It’s not surprising that Breathless remains fresh more than 60 years after its Paris premiere in March 1960—if by “fresh” we mean somehow still in sync with contemporary cultural trends and mores. With its too-cool-for-school bevy of film and literary references, Jean-Luc Godard’s masterpiece both foresaw and helped to launch the now-dominant notion of pop-culture obsession as badge of honor.
We may smile at Michel Poiccard’s (Jean-Paul Belmondo) rapt idolization of Humphrey Bogart, for instance, but it’s more knowing grin than disconnected smirk. Then there’s the ooh-la-la chic of Raoul Cotard’s black-and-white cinematography; the simmering yet self-aware dance of seduction enacted with such arch grace by Michel and Jean Seberg’s Patricia Franchini; the casual fatalism that never seems to go out of style, especially when spoken in French and accompanied by swirls of cigarette smoke. As a source of modish pleasure, Breathless retains its appeal to a remarkable degree.
We may smile at Michel Poiccard’s (Jean-Paul Belmondo) rapt idolization of Humphrey Bogart, for instance, but it’s more knowing grin than disconnected smirk. Then there’s the ooh-la-la chic of Raoul Cotard’s black-and-white cinematography; the simmering yet self-aware dance of seduction enacted with such arch grace by Michel and Jean Seberg’s Patricia Franchini; the casual fatalism that never seems to go out of style, especially when spoken in French and accompanied by swirls of cigarette smoke. As a source of modish pleasure, Breathless retains its appeal to a remarkable degree.
- 7/12/2023
- by Matthew Connolly
- Slant Magazine
Criterion gives this classic its first exposure on Region A Blu-ray! A new 4K remaster puts the story of a guy too tiny to escape from his own cellar in its very best light — Scott Carey’s combat with the spider is still a scary delight, with a newly-fixed imperfection. Criterion’s extras lean toward fan-oriented fare: Tom Weaver tops the stack with a fine commentary and we get good input from Ben Burtt, Craig Barron, Richard Christian Matheson, Joe Dante and Dana Gould — plus thoughtful liner notes by Geoffrey O’Brien. And don’t forget those excellent movie trailers narrated by a breathless Orson Welles. Robert Scott Carey should have his own statue in Los Angeles, like Rocky Balboa in Philadelphia.
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1100
1957 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 81 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 19, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton,...
The Incredible Shrinking Man
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1100
1957 / B&w / 1:85 widescreen / 81 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 19, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Grant Williams, Randy Stuart, April Kent, Paul Langton,...
- 10/5/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Stars: Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Harvey Keitel, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham | Written by Steven Zaillian | Directed by Martin Scorsese
It’s a strange thing, really, that until I had a chance to check out the new Criterion Blu-ray release of The Irishman, I hadn’t seen it. It had been one of those many films sitting on my “need to watch soon” list, yet I didn’t. Until now. Martin Scorsese has been a director I’ve had great respect for for many years, and I’m a fan of a whole bunch of his movies. Goodfellas, for my money, is the greatest mafia film out there, and other titles, like King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, The Wolf of Wall Street and Shutter Island, are also incredible. The Irishman, then, is one that I was excited to sit down and watch, albeit a year late.
It’s a strange thing, really, that until I had a chance to check out the new Criterion Blu-ray release of The Irishman, I hadn’t seen it. It had been one of those many films sitting on my “need to watch soon” list, yet I didn’t. Until now. Martin Scorsese has been a director I’ve had great respect for for many years, and I’m a fan of a whole bunch of his movies. Goodfellas, for my money, is the greatest mafia film out there, and other titles, like King of Comedy, Taxi Driver, The Wolf of Wall Street and Shutter Island, are also incredible. The Irishman, then, is one that I was excited to sit down and watch, albeit a year late.
- 11/26/2020
- by Chris Cummings
- Nerdly
An epic 15-disc box set featuring the films of Federico Fellini isn’t the only release arriving on The Criterion Collection this November. Following Roma and Marriage Story, they will also be adding another Netflix title to their library: Martin Scorsese’s mob epic The Irishman. Featuring a brand-new documentary on the making of the film, a video essay by critic Farran Smith Nehme, and program on the visual effects, and more, it looks like an essential pick-up even if you already have a Netflix subscription.
