NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Museum of the Moving Image
A retrospective of snubbed performances brings the Ray Nicolette double-feature of Jackie Brown and Out of Sight, as well as The Heartbreak Kid, The Fugitive, and Top Hat; the Stop Making Sense restoration plays throughout this weekend.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Denis Villeneuve’s work also brings the director’s programming choices, among them films by Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now, Close Encounters, and Seven Samurai.
Bam
Raoul Peck’s Lumumba: Death of a Prophet plays in a new restoration.
Roxy Cinema
“City Dudes” returns on Friday night, while 9½ Weeks plays on 35mm this Saturday and Sunday.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Ken Jacobs and more play in “Essential Cinema,” while a program of Mary Helena Clark’s films plays on Saturday and Sunday.
Film Forum
The 4K restoration of Pandora’s Box...
Museum of the Moving Image
A retrospective of snubbed performances brings the Ray Nicolette double-feature of Jackie Brown and Out of Sight, as well as The Heartbreak Kid, The Fugitive, and Top Hat; the Stop Making Sense restoration plays throughout this weekend.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Denis Villeneuve’s work also brings the director’s programming choices, among them films by Blade Runner, Apocalypse Now, Close Encounters, and Seven Samurai.
Bam
Raoul Peck’s Lumumba: Death of a Prophet plays in a new restoration.
Roxy Cinema
“City Dudes” returns on Friday night, while 9½ Weeks plays on 35mm this Saturday and Sunday.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Ken Jacobs and more play in “Essential Cinema,” while a program of Mary Helena Clark’s films plays on Saturday and Sunday.
Film Forum
The 4K restoration of Pandora’s Box...
- 2/23/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The SAG-AFTRA strike officially ended at 12:01am on Thursday, with a deal for a new three-year contract set to go to the national board for a vote on Friday, November 10, 2023. The end of the record-breaking strike comes after 118 days, during which members and supporters picketed studios and showcased solidarity through a broad range of gestures, from opting out of Halloween costumes featuring struck projects to donating to funds that directly support workers impacted by the industry-wide shutdown. The equally historic WGA strike lasted 148 days, ending in late September with a robust deal for film and TV writers.
While folks working within Hollywood or around its periphery may be painfully well aware of the rights at stake during this year's labor movements, there are still plenty of everyday Americans who no doubt look to the strikes and say "Who cares?" It's clear that union-busting and corporate anti-union propaganda still hold strong in America.
While folks working within Hollywood or around its periphery may be painfully well aware of the rights at stake during this year's labor movements, there are still plenty of everyday Americans who no doubt look to the strikes and say "Who cares?" It's clear that union-busting and corporate anti-union propaganda still hold strong in America.
- 11/9/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
In 2008, the writer-director Azazel Jacobs made a small but vivid splash with “Momma’s Man,” a Sundance comedy about a troubled dweeb hiding out in the cocoon of his parents’ downtown Manhattan apartment. The parents were played by Jacobs’ own (the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs and his wife Flo), and the movie turned their overstuffed bohemian pack-rat museum of a loft into a tiny city of its own. “Momma’s Man” showed extraordinary promise, and in the 15 years since I’ve been waiting for Azazel Jacobs to make good on it. But while he has given us a compelling movie or two, they have all felt minor, and his last feature, “French Exit,” though it generated Oscar buzz for Michelle Pfeiffer, was equal parts charming and contrived.
Now, though, the angels have smiled. Jacobs has taken the leap I always wanted him to make and become a filmmaker of effortless and moving assurance.
Now, though, the angels have smiled. Jacobs has taken the leap I always wanted him to make and become a filmmaker of effortless and moving assurance.
- 9/11/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
The Mother and the Whore begins a run in its 4K restoration; Scratch plays for free Friday night in Damrosch Park.
Museum of the Moving Image
E.T., The Green Ray, Risky Business, and Blow Out play on 35mm in a summer movie series; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Great Muppet Caper, and Querelle also screen.
Bam
Juliet Berto’s superb directorial debut Neige begins playing in a long-overdue restoration.
Film Forum
A celebration of Ozu’s 120th birthday continues with a massive series; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World plays this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Portrait of Jason and The Rocky Horror Picture Show screen, while Happy Together plays; “City Dudes” plays on Saturday.
Anthology Film Archives
Buster Keaton and Ken Jacobs screen in Essential Cinema.
IFC Center
The David Lynch...
Film at Lincoln Center
The Mother and the Whore begins a run in its 4K restoration; Scratch plays for free Friday night in Damrosch Park.
Museum of the Moving Image
E.T., The Green Ray, Risky Business, and Blow Out play on 35mm in a summer movie series; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, The Great Muppet Caper, and Querelle also screen.
Bam
Juliet Berto’s superb directorial debut Neige begins playing in a long-overdue restoration.
Film Forum
A celebration of Ozu’s 120th birthday continues with a massive series; It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World plays this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Portrait of Jason and The Rocky Horror Picture Show screen, while Happy Together plays; “City Dudes” plays on Saturday.
Anthology Film Archives
Buster Keaton and Ken Jacobs screen in Essential Cinema.
IFC Center
The David Lynch...
- 6/22/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Museum of the Moving Image
An Asteroid City-themed series programmed by Wes Anderson and Jake Perlin includes 35mm prints of Some Came Running and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Blow Out shows on 35mm this Sunday, while Rope plays in a queer cinema series.
Bam
A retrospective of the great Juliet Berto brings Celine and Julie, Godard’s Weekend, and more.
Museum of Modern Art
A tribute to casting directors Ellen Lewis and Laura Rosenthal brings prints of Goodfellas and I’m Not There, as well as Dead Man.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of The Fifth Element and Eastwood’s The Gauntlet screen this weekend, while J. Hoberman and Ken Jacobs present a tribute to Jack Smith; 4K restorations of The Trial, The Doom Generation, and Dogville play.
Film at Lincoln Center
Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies continues showing in a long-overdue restoration.
Museum of the Moving Image
An Asteroid City-themed series programmed by Wes Anderson and Jake Perlin includes 35mm prints of Some Came Running and Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore; Blow Out shows on 35mm this Sunday, while Rope plays in a queer cinema series.
Bam
A retrospective of the great Juliet Berto brings Celine and Julie, Godard’s Weekend, and more.
Museum of Modern Art
A tribute to casting directors Ellen Lewis and Laura Rosenthal brings prints of Goodfellas and I’m Not There, as well as Dead Man.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of The Fifth Element and Eastwood’s The Gauntlet screen this weekend, while J. Hoberman and Ken Jacobs present a tribute to Jack Smith; 4K restorations of The Trial, The Doom Generation, and Dogville play.
Film at Lincoln Center
Béla Tarr’s Werckmeister Harmonies continues showing in a long-overdue restoration.
- 6/2/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Ken Jacobs is now immortalized as a Museum of Modern Art filmmaker.
The experimental Brooklyn-based filmmaker will now have a large collection at the Manhattan museum, making MoMA the singular repository of works of the moving-image artist. The Museum of Modern Art purchased films and videos created by Jacobs, with the titles joining the other 14 Jacobs works already housed at the museum.
