving Life (Theory and Practice). Known for his combination of live action and animation, famously in his 1988 version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice and more recently in masterworks like Little Otik (2000) and Lunacy (2005), Svankmajer returns to classic literature for the inspiration of his latest, The Insects. Previously taking pages from Goethe (Lesson Faust, 1994) and Poe (Lunacy), Svankmajer is loosely basing his latest on a 1922 play from the Capek Brothers, From the Life of Insects, combined with Kafka’s The Metamorphoses. Six amateur thespians meet in a pub to rehearse the Čapeks’ play, while their personal stories interweave with those of the characters they are about to play. The play is intended as a backdrop in which...
Director: Jan Svankmajer // Writer: Jan Svankmajer
Earlier this year it was announced that legendary Czech filmmaker Jan Svankmajer, at the age of 79, was working on a new project, his first since 2010’s Surviving Life (Theory and Practice). Known for his combination of live action and animation, famously in his 1988 version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice and more recently in masterworks like Little Otik (2000) and Lunacy (2005), Svankmajer returns to classic literature for the inspiration of his latest, The Insects. Previously taking pages from Goethe (Lesson Faust, 1994) and Poe (Lunacy), Svankmajer is loosely basing his latest on a 1922 play from the Capek Brothers, From the Life of Insects, combined with Kafka’s The Metamorphoses. Six amateur thespians meet in a pub to rehearse the Čapeks’ play, while their personal stories interweave with those of the characters they are about to play. The play is intended as a backdrop in which...
- 1/8/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Crazy in Love: Anderson’s Gothic Sprinkled Romance Deserves to be Tarred and Feathered
Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined The Call, director Brad Anderson returns to the creepy confines of the mental ward with Stonehearst Asylum, reminiscent of his well received 2001 film, Session 9. Assembling another terrific cast for this period piece, those familiar with a fine tradition of Gothic cinema will immediately begin to pick up on the threads of Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the macabre switcheroo generating the dramatic conflict. But even before we get to that point, Anderson’s latest arrives Doa, a cold, tepid turkey that isn’t ever sure of the mood it wishes to generate. Scenes fluctuate rapidly, and we’re left to decide whether this is supposed to be a prim and proper brooding romance of stiff corsets and constricted consecrations, a downright queasy...
Fresh off the surprise box office success of 2013’s Halle Berry headlined The Call, director Brad Anderson returns to the creepy confines of the mental ward with Stonehearst Asylum, reminiscent of his well received 2001 film, Session 9. Assembling another terrific cast for this period piece, those familiar with a fine tradition of Gothic cinema will immediately begin to pick up on the threads of Edgar Allan Poe that inspired the macabre switcheroo generating the dramatic conflict. But even before we get to that point, Anderson’s latest arrives Doa, a cold, tepid turkey that isn’t ever sure of the mood it wishes to generate. Scenes fluctuate rapidly, and we’re left to decide whether this is supposed to be a prim and proper brooding romance of stiff corsets and constricted consecrations, a downright queasy...
- 10/23/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
In the shadow of Robin Williams’ tragic death, this debut animated feature by Signe Baumane offers some light and solace for those suffering acute depression.
I watched this film with a growing fondness which came out of a puzzle. The mind of the filmmaker and my own mind seemed to intertwine as she told her family story in a slightly offbeat manner. Puzzled by the story rather than just curious, I could not stop listening to the tale as it unfolded. It took me many places I had not visited before and in the end brought me to a place of positive understanding for those whose depressions lead them into dark woods.
“Rocks in my Pockets” had its World Premiere at the 2014 Karlovy Vary Film Festival where it won the Fipresci Prize and was the first animated feature ever to take part in the Karlovy Vary International Competition.
In the animated gem “Rocks In My Pockets” Latvian-born artist and filmmaker Signe Baumane tells five fantastical tales based on the courageous women in her family and their battles with madness and suicide. With boundless imagination and a twisted sense of humor, she has created daring stories of art, romance, marriage, nature, business, and Eastern European upheaval—all in the fight for her own sanity.
Employing a unique, beautifully textured combination of papier-mâché stop-motion and classic hand-drawn animation (with inspiration from Jan Svankmajer and Bill Plympton), Baumane has produced a poignant and often hilarious tale of mystery, mental health, redemption and survival.
Director's statement:
The idea for “Rocks In My Pockets” came from my stream of consciousness. Like most people I think about a wide variety of things, some fantastical, some mundane, but my mind keeps coming back to thoughts of “ending it all” and the ways I could go about doing it. Why? Why do I think this way? And why I am still alive despite such thoughts? I find the fragility of our minds fascinating. Life is strange, unpredictable, sometimes absurd and I try to see the humor in it all.
While I was studying at Moscow State University, I got pregnant and married the father of my future child, a Russian artist. After my son was born, I started having dark obsessive thoughts. I sought council with a local psychiatrist to whom I confessed that, at 18, I had tried to commit suicide by taking an excessive amount of Dimedrol. I was immediately sent to a Soviet mental hospital and locked away for four months. The official diagnosis was schizophrenia, but this was downgraded to the “lesser” one of manic-depression after my parents bribed medical officials.
Despite the diagnosis, I returned to the university, graduated successfully, and started my career as an animator. It turned out that I was not the only one in my extended family having dark, obsessive thoughts. In fact, I had plenty of company. Unfortunately, not all of the sufferers were able to fend their demons off.