Also among the November lineup is Norman Jewison’s delightful romantic drama Moonstruck, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, an audio commentary from 1998 with Cher, Jewison, and John Patrick Shanley, and more. Claudia Weill’s landmark indie drama Girlfriends is also coming to Criterion, with interviews featuring the cast and crew, short films by Weill, and more. Lastly, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai...
Also among the November lineup is Norman Jewison’s delightful romantic drama Moonstruck, featuring interviews with the cast and crew, an audio commentary from 1998 with Cher, Jewison, and John Patrick Shanley, and more. Claudia Weill’s landmark indie drama Girlfriends is also coming to Criterion, with interviews featuring the cast and crew, short films by Weill, and more. Lastly, Jim Jarmusch’s Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai...
- 8/18/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Lady Eve
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
- 7/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGWe found Kiyoshi Kurosawa's semi-serious, semi-tongue-in-cheek sci-fi film Before We Vanish one of the best premieres of last year. The trailer for the American release plays it straight, but captures the wry verve of the film. Highly recommended.We adore the output of Poverty Row studio Republic (Driftwood, The Inside Story, I've Always Loved You), but rarely have had the chance to see the movies on celluloid and looking good. So we'll be front row, center for the Museum of Modern Art's "Republic Rediscovered" series, curated by Martin Scorsese. But just as good as any of those 1940s classics is the trailer for the retrospective, cut by filmmaker Gina Telaroli.The first look at Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, Gus Van Sant's new film, set to premiere at Sundance.
- 1/17/2018
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSNicolas Winding Refn, the provocateur known for sleekly mixing art-house and genre cinema in such films as Drive and The Neon Demon, has announced a new initiative: A new online cinema showcasing "restored films and other content with the aim of inspiring a new generation of cinephiles." Mubi is partnering with the Danish director to premiere these newly restored movies on our platform before they are available on byNWR.com, which officially launches in February, 2018.Recommended VIEWINGThe first trailer for a project we're very excited for, Spike Lee's expansive remake of his sophomore feature She's Gotta Have It (1986).Critics Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin also have a new video essay on the nuances in gesture and expression in the cinema of Rainer Werner Fassbinder for Queensland Gallery of Modern Art. For Filmkrant,...
- 10/18/2017
- MUBI
NEWSJackieThe Toronto International Film Festival has wrapped and its winners (such as they are) have been announced, including Damien Chazelle's La La Land (read our take) and Pablo Larraín's Jackie. Our full index of coverage, as well as our favorite films, can be found here—stay tuned for director interviews! Meanwhile, if you want the truly best and most comprehensive review of the many, many films that played in Toronto, we highly recommend Cinema Scope's coverage.Director Curtis Hanson, best known for L.A. Confidential, has died at the age of 71.Netflix is going to produce a 10-episode version of Spike Lee's debut film, She's Gotta Have It, with Lee returning to direct.Recommended VIEWINGThe trailer for a movie we hadn't realized existed: Costa-Gavras's Missing, Palme d'Or and Best Actor Winner—for Jack Lemmon—at Cannes in 1982. Also starring Sissy Spacek, the film is newly restored and ripe for our ignorant re-discovery.
- 9/21/2016
- MUBI
What makes a Ghost Story scary? This classic was almost too artistic for the Japanese. Masaki Kobayashi's four stories of terror work their spells through intensely beautiful images -- weirdly painted skies, strange mists -- and a Toru Takemitsu audio track that incorporates strange sounds as spooky musical punctuation. Viewers never forget the Woman of the Snow, or the faithful Hoichi the Earless. Finally restored to its full three-hour length. Kwaidan Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 90 1964 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 183 161, 125 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date October 20, 2015 / 39.95 Starring Michiyo Aratama, Rentaro Mikuni; Tatsuya Nakadai, Keiko Kishi; Katsuo Nakamura, Tetsurao Tanba, Takashi Shimura; Osamu Takizawa. Cinematography Yoshio Miyajima Film Editor Hisashi Sagara Art Direction Shigemasa Toda Set Decoration Dai Arakawa Costumes Masahiro Kato Original Music Toru Takemitsu Written by Yoko Mizuki from stories collected by Kiozumi Yakumo (Lafcadio Hearn) Produced by Shigeru Wakatsuki Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson...
