Illustration by Stephanie Monohan.In 1980, the writer and film critic Jonathan Rosenbaum published Moving Places: A Life at the Movies. His first book, in its novelistic way, theorizes the author’s own relation to the movies that accompanied him throughout his life. Rosenbaum’s childhood in Alabama as the son of movie exhibitors in the 1940s and ’50s is placed alongside his life in the late ’70s as a working film critic (sometimes literally; the book occasionally is formatted with double-columned pages). What served as the go-between, the time-machine, the weft thread of memory was the movies themselves; movies seen became movies forgotten, then later recalled and reencountered. What then surfaces in Rosenbaum’s writing is more than the films themselves, but the context in which he saw them: a summer camp, a town scandal, memories from the family living room—the routine events that color and are colored by the films we see.
- 6/5/2024
- MUBI
No matter how badly your week is going, it’s worth pausing to appreciate the fact that you’re not currently embroiled in a violent feud with a snake venom dealer who calls himself Butcher Hu. But we can’t all be so lucky.
Lang (Eddie Peng) is a changed man since coming out of prison. Emotionally callused and silent by choice, you’d never guess that he was once a beloved entertainer who played rock music and rode motorcycles in the local circus. But when he leaves the joint and returns to his small hometown in China’s Gobi Desert, there’s nothing waiting for him except bad vibes. His father is drinking himself to death at the local zoo, his neighbors resent him for his perceived crimes and assume he got a light sentence because of his celebrity, and his town is overrun with rabid dogs. To make matters worse,...
Lang (Eddie Peng) is a changed man since coming out of prison. Emotionally callused and silent by choice, you’d never guess that he was once a beloved entertainer who played rock music and rode motorcycles in the local circus. But when he leaves the joint and returns to his small hometown in China’s Gobi Desert, there’s nothing waiting for him except bad vibes. His father is drinking himself to death at the local zoo, his neighbors resent him for his perceived crimes and assume he got a light sentence because of his celebrity, and his town is overrun with rabid dogs. To make matters worse,...
- 5/20/2024
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
In the Canadian cities of Montreal and Winnipeg, a futile tension exists between French and English speakers — doubly silly, since the country is officially bilingual. In his gently satirical “Universal Language,” writer-director Matthew Rankin imagines a rather fanciful solution, where Farsi is now the region’s dominant tongue. Taking his cues from such Iranian classics as “Children of Heaven” and “The White Balloon,” Rankin mixes the humanism of Majid Majidi, Jafar Panahi, et al. with his own peculiar brand of comedy (as seen in the more off-the-wall “The Twentieth Century”), offering a delightful cross-cultural hybrid designed to celebrate our differences.
Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...
Though Rankin shows a genuine affection for all things Persian, the first and most obvious hiccup to his premise is that audiences don’t necessarily share his interest or his references. There’s something inherently provocative — and perhaps even triggering to some — about seeing a nondescript Canadian elementary school where...
- 5/18/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Juliette Binoche, Sally El Hosaini and Isabel Coixet, are among the six filmmakers taking part in anthology film Bike Me Up, which will shoot across six European cities this summer, celebrating the locations’ relationships with cycling.
Binoche will make her debut as writer and director for the Paris film, in which she will star alongside Ralph Fiennes. London will be written and directed by El Hosaini and feature James Krishna Floyd. Berlin will be directed by Matthias Schweighöfer and star himself and Ruby O. Fee.
The Barcelona segment will be helmed by Coixet, while Bucharest will be written and directed by Cristina Jacob.
Binoche will make her debut as writer and director for the Paris film, in which she will star alongside Ralph Fiennes. London will be written and directed by El Hosaini and feature James Krishna Floyd. Berlin will be directed by Matthias Schweighöfer and star himself and Ruby O. Fee.
The Barcelona segment will be helmed by Coixet, while Bucharest will be written and directed by Cristina Jacob.
- 5/16/2024
- ScreenDaily
Paris-based international film sales company Pulsar Content has formed a strategic partnership with Digital District Entertainment, a leading post-production, VFX and production facilities company, with offices in France, Belgium and India. The partnership will create “a streamlined and cost-effective production process for international film projects,” according to a statement.
Pulsar Content’s Cannes lineup includes Un Certain Regard’s “Niki” by Céline Sallette, Antoine Chevrolliers’ “Block Pass,” premiering in Critics’ Week, and Camila Beltran’s “Mi Bestia,” premiering at Acid.
Dde’s Cannes lineup includes Julien Colonna’s “Le Royaume” in Un Certain Regard and Patricia Mazuy’s “Visiting Hours” in Directors’ Fortnight.
The companies have previously worked together on several films, including “The Deep House” by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, which sold to Blumhouse for the U.S. and Universal for international territories. They also teamed up on Edouard Salier’s “Tropic” and “Mads” by David Moreau.
Dde...
Pulsar Content’s Cannes lineup includes Un Certain Regard’s “Niki” by Céline Sallette, Antoine Chevrolliers’ “Block Pass,” premiering in Critics’ Week, and Camila Beltran’s “Mi Bestia,” premiering at Acid.
Dde’s Cannes lineup includes Julien Colonna’s “Le Royaume” in Un Certain Regard and Patricia Mazuy’s “Visiting Hours” in Directors’ Fortnight.
The companies have previously worked together on several films, including “The Deep House” by Julien Maury and Alexandre Bustillo, which sold to Blumhouse for the U.S. and Universal for international territories. They also teamed up on Edouard Salier’s “Tropic” and “Mads” by David Moreau.
Dde...
- 5/7/2024
- by Leo Barraclough and Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
The red carpet will soon roll out for the 77th Festival de Cannes. The international film festival, playing out May 14-25, has a distinct American voice this year. “Barbie” filmmaker Greta Gerwig is the first U.S. female director name jury president. Many veteran American helmers are heading to the French Rivera resort town. George Lucas, who turns 80 on May 14, will receive an honorary Palme d’Or. Francis Ford Coppola’s much-anticipated “Megalopolis” is screening in competition, as is Paul Schrader’s “Oh Canada.” Kevin Costner’s new Western “Horizon, An American Saga” will premiere out of competition and Oliver Stone’s “Lula” is part of the special screening showcase.
Fifty years ago, Coppola was the toast of the 27th Cannes Film Festival. His brilliant psychological thriller “The Conversation” starring Gene Hackman won the Palme D’Or and well as a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury. The film would earn three Oscar nominations: picture,...
Fifty years ago, Coppola was the toast of the 27th Cannes Film Festival. His brilliant psychological thriller “The Conversation” starring Gene Hackman won the Palme D’Or and well as a Special Mention from the Ecumenical Jury. The film would earn three Oscar nominations: picture,...
- 4/25/2024
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Med Hondo’s 1979 musical extravaganza West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty is a satirical skewering of the legacy of French imperialism in the West Indies and beyond. From the outset, it defies categorization through its distinct sense of free association as it leaps from one colorful image to the next, often shunning context along the way. Throughout Hondo’s film, the xenophobic and racist rhetoric of haughty, predominately white French aristocrats, bureaucrats, and citizens is combatted, challenged, or lampooned by various African figures. Some are slaves, some are revolutionaries, while some are simply power hungry. The result is a deliriously iconoclastic anti-colonialist work that’s worthy of the finest films from roughly the same period by Ousmane Sembene and Dijbril Diop Mambéty.
