Below you will find our favorite films of the 42nd Toronto International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.Top Picksfernando F. CROCE1. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)2. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)3. Western (Valeska Grisebach)4. Ex Libris (Frederick Wiseman)5. Faces Places (Agnès Varda, Jr)6. Manhunt (John Woo)7. Jeanette: The Childhood of Joan of Arc (Bruno Dumont)8. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler)9. The Day After (Hong Sang-soo)10. Let the Corpses Tan (Hélène Cattet, Bruno Forzani)Kelley DONG1. Rose Gold (Sarah Cwynar), Strangely Ordinary This Devotion (Dani Restack, Sheilah Wilson Restack)3. Good Luck (Ben Russell)4. Manhunt (John Woo)5. The Third Murder (Hirokazu Kore-eda), Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu)Daniel KASMAN1. Ex Libris (Frederick Wiseman)2. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)3. Zama (Lucrecia Martel)4. Strangely Ordinary This Devotion (Dani Restack, Sheilah Wilson Restack)5. I Love You, Daddy (Louis C.K.)6. Rose Gold (Sarah Cwynar)7. Brawl in Cell Block 99 (S. Craig Zahler)8. below-above (André...
- 9/19/2017
- MUBI
Lucrecia Martel. Photo by Darren Hughes.Don Diego de Zama (Daniel Giménez Cacho) is a man out of time. Trapped in Argentina, the land of his birth, and serving at the whims of a foreign crown, he embodies the role of colonizer as a middle-aged, corporate functionary—bored, horny, witless, and incompetent. He waits and waits for a promised transfer to reunite with his wife and child, and then waits some more. When he finally does take action, volunteering to join an expedition to find and kill the notorious bandit Vicuña Porto, this adventure too is folly that ends only in further humiliation.Lucrecia Martel’s Zama resolves few of the episodes she selected to adapt from Antonio Di Benedetto’s 1956 novel of the same name. Instead, she ensnares viewers in a similarly unnerving stasis. Characters enter Zama’s life—three lovely sisters, a visiting merchant called “The Oriental,” the...
- 9/18/2017
- MUBI
Anyone who spends more than a few days at a major festival like the Toronto International Film Festival gets used to hearing the same question: “What’s the best thing you’ve seen?”
For this year’s edition of the Tiff Critics Poll, we asked a variety of writers covering the festival exactly that. The results, culled from 45 ballots, point to a particularly interesting mixture of awards season hopefuls and some of the festival’s standout international offerings.
Read More: ‘La La Land’ Review: A Lively Supercut of Classic Musicals Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone
The quartet at the top? Fan favorite “La La Land” (which was named by seven different critics), followed closely by Barry Jenkins’ tender coming-of-age story “Moonlight” (six), Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” (five) and Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (four). However, there were many other votes cast for under-the-radar titles.
The close race partly reflects...
For this year’s edition of the Tiff Critics Poll, we asked a variety of writers covering the festival exactly that. The results, culled from 45 ballots, point to a particularly interesting mixture of awards season hopefuls and some of the festival’s standout international offerings.
Read More: ‘La La Land’ Review: A Lively Supercut of Classic Musicals Starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone
The quartet at the top? Fan favorite “La La Land” (which was named by seven different critics), followed closely by Barry Jenkins’ tender coming-of-age story “Moonlight” (six), Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann” (five) and Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” (four). However, there were many other votes cast for under-the-radar titles.
The close race partly reflects...
- 9/22/2016
- by Steve Greene and Zipporah Smith
- Indiewire
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSThe deaths seem to just keep coming these days, and we've had two more big losses over the last week: actor Alan Rickman, 1946 - 2016, beloved for his villain in Die Hard and his work in the Harry Potter films, but this hardly describes his full career; and Italian director Ettore Scola, 1931 - 2016, who made We All Love Each Other So Much (1974) and A Special Day (1977), which was nominated for an Oscar.Speaking of Oscars, the nominations have been announced for the 88th Academy Awards, with Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant and George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road sweeping up, and with many notable absences, particularly actors, crew and films of color, as well as Todd Haynes' Carol.Huge news for U.S. publications: the satiric periodical The Onion,...
- 1/20/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Philippe Garrel. Photo by Darren Hughes.There’s no exact equivalent in film history for Philippe Garrel’s “family cinema,” as he calls it here. To immerse oneself in his work is to watch Garrel and those he loves (parents, partners, children) be transformed by age and experience, while their passions and preoccupations—that particular Garrelian amour fou—persist.After several decades during which Garrel’s films saw limited distribution and exhibition in North America, he's now experiencing something of a revival. Over the span of three days at the Toronto International Film Festival I enjoyed an impromptu Garrel family retrospective. In the Cinematheque program, Tiff debuted its recently-commissioned 35mm print of Jacques Rozier’s first film, Adieu Philippine (1962), which features a middle-aged Maurice Garrel in a supporting role. Actua 1 (1968), Philippe Garrel’s long-lost short documentary of the May ’68 protests, screened in the Wavelengths section, also in a new print.