Jacobs has credited his discovery of the movies to his youthful trips to MoMA in the late 1940s, recalling that “the Museum of Modern Art plunged me, when a teenager, into the unexpectedness of art.”
He added in a statement to IndieWire, “Eastern District High School in Williamsburg gave me a pass to MoMA, where I saw ‘Greed,’ Chaplin, Vertov. I’m delighted that MoMA is now acquiring my long life’s cine-output.”
For more than 50 years, MoMA has presented Jacobs’ own moving-image work in nearly every context and format,...
The experimental Brooklyn-based filmmaker will now have a large collection at the Manhattan museum, making MoMA the singular repository of works of the moving-image artist. The Museum of Modern Art purchased films and videos created by Jacobs, with the titles joining the other 14 Jacobs works already housed at the museum.
Jacobs has credited his discovery of the movies to his youthful trips to MoMA in the late 1940s, recalling that “the Museum of Modern Art plunged me, when a teenager, into the unexpectedness of art.”
He added in a statement to IndieWire, “Eastern District High School in Williamsburg gave me a pass to MoMA, where I saw ‘Greed,’ Chaplin, Vertov. I’m delighted that MoMA is now acquiring my long life’s cine-output.”
For more than 50 years, MoMA has presented Jacobs’ own moving-image work in nearly every context and format,...
- 5/31/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBRANCEIsland in the Sun.The singer, actor, and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte has died, aged 96. Christina Newland wrote a piece on Belafonte for Notebook in 2020, praising his politics, his style, his music, and his work ss stage and screen. "His impact on American mid-century life has been so significant that it’s difficult to define him as any single thing, or to see him occupying only one role."NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi has left Iran for the first time in fourteen years, it is being reported. Posting from an airport, his wife Tahereh Saeedi tweeted that, “after 14 years, Jafar’s ban was cancelled" and, that finally, the pair are "going to travel together for a few days…”The Cannes Film Festival have...
- 5/2/2023
- MUBI
The Sparrow Dream (2022).The filmmaker Robert Beavers writes in a notebook every day. In and of itself, this is hardly exceptional; the journals of important artists can be found in plenty of museum archives. But for Beavers, one of whose major works is entitled From the Notebook of… (1971/1998), the practice is very much part of the films themselves. The act of writing also appears frequently in the films proper, including shots of his tidy and elegant script, and the closely-miked sound of scribbling. The notebook is a space where his artistic impulses are worked out, and a surface on which his thoughts and sensations are inscribed. Take this entry, from April 1, 1998, as Beavers was re-editing Notebook: “First reel is nearly complete. Has it already become too cluttered, too heavy? The only moment of delight is when the bird’s wings are heard with the view of the camera shutter in action.
- 3/24/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSEverything Everywhere All at Once. Everything Everywhere All at Once swept the 95th Academy Awards this weekend, winning Best Picture, Director, Original Screenplay, Editing, and three of the four acting prizes. Read the full list of winners here, and keep your eyes peeled for commentary from our end soon.According to The Hollywood Reporter, Quentin Tarantino is preparing to shoot what could be his final film, The Movie Critic, this autumn. It's set in mid-1970s Los Angeles and will center on a female lead; many are speculating the film could be about Pauline Kael. (Recently on Notebook: read Carlos Valladeres on Tarantino's forays into the written word.)Finally, Jacobin reports on VFX-iatse’s efforts to organize visual effects workers, citing...
- 3/14/2023
- MUBI
Exclusive: Kino Lorber today announced that it has acquired worldwide rights to Rob Nilsson’s latest film Faultline, as well as his near complete filmography, including his 1979 feature Northern Lights, co-directed with John Hanson.
The Nilsson catalog will be available on Kino Now in 2023. Select titles will also be released theatrically. The deal for Faultline and the Rob Nilsson catalog was negotiated by Kino Lorber President & CEO Richard Lorber.
Faultline debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 11 and will receive a theatrical and digital release from Kino Lorber in 2023. Billed as a hypnotic experience about the raw, messy intimacy of family and the global impact of today’s conflicted society, Faultline is the third and final installment of Nilsson’s Nomad Trilogy, following Arid Cut and Divide. Faultline is written and directed by Nilsson. He also produced the pic with Zhan Petrov, Michelle Allen, Rusty Murphy, and John Stout.
The Nilsson catalog will be available on Kino Now in 2023. Select titles will also be released theatrically. The deal for Faultline and the Rob Nilsson catalog was negotiated by Kino Lorber President & CEO Richard Lorber.
Faultline debuted at the Mill Valley Film Festival on October 11 and will receive a theatrical and digital release from Kino Lorber in 2023. Billed as a hypnotic experience about the raw, messy intimacy of family and the global impact of today’s conflicted society, Faultline is the third and final installment of Nilsson’s Nomad Trilogy, following Arid Cut and Divide. Faultline is written and directed by Nilsson. He also produced the pic with Zhan Petrov, Michelle Allen, Rusty Murphy, and John Stout.
- 10/13/2022
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
Despite making decades of fascinating film work and playing a pivotal role at Binghamton by founding the film department and bringing Ken Jacobs onboard, Larry Gottheim remains an under-celebrated figure in the American avant-garde. With Fog Line (1970)—an 11 minute single-take of fog slowly rising in a meadow, trees asymmetrically clustered, framed by telephone wire—he found a semblance of universal acclaim in the underground. The “first period” of Gottheim’s work (of which Fog Line is a crucial part) takes an approach largely inspired by the stoic film observations of Andy Warhol, a rubric of silence and static framing which trains […]
The post Duration and Velocity: An Interview with Larry Gottheim first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Duration and Velocity: An Interview with Larry Gottheim first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 9/6/2022
- by Ruairí McCann and Maximilien Luc Proctor
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
For a certain type of cinephile versed in the avant-garde, the name Jonas Mekas brings to mind a particular type of autobiographical filmmaking — one that prioritized the immediacy of a given moment over context or sometimes even narrative coherence. He was an Immensely prolific filmmaker, critic, archivist, and poet who, in his own words, immigrated to the US in the late ’40s “hungry, thirsty for art,” taking in everything he could.
While not exactly forgotten, Mekas’ work as the “Film Culture” founder, Village Voice critic, historian, and champion of such directors as Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs, has often overshadowed his prolific film work.
Continue reading ‘Fragments Of Paradise’ Review: An Conventional, But Captivating Documentary About Unconventional Filmmaker Jonas Mekas [Venice] at The Playlist.
While not exactly forgotten, Mekas’ work as the “Film Culture” founder, Village Voice critic, historian, and champion of such directors as Kenneth Anger and Ken Jacobs, has often overshadowed his prolific film work.
Continue reading ‘Fragments Of Paradise’ Review: An Conventional, But Captivating Documentary About Unconventional Filmmaker Jonas Mekas [Venice] at The Playlist.
- 9/2/2022
- by Christian Gallichio
- The Playlist
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Costa Brava, Lebanon (Mounia Akl)
What can you do when your homeland’s falling apart? The easy answer is stay or leave, but both options carry too much complexity to simply choose and be done. For starters, not everyone has that choice—whether due to finances, family, or myriad other reasons. And those who are able must dig deep within themselves to rationalize why. Do you leave because of greater opportunity? Do you stay because you want to be part of the solution? Or do you find yourself in a sort of purgatory—one foot planted on each side, only to discover your fear of losing out on the benefits of one for the potential of the other has you locked in stasis?...