Adapted by Hondo and Daniel Boukman from the latter’s novel Les Negriers, West Indies traces an epic history of colonial oppression and enslavement in the West Indies,...
Adapted by Hondo and Daniel Boukman from the latter’s novel Les Negriers, West Indies traces an epic history of colonial oppression and enslavement in the West Indies,...
- 3/17/2024
- by Clayton Dillard
- Slant Magazine
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDry Leaf.On Criterion’s Daily, David Hudson has shared a useful roundup of films that might be expected to premiere during 2024. Among the inclusions are: Mickey 17, Bong Joon-ho’s first film since Parasite (2019); It’s Not Me, Leos Carax’s latest collaboration with Denis Lavant; and Dry Leaf, the enticing-sounding new film by Alexandre Koberidze (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky? [2021]), which is said to be about “a photographer who shoots soccer stadiums [who] goes missing.”A list of international filmmakers including Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Pedro Costa, Radu Jude, Ira Sachs, Claire Denis, and Abderrahmane Sissako have signed a letter, published during the holiday season in the French newspaper Libération, demanding (as translated by the Film Stage) “an immediate end to the bombings on Gaza,...
- 1/10/2024
- MUBI
Pablo Berger’s “Robot Dreams,” which gets a theatrical release from Neon at an as-yet-unannounced time this year, was one of the animated delights of 2023. The Spanish/French hand-drawn dramedy (adapted from Sarah Varon’s wordless graphic novel) concerns the bittersweet friendship between lonely Dog and Robot, which he buys for company, in a version of ’80s Manhattan populated with animals. It’s garnered awards buzz in a longshot quest for an Oscar nomination this season.
After premiering at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” earned the Annecy Contrecham Award along with The Animation Is Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. It was also selected as the runner-up for Best Animated Film by both the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
Although the Spanish director was enamored with the graphic novel when he read it in 2010, he didn’t consider turning it into an animated feature until after making two live-action films,...
After premiering at Cannes, “Robot Dreams” earned the Annecy Contrecham Award along with The Animation Is Film Festival’s Grand Jury Prize. It was also selected as the runner-up for Best Animated Film by both the Los Angeles and Boston Film Critics groups.
Although the Spanish director was enamored with the graphic novel when he read it in 2010, he didn’t consider turning it into an animated feature until after making two live-action films,...
- 1/6/2024
- by Bill Desowitz
- Indiewire
The animated version of Rowan Atkinson’s silent slapstick sitcom Mr Bean is to return to television for a fourth series in 2025.
Mr Bean must be one of the most well known comedy characters on the planet. Relying entirely on Rowan Atkinson’s rubber face, slapstick and visual humour, Atkinson first wrote the show with Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll almost 35 years ago.
Premiering in 1990, Mr Bean ran for just 15 episodes, with stories typically following a formula of the hapless title character trying to accomplish a seemingly simple task and escalating it to farcical levels. Memorable moments include a dangerous diving experience, putting his swimming trunks on without removing his trousers and, perhaps the most iconic sequence from the entire series – getting a turkey stuck on his head. In 1997, the character went to America in the feature film Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, which was directed by the much missed comedian Mel Smith.
Mr Bean must be one of the most well known comedy characters on the planet. Relying entirely on Rowan Atkinson’s rubber face, slapstick and visual humour, Atkinson first wrote the show with Richard Curtis and Robin Driscoll almost 35 years ago.
Premiering in 1990, Mr Bean ran for just 15 episodes, with stories typically following a formula of the hapless title character trying to accomplish a seemingly simple task and escalating it to farcical levels. Memorable moments include a dangerous diving experience, putting his swimming trunks on without removing his trousers and, perhaps the most iconic sequence from the entire series – getting a turkey stuck on his head. In 1997, the character went to America in the feature film Bean: The Ultimate Disaster Movie, which was directed by the much missed comedian Mel Smith.
- 1/4/2024
- by Jake Godfrey
- Film Stories
As an end-of-year gift to our writers and readers, we've compiled a user-friendly overview of our publishing highlights from 2023. The collection is broken down by category: essays, interviews, festival coverage, and recurring columns.Browse at your leisure, and raise a glass to our brilliant contributors!Meanwhile, you can catch up with all of our end-of-year coverage here.{{notebook_form}}ESSAYSContemporary Cinema:Cinema as Sacrament: The Limitations of Killers of the Flower Moon by Adam PironA Change of Season: Trần Anh Hùng and Frederick Wiseman's Culinary Cinema by Phuong LeWalking, Talking, & Hurting Feelings: Nicole Holofcener's Everyday Dramas by Rafaela BassiliThe Limits of Control: Lines of Power in Todd Field's Tár by Helen CharmanThe Art of Losing: Joanna Hogg's Haunted Houses by Laura StaabTreading Water: Avatar: The Way of Water by Evan Calder WilliamsThe African Accent and the Colonial Ear by Maxine SibihwanaTen Minutes, but a Few Meters Longer:...
- 1/3/2024
- MUBI
Three decades after the 1915 Armenian Genocide, an optimistic American Armenian returns to his Sovietized homeland, only be thrown in prison under flimsy circumstances. From his squalid jail cell, he peers daily into the home and inner life of one of his Armenian prison guards, and inadvertently finds the cultural connection he’d been searching for. This broad premise informs the sentimental comedy-drama of “Amerikatsi” (or “The American”), Armenia’s shortlisted international Oscar submission. Written and directed by Michael A. Goorjian, who also stars in the leading role, it’s a moving work about diasporic yearning, coming to us as history repeats itself, after more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians were forced to flee Nagorno-Karabakh earlier this year.
The movie’s dreamlike prologue follows a young Armenian boy escaping the brutality of the Ottoman Army during World War I, peering out of a tiny hole in an ornate luggage trunk. The interior of...
The movie’s dreamlike prologue follows a young Armenian boy escaping the brutality of the Ottoman Army during World War I, peering out of a tiny hole in an ornate luggage trunk. The interior of...
- 12/28/2023
- by Siddhant Adlakha
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSBreak no.1 & Break no.2..The lineups for select sections of the 2024 editions of the Berlinale and International Film Festival Rotterdam have been unveiled, with films from Panorama, Forum, Forum Expanded, Generation, and Berlinale Special announced for the former, and the Tiger and Big Screen competitions at the latter. In Berlin, so far, we are excited by the prospect of new films by Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair) and Jérémy Clapin (I Lost My Body), whereas in Rotterdam, we have our eye on new work by Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich and Lei Lei. As the year comes to a close, the Best of 2023 lists keep coming. Sight & Sound shared the seventh edition of their always-interesting poll of the best video essays of the year,...
