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
Shrooms.This year’s edition of TIFF Wavelengths opened with an unannounced extra. It was a 1967 film called Standard Time, an eight-minute series of circular pans around an apartment. The camera speeds up and slows down; it pans right, then left, then right again. Later, the film describes a truncated arc, showing one small section of the flat. Then, the camera pans up and down. Living beings can be glimpsed along the way, most notably a cat perched in a window, artist Joyce Wieland, and a surprise visitor at the end. But they are given the same relative attention as the objects in the space: a TV, a stereo, a cooktop, a blender, and a hutch full of china. Which is to say that all things in the field of the camera’s vision are abstracted, turned into pure painterly velocity.Of course, Standard Time is by Michael Snow, a...
- 9/12/2023
- MUBI
The Sparrow Dream (2022).The filmmaker Robert Beavers writes in a notebook every day. In and of itself, this is hardly exceptional; the journals of important artists can be found in plenty of museum archives. But for Beavers, one of whose major works is entitled From the Notebook of… (1971/1998), the practice is very much part of the films themselves. The act of writing also appears frequently in the films proper, including shots of his tidy and elegant script, and the closely-miked sound of scribbling. The notebook is a space where his artistic impulses are worked out, and a surface on which his thoughts and sensations are inscribed. Take this entry, from April 1, 1998, as Beavers was re-editing Notebook: “First reel is nearly complete. Has it already become too cluttered, too heavy? The only moment of delight is when the bird’s wings are heard with the view of the camera shutter in action.
- 3/24/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThe Act of Killing. Though he’s known for nonfiction, Joshua Oppenheimer just began production on a musical about the end of the world, fittingly called The End. Filming now in Dublin, it stars Tilda Swinton and George Mackay, via the production company’s website.After 23 years, A.O. Scott is stepping away from film criticism at the New York Times, transitioning to a new role as a critic at large for the Book Review. He conducts his own exit interview.In comedy news, Safdie muse and Razzie record-breaker Adam Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this week in Washington, D.C.Finally, we’re thinking of the character actor Lance Reddick this week, who died suddenly last Friday at...
- 3/22/2023
- MUBI
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Tod Browning’s dark world brings the likes of Freaks and Dracula, while the newly restored Drylongso starts screening. (Read our interview with director Cauleen Smith here.)
IFC Center
The Dardenne brothers are subject of a career-spanning retrospective, with L’Enfant, The Kid with a Bike, and Lorna’s Silence showing on 35mm; Fight Club, Akira, Jaws, Times Square, and Poison Ivy have late screenings.
Film Forum
Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 begins a run; a Jeanne Moreau retrospective highlights her three, rarely screened directing efforts; Lou Ye’s Suzhou River continues showing in a 4K restoration, while The Conformist returns; Selena plays this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
Dressed to Kill, Chabrol’s The Champagne Murders, Minnie and Moskowitz, Belly, and Synecdoche, New York have 35mm showings.
Museum of the Moving Image
With First Look underway,...
Film at Lincoln Center
A retrospective of Tod Browning’s dark world brings the likes of Freaks and Dracula, while the newly restored Drylongso starts screening. (Read our interview with director Cauleen Smith here.)
IFC Center
The Dardenne brothers are subject of a career-spanning retrospective, with L’Enfant, The Kid with a Bike, and Lorna’s Silence showing on 35mm; Fight Club, Akira, Jaws, Times Square, and Poison Ivy have late screenings.
Film Forum
Ken Loach’s The Spirit of ’45 begins a run; a Jeanne Moreau retrospective highlights her three, rarely screened directing efforts; Lou Ye’s Suzhou River continues showing in a 4K restoration, while The Conformist returns; Selena plays this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
Dressed to Kill, Chabrol’s The Champagne Murders, Minnie and Moskowitz, Belly, and Synecdoche, New York have 35mm showings.
Museum of the Moving Image
With First Look underway,...
- 3/17/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
We speak with Sompot Chidgasompongse about Railway Sleepers, trains, Thailand, his collaboration with Weerasethakul and many other topics
Tell us a bit about the British you talk to at the end of the film. The dialogues seemed kind of surrealistic.
It’s getting late at night, and you start to talk about your past, about your life. But then the morning comes, and you’re not sure if you were dreaming or not. The British character was constructed from real historical figures who have worked on Thai trains since the very beginning. They are all dead by now, so I needed to re-create the character. The dialogues were also based on actual academic studies, historical research, oral-histories, diaries of many people. I wanted to create a dreamlike feeling where you cannot be sure what is real and what is not. History is also like that.
You have collaborated with Apichatpong Weerasethakul a number of times,...
Tell us a bit about the British you talk to at the end of the film. The dialogues seemed kind of surrealistic.
It’s getting late at night, and you start to talk about your past, about your life. But then the morning comes, and you’re not sure if you were dreaming or not. The British character was constructed from real historical figures who have worked on Thai trains since the very beginning. They are all dead by now, so I needed to re-create the character. The dialogues were also based on actual academic studies, historical research, oral-histories, diaries of many people. I wanted to create a dreamlike feeling where you cannot be sure what is real and what is not. History is also like that.
You have collaborated with Apichatpong Weerasethakul a number of times,...