Costa Brava, Lebanon (Mounia Akl)
What can you do when your homeland’s falling apart? The easy answer is stay or leave, but both options carry too much complexity to simply choose and be done. For starters, not everyone has that choice—whether due to finances, family, or myriad other reasons. And those who are able must dig deep within themselves to rationalize why. Do you leave because of greater opportunity? Do you stay because you want to be part of the solution? Or do you find yourself in a sort of purgatory—one foot planted on each side, only to discover your fear of losing out on the benefits of one for the potential of the other has you locked in stasis?...
- 8/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
The Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)
Earning its status amongst the likes of Three Colors, Apu, Human Condition, Antonioni’s ’Decadence’ trilogy, and Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s exploration of romance both fledgling and tested is one of the great film trilogies of all time. Though there’s Before Movie, Says Julie Delpy”>no plans for a fourth film in sight, one can enjoy all three films, now available to stream on The Criterion
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due...
The Before Trilogy (Richard Linklater)
Earning its status amongst the likes of Three Colors, Apu, Human Condition, Antonioni’s ’Decadence’ trilogy, and Kiarostami’s Koker trilogy, Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, and Ethan Hawke’s exploration of romance both fledgling and tested is one of the great film trilogies of all time. Though there’s Before Movie, Says Julie Delpy”>no plans for a fourth film in sight, one can enjoy all three films, now available to stream on The Criterion
Where to Stream: The Criterion Channel
Blue Bayou (Justin Chon)
After Antonio (Justin Chon) is wrongfully arrested in front of his wife Kathy (Alicia Vikander) and step-daughter Jessie (Sydney Kowalske), he’s surprised to learn he’s been flagged for deportation. Due...
- 7/1/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
“The closing moments of Lux Æterna are such a disturbing outburst of light, color, and 3-D illusions they might make even stereoscopic auteur Ken Jacobs avert his eyes.”– Eric Kohn, IndieWire
Lux ÆTERNA opens in New York on May 6 and LA on May 13, with a National Rollout to Follow.
Here’s a new trailer:
Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos.
Written & Directed By: Gaspar Noé
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Béatrice Dalle, Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon), Karl Glusman (Love), Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull (Climax) & Félix Maritaud
The post New Trailer Released for Gaspar Noé’s Psychedelic Freakout Lux ÆTERNA Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle – Set For Release in May appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
Lux ÆTERNA opens in New York on May 6 and LA on May 13, with a National Rollout to Follow.
Here’s a new trailer:
Béatrice Dalle and Charlotte Gainsbourg are on a film set telling stories about witches. Technical problems and psychotic outbreaks gradually plunge the shoot into chaos.
Written & Directed By: Gaspar Noé
Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Béatrice Dalle, Abbey Lee (The Neon Demon), Karl Glusman (Love), Claude-Emmanuelle Gajan-Maull (Climax) & Félix Maritaud
The post New Trailer Released for Gaspar Noé’s Psychedelic Freakout Lux ÆTERNA Starring Charlotte Gainsbourg and Béatrice Dalle – Set For Release in May appeared first on We Are Movie Geeks.
- 4/5/2022
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Film at Lincoln Center
Joachim Trier presents favorites and influences, among them The Age of Innocence, The Green Ray, and My Sex Life.
Metrograph
Prints of I’m Not There and Ed Lachman’s Songs for Drella screen in a music series; deemed “essential viewing” by Martin Scorsese, a six-film retrospective of the Hungarian master Miklós Jancsó continues. Films by Panahi, Chris Marker and more play “In the Streets,” while a series of literary adaptations includes Mishima and Crumb.
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” one of the most eye-opening series in any given year,...
Film at Lincoln Center
Joachim Trier presents favorites and influences, among them The Age of Innocence, The Green Ray, and My Sex Life.
Metrograph
Prints of I’m Not There and Ed Lachman’s Songs for Drella screen in a music series; deemed “essential viewing” by Martin Scorsese, a six-film retrospective of the Hungarian master Miklós Jancsó continues. Films by Panahi, Chris Marker and more play “In the Streets,” while a series of literary adaptations includes Mishima and Crumb.
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” one of the most eye-opening series in any given year,...
- 1/27/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The holidays are upon us, so whether you looking for film-related gifts or simply want to pick up some of the finest the year had to offer in the category for yourself, we have a gift guide for you. Including must-have books on filmmaking, the best from the Criterion Collection, Kino Lorber, and more home-video picks, subscriptions, magazines, music, and more, dive in below.
4K & Blu-ray Box Sets
There’s no better gift for a cinephile than a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Leading the pack in this regard is a collection that actually arrived much earlier this year: World of Wong Kar-wai, the long-awaited Criterion release that features the Hong Kong master’s most celebrated works, along with the first U.S. release of his short The Hand. Another must-own trio of sets from Criterion: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, featuring four bold films from the late director, The...
4K & Blu-ray Box Sets
There’s no better gift for a cinephile than a beautiful Blu-ray box set. Leading the pack in this regard is a collection that actually arrived much earlier this year: World of Wong Kar-wai, the long-awaited Criterion release that features the Hong Kong master’s most celebrated works, along with the first U.S. release of his short The Hand. Another must-own trio of sets from Criterion: Melvin Van Peebles: Essential Films, featuring four bold films from the late director, The...
- 11/29/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Pedro Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers (2021). The lineup for the 2021 Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, featuring the latest from Pedro Almodóvar, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Pablo Larraín, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, and more. Find the full lineup here. The New York Film Festival has announced that this year's Centerpiece Selection will be Jane Campion's Power of the Dog, an adaptation of Thomas Savage's novel starring Jesse Plemons, Kirsten Dunst, and Benedict Cumberbatch. New additions to the TIFF roster include Joachim Trier's The Worst Person In The World, Masaaki Yuasa's Inu-Oh, and Ho Wi Ding's Terrorizers. A24 has won the rights to Octavia E. Butler's science-fiction novel Parable of the Sower, and Time director Garrett Bradley is set to direct. The novel follows a girl with a unique gift who rises to...
- 7/28/2021
- MUBI
Major corporations, celebrities and other prominent figures signed on to a two-page ad opposing “any discriminatory legislation or measures” that restrict eligible voters from having “an equal and fair opportunity to cast a ballot.”
Netflix, UTA, CAA and ViacomCBS were among the media and entertainment companies to sign the ad, which comes amid concerns over the impact of voting legislation in Georgia, Texas and other states. Also signing were tech companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit and Salesforce, as well as live event businesses Live Nation Entertainment and Jazz Lincoln Center.
The ad featured the headline, “We stand for democracy.” “Voting is the lifeblood of our democracy and we call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans.”
Among the individuals who signed the ad was James Murdoch, the CEO of Lupa Systems. His brother,...
Netflix, UTA, CAA and ViacomCBS were among the media and entertainment companies to sign the ad, which comes amid concerns over the impact of voting legislation in Georgia, Texas and other states. Also signing were tech companies including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Pinterest, Reddit and Salesforce, as well as live event businesses Live Nation Entertainment and Jazz Lincoln Center.
