The belief that the dead live on in our memories is often the only comfort anyone can think to offer the bereaved, or those in the process of losing a loved one. But for Takashi (Mirai Moriyama), the introspective adult son at the heart of Kei Chika-ura’s quietly tectonic heartbreaker, that comfort is unavailable on multiple levels. Not only has he been long estranged from his father, Yohji (a shattering San Sebastian Best Performance-winning Tatsuya Fuji), but Yohji’s own precipitous descent into the fog of dementia means that whatever Takashi can now learn of him, at this late stage, is jumbled and fragmentary and possibly false. How can we adequately remember someone who cannot remember himself?
Like so much of “Great Absence,” that question is posed as a kind of mystery, made all the eerier by the ordinariness of the clues that tease its solution — an uncanceled meal delivery,...
Like so much of “Great Absence,” that question is posed as a kind of mystery, made all the eerier by the ordinariness of the clues that tease its solution — an uncanceled meal delivery,...
- 10/3/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Great Absence, the second feature film from Japanese director Kei Chika-ura, is receiving its world premiere in Toronto International Film Festival’s Platform section.
Inspired by Kei’s real-life experiences, the film tells the story of an actor living in Tokyo who is forced to travel home when the police call to say his father is suffering from dementia and has lost touch with reality. Making matters worse, his father’s second wife appears to be missing.
The actor makes the trip home with his own wife, full of conflicted emotions over a man who left the family when he was still a child, and starts an exploration into the mysteries of his father’s life. Along the way, the film touches on themes including time and memory, familial obligation and the role that women play in male-dominated Japanese society.
Veteran actor Tatsuya Fuji (In The Realm Of The Senses) plays the father,...
Inspired by Kei’s real-life experiences, the film tells the story of an actor living in Tokyo who is forced to travel home when the police call to say his father is suffering from dementia and has lost touch with reality. Making matters worse, his father’s second wife appears to be missing.
The actor makes the trip home with his own wife, full of conflicted emotions over a man who left the family when he was still a child, and starts an exploration into the mysteries of his father’s life. Along the way, the film touches on themes including time and memory, familial obligation and the role that women play in male-dominated Japanese society.
Veteran actor Tatsuya Fuji (In The Realm Of The Senses) plays the father,...
- 9/8/2023
- by Liz Shackleton
- Deadline Film + TV
Margot Robbie has made quite a name for herself in Hollywood thanks to a list of must-see projects. Her success proved that acting was the right career move for her. However, it was a profession she became interested in thanks to a surprising source.
Margot Robbie briefly studied law before becoming an actor Margot Robbie | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
Robbie’s parents thought their daughter might be best suited for a career much different than acting. In a resurfaced interview with Blush, Robbie discussed her brief path to becoming a lawyer. She was confident that if she continued pursuing an education in law, she would’ve been a more than efficient attorney.
“Once I graduated from high school, my parents forced me to study law. They wanted me to become a lawyer! I was very capable and I think I could have worked wonders in a courtroom. But I couldn...
Margot Robbie briefly studied law before becoming an actor Margot Robbie | Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/Getty Images
Robbie’s parents thought their daughter might be best suited for a career much different than acting. In a resurfaced interview with Blush, Robbie discussed her brief path to becoming a lawyer. She was confident that if she continued pursuing an education in law, she would’ve been a more than efficient attorney.
“Once I graduated from high school, my parents forced me to study law. They wanted me to become a lawyer! I was very capable and I think I could have worked wonders in a courtroom. But I couldn...
- 3/31/2023
- by Antonio Stallings
- Showbiz Cheat Sheet
The Great Italian Films of the 1970sThere was a certain type of great art film which was being made from 1968 through the 1970s which can never be approximated. Active and engaged filmmakers were consciously wakening out of the post-war amnesia and taking a perversely erotically charged political stand against the hypocrisy of the previous generation.
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
In the last decade, there has been a flourishing of films in which ageing heroes demonstrate that there is more than petanque and bingo in post-retirement life. Franchises like “Red” and “The Expendables” satisfy the collective desire to stay active and fit and never get old, and are also a vehicle for recycling old and beloved stars. But Kitano’s old bad guys of his “Ryuzo and the Seven Henchmen” are more “amiable losers” than their Hollywood heroic counterparts.
on Amazon
Ryuzo is a non-affective grandfather, with a turbulent past as a member of a Yakuza “family” who is not ready yet to stay calm and sit on an armchair. When not terrorizing the children of the neighborhood and insulting his daughter-in-law, Ryuzo spends his time wearing a “wife-beater” vest showing off his gang tattoos in plain sight and training with the bokken (the wooden katana) under...
on Amazon
Ryuzo is a non-affective grandfather, with a turbulent past as a member of a Yakuza “family” who is not ready yet to stay calm and sit on an armchair. When not terrorizing the children of the neighborhood and insulting his daughter-in-law, Ryuzo spends his time wearing a “wife-beater” vest showing off his gang tattoos in plain sight and training with the bokken (the wooden katana) under...
- 8/8/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Perhaps best known to Western audiences for his films “Death by Hanging”, the erotic “In the Realm of the Senses” as well as the war film “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence” which stars David Bowie, Nagisa Oshima’s 1969 drama “Boy” is maybe the Japanese director’s most approachable and straightforward work.
In 1966, a family of con artists are desperately trying to make ends meet. The father, Takeo (Fumio Watanabe), is a diabetic war veteran who routinely abuses his spouse, Takeko (Akiko Koyama), and his son Toshio (Tetsuo Abe), the child from a previous marriage. To earn money, he makes Takeko throw herself into traffic and fake injuries in hopes of extorting money from hapless drivers. When she becomes pregnant, however, he recruits Toshio to assume her role. Things go well at first until the boy is eventually caught, forcing the family to pack up and hurriedly move across the country.
Faced...
In 1966, a family of con artists are desperately trying to make ends meet. The father, Takeo (Fumio Watanabe), is a diabetic war veteran who routinely abuses his spouse, Takeko (Akiko Koyama), and his son Toshio (Tetsuo Abe), the child from a previous marriage. To earn money, he makes Takeko throw herself into traffic and fake injuries in hopes of extorting money from hapless drivers. When she becomes pregnant, however, he recruits Toshio to assume her role. Things go well at first until the boy is eventually caught, forcing the family to pack up and hurriedly move across the country.
Faced...
- 4/18/2022
- by Fred Barrett
- AsianMoviePulse
Catherine Breillat doesn’t make porn. Anyone familiar with the 73-year-old French auteur knows her frank portraits of female sexuality are complex, often transcendent explorations of desire through a metaphysical lens. That impulse extends back to Brelliat’s first film in 1976, “A Real Young Girl,” in which she adapted her own controversial novel about a 14-year-old’s sexual awakening. It has stayed with her through the decades in everything from “Fat Girl” to “Sex Is Comedy,” which fictionalizes the discomfort of shooting a sex scene.