- 7/12/2020
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Above: Una película en colorAlongside the anticipated premieres in the Tiger Competition and the wide selection of new and recent features by an array of international filmmakers of varying renown, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) boasts perhaps the most robust shorts lineup of any of the major film festivals. As with many of the best films at Iffr, however, finding the hidden gems amidst the festival’s enormous program can be a challenge—though judging by the receptive audiences at most of the shorts programs I’ve attended over the years, it’s one people are willing to accept. With little hierarchy within or across the individual programs—good films are slotted in right alongside bad ones; shorts competing for prizes are no more apt to be interesting than those presented in noncompetitive categories—the Rotterdam shorts cast a wide net by design; often all one’s left with...
- 4/7/2020
- MUBI
A group of international films that seem partially united by the theme of global awareness, this program is more of a mixed bag than most. Sadly, I was unable to preview the first film in the show, 2minutes40seconds, by Han Ok-hee. It’s from 1975, and it is a rare screening of work by the Kaidu Club, a feminist experimental film collective from South Korea. Considering just how little Korean avant-garde film gets screened at all, much less from the seventies, I’d say Han’s film is a categorical must-see.Hrvoji, Look at Your From the TowerRyan Ferko has presented a number of films in festivals past, although those previous entries have been co-directed by Faraz and Parastoo Anoushahpour. They are both listed in the credits of Hrvoji as collaborators, but Ferko is credited as the sole filmmaker, and this in itself is intriguing. Although the trio's films have been quite impressive,...
- 9/9/2019
- MUBI
At the Berlinale, the place to be surprised by the best kind of nonfiction films is clearly the Forum, which has festival highlights The Waldheim Waltz and Jamila and now has premiered a highly unusual sports documentary by Julien Faraut. In the Realm of Perfection uses remarkable footage shot on 16mm as part of an ongoing research project by director Gil de Kermadec that focused on the French Open as a way to study the movement and play of tennis players. Faraut sets up this context and lets us revel in the footage shot the early and mid-1980s as the sport and its broadcast was changing. He connects the recordings to early cinema studies of the mysteries of human movement captured in film’s frame-by-frame detail and vouchsafes the analysis as cinematic by using Cahiers du cinéma critic and Trafic magazine founder Serge Daney’s brilliant writing on tennis as occasional commentary.
- 2/20/2018
- MUBI
Dani Leventhal's PlatonicThis review, I think, might best be understood as an example of “slow criticism.” This is a term coined by Filmkrant editor Dana Linssen to describe “wayward articles,” ones that have a personal or political element that is somehow not timely. We can imagine that the reverse of this is “fast criticism,” the up-to-the-minute report from a film festival, the 140-character response tweeted out the minute the first press screening is over. These thoughts are not timely. The Whitney Biennial closed on June 11th, and the film program screened its final program on May 21st. So although I expect many of these films to have a life long after their appearance at the Whitney, I am not providing any kind of late-breaking news flash from the film or art world by writing about these works in this forum.But in a way, that is the point. Even...
- 8/1/2017
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveriesNEWSSexy DurgaThe Hivos Tiger Awards of the International Film Festival Rotterdam have been announced, with Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Sexy Durga taking home the Tiger, Niles Atallah's Rey winning the Special Jury Award, and Caroline Leone's Pela janela being picked by Fipresci.New York's Whitney Museum has revealed its full film program for the 2017 Biennial, with a focus on such filmmakers as Mary Helena Clark, James N. Kienitz Wilkins, Kevin Jerome Everson, Eric Baudelaire and Robert Beavers.Recommended VIEWINGThe eagerly awaited trailer for Sofia Coppola's new film, a remake of Don Siegel's bizarre and wonderful The Beguiled, with Colin Farrell in Clint Eastwood's role.The glorious full trailer for James Gray's Amazonia exploration melodrama, The Lost City of Z."The screen is a neutral element in the film-going experience. Or is it? It projects dreams...
- 2/8/2017
- MUBI
NEWSAndrzej WajdaJust under a month since his latest film, Afterimage, received its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, the great Polish director Andrzej Wajda (Ashes and Diamonds, Man of Marble) has died at the age of 90.How precious two minutes of film can be! The Czech national film archives have identified a previously lost film by Georges Méliès, says The Guardian: "The two-minute silent film Match de Prestidigitation (“conjuring contest”) from 1904 was found on a reel given to the archives by an anonymous donor, labelled as another film."The digital home of films in the Criterion Collection have moved around over the years, and, as of October 19, will find a new access point as an add-on subscription to Turner's new streaming service, FilmStruck. The service launches October 19.French director F.J. Ossang has surprisingly turned to crowdfunding to finish his new feature, 9 Doigts ("9 Fingers"). Shot in black and white 35 mm,...
- 10/12/2016
- MUBI
The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the complete lineup for the Projections section of the 54th New York Film Festival. Heading into its third year, the annual celebration will take place October 7 through October 9 and include 44 films in 11 programs with 10 world premieres, five North American premieres and 13 U.S. premieres.
The slate features “experimental narratives, avant-garde poetics, crossovers into documentary and ethnographic realms, and contemporary art practices,” per the festival’s press release. The Projections section will bring together a diverse offering of short, medium, and feature-length work by some of today’s most vital and groundbreaking visual artists.