The ad featured the headline, “We stand for democracy.” “Voting is the lifeblood of our democracy and we call upon all Americans to join us in taking a nonpartisan stand for this most basic and fundamental right of all Americans.”
Among the individuals who signed the ad was James Murdoch, the CEO of Lupa Systems. His brother,...
- 4/14/2021
- by Ted Johnson
- Deadline Film + TV
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Azazel Jacobs grew up in the world of film, understanding its importance from his father, experimental filmmaking pioneer Ken Jacobs. His newest feature, French Exit, stars Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges, and Tracy Letts, giving Jacobs his biggest stage and audience yet as the Closing Night selection of the 58th New York Film Festival.
Following a mother, a son, and a cat who flee to Paris after losing their fortune, the film presents a jump in scale and pressure for Jacobs, marking his latest collaboration with novelist Patrick deWitt. I spoke with the filmmaker about childhood screenings, identifying as a filmmaker, casting Michelle Pfeiffer, and crafting his newest piece of art with his best friend.
The Film Stage: When did you see the finished version of the film?
Azazel Jacobs: Tuesday. So I’ve been working up until that moment, getting things together until Tuesday. So it’s been going, and...
Following a mother, a son, and a cat who flee to Paris after losing their fortune, the film presents a jump in scale and pressure for Jacobs, marking his latest collaboration with novelist Patrick deWitt. I spoke with the filmmaker about childhood screenings, identifying as a filmmaker, casting Michelle Pfeiffer, and crafting his newest piece of art with his best friend.
The Film Stage: When did you see the finished version of the film?
Azazel Jacobs: Tuesday. So I’ve been working up until that moment, getting things together until Tuesday. So it’s been going, and...
- 10/13/2020
- by Michael Frank
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Nobuhiko Obayashi in his "humble workspace." (Photograph by Aiko Masubichi for Mubi.) We're devastated by the loss of three great titans within the last week, each totally singular and significant to the history of movies: Bruce Baillie, avant-garde filmmaker and founder of Canyon Cinema and the San Francisco Cinematheque, the prolific pacifist and green-screen master Nobuhiko Obayashi (whose penultimate film Hanagatami was featured on Mubi in January of 2019), and Pan-African cinema pioneer Sarah Maldoror, known for her portraits of women's role in African liberation struggles. The Cannes Film Festival, which earlier announced plans to postpone the festival until the end of June to early July, has confirmed that this will no longer be possible, and that the festivities can no longer take place in their "original form." Recommended VIEWINGThis Long Century, a digital...
- 4/15/2020
- MUBI
Above: Things to ComePossessing a creative ingenuity that’s persisted for well over six decades, while working within several different artistic mediums—including film celluloid, digital, and his Nervous Magic Lantern performances that incorporated neither—the ever-prolific Ken Jacobs, rather miraculously for our sakes, continues to teach us new ways to see. This is an admittedly vague summation of the film artist’s theoretical interests over the past half-century, although, for a creator of Jacobs’s stature and temperament, it’s the most accurate thing one can apply to the vast majority of his efforts. His lessons follow twofold, and like all great instructors allow his students the pleasure of discovering different schools of thought through speculative means: there’s the literal re-evaluation of moving images he provides, often fixating on the details one can easily take for granted; then, there’s a secondary education that takes place after the first,...
- 4/15/2020
- MUBI
Founded in 2009 in Knoxville, Tennessee, Big Ears Festival is a renowned event bringing together, music, film, literature, art installations, and more. Year after year, their cinema-related section continues to showcase an eclectic mix of classic and contemporary voices, striving to explore boundary-pushing works in the field. Ahead of next month’s festival, we’re pleased to unveil the 2020 edition of the film lineup.
As part of their Standard Definition program, which explores the transition from celluloid to digital, the festival will present films from Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Abbas Kiarostami, and Hal Hartley, along with U.S. theatrical premieres of Dominik Graf’s Friends of Friends and Franco Piavoli Affettuosa presenza and Paesaggi e figure. Also in the lineup is rarely screened works by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Kevin Jerome Everson, along with Michael Snow’s 2002 film Corpus Callosum and his most recent project, Cityscape.
Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland will also get the spotlight,...
As part of their Standard Definition program, which explores the transition from celluloid to digital, the festival will present films from Agnès Varda, Chantal Akerman, Abbas Kiarostami, and Hal Hartley, along with U.S. theatrical premieres of Dominik Graf’s Friends of Friends and Franco Piavoli Affettuosa presenza and Paesaggi e figure. Also in the lineup is rarely screened works by Apichatpong Weerasethakul and Kevin Jerome Everson, along with Michael Snow’s 2002 film Corpus Callosum and his most recent project, Cityscape.
Argentine-British artist Jessica Sarah Rinland will also get the spotlight,...
- 2/24/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska's The Children of the Dead is showing February 20 - March 20, 2020 on Mubi in the series Direct from the Berlinale.Above: Behind the scenes of The Children of the Dead. Photo by Ditz FejerIn 2016 we were invited by the Austrian art and performance festival, steirischer herbst, to make a project in the Styrian countryside. We knew we wanted to ground ourselves to a particular place—to go deep, to make something which would be rooted in landscape and land, time and tide. We were drawn to the heimatfilme and bergfilme genres, that naively celebrate landscape and rural life (in reaction to the horrors of WWII) and we were looking for a Austrian text to build this work upon... when someone suggested we should read Elfriede Jelinek’s Die Kinder der Toten, a 666-page epic entirely rooted in the Styrian landscape, a book in which the...
- 2/12/2020
- MUBI
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party (2019)(Warning: Flashing lights.) The prolific Ken Jacobs, whose avant-garde epics transform archival footage into anaglyphs to create stunning simulations of depth, has often made his work freely available to the public, usually in the form of short GIFs on his Twitter and excerpts of his films on his Vimeo page. However, a recent batch of invaluable uploads expand this collection with the inclusion of the full-length films Return to the Scene of the Crime (2008) and A Primer in Sky Socialism 2-D (2014), Popeye Quartet (a compilation comprised of four shorts), and the shorts Painted Poster, Rain Clouds, and Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party (2019). Jacobs's Return to the Scene of the Crime sets the stage for the latter experimentations: The filmmaker isolates a single shot from the 1905 short Tom Tom, The Piper's Son (the subject of Jacobs's 1969 film of the same name) and proceeds to...
- 1/24/2020
- MUBI
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film at Lincoln Center
Bong Joon-ho’s “The Bong Show” is underway, with a mixture of his own films and work by Imamura, John Boorman, Clouzot and more.
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” a highlight of any given year, has returned. The first weekend includes work by Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, and George A. Romero.
Film at Lincoln Center
Bong Joon-ho’s “The Bong Show” is underway, with a mixture of his own films and work by Imamura, John Boorman, Clouzot and more.
Museum of Modern Art
“To Save and Project,” a highlight of any given year, has returned. The first weekend includes work by Stan Brakhage, Ken Jacobs, and George A. Romero.
