Luca Guadagnino believes filmgoers will endorse his Zendaya movie Challengers because it delivers “a canon of Hollywood golden age comedy – seductive fun with queerness.” The movie’s “big sell” is a shot of Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor kissing one another in various configurations.
Challengers is establishing itself as a Gen Z “date movie,” with a 75% female audience, mostly under the age of 24. Its high-powered social media campaign triggered a $25 million opening weekend globally, defying the pre-summer box office torpor.
The movie has also been well received by Gen Z reviewers who are faithful to their lexicon of film criticism – male characters are approvingly deemed “heteroflexible,” females “polyamorous,” etc.
It was a surprise to his fans that Guadagnino, an Italian filmmaker, set out to make an American-set sports movie (he is not a sports fan) about a tennis world to which he was alien. As with his other films,...
Challengers is establishing itself as a Gen Z “date movie,” with a 75% female audience, mostly under the age of 24. Its high-powered social media campaign triggered a $25 million opening weekend globally, defying the pre-summer box office torpor.
The movie has also been well received by Gen Z reviewers who are faithful to their lexicon of film criticism – male characters are approvingly deemed “heteroflexible,” females “polyamorous,” etc.
It was a surprise to his fans that Guadagnino, an Italian filmmaker, set out to make an American-set sports movie (he is not a sports fan) about a tennis world to which he was alien. As with his other films,...
- 5/2/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Two years after he leapt to the forefront of the New Hollywood with The Godfather, and just months before he picked up the threads of that operatic crime saga with the magnificent sequel/prequel The Godfather Part II, Francis Ford Coppola released a quiet movie, one in which sound itself — and, more specifically, its surreptitious recording — is the narrative engine. Arriving during a particularly fertile era for American film, The Conversation was not a hit, but it is one of the period’s most subtle and shattering features. Half a century later, it resounds as hauntingly as ever, not merely as a cautionary tale but as a searing portrait of where we are now.
The movie took its New York bow on Coppola’s 35th birthday, April 7, 1974, a few weeks before its Palme d’Or triumph in Cannes. Today the octogenarian writer-director is again preparing to compete on the Croisette,...
The movie took its New York bow on Coppola’s 35th birthday, April 7, 1974, a few weeks before its Palme d’Or triumph in Cannes. Today the octogenarian writer-director is again preparing to compete on the Croisette,...
- 4/17/2024
- by Sheri Linden
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Spoiler Alert: The following essay discusses key plot points, including the ending.
Last weekend, I took in “Le Samouraï” for what must have been the sixth or seventh time, relishing the new 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece (now playing at Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles). As I exited the screening, I discreetly eavesdropped on my fellow audience members. Most seemed impressed. A few were still processing what they’d seen: an existential study of a lone killer, told with radically little dialogue. “That wasn’t at all what I expected,” one woman told her friend. “I thought we were going to see some kind of samurai movie.”
It’s a reasonable assumption, given the film’s title, although the 1967 crime classic takes place half a world away, in Paris, almost exactly a century after Japan’s samurai era came to an end. I first saw “Le Samouraï” in the late ’90s,...
Last weekend, I took in “Le Samouraï” for what must have been the sixth or seventh time, relishing the new 4K restoration of Jean-Pierre Melville’s masterpiece (now playing at Laemmle theaters in Los Angeles). As I exited the screening, I discreetly eavesdropped on my fellow audience members. Most seemed impressed. A few were still processing what they’d seen: an existential study of a lone killer, told with radically little dialogue. “That wasn’t at all what I expected,” one woman told her friend. “I thought we were going to see some kind of samurai movie.”
It’s a reasonable assumption, given the film’s title, although the 1967 crime classic takes place half a world away, in Paris, almost exactly a century after Japan’s samurai era came to an end. I first saw “Le Samouraï” in the late ’90s,...
- 4/9/2024
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
There was perhaps no movie director more in demand in the 1970s than Francis Ford Coppola, who was leading the New Hollywood film movement with epics like “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather Part II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979). But fewer viewers remember his quiet neo-noir drama “The Conversation,” a complete turnaround in production scale and arguably his only intimate, simple dramatic film. While it was not as financially successful as the previously aforementioned grander classics, the mystery thriller was just as acclaimed and lauded, earning three Oscar nominations and winning the Palme d’Or at the 1974 Cannes Film Festival. Now on its 50th anniversary, let’s look back at one of Coppola’s overlooked films, “The Conversation,” which was released on April 7, 1974.
The picture stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a top surveillance expert who stumbles upon an ambiguous comment – that may lead to a potential murder – while recording for one of...
The picture stars Gene Hackman as Harry Caul, a top surveillance expert who stumbles upon an ambiguous comment – that may lead to a potential murder – while recording for one of...
- 4/9/2024
- by Christopher Tsang
- Gold Derby
Until recently, if one were asked to name some of the best films of preeminent 1970s filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola, it would be easy to pick the big hits. “The Godfather” (1972), “The Godfather II” (1974) and “Apocalypse Now” (1979) are definitely his most iconic and respected films. You’d also be hard-pressed to find a person aged 25-50 who isn’t keenly aware of his adaption of S.E. Hinton’s mandatory high school assigned “The Outsiders” (1983) or his classics “Peggy Sue Got Married” (1986) and maybe even “Tucker: The Man and His Dream” (1988). Yet lately, Coppola’s “The Conversation” (1974) has entered the chat as a somewhat under the radar, low-key masterpiece from the filmmaker, and this year the film celebrates its 50th birthday.
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
After honing his directorial chops on films like the Roger Corman-produced horror film “Dementia 13” (1963) and fledgling films like “You’re a Big Boy Now” (1966), “Finian’s Rainbow” (1968) and “The Rain People...
- 4/8/2024
- by Don Lewis
- Indiewire
It had all the elements of a good action movie – jeopardy, revenge, a mega budget – with even some casualties thrown in (albeit corporate).
The Bob Iger vs Nelson Peltz (who?) war is over now and Iger has won. But some filmmakers and ticket buyers might wonder: Did any of it matter? Would a modest change on the Disney board of directors have had any impact on the future of entertainment? (Peltz himself runs a hedge fund called Trian Partners and has no background in entertainment.)
To be sure, it’s been a good show, albeit a throwback to an era when Hollywood was run by Big Personalities, not monoliths like Amazon or Apple. The battles of that era were ego wars, not proxy wars — Redstone vs Diller or Murdoch vs Ted Turner, with bewildered stars and their reps huddled in the middle.
But now Iger has won – again. The onetime...
The Bob Iger vs Nelson Peltz (who?) war is over now and Iger has won. But some filmmakers and ticket buyers might wonder: Did any of it matter? Would a modest change on the Disney board of directors have had any impact on the future of entertainment? (Peltz himself runs a hedge fund called Trian Partners and has no background in entertainment.)
To be sure, it’s been a good show, albeit a throwback to an era when Hollywood was run by Big Personalities, not monoliths like Amazon or Apple. The battles of that era were ego wars, not proxy wars — Redstone vs Diller or Murdoch vs Ted Turner, with bewildered stars and their reps huddled in the middle.
But now Iger has won – again. The onetime...
- 4/4/2024
- by Peter Bart
- Deadline Film + TV
Edward Bond, the Oscar-nominated Blow-Up screenwriter and playwright whose Saved and Early Morning were banned in the UK, fueling a legal review that led to the end of stage censorship in the country, has died, his agency said. He was 89.