- 10/20/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: The unsubtitled trailer for Carlotta Films' new restoration of Jacques Rivette's cinephile "holy grail," Out 1, noli me tangere, which will soon be making the rounds in cinematheques, on home video, and online.Big news from filmmakers and Notebook contributors Gina Telaroli and Kurt Walker: they are staging a two-week online release in November of their latest feature films, Telaroli's Here's to the Future! and Walker's Hit 2 Pass. Find out more information here. These are must-sees!Via Variety, Steven Soderbergh is gearing up for a new HBO show, Mosiac, a "choose your own adventure project." The New York Times has given Nathaniael Dorsky and Jerome Hiler, two of the most special avant-garde filmmakers working today, a beautiful article dedicated to their on-going retrospective at the New York Film Festival.
- 9/30/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. To Be or Not to Be is playing on Mubi in the Us through August 28.In 2002, the American Film Institute selected To Be or Not to Be as one of the 50 funniest American movies of all time. In March of 1942, when the film was initially released, most critics weren't laughing. A movie lampooning Adolf Hitler may have been acceptable a few years prior (see, for example, Charlie Chaplin's The Great Dictator [1940], though even then Chaplin began to regret his decision after learning more of the Nazis' "homicidal insanity"). But by 1942, Pearl Harbor had been attacked, America had entered World War II, and, to make matters even more dour, the star of To Be or Not to Be, the radiant Carole Lombard, had died in a plane crash less than two months before the premiere. All told, those...
- 7/27/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- MUBI
One story, three films, one Blu-ray disc. Excellent! Last night I finished my dive into the Criterion Collection's new Blu-ray release The Killers, which features two feature films and one short film, all adapted from the short story by Ernest Hemingway and all different in their own right and yet the same. From the noirish black-and-white of Robert Siodmak's 1946 original to Don Siegel's made-for-tv, 1964 adaptation shot in bright colors and telling the story from completely different perspective and yet, coming back to similar moral ground, or at least what may be referred to as "guy code" a la Hemingway. And don't forget Andrei Tarkovsky's 1956 short he made as a film student and you have one impressive package. If you're unfamiliar with Hemingway's short you can read it here, or, better yet, there's a reading of it by actor Stacy Keach included on this Blu-ray. Playing closest...
- 7/10/2015
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The new issue of Artforum features Hito Steyerl and Laura Poitras in conversation, J. Hoberman on Jack Smith and Amy Taubin on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack. Also in today's roundup: Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme discuss Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Abbas Kiarostami; Adrian Martin on horror; Alyssa Rosenberg on The Wire and Baltimore; Geoffrey O'Brien on Jean-Pierre Melville's Le silence de la mer; Thomas Vinterberg on taking Ingmar Bergman's advice; Ian Tan on Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet; Erich Kuersten on John Carpenter's Escape from New York, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine twenty years on—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/4/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The new issue of Artforum features Hito Steyerl and Laura Poitras in conversation, J. Hoberman on Jack Smith and Amy Taubin on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack. Also in today's roundup: Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme discuss Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Abbas Kiarostami; Adrian Martin on horror; Alyssa Rosenberg on The Wire and Baltimore; Geoffrey O'Brien on Jean-Pierre Melville's Le silence de la mer; Thomas Vinterberg on taking Ingmar Bergman's advice; Ian Tan on Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet; Erich Kuersten on John Carpenter's Escape from New York, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine twenty years on—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/4/2015
- Keyframe
Mr. Turner
Let us begin with difficulties. Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner, a film as rich as an afternoon in the Louvre, presents an austere and bilious portrait of the Englishman and a ridiculous one of a young John Ruskin, a critic who explicated Turner in many words over the course of different works—a critic who drew and painted, lecturing on both with a great avidity. In Leigh, the drama is the classic case of critic as obnoxious foil to the artist's majesty and magic, with Ruskin's exaggerated lisping accent and pushing every “r” out as a “w” being the cherry on top. Leigh has said, “...he was a kind of prick...” Well, maybe.