- 1/13/2016
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSFinally! New to the Criterion Collection is Edward Yang's A Brighter Summer's Day, one of the most important yet hard-to-see films of the 1990s. Also included in the recent announcement were Jacques Rivette's Paris Belongs to Us and Les Blank's A Poem Is a Naked Person.There's a new Kickstarter for "first publication on the films of Ola Balogun, the pioneer of Nigerian cinema, analysing/discovering his magical cinema."FESTIVALSThe Berlin International Film Festival Poster: The Golden Bear on the prowl! Meanwhile, more films for the Berlinale have been announced, as well as the theme—"Traversing the Phantasm"—for the essential Forum Expanded section.The 2016 Locarno Film Festival isn't until next August but we're already tantalized for their newly revealed retrospective, "Beloved and Rejected," dedicated to post-WW2 German...
- 12/23/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Photo by Darren HughesWe can't get enough of The Assassin, Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien's first film in eight years, his first so-called martial arts film, a film set deep in the past yet bracingly present and heartbreaking. A longtime hero of ours, we sought every opportunity to speak with Hou. Thus, the strange email interview after The Assassin's premiere in Cannes. And thus, too, this equally strange conversation between Hou, critic Darren Hughes, and myself, where it seemed as though each participant talked past the other, our words and ideas becoming distorted in translation. We offer it to you as a small addendum to the wealth of discourse that surrounds this very special filmmaker, in general, and this film, specifically, aware of and saddened by its slim inadequacy.At the end of our conversation Darren requested a picture. Hou removed his ragged baseball cap, glanced quickly at the...
- 11/2/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
One of the great artists of our time has left us—far too soon. We spoke to Chantal Akerman just over a month ago about her new film, No Home Movie, a moving tribute to her mother. Earlier, Ricky D'Ambrose shot a video interview with the director, and Darren Hughes spoke to her about her Joseph Conrad adaptation, Almayer's Folly. We did not speak to or about her nearly enough.
- 10/6/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
In The Front Row, Richard Brody writes on Amos Vogel (pictured above), and the ever-influential (yet contrastive) strands of cinephilia born in Paris and New York:
"Vogel’s dream of American independent filmmaking offering a significant artistic counterweight to Hollywood films has been fulfilled: independent films are now better, more original, more forward-looking than ever. The French cinephile stream exemplified by the New Wave filmmakers has won the hearts and minds of these independent filmmakers, and inspires them to this day. But the American cinephilia launched by Vogel, with its emphasis on ideological scrutiny, holds sway over many critics and viewers, perhaps more firmly than ever. That’s why the gap that Vogel lamented—the one dividing the best of independent filmmaking from the critical community and the audience—is also larger than ever."
The Coen brothers will serve as the co-presidents of the jury for the 68th Cannes Film Festival this May.
"Vogel’s dream of American independent filmmaking offering a significant artistic counterweight to Hollywood films has been fulfilled: independent films are now better, more original, more forward-looking than ever. The French cinephile stream exemplified by the New Wave filmmakers has won the hearts and minds of these independent filmmakers, and inspires them to this day. But the American cinephilia launched by Vogel, with its emphasis on ideological scrutiny, holds sway over many critics and viewers, perhaps more firmly than ever. That’s why the gap that Vogel lamented—the one dividing the best of independent filmmaking from the critical community and the audience—is also larger than ever."
The Coen brothers will serve as the co-presidents of the jury for the 68th Cannes Film Festival this May.
- 1/22/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/5/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Introducing an interview with Claire Denis at To Be (Cont'd), Darren Hughes notes that her latest film, Voilà l'enchaînement, "is a series of monologues and conversations performed by Norah Krief and Alex Descas, who portray a mixed-race couple whose relationship begins, welcomes children, and disintegrates violently, all within the span of thirty minutes." For the Av Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, "It’s a decidedly minor work, but still sharp in its observations about how relationship dynamics can uncomfortably overlap with issues of class and race." And we have more from Max Nelson in Film Comment. » - David Hudson...
- 10/15/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Introducing an interview with Claire Denis at To Be (Cont'd), Darren Hughes notes that her latest film, Voilà l'enchaînement, "is a series of monologues and conversations performed by Norah Krief and Alex Descas, who portray a mixed-race couple whose relationship begins, welcomes children, and disintegrates violently, all within the span of thirty minutes." For the Av Club's Ignatiy Vishnevetsky, "It’s a decidedly minor work, but still sharp in its observations about how relationship dynamics can uncomfortably overlap with issues of class and race." And we have more from Max Nelson in Film Comment. » - David Hudson...