- 12/20/2023
- MUBI
Georgian film director who was the true heir to Jean Renoir, Jacques Tati and Luis Buñuel
At the time when the film Favourites of the Moon was released in France in 1985, little was known in western Europe about its Georgian director, Otar Iosseliani, who has died aged 89. He had already made three features and several shorts in the Soviet Union, where he had suffered some censorship, the prime reason for his becoming an exile in France in 1982. For many, Favourites of the Moon, shot in Paris in French, was their first entry into the singular world of Iosseliani.
His self-described “abstract comedies” are understated and incisive explorations of human absurdity, always faithful to his idiosyncratic vision, and discarding any kind of cohesive narrative. Iosseliani observed his characters through behaviour rather than dialogue. His use of sound and silence, and his complex movements of people, animals and objects made him the true heir to Jean Renoir,...
At the time when the film Favourites of the Moon was released in France in 1985, little was known in western Europe about its Georgian director, Otar Iosseliani, who has died aged 89. He had already made three features and several shorts in the Soviet Union, where he had suffered some censorship, the prime reason for his becoming an exile in France in 1982. For many, Favourites of the Moon, shot in Paris in French, was their first entry into the singular world of Iosseliani.
His self-described “abstract comedies” are understated and incisive explorations of human absurdity, always faithful to his idiosyncratic vision, and discarding any kind of cohesive narrative. Iosseliani observed his characters through behaviour rather than dialogue. His use of sound and silence, and his complex movements of people, animals and objects made him the true heir to Jean Renoir,...
- 12/18/2023
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
“Deep Dive” is an in-depth podcast and video essay series featuring interviews with the stars and creative team behind an exceptional piece of filmmaking. For this edition, the IndieWire Crafts and Special Projects team partnered with Warner Bros. to take a closer look at “Barbie” with director and co-writer Greta Gerwig and nine members of her creative team who breathed life into the iconic Mattel doll.
The tagline “Barbie is everything” turns out to be pretty apt. “Barbie” contains within it multiple kinds of high-concept comedy, musicals, action sequences, mother-daughter stories, and a liminal void wherein Barbie (Margot Robbie) can meet her maker, Ruth Handler (Rhea Pearlman), and elect to transcend toyhood to become a human woman. All in less than two hours!
That “Barbie” contains so much and accomplishes so much — stylistically, tonally, and emotionally — is a huge credit to co-writer and director Greta Gerwig and her creative team,...
The tagline “Barbie is everything” turns out to be pretty apt. “Barbie” contains within it multiple kinds of high-concept comedy, musicals, action sequences, mother-daughter stories, and a liminal void wherein Barbie (Margot Robbie) can meet her maker, Ruth Handler (Rhea Pearlman), and elect to transcend toyhood to become a human woman. All in less than two hours!
That “Barbie” contains so much and accomplishes so much — stylistically, tonally, and emotionally — is a huge credit to co-writer and director Greta Gerwig and her creative team,...
- 11/30/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Netflix is finally opening the doors to the newly restored Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood this week, and in a first-look preview ahead of its November 9 reopening, the streamer and its partner, the nonprofit American Cinematheque, highlighted some of the enhancements and a screening schedule through the end of 2023.
The Egyptian will reopen on Nov. 9 with a sold-out screening of David Fincher’s “The Killer,” followed by a Q&a with the director. Throughout November it will showcase a 70mm series that includes titles like Jacques Tati’s “Playtime,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights.”
Announced today were December screenings for “Days of Heaven,” “L’amour Fou,” “Don’t Look Now,” “Imitation of Life,” “Lone Star,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and a new Netflix film for good measure: a 70mm screening of Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire.”
The screenings of...
The Egyptian will reopen on Nov. 9 with a sold-out screening of David Fincher’s “The Killer,” followed by a Q&a with the director. Throughout November it will showcase a 70mm series that includes titles like Jacques Tati’s “Playtime,” Stanley Kubrick’s “Spartacus,” and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Boogie Nights.”
Announced today were December screenings for “Days of Heaven,” “L’amour Fou,” “Don’t Look Now,” “Imitation of Life,” “Lone Star,” “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and a new Netflix film for good measure: a 70mm screening of Zack Snyder’s upcoming “Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire.”
The screenings of...
- 11/7/2023
- by Brian Welk
- Indiewire
Clear your calendar, L.A. cinephiles! The American Cinematheque has announced the titles for its extraordinary 70mm festival taking place at the iconic Egyptian Theatre in the days after the movie palace reopens following a three-year restoration. Netflix, in partnership with the American Cinematheque, bought the cinema in 2020.
The 516-seat theater, which was the longtime home of the American Cinematheque before the refurbishment, will retain its full ability to project 70mm prints and also be one of only five cinemas in the U.S. capable of projecting nitrate film. That early form of celluloid prints is notable for its astounding sharpness and vivid colors — you’ve never seen Technicolor until you’ve seen it in nitrate — but it’s extremely flammable, which you know if you’ve seen “Inglourious Basterds,” and thus harder to handle for many projectionists today.
The festival “Ultra Cinematheque 70: Hollywood,” running from November 10 through November...
The 516-seat theater, which was the longtime home of the American Cinematheque before the refurbishment, will retain its full ability to project 70mm prints and also be one of only five cinemas in the U.S. capable of projecting nitrate film. That early form of celluloid prints is notable for its astounding sharpness and vivid colors — you’ve never seen Technicolor until you’ve seen it in nitrate — but it’s extremely flammable, which you know if you’ve seen “Inglourious Basterds,” and thus harder to handle for many projectionists today.
The festival “Ultra Cinematheque 70: Hollywood,” running from November 10 through November...
- 11/1/2023
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Veteran French editor Dominique Auvray says there’s an essential intuitive element to her work. The woman who created the sound for “Paris, Texas” and cut such films as “No Fear, No Die,” “L’Amour Fou,” and “Hu-Man” says her career has been built around one key ability: Tuning in to your eyes and ears.
Speaking at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival this week, the longtime collaborator with seminal French director and author Marguerite Duras said, “I think the first thing when you are an editor, you have to look and to listen. And to listen at the same time to your heart and your head. And to listen to the director. And to listen to what the images say, you know.”
Auvray says she approached her work on the definitive Duras films “Le Camion,” “Woman of the Ganges” and “Le Navire Night” this way, and is still listening...
Speaking at the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival this week, the longtime collaborator with seminal French director and author Marguerite Duras said, “I think the first thing when you are an editor, you have to look and to listen. And to listen at the same time to your heart and your head. And to listen to the director. And to listen to what the images say, you know.”
Auvray says she approached her work on the definitive Duras films “Le Camion,” “Woman of the Ganges” and “Le Navire Night” this way, and is still listening...
- 10/28/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
‘The Movie Emperor’ Review: Andy Lau Plays Vain Version of Himself in Hong Kong Megastar Meta-Satire
In America, doing what Andy Lau does in Hong Kong film industry satire “The Movie Emperor” would likely net him an Oscar nomination. Or at least an MTV Movie Award. Or maybe just the admiration of his peers, considering how few stars are willing to poke fun at their own image, much less entertain the question of what might happen if their fans were to turn on them tomorrow.
