Terry Gilliam has been to Cannes with three of his own films since 1983, but one of his favorite memories of the festival takes him back to that very first time, at the 36th edition, as the co-writer and co-star of Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Along with Graham Chapman and the film’s director Terry Jones, he’d emerged from the Carlton hotel’s iconic entrance, then bedecked with promotion for the upcoming Bond movie Octopussy, to encounter a camera crew. Jones started grabbing people at random, shouting, “Who Ees Monty Python???” in a ridiculous foreign accent, and got so carried away that, when they reached the hotel’s famous terrace, he accidentally did it to Gilliam too.
The crowd loved it, and the day only grew stranger. Out on the Carlton’s jetty, they gave an interview to British news channel ITN, with Jones hiding behind Graham...
The crowd loved it, and the day only grew stranger. Out on the Carlton’s jetty, they gave an interview to British news channel ITN, with Jones hiding behind Graham...
- 5/20/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, Chantal Akerman, Theo Angelopoulos, Lynne Ramsay, Tsai Ming-liang, Michael Haneke, Lee Chang-dong, Terence Davies, Shōhei Imamura, Bi Gan, Hou Hsiao-hsien, Jia Zhangke, Wong Kar-wai, Yorgos Lanthimos, Denis Villleneuve, Céline Sciamma, Guillermo del Toro, Kelly Reichardt. Those are just a few of the filmmakers introduced to New York audiences at New Directors/New Films over the last half-century across over 1,100 premieres.
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
Now returning for its 53rd edition at Film at Lincoln Center and The Museum of Modern Art from April 3-14, this year’s lineup features 35 new films, presenting prizewinners from Berlin, Cannes, Locarno, Sarajevo, and Sundance film festivals. Ahead of the festival kicking off next week, we’ve gathered fourteen films to see, and one can explore the full lineup and schedule here.
All, or Nothing at All (Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang)
In All, or Nothing at all, director Jiajun “Oscar” Zhang employs an experimental...
- 4/1/2024
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for next month, including the exclusive streaming premiere of Lars von Trier’s The Idiots in a new 4K restoration, Céline Devaux’s anti-romcom Everybody Loves Jeanne, and Tyler Taormina’s Happer’s Comet.
Additional selections include three films by Wong Kar Wai, a Robert Altman double feature, four works by Jacques Rivette, plus shorts by Mia Hansen-Løve and Yorgos Lanthimos.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
July 1 – Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman
July 2 – 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai
July 3 – The Exiles, directed by Kent MacKenzie
July 4 – Ivansxtc, directed by Bernard Rose
July 5 – Un Pur Esprit, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve | Short Films Big Names
July 6 – Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | Turn It Up: Music on Film
July 7 – The Idiots, directed by Lars von Trier...
Additional selections include three films by Wong Kar Wai, a Robert Altman double feature, four works by Jacques Rivette, plus shorts by Mia Hansen-Løve and Yorgos Lanthimos.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
July 1 – Synecdoche, New York, directed by Charlie Kaufman
July 2 – 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai | As Time Goes By: Three by Wong Kar Wai
July 3 – The Exiles, directed by Kent MacKenzie
July 4 – Ivansxtc, directed by Bernard Rose
July 5 – Un Pur Esprit, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve | Short Films Big Names
July 6 – Contemporary Color, directed by Bill Ross IV, Turner Ross | Turn It Up: Music on Film
July 7 – The Idiots, directed by Lars von Trier...
- 6/26/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Roxy Cinema
The Last Temptation of Christ and The Flowers of St. Francis have 35mm showings for Easter Weekend, while Barbarella and The Terminator also screen on film; Ken Jacobs’ Two Wrenching Departures plays on Sunday with Jacobs present.
IFC Center
Gregg Araki presents Something Wild on 35mm this Friday, while his film The Doom Generation opens in a director’s cut; Beau Travail offers a Claire Denis fix; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight screen, while Akira and Barb Wire have late showings, with Wild Things showing on 35mm.
Bam
One of Shôhei Imamura’s last films, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, is screening, while “Queering the Canon” offers films by Lizzie Borden, Funeral Parade of Roses, and more.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Jeanne Dielman‘s influences brings the film itself and work by Varda,...
Roxy Cinema
The Last Temptation of Christ and The Flowers of St. Francis have 35mm showings for Easter Weekend, while Barbarella and The Terminator also screen on film; Ken Jacobs’ Two Wrenching Departures plays on Sunday with Jacobs present.
IFC Center
Gregg Araki presents Something Wild on 35mm this Friday, while his film The Doom Generation opens in a director’s cut; Beau Travail offers a Claire Denis fix; Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight screen, while Akira and Barb Wire have late showings, with Wild Things showing on 35mm.
Bam
One of Shôhei Imamura’s last films, Warm Water Under a Red Bridge, is screening, while “Queering the Canon” offers films by Lizzie Borden, Funeral Parade of Roses, and more.
Museum of the Moving Image
A series on Jeanne Dielman‘s influences brings the film itself and work by Varda,...
- 4/7/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The love affair between Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund and the Cannes Film Festival continues.
The 48-year-old director will return to the scene of his recent triumph, as it was just last year that his “Triangle of Sadness” came away with the coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the most prestigious festival in world cinema. (Don’t tell Venice I said that.)
“I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honor of jury president for this year’s competition at the Festival de Cannes,” he wrote in an announcement released by the festival early Tuesday morning. “I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever,” he continued.
Östlund’s “Triangle” is, of course, currently a long-shot Oscar candidate in three categories: Best Director (a nomination for Östlund), Best Original Screenplay (another nomination for Östlund), and Best Picture (a nomination...
The 48-year-old director will return to the scene of his recent triumph, as it was just last year that his “Triangle of Sadness” came away with the coveted Palme d’Or, the top prize at the most prestigious festival in world cinema. (Don’t tell Venice I said that.)
“I am happy, proud, and humbled to be trusted with the honor of jury president for this year’s competition at the Festival de Cannes,” he wrote in an announcement released by the festival early Tuesday morning. “I am sincere when I say that cinema culture is in its most important period ever,” he continued.
Östlund’s “Triangle” is, of course, currently a long-shot Oscar candidate in three categories: Best Director (a nomination for Östlund), Best Original Screenplay (another nomination for Östlund), and Best Picture (a nomination...