- 10/15/2014
- Keyframe
We're mourning the loss of Peter von Bagh along with countless others in the world cinema community. Many are sharing past articles on or by von Bagh. Here's Jonathan Rosenbaum's piece on the man, and his extraordinary film Helsinki, Forever:
"We’ve met at various times in Paris, London, New York, Southern California, Chicago, Helsinki, Sodankylä, and Bologna — and probably in other places as well, although these are the ones I currently remember. The first times were in Paris in the early 1970s, when he looked me up, and it must have been either in San Diego in 1977 or 1978 or in Santa Barbara between 1983 and 1987 that he convinced me to buy a multiregional Vcr. Most likely it was the latter, where I was mainly bored out of my wits apart from my pastime of taping movies from cable TV, and Peter maintained that if we started swapping films through the mail,...
"We’ve met at various times in Paris, London, New York, Southern California, Chicago, Helsinki, Sodankylä, and Bologna — and probably in other places as well, although these are the ones I currently remember. The first times were in Paris in the early 1970s, when he looked me up, and it must have been either in San Diego in 1977 or 1978 or in Santa Barbara between 1983 and 1987 that he convinced me to buy a multiregional Vcr. Most likely it was the latter, where I was mainly bored out of my wits apart from my pastime of taping movies from cable TV, and Peter maintained that if we started swapping films through the mail,...
- 9/25/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
François Truffaut's 1975 collection of criticism, The Films in My Life, is being reissued, and Max Nelson reviews it for Film Comment. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Joanna Hogg on Chantal Akerman, Gilles Deleuze on cinema and philosophy, B. Ruby Rich on Roger Ebert, Darren Hughes and Michael Leary on Claire Denis, Matt Connolly on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny's interview with David Thomson and news of forthcoming projects from Julie Delpy, Damien Chazelle, Terry Gilliam and more. » - David Hudson...
- 9/24/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
François Truffaut's 1975 collection of criticism, The Films in My Life, is being reissued, and Max Nelson reviews it for Film Comment. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Joanna Hogg on Chantal Akerman, Gilles Deleuze on cinema and philosophy, B. Ruby Rich on Roger Ebert, Darren Hughes and Michael Leary on Claire Denis, Matt Connolly on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny's interview with David Thomson and news of forthcoming projects from Julie Delpy, Damien Chazelle, Terry Gilliam and more. » - David Hudson...
- 9/24/2014
- Keyframe
Paul Harrill’s Something, Anything, which co-premiered recently at the Wisconsin Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival, is a portrait of a young woman in crisis. Peggy [Ashley Shelton] has already achieved her “stereotypically Southern” (as she’s described in the press kit) ambitions: a successful career in realty, a husband, a house in the suburbs, and a baby on the way. In the opening moments of the film, however, she’s forced to confront her dissatisfaction with it all. A family tragedy sends Peggy on a sojourn that leads her to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Kentucky and, eventually, to a simpler life in a small apartment overlooking the Tennessee River.
Harrill first gained recognition in 2001 when his short film, Gina, An Actress, Age 29, won the top prize at Sundance and enjoyed an impressive run of screenings at international festivals. Starring Amy Hubbard and Frankie Faison (Burrell from The Wire...
Harrill first gained recognition in 2001 when his short film, Gina, An Actress, Age 29, won the top prize at Sundance and enjoyed an impressive run of screenings at international festivals. Starring Amy Hubbard and Frankie Faison (Burrell from The Wire...
- 4/14/2014
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
A Touch of Sin
Written and directed by Jia Zhangke
China, 2013
Jia Zhangke’s opening scene for A Touch of Sin acts as a device for reintroduction. We have previously seen the sixth generation Chinese auteur craft with slow-paced sensibility and political tinge to win over audiences with Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), and Still Life (2006). The aesthete continues to creep alongside Jia’s work as his camera quietly pursues a man on a motorcycle, donning a Chicago Bulls skullcap and weighty cargo jacket, manufactured black but padded with a layer of dust. His journey is halted by three axe-wielding thugs demanding that he pay them before continuing. In another work by Jia, the man would have obliged in a symbolic gesture referencing the petty thievery involved in China’s newfound capitalistic empire. The symbolic gestures remain, but this man won’t easily oblige. Instead, he instinctively draws his pistol and fires,...
Written and directed by Jia Zhangke
China, 2013
Jia Zhangke’s opening scene for A Touch of Sin acts as a device for reintroduction. We have previously seen the sixth generation Chinese auteur craft with slow-paced sensibility and political tinge to win over audiences with Unknown Pleasures (2002), The World (2004), and Still Life (2006). The aesthete continues to creep alongside Jia’s work as his camera quietly pursues a man on a motorcycle, donning a Chicago Bulls skullcap and weighty cargo jacket, manufactured black but padded with a layer of dust. His journey is halted by three axe-wielding thugs demanding that he pay them before continuing. In another work by Jia, the man would have obliged in a symbolic gesture referencing the petty thievery involved in China’s newfound capitalistic empire. The symbolic gestures remain, but this man won’t easily oblige. Instead, he instinctively draws his pistol and fires,...