Casarotto Ramsay and Associates said he died Sunday but did not reveal the cause.
“Edward was one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century,” the agency tweeted. “He made his mark upon the theatrical world with radical, thought-provoking, and unerringly original work.”
Bond’s first screenplay was the English-language dialogue for Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 classic that starred David Hemming and Vanessa Redgrave. Earning him an Original Screenplay Oscar nom, it was the first of about a dozen film credits including Walkabout (1971) and Laughter in the Dark (1968).
Born on July 18, 1934, in London, Bond quit school as a teenager and would see his debut play, The Pope’s Wedding, produced...
Casarotto Ramsay and Associates said he died Sunday but did not reveal the cause.
“Edward was one of the greatest dramatists of the 20th century,” the agency tweeted. “He made his mark upon the theatrical world with radical, thought-provoking, and unerringly original work.”
Bond’s first screenplay was the English-language dialogue for Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 classic that starred David Hemming and Vanessa Redgrave. Earning him an Original Screenplay Oscar nom, it was the first of about a dozen film credits including Walkabout (1971) and Laughter in the Dark (1968).
Born on July 18, 1934, in London, Bond quit school as a teenager and would see his debut play, The Pope’s Wedding, produced...
- 3/5/2024
- by Erik Pedersen
- Deadline Film + TV
The main title card for Shambhala, the new drama from Nepalese director Min Bahadur Bham (The Black Hen), appears about an hour into the movie. That’s more or less the same time it takes for the story to truly come alive, in a languishing 150-minute narrative that could prove a real patience-tester for many viewers.
And yet, this exquisitely crafted second feature does provide a certain payoff for those willing to accept its leisurely, Zen-like pacing — beginning with some of the more breathtaking scenery recently captured on screen.
At once intimate and epic, and often more ethnographic than dramatic, Shambhala takes us to the Himalayas to follow a young bride, Pema (Thinely Lhamo), whose husband, Tashi (Tenzin Dalha), leaves her behind for several months and then winds up disappearing altogether. The hitch is that Tashi is actually one of three husbands in a polyandrous marriage that also includes his...
And yet, this exquisitely crafted second feature does provide a certain payoff for those willing to accept its leisurely, Zen-like pacing — beginning with some of the more breathtaking scenery recently captured on screen.
At once intimate and epic, and often more ethnographic than dramatic, Shambhala takes us to the Himalayas to follow a young bride, Pema (Thinely Lhamo), whose husband, Tashi (Tenzin Dalha), leaves her behind for several months and then winds up disappearing altogether. The hitch is that Tashi is actually one of three husbands in a polyandrous marriage that also includes his...
- 2/23/2024
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Film Festival
Restored classic films from Ernst Lubitsch, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski are among eight older titles set to play at next month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Lubitsch’s 1920 farce “Kohlhiesel’s Daughters,” will be presented with a live music accompaniment by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Kubrick’s first feature, “Fear and Desire,” has been preserved intact and will play at the festival with nine minutes of previously deleted footage. It forms an anti-war pair with Polanski’s 2000 Nazi occupation tale “The Pianist.”
Others selected include Michelangelo Antonioni‘s “Il Grido”; Manoel d’Oliveira’s “Madame Bovary” adaptation “Abraham’s Valley”; Arturo Ripstein’s director’s cut of “Deep Crimson,” restored in 4K with an additional 25 minutes of content; Jacques Rivette’s “L’Amour Fou”; and “The Dupes,” by Tewfik Saleh.
Format
Screentime New Zealand will adapt hit property format “Location,...
Restored classic films from Ernst Lubitsch, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski are among eight older titles set to play at next month’s Hong Kong International Film Festival.
Lubitsch’s 1920 farce “Kohlhiesel’s Daughters,” will be presented with a live music accompaniment by the Hong Kong New Music Ensemble. And, despite rumors to the contrary, Kubrick’s first feature, “Fear and Desire,” has been preserved intact and will play at the festival with nine minutes of previously deleted footage. It forms an anti-war pair with Polanski’s 2000 Nazi occupation tale “The Pianist.”
Others selected include Michelangelo Antonioni‘s “Il Grido”; Manoel d’Oliveira’s “Madame Bovary” adaptation “Abraham’s Valley”; Arturo Ripstein’s director’s cut of “Deep Crimson,” restored in 4K with an additional 25 minutes of content; Jacques Rivette’s “L’Amour Fou”; and “The Dupes,” by Tewfik Saleh.
Format
Screentime New Zealand will adapt hit property format “Location,...
- 2/23/2024
- by Patrick Frater and Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
In Andrei Tarkovsky’s penultimate film Nostalghia (1983), which he co-wrote with Michelangelo Antonioni’s longtime collaborator Tonino Guerra, Russian writer Andrei (Oleg Ivanovič Jankovskij) travels to Italy in order to research the life of composer Pavel Sosnovsky, along with his interpreter Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano), a young woman who resembles the Madonna del Parto in the famous fresco by Piero della Francesca.
Ahead of the theatrical release of the new 4K restoration, now playing at NYC’s Film Forum, we had the opportunity to speak with Giuseppe Lanci, the Italian cinematographer who shot the film and oversaw this new restoration. The 81-year-old Lanci still teaches at the Csc (National School of Cinema of Rome). In his diaries, Tarkovsky mentioned watching Nostalghia with cinematographer Sven Nykvist: “The photography made a strong impression on Nykvist. Indeed, Peppe Lanci shot the film in an extraordinary manner. This Swedish copy is much better than the one shown at Cannes,...
Ahead of the theatrical release of the new 4K restoration, now playing at NYC’s Film Forum, we had the opportunity to speak with Giuseppe Lanci, the Italian cinematographer who shot the film and oversaw this new restoration. The 81-year-old Lanci still teaches at the Csc (National School of Cinema of Rome). In his diaries, Tarkovsky mentioned watching Nostalghia with cinematographer Sven Nykvist: “The photography made a strong impression on Nykvist. Indeed, Peppe Lanci shot the film in an extraordinary manner. This Swedish copy is much better than the one shown at Cannes,...
- 2/21/2024
- by Lucia Senesi
- The Film Stage
Last Feb. 14, actress Valentina Bellè walked the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards for The Good Mothers, the Disney+ series directed by Julian Jarrold and Elisa Amoruso that was nominated for best foreign series after bowing last year in Berlin, where it won the fest’s first Berlinale Series Award. And it is to Berlin that the 31-year-old Bellè will return this year, chosen as the Italian face of European Shooting Stars, an annual award given to up-and-coming talent.
“I am extremely honored,” Bellè says. “I can’t wait to meet my wonderful colleagues from all over Europe, all these incredible talents. And I can’t wait to be in Berlin to exchange ideas and experiences. And to find out where it all started for them.”
Her beginning took place on the stage of her elementary school’s theater. “A confined space in which to abandon the idea of yourself for a while,...
“I am extremely honored,” Bellè says. “I can’t wait to meet my wonderful colleagues from all over Europe, all these incredible talents. And I can’t wait to be in Berlin to exchange ideas and experiences. And to find out where it all started for them.”
Her beginning took place on the stage of her elementary school’s theater. “A confined space in which to abandon the idea of yourself for a while,...