Many of those movies are included in a new 11-film Breillat retrospective at New York’s IFC Center, but none epitomize Breillat’s daring aesthetic more than 1999’s “Romance,” the absorbing story of a young woman named Marie who finds catharsis from her sexless relationship with her boyfriend in a series of ambitious trysts. One of these leads to her rape; another inspires her revenge.
Many of those movies are included in a new 11-film Breillat retrospective at New York’s IFC Center, but none epitomize Breillat’s daring aesthetic more than 1999’s “Romance,” the absorbing story of a young woman named Marie who finds catharsis from her sexless relationship with her boyfriend in a series of ambitious trysts. One of these leads to her rape; another inspires her revenge.
- 2/14/2022
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Yasuzo Masumura takes horror into kinky territory in an Edogawa Ranpo shocker about obsession, namely, mixing sex and death. Michio is the tactile-fixated blind sculptor who imprisons model Aki to serve as an ultimate objectified ‘body’ — but she eventually joins him, taking the lead on a delirious suicidal journey of discovery. Probably once considered pornographic, the 1969 show is fairly tame by today’s Nc-17 standards, and not as radically violent or abhorrent as one might expect — but it’s still loaded with weird, Dangerous Ideas. The sets are not to be believed — the unhinged artist lives in a surreal workspace surrounded by hundreds of oversized sculptures of body parts.
The Blind Beast (Moju)
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date August 24, 2021 / Moju; Warehouse / 39.95
Starring: Eiji Funakoshi, Mako Midori, Noriko Sengoku.
Cinematography: Setsuo Kobayashi
Art Director: Shigeo Muno
Original Music: Hikaru Hayashi
Written by Yoshio Shirasaka from a novel...
The Blind Beast (Moju)
Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1969 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 84 min. / Street Date August 24, 2021 / Moju; Warehouse / 39.95
Starring: Eiji Funakoshi, Mako Midori, Noriko Sengoku.
Cinematography: Setsuo Kobayashi
Art Director: Shigeo Muno
Original Music: Hikaru Hayashi
Written by Yoshio Shirasaka from a novel...
- 8/21/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Book Review: Behind the Pink Curtain: The Complete History of Japanese Cinema (2008) by Jasper Sharp
Allow me to begin this review with a personal note. Among the plethora of books about (Asian) cinema I have read, this one is definitely one of the better ones, if not the best. The combination of research and context (just mentioning all the topics Jasper Sharp examines here would fill a small book), the quality of personal comments, the language, and the overall illustration of the Fab Press edition, which is filled with film stills, posters etc, including a rather impressive middle section as much as great front and back covers, are all top-notch, to the point that one would have to dig really deep to find any flaw in the book. Let us take things from the beginning though.
The book begins ideally, as Sharp starts his narration by dealing with the history of nudity on film, the differences between art and pornography, the differences between Western and Japanese pornography,...
The book begins ideally, as Sharp starts his narration by dealing with the history of nudity on film, the differences between art and pornography, the differences between Western and Japanese pornography,...
- 4/6/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Many have probably heard about the scandal surrounding Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 feature “In the Realm of Senses”, a story based on an incident involving a woman named Abe Sada, which has been adapted many times in the past as the case sparked quite a lot of controversy at the time. Knowing the film industry of his home country all to well, especially its link to the censors, Oshima decided early on to find producers outside of Japan, and eventually found them in France in order to make his vision of the story, which, upon its release and screening during international film festivals, was banned in many countries due to its explicit sex scenes. However, if one was to approach this feature, it is necessary to look beyond singular scenes or images and take a look at the context, the deeper message Oshima is after, since “In the Realm of Senses...
- 1/25/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Two years after the release of “In the Realm of the Senses”, arguably his most notorious work given the scandal it caused in many countries, Nagisa Oshima made “Empire of Passion”, which was advertised as a spiritual successor to his last work. Based on a novel by Itoko Nakamura “Empire of Passion” shares the idea of a fatal affair, emphasizing the link between devotion, passion and violence, but in the end is quite a different movie, especially due to its horror elements, which caused many to regard it as one of the inspirations for Hideo Nakata’s “Ringu”. You might even go one step further by not just calling it a different, but in many ways also a much more refined and better feature than its predecessor, telling the story of a small community whose deeply-rooted blend of superstition and predilection for gossip make it a very bitter portrayal of Japanese society and politics.
- 1/16/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The first time you watch Ōshima Nagisa’s “In the Realm of the Senses,” it might seem like more of a horror movie than a love story. Even now, when American viewers coming to the film for the first time might be inclined to sympathize with a story about two people who self-quarantine to save themselves from their country’s suicidal ideology, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees and mistake Ōshima’s transgressive 1976 masterpiece for something tawdry or even sinister.
This is, after all, a claustrophobic (and broadly true) saga of erotic obsession from the most hostile of Japanese auteurs; a mad and scandalous work of art that’s full of unsimulated sex, peppered with a massacre’s worth of little deaths, and topped off with a scene of genital amputation so unflinching that it feels like an answer to the eyeball cut in Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou.
This is, after all, a claustrophobic (and broadly true) saga of erotic obsession from the most hostile of Japanese auteurs; a mad and scandalous work of art that’s full of unsimulated sex, peppered with a massacre’s worth of little deaths, and topped off with a scene of genital amputation so unflinching that it feels like an answer to the eyeball cut in Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou.
- 7/24/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
To celebrate the release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – available on limited edition Blu-ray 15th June from Arrow Academy – we have a copy up for grabs!
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was the first English-language film by Oshima, a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film’s hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score. This powerful wartime drama was adapted from Laurens van der Post’s autobiographical novel ‘The Seed and the Sower’ (1963) by screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth).
Order today: https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/merry-christmas-mr-lawrence-blu-ray/FCD2013
To be in with a chance of winning,...
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was the first English-language film by Oshima, a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film’s hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score. This powerful wartime drama was adapted from Laurens van der Post’s autobiographical novel ‘The Seed and the Sower’ (1963) by screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth).
Order today: https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/merry-christmas-mr-lawrence-blu-ray/FCD2013
To be in with a chance of winning,...
- 6/16/2020
- by Phil Wheat
- Nerdly
To celebrate the release of Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence – available on limited edition Blu-ray 15th June from Arrow Academy – we have a copy up for grabs!
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was the first English-language film by Oshima, a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film’s hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score. This powerful wartime drama was adapted from Laurens van der Post’s autobiographical novel ‘The Seed and the Sower’ (1963) by screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth).
Order today: https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/merry-christmas-mr-lawrence-blu-ray/FCD2013
Please note: This competition is...
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
Produced by Jeremy Thomas, it was the first English-language film by Oshima, a leading light of Japanese New Wave cinema, and provided breakthrough big-screen roles for comedian Takeshi Kitano and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also composed the film’s hauntingly memorable BAFTA-winning score. This powerful wartime drama was adapted from Laurens van der Post’s autobiographical novel ‘The Seed and the Sower’ (1963) by screenwriter Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell To Earth).
Order today: https://arrowfilms.com/product-detail/merry-christmas-mr-lawrence-blu-ray/FCD2013
Please note: This competition is...