- 4/8/2014
- by Zach Lewis
- SoundOnSight
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2013—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2013 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2013 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How...
- 1/13/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
News.
Above: via The Cinephiliacs, the ten best films of 2013, as decided by Cahiers du Cinéma. Here's the complete list in English:
1. Stranger by the Lake
2. Spring Breakers
3. Blue is the Warmest Color
4. Gravity
5. A Touch of Sin
6. Lincoln
7. Jealousy
8. Nobody's Daughter Haewon
9. You and the Night
10. Age of Panic
An upset at the 50th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei! East Asian cinema giants Jia Zhangke, Tsai Ming-liang, Johnnie To, and Wong Kar-wai were beaten out by Anthony Chen's feature debut, Ilo Ilo. The Film Independent Spirit Awards have announced their 2014 nominations, with Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, and Alexander Payne's Nebraska leading the way.
Finds.
Above: the poster for Drafthouse Films' re-release of Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45. We already shared the new trailer on Twitter, and needless to say we're very excited to see this restoration. David Bordwell on "Otis Ferguson and the way of the camera". At Long Pauses,...
Above: via The Cinephiliacs, the ten best films of 2013, as decided by Cahiers du Cinéma. Here's the complete list in English:
1. Stranger by the Lake
2. Spring Breakers
3. Blue is the Warmest Color
4. Gravity
5. A Touch of Sin
6. Lincoln
7. Jealousy
8. Nobody's Daughter Haewon
9. You and the Night
10. Age of Panic
An upset at the 50th Golden Horse Awards in Taipei! East Asian cinema giants Jia Zhangke, Tsai Ming-liang, Johnnie To, and Wong Kar-wai were beaten out by Anthony Chen's feature debut, Ilo Ilo. The Film Independent Spirit Awards have announced their 2014 nominations, with Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, and Alexander Payne's Nebraska leading the way.
Finds.
Above: the poster for Drafthouse Films' re-release of Abel Ferrara's Ms. 45. We already shared the new trailer on Twitter, and needless to say we're very excited to see this restoration. David Bordwell on "Otis Ferguson and the way of the camera". At Long Pauses,...
- 11/27/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
News.
Canadian documentarian Peter Wintonick has passed away at the age of 60. Aaron Cutler has some words and links on the artist.
The Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, also known as the Rome Film Festival, has announced its awards from a Jury chaired by James Gray. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Seventh Code was among the winners, picking up Best Director and Best Technical Contribution.
The Seventh Art's latest video mag is now online, featuring interviews with João Pedro Rodrigues and Corneliu Porumboiu, among others. What's next for Joe Dante? A horror-comedy starring Anton Yelchin titled Burying the Ex (it's the sort of cheesy title we'd only let him get away with!).
Finds.
Above: from our friend Adrian Curry's Tumblr, a French poster for The Big Sleep that auctioned off for $21,510. Check out this fun, totally bizarre interactive video for Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". For Film Comment, Max Nelson...
Canadian documentarian Peter Wintonick has passed away at the age of 60. Aaron Cutler has some words and links on the artist.
The Festival Internazionale del Film di Roma, also known as the Rome Film Festival, has announced its awards from a Jury chaired by James Gray. Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Seventh Code was among the winners, picking up Best Director and Best Technical Contribution.
The Seventh Art's latest video mag is now online, featuring interviews with João Pedro Rodrigues and Corneliu Porumboiu, among others. What's next for Joe Dante? A horror-comedy starring Anton Yelchin titled Burying the Ex (it's the sort of cheesy title we'd only let him get away with!).
Finds.
Above: from our friend Adrian Curry's Tumblr, a French poster for The Big Sleep that auctioned off for $21,510. Check out this fun, totally bizarre interactive video for Bob Dylan's "Like a Rolling Stone". For Film Comment, Max Nelson...
- 11/20/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
The New York Film Festival began last Friday. It has long been the Notebook's hometown festival, but this year an unusual amount of films in the 2013 lineup our team has seen and written on at festivals throughout the year. We'll hopefully bring you some fresh coverage during and after the festival, but for now you'll find an index, below, of our reviews of, dialogues on, and interviews about films included in the 51st Nyff. The list will be updated new coverage as we publish it.
The Posters of the 51st New York Film Festival
by Adrian Curry
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Catherine Breillat
by Darren Hughes
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Frederick Wiseman
by Daniel Kasman
Bastards (Claire Denis)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Claire Denis
by Daniel Kasman
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio)
by Adam Cook
The Immigrant (James Gray)
Dialogue...
The Posters of the 51st New York Film Festival
by Adrian Curry
Abuse of Weakness (Catherine Breillat)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Catherine Breillat
by Darren Hughes
At Berkeley (Frederick Wiseman)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Frederick Wiseman
by Daniel Kasman
Bastards (Claire Denis)
by Daniel Kasman
Interview with Claire Denis
by Daniel Kasman
Gloria (Sebastián Lelio)
by Adam Cook
The Immigrant (James Gray)
Dialogue...