Reteaming with “Crazy Stone” director Ning Hao for an ultra-polished, good-sport parody of A-list vanity, Lau plays Dany Lau — not quite himself, but a megastar of roughly his own stature. The movie is loaded with inside jokes, but like French series “Call My Agent,” it should have no trouble translating around the globe. Between Lau’s international standing — bolstered by roles in everything from “Infernal Affairs” to “A Simple Life,” plus a Cantopop singing career — and the script’s deft way...
Reteaming with “Crazy Stone” director Ning Hao for an ultra-polished, good-sport parody of A-list vanity, Lau plays Dany Lau — not quite himself, but a megastar of roughly his own stature. The movie is loaded with inside jokes, but like French series “Call My Agent,” it should have no trouble translating around the globe. Between Lau’s international standing — bolstered by roles in everything from “Infernal Affairs” to “A Simple Life,” plus a Cantopop singing career — and the script’s deft way...
- 10/21/2023
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 London BFI Film Festival. Netflix releases the film on its streaming platform on Friday, December 15.
What are you — a British chicken named Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) — supposed to do when your plucky young chick Molly (Bella Ramsay) insists on returning to the dangerous world that you spent the entire 84 minutes of Aardman’s “Chicken Run” escaping? Furthermore, how does it feel to realize that you’ve become the very thing that you once revolted against: Aka a jailer? “We’ve got our happy ending,” Ginger insists to her American rooster, Rocky (Zachary Levi). They are living in a grassy, human-free island sanctuary, making popcorn by rigging a magnifying glass to an upside-down jar and letting the sun do its work on corn kernels.
Ginger is issuing a reprimand to Rocky after he tells Molly about the adventurous way that they arrived...
What are you — a British chicken named Ginger (Thandiwe Newton) — supposed to do when your plucky young chick Molly (Bella Ramsay) insists on returning to the dangerous world that you spent the entire 84 minutes of Aardman’s “Chicken Run” escaping? Furthermore, how does it feel to realize that you’ve become the very thing that you once revolted against: Aka a jailer? “We’ve got our happy ending,” Ginger insists to her American rooster, Rocky (Zachary Levi). They are living in a grassy, human-free island sanctuary, making popcorn by rigging a magnifying glass to an upside-down jar and letting the sun do its work on corn kernels.
Ginger is issuing a reprimand to Rocky after he tells Molly about the adventurous way that they arrived...
- 10/14/2023
- by Sophie Monks Kaufman
- Indiewire
One can often tell a cinephile by the rituals they establish. For my part, I begin every summer by revisiting Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot's Holiday (1953), the feature debut of his most beloved character. I can no longer remember what drew me to this habit outside of a strong association of the season with the smooth jazz theme to the film “Quel temps fait-il à Paris?”, written by Alain Romans. Revisiting the film last summer, I decided for the first time to put on the 1953 version of the movie instead of the 1978 version I usually watch, which is labeled “definitive” by Les Films de Mon Oncle, the foundation responsible for the restoration and rerelease of Tati’s films. Outside of one addition to this later cut, I was unaware of the differences between them, and couldn’t find much information about the original release. Almost immediately, I was shocked to...
- 8/30/2023
- MUBI
After a brief closure this summer, New York City’s Paris Theater reopens in September with a newly-installed Dolby Atmos sound system (making the 500-seat Paris Theater the largest Dolby cinema in Manhattan) and, for the first time in 15 years, a series of 70mm screenings. Highlights include the first U.S. 70mm screening of Jacques Tati’s Playtime in 10 years; the first NYC 70mm screening of Ron Fricke’s Baraka in 10 years; the U.S. premiere of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria in Dolby Atmos; a screening of William Friedkin’s excellent Sorcerer as a tribute to the recently deceased director; and the first NYC […]
The post NYC’s Paris Theater To Reopen in September With Dolby Atmos System and 70mm Screenings first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post NYC’s Paris Theater To Reopen in September With Dolby Atmos System and 70mm Screenings first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/11/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
After a brief closure this summer, New York City’s Paris Theater reopens in September with a newly-installed Dolby Atmos sound system (making the 500-seat Paris Theater the largest Dolby cinema in Manhattan) and, for the first time in 15 years, a series of 70mm screenings. Highlights include the first U.S. 70mm screening of Jacques Tati’s Playtime in 10 years; the first NYC 70mm screening of Ron Fricke’s Baraka in 10 years; the U.S. premiere of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria in Dolby Atmos; a screening of William Friedkin’s excellent Sorcerer as a tribute to the recently deceased director; and the first NYC […]
The post NYC’s Paris Theater To Reopen in September With Dolby Atmos System and 70mm Screenings first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post NYC’s Paris Theater To Reopen in September With Dolby Atmos System and 70mm Screenings first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 8/11/2023
- by Natalia Keogan
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Probably inspired by the success of “The Horse Thieves. Roads of Time” that brought together cast and crew from Kazakhstan and Japan, “Under The Turquoise Sky” attempts to do the same with Mongolia and Japan this time, in a movie that unfolds like an occasionally surreal road film.
“Under The Turquoise Sky” is screening at Japan Cuts
Takeshi is the spoiled grandson of Saburo, a Japanese mogul who is disappointed by his behavior, since the young man spends all his time on drinks and women. Arma is a Mongolian man who is caught trying to steal a horse that belongs to Saburo. Instead of punishment, however, the latter arranges for him to take his grandson to Mongolia in order to find a woman she was romantically involved with during his time in the Japanese army. Gradually, through the interaction with Arma and the experiences he stumbles upon while in Mongolia,...
“Under The Turquoise Sky” is screening at Japan Cuts
Takeshi is the spoiled grandson of Saburo, a Japanese mogul who is disappointed by his behavior, since the young man spends all his time on drinks and women. Arma is a Mongolian man who is caught trying to steal a horse that belongs to Saburo. Instead of punishment, however, the latter arranges for him to take his grandson to Mongolia in order to find a woman she was romantically involved with during his time in the Japanese army. Gradually, through the interaction with Arma and the experiences he stumbles upon while in Mongolia,...
- 7/31/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach’s hand-painted marvel “Chicken for Linda!” took home dual honors at the Annecy Animation Festival on Saturday, scooping up the festival’s top prize, the Cristal Award for best feature, as well as the Gan Foundation award for distribution.
A bittersweet childhood tale that finds screwball humor in mourning and melancholy, the French-language film premiered to some acclaim out of Cannes’ Acid sidebar last month, and was picked up for North American distribution by Gkids while competing in Annecy.
“We wanted something both funny and affecting,” said co-director Chiara Malta. “The two elements were never in conflict, because we made the film for children, putting ourselves in their perspectives while adopting their language.”
“We wanted a [joyful mess],” added co-director Sébastien Laudenbach. “The film is sad and funny. It’s full of energy and emotion, and as a result, the graphic style is dynamic as well.”
Hungary...
A bittersweet childhood tale that finds screwball humor in mourning and melancholy, the French-language film premiered to some acclaim out of Cannes’ Acid sidebar last month, and was picked up for North American distribution by Gkids while competing in Annecy.