“Rocks In My Pockets” is dedicated to my family members who did not survive, and to my surviving family, who still live in the aftermath. The film is dedicated to the hope that we sustain in our darkest moments.”
Zeitgeist Films is proud to present the U.S Theatrical release of “Rocks In My Pockets”. The film will open at the IFC Center in New York on September 3, and at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on September 12. A national release will follow.
New Europe Film Sales , a young international sales agent based in Poland is representing the film for world sales. New Europe Film Sales picked up two films ahead of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – “Rocks in my Pockets” and “ Kebab & Horoscope” by Grzegorz Jaroszuk (debut by the director of European Film Award-nominated Frozen Stories, one of the most interesting shorts I have seen in a long time!).
88 min. USA 2014 In English Not Rated...
I watched this film with a growing fondness which came out of a puzzle. The mind of the filmmaker and my own mind seemed to intertwine as she told her family story in a slightly offbeat manner. Puzzled by the story rather than just curious, I could not stop listening to the tale as it unfolded. It took me many places I had not visited before and in the end brought me to a place of positive understanding for those whose depressions lead them into dark woods.
“Rocks in my Pockets” had its World Premiere at the 2014 Karlovy Vary Film Festival where it won the Fipresci Prize and was the first animated feature ever to take part in the Karlovy Vary International Competition.
In the animated gem “Rocks In My Pockets” Latvian-born artist and filmmaker Signe Baumane tells five fantastical tales based on the courageous women in her family and their battles with madness and suicide. With boundless imagination and a twisted sense of humor, she has created daring stories of art, romance, marriage, nature, business, and Eastern European upheaval—all in the fight for her own sanity.
Employing a unique, beautifully textured combination of papier-mâché stop-motion and classic hand-drawn animation (with inspiration from Jan Svankmajer and Bill Plympton), Baumane has produced a poignant and often hilarious tale of mystery, mental health, redemption and survival.
Director's statement:
The idea for “Rocks In My Pockets” came from my stream of consciousness. Like most people I think about a wide variety of things, some fantastical, some mundane, but my mind keeps coming back to thoughts of “ending it all” and the ways I could go about doing it. Why? Why do I think this way? And why I am still alive despite such thoughts? I find the fragility of our minds fascinating. Life is strange, unpredictable, sometimes absurd and I try to see the humor in it all.
While I was studying at Moscow State University, I got pregnant and married the father of my future child, a Russian artist. After my son was born, I started having dark obsessive thoughts. I sought council with a local psychiatrist to whom I confessed that, at 18, I had tried to commit suicide by taking an excessive amount of Dimedrol. I was immediately sent to a Soviet mental hospital and locked away for four months. The official diagnosis was schizophrenia, but this was downgraded to the “lesser” one of manic-depression after my parents bribed medical officials.
Despite the diagnosis, I returned to the university, graduated successfully, and started my career as an animator. It turned out that I was not the only one in my extended family having dark, obsessive thoughts. In fact, I had plenty of company. Unfortunately, not all of the sufferers were able to fend their demons off.
“Rocks In My Pockets” is dedicated to my family members who did not survive, and to my surviving family, who still live in the aftermath. The film is dedicated to the hope that we sustain in our darkest moments.”
Zeitgeist Films is proud to present the U.S Theatrical release of “Rocks In My Pockets”. The film will open at the IFC Center in New York on September 3, and at Laemmle Theaters in Los Angeles on September 12. A national release will follow.
New Europe Film Sales , a young international sales agent based in Poland is representing the film for world sales. New Europe Film Sales picked up two films ahead of the 49th Karlovy Vary International Film Festival – “Rocks in my Pockets” and “ Kebab & Horoscope” by Grzegorz Jaroszuk (debut by the director of European Film Award-nominated Frozen Stories, one of the most interesting shorts I have seen in a long time!).
88 min. USA 2014 In English Not Rated...
- 8/16/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Famed Czech surrealist director Vera Chytilova died in Prague on March 12, 2014 at age 85, but she left behind a wealth of singular films and with them, her uncompromising vision. Chytilova came about in the 60s, alongside Menzel and Forman, as one of the most innovative Eastern European auteurs of the avant-garde -- not to mention, one of the only females. The director's fifth film, from 166, is for diehard cinephiles. Chytilova's not-easily-digested "Daisies" is the most unconventional of female friendship films, a dreamy, enchanting and, even, alienating tale of two teenage girls who engage in a series of elaborate pranks for their own amusement. The jagged editing and florid production design, which looks at times like a kooky scrapbook, made this one of the most influential Czech films ever, and it shares the innate creepiness of so many films from that country (Jan Svankmajer, for one). You can stream it on Hulu Plus via Criterion here.
- 3/24/2014
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
I have said it a million times and I will continue to say it several million times more -- so get used to it -- our world needs more female-centric stories told by female directors. Luckily, we do have films such as writer-director’s Leah Meyerhoff’s I Believe in Unicorns to provide audiences with a uniquely feminine perspective of the unmeasurable complications of young love. Meyerhoff's film cleverly injects feminine elements to the typically masculinized road movie genre, establishing a novel hybrid world that is equally fantastic and realistic. Channelling the surreal universes of Jan Svankmajer (Alice, Faust), the animated segments are what make I Believe in Unicorns so damn amazingly magical; but, echoing the moods and tones of Davina's reality, these dreamscapes can turn on a dime from transcendently beautiful to nightmarishly horrifying. I Believe in Unicorns is a relentless rollercoaster of emotions and that is precisely what teenage love is all about.
- 3/12/2014
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.