Nothing gold can stay. So the saying goes and is thoughtfully illustrated in Kleber Mendonça Filho’s latest film Pictures of Ghosts. It’s a mosaic portrait of the director’s hometown of Recife through the lens of cinema that resonates with the sense of unease many presently feel about the state of film.
The city, which is also the capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, has a rich history of cinema that will come as a surprise to many. Filho unearths its cinematic past through archival footage blended with his own material presenting an evocative and personal account. He revives its halcyon days as a South American hub for Hollywood studios that erected glorious movie palaces and ushers us through its decay; which provided enough fertile ground for him to blossom into a filmmaker. His films––such as Aquarius, Neighboring Sounds, and Bacurau––are usually set so close...
The city, which is also the capital of the Brazilian state of Pernambuco, has a rich history of cinema that will come as a surprise to many. Filho unearths its cinematic past through archival footage blended with his own material presenting an evocative and personal account. He revives its halcyon days as a South American hub for Hollywood studios that erected glorious movie palaces and ushers us through its decay; which provided enough fertile ground for him to blossom into a filmmaker. His films––such as Aquarius, Neighboring Sounds, and Bacurau––are usually set so close...
- 1/26/2024
- by Kent M. Wilhelm
- The Film Stage
Early in the documentary Pictures of Ghosts, writer-director Kleber Mendonça Filho cuts to a television interview with his late mother, Joselice Jucá, a historian and a key figure in the film. The interviewer asks why she’s chosen an oral history as the medium for a project on Brazilian abolitionist leader Joaquim Nabuco. As she explains her process, Mendonça Filho’s voice enters to note that “it may seem like I’m discussing methodology, but I’m talking about love.” The filmmaker seems to have taken his mother’s emotional investment in her subject matter to heart, as the methodology in Pictures of Ghosts—a historical document of his hometown of Recife, with a particular focus on its movie theaters—is ultimately in service of the filmmaker’s own personal relationship to the people, places, and images that he captures.
It’s hardly the first time that Mendonça Filho’s...
It’s hardly the first time that Mendonça Filho’s...
- 10/8/2023
- by Brad Hanford
- Slant Magazine
Antonio Marras’ catwalk transformed into a set where he shot a remake of a 1968 Hollywood movie. During Milan Fashion Week on Sept. 20, the Sardinian fashion designer set up an onstage film studio, with various rooms in which actors, actresses, workers, divas, a production secretary, costume designer, editing secretary, personal assistant, seamstress, director, producer, set coordinator, clapboard operator, sound engineer, extras, models and aspiring actresses took turns in the spotlight. In a flash, the audience found itself catapulted to the end of the golden years of cinema, amid fleeting and rambling kaftans, couture gowns, robes, tailored suits cinched at the waist with masculine styles, duster coats, sheath dresses, and dramatic and divine evening gowns.
The entire show was pulled together to recreate the atmosphere of Joseph Losey’s film Boom!, translated into Italian when it was released as The Cliff of Desires. Tennessee Williams adapted the screenplay from his own stage script,...
The entire show was pulled together to recreate the atmosphere of Joseph Losey’s film Boom!, translated into Italian when it was released as The Cliff of Desires. Tennessee Williams adapted the screenplay from his own stage script,...
- 9/22/2023
- by Pino Gagliardi
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The title of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore refers to Marie (Bernadette Lafont), whose status as a 30-year-old marks her as effectively middle aged to her modestly younger peers, and Veronika (Françoise Lebrun), a hospital nurse who copes with the tedium of her experience with casual sex. These reductive, misogynistic archetypes of female behavior aren’t reflective of the film’s own views, but those of Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud), a disaffected young intellectual who lives with Marie and is increasingly drawn to Veronika.
Alexandre airs his misogyny from the start as he meets up with his ex-girlfriend (Isabelle Weingarten). Speeding past any attempt at reconciliation, Alexandre proposes marriage, then proceeds to rant about her new relationship. Asking if she does the same things with her new beau as they did together, Alexandre maintains an outward veneer of calm but cannot keep the venom out of his voice.