“We wanted something both funny and affecting,” said co-director Chiara Malta. “The two elements were never in conflict, because we made the film for children, putting ourselves in their perspectives while adopting their language.”
“We wanted a [joyful mess],” added co-director Sébastien Laudenbach. “The film is sad and funny. It’s full of energy and emotion, and as a result, the graphic style is dynamic as well.”
Hungary...
- 6/17/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
As Annecy rounds the final bend on its biggest edition to date, with a tantalizing promise of a brighter future for animation in much of Europe, Marjolaine Perreten’s 29-minute film “Pebble Hill” (“La Colline aux cailloux”), part of its TV Films competition, has been one of the multiple gems to come out of it.
Minimalist in design, a trademark of the young Swiss filmmaker’s unique style, the animation, which has already won an award at Hamburg’s Mo & Friese Kinder Kurzfilm Festival, is charming and tender, the 29-minute film, produced by renowned Swiss production company Nadasdy Film in Geneva, a producer on “No Dogs or Italians Allowed,” and France’s Les Films du Nord, tells the story of a family of shrews that after loosing their home due to the breaking of an upstream dam embark on a journey alongside an old shrew to find the Pebble Hill.
Minimalist in design, a trademark of the young Swiss filmmaker’s unique style, the animation, which has already won an award at Hamburg’s Mo & Friese Kinder Kurzfilm Festival, is charming and tender, the 29-minute film, produced by renowned Swiss production company Nadasdy Film in Geneva, a producer on “No Dogs or Italians Allowed,” and France’s Les Films du Nord, tells the story of a family of shrews that after loosing their home due to the breaking of an upstream dam embark on a journey alongside an old shrew to find the Pebble Hill.
- 6/16/2023
- by Emiliano Granada
- Variety Film + TV
Anyone who has watched the Criterion Channel knows that writer-director Ari Aster is a devoted cinephile with broad taste and a deep understanding of how and why movies work. For his latest and most ambitious film, “Beau Is Afraid,” Aster told IndieWire’s Filmmaker Toolkit podcast that he tried to leave specific tributes to other movies behind, at least consciously. “I would say that a lot of the influences were unconscious while I was writing it,” he said. “I became aware of them while we were shooting, or even in post.” Aster and his regular cinematographer, Pawel Pogorzelski, talked more about literary references than cinematic ones, but there’s no denying that several of the classics that Aster has “metabolized,” as he put it, found their way into the visual and aural DNA of “Beau Is Afraid.” Here are three key films that influeced Aster and Pogorzelski’s approach.
“Playtime...
“Playtime...
- 5/8/2023
- by Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
Paul Schrader is warning about the “slippery slope” of filmmakers revisiting their work.
The Oscar winner addressed the films of Terrence Malick and George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” as examples of why films of the past should not be recut or adapted to modern times.
“I think that’s a very slippery slope. Everything changes, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Schrader told “Card Counter” star Oscar Isaac in conversation for Interview magazine. “When people like George [Lucas] work with CGI, you’re not going to recast the movie, you’re not going to rewrite the movie. You could fool with the color. I think Terrence Malick fooling with the color was wrong, and I think when Francis [Ford Coppola] did his longer version of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ it was worse than before. So I think it’s better to just let them be.”
Coppola released his...
The Oscar winner addressed the films of Terrence Malick and George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now” as examples of why films of the past should not be recut or adapted to modern times.
“I think that’s a very slippery slope. Everything changes, and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Schrader told “Card Counter” star Oscar Isaac in conversation for Interview magazine. “When people like George [Lucas] work with CGI, you’re not going to recast the movie, you’re not going to rewrite the movie. You could fool with the color. I think Terrence Malick fooling with the color was wrong, and I think when Francis [Ford Coppola] did his longer version of ‘Apocalypse Now,’ it was worse than before. So I think it’s better to just let them be.”
Coppola released his...
- 4/27/2023
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
If nothing else, “Barry” Season 4 has cemented director Bill Hader’s status as somehow the heir to both Otto Preminger and Jacques Tati. Hader and cinematographer Carl Herse’s camera, like some unholy combination of “Playtime” and “Anatomy of a Murder,” continually embrace patient, wide takes in which horror and comedy unfold one after the other after the other, staying however long it needs to in order to catch the characters out.
The length of a moment and the slow arc of the camera can themselves justify a change in location or a transition, as in Barry’s flashes to his past and to the world he desires in Episode 2, “the bestest place on earth.” But as the camerawork of the show has adapted to Hader’s preference for giving the characters enough rope, so has every other aspect of “Barry” adapted.
For Season 4, this presented production designer Eric Schoonover...
The length of a moment and the slow arc of the camera can themselves justify a change in location or a transition, as in Barry’s flashes to his past and to the world he desires in Episode 2, “the bestest place on earth.” But as the camerawork of the show has adapted to Hader’s preference for giving the characters enough rope, so has every other aspect of “Barry” adapted.
For Season 4, this presented production designer Eric Schoonover...
- 4/22/2023
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
[Editor’s note: This story contains major spoilers for “Beau Is Afraid.”]
Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” has a lot going on: It’s a sprawling, Homeric journey into the troubled psyche of neurotic, middle-aged man (Joaquin Phoenix) and a disturbing, pitch-black comedy about Jewish guilt rooted in that man’s unresolved problems with his mother (alternately played by Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone), a woman who may or may not be dead. It’s also a claustrophobic dose of surrealist satire of urban life and consumer society, a world overmedicated and undernourished. It has a sprawling dream sequence steeped in profound emotional yearning and a monster that suggests a Phallic interpretation of Jabba the Hutt.
It’s ridiculous, tragic, silly, and absolutely unlike anything else you’ll see this year. All of which makes Aster squirm over the prospects of talking about it.
“I’ve already said way too much here,” the 36-year-old New Yorker said about...
Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” has a lot going on: It’s a sprawling, Homeric journey into the troubled psyche of neurotic, middle-aged man (Joaquin Phoenix) and a disturbing, pitch-black comedy about Jewish guilt rooted in that man’s unresolved problems with his mother (alternately played by Zoe Lister-Jones and Patti LuPone), a woman who may or may not be dead. It’s also a claustrophobic dose of surrealist satire of urban life and consumer society, a world overmedicated and undernourished. It has a sprawling dream sequence steeped in profound emotional yearning and a monster that suggests a Phallic interpretation of Jabba the Hutt.
It’s ridiculous, tragic, silly, and absolutely unlike anything else you’ll see this year. All of which makes Aster squirm over the prospects of talking about it.
“I’ve already said way too much here,” the 36-year-old New Yorker said about...
- 4/14/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Ari Aster’s nearly-three hour journey Beau Is Afraid, described by the filmmaker himself as a “Jewish Lord of the Rings,” will arrive a bit earlier than expected. Now set to debut on April 14 in New York and LA before expanding wide the following week, including IMAX screens, we’ve received more context for what to expect thanks to a new series the director curated for Film at Lincoln Center.