- 2/18/2024
- by Manuela Santacatterina
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Andrei Tarkovsky’s penultimate film, 1983’s gorgeously haunting Nostalghia, also marked new territory for the director. His first film made outside the Ussr, the Cannes Best Director winner (a prize he shared with Robert Bresson for L’Argent), was also a unique collaboration with writer Tonino Guerra, frequent collaborator of Michelangelo Antonioni, Federico Fellini, and Francesco Rosi. Now restored in 4K in 2022 by Csc – Cinetecanazionale in collaboration with Rai Cinema at Augustus Color laboratory, from the original negatives and the original soundtrack preserved at Rai Cinema, the restoration will begin rolling out on February 21 at NYC’s Film Forum via Kino Lorber and we’re pleased to exclusively unveil the trailer.
Here’s the synopsis: “Andrei Tarkovsky explained that in Russian the word ‘nostalghia’ conveys ‘the love for your homeland and the melancholy that arises from being far away.’ This debilitating form of homesickness is embodied in the film by Andrei,...
Here’s the synopsis: “Andrei Tarkovsky explained that in Russian the word ‘nostalghia’ conveys ‘the love for your homeland and the melancholy that arises from being far away.’ This debilitating form of homesickness is embodied in the film by Andrei,...
- 1/31/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Under the subtle veneer of comedy, made all the more preposterous by an all too typical awkward and fumbling Englishman, Edoardo Ulivelli’s Lo Sguardo (The Look) reverberates with pangs of loneliness and regret. Ulivelli’s graduate short, all filmed around the lush verdant Tuscan countryside, is not carried by dialogue but instead longing glances, wordless coquettish smiles and heady flirtations. Lo Sguardo follows a shy young man on his Italian holiday as he navigates a potential lustful encounter. Ulivelli pulls from personal experience as he was drawn to explore those big ‘What if?’ moments through our unversed protagonist’s refusal or perhaps inability to grab the proverbial bull by the horns. As Lo Sguardo premieres on Dn’s pages today, we speak to Ulivelli about writing this film as a way to process his own worries and preoccupations, his meticulous planning before a shoot, and why he wanted to...
- 1/10/2024
- by Sarah Smith
- Directors Notes
It was easy enough to get made, said German director Ilker Çatak over coffee at the Toronto International Film Festival. He came up with the idea and co-wrote low-budget indie “The Teacher’s Lounge” with his old school-mate Johannes Duncker. “We wanted to make a movie about a young teacher who gets into trouble,” said Çatak. “Education is a topic that everybody has a relationship with. So whether you’ve been in school, or you have kids in school, it’s a universal thing.”
Inspired by a true incident from their school days, the writers set the entire movie inside the school, cutting out the backstory of the idealistic young teacher, Carla (Leonie Benesch). “We eliminated the whole exposition, and jumped right into the action,” said .Çatak. “And another key was to just have it take place in one place. And to restrict ourselves on all kinds of levels: in the screenplay,...
Inspired by a true incident from their school days, the writers set the entire movie inside the school, cutting out the backstory of the idealistic young teacher, Carla (Leonie Benesch). “We eliminated the whole exposition, and jumped right into the action,” said .Çatak. “And another key was to just have it take place in one place. And to restrict ourselves on all kinds of levels: in the screenplay,...
- 11/21/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Above: first US teaser poster for Poor Things. Design by Vasilis Marmatakis.I don’t know whether it’s because of the power of Yorgos Lanthimos, or the popularity of Emma Stone, or the sheer genius of designer Vasilis Marmatakis, or a combination of all of them, but three out of the four most liked posters on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram over the past six months have all been posters for Lanthimos’s latest, Poor Things. The teaser above is now the most liked poster ever on my feed.Breaking up the Poor Things monopoly at number two is Polish designer Maks Bereski’s fan-art design for Ridley Scott’s yet-to-be-released Napoleon, which also went through the roof with over 4,000 likes when I posted it in June in conjunction with my article on Bereski and his favorite movie posters. Instagram likes are a fickle thing but it...
- 10/12/2023
- MUBI
Vanessa Redgrave To Be Feted At European Film Awards
Vanessa Redgrave will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards this December. Across six decades, the actress has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits. Having first achieved fame as Rosalind in a 1961 a televized Royal Shakespeare Company performance of As You Like It, she broke out in cinema in Karel Reisz’s 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Redgrave won Best Actress in Cannes for the role and was also Bafta and Oscar nominated. Other key early credits include Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Reisz’s Isadora, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen Of Scots, for which she won a Special David at the Italian David di Donatello Awards; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia, for which she won an Oscar and James Ivory’s The Bostonians and Howards End and James Gray’s Little Odessa.
Vanessa Redgrave will be honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards this December. Across six decades, the actress has ratcheted up more than 150 film and TV credits. Having first achieved fame as Rosalind in a 1961 a televized Royal Shakespeare Company performance of As You Like It, she broke out in cinema in Karel Reisz’s 1966 comedy Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment. Redgrave won Best Actress in Cannes for the role and was also Bafta and Oscar nominated. Other key early credits include Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow Up, Reisz’s Isadora, Charles Jarrott’s Mary, Queen Of Scots, for which she won a Special David at the Italian David di Donatello Awards; Fred Zinnemann’s Julia, for which she won an Oscar and James Ivory’s The Bostonians and Howards End and James Gray’s Little Odessa.
- 9/20/2023
- by Jesse Whittock and Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Award
British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards.
Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She returned to Cannes in the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.
More Oscar nominations followed – in 1969 for her performance as Isadora Duncan in “Isadora” by Reisz, which again won her best actress at Cannes, and in 1972 for “Mary, Queen of Scots, by Charles Jarrott – which won her a special David at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards. Her performance in Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (1978) won her an Oscar, and she scored further nominations for James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1985) and “Howards End” (1993). In...
British actor Vanessa Redgrave will receive the European Lifetime Achievement award for her outstanding body of work at the European Film Awards.
Hailing from an illustrious family of actors, Redgrave’s first lead in “Morgan: A Suitable Case for Treatment” (1966), by Karel Reisz, won her best actress at Cannes and scored BAFTA and Oscar nominations. She returned to Cannes in the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in “Blow Up” by Michelangelo Antonioni.
More Oscar nominations followed – in 1969 for her performance as Isadora Duncan in “Isadora” by Reisz, which again won her best actress at Cannes, and in 1972 for “Mary, Queen of Scots, by Charles Jarrott – which won her a special David at Italy’s David di Donatello Awards. Her performance in Fred Zinnemann’s “Julia” (1978) won her an Oscar, and she scored further nominations for James Ivory’s “The Bostonians” (1985) and “Howards End” (1993). In...
- 9/20/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Award will be presented at European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.
The European Film Academy is to present Dame Vanessa Redgrave with its European Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.
Redgrave’s first lead film role was in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) by Karel Reisz which won her the best actress award in Cannes saw her nominated both the BAFTAs and the Oscars.
Redgrave returned to Cannes the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.
She won best actress again at...
The European Film Academy is to present Dame Vanessa Redgrave with its European Lifetime Achievement Award at the 36th European Film Awards in Berlin on December 9.
Redgrave’s first lead film role was in Morgan: A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966) by Karel Reisz which won her the best actress award in Cannes saw her nominated both the BAFTAs and the Oscars.
Redgrave returned to Cannes the following year as Jane, the mysterious woman in the park in Blow Up by Michelangelo Antonioni.
She won best actress again at...
- 9/20/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Mubi has announced its lineup of streaming offerings for September, including the exclusive streaming premieres for Rebecca Zlotowski’s Other People’s Children; and Lola Quivoron’s Rodeo; and Rotting in the Sun by Sebastián Silva, whose work is highlighted in a series that also includes The Maid, Life Kills Me, and Nasty Baby.