- 2/28/2023
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
Graduating as Ozu’s assistant with his debut feature-length at Shochiku in 1960, Masahiro Shinoda (b. 1931) saw the dawn of the Japanese New Wave and rose to prominence alongside the likes of Nagisa Oshima, Yasuzo Masumura, Koreyoshi Kurahara, and Shohei Imamura among a whole host of others. Though he would spend most of his career reinterpreting and reimagining whole genres including the yakuza film and jidaigeki, the films across his four-decade-long career would predominantly be united by a re-examination of Japanese historical, societal, and national identity, complete with a focus on alienation, mythologies, and religious and moral turmoil. Frequently coupled with composer Toru Takemitsu, cinematographers Masao Kosugi and Tatsuo Suzuki, and actress Shima Iwashita (whom he would go on to marry), Shinoda’s films grapple with man’s perturbing darkness and its effect on the personal and national conscience. Like most of his Nūberu Bāgu compatriots, Shinoda frequently negated cinematic and narrative traditions,...
- 2/22/2023
- by JC Cansdale-Cook
- AsianMoviePulse
Since opening in June 2022, todoiF audience has grown and the team behind it is grateful to everyone who has streamed films on this dedicated platform.
Although todoiF streams only carefully selected films, it already has 20 of the top Japanese Independent films in its lineup, and customers may have a difficult time deciding which ones to watch. To assist its viewers, todoiF has added a new category, “Insider’s Pick – Must Watch Japanese Indie Films.” In this category, industry professionals familiar with independent films are asked to select the films they would like movie fans around the world to see.
The following two professionals are the selectors of movies to begin streaming in December and January.
Mitsunori Demachi, president of Cinemago, a film distributor. After honing his discerning skills at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image founded by filmmaker Shohei Imamura, he launched Cinemarche, a film critique website, and...
Although todoiF streams only carefully selected films, it already has 20 of the top Japanese Independent films in its lineup, and customers may have a difficult time deciding which ones to watch. To assist its viewers, todoiF has added a new category, “Insider’s Pick – Must Watch Japanese Indie Films.” In this category, industry professionals familiar with independent films are asked to select the films they would like movie fans around the world to see.
The following two professionals are the selectors of movies to begin streaming in December and January.
Mitsunori Demachi, president of Cinemago, a film distributor. After honing his discerning skills at the Japan Institute of the Moving Image founded by filmmaker Shohei Imamura, he launched Cinemarche, a film critique website, and...
- 11/26/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Tallinn Black Nights film festival kicked off on November 11th, but the screenings of films from all five competition segments – Official Selection, First Feature Competition, Baltic Film Competition, Rebels With a Cause and Critics’ Picks- have just begun.
Five titles from Asia compete in the Official Selection. Vietnamese director Dung Luon Dinh is in Tallinn with his martial arts rich thriller “Magnum 578”, Israeli director Shahar Rozen competes with “Ducks – An Urban Legend”, a comedy thriller that involves yellow rubber ducks, and a year after his sophomore film “Make the Devil Laugh” had its world premiere here in Tallinn, the Japanese director Ryuchi Mino is back in town with a period comedy “Ginji The Speculator”. Indian director Sudhansu Saria, whose debut feature film “Loev” competed at PÖFF in 2015, is back with “Sanaa”, a drama starring Pooja Bhatt and Sohum Shah. Iranian title “The Wastetown” directed by Ahmad Bahrami is also...
Five titles from Asia compete in the Official Selection. Vietnamese director Dung Luon Dinh is in Tallinn with his martial arts rich thriller “Magnum 578”, Israeli director Shahar Rozen competes with “Ducks – An Urban Legend”, a comedy thriller that involves yellow rubber ducks, and a year after his sophomore film “Make the Devil Laugh” had its world premiere here in Tallinn, the Japanese director Ryuchi Mino is back in town with a period comedy “Ginji The Speculator”. Indian director Sudhansu Saria, whose debut feature film “Loev” competed at PÖFF in 2015, is back with “Sanaa”, a drama starring Pooja Bhatt and Sohum Shah. Iranian title “The Wastetown” directed by Ahmad Bahrami is also...
- 11/18/2022
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
Arrow Video floors us with yet another well-curated Japanese masterpiece. For practical purposes, this disc might represent the Western premiere of Tomu Uchida’s three-hour ‘crime and punishment’ saga. Unfolding like a novel and filmed with an unusually gritty visual scheme called ‘the Toei W106 method,’ the story’s timeline is split between 1947 and 1957. It has a strong postwar social statement to make, but the overriding theme is one of spiritual Karma, and the function of guilt in imperfect humans. Several of the actors are just unforgettable, especially Rentarô Mikuni, Junzaburô Ban, and Ken Takakura.
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
A Fugitive from the Past
Blu-ray
Arrow Video
1965 / B&w / 2:35 widescreen / 183 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / Kiga kaikyô, Straits of Hunger / Available from Amazon / 39.95
Starring: Rentarô Mikuni, Sachiko Hidari, Ken Takakura, Junzaburô Ban, Kôji Mitsui, Yoshi Katô, Susumu Fujita, Akiko Kazami, Rin’ichi Yamamoto, Tadashi Suganuma.
Cinematography: Hanjirô Nakazawa
Special Effects: Sadao Uemura
Art Director: Mikio Mori...
- 9/6/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
White NoiseCOMPETITIONWhite Noise (Noah Baumbach)Il Signore Delle Formiche (Gianni Amelio)The Whale (Darren Aronofsky)L’Immensita (Emanuele Crialese)Saint Omer (Alice Diop)Blonde (Andrew Dominik)Tár (Todd Field)Love Life (Koji Fukada)Bardo, False Chronicle Of A Handful Of Truths (Alejandro G. Inarritu)Athena (Romain Gavras)Bones & All (Luca Guadagnino)The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)Beyond The Wall (Vahid Jalilvand)The Banshees Of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre)Chiara (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Monica (Andrea Pallaoro)No Bears (Jafar Panahi)All The Beauty And The Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)A Couple (Frederick Wiseman)The Son (Florian Zeller)Our Ties (Roschdy Zem)Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski)Out Of COMPETITIONFictionThe Hanging Sun (Francesco Carrozzini)When The Waves Are Gone (Lav Diaz)Living (Oliver Hermanus)Dead For A Dollar (Walter Hill)Call Of God (Kim Ki-duk)Dreamin’ Wild (Bill Pohlad)Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)Siccità (Paolo Virzi)Pearl (Ti West)Don’t Worry Darling...