- 1/9/2020
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
A Burning Hot Summer (Philippe Garrel)
What makes Philippe Garrel’s films so distinct is their blend of autobiographical pain and silent-film mise-en-scène–a failed relationship or revolution rendered not so much through the increasingly dialogue-heavy scripts of his films, but the placement of bodies, gestures, and, furthermore, the dreams that contain and emerge from them. Yet while A Burning Hot Summer may be the only film he’s made in the 21st century not shot in black-and-white, once the senior Maurice Garrel (in his final role) appears as an apparition in his grandson’s hospital bed-bound vision, the personal and the fantastical have formed their most natural relationship.
A Burning Hot Summer (Philippe Garrel)
What makes Philippe Garrel’s films so distinct is their blend of autobiographical pain and silent-film mise-en-scène–a failed relationship or revolution rendered not so much through the increasingly dialogue-heavy scripts of his films, but the placement of bodies, gestures, and, furthermore, the dreams that contain and emerge from them. Yet while A Burning Hot Summer may be the only film he’s made in the 21st century not shot in black-and-white, once the senior Maurice Garrel (in his final role) appears as an apparition in his grandson’s hospital bed-bound vision, the personal and the fantastical have formed their most natural relationship.
- 8/30/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
A particularly outstanding weekend for “See It Big! Action” includes Die Hard on Friday, Big Trouble in Little China and Face/Off on Saturday, and Police Story this Sunday.
A series showcasing Diana Ross runs this weekend.
A spotlight on Mexico’s queer scene is underway.
Metrograph
A Jim Jarmusch series continues.
Museum of the Moving Image
A particularly outstanding weekend for “See It Big! Action” includes Die Hard on Friday, Big Trouble in Little China and Face/Off on Saturday, and Police Story this Sunday.
A series showcasing Diana Ross runs this weekend.
A spotlight on Mexico’s queer scene is underway.
Metrograph
A Jim Jarmusch series continues.
- 6/14/2019
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGThe official trailer for Peter Strickland's In Fabric, which stars Marianne Jean-Baptiste as a woman who purchases a haunted dress from a sinister boutique. The long awaited trailer to Hideo Kojima's new boundary-pushing video game Death Stranding, which by way of motion capture stars the likes of Norman Reedus, Léa Seydoux, Mads Mikkelsen, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Guillermo del Toro.Alien: The Play, a North Bergen High School production that features handmade costumes made of recycled materials, is now available online in its entirety. In the latest edition of the Museum of Modern Art's "How To See" series, curator Dave Kehr discusses how the nitrate prints and negatives of cinema's early days inspired audiences by expanding their perception of the world. Miranda July directs the music video for Sleater-Kinney's "Hurry On Home,...
- 5/29/2019
- MUBI
Chuck Smith at The Bowery Hotel on Barbara Rubin: "I think Walt Disney fascinated her all the time and fairy tales." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Through interviews with Jonas Mekas, Amy Taubin, Gordon Ball, Richard Foreman, J Hoberman, Ara Osterweil, Rosebud Feliu-Pettet, Debra Feiner Coddington, and illustrated by film clips, and photographs, Chuck Smith is in search of answering questions such as, who is Barbara Rubin and why haven't you heard about her?
Chuck Smith on Barbara Rubin friend Amy Taubin, seen here with Richard Gere and Oren Moverman: "She's in Michael Snow's Wavelength, the legendary experimental film." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Barbara Rubin And The Exploding NY Underground, with an original score by Lee Ranaldo, resurrects the filmmaker and instigator to take her place as a vital interconnected thread for the likes of Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Lenny Bruce, and many others.
Through interviews with Jonas Mekas, Amy Taubin, Gordon Ball, Richard Foreman, J Hoberman, Ara Osterweil, Rosebud Feliu-Pettet, Debra Feiner Coddington, and illustrated by film clips, and photographs, Chuck Smith is in search of answering questions such as, who is Barbara Rubin and why haven't you heard about her?
Chuck Smith on Barbara Rubin friend Amy Taubin, seen here with Richard Gere and Oren Moverman: "She's in Michael Snow's Wavelength, the legendary experimental film." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Barbara Rubin And The Exploding NY Underground, with an original score by Lee Ranaldo, resurrects the filmmaker and instigator to take her place as a vital interconnected thread for the likes of Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground, Lou Reed, Allen Ginsberg, Bob Dylan, Federico Fellini, Lenny Bruce, and many others.
- 5/19/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ever since Gaspar Noé cranked up his ambition with “Enter the Void” 10 years ago, the filmmaker has divided audiences with unruly, disorienting filmmaking techniques. Frames blink in and out, cameras float and speed through unexpected spaces, and neon palettes pulsate. His recent spate of movies often yield overwhelming experiences closer to the visceral terrain of avant-garde cinema than the narrative traditions he roots within the mayhem. His style can be a mixed bag of visual provocations, but his showmanship remains admirable for its bold swings each time out.
It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.
It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.
- 5/19/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Lazard Ltd has named longtime Hollywood player Sanford R. (Sandy) Climan as a senior financial advisor, Variety has learned exclusively.
Based in Los Angeles, he will serve as an advisor to Lazard’s Global Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group. Climan has more than 35 years of experience in senior management in the media and entertainment industry, holding key roles in both creative and business management.
He is president of Entertainment Media Ventures, which he founded in 1999 to help bridge the worlds of media and entertainment with technology. Climan was a top agent at CAA before launching investment vehicle Entertainment Media Ventures. He was a producer on Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” and an executive producer on “Robbery Homicide Division.”
Climan also served as corporate executive vice president and president of worldwide business development for Universal Studios, where he oversaw corporate international strategy, strategic marketing and five studio operating divisions. He started his entertainment career at MGM,...
Based in Los Angeles, he will serve as an advisor to Lazard’s Global Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group. Climan has more than 35 years of experience in senior management in the media and entertainment industry, holding key roles in both creative and business management.
He is president of Entertainment Media Ventures, which he founded in 1999 to help bridge the worlds of media and entertainment with technology. Climan was a top agent at CAA before launching investment vehicle Entertainment Media Ventures. He was a producer on Martin Scorsese’s “The Aviator” and an executive producer on “Robbery Homicide Division.”
Climan also served as corporate executive vice president and president of worldwide business development for Universal Studios, where he oversaw corporate international strategy, strategic marketing and five studio operating divisions. He started his entertainment career at MGM,...
- 4/15/2019
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Looking back today at the legacy of Jonas Mekas (1922-2019) as a pioneer of American independent filmmaking, we like to think that he paved the way for us to enjoy our current freedom as spectators. When he was arrested for screening Jack Smith’s “Flaming Creatures” in New York City in March 1964, along with Ken Jacobs and Florence Karpf, we tend to suppose that this was eventually to ensure that we wouldn’t be penalized for watching the film today.
But maybe we haven’t advanced quite as far in our freedom and sophistication as we like to suppose. Such, at any rate, was my thought when I found myself censored on Facebook last week and banned from posting anything there for 24 hours when I tried to post the following two images:
I assume it was the second image rather than the first that led to the censorship, but given...
But maybe we haven’t advanced quite as far in our freedom and sophistication as we like to suppose. Such, at any rate, was my thought when I found myself censored on Facebook last week and banned from posting anything there for 24 hours when I tried to post the following two images:
I assume it was the second image rather than the first that led to the censorship, but given...