Read More: Nyff Reveals Main Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Paterson’ and ‘Personal Shopper’
Among the films which will be highlighted is Eduardo Williams’s “The Human Surge,” winner of the top prize in Locarno’s 2016 Filmmakers of the Present section and called “the most ambitious...
The slate features “experimental narratives, avant-garde poetics, crossovers into documentary and ethnographic realms, and contemporary art practices,” per the festival’s press release. The Projections section will bring together a diverse offering of short, medium, and feature-length work by some of today’s most vital and groundbreaking visual artists.
Read More: Nyff Reveals Main Slate of 2016 Titles, Including ‘Manchester By the Sea,’ ‘Paterson’ and ‘Personal Shopper’
Among the films which will be highlighted is Eduardo Williams’s “The Human Surge,” winner of the top prize in Locarno’s 2016 Filmmakers of the Present section and called “the most ambitious...
- 8/17/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
As with their Convergence section, the New York Film Festival offers an expanded view of the current cinema with yet another installment in their Projections series, a showcase of recent developments in and classic examples of experimental work from around the globe. These are hard to pin down as fitting particular types, and the only qualifier I can give is that whatever I manage to see from Projections stands as some of the most fascinating, enriching work I encounter at Nyff every given year.
I’m particularly excited about a few things here: two new Nathaniel Dorsky shorts, for one thing, and The Human Surge, a Locarno title and recent Tiff selection that we (positively!) assessed as being “pretty much a film that, by nature, is unlovable.” But that’s a very small pack that stands out, not least of which is because they have individual program slots. Read a...
I’m particularly excited about a few things here: two new Nathaniel Dorsky shorts, for one thing, and The Human Surge, a Locarno title and recent Tiff selection that we (positively!) assessed as being “pretty much a film that, by nature, is unlovable.” But that’s a very small pack that stands out, not least of which is because they have individual program slots. Read a...
- 8/17/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Youth On The MARCHThere are 48 individual films screening in the Wavelengths section of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. The relative importance of this section, amidst the vast array of offerings in this relatively huge festival, depends on your taste in movies, of course, to say nothing of your specific objectives. If you’re coming to Toronto to try to score a hot tip in this year’s Oscar race, well . . . I feel sorry for you on a number of levels. But Wavelengths is unlikely to be your jam. Originally conceived exclusively as a showcase for experimental and non-narrative films (hence the section’s title, a direct tribute to avant-garde master and Toronto native son Michael Snow), Wavelengths now encompasses the edgier, less commercial side of art cinema. This is the first of two preview essays, and my aim is to cover everything in the section. These are the...
- 9/12/2015
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
L.M. Kit Carson, the Texan film legend best known for David Holzman's Diary, has passed away at the age of 73. For Filmmaker Magazine, Vadim Rizov gathers some valuable insight from Fabrice Aragno, the cinematographer of Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au langage. Eric Hynes provides an excellent and authentic New Yorker take on Gangs of New York for Reverse Shot's Martin Scorsese Symposium. Above: we're disappointed to hear that Paul Schrader's latest film has been essentially taken out of his hands—in response the filmmaker has disowned the picture. For Film Comment, Violet Lucca interviews Ruben Östlund about his acclaimed film, Force majeure:
"Lucca: Like your previous work, Force Majeure is intended to foster a philosophical debate about what human behavior means or implies. Do you envision that being more of an internal process, or do you want people to talk it out?
ÖStlund: Yeah, in a group.
"Lucca: Like your previous work, Force Majeure is intended to foster a philosophical debate about what human behavior means or implies. Do you envision that being more of an internal process, or do you want people to talk it out?
ÖStlund: Yeah, in a group.
- 10/21/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
In today's roundup of news and views: David Phelps on Robert Beavers, Richard Kelly on Brad Bird and Ratatouille, Todd Haynes on his forthcoming Carol with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, a new short story by Tom Hanks, Glenn Heath Jr. on David Mackenzie, an interview with Mike Hoolboom, more from Reverse Shot on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny on Bill Morrison, Julianne Moore's interview with Sarah Paulson, Charles Isherwood on a play about Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler writing Double Indemnity, Richard Brody on Alain Resnais's Muriel, remembering Oscar de la Renta, Misty Upham and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/21/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: David Phelps on Robert Beavers, Richard Kelly on Brad Bird and Ratatouille, Todd Haynes on his forthcoming Carol with Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara, a new short story by Tom Hanks, Glenn Heath Jr. on David Mackenzie, an interview with Mike Hoolboom, more from Reverse Shot on Martin Scorsese, Glenn Kenny on Bill Morrison, Julianne Moore's interview with Sarah Paulson, Charles Isherwood on a play about Billy Wilder and Raymond Chandler writing Double Indemnity, Richard Brody on Alain Resnais's Muriel, remembering Oscar de la Renta, Misty Upham and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/21/2014
- Keyframe
What follows is a highly selective, unavoidably partial guide to the Wavelengths section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, which kicks off today. Perhaps it seems that “selective” and “partial” are synonymous enough to produce redundancy when placed within the same sentence, and in most instances I would agree with this objection. In the first case, "selective," I will note that, of the 28 shorts and features that I was able to preview from the Wavelengths section (impeccably curated, as always, by the perspicacious Andréa Picard), I have chosen to highlight the fifteen that I personally found most aesthetically and intellectually bold, invigo(u)rating, troubling, critical-verbiage-thwarting, or otherwise worthy of hearty recommendation. This in no way implies that the other works were somehow lacking, only that I could not see my way through to them at this particular time and place. A different set of viewing circumstances (the ones you’re about to embark upon,...