- 7/28/2022
- MUBI
The 79th Venice International Film Festival has just announced the line-up for the next edition. The 79th Venice International Film Festival is organised by La Biennale di Venezia and directed by Alberto Barbera. It will take place at Venice Lido from 31 August to 10 September 2022. The Festival is officially recognised by the Fiapf (International Federation of Film Producers Association).
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
Here are all the Asian Titles on the Programme:
Competition:
Love Life
Director Koji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi,...
The aim of the Festival is to raise awareness and promote international cinema in all its forms as art, entertainment and as an industry, in a spirit of freedom and dialogue. The Festival also organises retrospectives and tributes to major figures as a contribution towards a better understanding of the history of cinema.
Here are all the Asian Titles on the Programme:
Competition:
Love Life
Director Koji Fukada
Main Cast Fumino Kimura, Kento Nagayama, Atom Sunada / Japan, France / 123’
Shab, Dakheli, Divar (Beyond The Wall)
Director Vahid Jalilvand
Main Cast Navid Mohammadzadeh, Diana Habibi,...
- 7/26/2022
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
While the new premieres at the world’s greatest film festivals usually garner much of the spotlight, the lineup of restorations should be equally as exciting to any cinephile. Venice Film Festival, which kicks off its 79th edition from August 31-September 10, has now unveiled the lineup of the Classics section.
Featuring Jacques Tourner’s Canyon Passage, Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill, Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion, plus films by Peter Greenaway, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Yasujirō Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, and more, it’s an embarrassment of riches. If you don’t happen to be in Venice later next month, hopefully we’ll get news of home video releases for these in the coming year.
See the lineup below via Screen Daily.
Teresa The Thief (Teresa La Ladra)(Italy, 1973)
Dir. Carlo Di Palma
Restored by: Cineteca Nazionale
My Little Loves (Mes Petites Amoureuses) (France, 1974)
Dir. Jean Eustache
Restored...
Featuring Jacques Tourner’s Canyon Passage, Seijun Suzuki’s Branded to Kill, Edward Yang’s A Confucian Confusion, plus films by Peter Greenaway, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Yasujirō Ozu, Satyajit Ray, Jean Renoir, and more, it’s an embarrassment of riches. If you don’t happen to be in Venice later next month, hopefully we’ll get news of home video releases for these in the coming year.
See the lineup below via Screen Daily.
Teresa The Thief (Teresa La Ladra)(Italy, 1973)
Dir. Carlo Di Palma
Restored by: Cineteca Nazionale
My Little Loves (Mes Petites Amoureuses) (France, 1974)
Dir. Jean Eustache
Restored...
- 7/19/2022
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The section returns to the lido after two years.
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10).
Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.
A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods by...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31-September 10).
Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.
A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods by...
- 7/19/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
The section returns to the lido after two years.
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).
Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.
A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods...
Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Theorem and Yasujiro Ozu’s A Hen In The Wind are among the 18 films selected for the Venice Classics strand of the 79th Venice Film Festival (August 31 - September 10).
Pasolini’s Italian drama screened in competition at Venice in 1968 and received a special award from the International Catholic Film Office which was later revoked after the Vatican complained. It is restored by Cineteca di Bologna.
A Hen In The Wind is one of three Japanese films in selection. The other two are Profound Desires of the Gods...
- 7/19/2022
- by Ellie Calnan
- ScreenDaily
The movies produced by the Art Theatre Guild form one of the most interesting part of Japanese movie history, particularly because the filmmakers involved enjoyed unprecedented creative and artistic freedom, which resulted in a series of truly unique films. This is the main reason that we decided to deal with the particular titles for our February and March tribute, one that will definitely continue until we manage to have articles for all. Until then, however, and in a tactic we will continue with the rest of our tributes, we decided to also publish a synopsizing list of the movies we already wrote about, one that will expand as more articles come in. Here is what we have as of now, in chronological order.
1. A Man Vanishes (1967) by Shohei Imamura
Right from the beginning, we get an impression of an utterly chaotic experiment, while, as the story unfolds, we can figure...
1. A Man Vanishes (1967) by Shohei Imamura
Right from the beginning, we get an impression of an utterly chaotic experiment, while, as the story unfolds, we can figure...
- 3/28/2022
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Exclusive: Film Movement Classics has acquired North American rights to 2K digital restorations of Asghar Farhadi’s first two features Dancing in the Dust and Beautiful City, which have been signed off on by the two-time Oscar winner himself. Both restored dramas will be released theatrically this year, with a release on all heading home entertainment and digital platforms to follow.
In Farhadi’s 2003 feature directorial debut Dancing in the Dust, Nazar (Yousef Khodaparast) is pressured into divorcing his wife (Baran Kosari) because of her family’s bad reputation. This leads to money problems, and before long, he’s on the run due to debts that he can’t pay. Hiding out in the desert, he meets an eccentric elderly man (Faramarz Gharibian) who makes a living by collecting venom from poisonous snakes. Nazar becomes his unlikely partner and gets an unexpected chance at redemption. The film won Best Director,...
In Farhadi’s 2003 feature directorial debut Dancing in the Dust, Nazar (Yousef Khodaparast) is pressured into divorcing his wife (Baran Kosari) because of her family’s bad reputation. This leads to money problems, and before long, he’s on the run due to debts that he can’t pay. Hiding out in the desert, he meets an eccentric elderly man (Faramarz Gharibian) who makes a living by collecting venom from poisonous snakes. Nazar becomes his unlikely partner and gets an unexpected chance at redemption. The film won Best Director,...
- 3/2/2022
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
With a career spanning over 6 decades and more than 100 credits to his name, Koji Yakusho is one of the most renowned Japanese actors, with his success being rather evident in both his home country and internationally, particularly after his roles in “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Babel”. A true chameleon of acting, Yakusho has played all kinds of roles in his career, always being convincing whether in horror, comedies, social dramas or samurai movies, whether in blockbusters or independent productions, whether on TV or even voice acting in anime. As a tribute to this remarkable actor, we present 20 of his best roles throughout his career, in chronological order.
1. Dark Society in the East
How many actors do you think can walk up to a woman and say “I want to fondle your breasts” and be accepted, in the same film that begins with them literally scraping crap off freshly excreted cocaine bags?...
1. Dark Society in the East
How many actors do you think can walk up to a woman and say “I want to fondle your breasts” and be accepted, in the same film that begins with them literally scraping crap off freshly excreted cocaine bags?...