- 2/7/2019
- by Jonathan Rosenbaum
- Indiewire
the eyes empty and the pupils burning with rage and desireOne of the perennial grumblings at Rotterdam is about sheer number of films programmed, whose reason for selection, or even organization within the festival, is frequently less than obvious. The festival has an admirable reputation of emphasizing under-known filmmakers, underexposed countries and new talents, but this stance gets easily drowned out by quantity of highly variable quality. It’s a festival that offers cinematic adventure through bountiful options and possibilities, but it’s an adventure that exists hand-in-hand with that very contemporary sensation of fear-of-missing-out: sure, this minimalist art-house film is moving along just fine (read: slowly), but what about the three other similar films programmed at this exact time, and perhaps in this exact theatre? Oh, the angst!Luckily, around the outskirts of the immense main program one can usually detect more curatorial sensibility, and as such can experience...
- 1/28/2019
- MUBI
When David Schwartz started working as a curator at the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, there was no Netflix or MoviePass: Cinema faced a different sort of change. It was 1985, and with the twin effects of home video and New York real estate prices, some of the best arthouses in town had gone out business. “It wasn’t as crowded a scene as it is now,” said Schwartz, who ended his tenure as the museum’s chief curator last month. “There was definitely a need for more alternative programming at the time we opened.”
Over the decades, Schwartz met that challenge with a cinephilic feast of repertory programming and daring avant-garde offerings that did much to cultivate audiences through the decades. Nevertheless, the specifics of Schwartz’s departure are murky: Some sources said he received a two-week notice after 33 years at the museum, while others said it was by mutual agreement.
Over the decades, Schwartz met that challenge with a cinephilic feast of repertory programming and daring avant-garde offerings that did much to cultivate audiences through the decades. Nevertheless, the specifics of Schwartz’s departure are murky: Some sources said he received a two-week notice after 33 years at the museum, while others said it was by mutual agreement.
- 1/7/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
On November 30, 1970, New York City’s Anthology Film Archives opened its doors as the first ever “museum of film” at its original location at 425 Lafayette Street. That was an invitation-only Opening Night event with the first public screening occurring the following night, December 1.
A previous article on the Underground Film Journal uncovered the first five nights of screenings at the Anthology, and the reaction in the NYC press to this unique movie theater.
Digging around in the digital archives of the Village Voice, the Journal has been able to piece together most of the screening lineups for the month of December. Unfortunately, these archives do not contain issues for the last week of November nor the first week of December, so we do not have screening info for December 5-9.
However, below are the screenings for December 10-30. The Anthology’s original plan was to have three screenings every night...
A previous article on the Underground Film Journal uncovered the first five nights of screenings at the Anthology, and the reaction in the NYC press to this unique movie theater.
Digging around in the digital archives of the Village Voice, the Journal has been able to piece together most of the screening lineups for the month of December. Unfortunately, these archives do not contain issues for the last week of November nor the first week of December, so we do not have screening info for December 5-9.
However, below are the screenings for December 10-30. The Anthology’s original plan was to have three screenings every night...
- 8/5/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Part One of this series is about the origin of the Robert Beck Memorial Cinema (Rbmc). Part Two covers all the screenings in 1998.
Continuing into 1999 at the Collective Unconscious theater space in NYC, the Rbmc — co-programmed by Brian L. Frye and Bradley Eros — went on hiatus for the first week of the year, but resumed on January 12. Below is a list of screenings from then until a May 18 event that celebrated the Rbmc’s first full year of existence.
The films and filmmakers selected to screen by Frye and Eros represent an interesting time in the sphere of avant-garde and experimental cinema. Up until this point, there seemed to be a distinct separation between the formal style of, say, structuralism, and the more raucous, punk rock world of the “underground.” However, in the 1990s, these two worlds appear to be colliding. The Rbmc seemed just as content screening Hollis Frampton‘s Critical Mass (Feb.
Continuing into 1999 at the Collective Unconscious theater space in NYC, the Rbmc — co-programmed by Brian L. Frye and Bradley Eros — went on hiatus for the first week of the year, but resumed on January 12. Below is a list of screenings from then until a May 18 event that celebrated the Rbmc’s first full year of existence.
The films and filmmakers selected to screen by Frye and Eros represent an interesting time in the sphere of avant-garde and experimental cinema. Up until this point, there seemed to be a distinct separation between the formal style of, say, structuralism, and the more raucous, punk rock world of the “underground.” However, in the 1990s, these two worlds appear to be colliding. The Rbmc seemed just as content screening Hollis Frampton‘s Critical Mass (Feb.
- 6/17/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Ela Bittencourt's column explores South America’s key festivals and notable screenings of Latin films in North America and Europe.“Sooner or later all delicate things are butterflies with severed wings.” — “Polyphemus Views the End,” by Henry Alan Potamkin, quoted in Potamkin by Stephen Broomer“Perhaps these are not poetic times at all.”—“For Saundra,” by Nikki Giovanni, quoted in Fluid Frontiers by Ephraim Asili The premise of chaos theory rests on an impossibly poetic formulation: The delicate flapping of butterfly wings in one part of the world could, under certain conditions, cause a tornado elsewhere. This terrifying yet paradoxically hopeful vision links past and present, furnishes a unified vision, a linear geography, for the impossibly spread-out Earth.A similar sense of historical, geographic, chronological connectedness was gorgeously on display at one of Brazil’s most ambitious and certainly one of its best-curated festivals, Fronteira, dedicated to experimental documentaries, whose...
- 5/25/2018
- MUBI
more than everythingFor those who love their live music to be risk-taking and cutting-edge, the Big Ears Festival, a 4-day event each March in Knoxville, Tennessee, is the place to be. For those who like their cinema of similar boldness and eclecticism, Big Ears is becoming a destination for that, too. Focusing on experimental work and inspired retrospectives, the film section of Big Ears is now in its third year, programmed by critic Darren Hughes (who writes regularly for the Notebook) and filmmaker Paul Harrill (Something, Anything), who together run The Public Cinema, a non-profit screening series shown at the Knoxville Museum of Art that operates year-long. Big Ears' film program is an exciting extension and expansion of The Public Cinema's initiative, which brings international art cinema like Hong Sang-soo's On the Beach Alone at Night and Valeska Grisebach's Western, as well as American independent cinema like Frederick Wiseman...
- 3/22/2018
- MUBI
In 1976, a crudely published fanzine devoted to the experimental film scene made its debut. It was called Idiolects and the first issue offered a definition of its name: “An idiolect is the language of an individual at a particular time.” That definition certainly could be applied to both the filmmakers covered in the zine and to the writers who contributed articles.
Although not an official publication of New York City’s Collective for Living Cinema screening society, Idiolects was closely tied to the organization, offering a “temporary” publication address of 52 White Street, New York, 10013 in the indicia. That was the Collective’s then permanent screening space in 1976 after having bopped around Manhattan for several years prior.
In addition, the Living Cinema was formed in the early 1970s by students who had studied filmmaking at Binghamton University in upstate New York and then moved to New York City. While Idiolects #1 gives no clear main editorial voice,...
Although not an official publication of New York City’s Collective for Living Cinema screening society, Idiolects was closely tied to the organization, offering a “temporary” publication address of 52 White Street, New York, 10013 in the indicia. That was the Collective’s then permanent screening space in 1976 after having bopped around Manhattan for several years prior.