But I must bring in one of Leigh's most passionate fans—the poet-critic Guy Davenport, whose essays are jewels, and who averred he was “not writing for scholars or critics, but for people who like to read,...
Let us begin with difficulties. Mike Leigh's Mr. Turner, a film as rich as an afternoon in the Louvre, presents an austere and bilious portrait of the Englishman and a ridiculous one of a young John Ruskin, a critic who explicated Turner in many words over the course of different works—a critic who drew and painted, lecturing on both with a great avidity. In Leigh, the drama is the classic case of critic as obnoxious foil to the artist's majesty and magic, with Ruskin's exaggerated lisping accent and pushing every “r” out as a “w” being the cherry on top. Leigh has said, “...he was a kind of prick...” Well, maybe.
But I must bring in one of Leigh's most passionate fans—the poet-critic Guy Davenport, whose essays are jewels, and who averred he was “not writing for scholars or critics, but for people who like to read,...
- 1/21/2015
- by Greg Gerke
- MUBI
Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language comes in at #1 on La Furia Umana's list of the top ten films of 2014. For Michael Atkinson at In These Times, it's Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan. Christopher Orr, film critic for the Atlantic, goes for J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year. Meantime, the The New York Review of Books gathers 20 reviews it's run this year, including David Bromwich on Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, Zoë Heller on David Fincher's Gone Girl, J. Hoberman on Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s Manakamana, Geoffrey O'Brien on Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin and Francine Prose on Agnieszka Holland's Burning Bush. » - David Hudson...
- 12/23/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Jean-Luc Godard's Goodbye to Language comes in at #1 on La Furia Umana's list of the top ten films of 2014. For Michael Atkinson at In These Times, it's Sergei Loznitsa's Maidan. Christopher Orr, film critic for the Atlantic, goes for J.C. Chandor's A Most Violent Year. Meantime, the The New York Review of Books gathers 20 reviews it's run this year, including David Bromwich on Laura Poitras's Citizenfour, Zoë Heller on David Fincher's Gone Girl, J. Hoberman on Stephanie Spray and Pacho Velez’s Manakamana, Geoffrey O'Brien on Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin and Francine Prose on Agnieszka Holland's Burning Bush. » - David Hudson...
- 12/23/2014
- Keyframe
Perhaps Criterion has been paying attention to my Best Movies posts. Next week sees the release of Federico Fellini's La Dolce Vita on Blu-ray, which was the first installment in my Best Movies feature and a title I'll be reviewing later this week, and now my third installment, Kihachi Okamoto's The Sword of Doom will be arriving on January 6 with a new high-definition digital restoration. Unfortunately the Sword of Doom release won't come with any new features, though the film, Hiroshi Murai's cinematography, Masaru Sato's score and an audio commentary from Stephen Prince will do for me as that is a title that simply must be part of my collection. Also coming in January is Rainer Werner Fassbinder's The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant on January 13, Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg on January 20, Preston Sturges's 1942 comedy The Palm Beach Story starring Claudette Colbert...
- 10/15/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The Austrian Film Museum has made video excerpts available online of forty years worth of Q&As with various filmmakers and actors. This is really interesting: Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience is going to become a television series written and directed by Lodge Kerrigan & Amy Seimetz. In their continuing series of English translations of Cahiers du cinéma articles, Indiewire have published a review of Mia Hansen-Love's Goodbye First Love by Florence Maillard. For Criterion, Geoffrey O'Brien writes on "The Secret Heart of Judex":
"That images so hauntingly beautiful should carry such an edge of anxiety comes close to the secret heart of Judex. It is a cinematic paradise, evoking a world that at that very moment was being irrevocably swept away. For Franju, it was linked, as he acknowledged, to his memories of childhood. He was four years old when Feuillade’s film came out (although there is...
