Documentary-maker Sophie Fiennes's latest philosophical quest – with Slavoj Zizek – presents another thrilling challenge for cinema-goers
Sophie Fiennes doesn't like to make things easy for herself. The acclaimed documentary-maker's latest project is a two-hour philosophical disquisition on the nature of ideology, presented by the Slovenian psychoanalytic thinker, Slavoj Žižek.
"I like to give myself a set of components or ingredients, like for cooking," Fiennes says when I ask her if she's got a screw loose. "So I don't quite know how it's going to turn out."
A typical scene from The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Fiennes's second collaboration with Žižek, features the charismatic thinker expounding forcefully on the Lacanian notion of "the big Other", with reference to popular movies ranging from The Sound of Music to Full Metal Jacket. In a visually playful twist, Fiennes shows Žižek speaking from replica sets, as though he is speaking from within the films themselves – and,...
Sophie Fiennes doesn't like to make things easy for herself. The acclaimed documentary-maker's latest project is a two-hour philosophical disquisition on the nature of ideology, presented by the Slovenian psychoanalytic thinker, Slavoj Žižek.
"I like to give myself a set of components or ingredients, like for cooking," Fiennes says when I ask her if she's got a screw loose. "So I don't quite know how it's going to turn out."
A typical scene from The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, Fiennes's second collaboration with Žižek, features the charismatic thinker expounding forcefully on the Lacanian notion of "the big Other", with reference to popular movies ranging from The Sound of Music to Full Metal Jacket. In a visually playful twist, Fiennes shows Žižek speaking from replica sets, as though he is speaking from within the films themselves – and,...
- 9/21/2013
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
Parker Posey is a bit of an indie darling, and she has great comedic sensibilities, even in films that don't match her caliber of talent. Sadly at Sundance, Price Check was one of those films. While it brings some laughs, it also comes with an inconsistent tone and a very clumsy third act. The film follows Pete Cozy (Eric Mabius) who is having trouble resolving a happy marriage and family life with rising debt and a job he hates. When his new boss, Susan (Posey), a human dynamo, shows up, Pete is pulled into the maelstrom that is her life and made to work harder than he ever has before. Decide for yourself if it's worth watching. Here's the first trailer for Michael Clark's Price Check originally from Yahoo: Michael Clark directs and writes Price Check which played at Sundance this year. Pete Cozy (Eric Mabius) does his best juggling family life,...
- 9/25/2012
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
For their 9th annual edition, the Atlanta Underground Film Festival will be assaulting the south from its Goat Farm Arts Center screening center on Sep. 13-16 with four days and nights of independent feature films, shorts and documentaries.
Some of the feature films screening include Lisa Duva’s multi-dimensional Cat Scratch Fever, Jason Lapeyre’s thriller Cold Blooded and Brady Hall’s hilariously named Hello, My Name Is Dick Licker.
This year’s Auff is also packed to the gills with short films with multiple blocks of shorts screening per day. Some of the special ones to look out for are Neil Ira Needleman‘s A Few Words in Favor of God, Jim Haverkamp‘s When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl and Mike Salva‘s award-winning animated short Pound Dogs.
The full film lineup is below, but please visit the official Atlanta Underground Film Festival website for more details and to buy advance tickets.
Some of the feature films screening include Lisa Duva’s multi-dimensional Cat Scratch Fever, Jason Lapeyre’s thriller Cold Blooded and Brady Hall’s hilariously named Hello, My Name Is Dick Licker.
This year’s Auff is also packed to the gills with short films with multiple blocks of shorts screening per day. Some of the special ones to look out for are Neil Ira Needleman‘s A Few Words in Favor of God, Jim Haverkamp‘s When Walt Whitman Was a Little Girl and Mike Salva‘s award-winning animated short Pound Dogs.
The full film lineup is below, but please visit the official Atlanta Underground Film Festival website for more details and to buy advance tickets.
- 9/11/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Greenpeace has released a report that accuses fast food brand KFC of sourcing its packaging from controversial paper company Asia Pulp & Paper, known in Australia as Solaris.
Greenpeace’s ‘The colonel’s secret recipe’ culture jam urges consumers to put pressure on KFC owner Yum! Brands to change the source of paper it uses.
According to Greenpeace, App uses timber from Indonesian rainforest that is threatening animal species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutans with extinction.