- 6/10/2020
- by Competitions
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
As part of their release slates for the months June and July 2020 Arrow Academy will release the classic Nagisa Oshima “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” starring David Bowie and Hideo Sekigawa’s powerful documentary “Hiroshima”
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
- 4/18/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Jasper Sharp is a writer, curator and filmmaker specialising in Japanese cinema, and co-founder of the Japanese film website Midnighteye.com. His book publications include The Midnight Eye Guide to New Japanese Film (2003), joint-written with Tom Mes, Behind the Pink Curtain (2008) and The Historical Dictionary of Japanese Film (2011). He is the co-director of The Creeping Garden (2014), alongside Tim Grabham, a documentary about plasmodial slime moulds. He has programmed a number of high profile seasons and retrospectives with organisations including the British Film Institute, Deutches Filmmuseum, Austin Fantastic Fest, the Cinematheque Quebecois and Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
We spoke with Jasper no longer after his talk – in recent, more social times – on Ero Guro for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London, and we discussed about how he got sucked into the wild side of Japanese Cinema, the years of Midnight Eye, his latest passions and more.
Hi Jasper. In...
We spoke with Jasper no longer after his talk – in recent, more social times – on Ero Guro for the Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies in London, and we discussed about how he got sucked into the wild side of Japanese Cinema, the years of Midnight Eye, his latest passions and more.
Hi Jasper. In...
- 4/17/2020
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Netflix and Un Women have launched the “Because She Watched” collection of series, documentaries, and films created for the upcoming International Women’s Day.
The collection, which will be available all year, is curated by female creators from behind and in front of the camera, including Sophia Loren, Salma Hayek, Yalitza Aparicio, Millie Bobby Brown, Laurie Nunn, Lana Condor, Petra Costa and Ava DuVernay. It includes “Orange Is the New Black,” “Marriage Story,” “Bird Box,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “House of Cards,” “Queer Eye,” “The Crown,” “Gravity,” “Roma” and “Paris Is Burning.”
“This collaboration is about taking on the challenge of telling women’s stories and showing women in all their diversity. It’s about making visible the invisible, and proving that only by fully representing and including women on screen, behind-the-camera and in our narratives overall, society will truly flourish,” said Anita Bhatia, Un Women Deputy Executive Director.
International...
The collection, which will be available all year, is curated by female creators from behind and in front of the camera, including Sophia Loren, Salma Hayek, Yalitza Aparicio, Millie Bobby Brown, Laurie Nunn, Lana Condor, Petra Costa and Ava DuVernay. It includes “Orange Is the New Black,” “Marriage Story,” “Bird Box,” “Silence of the Lambs,” “House of Cards,” “Queer Eye,” “The Crown,” “Gravity,” “Roma” and “Paris Is Burning.”
“This collaboration is about taking on the challenge of telling women’s stories and showing women in all their diversity. It’s about making visible the invisible, and proving that only by fully representing and including women on screen, behind-the-camera and in our narratives overall, society will truly flourish,” said Anita Bhatia, Un Women Deputy Executive Director.
International...
- 3/4/2020
- by Dave McNary
- Variety Film + TV
Ryuichi Sakamoto to serve as president of the jury, which also comprises Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Pff director Keiko Araki.
Japan’s Pia Film Festival (Pff) is launching a cinema award in honour of Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, which is designed to recognise ‘next generation’ talents and give them exposure on the world stage.
Conceived by Oshima’s widow, actress Akiko Koyama, the Oshima Prize will be presented to young Japanese filmmakers who “following in the footsteps of Oshima, continue to take on challenges on an international scale and after making their commercial debuts”.
One of the masters of Japanese cinema,...
Japan’s Pia Film Festival (Pff) is launching a cinema award in honour of Japanese filmmaker Nagisa Oshima, which is designed to recognise ‘next generation’ talents and give them exposure on the world stage.
Conceived by Oshima’s widow, actress Akiko Koyama, the Oshima Prize will be presented to young Japanese filmmakers who “following in the footsteps of Oshima, continue to take on challenges on an international scale and after making their commercial debuts”.
One of the masters of Japanese cinema,...
- 12/9/2019
- by 89¦Liz Shackleton¦0¦
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Machine Gun Kelly, Douglas Booth, Daniel Webber, Iwan Rheon, Alyssa Marie Stilwell, Matthew Underwood, Kathryn Morris, Vince Mattis, Courtney Dietz | Written by Amanda Adelson, Rich Wilkes | Directed by Jeff Tremaine
The Dirt, directed by Jackass alumni Jeff Tremaine, is your ultra-conventional biopic that charts the rise, fall and ultimately rise again of cult status glam rock band Mötley Crüe. Tremaine’s film and his first outside of the realm of directing Knoxville and the likes starts as it means to go on, with poorly injected energy, a terrible introductory voiceover and deeply troubling misogynistic undertones.
If you can make it through the ten introductory minutes of The Dirt you can probably achieve anything in life. I’m serious when I say that if it doesn’t turn your stomach or make you blush, feel free to dive into A Serbian Film, In the Realm of the Senses or any...
The Dirt, directed by Jackass alumni Jeff Tremaine, is your ultra-conventional biopic that charts the rise, fall and ultimately rise again of cult status glam rock band Mötley Crüe. Tremaine’s film and his first outside of the realm of directing Knoxville and the likes starts as it means to go on, with poorly injected energy, a terrible introductory voiceover and deeply troubling misogynistic undertones.
If you can make it through the ten introductory minutes of The Dirt you can probably achieve anything in life. I’m serious when I say that if it doesn’t turn your stomach or make you blush, feel free to dive into A Serbian Film, In the Realm of the Senses or any...
- 3/28/2019
- by Jak-Luke Sharp
- Nerdly
“This is Ali Baba, town of mystery…”
As most of us know, the 1960s, especially the second half, were a time of upheaval, protests and general unrest in many areas of the world. Protests against the Vietnam War and the establishment resulted in a decade defined by violence on the one side, but also change on the other. Culturally, one could argue the late 1960s and early 1970s constitute one of the most interesting periods for the arts, a moment in time during which the possibility of change was a tangible shimmer on the horizon. And even though much of this hope was shattered by a re-affirmation of the ruling order – at least to some extent – the minds of people had been changed forever, as evident in the way culture has changed during that period.
Of course, times of change and upheaval often tend to give birth to fascinating and...
As most of us know, the 1960s, especially the second half, were a time of upheaval, protests and general unrest in many areas of the world. Protests against the Vietnam War and the establishment resulted in a decade defined by violence on the one side, but also change on the other. Culturally, one could argue the late 1960s and early 1970s constitute one of the most interesting periods for the arts, a moment in time during which the possibility of change was a tangible shimmer on the horizon. And even though much of this hope was shattered by a re-affirmation of the ruling order – at least to some extent – the minds of people had been changed forever, as evident in the way culture has changed during that period.
Of course, times of change and upheaval often tend to give birth to fascinating and...
- 9/23/2018
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Each month, the fine folks at FilmStruck and the Criterion Collection spend countless hours crafting their channels to highlight the many different types of films that they have in their streaming library. This March will feature an exciting assortment of films, as noted below.