"That images so hauntingly beautiful should carry such an edge of anxiety comes close to the secret heart of Judex. It is a cinematic paradise, evoking a world that at that very moment was being irrevocably swept away. For Franju, it was linked, as he acknowledged, to his memories of childhood. He was four years old when Feuillade’s film came out (although there is...
- 6/25/2014
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Got a fondness for a certain wandering blind swordsman? Turns out so does the Criterion Collection, who have just announced a massive 27 disc Zatoichi box set due to release November 26th. It's a dual BluRay / DVD affair spanning twenty five feature films with special features including: New digital restorations of all twenty-five films, with uncompressed monaural soundtracks on the Blu-raysThe Blind Swordsman, a 1978 documentary about Zatoichi portrayer and filmmaker Shintaro Katsu, along with a new interview with its director, John NathanNew interview with Asian-film critic Tony RaynsTrailers for all twenty-five filmsNew English subtitle translationsA book featuring an essay by critic Geoffrey O'Brien; synopses of the films by critic, novelist, and musician Chris D.; "The Tale of Zatoichi," the original short story by...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/16/2013
- Screen Anarchy
Criterion has announced its upcoming November 2013 titles and they include some highly coveted films, one of 2013's better films, an impressive box set and their new dual-format DVD/Blu-ray releases. To begin, it was a little bit of a shock to see they have abandoned releasing both DVD and Blu-ray versions of their film and instead will now release DVD/Blu-ray, dual-format editions. Note here it says dual format "editions", not "discs", which leads me to believe most releases will include both a DVD and Blu-ray disc. Consider in today's announcement the 27-disc box set of the Zatoichi films. This consists of nine Blu-ray discs and 18 DVD discs. On top of that Criterion confirms features will be available for on both DVD and Blu-ray formats. As far as this months titles are concerned, I'll begin with the upgraded Blu-ray release of Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story, which was the December 2012 selection...
- 8/15/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
News.
The second issue of Adrian Martin and Girish Shambu's film journal Lola has arrived—or has begun to, rather—with a new staggered distribution of content. Shambu dishes some exposition on the changes and details the content at his blog, which include contributions from Nicole Brenez and Chantal Akerman. From horror to hockey? In one of the stranger director + project announcements of late, the underrated Rob Zombie is going to be making Broad Street Bullies, a sports movie about the notoriously tough 1970s Philadelphia Flyers. A hometown plug from me for the Pacific Cinémathèque here in Vancouver, which is currently raising money by selling limited edition postcards featuring designs from the great Steve Chow, who was featured in Adrian Curry's Movie Poster of the Week column last fall. Donate $10 and you'll receive 6 of Chow's program guide designs. Along with the gorgeous posters detailed in Curry's article, Chow is also...
The second issue of Adrian Martin and Girish Shambu's film journal Lola has arrived—or has begun to, rather—with a new staggered distribution of content. Shambu dishes some exposition on the changes and details the content at his blog, which include contributions from Nicole Brenez and Chantal Akerman. From horror to hockey? In one of the stranger director + project announcements of late, the underrated Rob Zombie is going to be making Broad Street Bullies, a sports movie about the notoriously tough 1970s Philadelphia Flyers. A hometown plug from me for the Pacific Cinémathèque here in Vancouver, which is currently raising money by selling limited edition postcards featuring designs from the great Steve Chow, who was featured in Adrian Curry's Movie Poster of the Week column last fall. Donate $10 and you'll receive 6 of Chow's program guide designs. Along with the gorgeous posters detailed in Curry's article, Chow is also...