Additional selections include a mini-retro of last year’s TIFF (Pacifiction and the newest film by Sophy Romvari among them), 10 by Pedro Almodóvar, and David Lynch’s rare 1988 short The Cowboy and the Frenchman, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nance.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
September 1
Volver, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Matador, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Dark Habits, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Law of Desire, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
High Heels, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Kika, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Live Flesh,...
Additional selections include a mini-retro of last year’s TIFF (Pacifiction and the newest film by Sophy Romvari among them), 10 by Pedro Almodóvar, and David Lynch’s rare 1988 short The Cowboy and the Frenchman, starring Harry Dean Stanton and Jack Nance.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
September 1
Volver, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Matador, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Dark Habits, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Law of Desire, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
High Heels, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Kika, directed by Pedro Almodóvar
Live Flesh,...
- 8/31/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Clockwise from upper left: 2001: A Space Odyssey (MGM), Inception (Warner Bros.), Brazil (Universal), Donnie Darko (United Artists)Graphic: The A.V. Club
Summertime means tentpole movies galore, with cineplexes dominated by high-octane action flicks and superhero fare. But there are always some wildcard films and directors that like to mix...
Summertime means tentpole movies galore, with cineplexes dominated by high-octane action flicks and superhero fare. But there are always some wildcard films and directors that like to mix...
- 7/18/2023
- by Bryan Reesman
- avclub.com
Jane Birkin graced the front pages of most French newspapers on Monday as France mourned the death of the late British actress and singer who enjoyed icon status in the country that she had called home since the late 1960s.
“Our tears can’t change anything,” proclaimed Le Parisien newspaper, which first broke the news of Birkin’s death at the age of 76 on Sunday.
Libération ran with the simple headline “Without Jane”, while regional newspaper Le Maine Libre referred to the late actress as “The Eternal English Bride of France”.
International obituaries have highlighted Birkin’s notorious performance with partner and late bad boy of French pop music Serge Gainsbourg on the 1968 pop song, ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, or the fact she inspired the Hermès Birkin bag.
For the French, she was much more.
In a six-page tribute, Libération mused over the reasons for Birkin’s never-ending...
“Our tears can’t change anything,” proclaimed Le Parisien newspaper, which first broke the news of Birkin’s death at the age of 76 on Sunday.
Libération ran with the simple headline “Without Jane”, while regional newspaper Le Maine Libre referred to the late actress as “The Eternal English Bride of France”.
International obituaries have highlighted Birkin’s notorious performance with partner and late bad boy of French pop music Serge Gainsbourg on the 1968 pop song, ‘Je t’aime… moi non plus’, or the fact she inspired the Hermès Birkin bag.
For the French, she was much more.
In a six-page tribute, Libération mused over the reasons for Birkin’s never-ending...
- 7/17/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Birkin’s death has shocked her adopted France over the long Bastille Day weekend.
Anglo-French actress, director and singer Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76.
Born and brought up in the UK, Birkin rose to fame in France in the 1960s with a parallel acting and singing career and became a global fashion icon and a woman’s rights activist. France claimed the naturalised citizen as their own.
Birkin starred in around 70 films including Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow Up, 1969’s The Swimming Pool opposite Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, Roger Vadim’s Don Juan, Or if Don...
Anglo-French actress, director and singer Jane Birkin has died at the age of 76.
Born and brought up in the UK, Birkin rose to fame in France in the 1960s with a parallel acting and singing career and became a global fashion icon and a woman’s rights activist. France claimed the naturalised citizen as their own.
Birkin starred in around 70 films including Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow Up, 1969’s The Swimming Pool opposite Alain Delon and Romy Schneider, Roger Vadim’s Don Juan, Or if Don...
- 7/16/2023
- by Rebecca Leffler
- ScreenDaily
Jane Birkin, the Anglo-French actress, singer and fashion icon known in part for her decade-long romantic and artistic partnership with musician Serge Gainsbourg, died Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced. She was 76.
It was first reported in Le Parisien and Bfm television that Birkin had been found dead at her home in Paris. The actress suffered a mild stroke in 2021, but her cause of death has not yet been revealed.
“Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us,” Macron wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
Born in 1946 in London, Birkin began her career while still a teenager as part of the “Swinging London” scene of the 1960s. She appeared mainly in small roles in art and counterculture films,...
It was first reported in Le Parisien and Bfm television that Birkin had been found dead at her home in Paris. The actress suffered a mild stroke in 2021, but her cause of death has not yet been revealed.
“Because she embodied freedom, because she sang the most beautiful words of our language, Jane Birkin was a French icon. A complete artist, her voice was as sweet as her engagements were fiery. She bequeaths us tunes and images that will never leave us,” Macron wrote in a statement posted on Twitter.
Born in 1946 in London, Birkin began her career while still a teenager as part of the “Swinging London” scene of the 1960s. She appeared mainly in small roles in art and counterculture films,...
- 7/16/2023
- by Joseph Kapsch and Ross A. Lincoln
- The Wrap
Birkin made a sensational impact in Blow-Up, and went on to become a classy performer for a number of major French directors – notably Godard and Agnès Varda
Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76Jane Birkin: a life in pictures
Jane Birkin was the elegant, delicate, heartstoppingly beautiful singer and movie star with a fascinatingly elusive and free-spirited screen presence. She was a performer with that interesting distinction of being Anglo-French, which somehow added to her unlocatable quality: she was quite at home with both languages, like other stars Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott Thomas and, indeed, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Birkin’s daughter with Serge Gainsbourg.
It was her destiny to be thought of as a public figure and national treasure in France, where she made a great many films, and to be placed on an odd kind of pedestal as icon or 60s darling. She had been a fashion model in...
Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76Jane Birkin: a life in pictures
Jane Birkin was the elegant, delicate, heartstoppingly beautiful singer and movie star with a fascinatingly elusive and free-spirited screen presence. She was a performer with that interesting distinction of being Anglo-French, which somehow added to her unlocatable quality: she was quite at home with both languages, like other stars Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott Thomas and, indeed, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Birkin’s daughter with Serge Gainsbourg.
It was her destiny to be thought of as a public figure and national treasure in France, where she made a great many films, and to be placed on an odd kind of pedestal as icon or 60s darling. She had been a fashion model in...
- 7/16/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Jane Birkin, the beloved British-French actor and singer who spent most of her life in France and is known for a tumultuous relationship with French singer-songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, died on Sunday at her home in Paris, according to Le Parisien newspaper. She was 76.
No cause of death has yet been confirmed.
Birkin was best known internationally for her steamy 1969 duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus” which she sang with Gainsbourg, one year after meeting him on the shoot of Pierre Grimblat’s “Slogan.” Although she hadn’t broken through at the time, she had a small but memorable part in Michelangelo Antonioni’s sultry 1966 film “Blow Up.”
Together, Birkin and Gainsbourg had a daughter, the actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. After splitting in 1980, the pair remained close and pursued their artistic collaboration. Birkin was creatively involved in three albums by Gainsbourg, “Baby Alone in Babylone” in 1983, “Lost Song” in...
No cause of death has yet been confirmed.
Birkin was best known internationally for her steamy 1969 duet “Je t’aime… moi non plus” which she sang with Gainsbourg, one year after meeting him on the shoot of Pierre Grimblat’s “Slogan.” Although she hadn’t broken through at the time, she had a small but memorable part in Michelangelo Antonioni’s sultry 1966 film “Blow Up.”