Set to run April 14-20 at the NYC venue, selections include works by Alfred Hitchcock, Jiří Menzel, Guy Maddin, Albert Brooks, Nicholas Ray, Powell and Pressburger, Tsai Ming-liang, Jacques Tati, and more. “This eclectic and unexpected collection of masterworks drawn from seven decades of film history across a range of genres and production contexts sheds light on the inspirations and influences behind one of the most compelling directorial voices in Hollywood today,” notes the press release.
Aster also recently let...
Set to run April 14-20 at the NYC venue, selections include works by Alfred Hitchcock, Jiří Menzel, Guy Maddin, Albert Brooks, Nicholas Ray, Powell and Pressburger, Tsai Ming-liang, Jacques Tati, and more. “This eclectic and unexpected collection of masterworks drawn from seven decades of film history across a range of genres and production contexts sheds light on the inspirations and influences behind one of the most compelling directorial voices in Hollywood today,” notes the press release.
Aster also recently let...
- 3/30/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
Three years after the introduction of Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc and the launch of a new murder mystery franchise with Knives Out, writer-director Rian Johnson debuted the sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, on Monday at Los Angeles’ Academy Museum.
Craig (who missed the big L.A. event due to illness) is back as the renowned detective, but with a new cast and premise — this time following tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and his friends on a getaway to his private Greek island, where someone inevitably turns up dead.
“I wanted to tell the audience right up front that this was going to be a very different film than the first one, so going from a cozy New England autumn to a Greek beach seemed like a really big, interesting way of doing that,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter...
Three years after the introduction of Daniel Craig’s Detective Benoit Blanc and the launch of a new murder mystery franchise with Knives Out, writer-director Rian Johnson debuted the sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, on Monday at Los Angeles’ Academy Museum.
Craig (who missed the big L.A. event due to illness) is back as the renowned detective, but with a new cast and premise — this time following tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and his friends on a getaway to his private Greek island, where someone inevitably turns up dead.
“I wanted to tell the audience right up front that this was going to be a very different film than the first one, so going from a cozy New England autumn to a Greek beach seemed like a really big, interesting way of doing that,” Johnson told The Hollywood Reporter...
- 11/15/2022
- by Kirsten Chuba
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
How does one go about creating one of the best, most intense, and formally daring stories in all of "Star Wars?" Well, you go out, get the most talented artists, and put them in charge of various levels of production. Sounds simple enough, right? Having a filmmaker of the caliber of Tony Gilroy spearhead "Andor" already put this prequel series on solid ground, but his decision to collaborate with the best in the business has clearly been paying dividends throughout the first several episodes of the season. But while Gilroy's vision has received all its deserved praise, we'd be remiss not to look deeper and show some appreciation for the below-the-line contributions that have played invaluable roles in turning "Andor" into the acclaimed addition to the franchise that it is (you can read /Film's review here).
I recently had the opportunity to speak to two of the chief architects behind "Andor,...
I recently had the opportunity to speak to two of the chief architects behind "Andor,...
- 11/9/2022
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” Ali Abbasi’s “Holy Spider,” and tributes to the French New Wave are among the most common programming choices for this year’s Month of European Film, a variegated showcase for continental cinema that will run across the continent from Nov. 13 – Dec. 10.
Piloted by the European Film Academy, the month-long initiative will extend across 35 partner cinemas in as many countries, with each theater hosting a unique program tailored to that specific market. Like three-dozen complementary programs rallying around the same banner, this year’s Month of European Film will feature screenings of recent festival standouts, retrospectives to directors Jonas Mekas and Lars von Trier, and country focuses on contemporary German, Portuguese and Nordic cinema – among many other moving parts.
“With the Month of European Film, the Academy is launching a new network,” says European Film Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol. “A large part of...
Piloted by the European Film Academy, the month-long initiative will extend across 35 partner cinemas in as many countries, with each theater hosting a unique program tailored to that specific market. Like three-dozen complementary programs rallying around the same banner, this year’s Month of European Film will feature screenings of recent festival standouts, retrospectives to directors Jonas Mekas and Lars von Trier, and country focuses on contemporary German, Portuguese and Nordic cinema – among many other moving parts.
“With the Month of European Film, the Academy is launching a new network,” says European Film Academy CEO Matthijs Wouter Knol. “A large part of...
- 11/4/2022
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
Initiative aimed at strengthening the visibility of European films.
The European Film Academy (Efa) is launching a month-long initiative at cinemas across Europe that aims to strengthen and protect the future of European film.
The inaugural Month of European Film will begin on November 13 and will see cinemas in 35 countries present special programmes, events and dedicated retrospectives for four weeks. Mubi will concurrently stream a special focus on European films, taking the initiative global.
It will all lead up to the European Film Awards, set to take place in Iceland on December 10.
Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of Efa,...
The European Film Academy (Efa) is launching a month-long initiative at cinemas across Europe that aims to strengthen and protect the future of European film.
The inaugural Month of European Film will begin on November 13 and will see cinemas in 35 countries present special programmes, events and dedicated retrospectives for four weeks. Mubi will concurrently stream a special focus on European films, taking the initiative global.
It will all lead up to the European Film Awards, set to take place in Iceland on December 10.
Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of Efa,...
- 11/4/2022
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
The European Film Academy has unveiled a new public-facing event called the Month of European Film.
The initiative consists of a showcase of European cinema taking place in arthouse theatres and other venues in 35 countries across Europe.
It will kick off on November 13 and run across the four weeks leading up to the European Film Awards in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on December 10.
At the same time, streaming platform Mubi will present a special focus on European films, allowing viewers around the world to participate.
“With the Month of European Film, the Academy is launching a new network. A large part of this network consists of movie theatres curating smart programmes with handpicked films that cater for the curiosity and tastes of their local audiences, programs that help to rediscover European film culture,” said Efa CEO and director says Matthijs Wouter Knol.
“For the very first time, all these...
The initiative consists of a showcase of European cinema taking place in arthouse theatres and other venues in 35 countries across Europe.
It will kick off on November 13 and run across the four weeks leading up to the European Film Awards in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik on December 10.
At the same time, streaming platform Mubi will present a special focus on European films, allowing viewers around the world to participate.
“With the Month of European Film, the Academy is launching a new network. A large part of this network consists of movie theatres curating smart programmes with handpicked films that cater for the curiosity and tastes of their local audiences, programs that help to rediscover European film culture,” said Efa CEO and director says Matthijs Wouter Knol.
“For the very first time, all these...
- 11/4/2022
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Fans of Sparks, rejoice! Not only will we be getting our favorite band's 27th album next year, they also have another cinematic project in the works. After using their mad genius to concoct last year's utterly singular "Annette" with French auteur Leos Carax, Ron and Russell Mael, have begun work on a new, original movie-musical called "X-Crucior." The film will be brought to us by Focus Features, who distributed last year's terrific documentary about the band called "The Sparks Brothers," directed by Edgar Wright.