In addition, the Living Cinema was formed in the early 1970s by students who had studied filmmaking at Binghamton University in upstate New York and then moved to New York City. While Idiolects #1 gives no clear main editorial voice,...
- 3/19/2018
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
This is Part Two in a series about Chicago’s Experimental Film Coalition; and covers their screening series. You can read Part One here.
Formed in 1983, the Experimental Film Coalition started holding regular monthly screenings starting in 1984. The screenings brought to Chicago the work of independent, experimental filmmakers across the country, as well as screening local work.
Screenings were held at the Randolph Street Gallery, an alternative performance and exhibition space located at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Gallery eventually closed down in 1998 and donated their archives to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; which exhibits some of the Coalition’s flyers on their website.
Below is a sample of screening information culled from those archives, listed in chronological order:
1984
March 23
2 Razor Blades, dir. Paul Sharits
Make Me Psychic, dir. Sally Cruikshank
Unsere Afrikareise, dir. Peter Kubelka
Roslyn Romance, dir. Bruce Baillie
Musical Poster #1, dir. Len Lye
April 27
Rainbow Dance,...
Formed in 1983, the Experimental Film Coalition started holding regular monthly screenings starting in 1984. The screenings brought to Chicago the work of independent, experimental filmmakers across the country, as well as screening local work.
Screenings were held at the Randolph Street Gallery, an alternative performance and exhibition space located at 756 N. Milwaukee Ave. The Gallery eventually closed down in 1998 and donated their archives to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; which exhibits some of the Coalition’s flyers on their website.
Below is a sample of screening information culled from those archives, listed in chronological order:
1984
March 23
2 Razor Blades, dir. Paul Sharits
Make Me Psychic, dir. Sally Cruikshank
Unsere Afrikareise, dir. Peter Kubelka
Roslyn Romance, dir. Bruce Baillie
Musical Poster #1, dir. Len Lye
April 27
Rainbow Dance,...
- 12/17/2017
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
My work is described as beautiful, horrible, hogwash, genius, maundering, precise, quaint, avant-garde, historical, hackneyed, masterful, trivial, intense, mystical, virtuosic, bewildering, absorbing, concise, absurd, amusing, innovative, nostalgic, contemporary, iconoclastic, sophisticated, trash, masterpieces, etc. It’s all true. —Bruce Conner
What does it all mean? This question, when applied to the ever-expanding mythology of “Twin Peaks,” typically leads to a series of murky pathways and dead ends, but they’re usually irrelevant. Sure, it’s fun to dig through the pileup of circumstances that led FBI Agent Dale Cooper from investigating a small-town murder to becoming trapped in the red-hued inter-dimensional prison known as the Black Lodge. Play that game if it makes you happy — IndieWire’s TV team has done it beautifully — but that doesn’t mean Lynch or co-creator Mark Frost will always make the journey worthwhile.
The show, which has recreated its appeal from the ground up in...
What does it all mean? This question, when applied to the ever-expanding mythology of “Twin Peaks,” typically leads to a series of murky pathways and dead ends, but they’re usually irrelevant. Sure, it’s fun to dig through the pileup of circumstances that led FBI Agent Dale Cooper from investigating a small-town murder to becoming trapped in the red-hued inter-dimensional prison known as the Black Lodge. Play that game if it makes you happy — IndieWire’s TV team has done it beautifully — but that doesn’t mean Lynch or co-creator Mark Frost will always make the journey worthwhile.
The show, which has recreated its appeal from the ground up in...
- 7/2/2017
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
There have been a lot of lists about the best films of the 21st century. IndieWire has been digging through the last two decades one genre at a time; meanwhile, the New York Times’ top movie critics provided their own takes. J. Hoberman, the longtime Village Voice film critic who now works as a freelancer, decided to join the fray. Here’s his take, also available at his site, and republished here with permission.
People have been asking me, so I thought I might as well join (or crash) the party initiated by the New York Times and put in my two cents regarding the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century (so far). I don’t see “everything” anymore and I haven’t been to Cannes since 2011.
There is some overlap but this is not the same as the proposed 21-film syllabus of 21st Century cinema included in my book “Film After Film.” Those were all in their way pedagogical choices. Begging the question of what “best” means, these are all movies that I really like, that I’m happy to see multiple times, that are strongly of their moment and that I think will stand the test of time.
My single “best” film-object is followed by a list of 11 filmmakers and one academic production company (in order of “best-ness”) responsible for two or more “best films,” these followed by another eight individual movies (again in order) and finally four more tentatively advanced films (these alphabetical). I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s the nature of the beast.
Christian Marclay: “The Clock”
Lars von Trier: “Dogville” & “Melancholia” (and none of his others)
Hou Hsiao Hsien: “The Assassin” & “Flight of the Red Balloon”
Jean-Luc Godard: “In Praise of Love” & “Goodbye to Language”
David Cronenberg: “Spider,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” & “A Dangerous Method”
David Lynch: “Mulholland Drive” & “Inland Empire”
Ken Jacobs: “Seeking the Monkey King,” “The Guests” (and more)
Cristi Puiu: “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” & “Aurora”
Chantal Akerman: “No Home Movie” & “La Captive” (assuming that 2000 is part of the 21st Century)
Paul Thomas Anderson: “The Master” & “There Will Be Blood”
Kathryn Bigelow: “The Hurt Locker” & “Zero Dark Thirty”
Alfonso Cuarón: “Gravity” & “Children of Men”
Sensory Ethnology Lab: “Leviathan,” “Manakamana,” & “People’s Park”
“The Strange Case of Angelica” — Manoel de Oliviera
“Corpus Callosum” — Michael Snow
“West of the Tracks” — Wang Bing
“Carlos” — Olivier Assayas
“Che” — Steven Soderbergh
“Ten” — Abbas Kariostami
“Russian Ark” — Aleksandr Sokurov
“The World” — Jia Zhangke
“Citizenfour” — Laura Poitras
“Day Night Day Night” — Julia Loktev
“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“Wall-e” — Andrew Stanton
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People have been asking me, so I thought I might as well join (or crash) the party initiated by the New York Times and put in my two cents regarding the 25 Best Films of the 21st Century (so far). I don’t see “everything” anymore and I haven’t been to Cannes since 2011.
There is some overlap but this is not the same as the proposed 21-film syllabus of 21st Century cinema included in my book “Film After Film.” Those were all in their way pedagogical choices. Begging the question of what “best” means, these are all movies that I really like, that I’m happy to see multiple times, that are strongly of their moment and that I think will stand the test of time.
My single “best” film-object is followed by a list of 11 filmmakers and one academic production company (in order of “best-ness”) responsible for two or more “best films,” these followed by another eight individual movies (again in order) and finally four more tentatively advanced films (these alphabetical). I’m sure I’m forgetting some but that’s the nature of the beast.