- 10/5/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Below you will find our total coverage of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival, including a round up on experimental short films, reviews, and the festival-spanning dialog between our two main critics at Tiff. More interviews will be added to the index as they are published.
Correspondences
between Fernando F. Croce and Daniel Kasman
#1
Daniel Kasman's introduction
#2
Fernando F. Croce on Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, François Ozon’s Young & Beautiful, Frank Pavich's Jodorowsky's Dune
#3
Daniel Kasman on Catherine Breillat's Abuse of Weakness, Jafar Panahi's Closed Curtain, Frederick Wiseman's At Berkeley
#4
Fernando F. Croce on Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves, Eli Roth's The Green Inferno, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, Sylvain Chomet's Atilla Marcel
#5
Daniel Kasman on David Rimmer's Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper, Luther Price's Pop Takes, Kenneth Anger's Airships, Stephen Broomer's Pepper's Ghost,...
Correspondences
between Fernando F. Croce and Daniel Kasman
#1
Daniel Kasman's introduction
#2
Fernando F. Croce on Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, François Ozon’s Young & Beautiful, Frank Pavich's Jodorowsky's Dune
#3
Daniel Kasman on Catherine Breillat's Abuse of Weakness, Jafar Panahi's Closed Curtain, Frederick Wiseman's At Berkeley
#4
Fernando F. Croce on Kelly Reichardt's Night Moves, Eli Roth's The Green Inferno, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani's The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears, Sylvain Chomet's Atilla Marcel
#5
Daniel Kasman on David Rimmer's Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper, Luther Price's Pop Takes, Kenneth Anger's Airships, Stephen Broomer's Pepper's Ghost,...
- 9/30/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
“Resorting to violence is the quickest and most direct way that the weak can try to restore their lost dignity.”
– Jia Zhangke, in the press notes for A Touch of Sin
Since the 2006 diptych, Still Life (Sanxia haoren) and Dong, Jia Zhangke’s work has tended toward the documentary side of the fiction/non-fiction spectrum, and much of the pleasure of watching these recent films owes to Jia’s clever invention—his playful and curious disregard for traditional forms. (Five years later, I’m still not sure how to even describe a film like 24 City.)
In that regard, A Touch of Sin represents a noteworthy turn for the director, as the new film is both a return to standard narrative filmmaking (relatively speaking) and Jia’s first experiment with genre: produced by Office Kitano and inspired in part by King Hu’s classic martial arts films, A Touch of Sin...
– Jia Zhangke, in the press notes for A Touch of Sin
Since the 2006 diptych, Still Life (Sanxia haoren) and Dong, Jia Zhangke’s work has tended toward the documentary side of the fiction/non-fiction spectrum, and much of the pleasure of watching these recent films owes to Jia’s clever invention—his playful and curious disregard for traditional forms. (Five years later, I’m still not sure how to even describe a film like 24 City.)
In that regard, A Touch of Sin represents a noteworthy turn for the director, as the new film is both a return to standard narrative filmmaking (relatively speaking) and Jia’s first experiment with genre: produced by Office Kitano and inspired in part by King Hu’s classic martial arts films, A Touch of Sin...
- 9/30/2013
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
In late-2004, Catherine Breillat suffered a debilitating stroke that paralyzed the left side of her body and precipitated a five-month hospital stay. After learning to walk again, she soon returned to work, finalizing pre-production on The Last Mistress (2007). Her next project was to have been an adaption of her novel, Bad Love, starring Naomi Campbell and Christophe Rocancourt, a notorious criminal who, by the time Breillat met him, had already served five years in an American prison for defrauding his victims out of millions of dollars.
In a 2008 interview, Breillat said of Rocancourt: "He is so intelligent, so sincere, so arrogant. You have to be arrogant to achieve anything in this life. When I first saw him, I knew he would be perfect for my film." Breillat was, in fact, under the spell of Rocancourt at the time of that interview. Borrowing small sums at first, he would eventually swindle her out of nearly 700,000 euros,...
In a 2008 interview, Breillat said of Rocancourt: "He is so intelligent, so sincere, so arrogant. You have to be arrogant to achieve anything in this life. When I first saw him, I knew he would be perfect for my film." Breillat was, in fact, under the spell of Rocancourt at the time of that interview. Borrowing small sums at first, he would eventually swindle her out of nearly 700,000 euros,...
- 9/25/2013
- by Darren Hughes
- MUBI
Above: a still from Nathaniel Dorsky's Song.