- 9/16/2021
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
With offerings like Death Line and Stage Fright in their August lineup, Arrow's service continues to be a go-to destination for lovers of cult cinema:
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the August 2021 lineup of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
The August lineup leads with the Arrow release of Noel David Taylor's bizarre filmmaking comedy Man Under Table, available exclusively to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and newly launched in Ireland. The feature debut from writer/director Noel David Taylor, who also stars as Guy, a beleaguered, hilariously obnoxious scriptwriter navigating his way through the chaotic indie film scene in a dystopian Los Angeles, Man Under Table world premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and screened at the Chattanooga Film Festival. The film will debut on Arrow August 2nd.
Man Under Table...
"London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the August 2021 lineup of their new subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
The August lineup leads with the Arrow release of Noel David Taylor's bizarre filmmaking comedy Man Under Table, available exclusively to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and newly launched in Ireland. The feature debut from writer/director Noel David Taylor, who also stars as Guy, a beleaguered, hilariously obnoxious scriptwriter navigating his way through the chaotic indie film scene in a dystopian Los Angeles, Man Under Table world premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival and screened at the Chattanooga Film Festival. The film will debut on Arrow August 2nd.
Man Under Table...
- 8/2/2021
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
Wife of a SpyThe programme for the 2020 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Gia Coppola, Lav Diaz, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Alice Rohrwacher, Gianfranco Rosi, Frederick Wiseman, Chloé Zhao, and more.COMPETITIONIn Between Dying (Hilal Baydarov)Le sorelle Macluso (Emma Dante)The World to Come (Mona Fastvold)Nuevo Orden (Michel Franco)Lovers (Nicole Garcia)Laila in Haifa (Amos Gitai)Dear Comrades (Andrei Konchalovsky)Wife of a Spy (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)Sun Children (Majid Majidi)Pieces of a Woman (Kornél Mundruczó)Miss Marx (Susanna Nicchiarelli)Padrenostro (Claudio Noce)Notturno (Gianfranco Rosi)Never Gonna Snow AgainThe Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)And Tomorrow The Entire World (Julia Von Heinz)Quo Vadis, Aida? (Jasmila Zbanic)Nomadland (Chloé Zhao)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesThe Ties (Daniele Luchetti)Lasciami Andare (Stefano Mordini)Mandibules (Quentin Dupieux)Love After Love (Ann Hui)Assandria (Salvatore Mereu)The Duke (Roger Michell)Night in Paradise (Park Hoon-jung)Mosquito...
- 8/3/2020
- MUBI
With Telluride Film Festival forced to cancel their yearly event, what is now the first of the major fall festivals, Venice, has announced their complete lineup. Along with Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland, which was revealed yesterday, the lineup includes more of our most-anticipated films of the year, including Frederick Wiseman’s City Hall, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Gia Coppola’s Mainstream, Abel Ferrara’s Sportin’ Life, Lav Diaz’s Genus Pan, Mona Fastvold’s The World to Come, Kornél Mundruczó’s Pieces of a Woman, Gianfranco Rosi’s Notturno, and more.
There were also a few surprises in the lineup. Luca Guadagnino has directed a new documentary titled Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, while Alice Rohrwacher and Jr have teamed for the new short film, Omelia Contadina. Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibules will also premiere out of competition.
In perhaps the best surprise of all, a new, recently uncovered film by Orson Welles,...
There were also a few surprises in the lineup. Luca Guadagnino has directed a new documentary titled Salvatore: Shoemaker of Dreams, while Alice Rohrwacher and Jr have teamed for the new short film, Omelia Contadina. Quentin Dupieux’s Mandibules will also premiere out of competition.
In perhaps the best surprise of all, a new, recently uncovered film by Orson Welles,...
- 7/28/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
There are not as many new films being made and some completed films are holding out until 2021 to make their festival premiere, but there’s no shortage of new restorations coming to film festivals soon. Cannes recently revealed their Classics lineup of titles screening this fall and hopefully coming to discs in the near future, and now it is Venice’s turn.
They’ve revealed the new restorations that will first screen at Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy on August 25-31, followed by screenings at Venice Film Festival soon after. New restorations include work by Martin Scorsese, Souleymane Cissé, Michelangelo Antonioni, Shôhei Imamura, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Pierre Melville, Nikita Mikhalkov, and more. Some of these films already have forthcoming disc releases announced, including Claudine, coming to Criterion this fall.
Check out the lineup below (via Deadline) as well as the Venice Critics’ Week slate, which includes the Terrence Malick...
They’ve revealed the new restorations that will first screen at Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy on August 25-31, followed by screenings at Venice Film Festival soon after. New restorations include work by Martin Scorsese, Souleymane Cissé, Michelangelo Antonioni, Shôhei Imamura, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Pierre Melville, Nikita Mikhalkov, and more. Some of these films already have forthcoming disc releases announced, including Claudine, coming to Criterion this fall.
Check out the lineup below (via Deadline) as well as the Venice Critics’ Week slate, which includes the Terrence Malick...
- 7/22/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Restoration strand to take place outside of the city this year.
Films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet are among the lineup of the Venice Classics section at the 77th Venice Film Festival.
The 13 titles include Scorsese gangster drama Goodfellas, which has been restored by Warner Bros. and received its world premiere at Venice in 1990.
Others include Antonioni’s 1950 drama Chronicle Of A Love, which as been restored by Cineteca di Bologna; Sidney Lumet’s 1973 neo-noir thriller Serpico, restored by Studiocanal; and Souleymane Cissé’s 1975 Malian film The Young Girl, restored by Cinémathèque Française.
The strand, which comprises restored versions of classic films,...
Films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Martin Scorsese and Sidney Lumet are among the lineup of the Venice Classics section at the 77th Venice Film Festival.
The 13 titles include Scorsese gangster drama Goodfellas, which has been restored by Warner Bros. and received its world premiere at Venice in 1990.
Others include Antonioni’s 1950 drama Chronicle Of A Love, which as been restored by Cineteca di Bologna; Sidney Lumet’s 1973 neo-noir thriller Serpico, restored by Studiocanal; and Souleymane Cissé’s 1975 Malian film The Young Girl, restored by Cinémathèque Française.
The strand, which comprises restored versions of classic films,...
- 7/22/2020
- by 1100453¦Michael Rosser¦9¦
- ScreenDaily
The full lineup for the 77th Venice Film Festival will be announced on July 28. In the meantime, organizers have set the roster of restored titles that will make up the Venice Classics section which, unconventionally this year, will be hosted as part of the Cinema Ritrovato Festival in Bologna, Italy from August 25-31 in a show of solidarity between the events. The selection, which includes works by Michelangelo Antonioni, Shôhei Imamura, Fritz Lang, Sidney Lumet, Jean-Pierre Melville, Nikita Mikhalkov and Martin Scorsese will then be screened in Venice in the following months.