Christian Marclay: “The Clock”
Lars von Trier: “Dogville” & “Melancholia” (and none of his others)
Hou Hsiao Hsien: “The Assassin” & “Flight of the Red Balloon”
Jean-Luc Godard: “In Praise of Love” & “Goodbye to Language”
David Cronenberg: “Spider,” “A History of Violence,” “Eastern Promises,” & “A Dangerous Method”
David Lynch: “Mulholland Drive” & “Inland Empire”
Ken Jacobs: “Seeking the Monkey King,” “The Guests” (and more)
Cristi Puiu: “The Death of Mr Lazarescu” & “Aurora”
Chantal Akerman: “No Home Movie” & “La Captive” (assuming that 2000 is part of the 21st Century)
Paul Thomas Anderson: “The Master” & “There Will Be Blood”
Kathryn Bigelow: “The Hurt Locker” & “Zero Dark Thirty”
Alfonso Cuarón: “Gravity” & “Children of Men”
Sensory Ethnology Lab: “Leviathan,” “Manakamana,” & “People’s Park”
“The Strange Case of Angelica” — Manoel de Oliviera
“Corpus Callosum” — Michael Snow
“West of the Tracks” — Wang Bing
“Carlos” — Olivier Assayas
“Che” — Steven Soderbergh
“Ten” — Abbas Kariostami
“Russian Ark” — Aleksandr Sokurov
“The World” — Jia Zhangke
“Citizenfour” — Laura Poitras
“Day Night Day Night” — Julia Loktev
“Once Upon a Time in Anatolia” — Nuri Bilge Ceylan
“Wall-e” — Andrew Stanton
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- 6/20/2017
- by J. Hoberman
- Indiewire
Azazel Jacobs is a young filmmaker who’s continuing a family tradition. His father is avant-garde cinema legend Ken Jacobs, and his mother Flo and sister Nisi are also participants, all of them having worked on each other’s films. (Ken and Flo played the protagonist’s parents in Azazel’s 2008 feature Momma’s Man.) Azazel Jacobs makes films of a very different sort than his father’s, opting to work in a more commercially oriented, narrative realm, albeit in lower-budgeted independent features rather than in studio films. However, Jacobs is, in a way, also an experimental filmmaker, finding novel approaches and uniquely observational angles to familiar-seeming scenarios. Momma’s Man comically mined the pathos existing beneath the developmentally arrested, man-child characters of the sort often played in other films by Seth Rogen or Will Ferrell, while Terri was a wonderfully nuanced and richly textured take on the teen movie.
- 5/5/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Below you will find our favorite films of the 2017 Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Awardstop PICKSGiovanni Marchini CamiaI.On the Beach at Night AloneII.Bright NightsIII.Ulysses in the Subway, The Other Side of Hope, The Party, El Mar La Mar, Railway Sleepers, UntitledYaron DahanI.El Mar La MarII.The Other Side of HopeHave a Nice DayIII.On Body and SoulCOVERAGEGiovanni Marchini CamiaRead | How Political Is the Berlinale?: On Berlin's Critics' Week and Étienne Comar's DjangoRead | Family Dinners and Parisian Hotels: On Oren Moverman's The Dinner and Neïl Beloufa's OccidentalRead | Getting Better—and Funnier: On Aki Kaurismäki's The Other Side of Hope and Sally Potter's The PartyRead | Chromesthetic Delirium and Documentary Spontaneity: On Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser, Flo Jacobs & Ken Jacobs' Ulysses in the Subway and Michael Glawogger & Monika Willi's UntitledYaron DahanRead | Elemental Poetics: On J.
- 3/6/2017
- MUBI
Untitled. © Lotus-FilmA pretty amazing aspect of the Berlinale is that a lot of the festival venues are multiplexes usually devoted to blockbusters, meaning that smaller films from the sidebars are often screened in theaters with gigantic screens and state-of-the-art sound systems. It’s in one such cinema that I got to experience the chromesthetic delirium of Ulysses in the Subway by Marc Downie, Paul Kaiser, Flo Jacobs and Ken Jacobs. And, let me tell you, it was mind-blowing. Describing the film is about as difficult as describing a drug trip—indeed, watching Ulysses in the Subway is what it might be like if you were to drop acid and ride around the New York subway with your eyes closed. With the intention of visualizing sound, the four artists took an audio recording Ken Jacobs made of a long subway ride home (Jacobs used the same recording in live performances of...
- 2/17/2017
- MUBI
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) kicks off its 16th annual Doc Fortnight on Thursday, a 10-day festival that includes 20 feature-length non-fiction films and 10 documentary shorts. This year’s lineup includes four world premieres and a number of North American and U.S. premieres.
Read More: 2017 New Directors/New Films Announces Full Lineup, Including ‘Patti Cake$,’ ‘Beach Rats,’ ‘Menashe’ and More
The festival is far from the only major North American showcase for non-fiction cinema. Festivals ranging from Hot Docs to True/False have played key roles in the expanding documentary festival circuit. However, Doc Fortnight has maintained its own niche on the scene, by aiming to expose undiscovered stories and filmmakers, screening a range of documentaries from around the world and capturing the ways in which artists are pushing the boundaries of non-fiction filmmaking.
“It’s not an industry festival, there aren’t awards, and distributors aren’t all coming looking to buy,...
Read More: 2017 New Directors/New Films Announces Full Lineup, Including ‘Patti Cake$,’ ‘Beach Rats,’ ‘Menashe’ and More
The festival is far from the only major North American showcase for non-fiction cinema. Festivals ranging from Hot Docs to True/False have played key roles in the expanding documentary festival circuit. However, Doc Fortnight has maintained its own niche on the scene, by aiming to expose undiscovered stories and filmmakers, screening a range of documentaries from around the world and capturing the ways in which artists are pushing the boundaries of non-fiction filmmaking.
“It’s not an industry festival, there aren’t awards, and distributors aren’t all coming looking to buy,...
- 2/15/2017
- by Chris O'Falt and Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Get in touch to send in suggest cinephile news and discoveries.NEWSAs the remarkably disheartening year of 2016 came to a close, we lost two great figures in the film industry: Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. Revisiting some of their best films over the holidays has given us new fortitude with which to start 2017.It looks like we're closer to seeing Terrence Malick's film centering on the Austin music scene. Previously called Weightless, it's now officially titled Song to Song and has a March release date—perhaps premiering at the Berlin Film Festival?And news from another of our favorite impressionists: Claire Denis seems to have pushed back shooting her Robert Pattison-starring sci-fi, High Life, to shoot a small movie starring Juliette Binoche, Gérard Depardieu and Xavier Beauvois, Dark Glasses. Whichever we get first, we simply can't wait.Near the complete program of the International Film Festival Rotterdam has been announced,...
- 1/5/2017
- MUBI
I attended the Viennale for the first time this year, both because I was already in Vienna and had been there since the summer with the purpose of improving my German and because the festival was presenting my own film, Short Stay. Below are some fading impressions written in the days following the festival of films I was happiest to have seen.In Memory of Zsóka Nestler (Metrokino, 16mm & Dcp)Up the DanubeThe only other Nestler film with which I am familiar is Ödenwaldstetten (1964), a documentary shot in Bayern in static, black and white images profiling people who live and work in the German countryside, speaking in a variety of dialects. In a tribute to Nestler’s recently deceased collaborator and wife, Zsóka, the festival screened a program of three films the two had directed together: I Budapest (In Budapest,1969), Uppför Donau (Up the Danube, 1969) and Zeit (Time, 1992). When I Budapest began with a brief,...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
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