- 9/10/2014
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
Above: Two Museums
After war comes peace. It isn't all cinematic onslaught found in the festival's shelter from constantly surprising drizzle. There is a sweet serenity to be found at Rotterdam, if you know where to go looking, or if you are lucky enough to stumble into the darkness and discover it.
Certainly the retrospective on Heinz Emigholz is a continued source of tranquil power—excepting for the moment the horrors of D'Annunzio's Cave and the abbrasive modernist of his lone fiction film here, The Holy Bunch (1991). His curious gaze, absolutely synonymous with that of the camera and thus while cooly analytic, also absolutely personal, investigates modern architecture with a fleet-footed patience that is remarkable to behold.
In such films as Sullivan's Banks (2000), on American architect Louis H. Sullivan's stalwartly solid, guardedly precious Midwestern, early 20th century banks, and Two Museums, a new premiere discovering, among many other things, the...
After war comes peace. It isn't all cinematic onslaught found in the festival's shelter from constantly surprising drizzle. There is a sweet serenity to be found at Rotterdam, if you know where to go looking, or if you are lucky enough to stumble into the darkness and discover it.
Certainly the retrospective on Heinz Emigholz is a continued source of tranquil power—excepting for the moment the horrors of D'Annunzio's Cave and the abbrasive modernist of his lone fiction film here, The Holy Bunch (1991). His curious gaze, absolutely synonymous with that of the camera and thus while cooly analytic, also absolutely personal, investigates modern architecture with a fleet-footed patience that is remarkable to behold.
In such films as Sullivan's Banks (2000), on American architect Louis H. Sullivan's stalwartly solid, guardedly precious Midwestern, early 20th century banks, and Two Museums, a new premiere discovering, among many other things, the...
- 1/31/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
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
Above: a publicity image from Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision.
My dear Fern,
I'd like to tell you today about a few films I don't think you had the chance to see. How strange that with what I'd like to think are similar tastes and sensibilities, that let loose in a playground for those very things, we sometimes take such divergent paths? I suppose that's what I was getting at in my first letter to you. Are these our choices, or fate...or perhaps a bit of both? Miyazaki's wind? Towards the end of the festival, I saw you at more movies, which seems to heighten my critical faculties, being under pressure to compete against your utterly apt and evocative wordplay! I must admit, it is somewhat a relief to know that you want to write about something that I liked (the Gomes short, The Strange Little Cat,...
My dear Fern,
I'd like to tell you today about a few films I don't think you had the chance to see. How strange that with what I'd like to think are similar tastes and sensibilities, that let loose in a playground for those very things, we sometimes take such divergent paths? I suppose that's what I was getting at in my first letter to you. Are these our choices, or fate...or perhaps a bit of both? Miyazaki's wind? Towards the end of the festival, I saw you at more movies, which seems to heighten my critical faculties, being under pressure to compete against your utterly apt and evocative wordplay! I must admit, it is somewhat a relief to know that you want to write about something that I liked (the Gomes short, The Strange Little Cat,...
- 9/17/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Nb: Films by Robert Beavers, Peter Hutton, and Luther Price were unavailable for preview. However, I said some very nice things about these men and their work in general over at The Dissolve.
In years past, I have attempted to present this extended article as a preview; my aim has been to send it off into the world either the day before of the day of Tiff's kick-off. That has proven impossible this year, and, dear reader, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee... But the fact that Wavelengths is a beat that is becoming harder and harder for one person to adequately cover is undoubtedly a sign of good health. Since last year, when Tiff enfolded the former Visions section (a space for formally adventurous narrative features) into Wavelengths (Tiff's experimental showcase), not only has interest in the section grown exponentially. The section can now more fully reflect...
In years past, I have attempted to present this extended article as a preview; my aim has been to send it off into the world either the day before of the day of Tiff's kick-off. That has proven impossible this year, and, dear reader, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee... But the fact that Wavelengths is a beat that is becoming harder and harder for one person to adequately cover is undoubtedly a sign of good health. Since last year, when Tiff enfolded the former Visions section (a space for formally adventurous narrative features) into Wavelengths (Tiff's experimental showcase), not only has interest in the section grown exponentially. The section can now more fully reflect...
- 9/9/2013
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
The 38th Toronto International Film Festival has released an incredible guest list of celebrated talent from around the globe. Filmmakers expected to present their world premieres in Toronto include: Catherine Breillat, Nicole Garcia, Pawel Pawlikowski, Bertrand Tavernier, Steve McQueen, Godfrey Reggio, Denis Villeneuve, Bill Condon, Jean-Marc Vallée, John Wells, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade, Atom Egoyan, Matthew Weiner, John Carney, Jason Reitman, Jason Bateman, Yorgos Servetas, Liza Johnson, Megan Griffiths, Fernando Eimbcke, Alexey Uchitel, Johnny Ma, Biyi Bandele, Rashid Masharawi, Paul Haggis, Ron Howard, Eli Roth, Álex de la Iglesia, Bruce McDonald, Jennifer Baichwal, John Ridley, and Justin Chadwick.
The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.