The Venice Film Festival, the first major international film event to take place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, will be held from September 2-12 on the Lido. Certain changes owing to sanitary protocols imposed by the Covid-19 crisis were announced earlier this month, including the shifting of venues for the Classics section. The overall number of...
The Venice Film Festival, the first major international film event to take place since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, will be held from September 2-12 on the Lido. Certain changes owing to sanitary protocols imposed by the Covid-19 crisis were announced earlier this month, including the shifting of venues for the Classics section. The overall number of...
- 7/22/2020
- by Nancy Tartaglione
- Deadline Film + TV
Conceived by Shôhei Imamura, Kazuo Hara’s audacious, deeply unsettling documentary feature follows Kenzo Okuzaki, a 62-year-old WW2 veteran who has fought tirelessly and often violently to bring to justice Japan’s Emperor Hirohito and the Army commanders whom he holds responsible for the countless deaths and other atrocities involving Japanese soldiers during the war in the Pacific.
Harrowing, unflinching and extraordinarily powerful, Hara’s film pushes against the proprieties of Japanese society (the film remains unreleased in its home country), and forces us to question the relationship between documentary filmmaker and protagonist.
Special Features:
• A new filmed interview with Kazuo Hara, shot exclusively for this release.
• Kazuo Hara Masterclass: the filmmaker in conversation at the 2018 London Open City Documentary Festival event.
• 20-page booklet featuring writing by film historians Tony Rayns, Jason Wood and Abé Mark Nornes.
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Region free Blu-ray and DVD.
Harrowing, unflinching and extraordinarily powerful, Hara’s film pushes against the proprieties of Japanese society (the film remains unreleased in its home country), and forces us to question the relationship between documentary filmmaker and protagonist.
Special Features:
• A new filmed interview with Kazuo Hara, shot exclusively for this release.
• Kazuo Hara Masterclass: the filmmaker in conversation at the 2018 London Open City Documentary Festival event.
• 20-page booklet featuring writing by film historians Tony Rayns, Jason Wood and Abé Mark Nornes.
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• Region free Blu-ray and DVD.
- 10/26/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan’s film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series “Ultraman” and 1988’s box-office success “Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis”. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which – “This Transient Life“, “Mandara” and “Poem”, forming “The Buddhist Trilogy” – are collected here.
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, “This Transient Life” is among the Art Theatre Guild’s most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further...
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, “This Transient Life” is among the Art Theatre Guild’s most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further...
- 5/18/2019
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan’s film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series Ultraman and 1998’s box-office success Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which – This Transient Life, Mandara and Poem, forming The Buddhist Trilogy – are collected here.
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild’s most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further education or his father’s business,...
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild’s most successful – and most controversial – productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who defy the expectations placed on them: he has little interest in further education or his father’s business,...
- 5/22/2018
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
Sennan Asbestos Disaster. Image courtesy of Shisso Productions.With Sennan Asbestos Disaster (2017), iconoclastic director Kazuo Hara makes a return ten years in progress, following his previous film The Many Faces of Chika (2005). At three hours and thirty-five minutes (usually screened with a short intermission), the film has many apparent differences from the past breathless titles for which he became known beginning in the early 1970s. Focused on a strong central protagonist pursuing a radical goal, these works depended on sustained conflict and collaboration between filmmaker and subject, defining a model of filmmaking he would theorize as “action documentary.” In distinction, this latest work is an ensemble piece assembled over a long period of time. Sennan Asbestos Disaster is focused on members of the Citizen Group for Sennan Asbestos Damage and their long legal battle that began with the filing of a lawsuit against the government in 2006 and went up to the Supreme Court.
- 11/28/2017
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Akihiko Shiota's Wet Woman in the Wind (2016), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from November 24 - December 24, 2017 as a Special Discovery.Much like Hollywood, the Japanese film industry goes to the well as often as possible once it hits a lucky strike. Such was the case with the so-called Roman Porno films of the 1970s, an infamous genre of sexploitation primarily identified with Japan’s oldest major studio, Nikkatsu. Financial trouble necessitated a popular, inexpensive product, and these softcore numbers were just the ticket. This may have been the studio where Kenji Mizoguchi and Shohei Imamura made films early in their careers, but by 1971 the Roman Porno factory was in full swing, producing quick, cheap, titillating product for an audience hungry for female toplessness and a great deal of convulsive thrusting.
- 11/23/2017
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman)
Burgeoning sexuality is the basis for nearly all coming-of-age films, but with her specific eye, Eliza Hittman makes it feel like we’re watching this genre unfold for the first time. With only two features to her name, she’s captured the experience with a sensuality and intimacy nearly unprecedented in American independent filmmaking. Following 2013’s It Felt Like Love, the writer-director follows it with...
Beach Rats (Eliza Hittman)
Burgeoning sexuality is the basis for nearly all coming-of-age films, but with her specific eye, Eliza Hittman makes it feel like we’re watching this genre unfold for the first time. With only two features to her name, she’s captured the experience with a sensuality and intimacy nearly unprecedented in American independent filmmaking. Following 2013’s It Felt Like Love, the writer-director follows it with...
- 11/10/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Away from Hollywood’s stifling commercial limits, Fumiyo Kouno’s manga about a young bride in wartime Japan has no illusions regarding the human price of war. Young Suzu takes in a new family, endures the hardships of a militarized country and wartime privations, but nobody is ready for what’s coming. Sunao Katabuchi’s historical drama makes stunning use of animation.
In this Corner of the World
Blu-ray + DVD
Shout! Factory
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Kono sekai no katasumi ni / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 22.97
Japanese Voices: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Megumi Han, Natsuki Inaba, Nanase Iwai; English Voices: Laura Post, Kira Buckland, Barbara Goodson, Todd Haberkorn, Jason Palmer.
Character design: Hidenori Matsubara
Original Music: Kotringo
Written by Sunao Katabuchi, Chie Uratani, from the manga by Fumiyo Kouno
Produced by Taro Maki, Masao Maruyama
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
American feature films are now a commercial desert dominated by expensive blockbusters, with a...