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Friday, March 2
Friday Night Double Feature: The Ladykillers and La poison
Criminal schemes take unlikely targets in these two pitch-dark comedies from the 1950s. In Alexander Mackendrick’s Ealing Studio farce The Ladykillers (1955), a team of thieves (led by Alec Guinness) descends on a boardinghouse run by an elderly widow, who becomes the victim of their misdeeds. In Sacha Guitry’s brisk, witty, and savage La poison (1951), a gardener (Michel Simon) and his wife, fed up after thirty years of marriage, find themselves plotting each other’s murder.
Tuesday, March 6
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Art* and In...
To sign up for a free two-week trial here.
Friday, March 2
Friday Night Double Feature: The Ladykillers and La poison
Criminal schemes take unlikely targets in these two pitch-dark comedies from the 1950s. In Alexander Mackendrick’s Ealing Studio farce The Ladykillers (1955), a team of thieves (led by Alec Guinness) descends on a boardinghouse run by an elderly widow, who becomes the victim of their misdeeds. In Sacha Guitry’s brisk, witty, and savage La poison (1951), a gardener (Michel Simon) and his wife, fed up after thirty years of marriage, find themselves plotting each other’s murder.
Tuesday, March 6
Tuesday’s Short + Feature: Art* and In...
- 3/1/2018
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGJanus Films has released a moving trailer for the late master Abbas Kiarostami's final film, 24 Frames. We were touched by this entrancing film at this past year's Cannes Film Festival.Steven Soderbergh's post-"retirement" phase appears to continue with Unsane. Here's the first tantalizing trailer:Travis Wilkerson is one of the best kept secrets in American cinema, thus we're pleased to see that his latest Did You Wonder Who Fired the Gun? gets a trailer and distribution via Grasshopper Film:The kind people over at NoBudge have presented the online premieres of two inspired independent films: Kat Hunt's What's Revenge, a docu-fiction comedy about ex-boyfriends and gender relations, and Eric Marsh & Andrew Stasiulis' Orders, a contemplation of the American war machine from a haunted suburban setting.Recommended LISTENINGThe Directors Guild...
- 2/8/2018
- MUBI
Review by Roger Carpenter
Director Yasuharu Hasebe was a well-known director in Japan right up until his death in 2009. He directed most of the Stray Cat Rock series of films in the early 1970s as well as the final installment of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song. He became known as the “Father of Violent Pink,” after directing a series of graphically violent and sexually sadistic films for Nikkatsu Studios with titles such as Rape!; Assault! Jack the Ripper; Rape! 13th Hour; and Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train. These films proved to be both highly controversial and very lucrative for Hasebe and Nikkatsu but, typical of Nikkatsu, the studio execs got cold feet after much bad press and began toning down their series of violent pink films.
But before all this, Hasebe cut his teeth as an assistant director for the great Seijun Suzuki, himself a...
Director Yasuharu Hasebe was a well-known director in Japan right up until his death in 2009. He directed most of the Stray Cat Rock series of films in the early 1970s as well as the final installment of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series, Female Prisoner Scorpion: #701’s Grudge Song. He became known as the “Father of Violent Pink,” after directing a series of graphically violent and sexually sadistic films for Nikkatsu Studios with titles such as Rape!; Assault! Jack the Ripper; Rape! 13th Hour; and Secret Honeymoon: Rape Train. These films proved to be both highly controversial and very lucrative for Hasebe and Nikkatsu but, typical of Nikkatsu, the studio execs got cold feet after much bad press and began toning down their series of violent pink films.
But before all this, Hasebe cut his teeth as an assistant director for the great Seijun Suzuki, himself a...
- 1/3/2018
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Sion Sono's Antiporno (2016), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from December 8, 2017 - January 7, 2018 as a Special Discovery.Few directors before or since Russ Meyer have so enthusiastically worn their art’s sexual obsessions on their sleeves as Japanese auteur Sion Sono. But if Meyer once claimed that he wasn’t interested in anything “below the belt,” Sono is the complete opposite, reveling in the upskirt wonderland of schoolgirls and women in uniform, whether it be the group suicide that opens his notorious Suicide Club (2001), the panty-shot perverts in Love Exposure (2008), or the small army of oblivious high schoolers in his ultra-violent Tag (2015). Such an obsession seemingly made him a perfect choice for the “Roman Porno Reboot Project” of Japanese movie studio Nikkatsu, an ambitious series of five movies commissioned by the legendary...
- 12/8/2017
- MUBI
Review by Roger Carpenter
Kinji Fukasaku is probably best known for his Battles without Honor and Humanity and New Battles without Honor and Humanity series and, perhaps, for Battle Royale, made shortly before his death. Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba may be best known for his violent karate Street Fighter series here in the U.S. The prolific director and actor teamed up numerous times to make some truly classic Japanese action fare, but Doberman Cop, lensed during a time when Japanese cinema was undergoing massive change, was not a huge hit for the duo.
Like dozens of other films in the seventies, Doberman Cop (1977) got its start not as a screenplay but as a popular manga (or gekiga, a darker, more realistically-drawn and adult-oriented form of manga) that was then turned into a film. While yakuza films had been immensely popular for many years, their popularity was on a downturn...
Kinji Fukasaku is probably best known for his Battles without Honor and Humanity and New Battles without Honor and Humanity series and, perhaps, for Battle Royale, made shortly before his death. Shin’ichi “Sonny” Chiba may be best known for his violent karate Street Fighter series here in the U.S. The prolific director and actor teamed up numerous times to make some truly classic Japanese action fare, but Doberman Cop, lensed during a time when Japanese cinema was undergoing massive change, was not a huge hit for the duo.
Like dozens of other films in the seventies, Doberman Cop (1977) got its start not as a screenplay but as a popular manga (or gekiga, a darker, more realistically-drawn and adult-oriented form of manga) that was then turned into a film. While yakuza films had been immensely popular for many years, their popularity was on a downturn...
- 7/25/2017
- by Movie Geeks
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Looking back on this still-young century makes clear that 2007 was a major time for cinematic happenings — and, on the basis of this retrospective, one we’re not quite through with ten years on. One’s mind might quickly flash to a few big titles that will be represented, but it is the plurality of both festival and theatrical premieres that truly surprises: late works from old masters, debuts from filmmakers who’ve since become some of our most-respected artists, and mid-career turning points that didn’t necessarily announce themselves as such at the time. Join us as an assembled team, many of whom were coming of age that year, takes on their favorites.
In the Bible, Paul the apostle wrote in the first letter to the church at Corinth these words: “Man did not come from Woman, but woman from man. Man was not created for woman, but woman for man,...
In the Bible, Paul the apostle wrote in the first letter to the church at Corinth these words: “Man did not come from Woman, but woman from man. Man was not created for woman, but woman for man,...
- 6/9/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
In focus: David Hemmings in Antonioni’s trip around swinging London, part of Cannes Classics Photo: Cannes Film Festival
The Cannes Film Festival organisers have put the accent on heritage cinema with a particular connection to the Festival itself in the 70th edition.