Together, Birkin and Gainsbourg had a daughter, the actor and singer Charlotte Gainsbourg. After splitting in 1980, the pair remained close and pursued their artistic collaboration. Birkin was creatively involved in three albums by Gainsbourg, “Baby Alone in Babylone” in 1983, “Lost Song” in...
- 7/16/2023
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Jane Birkin, the singer and actress who rose to fame in the late 1960s as the lover of French bad boy Serge Gainsbourg and became a beloved figure in her adopted France, has died. She was 76.
The French culture minister announced the news on Sunday following reports in Le Parisien newspaper and Bfm television that said Birkin had been found dead at her home in Paris. She had suffered a mild stroke in 2021.
Although born in London, Birkin would find fame singing in French. Her duet with Gainsbourg on the sexually explicit song “Je t’aime…moi non plus” (which was banned in several countries and condemned by the Vatican) made her a household name around the world.
The song was recorded in 1968, just months after the pair — Birkin, then 22 years old, and Gainsbourg 40 — had first met on the set of the film Slogan, forging a turbulent relationship that would...
The French culture minister announced the news on Sunday following reports in Le Parisien newspaper and Bfm television that said Birkin had been found dead at her home in Paris. She had suffered a mild stroke in 2021.
Although born in London, Birkin would find fame singing in French. Her duet with Gainsbourg on the sexually explicit song “Je t’aime…moi non plus” (which was banned in several countries and condemned by the Vatican) made her a household name around the world.
The song was recorded in 1968, just months after the pair — Birkin, then 22 years old, and Gainsbourg 40 — had first met on the set of the film Slogan, forging a turbulent relationship that would...
- 7/16/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Italian indie producer Vivo Film has boarded André Ristum’s action drama “Tecnicamente Dolce” (“Technically Sweet”), based on a screenplay by Italian legend Michelangelo Antonioni, teaming with Gullane Filmes, Brazil’s biggest independent film production house.
The news comes as “Carnival Is Over,” the awaited thriller drama by “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra, whose “A Wolf at the Door” was one of the standout Brazilian feature debuts of the last decade, has now entered post-production, shaping up as one of the big arthouse titles to hit festivals from Brazil next year.
Featuring Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door”), Pêpê Rapazote (“Narcos”) and Irandhir Santos (“Tropa de Elite 2”), “Carnival” is a Brazilian-Portuguese co-production that teams Gullane with Fado Filmes, Videodrome, Globo Filmes and Telecine, in association with Tc Filmes. France’s Playtime has started to pre-sell the film.
“This movie is our main title for next year. This is the...
The news comes as “Carnival Is Over,” the awaited thriller drama by “Narcos” director Fernando Coimbra, whose “A Wolf at the Door” was one of the standout Brazilian feature debuts of the last decade, has now entered post-production, shaping up as one of the big arthouse titles to hit festivals from Brazil next year.
Featuring Leandra Leal (“A Wolf at the Door”), Pêpê Rapazote (“Narcos”) and Irandhir Santos (“Tropa de Elite 2”), “Carnival” is a Brazilian-Portuguese co-production that teams Gullane with Fado Filmes, Videodrome, Globo Filmes and Telecine, in association with Tc Filmes. France’s Playtime has started to pre-sell the film.
“This movie is our main title for next year. This is the...
- 5/24/2023
- by Emiliano De Pablos and John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Nanni Moretti always dresses impeccably — whether tuxed-up for the Cannes red carpet for his eight competition appearances since 1978 (his ninth, for A Brighter Tomorrow, will come May 24) or walking the Croisette in the casual chic (cashmere sweaters and chinos with open-collar shirts in dark gray or plum) that appears to come naturally to Italian men of Moretti’s generation. But the mantle of elder statesman of Italian cinema seems to hang on the 69-year-old director more like an ill-fitting suit.
It’s hard to deny Moretti’s position as a successor to the great neorealists — Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini — and the generation of New Wave heroes of the 1960s like Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci and Lina Wertmüller who reclaimed and restored Italian cinema after the ravages of fascism. His list of awards and acclaims alone — the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room in 2001, Cannes best director in 1994 for Dear Diary,...
It’s hard to deny Moretti’s position as a successor to the great neorealists — Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini, Roberto Rossellini — and the generation of New Wave heroes of the 1960s like Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci and Lina Wertmüller who reclaimed and restored Italian cinema after the ravages of fascism. His list of awards and acclaims alone — the Palme d’Or for The Son’s Room in 2001, Cannes best director in 1994 for Dear Diary,...
- 5/19/2023
- by Scott Roxborough and Concita De Gregorio
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Trace Lysette in Monica Photo: courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.
In Andrea Pallaoro’s striking third feature, Monica, Trace Lysette plays the title character, a trans webcam performer, who returns home and tries to reconnect with her ailing mother, Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson). Continuing the director’s exploration of family and relationships in an effort to understand human nature, it refrains from offering answers, instead borrowing from Michelangelo Antonioni’s non-intrusive and observational approach, Pallaoro invites his audience to embrace and understand the fractured family at the heart of his film.
Lysette spoke with Eye For Film about the collaborative relationship she shared with Pallaoro, and the film’s contribution to conversations about representation for trans people.
Trace Lysette and Patricia Clarkson in Monica Photo: courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.
Paul Risker: When you first read the script, what drew your interest in the character of Monica?...
In Andrea Pallaoro’s striking third feature, Monica, Trace Lysette plays the title character, a trans webcam performer, who returns home and tries to reconnect with her ailing mother, Eugenia (Patricia Clarkson). Continuing the director’s exploration of family and relationships in an effort to understand human nature, it refrains from offering answers, instead borrowing from Michelangelo Antonioni’s non-intrusive and observational approach, Pallaoro invites his audience to embrace and understand the fractured family at the heart of his film.
Lysette spoke with Eye For Film about the collaborative relationship she shared with Pallaoro, and the film’s contribution to conversations about representation for trans people.
Trace Lysette and Patricia Clarkson in Monica Photo: courtesy of IFC Films. An IFC Films release.
Paul Risker: When you first read the script, what drew your interest in the character of Monica?...
- 5/7/2023
- by Paul Risker
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Above: Original French release poster for Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Designer unknown.Jeanne Dielman wins again! Posted on the day that Chantal Akerman’s masterpiece was announced as the surprise come-from-behind winner of Sight and Sound’s decennial Greatest Films of All Time poll, the original poster for the film racked up close to 3,000 likes on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (helped perhaps by being paired with this photo of Akerman pensively smoking in front of the same poster back in the day). I have no doubt that any poster for the film posted on that day would have gotten a lot of attention, but I’d like to believe that some of the likes were for the poster itself: unassuming yet elegant (like Jd herself), foregrounding that radically mundane title, and containing nothing surplus to requirements, just Mrs. Dielman at her dining room table, waiting patiently,...
- 4/6/2023
- MUBI
Influential Italian auteur Francesco “Citto” Maselli who worked with Lucia Bosé, Claudia Cardinale, Shelley Winters and Valeria Golino on films that combined his political passion with his bent for female-centered dramas, has died in Rome.
Maselli, who was known for making left-wing militant cinema, was 92.