In this Corner of the World
Blu-ray + DVD
Shout! Factory
2016 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 128 min. / Kono sekai no katasumi ni / Street Date November 14, 2017 / 22.97
Japanese Voices: Non, Yoshimasa Hosoya, Megumi Han, Natsuki Inaba, Nanase Iwai; English Voices: Laura Post, Kira Buckland, Barbara Goodson, Todd Haberkorn, Jason Palmer.
Character design: Hidenori Matsubara
Original Music: Kotringo
Written by Sunao Katabuchi, Chie Uratani, from the manga by Fumiyo Kouno
Produced by Taro Maki, Masao Maruyama
Directed by Sunao Katabuchi
American feature films are now a commercial desert dominated by expensive blockbusters, with a...
- 10/24/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
With just about two weeks to go before its seaside premiere at the 70th annual Cannes Film Festival, the first image for Michael Haneke’s Happy End – his latest cold dose of cruel reality – has landed as hard as the realization that one day we will all die, and most likely alone. Of course, Haneke returns to Cannes this year a reigning champ, double-fisting Palmes d’Or after his last films to grace the Competition – The White Ribbon and Amour – emerged victorious. The question on many minds going into this year’s festival is whether he’ll win the top prize for a third time and break the all-time record he holds alongside fellow international auteurs Alf Sjöberg, Francis Ford Coppola, Bille August, Emir Kusturica, Shohei Imamura, the Dardennes brothers, and last year’s surprise winner Ken Loach.
Happy End reunites Haneke with two performers who have arguably given career-best...
Happy End reunites Haneke with two performers who have arguably given career-best...
- 5/4/2017
- by Daniel Crooke
- FilmExperience
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
In the course of the 1960s some of Japan’s most creative and prominent film directors grew frustrated with the mainstream studios restricting their artistic freedom. This led to the emergence of the Art Theatre Guild (Atg).
The Atg quickly pulled in New Wave directors such as Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda, and many more. Here they could freely develop their visions as they saw fit, no matter how experimental. Another one of these directors was Akio Jissoji who, in 1970, proceeded to direct one of the Atg’s most significant and haunting masterpieces.
“This Transient Life” centers itself around Masao, a rebellious young man who refuses to work or go to college. He lives with his parents and has a close relationship with his sister Yuri. A relationship that gets a little too close early in the film, and (d)evolves into an incestuous affair. They keep this a secret,...
The Atg quickly pulled in New Wave directors such as Nagisa Oshima, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda, and many more. Here they could freely develop their visions as they saw fit, no matter how experimental. Another one of these directors was Akio Jissoji who, in 1970, proceeded to direct one of the Atg’s most significant and haunting masterpieces.
“This Transient Life” centers itself around Masao, a rebellious young man who refuses to work or go to college. He lives with his parents and has a close relationship with his sister Yuri. A relationship that gets a little too close early in the film, and (d)evolves into an incestuous affair. They keep this a secret,...
- 2/27/2017
- by Nick Sint Nicolaas
- AsianMoviePulse
A Fugitive from the PastFilm history is full of holes, but some are filled in more reluctantly than others. Consider, for example, the strange case of Tomu Uchida (1898-1970). In his home country Japan, he is considered a canonized master. In the West, he was mostly a name without any practical meaning, at least until a (still slimmed-down) touring series in the wake of Tokyo FilmEx’s 2004 13-film-retrospective made the rounds for a few years, e.g. to International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2005 and New York’s BAMcinématek in 2008, allowing for the first time the appreciation of a sizable selection from Uchida’s rich and diverse body of work, with emphasis on his fascinating post-war period.Although Uchida is discussed in standard texts on Japanese cinema—especially his realistic classic Tsuchi (Earth, 1939)—and individual films appear time and again in other contexts (back then he was even in competition in...
- 11/8/2016
- MUBI
Paris’ premier fantastic festival L’Etrange is kicking off on Wednesday and on top of a huge Competition Section comprised of 22 features there’s a whole range of high profile events. Top of the must-watch list come three tantalising retrospectives from three very different filmmakers. Japanese new-wave provocateur Shohei Imamura and American video-nasty pioneer Frank Henenlotter both receive Special Focus while Poland’s controversial boundary-pusher Andrzej Żuławski is the recipient of a well-deserved homage. Andrzej Żuławski Returning to cinema after a fifteen-year hiatus, Andrzej Żuławski walked away with a Best Director Award at Locarno 2015 for Cosmos. Sadly passing away at the beginning of this year, the director left behind a body of work ripe for rediscovery. The son of a poet, Żuławski would study film in...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/6/2016
- Screen Anarchy
Abbas Kiarostami (June 22, 1940 - July 4, 2016) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Composer Grégoire Hetzel (Catherine Corsini's Summertime, Anne Fontaine's The Innocents, Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days), filmmaker Roberto Andò (The Confessions, Long Live Freedom), and cinematographer Ed Lachman (Todd Solondz' Wiener-Dog, Todd Haynes' Carol and Far From Heaven) salute Abbas Kiarostami, who passed away in Paris on Monday, July 4, 2016.
Abbas Kiarostami's final film, Like Someone In Love, was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where in 1997 he shared Palme d'Or honours for Taste of Cherry with Shohei Imamura's The Eel.
Grégoire Hetzel: "Kiarostami forced entry into my childhood memories by retrospective invasion." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Grégoire Hetzel, Roberto Andò and Ed Lachman remember Abbas Kiarostami:
"Kiarostami is one of my most beloved filmmakers. On hearing the news of his loss, I was instantly reminded that his films like The Traveler, Homework, Where is the Friend's Home?...
Composer Grégoire Hetzel (Catherine Corsini's Summertime, Anne Fontaine's The Innocents, Arnaud Desplechin's My Golden Days), filmmaker Roberto Andò (The Confessions, Long Live Freedom), and cinematographer Ed Lachman (Todd Solondz' Wiener-Dog, Todd Haynes' Carol and Far From Heaven) salute Abbas Kiarostami, who passed away in Paris on Monday, July 4, 2016.
Abbas Kiarostami's final film, Like Someone In Love, was screened at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival, where in 1997 he shared Palme d'Or honours for Taste of Cherry with Shohei Imamura's The Eel.
Grégoire Hetzel: "Kiarostami forced entry into my childhood memories by retrospective invasion." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Grégoire Hetzel, Roberto Andò and Ed Lachman remember Abbas Kiarostami:
"Kiarostami is one of my most beloved filmmakers. On hearing the news of his loss, I was instantly reminded that his films like The Traveler, Homework, Where is the Friend's Home?...