The selection of some 24 titles and five documentaries, mainly in brand new copies, covers the years from 1946 to 1992 and includes René Clément’s The Battle Of The Rails, shown at the very first event, where it won an international jury award and a best director award.
Danielle Darrieux who has celebrated her 100th birthday, as she appears in Max Ophüls’ Madame De… in 1953. Photo: Cannes Film Festival
Other landmark titles announced today (3 May) are The Wages Of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot (shown in 1953); 1967’s Palme d’Or winner Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s take on swinging London with David Hemmings, and the highly controversial (at the time in...
The Cannes Film Festival organisers have put the accent on heritage cinema with a particular connection to the Festival itself in the 70th edition.
The selection of some 24 titles and five documentaries, mainly in brand new copies, covers the years from 1946 to 1992 and includes René Clément’s The Battle Of The Rails, shown at the very first event, where it won an international jury award and a best director award.
Danielle Darrieux who has celebrated her 100th birthday, as she appears in Max Ophüls’ Madame De… in 1953. Photo: Cannes Film Festival
Other landmark titles announced today (3 May) are The Wages Of Fear by Henri-Georges Clouzot (shown in 1953); 1967’s Palme d’Or winner Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s take on swinging London with David Hemmings, and the highly controversial (at the time in...
- 5/3/2017
- by Richard Mowe
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The 2017 Cannes Film Festival has announced the lineup for Cannes Classics, a selection of vintage films and masterpieces from the history of cinema. This year’s program is dedicated primarily to the history of the festival, and includes one short film and five new documentaries.
Read More: Cannes Adds Roman Polanski Film to Lineup
Highlights from the lineup include “Belle du Jour” (1967), Luis Bunuel’s classic about a housewife who dabbles in prostitution, and “All That Jazz ” (1979) Bob Fosse’s story of a womanizing, drug-using dancer played by Roy Scheider. There is also the documentary “Filmworker,” which tells the story of Leon Vitali, an actor who abandoned his career after “Barry Lyndon” to become Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man and creative collaborator behind the scenes.
Rights holders to the films decide whether to screen them in 2K or 4K, or use an original print. Jean Vigo’s “L’Atalante,...
Read More: Cannes Adds Roman Polanski Film to Lineup
Highlights from the lineup include “Belle du Jour” (1967), Luis Bunuel’s classic about a housewife who dabbles in prostitution, and “All That Jazz ” (1979) Bob Fosse’s story of a womanizing, drug-using dancer played by Roy Scheider. There is also the documentary “Filmworker,” which tells the story of Leon Vitali, an actor who abandoned his career after “Barry Lyndon” to become Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man and creative collaborator behind the scenes.
Rights holders to the films decide whether to screen them in 2K or 4K, or use an original print. Jean Vigo’s “L’Atalante,...
- 5/3/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Strand will focus on the history of Cannes for the festival’s 70th anniversary.
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
Cannes Film Festival (May 17-28) has unveiled the line-up for this year’s Classic programme, with 24 screenings set to take place alongside five documentaries and one short film.
Documentaries about cinema including Filmworker - which focuses of Stanley Kubrick’s right hand man Leon Vitali, who played a crucial role behind the scenes of the director’s films - as well as Cary Grant doc Becoming Cary Grant, are set to feature.
This year’s selection is also set to focus on the history of the festival itself, with prize-winning films such as Michelangelo Antonioni Grand 1966 Prix winning film Blow-Up and Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Salaire de la peur (The Wages of Fear) from 1952 screening.
Nagisa Oshima’s 1976 film Ai No Korîda (In The Realm Of The Senses/L’Empire Des Sens), Luis Buñuel’s 1967 classic Belle De Jour (Beauty Of The Day...
- 5/3/2017
- ScreenDaily
While Cannes Film Festival premieres some of the best new films of the year, they also have a rich history of highlighting cinema history with their Cannes Classics line-up, many of which are new restorations of films that previously premiered at the festival. This year they are taking that idea further, featuring 16 films that made history at the festival, along with a handful of others, and five new documentaries. So, if you can’t make it to Cannes, to get a sense of restorations that may come to your city (or on Blu-ray) in the coming months/years, check out the line-up below.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
From 1946 to 1992, from René Clément to Victor Erice, sixteen history-making films of the Festival de Cannes
1946: La Bataille du Rail (Battle of the Rails) by René Clément (1h25, France): Grand Prix International de la mise en scène and Prix du Jury International.
Presented by Ina.
- 5/3/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A new video looks beyond Fincher at the Evil Men Do
Sin, as defined by most major religions and moral institutions, is as old as man. It is inherent to our nature, because ultimately sin is self-serving, and at the end of the day we are all self-serving creatures. Wrath, pride, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, greed — as opposed to the Ten Commandments of Christianity which include distinct acts like adultery and murder, the seven deadly sins are things of which most all of us are guilty of multiple times over. We’ve all committed them, even on a minor scale. Ever think someone has a nicer car than you? Envy. Ever gotten a touch of road rage? Wrath. Ever hit the snooze button more than once? Sloth.
These are petty examples to be sure, but they illustrate how commonplace the seven deadly sins are in our daily lives, and thus they prove why the seven deadly sins...
Sin, as defined by most major religions and moral institutions, is as old as man. It is inherent to our nature, because ultimately sin is self-serving, and at the end of the day we are all self-serving creatures. Wrath, pride, sloth, lust, envy, gluttony, greed — as opposed to the Ten Commandments of Christianity which include distinct acts like adultery and murder, the seven deadly sins are things of which most all of us are guilty of multiple times over. We’ve all committed them, even on a minor scale. Ever think someone has a nicer car than you? Envy. Ever gotten a touch of road rage? Wrath. Ever hit the snooze button more than once? Sloth.
These are petty examples to be sure, but they illustrate how commonplace the seven deadly sins are in our daily lives, and thus they prove why the seven deadly sins...
- 4/25/2017
- by H. Perry Horton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Park Chan-wook’s adaptation of Sarah Waters’ novel Fingersmith, relocated to 1930s Korea, is an erotic triumph – with a whiplash twist
With his erotic classic In the Realm of the Senses from 1976, the Japanese director Nagisa Oshima achieved the distinction of popularising auto-erotic strangling in the Us. Will Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden be able to claim anything comparable? This film’s addictive and outrageous sexiness might just create an international fad for filing down your lover’s crooked tooth in the bath with the finely serrated surface of a thimble. It’s a quasi blowjob scene that sounds bizarre in print. On screen, it was so extraordinary that I almost forgot to breathe.
Related: The Handmaiden: the return of erotic cinema
Continue reading...
With his erotic classic In the Realm of the Senses from 1976, the Japanese director Nagisa Oshima achieved the distinction of popularising auto-erotic strangling in the Us. Will Korean film-maker Park Chan-wook’s The Handmaiden be able to claim anything comparable? This film’s addictive and outrageous sexiness might just create an international fad for filing down your lover’s crooked tooth in the bath with the finely serrated surface of a thimble. It’s a quasi blowjob scene that sounds bizarre in print. On screen, it was so extraordinary that I almost forgot to breathe.