Alexandre airs his misogyny from the start as he meets up with his ex-girlfriend (Isabelle Weingarten). Speeding past any attempt at reconciliation, Alexandre proposes marriage, then proceeds to rant about her new relationship. Asking if she does the same things with her new beau as they did together, Alexandre maintains an outward veneer of calm but cannot keep the venom out of his voice.
- 6/18/2023
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Janus Films has released a trailer for the 4K restoration of Jean Eustache’s 1973 opus The Mother and the Whore, which will open at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center on June 23. An official synopsis of the restoration reads: After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and May ’68 came The Mother and the Whore, the legendary, autobiographical magnum opus by Jean Eustache that captured a disillusioned generation navigating the post-idealism 1970s within the microcosm of a ménage à trois. The aimless, clueless, Parisian pseudo-intellectual Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) lives with his tempestuous older girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), and begins a […]
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/14/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Janus Films has released a trailer for the 4K restoration of Jean Eustache’s 1973 opus The Mother and the Whore, which will open at New York’s Film at Lincoln Center on June 23. An official synopsis of the restoration reads: After the French New Wave, the sexual revolution, and May ’68 came The Mother and the Whore, the legendary, autobiographical magnum opus by Jean Eustache that captured a disillusioned generation navigating the post-idealism 1970s within the microcosm of a ménage à trois. The aimless, clueless, Parisian pseudo-intellectual Alexandre (Jean-Pierre Léaud) lives with his tempestuous older girlfriend, Marie (Bernadette Lafont), and begins a […]
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: 4K Restoration of Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 6/14/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
It used to be two options: live in a major city that busts out the one awful print or download the VHS rip from a dark-web torrent site. No wonder it was only hosannas upon learning the complete corpus of Jean Eustache would get its decades-overdue restoration––on basis of The Mother and the Whore alone it marks a moment in film history.
Janus Films (by extension Criterion) acquired the catalog from Les Films du Losange and begin their series, “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache,” this month at Lincoln Center before a larger rollout in weeks, months to come, and with it a trailer for Mother‘s 4K restoration is here. Just the first shot of Jean-Pierre Léaud––who, I feel compelled to note, is enduring hard times and seeking help via friends––completely rewires sense of a movie I’ve loved for a decade. But it’s all in tip-top shape: deep blacks,...
Janus Films (by extension Criterion) acquired the catalog from Les Films du Losange and begin their series, “The Dirty Stories of Jean Eustache,” this month at Lincoln Center before a larger rollout in weeks, months to come, and with it a trailer for Mother‘s 4K restoration is here. Just the first shot of Jean-Pierre Léaud––who, I feel compelled to note, is enduring hard times and seeking help via friends––completely rewires sense of a movie I’ve loved for a decade. But it’s all in tip-top shape: deep blacks,...
- 6/14/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Quoc Dang Tran’s Drops of God, a show about an enologist and the complications surrounding his will, premiered its third episode today, and the tension is rising in the competition. In the previous episode, Camille was able to overcome the trauma she had associated with alcohol, which used to cause her nosebleeds, and now she was able to finally taste wine without bleeding. In the third episode, Camille and her father, Alexandre’s mentee, Issei, meet as the competition between the two begins to determine who will inherit Alexandre’s $148 million wine collection and his $7 million mansion. Here’s what happens in the episode:
Spoilers Ahead
The Celery Root Mystery
Camille is tired and exhausted from trying to connect the flavors she’d tasted in a wine and having gone around tasting as many wines as possible in Thomas’s room. She finally gives up and goes to bed...
Spoilers Ahead
The Celery Root Mystery
Camille is tired and exhausted from trying to connect the flavors she’d tasted in a wine and having gone around tasting as many wines as possible in Thomas’s room. She finally gives up and goes to bed...