To my beloved friends Danny & Fern,
Reading your “Correspondences” during Tiff last year brought me close to a festival I wasn’t actually attending, perhaps closer than any other coverage I had read before. This year I made the trip but was surprised to find your pieces still brought me inside something I wouldn’t have been part of without them. Film festivals are, of course, about the films and filmmakers, and perhaps everything else is just window dressing, especially to a critic or cinephile. However, the more I attend the more I realize how things aren’t as separate as they first seem. There are the films; the filmmakers; the press; guests; staff; volunteers; the venues; the parties; the meals in between screenings; the weather; friends; karaoke; confusion; mistakes; surprises; missed opportunities; that film that fell through the cracks; late nights...
To my beloved friends Danny & Fern,
Reading your “Correspondences” during Tiff last year brought me close to a festival I wasn’t actually attending, perhaps closer than any other coverage I had read before. This year I made the trip but was surprised to find your pieces still brought me inside something I wouldn’t have been part of without them. Film festivals are, of course, about the films and filmmakers, and perhaps everything else is just window dressing, especially to a critic or cinephile. However, the more I attend the more I realize how things aren’t as separate as they first seem. There are the films; the filmmakers; the press; guests; staff; volunteers; the venues; the parties; the meals in between screenings; the weather; friends; karaoke; confusion; mistakes; surprises; missed opportunities; that film that fell through the cracks; late nights...
- 9/19/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Looking back at 2011 on what films moved and impressed us it becomes more and more clear—to me at least—that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, our end of year poll, now an annual tradition, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2011—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2011 to create a unique double feature. Many contributors chose their favorites of 2011, some picked out-of-the-way gems, others made some pretty strange connections—and some frankly just want to create a kerfuffle. All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2011 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative...
- 1/5/2012
- MUBI
2012, the year in cinema, will be starting early, even before the Sundance-Rotterdam-Berlin marathon. The Museum of the Moving Image is launching a new series, First Look, showcasing 13 features and seven shorts, all of which — with the exception of Mark Jackson's Without and two shorts by Artavazd Peleshian — are New York premieres. Curated by Dennis Lim, Rachael Rakes and David Schwartz, First Look opens on January 6 with Chantal Akerman on hand to present Almayer's Folly and closes on January 15 with Raya Martin's presentation of his Buenas Noches, España.
The lineup in full (more or less in order of presentation):
Chantal Akerman's Almayer's Folly, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's first novel. See Dan Sallitt's review, the Venice/Toronto roundup and Darren Hughes's interview with Akerman.
Philippe Garrel's That Summer (Un Eté brulant), which has just made Cahiers du Cinéma's top ten of 2011. See, too, Daniel...
The lineup in full (more or less in order of presentation):
Chantal Akerman's Almayer's Folly, an adaptation of Joseph Conrad's first novel. See Dan Sallitt's review, the Venice/Toronto roundup and Darren Hughes's interview with Akerman.
Philippe Garrel's That Summer (Un Eté brulant), which has just made Cahiers du Cinéma's top ten of 2011. See, too, Daniel...
- 12/9/2011
- MUBI
This year's New York Film Festival seems to have fulfilled its brief so well you have to wonder what the programmers will come up with for its 50th anniversary edition next year. 2012 will also mark Richard Peña's 25th year as programming director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center and chairman of the Nyff selection committee — and, as he's just announced, his last. "It's been a terrific ride," he told the New York Times' Larry Rohter on Saturday, "but I've had other interests, and it got to the point where I got to thinking about what I want to do with the rest of my working life. It's a good thing for me personally, and also for the organization, because change is good, and it will be good for the organization to have fresh eyes and ideas and new ways of doing things."
For now, though, the 49th edition.
For now, though, the 49th edition.
- 10/17/2011
- MUBI
"Now in its 15th year," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, Views from the Avant-Garde, opening today and running through Monday, "has undergone a growth spurt since 2010 and has added a fourth day and enough titles to make your eyes tear from the ecstasy of excess or just exhaustion…. The titular monarch of [Ken] Jacobs's contribution, Seeking the Monkey King, appears to be the American greed and corruption that have sent the director into an agony of despair, if happily not a paralyzing one. Set to the music of Jg Thirlwell, this digital video largely consists of valleys and hills of what look like crumpled foil that Mr Jacobs, through his manipulations, has turned into landscapes that shift, undulate and seem to pop off the screen as if in 3D. Often tinted golden yellow and blue (colors used in the silent era usually to denote day and night), the...
- 10/9/2011
- MUBI
"Benning's titles are 'Snakes on a Plane' direct," wrote Michael Sicinski in dispatch to Cargo from Toronto, "and this one consists, as you'd expect, of 20 shots of individuals smoking a single cigarette. The shot lasts however long it takes the given participant to mow down that cancer stick. As Benning explained (although the piece makes it fairly obvious), the ciggie is but an excuse for sustained time-based portraiture; each shot is a close-up, and the action, much more so than the smoking, is the subject forgetting his or her self-consciousness and existing as a face."