Related: The Handmaiden: the return of erotic cinema
Continue reading...
- 4/13/2017
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Something Wild
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 850
1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.
Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan
Film Editor: Carl Lerner
Original Music: Aaron Copland
Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann
Produced by George Justin
Directed by Jack Garfein
After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:
“Dear Glenn Erickson,
Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.
If possible, I would appreciate if you could send
me a copy of your review by email.
Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”
Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 850
1961 / B&W / 1:66 widescreen 1:37 flat Academy / 113 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 17, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Carroll Baker, Ralph Meeker, Mildred Dunnock, Jean Stapleton, Martin Kosleck, Charles Watts, Clifton James, Doris Roberts, Anita Cooper, Tanya Lopert.
Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan
Film Editor: Carl Lerner
Original Music: Aaron Copland
Written by Jack Garfein and Alex Karmel from his novel Mary Ann
Produced by George Justin
Directed by Jack Garfein
After writing up an earlier Mod disc release of the 1961 movie Something Wild, I received a brief but welcome email note from its director:
“Dear Glenn Erickson,
Thank you for your profound appreciation of Something Wild.
If possible, I would appreciate if you could send
me a copy of your review by email.
Sincerely yours, Jack Garfein”
Somewhere back East (or in London), the Actors Studio legend Jack Garfein had found favor with the review. Although...
- 1/10/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Chicago – Although “The Handmaiden” is based in deceit, fetishes, thievery and subservience, director Park Chan-Wook (“Stoker”) keeps it light by the addition of some subversive humor, and weaves a mystery with a pitch that is like the “The Sting” meets “In the Realm of the Senses.”
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Yes, there is eroticism in the film, but it is presented as a plot motivator, and is also used as a great punch line. Mostly the step-by-step story, told by emphasizing different elements of the same situation, seeks comeuppance for the evil that lurks within, even though all the players seem to have some level of larceny in their souls. That edge is the fun, as some characters end up bumbling in their own hubris, while others stay one step ahead of what could be their downfall. The dark mystery/comedy of Hitchcock, the cross cutting of Kurosawa and even the wackiness of...
Rating: 4.0/5.0
Yes, there is eroticism in the film, but it is presented as a plot motivator, and is also used as a great punch line. Mostly the step-by-step story, told by emphasizing different elements of the same situation, seeks comeuppance for the evil that lurks within, even though all the players seem to have some level of larceny in their souls. That edge is the fun, as some characters end up bumbling in their own hubris, while others stay one step ahead of what could be their downfall. The dark mystery/comedy of Hitchcock, the cross cutting of Kurosawa and even the wackiness of...
- 11/1/2016
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
The saying goes that some people eat to live, and some people live to eat. Juzo Itami’s “Tampopo” is the rare serving of food porn that brings both groups to the table. First released in 1985 (and now returning to theaters with a delectable new 4K restoration), this timeless Japanese classic begins with a petulant gangster bringing a full picnic into a movie theater, and ends with a hungry infant instinctively suckling on his mother’s breast. In between, Itami’s fiercely beloved film unfolds like a prix fixe tasting menu of strange comic delights, the director’s fabulist sensibilities feeding into an episodic foodie fantasia about all of the things that give life its flavor and make it worth savoring.
The only movie ever made that could accurately be described as a cross between “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” “Babette’s Feast,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,...
The only movie ever made that could accurately be described as a cross between “The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” “Babette’s Feast,” and “Songs From the Second Floor,...
- 10/20/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Janus has been doing particularly good work as of late, and this may be among the stronger examples of their fine taste. (No pun intended.) Long a Japanese cult classic, Juzo Itami‘s Tampopo is being introduced to a new generation of cinephiles, who will now get a “ramen western” that combines the two greatest things: mouth-watering Asian cuisine and weird sex stuff. In the Realm of the Senses but with more uses for a hard-boiled egg, one could say.
The picture’s been lovingly restored, as evidenced by a trailer for the theatrical run that begins this Friday at Film Forum. See the preview below:
Juzo Itami’s rapturous “ramen western” returns to U.S. screens for the first time in decades, in a new 4K restoration. The tale of an enigmatic band of ramen ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe,...
The picture’s been lovingly restored, as evidenced by a trailer for the theatrical run that begins this Friday at Film Forum. See the preview below:
Juzo Itami’s rapturous “ramen western” returns to U.S. screens for the first time in decades, in a new 4K restoration. The tale of an enigmatic band of ramen ronin who guide the widow of a noodle shop owner on her quest for the perfect recipe,...
- 10/18/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Never before has this country been in such urgent need of common-sense pun control. Like a dare between stoners that went too far and took on a sporadically funny life of its own, “Sausage Party” unfolds as though “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “The Book of Mormon” were stuffed into a blender and fused together into an unholy smoothie of heresy, hedonism, and hot dogs. And puns. So many puns.
Do all hot dogs go to heaven? What about their buns — can leaven be for real? Forget spoiler alerts: All of this food is already foul as can be.
Set inside a sterile American supermarket and starring several different aisles worth of anthropomorphized groceries, this is an R-rated cartoon in which the hero is a weenie named “Frank,” a Twinkie is an actual twink, and the villain is literally a douche. This is a movie so ugly it makes “South Park: Bigger,...
Do all hot dogs go to heaven? What about their buns — can leaven be for real? Forget spoiler alerts: All of this food is already foul as can be.
Set inside a sterile American supermarket and starring several different aisles worth of anthropomorphized groceries, this is an R-rated cartoon in which the hero is a weenie named “Frank,” a Twinkie is an actual twink, and the villain is literally a douche. This is a movie so ugly it makes “South Park: Bigger,...
- 8/10/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
This cautionary tale of hormonal young lovers enjoying a long, hot summer finds a healthier understanding of teen lust
That self-correcting title, balancing aggressive come-on with wistful parenthesis, is about right. French writer-director Eva Husson here issues a dreamy-tender cautionary tale, unfolding over one long, sticky summer, in which merry high-schoolers pair off to poke one another, online and Irl; it’s all fun and games until the onset of syphilis. As her teens retreat into one lad’s unparented pad – oblivious to external events, like the lovers from In the Realm of the Senses – Husson carefully situates their experiments within a wider, natural context: this film-maker’s light, sweet touch is such that she can even venture a funny subplot involving the school hamster without straying into urban legend territory. Satisfaction may depend on your desire to spend 90 minutes around blankly suggestible hormoneheads, but Husson – more forgiving Hansen-Løve than forbidding Breillat – nudges them and us both towards a healthier understanding of what our bits do: for her, blossoming sexuality isn’t necessarily a crisis, just a season we pass through.
Continue reading...
That self-correcting title, balancing aggressive come-on with wistful parenthesis, is about right. French writer-director Eva Husson here issues a dreamy-tender cautionary tale, unfolding over one long, sticky summer, in which merry high-schoolers pair off to poke one another, online and Irl; it’s all fun and games until the onset of syphilis. As her teens retreat into one lad’s unparented pad – oblivious to external events, like the lovers from In the Realm of the Senses – Husson carefully situates their experiments within a wider, natural context: this film-maker’s light, sweet touch is such that she can even venture a funny subplot involving the school hamster without straying into urban legend territory. Satisfaction may depend on your desire to spend 90 minutes around blankly suggestible hormoneheads, but Husson – more forgiving Hansen-Løve than forbidding Breillat – nudges them and us both towards a healthier understanding of what our bits do: for her, blossoming sexuality isn’t necessarily a crisis, just a season we pass through.