As to what "X-Crucior" will be about, that information is currently being kept under wraps, but in their announcement, Focus describes the film as a "musical epic." Frankly, that's all I need to hear. We also do not know who will be coming on to direct the project, but the Maels will be serving as writers, composers, and executive producers. Along with the Maels, Focus' Kirsta...
As to what "X-Crucior" will be about, that information is currently being kept under wraps, but in their announcement, Focus describes the film as a "musical epic." Frankly, that's all I need to hear. We also do not know who will be coming on to direct the project, but the Maels will be serving as writers, composers, and executive producers. Along with the Maels, Focus' Kirsta...
- 11/3/2022
- by Mike Shutt
- Slash Film
It's that time of the month when you're about to find out which movies and television shows you've had stockpiled in your watchlist are about to expire. No worries. It happens to the best of us. We live in an era where there's way too much to watch that some will inevitably slip through the cracks. But if you were hoping to catch a few of them before they're gone or off to a different streaming service, then it's not too late!
Everything I have listed here won't be leaving Netflix until the start of November, with some leaving right as the post-Halloween period begins. An interesting thing to note is the disappearance of some Netflix Originals such as the series "The Yard," which seems to be an ongoing trend, as /Film's Erin Brady has reported.
The one, however, that caught my eye was "If Anything Happens I Love You,...
Everything I have listed here won't be leaving Netflix until the start of November, with some leaving right as the post-Halloween period begins. An interesting thing to note is the disappearance of some Netflix Originals such as the series "The Yard," which seems to be an ongoing trend, as /Film's Erin Brady has reported.
The one, however, that caught my eye was "If Anything Happens I Love You,...
- 10/20/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
From Serge Daney's The Cinema House and the World: The Cahiers du Cinema Years, 1962–1981, translated by Christine Pichini and published by MIT Press.John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (2018).The reasons behind tennis’s sudden rise, as sport or as spectacle, are various. Television actively participates in it; tennis is in fact one of the sports that translates best to the small screen.Saturday, July 14. While watching the Davis Cup’s lackluster doubles semi-final with Noah/Moretton against the Czech duo Kodeš/Smid, I couldn’t help thinking that at least tennis has an advantage when seen on television. It is, as they say, the sport that “loses” the least and “gains” the most. For someone who loves both tennis and moving images (and even more for someone who enjoys watching movement within images), there are great moments to be had on the small screen. Great moments for...
- 9/6/2022
- MUBI
MK2 Films, which is at Venice with “Love Life” playing in competition, is reteaming with Fiona Gordon and Dominique Abel on “The Falling Star,” a darkly comic mystery thriller.
The directing duo is rolling off “Lost in Paris,” their international breakout film, which had a buzzy premiere at Telluride in 2016. The film was also a commercial success, grossing nearly 3 million outside of France, with strong performances in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand.
“The Falling Star” tells the story of Boris, a former activist who’s been a fugitive for 35 years, and works as a bartender. Boris’ past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan, but they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife,...
The directing duo is rolling off “Lost in Paris,” their international breakout film, which had a buzzy premiere at Telluride in 2016. The film was also a commercial success, grossing nearly 3 million outside of France, with strong performances in the U.S., Italy, Germany, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand.
“The Falling Star” tells the story of Boris, a former activist who’s been a fugitive for 35 years, and works as a bartender. Boris’ past finally catches up with him when a mysterious stranger appears at the bar, armed and wanting revenge. The appearance of a double, the depressed and solitary Dom, provides Boris’ cunning partner Kayoko and their faithful friend Tim with the perfect escape plan, but they haven’t accounted for Dom’s ex-wife,...
- 9/2/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Curated by the IndieWire Crafts team, Craft Considerations is a platform for filmmakers to talk about recent work we believe is worthy of awards consideration. In partnership with Apple TV+, for this edition we look at how production design, score, and direction came together to build the chillingly mysterious corporate world of “Severance.”
The ingenious premise of “Severance” — in which office workers agree to a procedure in which work experiences and memories are “severed” from those outside work, allowing personal and professional lives to remain completely separate — has proven irresistible to audiences tantalized by the issues and possibilities. The premise was equally irresistible, and challenging, for artisans who had to figure out how to bring Lumon Industries and its surroundings to life.
The show’s unique tone, and a genre that sits somewhere between sci-fi, satire, drama, and psychological horror, created intriguing opportunities and obstacles for the filmmakers tasked with getting the balance exactly right.
The ingenious premise of “Severance” — in which office workers agree to a procedure in which work experiences and memories are “severed” from those outside work, allowing personal and professional lives to remain completely separate — has proven irresistible to audiences tantalized by the issues and possibilities. The premise was equally irresistible, and challenging, for artisans who had to figure out how to bring Lumon Industries and its surroundings to life.
The show’s unique tone, and a genre that sits somewhere between sci-fi, satire, drama, and psychological horror, created intriguing opportunities and obstacles for the filmmakers tasked with getting the balance exactly right.
- 8/18/2022
- by Jim Hemphill and Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Curated by the IndieWire Crafts team, Craft Considerations is a platform for filmmakers to talk about recent work we believe is worthy of awards consideration. In partnership with HBO, for this edition we look at how director and star Bill Hader, cinematographer Carl Herse, and stunt coordinator Wade Allen have pushed the filmmaking of “Barry” to new heights.
Nothing could be in danger of looking more visually plain and unshow-y than the travails of wannabe actors in Los Angeles — even those who are reluctant hitmen. But “Barry” creator Bill Hader has always loved movies where “You’re in such a unique world that when it’s over, you’re stuck in that world.” Hader told IndieWire that he approaches filmmaking for the show from as cinematic a perspective he can, using image and especially sound to capture the thought processes and emotional plights of characters trapped by their own bad choices.
Nothing could be in danger of looking more visually plain and unshow-y than the travails of wannabe actors in Los Angeles — even those who are reluctant hitmen. But “Barry” creator Bill Hader has always loved movies where “You’re in such a unique world that when it’s over, you’re stuck in that world.” Hader told IndieWire that he approaches filmmaking for the show from as cinematic a perspective he can, using image and especially sound to capture the thought processes and emotional plights of characters trapped by their own bad choices.
- 8/11/2022
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On director/co-writer/co-editor Dean Fleischer-Camp discusses some of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (2022)
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (2010)
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
San Andreas (2015)
Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Ghost (1990)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Beetlejuice (1988) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
Batman (1989)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Batman Returns (1992) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Ed Wood (1994)
Mars Attacks (1996)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
8 ½ (1963) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Westworld (1973) – Ed Neumeier’s trailer commentary
Robocop (1987) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Alien (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Aliens (1986) – Glenn Erickson’s...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (2022)
Marcel The Shell With Shoes On (2010)
The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980)
San Andreas (2015)
Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Ghost (1990)
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985)
Beetlejuice (1988) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
Batman (1989)
Edward Scissorhands (1990)
Batman Returns (1992) – Alex Kirschenbaum’s review
The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
Ed Wood (1994)
Mars Attacks (1996)
Sleepy Hollow (1999)
Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Witches of Eastwick (1987)
8 ½ (1963) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review
Westworld (1973) – Ed Neumeier’s trailer commentary
Robocop (1987) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray reviews
Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983)
Alien (1979) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings
Aliens (1986) – Glenn Erickson’s...