"Last year's festival brought his debut on digital, Ruhr, a massively beautiful meditation on duration," writes R Emmet Sweeney at Movie Morlocks. "Twenty Cigarettes is more of a lark, a way for him to work and hang out with his friends at the same time, kind of an avant-garde Ocean's 11."
"There's a...
"Last year's festival brought his debut on digital, Ruhr, a massively beautiful meditation on duration," writes R Emmet Sweeney at Movie Morlocks. "Twenty Cigarettes is more of a lark, a way for him to work and hang out with his friends at the same time, kind of an avant-garde Ocean's 11."
"There's a...
- 10/7/2011
- MUBI
"The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than in lone bedrooms where there's a mirror. People's faces are in naked repose down in the subway." —Walker Evans
"So, have you ever smoked?" I laughed when James Benning asked me this question at the end of our conversation. "Honestly, I've probably smoked about twenty cigarettes," I told him. "I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. Nancy Reagan told me to say ‘no.'" That was almost the full extent of our discussion of smoking, despite the fact that Benning's feature-length video, Twenty Cigarettes, is constructed solely of portraits of smokers. The duration of each of the twenty shots is determined by the length of time it takes each subject to light, smoke, and discard a cigarette. Benning composed each shot, staged the person in front of a flat backdrop, and then walked away from the camera.
"So, have you ever smoked?" I laughed when James Benning asked me this question at the end of our conversation. "Honestly, I've probably smoked about twenty cigarettes," I told him. "I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. Nancy Reagan told me to say ‘no.'" That was almost the full extent of our discussion of smoking, despite the fact that Benning's feature-length video, Twenty Cigarettes, is constructed solely of portraits of smokers. The duration of each of the twenty shots is determined by the length of time it takes each subject to light, smoke, and discard a cigarette. Benning composed each shot, staged the person in front of a flat backdrop, and then walked away from the camera.
- 10/7/2011
- MUBI
"Margot Benacerraf, now in her 80s, only ever made one feature-length film," begins Josef Braun, "but that film remains so extraordinary, so very nearly singular, that it merits an admiration on par with many more prolific and esteemed bodies of work. After studying and gathering numerous influential allies in France and elsewhere, Benacerraf returned to her native Venezuela, specifically to an island no one had heard of, though when was discovered by the Spanish 450 years earlier it was deemed a sort of paradise on account of its abundance of one resource: salt, as valuable back then as gold. We can see the ruins of colonial fortresses erected to protect the island and its salt marshes, once the center of piracy in the Caribbean, during the prologue of Araya (1959). But historical context quickly gives way to the seeming timelessness of hard labour, to Benacerraf's lyrical approach to depicting the life of a community that was,...
- 5/17/2011
- MUBI
Bendtsen and Dreyer on the set of Gertrud (Dfi); Ordet
"Danish cinematographer Henning Bendtsen — whose career stretched from the 1940s to 1991, with his final film, Lars von Trier's Europa — has died at the age of 85," reports Criterion. "Bendtsen is best known, perhaps, for the transcendent images he created with director Carl Theodor Dreyer on the films Ordet (1955) and Gertrud (1964). For the former, he devised what we believe to be one of the greatest shots in cinema history: a late-film, almost three-minute pan around the possibly mad character Johannes and his niece, Marren, fearful of her mother's death." And Criterion posts the clip. Bendtsen, by the way, supervised the digital transfers you see in Criterion's editions of Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud.
"Forging a very direct link to Dreyer, von Trier hired Henning Bendtsen as Dp on parts of Epidemic, a collaboration that continued on Europa," writes Peter Scheperlern Carl Th Dreyer site.
"Danish cinematographer Henning Bendtsen — whose career stretched from the 1940s to 1991, with his final film, Lars von Trier's Europa — has died at the age of 85," reports Criterion. "Bendtsen is best known, perhaps, for the transcendent images he created with director Carl Theodor Dreyer on the films Ordet (1955) and Gertrud (1964). For the former, he devised what we believe to be one of the greatest shots in cinema history: a late-film, almost three-minute pan around the possibly mad character Johannes and his niece, Marren, fearful of her mother's death." And Criterion posts the clip. Bendtsen, by the way, supervised the digital transfers you see in Criterion's editions of Day of Wrath, Ordet and Gertrud.
"Forging a very direct link to Dreyer, von Trier hired Henning Bendtsen as Dp on parts of Epidemic, a collaboration that continued on Europa," writes Peter Scheperlern Carl Th Dreyer site.
- 2/17/2011
- MUBI
With 2010 only a week over, it already feels like best-of and top-ten lists have been pouring in for months, and we’re already tired of them: the ranking, the exclusions (and inclusions), the rules and the qualifiers. Some people got to see films at festivals, others only catch movies on video; and the ability for us, or any publication, to come up with a system to fairly determine who saw what when and what they thought was the best seems an impossible feat. That doesn’t stop most people from doing it, but we liked the fantasy double features we did last year and for our 3rd Writers Poll we thought we'd do it again.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
I asked our contributors to pick a single new film they saw in 2010—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they saw in 2010 to create a unique double feature.