- 4/28/2023
- by Indrayudh Talukdar
- Film Fugitives
Welcome back to Cannes Check, In Contention's annual preview of the films in Competition at next month's Cannes Film Festival, which kicks off on May 14. Taking on different selections every day, we'll be examining what they're about, who's involved and what their chances are of snagging an award from Jane Campion's jury. Next up, the oldest director (with the shortest film) in the lineup: Jean-Luc Godard's "Goodbye to Language." The director: Jean-Luc Godard (French-Swiss, 83 years old). How to sum up Godard in a paragraph? One of the founding fathers of the French New Wave, and arguably its most persistently radical innovative member, with a career spanning seven decades, 39 feature films and an indeterminate number of creative phases. One of the sizable school of French filmmakers who had a formative stint as a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, Godard was born and educated in Paris -- the very city...
- 5/5/2014
- by Guy Lodge
- Hitfix
Textbook Videos Presents 11th YoungCuts Film Festival
The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce 2012′s Top 100 short films by the world’s best young filmmakers. Lead sponsor TextbookVideos.com will present the films in Montreal’s De Seve Theatre at Concordia University on Friday October 12th and Saturday, October 13th.
The Beautiful Dead by Spencer Ryerson (Can)
*****
On Friday, October 12th, the day’s first screening is at 1Pm and features the best short films by the Festival’s youngest participating filmmakers who are 19 and under. At 3 Pm, the always popular Animation and Music screening is presented. The 5Pm screening presents a theme of “Growth” and includes films from 6 different countries. The 7Pm screening features 12 films grouped loosely by a theme of “Loneliness”, and includes a bloc of gay-positive films from 4 different countries. The evening concludes with the 9Pm Master Class screening which presents the best films by young filmmakers aged 25 to 29.
On Saturday,...
The YoungCuts Film Festival is pleased to announce 2012′s Top 100 short films by the world’s best young filmmakers. Lead sponsor TextbookVideos.com will present the films in Montreal’s De Seve Theatre at Concordia University on Friday October 12th and Saturday, October 13th.
The Beautiful Dead by Spencer Ryerson (Can)
*****
On Friday, October 12th, the day’s first screening is at 1Pm and features the best short films by the Festival’s youngest participating filmmakers who are 19 and under. At 3 Pm, the always popular Animation and Music screening is presented. The 5Pm screening presents a theme of “Growth” and includes films from 6 different countries. The 7Pm screening features 12 films grouped loosely by a theme of “Loneliness”, and includes a bloc of gay-positive films from 4 different countries. The evening concludes with the 9Pm Master Class screening which presents the best films by young filmmakers aged 25 to 29.
On Saturday,...
- 10/3/2012
- by YoungCuts Film Festival
- SoundOnSight
From stage-door duties for the RSC, to the village famous for Straw Dogs, Observer writers reveal their idea of a perfect summer, past and present
● What are your tips for summer culture? Join the discussion
Kitty Empire
Pop critic
Let's be honest – the notion of summer as an extended golden period of rest and re-stimulation really now only applies to the young, the retired, or those in the teaching professions. The rest of us slog on, hoping to catch the odd festival (or maybe just gig in a park), marking time until camping in Cornwall or fly-drive to France, where finally luxuriating in the latest Alan Hollinghurst will come a distant second to stopping the youngest weeing in the hotel pool.
Once, though, I was artfully feckless too, making the rent by working as an usher for the Royal Shakespeare Company. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the...
● What are your tips for summer culture? Join the discussion
Kitty Empire
Pop critic
Let's be honest – the notion of summer as an extended golden period of rest and re-stimulation really now only applies to the young, the retired, or those in the teaching professions. The rest of us slog on, hoping to catch the odd festival (or maybe just gig in a park), marking time until camping in Cornwall or fly-drive to France, where finally luxuriating in the latest Alan Hollinghurst will come a distant second to stopping the youngest weeing in the hotel pool.