The following filmmakers and artists are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Ahmad Abdalla, Hany Abu-Assad, Yuval Adler, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Alexandre Aja, Bruce Alcock, Gianni Amelio, Thanos Anastopoulos, Madeline Anderson, Nimród Antal, Louise Archambault,...
The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.
The following filmmakers and artists are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Ahmad Abdalla, Hany Abu-Assad, Yuval Adler, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Alexandre Aja, Bruce Alcock, Gianni Amelio, Thanos Anastopoulos, Madeline Anderson, Nimród Antal, Louise Archambault,...
- 8/21/2013
- by Ricky
- SoundOnSight
Programmer Andrea Picard can do no wrong. From the compiled short and medium film offerings (see listing below for huge sampling of renowned world auteurs) to the latest from Tsai Ming-liang, Ben Wheatley (Karlovy Vary winner A Field In England), Albert Serra (Locarno debuted Story Of My Death), Wang Bing and that Rotterdam offering that we never thought we’d have the chance to see from Cristi Puiu, the ’13 edition of the Wavelenths programme is for those who need a little spunk in their cinema.
Of the titles that additionally caught our attention we have the Locarno preemed A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, the world premiere of (see pic above) La ultíma película – by Raya Martin and Cinemascope/Locarno programmer Mark Peranson (making his feature debut), Into Great Silence docu-helmer Philip Gröning’s The Police Officer’s Wife and a title that...
Of the titles that additionally caught our attention we have the Locarno preemed A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness by Ben Rivers and Ben Russell, the world premiere of (see pic above) La ultíma película – by Raya Martin and Cinemascope/Locarno programmer Mark Peranson (making his feature debut), Into Great Silence docu-helmer Philip Gröning’s The Police Officer’s Wife and a title that...
- 8/13/2013
- by admin
- IONCINEMA.com
Rithy Panh’s Un Certain Regard winner takes its place alongside Ben Wheatley’s A Field In England and new films from Canada’s Stephen Broomer and Chris Kennedy in the Wavelengths section.
The selection of short, medium-length and feature work includes Caroline Strubbe’s I’m The Same, I’m An Other; Raya Martin and Mark Peranson’s La Ultima Pelicula; and Albert Serra’s Story Of My Death.
The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from Sept 5-15.
Wp = World premiere
IP = International premiere
Np = North American premiere
Cp = Canadian premiere
Tp = Toronto premiere
Short Film PROGRAMMESWavelengths 1: Variations On…Variations On A Cellophane Wrapper David Rimmer (Restoration courtesy of Academy Film Archive) (Canada)Pop Takes Luther Price (Us)Airship Kenneth Anger (Us)El Adios Largos Andrew Lampert (Mexico-us)The Realist Scott Stark (Us)Wavelengths 2: Now & ThenInstants Hannes Schüpbach (Switzerland)Pepper’s Ghost Stephen Broomer (Canada)Man In Motion, 2012 (Homme En Mouvement...
The selection of short, medium-length and feature work includes Caroline Strubbe’s I’m The Same, I’m An Other; Raya Martin and Mark Peranson’s La Ultima Pelicula; and Albert Serra’s Story Of My Death.
The Toronto International Film Festival is set to run from Sept 5-15.
Wp = World premiere
IP = International premiere
Np = North American premiere
Cp = Canadian premiere
Tp = Toronto premiere
Short Film PROGRAMMESWavelengths 1: Variations On…Variations On A Cellophane Wrapper David Rimmer (Restoration courtesy of Academy Film Archive) (Canada)Pop Takes Luther Price (Us)Airship Kenneth Anger (Us)El Adios Largos Andrew Lampert (Mexico-us)The Realist Scott Stark (Us)Wavelengths 2: Now & ThenInstants Hannes Schüpbach (Switzerland)Pepper’s Ghost Stephen Broomer (Canada)Man In Motion, 2012 (Homme En Mouvement...
- 8/13/2013
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Floating Cinema 2013: Extra-ordinary | A Weekend Of Anger: The Films Of Kenneth Anger | Robert Beavers | Brighton's Big Screen/The Duke's at Lewes House
The Floating Cinema 2013: Extra-ordinary, London
This cinema will come to you, if you're situated alongside a London canal. It's an appealing initiative, which began last year but returns with a new design, converting an old industrial barge into an eclectic touring show. You can step on to the boat for an intimate show of specially commissioned works and Michael Smith's new film about the River Lea plays later this month. There's also a horror weekend at Granary Square in King's Cross (9 & 10 Aug), and a fancy-dress screening of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie outside 3 Mills Studio, where it was made (23 Aug).
Various venues, Sat to 30 Sep
A Weekend Of Anger: The Films Of Kenneth Anger, London
That Anger is considered a pioneer of both salacious celebrity...
The Floating Cinema 2013: Extra-ordinary, London
This cinema will come to you, if you're situated alongside a London canal. It's an appealing initiative, which began last year but returns with a new design, converting an old industrial barge into an eclectic touring show. You can step on to the boat for an intimate show of specially commissioned works and Michael Smith's new film about the River Lea plays later this month. There's also a horror weekend at Granary Square in King's Cross (9 & 10 Aug), and a fancy-dress screening of Tim Burton's Frankenweenie outside 3 Mills Studio, where it was made (23 Aug).
