The Notebook Primer introduces readers to some of the most important figures, films, genres, and movements in film history.The Battle of AlgiersCommenting on the role of cinema in his native Cuba, director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea once wrote that films should not just add to people’s enjoyment of life, but also “contribute in the most effective way possible to elevating [their] revolutionary consciousness.” Gutiérrez Alea was writing in 1982 (the words are cribbed from his essay “The Viewer’s Dialectic”), over twenty years since Fidel Castro ousted Fulgencio Batista and brought an end to the US-backed dictatorship in the island. But the idea that cinema can serve a higher function that mere entertainment—the belief that films should both educate and agitate spectators—is as old as the medium itself. Lenin once called cinema “the most important of all the arts;” Trotsky “a weapon for collective education.” For Bolivian director Jorge Sanjinés,...
- 6/7/2021
- MUBI
New York’s Anthology Film Archives has announced the lineup for its ambitious Woman With a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950,” which runs September 15 — 28. Among the spotlighted filmmakers are Gene Gauntier, Lois Weber and Alice Guy-Blaché, though many more will be featured during the two-week series as well. Full lineup below.
“The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Further Adventures of the Girl Spy” (Sidney Olcott)
“The Colleen Bawn” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Broadway Love” (Ida May Park)
“The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (Lotte Reiniger)
Read More: The Rock Named World’s Highest-Paid Actor, Earning Nearly $20 Million More Than Highest-Paid Actress, Jennifer Lawrence
“The Rosary” and “Suspense” (Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley)
“Shoes” (Lois Weber)
“The Holy Night” (Elvira Notari)
“Humankind” (Elvira Giallanella)
“The Drunken Mattress” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Strike” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The New Love and the Old” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Roads That Lead Home” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The...
“The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Further Adventures of the Girl Spy” (Sidney Olcott)
“The Colleen Bawn” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Broadway Love” (Ida May Park)
“The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (Lotte Reiniger)
Read More: The Rock Named World’s Highest-Paid Actor, Earning Nearly $20 Million More Than Highest-Paid Actress, Jennifer Lawrence
“The Rosary” and “Suspense” (Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley)
“Shoes” (Lois Weber)
“The Holy Night” (Elvira Notari)
“Humankind” (Elvira Giallanella)
“The Drunken Mattress” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Strike” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The New Love and the Old” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Roads That Lead Home” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The...
- 8/25/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
The International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) has used film to reflect on European culture, politics and identity.
The State Of Europe programme at this year’s Iffr was the brainchild of artistic director Rutger Wolfson.
In advance of the European elections, he wanted the festival to reflect on European culture, politics and identity.
As he wrote: ‘The historical project of the European unification has lost much of its lustre. Peace and prosperity, the two main forces that have driven Europe, are still relevant today but feel worn out.
“Politicians seem unable to convey a convincing alternative future perspective and many citizens are angry, disillusioned or have lost interest completely.”
Rising debt, the spectre of nationalism, the colonial legacy and the tension between EU Member states are all factors in the modern Europe.
For his programmers, this huge subject initially seemed daunting – a project for historians and politicians from the EU’s 28 member states, perhaps, but not...
The State Of Europe programme at this year’s Iffr was the brainchild of artistic director Rutger Wolfson.
In advance of the European elections, he wanted the festival to reflect on European culture, politics and identity.
As he wrote: ‘The historical project of the European unification has lost much of its lustre. Peace and prosperity, the two main forces that have driven Europe, are still relevant today but feel worn out.
“Politicians seem unable to convey a convincing alternative future perspective and many citizens are angry, disillusioned or have lost interest completely.”
Rising debt, the spectre of nationalism, the colonial legacy and the tension between EU Member states are all factors in the modern Europe.
For his programmers, this huge subject initially seemed daunting – a project for historians and politicians from the EU’s 28 member states, perhaps, but not...
- 1/29/2014
- by geoffrey@macnab.demon.co.uk (Geoffrey Macnab)
- ScreenDaily
Georges Méliès' A Trip to the Moon Melancholia, A Separation Screenplay, Runner-Up Jeannie Berlin: National Society of Film Critics' Surprises Two interesting omissions from the Nsfc roster: critics' fave Michelle Williams (for portraying Marilyn Monroe in Simon Curtis' My Week with Marilyn) and George Clooney (for his stressed out father in Alexander Payne's The Descendants) weren't among the critics' top three actresses/actors. Dunst and Yun were followed by New York Film Critics winner Meryl Streep for her Margaret Thatcher in Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady; Brad Pitt was followed by Gary Oldman in Tomas Alfredson's Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Jean Dujardin in Michel Hazanavicius' The Artist. Dujardin, in fact, was The Artist's sole representative in the Nsfc 2011 roster. For the record the other runners-up were Christopher Plummer (Mike Mills' Beginners) and Patton Oswalt (Jason Reitman's Young Adult...