Once, though, I was artfully feckless too, making the rent by working as an usher for the Royal Shakespeare Company. "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the...
- 8/1/2011
- by Kitty Empire, Mark Kermode, Rowan Moore, Philip French, Susannah Clapp, Laura Cumming, Luke Jennings, Fiona Maddocks, Rachel Cooke, Robert McCrum
- The Guardian - Film News
Composed by John Barry, the 1963 TV film's soundtrack is a fitting tribute to Hollywood's first rock'n'roll starlet
There are many reasons why Elizabeth Taylor was amazing and none of them are anything whatsoever to do with Michael Jackson. She was, in essence, the first rock star movie queen. She was more beautiful, more talented and more capricious than, well, anyone really. She also drank more, took more pills and slept with more unsuitable men. But whatever Taylor did, up to and including getting progressively older and more ragged, she did with incredible style. This, after all, is a woman who famously once ate a steak and kidney pie with one hand while wearing a 39-carat sapphire on the other.
In the summer of 1963, north-west London girl Liz – she was born in Hampstead to American parents – made a film about her home city for a coast-to-coast American TV broadcast. Called Elizabeth Taylor in London,...
There are many reasons why Elizabeth Taylor was amazing and none of them are anything whatsoever to do with Michael Jackson. She was, in essence, the first rock star movie queen. She was more beautiful, more talented and more capricious than, well, anyone really. She also drank more, took more pills and slept with more unsuitable men. But whatever Taylor did, up to and including getting progressively older and more ragged, she did with incredible style. This, after all, is a woman who famously once ate a steak and kidney pie with one hand while wearing a 39-carat sapphire on the other.
In the summer of 1963, north-west London girl Liz – she was born in Hampstead to American parents – made a film about her home city for a coast-to-coast American TV broadcast. Called Elizabeth Taylor in London,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Rob Fitzpatrick
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the most versatile actors of his generation and any generation since, to be honest, Jean-Paul Belmondo has entertained for decades and for good reason.
He’s famous in the art house circuit by being one of the main protagonists within the French New Wave movement of the 1960’s but has also done some rather wonderful slapstick comedies as well. Somehow he has done both with such ease, always interweaving between the two and making the most of his on screen time.
A renaissance man of sorts on film, he could be having a normal conversation while battling super-spies with a telephone and doing it with a straight face the whole time, smoking a cigarette and just looking cooler than SteveMcQueen while doing it.
Yes, I just said he was cooler than Steve McQueen.
If you’re asking me who Jean Paul Belmondo is, you might be on the wrong site.
He’s famous in the art house circuit by being one of the main protagonists within the French New Wave movement of the 1960’s but has also done some rather wonderful slapstick comedies as well. Somehow he has done both with such ease, always interweaving between the two and making the most of his on screen time.
A renaissance man of sorts on film, he could be having a normal conversation while battling super-spies with a telephone and doing it with a straight face the whole time, smoking a cigarette and just looking cooler than SteveMcQueen while doing it.
Yes, I just said he was cooler than Steve McQueen.
If you’re asking me who Jean Paul Belmondo is, you might be on the wrong site.
- 4/2/2010
- by James McCormick
- CriterionCast
I really need to check this film out (it is on Netflix Instant Play) as people have already told me to watch the French thriller Tell No One and now Miramax and Focus are teaming together to make an English language remake, but this news comes as the film is still in the early stages and without a director, writer or cast. The original starred Kristin Scott-Thomas and François Berleand and carries the tagline "8 years ago, Alex's wife was murdered. Today... She e-mailed him." The film is based on the Harlan Coben novel and tells the story of pediatrician Alexandre Beck (François Cluzet) who still grieves the murder of his beloved wife, Margot (Marie-Josee Croze), eight years earlier. When two bodies are uncovered near where Margot's body was found, the police reopen the case and Alex becomes a suspect again. The mystery deepens when Alex receives an anonymous e-mail with...
- 4/30/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
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