- 7/19/2022
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Many sci-fi series require building a world from scratch, but “Severance” had more than one. The show, created by Dan Erickson and guided to fruition by director Ben Stiller, revolves around office workers who undergo a surgical procedure that allows them to separate their personal and professional lives. During the day, Mark (Adam Scott) and his co-workers undergo a bland, cryptic grind at the mysterious Lumon Industries, while their outside selves endure more familiar routines after hours. This dichotomy demanded precise visual signifiers to situate viewers in the dueling settings.
For production designer Jeremy Hindle, it presented the unique challenge of building out environments even if they didn’t always show every detail.
“The show is taking advantage of the unique way you can design a space,” Hindle told IndieWire. “The camera only has to reveal bits and pieces of it at a time. You don’t need the whole...
For production designer Jeremy Hindle, it presented the unique challenge of building out environments even if they didn’t always show every detail.
“The show is taking advantage of the unique way you can design a space,” Hindle told IndieWire. “The camera only has to reveal bits and pieces of it at a time. You don’t need the whole...
- 6/17/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The prolific French screenwriter died last year.
Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Jean-Claude Carrière’s final film Goya, Carriere And The Ghost Of Buñuel that will premiere in the Cannes Classics selection.
Directed by José Luis López Linares, the documentary follows the late Carrière, who also wrote the script, as he returns to Spain to explore the life and works of painter Francisco de Goya.
The French screenwriter, who collaborated with Jacques Tati, Luis Buñuel, Milos Forman and Louis Malle during his 60-year career, died last year at the age of 89.
France-based company Reservoir Docs has acquired...
Screen can exclusively reveal the first trailer for Jean-Claude Carrière’s final film Goya, Carriere And The Ghost Of Buñuel that will premiere in the Cannes Classics selection.
Directed by José Luis López Linares, the documentary follows the late Carrière, who also wrote the script, as he returns to Spain to explore the life and works of painter Francisco de Goya.
The French screenwriter, who collaborated with Jacques Tati, Luis Buñuel, Milos Forman and Louis Malle during his 60-year career, died last year at the age of 89.
France-based company Reservoir Docs has acquired...
- 5/18/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
You are dropped into the middle of a journey. It’s unclear where exactly you’re going, at least at first. Still, a few early signposts suggest possible destinations: precocious-kid comedy, existential-crisis drama, Ransom of Red Chief-type ironyfest, paranoid thriller, regional road-to-nowhere allegory. You start to pick up that it’s a family you’re traveling with, a foursome who fit easily into familiar slots. Dad (Hasan Mujuni) is cranky, bearded, partially crippled by having his leg in a cast. Mom (Pantea Panahiha) is fretful, slightly fussy, extremely nurturing — possibly,...
- 4/29/2022
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
This week, anyone invested in the entertainment industry should be following recent developments surrounding a major Hollywood actor whose three decades of success might be coming to an end.
That actor, of course, is… Jim Carrey.
As Will Smith’s slap continues to reverberate across popular culture, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” has made its way to theaters, with Carrey’s return as the gonzo mustache-twirling villain Dr. Robotnik quite possibly serving as his swan song. In an Access Hollywood interview promoting the release, Carrey said he was “fairly serious” about retirement, chalking up the decision to his “quiet life” as a painter. That would be a loss to many filmmakers whose work could benefit from his involvement, and raises questions about why he hasn’t been associated with the kind of opportunities that might keep him engaged — i.e., work from young directors and original ideas.
Carrey tried. Showtime canceled...
That actor, of course, is… Jim Carrey.
As Will Smith’s slap continues to reverberate across popular culture, “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” has made its way to theaters, with Carrey’s return as the gonzo mustache-twirling villain Dr. Robotnik quite possibly serving as his swan song. In an Access Hollywood interview promoting the release, Carrey said he was “fairly serious” about retirement, chalking up the decision to his “quiet life” as a painter. That would be a loss to many filmmakers whose work could benefit from his involvement, and raises questions about why he hasn’t been associated with the kind of opportunities that might keep him engaged — i.e., work from young directors and original ideas.
Carrey tried. Showtime canceled...
- 4/9/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Above: 2021 UK quad poster for 4K restoration of The 400 Blows. Design by The Posterhouse.50,000 Movie Poster of the Day fans can’t be wrong. Yes, just this week my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram—a feed that was a spin-off from this column—surpassed 50,000 followers, which is a little ways off Cristiano Ronaldo’s 411 million and still a tenth of the half a million that Movie Poster of the Day used to have on Tumblr, though I never quite believed those numbers. But I put a lot of faith in my Movie Poster of the Day followers and so every six months I like to collect and rank the most “liked” posters that I have posted in the previous 26 weeks as some sort of bellwether of popular taste.The 400 Blows poster above racked up 3,168 likes earlier this year, making it the third most-liked poster I’ve ever posted (for...
- 3/11/2022
- MUBI
As the first film from the director of “Amélie” in nearly a decade, “Bigbug” is kind of a big deal. Sadly, it’s also a big disappointment — easily the most obnoxious Netflix original in some time, owing to the company’s trust in a director whose overactive imagination demands some kind of boundaries.
At precisely the moment pandemic-confined audiences want to get out and breathe fresh air, Jean-Pierre Jeunet gives them a suffocating scenario in which a squabbling French family is trapped in their retro-modern home with several android assistants. The result is an aggressively unfunny look at human-robot relations in a garish, cartoonishly rendered future — one in which all the houses look exactly the same on the outside, but are maintained by eccentric AI indoors (where the film spends 98% of its time).
In “No Exit,” Jean-Paul Sartre surmised that “hell is other people.” In this zany sci-fi riff on that idea,...
At precisely the moment pandemic-confined audiences want to get out and breathe fresh air, Jean-Pierre Jeunet gives them a suffocating scenario in which a squabbling French family is trapped in their retro-modern home with several android assistants. The result is an aggressively unfunny look at human-robot relations in a garish, cartoonishly rendered future — one in which all the houses look exactly the same on the outside, but are maintained by eccentric AI indoors (where the film spends 98% of its time).
In “No Exit,” Jean-Paul Sartre surmised that “hell is other people.” In this zany sci-fi riff on that idea,...
- 2/11/2022
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
1. FleeThe official release poster for Jonas Poher Rasmussen’s animated refugee memoir Flee—the one you might have seen more often than this—isn’t half bad: the film’s subject, Amin, is revealed in the elongated ascenders of the title, as if behind bars, while a happy memory of him as a child slips freely into the poster’s negative space. And, to be honest, the design I have chosen as my favorite movie poster of the year (this is the original Swedish version but a US version of this design has been seen in the wild) doesn’t express Flee half as well as that other one does. Its it-takes-a-village cast of characters promises something different from the film itself, which is a lean and harrowing and often solitary odyssey from Afghanistan to Denmark, and from childhood to manhood. That said, I can’t stop loving this poster...
- 12/18/2021
- MUBI
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