Various venues, Sat to 30 Sep
A Weekend Of Anger: The Films Of Kenneth Anger, London
That Anger is considered a pioneer of both salacious celebrity...
- 7/27/2013
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
September is here again, and it's time to delve into the cinematic bounty of the Wavelengths section of the Toronto International Film Festival, that rambunctious and idiosyncratic corner of the Reitman Machine largely cordoned off from commercial concerns and set aside for lovely and sometimes difficult film art. Despite the ever-changing profile of Tiff, stalwart programmer Andréa Picard has [cue needle-scratching-record sound] What? Yes, last year at this time, the avant-garde community thought we were seeing Ms. Picard leaving this position behind. Fortunately for us all, Tiff won her back.
And this is where things get interesting. Starting with this 2012 edition of the festival, the Wavelengths section is a much more broadly based, festival-wide category. In essence, it now subsumes the old Visions designation, which was Tiff’s home for formally challenging, feature-length arthouse fare. This merger, which may seem like a bit of a shotgun wedding to some, does in fact make sense.
And this is where things get interesting. Starting with this 2012 edition of the festival, the Wavelengths section is a much more broadly based, festival-wide category. In essence, it now subsumes the old Visions designation, which was Tiff’s home for formally challenging, feature-length arthouse fare. This merger, which may seem like a bit of a shotgun wedding to some, does in fact make sense.
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
Temple of Schlock has the skeevy ad mat for 1977′s Too Hot to Handle, of which I’ve appropriated part of the image just because I think the site needs a half-naked lady on it today.
More stories about the films and filmmakers at Migrating Forms this week: CinemaScope on Ben Rivers and Sylvain George; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raul Ruiz; and n+1 on Harun Farocki.
Courtney Sell writes about his inaugural AssDance Film Festival.
Cartoonist Sam Henderson reprints an old review of his of Robert Downey Sr.’s Up the Academy, a film I really want to see again and see if deserves the maligning it typically gets.
Robert Koehler has several dispatches from the Post-Sarkozy Cannes: Moonrise Kingdom; After the Battle; Rust & Bone; Mekong Hotel; Paradise: Love.
The always awesome J. J. Murphy reviews Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine, saying “the real surprise turns out to be...
More stories about the films and filmmakers at Migrating Forms this week: CinemaScope on Ben Rivers and Sylvain George; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raul Ruiz; and n+1 on Harun Farocki.
Courtney Sell writes about his inaugural AssDance Film Festival.
Cartoonist Sam Henderson reprints an old review of his of Robert Downey Sr.’s Up the Academy, a film I really want to see again and see if deserves the maligning it typically gets.
Robert Koehler has several dispatches from the Post-Sarkozy Cannes: Moonrise Kingdom; After the Battle; Rust & Bone; Mekong Hotel; Paradise: Love.
The always awesome J. J. Murphy reviews Amy Seimetz’s Sun Don’t Shine, saying “the real surprise turns out to be...
- 5/20/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
In the 1980's the Greek-American filmmaker Gregory Markopoulos began showing his decades of experimental film work in a remote area of the Greek Pelopenesse he called the Temenos. The Greek meaning for the word Temenos is "a piece of land set apart." Markopoulos screened his career's work with new work from his partner, the filmmaker Robert Beavers. During the 1960's, Markopoulos took off from the U.S. to head to Europe, removing himself from the New American Cinema movement that he and his films ("Du Sang, de la volupté, et de la mort," "Swain," and "The Illiac Passion") had helped constitute, along with Jack Smith, Andy Warhol and others. He made the move with Beavers, who now manages the Temenos Archives in Switzerland that house Markopoulos's body of work and his own films. In 1992, Markopoulos passed away, and since 2004, Beavers has been heading to the Temenos every four years to.
- 5/18/2012
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
Toronto’s Images Festival celebrates it’s 25th anniversary on April 12-21 at theaters, galleries and other venues all over the city. They are celebrating with a massive event with films and videos, live performances, installations, artist talks and other events.
Below is the lineup for Images’ specific film screening events and some live performances. The fest’s Opening Night film is John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, which takes a poetic look at the immigrant experience, particularly through using images of Caribbean and African migrants in the 1950s and ’60s.
The fest will close with a live score by alt-rock band Yo La Tengo accompanying the avant-garde scientific underwater films by French documentary filmmaker Jean Painlevé. Yo La Tengo has been performing “Sounds of Science” since they were commissioned for the project by the San Francisco Film Festival in 2001.
In between these two events is a lineup of feature-length experimental works,...
Below is the lineup for Images’ specific film screening events and some live performances. The fest’s Opening Night film is John Akomfrah’s The Nine Muses, which takes a poetic look at the immigrant experience, particularly through using images of Caribbean and African migrants in the 1950s and ’60s.
The fest will close with a live score by alt-rock band Yo La Tengo accompanying the avant-garde scientific underwater films by French documentary filmmaker Jean Painlevé. Yo La Tengo has been performing “Sounds of Science” since they were commissioned for the project by the San Francisco Film Festival in 2001.
In between these two events is a lineup of feature-length experimental works,...