Continue reading...
- 6/16/2016
- by Mike McCahill
- The Guardian - Film News
Monsieur Gangster, In The Realm Of The Senses and The Big Blue among first titles to be featured.
The first crowdfunding platform dedicated to raising funds for the restoration of heritage and archive films is set to be launched by European digital technologies specialists Ymagis Group.
Celluloid Angels, which will go live next week (June 8), will aim to “rally a community of cinephiles around a single cause: to tangibly protect and preserve the world’s film heritage”.
As the use of physical film stock continues to fall – with declining projection capabilities in cinemas and dwindling usage in the production of films – Ymagis wants to provide rights holders with an additional source of financing and a point of contact with film aficionado communities.
The company is intending to restore 15-20 films this year alone, with a roster of titles lined up for the website’s launch including Georges Lautner’s crime caper Monsieur Gangster (1963), Nagisa Oshima’s historical...
The first crowdfunding platform dedicated to raising funds for the restoration of heritage and archive films is set to be launched by European digital technologies specialists Ymagis Group.
Celluloid Angels, which will go live next week (June 8), will aim to “rally a community of cinephiles around a single cause: to tangibly protect and preserve the world’s film heritage”.
As the use of physical film stock continues to fall – with declining projection capabilities in cinemas and dwindling usage in the production of films – Ymagis wants to provide rights holders with an additional source of financing and a point of contact with film aficionado communities.
The company is intending to restore 15-20 films this year alone, with a roster of titles lined up for the website’s launch including Georges Lautner’s crime caper Monsieur Gangster (1963), Nagisa Oshima’s historical...
- 5/31/2016
- ScreenDaily
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Bright Future is playing May 20 - June 19, 2016 in the United States.As cinematic monsters go, a jellyfish—luminescent red but home-aquarium-sized—is a perverse choice. Left alone, it floats in a saltwater ecosystem resistant to humans on a large scale; only when poked does it react with precognitive venom. But Bright Future (2003) is another of Kiyoshi "No Relation" Kurosawa's piecemeal apocalypses, where the destructive force presents itself anew to all victims. Unlike the planetary threats of kaiju, alien armies, or environmental collapse, Kurosawa imagines society's end as something closer to mass suicide than massacre. It requires individual complicity. Coming after his definitive J-Horror entry Pulse (2001), for which Kurosawa is probably best known, Bright Future was somewhat off-handedly derided for a category error about objects of fear: small things in aquariums are only as threatening as observers are stupid. However,...
- 5/15/2016
- MUBI
Last year, the three-part, six-hours-and-twenty-two minutes long epic Arabian Nights by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes rejected a slot in the Cannes Film Festival’s second-rung Un Certain Regard section, opting instead to be premiered at the Directors’ Fortnight (Quinzaine des Réalisateurs ), taking place in the same French Riviera city at the same time. Why wasn’t Arabian Nights in Cannes’ official competition? Gomes’ previous film, Tabu, won two prizes at the Berlin International Film Festival, finished 2nd Sight & Sound’s and Cinema Scope’s polls of the best films of 2012, 10th in the Village Voice’s, and 11th in both Film Comment’s and Indiewire’s; he was exactly the kind of rising art-house star who should have been competing in the most prominent part of the official festival. But organizers balked at the idea of offering such a lengthy film a slot in competition where two or three others could be chosen,...
- 5/12/2016
- MUBI
Now in limited release is one of the summer’s must-see films, Luca Guadagnino‘s I Am Love follow-up A Bigger Splash, which we called “a sweaty, kinetic, dangerously unpredictable ride of a film” back at Venice last year. To celebrate its arrival, today we’re highlighting the Italian director’s 10 favorite films, which he submitted for the last Sight & Sound poll.
An eclectic batch of titles from all over the world, they include an underrated Brian De Palma thriller, Nagisa Oshima‘s controversial erotic drama, an 8-part project from Jean-Luc Godard, an Italian staple from Roberto Rossellini, and more. Expanding upon one of his picks, he told The Guardian, “I am a Hitchcockian – I still believe that Psycho sets the standard for mother/ son relations.”
Speaking about another one of his choices, Fanny and Alexander, he recently discussed the behind-the-scenes documentary available on Criterion’s excellent box set. “You see the master at work.
An eclectic batch of titles from all over the world, they include an underrated Brian De Palma thriller, Nagisa Oshima‘s controversial erotic drama, an 8-part project from Jean-Luc Godard, an Italian staple from Roberto Rossellini, and more. Expanding upon one of his picks, he told The Guardian, “I am a Hitchcockian – I still believe that Psycho sets the standard for mother/ son relations.”
Speaking about another one of his choices, Fanny and Alexander, he recently discussed the behind-the-scenes documentary available on Criterion’s excellent box set. “You see the master at work.
- 5/4/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Nikkatsu has announced The Sono Sion, a documentary about the prolific Japanese director of the title, has wrapped.
The film is directed by Arata Oshima, son of the late Nagisa Oshima (In The Realm Of The Senses, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence).
Shot during the making of Sono’s The Whispering Star, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, the documentary exposes rare moments where the director faces dilemmas and anxiety.
“It’s such an honour to have this documentary made but to be honest, I’m a little embarrassed,” said Sono. “I’m looking forward to the reaction of the audiences after they see my private life.”
Nikkatsu is also set to reboot their legendary softcore genre “roman porno” series at Filmart.
The Whispering Star is set to screen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival presented by the director.
The film is directed by Arata Oshima, son of the late Nagisa Oshima (In The Realm Of The Senses, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence).
Shot during the making of Sono’s The Whispering Star, which premiered at Toronto International Film Festival, the documentary exposes rare moments where the director faces dilemmas and anxiety.
“It’s such an honour to have this documentary made but to be honest, I’m a little embarrassed,” said Sono. “I’m looking forward to the reaction of the audiences after they see my private life.”
Nikkatsu is also set to reboot their legendary softcore genre “roman porno” series at Filmart.
The Whispering Star is set to screen at the Hong Kong International Film Festival presented by the director.
- 3/13/2016
- by hjnoh2007@gmail.com (Jean Noh)
- ScreenDaily
Before he would come to be known as one of cinema’s most controversial provocateurs with his most infamous title, 1976’s In the Realm of the Senses, Nagisa Oshima was heralded as one of the most influential voices in the Japanese New Wave of the 1960s. The decade prior showed the director contemplating urban youth issues, showcasing the moral quandaries of a new, disenchanted generation struggling to define notions of identity in Post WWII Japan. In the early 60s, Oshima spent most of his time working in television before returning to features predicated on lurid social issues usually involving a fascinating mixture of sexuality and crime. But 1968 saw the auteur tackling the treatment of Korean immigrants in Japan in two striking portraits, Three Resurrected Drunkards and the dark comedy Death by Hanging.