- 6/20/2012
- MUBI
Amy Monaghan, first known to most of us as the cinetrix, is high-tailing it from Boston, where she presented a paper at Scms, to New York for this afternoon's launch of the new issue of Black Clock, the literary journal edited by novelist Steve Erickson. You've got to love the promo blurb they've written for themselves:
In a movie issue like no other, Black Clock 15 features Geoff Nicholson's meeting of two film pioneers in "Buster Keaton: The Warhol Years," David Thomson's journey up the Amazon with Warren Beatty, and Anthony Miller's history of the cinema — from Dw Griffith's adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (presenting Louise Brooks as Lady Brett) to Don Siegel's 60s cult B-movie Bonnie and Clyde with Tuesday Weld and Clint Eastwood, to the 2010 Academy Award-winning portrayal by Chris Farley of silent comedic actor Fatty Arbuckle in Milos Forman's The Life of the Party.
In a movie issue like no other, Black Clock 15 features Geoff Nicholson's meeting of two film pioneers in "Buster Keaton: The Warhol Years," David Thomson's journey up the Amazon with Warren Beatty, and Anthony Miller's history of the cinema — from Dw Griffith's adaptation of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (presenting Louise Brooks as Lady Brett) to Don Siegel's 60s cult B-movie Bonnie and Clyde with Tuesday Weld and Clint Eastwood, to the 2010 Academy Award-winning portrayal by Chris Farley of silent comedic actor Fatty Arbuckle in Milos Forman's The Life of the Party.
- 3/25/2012
- MUBI
Thanks to Criterion, Stanley Kubrick's The Seafarers is now the only film from the iconic director not available on Blu-ray. Criterion recently brought Kubrick's Paths of Glory to beautiful high-definition and now the director's 1956 heist feature, The Killing, arrives with a special inclusion, the helmer's 1955 feature Killer's Kiss. Releasing The Killing is one thing and should be enough to get you to buy this title, but the fact it also includes Killer's Kiss pretty much means any Kubrick fan simply has to buy it. I'm sorry, but those are the rules.
The screenplay was co-written by Kubrick with dialogue by pulp novelist Jim Thompson (though Thompson would later claim he wrote most of the film, a spat that almost ended their relationship), The Killing is based on "Clean Break" by Lionel White. The story is told using a fractured narrative, following the planning of a racetrack robbery. Throughout the film's brisk,...
The screenplay was co-written by Kubrick with dialogue by pulp novelist Jim Thompson (though Thompson would later claim he wrote most of the film, a spat that almost ended their relationship), The Killing is based on "Clean Break" by Lionel White. The story is told using a fractured narrative, following the planning of a racetrack robbery. Throughout the film's brisk,...
- 9/27/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
25 special programs and screenings have been added to the lineup for this year's New York Film Festival, running September 30 through October 26. The only secrets left are the 2011 Views from the Avant Garde lineup and a few free forums in the works.
Because this round is so heavy on the documentaries, I want to first revisit the lineup for Toronto's Real to Reel program in another entry and then return here to add further notes and linkage. For now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez has a few more details, but here's the gist of today's announcement:
Masterworks Screenings
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925), restored.
Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969), restored.
Sara Driver's You Are Not I (1981), restored.
Special Presentations: Documentaries
Xan Aranda's Andrew Bird: Fever Year.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Music According to Tom Jobim.
Because this round is so heavy on the documentaries, I want to first revisit the lineup for Toronto's Real to Reel program in another entry and then return here to add further notes and linkage. For now, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Eugene Hernandez has a few more details, but here's the gist of today's announcement:
Masterworks Screenings
Charlie Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925), restored.
Hugo Santiago's Invasión (1969), restored.
Sara Driver's You Are Not I (1981), restored.
Special Presentations: Documentaries
Xan Aranda's Andrew Bird: Fever Year.
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky's Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory.
Nelson Pereira dos Santos's Music According to Tom Jobim.
- 8/24/2011
- MUBI
I wish I could remember the first time I watched Jean Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete). It was certainly no more than only three years ago, after I received it as part of Criterion's Janus Collection, but it must have been before I started my regular What I Watched columns. Nevertheless, it was an absolute stunner and one I have to admit I didn't expect to overwhelm me as much as it did.
This is a film with few imperfections if any. The magic behind the effects may be obvious, but they remain magical nonetheless. I imagine the makeup Jean Marais wears as the Beast will make some modern audience members laugh at first sight, but I have to also believe should those same audience members endure the whole of this film's 93 minutes, by the time it is over they too will yearn for the Beast to return.