The director’s death was announced to Italian news agency Ansa by Maurizio Acerbo, leader of Italy’s small Communist Refoundation Party, the group of die-hard Italian leftists that Maselli championed, and confirmed by the director’s wife. The exact cause of Maselli’s death was not revealed.
Born into a cultured family originally from Italy’s Southern Molise region and raised in an intellectually stimulating environment – his father was an art critic – Maselli participated at a very early age in Italy’s partisan Resistance movement against fascists and German occupiers and as a young man started asserting his belief in Communism.
After graduating from...
Maselli, who was known for making left-wing militant cinema, was 92.
The director’s death was announced to Italian news agency Ansa by Maurizio Acerbo, leader of Italy’s small Communist Refoundation Party, the group of die-hard Italian leftists that Maselli championed, and confirmed by the director’s wife. The exact cause of Maselli’s death was not revealed.
Born into a cultured family originally from Italy’s Southern Molise region and raised in an intellectually stimulating environment – his father was an art critic – Maselli participated at a very early age in Italy’s partisan Resistance movement against fascists and German occupiers and as a young man started asserting his belief in Communism.
After graduating from...
- 3/21/2023
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
While we’ve known the results of Jeanne Dielman Tops Sight and Sound‘s 2022 Greatest Films of All-Time List”>Sight & Sound’s once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll for a few months now, the recent release of the individual ballots has given data-crunching cinephiles a new opportunity to dive deeper. We have Letterboxd lists detailing all 4,400+ films that received at least one vote and another expanding the directors poll, spreadsheets calculating every entry, and now a list ranking how many votes individual directors received for their films.
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
Tabulated by Genjuro, the list of 35 directors, with two pairs, puts Alfred Hitchcock back on top, while Chantal Akerman is at number two. Elsewhere in the top ten are David Lynch, Francis Ford Coppola, Jean-Luc Godard, Agnès Varda, Orson Welles, Yasujirō Ozu, and Stanley Kubrick, and tied for the tenth spot is Wong Kar Wai and Ingmar Bergman.
Check out the list below,...
- 3/5/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
It might be obvious to say, but a film getting nominated for an Oscar doesn’t automatically make it good.
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
It’s easy to assume that certain releases don’t get nominated because they’re not what Oscar voters would usually go for, but there have been some surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films likem say, DC’s Suicide Squad may get mauled by the critics, but they still gain recognition from the Academy (it went on to win).
This is even more ridiculous when you consider that classics such as Don’t Look Now...
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
It’s easy to assume that certain releases don’t get nominated because they’re not what Oscar voters would usually go for, but there have been some surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films likem say, DC’s Suicide Squad may get mauled by the critics, but they still gain recognition from the Academy (it went on to win).
This is even more ridiculous when you consider that classics such as Don’t Look Now...
- 3/3/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
It might sound obvious, but getting nominated for an Oscar doesn’t automatically make a film good.
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
While it’s easy to assume that certain films don’t get nominated because they’re not what voters of the Oscars would usually go for, there have been a lot of surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films like DC’s Suicide Squad may have been mauled by the critics, but will still get recognised by the Academy (it went on to win), which is ridiculous when you consider classics such as The Good, the Bad and...
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
While it’s easy to assume that certain films don’t get nominated because they’re not what voters of the Oscars would usually go for, there have been a lot of surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films like DC’s Suicide Squad may have been mauled by the critics, but will still get recognised by the Academy (it went on to win), which is ridiculous when you consider classics such as The Good, the Bad and...
- 2/5/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
It might sound obvious, but getting nominated for an Oscar doesn’t automatically make a film good.
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
While it’s easy to assume that certain films don’t get nominated because they’re not what voters of the Oscars would usually go for, there have been a lot of surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films like DC’s Suicide Squad may have been mauled by the critics, but will still get recognised by the Academy (it went on to win), which is ridiculous when you consider classics such as The Good, the Bad and...
In fact, there have been many deserving movies over the years that were somehow overlooked by the Academy.
While it’s easy to assume that certain films don’t get nominated because they’re not what voters of the Oscars would usually go for, there have been a lot of surprises in the past.
For example, pretty much every new superhero film earns a nomination thanks to the technical or makeup categories, while random animated films are acknowledged most likely because of the low number on offer in a certain year.
This means films like DC’s Suicide Squad may have been mauled by the critics, but will still get recognised by the Academy (it went on to win), which is ridiculous when you consider classics such as The Good, the Bad and...
- 2/4/2023
- by Jacob Stolworthy
- The Independent - Film
This review originally ran May 25, 2022, in conjunction with the film’s world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival.
For decades, Italian filmmakers dominated Cannes.
If the 1960s saw Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti reign supreme, somehow the 1970s were even richer. Elio Petri and Francesco Rosi won shared top prizes in 1972, while for two consecutive years later that decade the Taviani brothers and then Ermanno Olmi hoisted Palmes across a border that sits just 40 miles away.
This year’s lone competition title from an Italian director, Mario Martone’s “Nostalgia” will probably not break that particular drought, but the Neapolitan director can take solace in another modest honor: Telling a story about mothers and sons, about gangsters and priests, and about a peculiar kind of longing for the past in a place where little has changed for hundreds of years, “Nostalgia” is a nigh perfect candidate to wave il Tricolore.
For decades, Italian filmmakers dominated Cannes.
If the 1960s saw Federico Fellini, Michelangelo Antonioni and Luchino Visconti reign supreme, somehow the 1970s were even richer. Elio Petri and Francesco Rosi won shared top prizes in 1972, while for two consecutive years later that decade the Taviani brothers and then Ermanno Olmi hoisted Palmes across a border that sits just 40 miles away.
This year’s lone competition title from an Italian director, Mario Martone’s “Nostalgia” will probably not break that particular drought, but the Neapolitan director can take solace in another modest honor: Telling a story about mothers and sons, about gangsters and priests, and about a peculiar kind of longing for the past in a place where little has changed for hundreds of years, “Nostalgia” is a nigh perfect candidate to wave il Tricolore.
- 1/19/2023
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
Watching Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon,” in all its superficially titillating, occasionally exciting and mostly exhausting wretched excess, I thought to myself: We’ve been here before, so many times.
You sit down to watch a movie by a director whose work you love. He’s swinging for the fences. His ambition is on full display and so, in fits and spurts, is his talent. Yet something else is on display too: a lack of judgment that starts out like a worm, wriggling through the proceedings, before growing and metastasizing until it’s eating everything in its path.
I’ll leave the D-word out of this, since “Babylon,” a watchable if weirdly joyless movie, never turns into a disaster of incoherence like, say, “Amsterdam.” Yet the movie reminded me of how many great directors have had a compulsive epic misfire in them. Probably most of them; it may be inherent in the imagination of moviemaking.
You sit down to watch a movie by a director whose work you love. He’s swinging for the fences. His ambition is on full display and so, in fits and spurts, is his talent. Yet something else is on display too: a lack of judgment that starts out like a worm, wriggling through the proceedings, before growing and metastasizing until it’s eating everything in its path.
I’ll leave the D-word out of this, since “Babylon,” a watchable if weirdly joyless movie, never turns into a disaster of incoherence like, say, “Amsterdam.” Yet the movie reminded me of how many great directors have had a compulsive epic misfire in them. Probably most of them; it may be inherent in the imagination of moviemaking.
- 1/15/2023
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Jeff Beck, one of the most influential guitarists of the 20th century, died Wednesday at the age of 78. The cause was bacterial meningitis. Beck had been in good health recently, touring with Johnny Depp following the recording of their (mostly) covers album, “18.”