The website kfc-secretrecipe.com invites people to choose a KFC character to represent a ‘revolt’ against the fast food brand, which they can share on their Facebook page or Tweet.
The more a ‘revolt’ is shared, the higher it figures in a table of Greenpeace’s ‘Top revolts’. If a participant features in a table of the ‘Top 10 revolts’, they win a T-shirt.
The site also gives people the option to read the...
Greenpeace’s ‘The colonel’s secret recipe’ culture jam urges consumers to put pressure on KFC owner Yum! Brands to change the source of paper it uses.
According to Greenpeace, App uses timber from Indonesian rainforest that is threatening animal species such as the Sumatran tiger and orangutans with extinction.
The website kfc-secretrecipe.com invites people to choose a KFC character to represent a ‘revolt’ against the fast food brand, which they can share on their Facebook page or Tweet.
The more a ‘revolt’ is shared, the higher it figures in a table of Greenpeace’s ‘Top revolts’. If a participant features in a table of the ‘Top 10 revolts’, they win a T-shirt.
The site also gives people the option to read the...
- 5/24/2012
- by Robin Hicks
- Encore Magazine
London arts centre, a stalwart of ugly-building polls, is hoping its new cinema will kickstart a cultural quarter in the City
For an organisation that is trying to be more inclusive, more involving, the name "Barbican" – a defensive structure, a fortification to keep the hordes out – is possibly not ideal. "I say 'watchtower'," the arts centre's chief executive, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, says when asked to define it. "It is something that looks out on the city and beyond it."
Whatever the definition, most people know what the Barbican centre is, where it is – and even how not to get lost there. That has not always been the case but, after many uphill battles, an awful lot of people now even love the place.
On Thursday the Barbican will celebrate its 30th anniversary, entertaining guests in its enormous and unlikely tropical conservatory – with more than 2,000 species of plants and trees as well as finches,...
For an organisation that is trying to be more inclusive, more involving, the name "Barbican" – a defensive structure, a fortification to keep the hordes out – is possibly not ideal. "I say 'watchtower'," the arts centre's chief executive, Sir Nicholas Kenyon, says when asked to define it. "It is something that looks out on the city and beyond it."
Whatever the definition, most people know what the Barbican centre is, where it is – and even how not to get lost there. That has not always been the case but, after many uphill battles, an awful lot of people now even love the place.
On Thursday the Barbican will celebrate its 30th anniversary, entertaining guests in its enormous and unlikely tropical conservatory – with more than 2,000 species of plants and trees as well as finches,...
- 3/7/2012
- by Mark Brown
- The Guardian - Film News
For years David Lachapelle was the go-to photographer for the world's biggest stars. But in 2006 he ditched fashion for fine art. As an exhibition of his work opens in London, he talks to Elizabeth Day about death, divas and decadence
David Lachapelle is running late. Though the term "running" doesn't quite describe it. "He's sleeping," says one of Lachapelle's assistants, peering at me languidly through those ironic-retro spectacles that seem to be de rigueur for arty types. "People are working on it." Working on what, I wonder? Getting him out of his pyjamas?
The assistant explains that Lachapelle flew in from his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui yesterday and is still jet-lagged. This is why we've had to change the interview location at the last minute and congregate in the lobby of a chintzy five-star hotel just off Sloane Square in London. Besides, he's not that used to...
David Lachapelle is running late. Though the term "running" doesn't quite describe it. "He's sleeping," says one of Lachapelle's assistants, peering at me languidly through those ironic-retro spectacles that seem to be de rigueur for arty types. "People are working on it." Working on what, I wonder? Getting him out of his pyjamas?
The assistant explains that Lachapelle flew in from his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui yesterday and is still jet-lagged. This is why we've had to change the interview location at the last minute and congregate in the lobby of a chintzy five-star hotel just off Sloane Square in London. Besides, he's not that used to...
- 2/19/2012
- by Elizabeth Day
- The Guardian - Film News
Bond, Batman and Titanic can explain the workings of the world, reckons Slavoj Žižek. Danny Leigh joins the superstar philosopher on the set of his latest bizarre voyage into cinema
Slavoj Žižek is in bed. He's wearing cheap pyjamas in a porridgy shade of grey. He looks exactly like the photographs I've seen of him: fag-ash beard, ghostly complexion. I loom over him, and he glowers back. His face is just inches from mine, so close I can feel his breath.
"No, you are wrong!" he hisses. "My dreams were not really mine! That's why I wanted to be reborn!"