- 7/11/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
Profound Desire(s) of the Gods is a sprawling, disturbing, ambitiously weird would-be epic about a clash of societies within the territorial boundaries of a rapidly modernizing Japan. It’s set on the fictional southern island of Karuge, where ancient tribal customs and animistic worship rituals still held most of the inhabitants in a strong (though inevitably loosening) grip. The narrative conflict stems from outsiders who want to convert the arable land into a sugar cane plantation and exploit the island’s inherent value as a tourist destination. But the forces of commerce and technological efficiency are ill-prepared to deal with the stubborn resiliency of the people they encounter, or the baffling complex of myths and taboos that compel them.
The film was a major throw down by Shohei Imamura, a director who had achieved enough commercial success with his...
- 7/4/2016
- by David Blakeslee
- CriterionCast
The Nikkatsu logo, especially in the late 1950s and early 1960s, was a bit of a promise – 80-100 minutes of wild guys, sexy ladies, mob showdowns, a handful of visually-striking locations (get ready for nothing but bars, nightclubs, and docks), and a good deal of brooding over morality before the inevitable eruption of violence. These were as programatic as they come, yet within those strictures, the filmmakers under contract to the studio found enough room to practice some pretty wild stuff, or at least have some fun in so doing. Though the true classics from the studio (especially those by Shohei Imamura and Seijun Suzuki) were definitely outliers, to the point that the directors behind them were punished or fired for making them, that baseline promise captured the imaginations of young moviegoers at the time and have remained steadfast pleasures for today’s cinephiles.
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
For those whose curiosity was piqued...
- 3/30/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Shohei Imamura’s brutalist depiction of female resilience in his masterwork of 1963, The Insect Woman, echoes the beloved French filmmaker Marcel L’Herbier‘s monumental silent avant-garde narrative L’inhumaine, which translates to The Inhuman Woman, in both name and loosely, in theme. Centering its Frankensteinian tale of high class love, loss and reanimation around a hardened woman of the world whose apathy toward men of all classes guides her way through parties and performances, L’Herbier’s brilliant collaboration with fellow art deco artists like the painter Fernand Léger, the architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, and soon-to-be-filmmakers themselves, designers Alberto Cavalcanti and Claude Autant-Lara, is nothing short of a cinematic masterpiece of modern invention.
Making use of a beautiful and thrilling combination of highly stylized studio sets and on location shoots on the outskirts of Paris, L’inhumaine trains its often matted eye on the famed singer Claire (real life opera star Georgette Leblanc,...
Making use of a beautiful and thrilling combination of highly stylized studio sets and on location shoots on the outskirts of Paris, L’inhumaine trains its often matted eye on the famed singer Claire (real life opera star Georgette Leblanc,...
- 2/23/2016
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
In this special episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the best DVD and Blu-ray 2015.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Ryan buys the Ernest and Celestine Blu-ray from Plain Archive Ultra HD Blu-ray Pre-orders Live, March 1st release: Fox, Sony, WB, Shout! and now Lionsgate Curzon Tarkovsky Ryan’s Top 10 List of 2015 Classics from the Van Beuren Studio (Thunderbean Animation) Thunderbirds: The Complete Series (Timeless Media Group / Shout! Factory) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (Arrow UK) Twice Upon A Time (Warner Archive Collection) Journey to the Center of the Earth (Twilight Time) Watership Down (The Criterion Collection) Walt Disney Animation Studios: Short Films Collection (Disney) 3-D Rarities (Flicker Alley) Spartacus: Restored Edition (Universal) The Apu Trilogy (The Criterion Collection)
Honorable mentions:
Arrow Video: Kiju Yoshida: Love + Anarchism, The Train, The Criterion Collection: The Fisher King, Moonrise Kingdom...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Follow-Up Ryan buys the Ernest and Celestine Blu-ray from Plain Archive Ultra HD Blu-ray Pre-orders Live, March 1st release: Fox, Sony, WB, Shout! and now Lionsgate Curzon Tarkovsky Ryan’s Top 10 List of 2015 Classics from the Van Beuren Studio (Thunderbean Animation) Thunderbirds: The Complete Series (Timeless Media Group / Shout! Factory) The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (Arrow UK) Twice Upon A Time (Warner Archive Collection) Journey to the Center of the Earth (Twilight Time) Watership Down (The Criterion Collection) Walt Disney Animation Studios: Short Films Collection (Disney) 3-D Rarities (Flicker Alley) Spartacus: Restored Edition (Universal) The Apu Trilogy (The Criterion Collection)
Honorable mentions:
Arrow Video: Kiju Yoshida: Love + Anarchism, The Train, The Criterion Collection: The Fisher King, Moonrise Kingdom...
- 1/13/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Above: Le joli mai (1963).
Around about June every year, for several days, a large documentary festival spreads across a cluster of venues in the centre of Sheffield, engulfing the city's main arthouse, The Showroom, and several local theatres, odeons, libraries, and small pubs. The people of Sheffield were affable, generally. Street vendors set-up outside the screening rooms, so there'd regularly be smoke in the air. There was an outdoor screen on Howard Street—at the foot of a grassy hill and against the muraled wall of a pub we saw Ben Rivers' Two Years at Sea (2012) and Wim Wenders' Pina (2011)—and another in the underbelly of a grand, art deco library, where I bummed tickets to see Martha Shane and Lana Wilson's After Tiller (a producer for the film took pity, since I had not booked in advance).
So perhaps it's hardly surprising that the festival itself...
Around about June every year, for several days, a large documentary festival spreads across a cluster of venues in the centre of Sheffield, engulfing the city's main arthouse, The Showroom, and several local theatres, odeons, libraries, and small pubs. The people of Sheffield were affable, generally. Street vendors set-up outside the screening rooms, so there'd regularly be smoke in the air. There was an outdoor screen on Howard Street—at the foot of a grassy hill and against the muraled wall of a pub we saw Ben Rivers' Two Years at Sea (2012) and Wim Wenders' Pina (2011)—and another in the underbelly of a grand, art deco library, where I bummed tickets to see Martha Shane and Lana Wilson's After Tiller (a producer for the film took pity, since I had not booked in advance).
So perhaps it's hardly surprising that the festival itself...