This is a film with few imperfections if any. The magic behind the effects may be obvious, but they remain magical nonetheless. I imagine the makeup Jean Marais wears as the Beast will make some modern audience members laugh at first sight, but I have to also believe should those same audience members endure the whole of this film's 93 minutes, by the time it is over they too will yearn for the Beast to return.
- 7/26/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Updated through 6/12.
Let's begin this quick run through goings on in New York and with J Hoberman in the Voice: "Dennis Hopper changed the game with Easy Rider (1969), blew up his career with The Last Movie (1971), and then, through a never clearly explained series of events, took over and reconfigured a Canadian tax-shelter project for which he had been hired to act, thus contriving a dialectical comeback with his brutal, accomplished Out of the Blue (1980)."
"Widely banned and/or shoved under the rug at the time of its limited release primarily due to its violently bonkers ending, the film's alternately herky-jerky and languid cadence is suggestive of a terminally wounded body undergoing a death rattle." Joseph Jon Lanthier in Slant: "This produces a look and feel that communicates the blind rage and ennui out of which punk's jabby power chords and raucous lyrics sprang. But the film's punk apotheosis — the...
Let's begin this quick run through goings on in New York and with J Hoberman in the Voice: "Dennis Hopper changed the game with Easy Rider (1969), blew up his career with The Last Movie (1971), and then, through a never clearly explained series of events, took over and reconfigured a Canadian tax-shelter project for which he had been hired to act, thus contriving a dialectical comeback with his brutal, accomplished Out of the Blue (1980)."
"Widely banned and/or shoved under the rug at the time of its limited release primarily due to its violently bonkers ending, the film's alternately herky-jerky and languid cadence is suggestive of a terminally wounded body undergoing a death rattle." Joseph Jon Lanthier in Slant: "This produces a look and feel that communicates the blind rage and ennui out of which punk's jabby power chords and raucous lyrics sprang. But the film's punk apotheosis — the...
- 6/12/2011
- MUBI
Acquarello
Now on DVD: "The Human Condition" (Masaki Kobayashi, 1959-1961)
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Loose Talk
The Forgotten: Chains of Love
Now on DVD: "TheGoodTimesKid" (Azazel Jacobs, USA)
The Forgotten: Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden
Now Playing on The Auteurs: "Death in the Garden" (Luis Buñuel, Mexico/France)
The Forgotten: Strausswitz
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Hausu"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Up in the Air"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Bright Star"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Home"
Manny Farber
Ways of Love, or the Best Films that Didn't Appear on Other "Ten Best" Lists...
The Trouble with Movies: II
Matthew Flanagan
53rd London Film Festival: "La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris" (Frederick Wiseman, USA)
Daniel Kasman
Video Sundays
Video Sundays: The Modern Charade
God and Man: Aleksandr Sokurov's "The Sun"
Images of the Day
Video Sundays: Auteur Pantomime in the...
Now on DVD: "The Human Condition" (Masaki Kobayashi, 1959-1961)
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Loose Talk
The Forgotten: Chains of Love
Now on DVD: "TheGoodTimesKid" (Azazel Jacobs, USA)
The Forgotten: Fairies at the Bottom of the Garden
Now Playing on The Auteurs: "Death in the Garden" (Luis Buñuel, Mexico/France)
The Forgotten: Strausswitz
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Hausu"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Up in the Air"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Bright Star"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Home"
Manny Farber
Ways of Love, or the Best Films that Didn't Appear on Other "Ten Best" Lists...
The Trouble with Movies: II
Matthew Flanagan
53rd London Film Festival: "La danse - Le ballet de l'Opéra de Paris" (Frederick Wiseman, USA)
Daniel Kasman
Video Sundays
Video Sundays: The Modern Charade
God and Man: Aleksandr Sokurov's "The Sun"
Images of the Day
Video Sundays: Auteur Pantomime in the...
- 12/6/2009
- MUBI
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