- 1/10/2011
- MUBI
“I am not an ideologue,” José Luis Guerín says matter-of-factly. “I need characters.” Judging by the lukewarm response that has greeted his latest film, Guest, it’s a dicey stance for a director of art house cinema to take these days. Early reviewers have praised Guerín’s images but questioned the structure of the film, which often finds him wandering through Third World cities and inviting conversations about hot-button topics like immigration, colonialism, and religion. That he does so without any pretense of deep sociopolitical analysis makes Guest something of an anachronism: it’s a politically-interested film in an observational mode, more humble and curious than didactic.
In 2006, after premiering his previous film, In the City of Sylvia, Guerín decided to spend a year traveling the world by accepting every festival invitation he was offered. He carried a consumer-grade Dv camera with him wherever he went and very gradually built...
In 2006, after premiering his previous film, In the City of Sylvia, Guerín decided to spend a year traveling the world by accepting every festival invitation he was offered. He carried a consumer-grade Dv camera with him wherever he went and very gradually built...
- 12/15/2010
- MUBI
One of the great things about the Toronto International Film Festival is that it is a fully public fest. Buy a ticket or a pass and you can see just about whatever is on offer (and the sure is a whole lot, the offering this year is the strongest - on paper anyway - that the festival has been in a good while). But how to decide amongst the plethora of filmic roughage and delectables? You could go to the local print and entertainment rags (or god-forbid, TV entertainment prattle) to get the usual round of folks talking about what is coming up to Tiff, or you could go right over to Rowthree.com and get the slightly more unconventional consensus of various bloggers who have been covering Tiff for years, generally pay out of their own pockets and have an unhealthy addiction to Cinema. A couple of Twitch Regulars (Todd,...
- 8/30/2010
- Screen Anarchy
Video of the day. First Full Trailer for David Fincher's "The Social Network"
Video of the day. New Film by Kenneth Anger
Image of the day. Marilyn Monroe
Miriam Bale
The Game
David Cairns
The Forgotten: The Filth
The Forgotten: Lady Killer
The Forgotten: Dance of Death
The Forgotten: One Way Street
The Forgotten: Swift Boat Veterans
Doug Cummings
The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival Shifts Direction
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Independence Day"
Movie Poster of the Week: The Movie Posters of Norman Rockwell
Movie Poster of the Week: "Life During Wartime"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Betty Blue"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Summer Holiday"
Doug Dibbern
Jimmy Stewart: Angel of Death
Philippe Garrel
Quote of the day
Leo Goldsmith
Robert Flaherty Seminar 2010, Part 2: Work Forces
S. Hahn
Telling Pictures
Darren Hughes
The Details: "Les rendez-vous d'Anna" (Akerman, 1978)
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day.
Video of the day. New Film by Kenneth Anger
Image of the day. Marilyn Monroe
Miriam Bale
The Game
David Cairns
The Forgotten: The Filth
The Forgotten: Lady Killer
The Forgotten: Dance of Death
The Forgotten: One Way Street
The Forgotten: Swift Boat Veterans
Doug Cummings
The 2010 Los Angeles Film Festival Shifts Direction
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: "Independence Day"
Movie Poster of the Week: The Movie Posters of Norman Rockwell
Movie Poster of the Week: "Life During Wartime"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Betty Blue"
Movie Poster of the Week: "Summer Holiday"
Doug Dibbern
Jimmy Stewart: Angel of Death
Philippe Garrel
Quote of the day
Leo Goldsmith
Robert Flaherty Seminar 2010, Part 2: Work Forces
S. Hahn
Telling Pictures
Darren Hughes
The Details: "Les rendez-vous d'Anna" (Akerman, 1978)
Daniel Kasman
Image of the Day.
- 8/1/2010
- MUBI
I was so impressed with Lisandro Alonso’s Liverpool when it screened at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival that—not only did I write it up right away for Twitch and The Evening Class—but I actively pursued and scored an interview. Since writing up Liverpool nearly a year ago, I’ve read commentary here and there that has deepened my appreciation of the film. Most noteworthy is James Quandt’s ArtForum essay “Ride Lonesome” (available at Highbeam Research Library). “Ride Lonesome” is an especially impressive piece of criticism, tackling all of Alonso’s films, while specifically noting: “Liverpool seems designed for auteurial legibility.” Praising Alonso’s “dilatory style”, Quandt adds that Liverpool “keeps to [Alonso’s] antidramatic ways, attenuating narrative through empty time and withheld information.” Of related interest: Violeta Kovacsics and Adam Nayman’s interview for Cinema Scope; Darren Hughes interview for Senses of Cinema; and R. Emmett Sweeney’s interview for The Rumpus.
- 8/28/2009
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
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