- 7/9/2013
- by Christopher Small
- MUBI
This month the Criterion Collection has an eclectic mix heading to Blu-ray and DVD, reminding us once again just how fun their mission to preserve the best and most important works of classic and contemporary cinema can be. In one corner you have the Japanese classics The Ballad of Narayama, by Director Shôhei Imamura, and Kenji Mizoguchi's Sansho the Bailiff. In another you have the lauded, and 8 Academy Award-winning On the Waterfront by Elia Kazan and starring Marlon Brando and Karl Malden. And finally, in the third corner we turn to France for two films separated by 50 years: Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch's Chronicle of a Summer, and 2011's The Kid with a Bike, a powerful drama by Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, with one of the best performances by a child actor in recent memory.
For details on all of these releases, keep reading.
Read more...
For details on all of these releases, keep reading.
Read more...
- 2/14/2013
- by Lex Walker
- JustPressPlay.net
Eureka’s Masters of Cinema label recently put out Shôhei Imamura’s stunning The Ballad of Narayama on Blu-ray and they’re following up that with The Insect Woman on 20th February. As an extra bonus they’re also including the rare early film by Imamura, Nishi-ginza Station. We’ve been sent over disc details, synopsis, the cover art, you [...]...
- 12/7/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
Criterion releases Kiss Me Deadly on DVD and Blu-ray today and, for the occasion, they're running an essay by J Hoberman adapted from his book, An Army of Phantoms: American Movies and the Making of the Cold War: "Genres collide in the great Hollywood movies of the mid fifties cold-war thaw. With the truce in Korea and the red scare on the wane, ambitious directors seemed freer to mix and match and even ponder the new situation. The western goes south in The Searchers; the cartoon merges with the musical in The Girl Can't Help It. Science fiction becomes pop sociology in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. And noir veers into apocalyptic sci-fi in Robert Aldrich's 1955 masterpiece Kiss Me Deadly, which, briefly described, tracks one of the sleaziest, stupidest, most bru tal detectives in American movies through a nocturnal, inexplicably violent labyrinth to a white-hot vision of cosmic annihilation.
- 6/21/2011
- MUBI
Masters of Cinema:The culmination of Shôhei Imamura's extraordinary examinations of the fringes of Japanese society throughout the 1960s, Profound Desires of the Gods [Kamigami no fukaki yokubô] was an 18-month super-production which failed to make an impression at the time of its release, but has since risen in stature to become one of the most legendary -- albeit least seen -- Japanese films of recent decades. Presenting a vast chronicle of life on the remote Kurage Island, the film centres on the disgraced, superstitious, interbred Futori family and the Tokyo engineer sent to supervise the creation of a new well -- an encounter which leads to both conflict and complicity in strange and powerful ways. A tragic view of a passing epoch that teeters on...
- 5/18/2011
- Screen Anarchy
Now, in much sadder news, legendary art director Kimihiko Nakamura, whose work can be seen in films like Twenty-Four Eyes, and films like The Insect Woman, Pigs and Battleships and Intentions of Murder (with the latter three being able to be found in the Pigs, Pimps, and Prostitutes collection), has passed away at the age of 94. He passed away on Tuesday of last week from renal failure.
While I’m not massively familiar with his work, I have seen The Insect Woman, and I must say, his work is impeccable, and visually stunning. He helped craft major films within the world that was the Japanese New Wave, particularly with director Shohei Imamura, and is a truly legendary figure within the world of Japanese film.
This is truly a sad bit of news, but since he hasn’t been too busy prior to this, this is definitely a time to remember...
While I’m not massively familiar with his work, I have seen The Insect Woman, and I must say, his work is impeccable, and visually stunning. He helped craft major films within the world that was the Japanese New Wave, particularly with director Shohei Imamura, and is a truly legendary figure within the world of Japanese film.
This is truly a sad bit of news, but since he hasn’t been too busy prior to this, this is definitely a time to remember...
- 7/15/2010
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Profound Desires Of The Gods
Eureka, Blu-Ray
With most films you can guess when they were made, to within five years, just by looking at them. Some films, however, are so locked into their own little world, so perfectly and unwaveringly delivered, that you'd be hard-pressed to date them with any accuracy. This near-forgotten classic from Shohei Imamura (better known for Pigs & Battleships and the incredible 1979 serial killer film Vengeance Is Mine) slides easily into the latter category. Released to mass bafflement and public indifference in 1968 after an indulgent 18-month production schedule, it looks and feels as if it could have been made any time within the past five decades. Set on a fictional island near Okinawa, the tale concerns a Tokyo engineer sent to oversee the construction of a well for a sugar mill. His encounters with a shamed local family provide a story that touches on both farce and allegory.
Eureka, Blu-Ray
With most films you can guess when they were made, to within five years, just by looking at them. Some films, however, are so locked into their own little world, so perfectly and unwaveringly delivered, that you'd be hard-pressed to date them with any accuracy. This near-forgotten classic from Shohei Imamura (better known for Pigs & Battleships and the incredible 1979 serial killer film Vengeance Is Mine) slides easily into the latter category. Released to mass bafflement and public indifference in 1968 after an indulgent 18-month production schedule, it looks and feels as if it could have been made any time within the past five decades. Set on a fictional island near Okinawa, the tale concerns a Tokyo engineer sent to oversee the construction of a well for a sugar mill. His encounters with a shamed local family provide a story that touches on both farce and allegory.
- 6/18/2010
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives is first Asian Palme d'Or win since 1997
Asian cinema tonight emerged as the surprise winner of this year's Cannes film festival when a lyrically beautiful and often surreal Thai movie took the Palme d'Or.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, already had the best title of the 19 films in competition. Tonight jury chairman Tim Burton named it best film, seeing off films from an impressive roster of film makers that included Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami.
It is the first Asian Palme d'Or winner since Kiarostami shared it with Japanese film maker Shohei Imamura in 1997.
And it came after the veteran South Korean director Hong Sangsoo on Saturday won the prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar prize for Hahaha.
The Asian clean sweep took most Cannes watchers by surprise. Just as surprising...
Asian cinema tonight emerged as the surprise winner of this year's Cannes film festival when a lyrically beautiful and often surreal Thai movie took the Palme d'Or.
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, already had the best title of the 19 films in competition. Tonight jury chairman Tim Burton named it best film, seeing off films from an impressive roster of film makers that included Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Abbas Kiarostami.
It is the first Asian Palme d'Or winner since Kiarostami shared it with Japanese film maker Shohei Imamura in 1997.
And it came after the veteran South Korean director Hong Sangsoo on Saturday won the prestigious Un Certain Regard sidebar prize for Hahaha.
The Asian clean sweep took most Cannes watchers by surprise. Just as surprising...
- 5/24/2010
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.