- 4/9/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
The Miners' Hymns (2011) is "an elegant, elegiac found-footage work from Bill Morrison, best known for his silent-film reverie Decasia," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "A miner himself of a type, Mr Morrison has dug into the archives of the likes of the British Film Institute to cull primarily black-and-white images so rich, so alive with dirty faces, shadows and the occasional pit pony that they resurrect a world that for many has long been lost to history." It screens from today through Tuesday at Film Forum with three of Morrison's shorts, previewed by Cinespect's Ryan Wells. Release (2010) "uses found footage of the 1930 release of Al Capone from Philadelphia's Eastern State Penitentiary," while Outerborough (2005) "gorgeously catches a ride on a trolley making its voyage across the Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan. Morrison gives us a split screen with two perspectives: a camera facing Brooklyn, another looking back at Manhattan.
- 2/9/2012
- MUBI
The BFI London Film Festival opens tonight with Fernando Meirelles's 360 and closes on October 27 with Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea (and you can read a roundup on both films at once right here). Sight & Sound presents a guide to "30 fine films we've already seen and (mostly) written about in the magazine or on the web" and Time Out London has set up a microsite currently featuring reviews of at least as many titles.
"When Sandra Hebron took over as artistic director of the BFI London Film Festival nine years ago, it was a more subdued affair," recalls David Gritten, "a thoughtful, well-meaning event at the National Film Theatre, primarily for the benefit of the paying public, and showcasing the best new movies from all over the world. While respected, its international profile was relatively low. Today, it's a very different creature. This year, its 55th as a festival,...
"When Sandra Hebron took over as artistic director of the BFI London Film Festival nine years ago, it was a more subdued affair," recalls David Gritten, "a thoughtful, well-meaning event at the National Film Theatre, primarily for the benefit of the paying public, and showcasing the best new movies from all over the world. While respected, its international profile was relatively low. Today, it's a very different creature. This year, its 55th as a festival,...
- 10/12/2011
- MUBI
This year's Experimenta at the Lff is full of fascinating, taboo-busting and just plain beautiful films, says curator Mark Webber
Curating experimental work for a film festival that prides itself on attracting the broadest possible audience is not without its challenges. "I used to go screenings and people would be yawning or you'd hear witty comments like 'Has it started yet?'," says Mark Webber, who programmes for the London film festival's Experimenta strand. "You get nervous about showing challenging work because of that kind of reaction. But it was always a bit of a mission of mine to reach people who wouldn't normally encounter this sort of film. At the Lff, there are certain people who follow this work regularly but a lot of it is that nebulous festival audience we don't see throughout the year. But people who come to these screenings seem to be receptive. They stay...
Curating experimental work for a film festival that prides itself on attracting the broadest possible audience is not without its challenges. "I used to go screenings and people would be yawning or you'd hear witty comments like 'Has it started yet?'," says Mark Webber, who programmes for the London film festival's Experimenta strand. "You get nervous about showing challenging work because of that kind of reaction. But it was always a bit of a mission of mine to reach people who wouldn't normally encounter this sort of film. At the Lff, there are certain people who follow this work regularly but a lot of it is that nebulous festival audience we don't see throughout the year. But people who come to these screenings seem to be receptive. They stay...
- 9/27/2011
- by Ben Walters
- The Guardian - Film News
Jan. 24
8:30 p.m.
Redcat Theater
631 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted by: Redcat
Barbara Hammer will be in attendance to present two of her recent movies: Generations (2010) and A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (2009). Both films run about a half-hour each.
With a filmmaking career that spans over 40 years, Hammer is a true pioneer of queer cinema and is still going strong making films and recently writing her autobiography Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life.
As an ovarian cancer survivor — or a cancer “thriver” as she likes to call herself — Hammer made A Horse Is Not a Metaphor about her intense chemotherapy treatments. The film is a return to her experimental filmmaking roots and features bold images of herself aligning with the freedom and power of the animal spirit. Her official website describes the film as such:
‘Survivor’ has never seemed to me to be the...
8:30 p.m.
Redcat Theater
631 W. 2nd St.
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted by: Redcat
Barbara Hammer will be in attendance to present two of her recent movies: Generations (2010) and A Horse Is Not a Metaphor (2009). Both films run about a half-hour each.
With a filmmaking career that spans over 40 years, Hammer is a true pioneer of queer cinema and is still going strong making films and recently writing her autobiography Hammer! Making Movies Out of Sex and Life.
As an ovarian cancer survivor — or a cancer “thriver” as she likes to call herself — Hammer made A Horse Is Not a Metaphor about her intense chemotherapy treatments. The film is a return to her experimental filmmaking roots and features bold images of herself aligning with the freedom and power of the animal spirit. Her official website describes the film as such:
‘Survivor’ has never seemed to me to be the...
- 1/21/2011
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Jan. 16
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Hosted by: L.A. Filmforum
This is one of several screenings happening around Los Angeles in support of the recently published book Radical Light: Alternative Film And Video In The San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000, edited by Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid.
This particular event will run about 78 minutes and include nine short films by Bay Area experimental filmmakers such as Greta Snider, Dominic Angerame, Gunvor Nelson, Jay Rosenblatt and more. The full lineup of films is below and all prints are provided by the legendary S.F. distributor Canyon Cinema.
Curators Steve Anker and Kathy Geritz, as well as filmmakers Timoleon Wilkins and Cauleen Smith, who have films in the program, will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.
For some background on these two particular time periods represented at this screening, here are descriptions from the L.