Based on an actual criminal case from a decade prior concerning a Korean immigrant who murdered two Japanese girls,...
Based on an actual criminal case from a decade prior concerning a Korean immigrant who murdered two Japanese girls,...
- 2/16/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
With the exception of several crowd-pleasing samurai epics (like Zatoichi and Three Outlaw Samurai) and a few bargain-priced historical costume dramas (such as The Ballad of Narayama and Gate of Hell), the flow of newly released Japanese art films by the Criterion Collection has slowed to a trickle over the past five years or so. (And for the sake of politeness and avoiding pointless controversy, I won’t invoke Jellyfish Eyes in this argument either.) We’ve obviously enjoyed a steady stream of chanbara, Ozu and especially Kurosawa Blu-ray upgrades during this past half-decade, and there have been several outstanding Japanese sets recently issued as part of the Eclipse Series as well, but we really haven’t seen much else along these lines in the main lineup since Kaneto Shindo’s Kuroneko came out in the fall of 2011. That’s over 200 spine numbers ago! But I’m happy to report...
- 2/16/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
You want radical? Look no further. Nagisa Oshima's near-legendary issue drama makes a wickedly frightening protest against the death penalty, but then proceeds into formal abstraction and the endorsement of a violent radical position. You can't find a political 'gauntlet picture' as jarring or as potent as this one. Death by Hanging Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 798 1968 / B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 118 min. / Kôshikei / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date February 16, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Do-yun Yu, Kei Sato, Fumio Watanabe, Toshiro Ishido, Masao Adachi, Rokko Toura, Hosei Komatsu, Masao Matsuda, Akiko Koyama. Cinematography Yasuhiro Yoshioka Film Editor Sueko Shiraishi Original Music Hikaru Hayashi Written by Michinori Fukao. Mamoru Sasaki, Tsutomu Tamura, Nagisa Oshima Produced by Masayuki Nakajima, Takuji Yamaguchi, Nagisa Oshima Directed by Nagisa Oshima
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nagisa Oshima is a radical's radical, a cinema stylist completely committed to his politics -- which...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Believe me, you ain't seen nothing yet. Nagisa Oshima is a radical's radical, a cinema stylist completely committed to his politics -- which...
- 2/2/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Collection has been good to Japanese provocateur Nagisa Oshima. His celebrated, explicit-sex shocker In The Realm of the Senses (along with its sorta-sequel, Empire of Passion) have seen disc from the company, and Criterion has also released a shotgun blast of his 1960s films via their lower-fi Eclipse series. Now Oshima's 1968 film, Death By Hanging, joins the collection as spine #798. It's not a title I was familiar with prior to now, but I had a great time familiarizing myself with it in this format, and am surprised there isn't more conversation about this film and its seemingly inexhaustible formal daring. (As the liner notes themselves point out: with Death By Hanging alongside 2001, If..., Once Upon a Time in the West...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 2/1/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Focus Features
Sex and the cinema have always gone hand in hand, predominantly because they are both subjects that heavily rely on the idea of fantasy. Inevitably, filmmakers have thus exploited sex – and all that is associated with the act – to varied results across the span of the century.
There are the “classic” films built around themes of sex, of course: Last Tango in Paris, Belle de Jour, In the Realm of the Senses, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Then there also those films that have been branded as outright “sexy” – films such as Wild Things, Cruel Intentions, Y Tu Mamá También, The Dreamers and Secretary – which exist purposely to ignite something in the loins. And it’s those sorts of films that this list is interested in.
Everyone is familiar with Basic Instinct and Eyes Wide Shut as far as sexy cinematic ventures go, but what about the...
Sex and the cinema have always gone hand in hand, predominantly because they are both subjects that heavily rely on the idea of fantasy. Inevitably, filmmakers have thus exploited sex – and all that is associated with the act – to varied results across the span of the century.
There are the “classic” films built around themes of sex, of course: Last Tango in Paris, Belle de Jour, In the Realm of the Senses, Salo, or the 120 Days of Sodom. Then there also those films that have been branded as outright “sexy” – films such as Wild Things, Cruel Intentions, Y Tu Mamá También, The Dreamers and Secretary – which exist purposely to ignite something in the loins. And it’s those sorts of films that this list is interested in.
Everyone is familiar with Basic Instinct and Eyes Wide Shut as far as sexy cinematic ventures go, but what about the...
- 2/1/2016
- by Sam Hill
- Obsessed with Film
You always remember your first time — watching a sex scene, that is. While the MPAA may still prefer violence-laden films over ones with even the briefest hint of sexuality, there’s no denying that some of cinema’s most memorable scenes involve lovemaking. Knowing this full well, W Magazine set out to poll dozens of top actors on their most memorable sex-scene-viewing experience, and today we have all the results.
The picks include Cate Blanchett‘s experience in third grade, Paul Dano on Notorious, Jennifer Jason Leigh picks In the Realm of the Senses and Don’t Look Now, Jake Gyllenhaal talks Out of Sight and Jerry Maguire, Alicia Vikander on seeing Blue Valentine alone, while Rooney Mara names Rust & Bone (and also talks her crying fit during Toy Story 3).
Meanwhile, Domhnall Gleeson opens up about directing his brother in an anal sex scene, Mya Taylor talks Titanic, Margot Robbie picks True Romance,...
The picks include Cate Blanchett‘s experience in third grade, Paul Dano on Notorious, Jennifer Jason Leigh picks In the Realm of the Senses and Don’t Look Now, Jake Gyllenhaal talks Out of Sight and Jerry Maguire, Alicia Vikander on seeing Blue Valentine alone, while Rooney Mara names Rust & Bone (and also talks her crying fit during Toy Story 3).
Meanwhile, Domhnall Gleeson opens up about directing his brother in an anal sex scene, Mya Taylor talks Titanic, Margot Robbie picks True Romance,...
- 1/5/2016
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
“The movies that represent love and passion in a complicated way are extremely rare. Many doors were opened in the ‘70s by daring directors, and also daring, new laws that opened the representation of sex in underground cinema. Now almost all those doors are oxidized because no one is using them,” director Gaspar Noé recently told us. “In the Realm of the Senses was in the ‘70s, and, since then, who took advantage of that sexual revolution from the ‘70s?
Indeed, there’s not many answers to that question, but one filmmaker that would qualify is Abel Ferrara. With the release of Love, the brilliant folks over at The Talkhouse have now facilitated a conversation between the two boundary-pushing directors. Due to some connection issues, the first half is a bit awkward as they talk over eachother, but it soon evolves into a great conversation about censorship, getting their movies banned,...
Indeed, there’s not many answers to that question, but one filmmaker that would qualify is Abel Ferrara. With the release of Love, the brilliant folks over at The Talkhouse have now facilitated a conversation between the two boundary-pushing directors. Due to some connection issues, the first half is a bit awkward as they talk over eachother, but it soon evolves into a great conversation about censorship, getting their movies banned,...
- 11/3/2015
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
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