None of this is a product of my subconscious. In fact, we're at a studio near Dublin, working on The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, a film in which the Marxist provocateur and bestselling philosopher is starring as himself, albeit in a series of loving re-creations of movie scenes. What's being...
Slavoj Žižek is in bed. He's wearing cheap pyjamas in a porridgy shade of grey. He looks exactly like the photographs I've seen of him: fag-ash beard, ghostly complexion. I loom over him, and he glowers back. His face is just inches from mine, so close I can feel his breath.
"No, you are wrong!" he hisses. "My dreams were not really mine! That's why I wanted to be reborn!"
None of this is a product of my subconscious. In fact, we're at a studio near Dublin, working on The Pervert's Guide to Ideology, a film in which the Marxist provocateur and bestselling philosopher is starring as himself, albeit in a series of loving re-creations of movie scenes. What's being...
- 10/18/2011
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
"Sue Mengers died last night at her home, a short walk from the Beverly Hills Hotel, and surrounded by three of her close friends, Ali MacGraw, Joanna Poitier, and Boaty Boatwright," wrote Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter yesterday. "Sue was a Holocaust baby, arriving in upstate New York before America entered the war. Nobody in her family spoke English, and like so many immigrants, she set her sights on a career in show business. In time she became, as Fran Lebowitz says, capital 'S' Sue Mengers. By the early 70s, she was not only the most powerful female agent in Hollywood; she was the town's most powerful agent, period. At one time or another during that period, she represented Barbra Streisand, Candice Bergen, Michael Caine, Faye Dunaway, Gene Hackman, Cher, Joan Collins, Burt Reynolds, and Nick Nolte — all at heights of their careers. She also had the directors they wanted to work for,...
- 10/17/2011
- MUBI
Exclusive: Johnny Knoxville and Patton Oswalt have signed on to star in an untitled comedy that will be directed by Todd Rohal and financed by Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf's Big Beach Films. Knoxville and Oswalt will play battling brothers who attempt to honor their ailing father by taking a troop of boys on a camping trip. It all goes awry. Rob Riggle, Maura Tierney and Patrice O'Neal also star. Rohal, who originally wrote the script under the title Scout Master, most recently directed The Catechism Cataclysm. Production on the new comedy starts this week. Turtletaub and Saraf are producing with Lisa Muskat, David Gordon Green is exec producer, and Big Beach's Michael Clark and John Hodges are overseeing production. Big Beach produced the Paul Rudd comedy Our Idiot Brother, which The Weinstein Company launches on August 26. Rohal, Knoxville and Oswalt are repped by CAA, Knoxville's managed by 3 Arts and Oswalt by Generate.
- 8/22/2011
- by MIKE FLEMING
- Deadline
Plus a hoodie with a clarinet and Berlin's art oasis
Merkel dons 3D glasses for Wim Wenders's Pina
On Sunday night, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and president, Christian Wulff, turned up at the Berlin film festival to watch the premiere of Wim Wenders's Pina, a 3D documentary about the German choreographer, who died in 2009. Now, as a thought experiment, imagine a British equivalent to this film. It might be, say, a documentary about Complicite directed by Mike Leigh, or Ken Loach filming the life and work of Michael Clark. Neither of these movies will ever be made, but bear with me. Imagine the premiere of your imaginary film. Now imagine David Cameron and, say, George Osborne turning up. No? Me neither.
Classic Bausch dances to get a full release
Incidentally, there were those in the audience for the first screenings of Pina who expressed a desire to...
Merkel dons 3D glasses for Wim Wenders's Pina
On Sunday night, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and president, Christian Wulff, turned up at the Berlin film festival to watch the premiere of Wim Wenders's Pina, a 3D documentary about the German choreographer, who died in 2009. Now, as a thought experiment, imagine a British equivalent to this film. It might be, say, a documentary about Complicite directed by Mike Leigh, or Ken Loach filming the life and work of Michael Clark. Neither of these movies will ever be made, but bear with me. Imagine the premiere of your imaginary film. Now imagine David Cameron and, say, George Osborne turning up. No? Me neither.
Classic Bausch dances to get a full release
Incidentally, there were those in the audience for the first screenings of Pina who expressed a desire to...