While Beck himself never achieved the household name status of his peers like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, those in the know would cite him as just as foundational. He also spanned genres, from British Invasion pop to hard rock to jazz fusion to whatever kind of jammy six-string concrète was laid down on the 1989 “Guitar Shop” album or 1999’s “Who Else?!”
In 1965, at the age of 21, Beck joined The Yardbirds, a blues-y pop-rock outfit, replacing the exiting Eric Clapton. There could be no bigger shoes to fill at the time, as British fans of the period idolized Clapton to the point of public nuisance—the phrase “Clapton...
While Beck himself never achieved the household name status of his peers like Eric Clapton or Jimmy Page, those in the know would cite him as just as foundational. He also spanned genres, from British Invasion pop to hard rock to jazz fusion to whatever kind of jammy six-string concrète was laid down on the 1989 “Guitar Shop” album or 1999’s “Who Else?!”
In 1965, at the age of 21, Beck joined The Yardbirds, a blues-y pop-rock outfit, replacing the exiting Eric Clapton. There could be no bigger shoes to fill at the time, as British fans of the period idolized Clapton to the point of public nuisance—the phrase “Clapton...
- 1/12/2023
- by Jordan Hoffman
- Gold Derby
He never had a signature song the way his peers and sometime bandmates Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton did, but the genres that Jeff Beck explored throughout his career chart the changes in rock — and rock guitar — over decades. One of rock’s most physical technicians, seeming to enjoy wrestling with his instrument, Beck made his name with British Invasion pop. But not content to stay there, he moved into the in-vogue blues-rock of the late Sixties and then the harder boogie and fusion of the next decade. The settings changed,...
- 1/12/2023
- by Angie Martoccio, Brian Hiatt, Andy Greene and David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
Jeff Beck, the blues-rock innovator and two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee who revolutionized how the guitar is played, died Tuesday at the age of 78.
Beck’s family confirmed the former Yardbirds guitarist’s death Wednesday. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” Beck’s family said in a statement. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family asks for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”
Beck, an eight-time Grammy winner,...
Beck’s family confirmed the former Yardbirds guitarist’s death Wednesday. “On behalf of his family, it is with deep and profound sadness that we share the news of Jeff Beck’s passing,” Beck’s family said in a statement. “After suddenly contracting bacterial meningitis, he peacefully passed away yesterday. His family asks for privacy while they process this tremendous loss.”
Beck, an eight-time Grammy winner,...
- 1/11/2023
- by Daniel Kreps and Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Ten years ago, there were five clear frontrunners for the Oscar for Best Director of 2012: Ben Affleck for “Argo,” Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty,” Tom Hooper for “Les Misérables,” Ang Lee for “Life of Pi” and Steven Spielberg for “Lincoln. But when the nominations were announced, only Lee and Spielberg made the cut. Replacing Affleck, Bigelow and Hooper were Michael Haneke for “Amour,” David O. Russell for “Silver Linings Playbook” and Benh Zeitlin for “Beasts of the Southern Wild.”
Talk about an Oscar race going wild.
The lesson learned was that the Directors Branch of the Academy can be very unpredictable. They might overlook a big Hollywood star for helming a critical and commercial success, and instead go with an obscure director for their work on a tiny arthouse film. With that said, we should be prepared for some surprises in the directing category when the nominations are...
Talk about an Oscar race going wild.
The lesson learned was that the Directors Branch of the Academy can be very unpredictable. They might overlook a big Hollywood star for helming a critical and commercial success, and instead go with an obscure director for their work on a tiny arthouse film. With that said, we should be prepared for some surprises in the directing category when the nominations are...
- 1/9/2023
- by Tariq Khan
- Gold Derby
In Bernard Girard's 1966 crime flick "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round," James Coburn plays a con man who, having charmed his way out of prison, uses seduction and larceny to plan a major bank heist at Los Angeles International Airport. The film has not been noted in many major cinema journals, however, other than to mark it as the first notable, uncredited appearance of a young Harrison Ford, then only 23, who appeared as a bellhop.
Ford, now 80, has become one of the more recognizable and celebrated movie stars of his generation, having appeared in some of the highest-profile action-adventure films of all time. As the adage goes, however, it took a long time for Ford to become an overnight success. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford appeared in several films and TV shows as a bit player or an extra. After "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round," for instance,...
Ford, now 80, has become one of the more recognizable and celebrated movie stars of his generation, having appeared in some of the highest-profile action-adventure films of all time. As the adage goes, however, it took a long time for Ford to become an overnight success. Throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s, Ford appeared in several films and TV shows as a bit player or an extra. After "Dead Heat on a Merry-Go-Round," for instance,...
- 12/20/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Backstage at the Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2020 collection with Hannelore Knuts and creative director Pierpaolo Piccioli Photo: Archivio Fotografico Paolo Di Paolo
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luchino Visconti, Anna Magnani, Michelangelo Antonioni, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Charlotte Rampling, Grace Kelly, Marcello Mastroianni, Rudolf Nureyev, Sophia Loren, Ezra Pound, Faye Dunaway, Monica Vitti, Giorgio de Chirico, Gina Lollobrigida, Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich, Giulietta Masina, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Anita Ekberg, Vittorio De Sica, Alberto Moravia, and many others were photographed by Bruce Weber’s muse and subject of his latest documentary The Treasure Of His Youth: The Photographs Of Paolo Di Paolo, which starts with an overture of images and film clips. After putting his camera away for decades we see di Paolo return to shoot Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2020 collection.
Paolo di Paolo with Silvia di Paolo and Anne-Katrin Titze on Tennessee Williams: “I...
Pier Paolo Pasolini, Luchino Visconti, Anna Magnani, Michelangelo Antonioni, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Charlotte Rampling, Grace Kelly, Marcello Mastroianni, Rudolf Nureyev, Sophia Loren, Ezra Pound, Faye Dunaway, Monica Vitti, Giorgio de Chirico, Gina Lollobrigida, Tennessee Williams, Marlene Dietrich, Giulietta Masina, Simone Signoret, Yves Montand, Brigitte Bardot, Catherine Deneuve, Anita Ekberg, Vittorio De Sica, Alberto Moravia, and many others were photographed by Bruce Weber’s muse and subject of his latest documentary The Treasure Of His Youth: The Photographs Of Paolo Di Paolo, which starts with an overture of images and film clips. After putting his camera away for decades we see di Paolo return to shoot Pierpaolo Piccioli’s Valentino Haute Couture Spring 2020 collection.
Paolo di Paolo with Silvia di Paolo and Anne-Katrin Titze on Tennessee Williams: “I...
- 12/7/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSMuch-loved genre filmmaker Albert Pyun (above) has died. Working mostly with low-budgets, and often making films for the direct-to-video market, Pyun’s career spanned five decades and included films such as The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982), Cyborg (1989), and the popular cyberpunk film series Nemesis. Cynthia Curnan, Pyun's wife and producer, had recently requested messages from fans to pass onto the filmmaker, who had been ill for a number of years prior to his passing.It seems that Paul Thomas Anderson is planning to start shooting his next feature in July 2023. Little is yet known about the new project, but a casting call has been listed for a “15-to-16-year-old female of mixed ethnicity who is physically athletic and excels at Martial Arts.” Previous...