- 1/8/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
"Leonard Retel Helmrich's Position Among the Stars should be essential viewing for anyone curious to know what the rapidly modernizing 'second world' actually looks like," writes Steve Macfarlane in the L: "motorcycles, bootlegged t-shirts, plastic Tupperware containers, cell phones, and scores of dead cockroaches. Indonesia — the fourth biggest country in the world, and the nation with the largest Muslim population — has been the topic of Helmrich's life work, a trilogy of docs culminating here."
This "third documentary about the same Indonesian family is a dazzler in at least a couple ways," adds Seth Colter Walls in the Voice. "First off, it's the rare final chapter in a decade-plus-long saga — a trilogy that also includes 2001's The Eye of the Day and 2004's Shape of the Moon — that you can slide right into without any prior knowledge. There's a brief 'previously in post-Suharto Indonesia' montage at the beginning that draws...
This "third documentary about the same Indonesian family is a dazzler in at least a couple ways," adds Seth Colter Walls in the Voice. "First off, it's the rare final chapter in a decade-plus-long saga — a trilogy that also includes 2001's The Eye of the Day and 2004's Shape of the Moon — that you can slide right into without any prior knowledge. There's a brief 'previously in post-Suharto Indonesia' montage at the beginning that draws...
- 9/15/2011
- MUBI
The September 2011 issue of the Brooklyn Rail is up, featuring Rachael Rakes and Leo Goldsmith's interview with Light Industry's Ed Halter, Anastasiya Osipova on Esfir Shub, "colleague and sometime mentor" of Dziga Vertov and Sergei Eisenstein (for more, see Josh Malitsky in Screening the Past), Polly Bresnick on Eugenio Polgovsky's The Inheritors and Leo Goldsmith's report from Locarno … Mike Everleth dedicates this week's roundup of "Underground Film Links" to George Kuchar … Recently in The Chiseler, an outstanding publication devoted primarily to Depression-era cinema and culture: Imogen Smith on Ann Dvorak, David Cairns on Clarence Wilson and Alice White, and Ken Jacobs on Janet Gaynor … Cliff Robertson was 88.
Image: Janet Gaynor in Sunnyside Up (1929). For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
Image: Janet Gaynor in Sunnyside Up (1929). For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @thedailyMUBI on Twitter and/or the RSS feed....
- 9/11/2011
- MUBI
Director: Sergei Eisenstein Writers: Sergei Eisenstein, Grigori Aleksandrov, Ilya Kravchunovsky, Valeryan Pletnyov Starring: Maksim Shtraukh, Grigori Aleksandrov, Mikhail Gomorov, I. Ivanov, Ivan Klyukvin, Aleksandr Antonov, Yudif Glizer, Boris Yurtsev In 1924, the Proletcult Theater decided to commission a series of eight films; entitled Toward the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, the films were to trace the rise of the Communist Party from the late 19th century to 1917. The director of the Proletcult Theater, Valeryan Pletnyov, invited Sergei Eisenstein to collaborate with him on what was intended to be the fifth film in the series: Strike. The only of the eight films that ever achieved fruition, Eisenstein claimed that Strike was the most significant story of the series because it contained "the most mass action." Clocking in at 82 minutes, Strike was released as Eisenstein's first full-length feature film in 1925 (he made the immortally famous The Battleship Potemkin later in the same year). The...
- 9/8/2011
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
Inspired by the surprisingly successful education expose Waiting for Superman (which is backed by massive marketing dollars for a doc), USA Today lists 11 documentaries that shook the world, that made a big difference in their time. The first five are: 1. Wrecking of the Battleship Maine, Burial of the Maine Victims (1898) Thomas Edison. An "actuality" widely shown to raise public ire and support for the Spanish-American War. 2. Fall of the Romanov Dynasty (1927) Esfir Shub. The first acknowledged compilation film, it traces Russian history from 1913 to 1917, using "home movie" footage of the family of the last Russian czar mixed with images of starving peasants. Useful propaganda for the Soviets. 3. Triumph of the Will (1935) Leni Reifenstahl, Carl Ruttmann. A huge, staged Nazi Party rally on film. Useful ...
- 10/17/2010
- Thompson on Hollywood
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