- 2/16/2011
- by Charlotte Higgins
- The Guardian - Film News
We may not know the royal wedding guest list just yet, but here's one family member whose name is surely in the "definite" category. Princess Beatrice, 22, is Prince William's first cousin (her father, Prince Andrew, is Prince Charles's brother), and she is fifth in line to the throne in the royal pecking order. Her immediate family is well-known, too: Beatrice's mother is Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, and her younger sister, Eugenie, is another young princess to watch. What else is there to learn about this royal redhead?1. She worked hard for that body!Beatrice lost about 20 lbs.
- 1/17/2011
- by Rennie Dyball
- PEOPLE.com
30 Seconds to Mars, Against Me!, Suicidal Tendencies also hit stage on day two of eclectic California rock fest.
By Ryan J. Downey
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge (file)
Photo: Cory Schwartz/ Getty Images
Fontana, California — Travis Barker was born in Fontana, making it a sure bet that he felt a sense of homecoming as Blink-182 made their only North American appearance of the year at California's Epicenter 2010 Festival in that very town. The trio's hit-packed set closed the two-day event on Sunday following performances from Rise Against, 30 Seconds to Mars, Against Me! and more.
Afternoon temperatures reached 110 degrees in the racetrack parking lot where Epicenter took place, but the crowd's enthusiasm never seemed to wane, thanks in part to a steady stream of water misters and water cannons. Epicenter 2010 kicked off Saturday with Eminem (in his only West Coast appearance this year), Kiss and reunited alt-rockers Bush, among others.
By Ryan J. Downey
Blink-182's Mark Hoppus and Tom DeLonge (file)
Photo: Cory Schwartz/ Getty Images
Fontana, California — Travis Barker was born in Fontana, making it a sure bet that he felt a sense of homecoming as Blink-182 made their only North American appearance of the year at California's Epicenter 2010 Festival in that very town. The trio's hit-packed set closed the two-day event on Sunday following performances from Rise Against, 30 Seconds to Mars, Against Me! and more.
Afternoon temperatures reached 110 degrees in the racetrack parking lot where Epicenter took place, but the crowd's enthusiasm never seemed to wane, thanks in part to a steady stream of water misters and water cannons. Epicenter 2010 kicked off Saturday with Eminem (in his only West Coast appearance this year), Kiss and reunited alt-rockers Bush, among others.
- 9/27/2010
- MTV Music News
Producer David Binder announced today that the critically acclaimed production of Moisés Kaufman's 33 Variations starring Jane Fonda will end its run on Thursday, May 21st, 2009. The limited engagement will close three days earlier than previously announced and a performance has been added to the beginning of the final week now playing at the Eugene O?Neill Theatre (230 West 49th Street). ?Jane has had a scheduling conflict on her calendar for several months? said Binder, ?but despite many efforts to work around her schedule, we all agreed today that it is best to close on Thursday, May 21st.? Speaking on behalf of the producers, Binder said ?Jane Fonda is extraordinary. Working with her in Moisés Kaufman's new play has been an incredible thrill for us all and she is a remarkable and dedicated actress. On top of that, she is a true star whose return to Broadway after 47 years...
- 5/5/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Producer David Binder announced today additional casting and the design team for the upcoming Broadway production of Mois?s Kaufman's 33 Variations starring Oscar & Emmy Award winning actress Jane Fonda.Rehearsals began for the cast including Jane Fonda (Katherine Brandt), Samantha Mathis (ClaraBrandt), Colin Hanks (Mike Clark), Zach Grenier (Beethoven), Don Amendolia (Anton Diabelli), Susan Kellerman (Dr. Gertie Ladenburger), Erik Steele (Anton Schindler) and Diane Walsh (Pianist).
- 1/14/2009
- BroadwayWorld.com
Here's a list of current members the National Society of Film Critics, which announced its award winners this past weekend. If there's no media affiliation cited after a member's name, that means that the journo is in between gigs and must land a new media outlet over the next year or else drop out of the group. The society's longtime executive director is Elisabeth Weis. Members: Sam Adams (Philadelphia City Paper), John Anderson (Newsday), David Ansen (Newsweek), Gary Arnold, Sheila Benson (Seattle Weekly), Jami Bernard (Moviecitynews.Com), Peter Brunette (Hollywood Reporter), Ty Burr (Boston Globe), Jay Carr (Turner Classics Online, Necn), Eleanor Ringel Carter (The Daily Report), Godfrey Cheshire (Metro Magazine), Mike Clark (USA Today), Richard...
- 1/5/2009
- by tomoneil
- Gold Derby
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