- 11/30/2022
- MUBI
In his third directorial effort, Taiwanese filmmaker Edward Yang once again told a story about the relationship of people within the urban space, in this case, as with many of his other works, the city of Taipei. Along with his previous movies, it further manifested Yang’s reputation and inclusion as a founding member of what film scholars called the “Taiwanese New Wave” which represented a farewell to the old ways of making movies, formally and thematically. Apart from “The Terrorizers” being awarded upon its screening at the Locarno Film Festival, it would continue to receive many more honors, along with critics praising it as a work reminiscent of the movies by Italian filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni, especially “Blow-Up” which seems to have inspired the narrative strand revolving around the young photographer played by Mao Shao-chun.
“The Terrorizers“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
The story, which deals with...
“The Terrorizers“ is screening at Five Flavours Asian Film Festival
The story, which deals with...
- 11/21/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
On the third episode of “The White Lotus” Season 2, a group of American tourists visits a location from “The Godfather,” which leads to a multi-generational debate about the patriarchy. But Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning classic isn’t the only film referenced in Sunday’s installment.
In fact, a striking moment featuring Aubrey Plaza under the steps of the Noto Cathedral is a shot-by-shot homage to a scene in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960 film “L’avventura,” starring Monica Vitti (who was name-dropped by Jennifer Coolidge in last week’s episode). In “L’avventura,” a woman goes missing, and, amidst their search for her, the woman’s lover and best friend strike up a romance. According to “The White Lotus” creator Mike White, “L’avventura” is a “very elliptical, mysterious movie about an existential psychodrama.”
In “L’avventura” and “White Lotus,” respectively, Vitti and Plaza walk around the same courtyard and begin...
In fact, a striking moment featuring Aubrey Plaza under the steps of the Noto Cathedral is a shot-by-shot homage to a scene in Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1960 film “L’avventura,” starring Monica Vitti (who was name-dropped by Jennifer Coolidge in last week’s episode). In “L’avventura,” a woman goes missing, and, amidst their search for her, the woman’s lover and best friend strike up a romance. According to “The White Lotus” creator Mike White, “L’avventura” is a “very elliptical, mysterious movie about an existential psychodrama.”
In “L’avventura” and “White Lotus,” respectively, Vitti and Plaza walk around the same courtyard and begin...
- 11/14/2022
- by Ethan Shanfeld
- Variety Film + TV
This story about the best international film schools first appeared in the College Issue of TheWrap’s awards magazine.
Australian Film, Television And Radio School
Sydney, Australia
“Aftrs was perfect because it was…practical,” says songwriter Christine Kirkwood, who graduated from Australia’s national screen and broadcast school after a six-month government program to train women in filmmaking. Her fellow alums include Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce, who were in the school’s first graduating class in 1973, as well as Jane Campion, Cate Shortland and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie. Located near the Fox Studios in Sydney, the campus includes studios, post-production facilities and an extensive library.
Aftrs has a robust First Nations and Outreach program for indigenous students, and in early 2023 a new partnership with Industrial Light & Magic will allow the school to begin offering a two-semester Graduate Diploma in Visual Effects program. Other new offerings include a Screen Warriors program that will recruit,...
Australian Film, Television And Radio School
Sydney, Australia
“Aftrs was perfect because it was…practical,” says songwriter Christine Kirkwood, who graduated from Australia’s national screen and broadcast school after a six-month government program to train women in filmmaking. Her fellow alums include Gillian Armstrong and Phillip Noyce, who were in the school’s first graduating class in 1973, as well as Jane Campion, Cate Shortland and cinematographer Andrew Lesnie. Located near the Fox Studios in Sydney, the campus includes studios, post-production facilities and an extensive library.
Aftrs has a robust First Nations and Outreach program for indigenous students, and in early 2023 a new partnership with Industrial Light & Magic will allow the school to begin offering a two-semester Graduate Diploma in Visual Effects program. Other new offerings include a Screen Warriors program that will recruit,...
- 11/2/2022
- by TheWrap Staff
- The Wrap
Above: US Teaser poster for Crimes of the Future. Design by Bangers & Mash.In the middle of the Venice Film Festival, and in the lead-up to the Toronto and New York fests, still the most “liked” poster of the last six months of my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram was a teaser poster that appeared in the run-up to Cannes in the spring. The poster was for was one of the most anticipated films of Cannes, a film that has since been disseminated to the world with a much tamer big-head poster and even tamer home video art. The Crimes of the Future teaser racked up nearly 2,000 likes and not far behind it was a gorgeous art print for Cronenberg’s 30-year-old Naked Lunch by the very talented (and seemingly Cronenberg-obsessed) Nick Charge that I posted a few months later. As I’ve been doing for the past few years,...
- 9/9/2022
- MUBI
Antonioni’s 1982 film, in which a sexually restless middle-aged film-maker auditions young women, feels dated but has pleasing flourishes
Michelangelo Antonioni’s long slide from critical favour may or may not be reversed by the re-release of this late work from 1982, a midlife or latelife crisis of a movie that Antonioni made at the age of 70 and was his last serious solo directorial work. (I would much prefer to see a revival of his tremendous and neglected film The Lady Without Camelias from 1953.)
Anyway, this revives his signature themes – metaphysical mystery, existential anxiety, sexual obsession – and there are some definite, pleasing flourishes. But unfortunately, as with the later movies of Fellini, there are some softcore sex scenes and a preposterously romanticised and eroticised search for the ideal (and sexually available) woman; the concept of the sexually restless middle-aged film-maker auditioning young women to be in his movies jars a little.
Michelangelo Antonioni’s long slide from critical favour may or may not be reversed by the re-release of this late work from 1982, a midlife or latelife crisis of a movie that Antonioni made at the age of 70 and was his last serious solo directorial work. (I would much prefer to see a revival of his tremendous and neglected film The Lady Without Camelias from 1953.)
Anyway, this revives his signature themes – metaphysical mystery, existential anxiety, sexual obsession – and there are some definite, pleasing flourishes. But unfortunately, as with the later movies of Fellini, there are some softcore sex scenes and a preposterously romanticised and eroticised search for the ideal (and sexually available) woman; the concept of the sexually restless middle-aged film-maker auditioning young women to be in his movies jars a little.
- 9/8/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The first shot of writer-director Andrea Pallaoro’s “Monica” shows the eponymous heroine (Trace Lysette) in what looks like a tanning bed as the New Order song “Bizarre Love Triangle” plays on the soundtrack. The aspect ratio this movie is shot in is unusually narrow, and this aids the sense that Lysette’s Monica feels both isolated and trapped.
Pallaoro is Italian, and so as we watch Lysette’s Monica in long scenes where she is stuck in compositions behind doors and windows as she makes calls to people who seem to have abandoned her, it feels like Pallaoro is riffing on the movies that Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni made in the 1960s with Monica Vitti, especially “L’Eclisse.”
There are times in this early section of “Monica” where the framing can be a little much, particularly when we see Monica behind a door frame with a window that looks like a cross.
Pallaoro is Italian, and so as we watch Lysette’s Monica in long scenes where she is stuck in compositions behind doors and windows as she makes calls to people who seem to have abandoned her, it feels like Pallaoro is riffing on the movies that Italian maestro Michelangelo Antonioni made in the 1960s with Monica Vitti, especially “L’Eclisse.”
There are times in this early section of “Monica” where the framing can be a little much, particularly when we see Monica behind a door frame with a window that looks like a cross.
- 9/3/2022
- by Dan Callahan
- The Wrap
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