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90028
Hosted by: L.A. Filmforum
This is one of several screenings happening around Los Angeles in support of the recently published book Radical Light: Alternative Film And Video In The San Francisco Bay Area, 1945–2000, edited by Steve Anker, Kathy Geritz and Steve Seid.
This particular event will run about 78 minutes and include nine short films by Bay Area experimental filmmakers such as Greta Snider, Dominic Angerame, Gunvor Nelson, Jay Rosenblatt and more. The full lineup of films is below and all prints are provided by the legendary S.F. distributor Canyon Cinema.
Curators Steve Anker and Kathy Geritz, as well as filmmakers Timoleon Wilkins and Cauleen Smith, who have films in the program, will be in attendance for a post-screening discussion.
For some background on these two particular time periods represented at this screening, here are descriptions from the L.
- 1/14/2011
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
June 6
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted by: L.A. Filmforum
It’s fantastic that Criterion has put out a second volume of films by legendary underground filmmaker Stan Brakage and have released both of their Brakhage collections in a single Blu-ray package. These releases mean a much wider audience will be introduced to the work of one of the most unique, daring and provocative filmmakers in American history.
However, Brakhage’s films have always been meant to be seen in their original form: On film. So, in conjunction with the Criterion releases, curator Mark Toscano has chosen a small selection of films that appear on By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume Two and will be screening them in their original 16mm format. Film prints are from the Academy Film Archive and Canyon Cinema; and Toscano will appear in person to discuss Brakhage’s work.
7:30 p.m.
Egyptian Theater
6712 Hollywood Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA
Hosted by: L.A. Filmforum
It’s fantastic that Criterion has put out a second volume of films by legendary underground filmmaker Stan Brakage and have released both of their Brakhage collections in a single Blu-ray package. These releases mean a much wider audience will be introduced to the work of one of the most unique, daring and provocative filmmakers in American history.
However, Brakhage’s films have always been meant to be seen in their original form: On film. So, in conjunction with the Criterion releases, curator Mark Toscano has chosen a small selection of films that appear on By Brakhage: An Anthology, Volume Two and will be screening them in their original 16mm format. Film prints are from the Academy Film Archive and Canyon Cinema; and Toscano will appear in person to discuss Brakhage’s work.
- 6/1/2010
- by screenings
- Underground Film Journal
Fortuity provides an intriguing thematic segue. Brushing up on my Val Lewton research in anticipation of Pfa's Complicated Shadows series, I came across a brief mention at The Val Lewton Screenplay Collection--a fantastic resource for Lewton fans--that, allegedly, Val Lewton drafted a 400-page treatment of Nikolai Gogol's historical novel Taras Bulba. I have no idea if this has anything to do with the 1962 film Taras Bulba--whose screenplay adaptation is attributed to Waldo Salt and Karl Tunberg--but, nonetheless, this bit of trivia caught my attention because no less than a week or so ago Federico Windhausen--who I met at Susan Oxtoby's reception for Robert Beavers--contacted me to let me know that he had recently completed a documentary on the making of the 1962 film, Taras Bulba, which he advised had been filmed in--of all places--Salta, Argentina.
...
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- 2/2/2010
- Screen Anarchy
It's a low thing to rankle an avant-garde film of little talent and patronizing intentions that'll never be seen again anyway, but I'll maintain it's a lower thing for any filmmaker to rankle the few people who actually see the thing with the lordly righteousness of a 2nd grader showing off the multiplication table. The New York Film Festival's Views from the Avant-Garde, packed with more dross than it has been in years, was full of such patronizing. One left up to one's knees in five hours of pornography for the well-trained eye, three hours of screen-saver visualizations, and six hours of explicit doctrines of grim-faced lecturers with nothing but a thesis to lecture on, some easily decoded photos to illustrate it, and the same old lack of awareness that what they're actually proselytizing is more doctrine of good and evil–“identification is a ritual,” “the exploiter never tells the...
- 10/29/2009
- MUBI
With the calendar for the San Francisco Cinematheque Fall program officially announced, I’m reminded of the great job Executive Director Jonathan Marlow has done in breathing life into the institution and how he has singlehandedly trained my focus towards experimental cinema. I’ll get back from the Toronto International just in time to catch the San Francisco Cinematheque’s season opener: José Antonio Sistiaga’s rarely-screened ere erera baleibu icik subua aruaren. In the months following, I look forward to programs on Tom Chomont, Robert Beavers, Chick Strand, and the Kuchar Brothers. Anticipating same has likewise reminded of my favorite event of San Francisco Cinematheque’s last season: Nathaniel Dorsky speaking on his most recent films Song & Solitude, Sarabande and Winter.
- 8/30/2009
- by Michael Guillen
- Screen Anarchy
The 45th annual New York Film Festival will feature three main sidebars this year. "Tropical Analysis: The Films of Joaquim Pedro de Andrade" will screen all 13 features and shorts from the director pivotal in Brazil's Cinema Novo movement. The 11th annual "Views from the Avant-Garde" includes programs from helmers Robert Beavers, Ernie Gehr, Peter Hutton and Ken Jacobs. "Chinese Modern: A Tribute to Cathay Studios" focuses on films from the influential Hong Kong stodios in the 1950s. The NYFF runs Sept. 28 to Oct. 14 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in Manhattan.
- 8/27/2007
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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