As an artist Henri-Georges Clouzot was fearless: in the darkness of the German occupation he made a movie about the social crime of informing. Poison Pen accusations destroy trust, bringing out the worst in the people of a small French town. Who is The Crow and how many will suffer before the letters stop? It’s a study in vitriolic misanthropy — the kind of cold observation that Clouzot does so well. At the war’s finish director Clouzot was accused of collaboration, and for a time was censured. Later on, some English critics classified the show as a horror film. It’s certainly creepy enough.
Le Corbeau
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 227
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 91 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Héléna Manson, Jeanne Fusier-Gir, Sylvie, Liliane Maigné, Pierre Larquey, Noël Roquevert, Bernard Lancret, Antoine Balpêtré, Jean Brochard, Pierre Bertin, Louis Seigner,...
Le Corbeau
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 227
1943 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 91 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date , 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Héléna Manson, Jeanne Fusier-Gir, Sylvie, Liliane Maigné, Pierre Larquey, Noël Roquevert, Bernard Lancret, Antoine Balpêtré, Jean Brochard, Pierre Bertin, Louis Seigner,...
- 9/13/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Collection’s excellent 4K offerings keep growing, and on September 20 in North America, the company will release the formerly controversial film Le Corbeau. Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Le Corbeau was his second feature, and it very nearly ended his career due to the political climate of the 1940s. You see, Le Corbeau was based on a true case of a woman writing “poison pen” letters, which in today’s internet culture, could be translated into doxxing or any number of threats sent over social media. These letters were written anonymously, meant to wreak havoc and cause terror, to destroy livlihoods and reputations for political or personal purposes. As such, Le Corbeau centers on a small French town in...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/12/2022
- Screen Anarchy
The Criterion Collection: September 2022 DVD, Blu-ray, and 4K Ultra Releases — Many films are being released in September 2022 by The Criterion Collection. Some of these films are appearing within The Criterion Collection for the first time, on The Criterion Collection Blu-ray for the first time, and/or on The Criterion Collection 4K Ultra [...]
Continue reading: The Criterion Collection – September 2022 DVD, Blu-ray, & 4K Ultra Releases: Blow Out, Sound Of Metal, Le Corbeau, & More...
Continue reading: The Criterion Collection – September 2022 DVD, Blu-ray, & 4K Ultra Releases: Blow Out, Sound Of Metal, Le Corbeau, & More...
- 9/2/2022
- by Rollo Tomasi
- Film-Book
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le corbeau (1943) is showing November 20 – December 19, and Quai des orfèvres (1947) from November 21 – December 20, 2018 on Mubi in the United States.Henri-Georges ClouzotOn September 3, 1939 France, alongside Great Britain, declared war on Germany. As pronounced May 8, 1945 by Charles de Gaulle, president of the Provisional Government of the French Republic, Europe’s World War II conflict was over. Between these years, years that saw the demoralizing German occupation of de Gaulle’s homeland, battle lines were heartily affirmed and mightily preserved. There was, in this tumultuous time, little room for partisan ambiguity—it was a black and white world of Allied and Axis powers, of us versus them. Within this context of chaos and violence, Niort-born Henri-Georges Clouzot advanced his filmmaking career, beginning with screenwriting efforts in the early 1930s and progressing to his first feature as a solo director, L’assassin habite... au 21 (The Murderer Lives at Number 21). Released in...
- 11/20/2018
- MUBI
Its story couldn’t be more contemporary — what happens to a small community when people’s online secrets start getting exposed — but “Assassination Nation” is clearly the product of artists with a deep background in old movies. The plotline recalls “Le Corbeau” (that 1943 Nazi-occupation classic about a French village torn apart by poison-pen letters) by way of “Jawbreaker,” and the red, white and blue split-screens will tickle both fans of Godard’s “Made in U.S.A.” and Abel Gance’s “Napoleon.”
And even if the somewhat scattershot “Assassination Nation” might not wind up being as well remembered in cinema history, audiences may nonetheless forgive the film’s shortcomings because of its sheer verve and chutzpah. Whatever faults lie in the script by writer-director Sam Levinson (“Another Happy Day”) get swallowed up by the flash and dazzle of his direction and the editing by Ron Patane (“A Most Violent Year”).
For popular girls Lily,...
And even if the somewhat scattershot “Assassination Nation” might not wind up being as well remembered in cinema history, audiences may nonetheless forgive the film’s shortcomings because of its sheer verve and chutzpah. Whatever faults lie in the script by writer-director Sam Levinson (“Another Happy Day”) get swallowed up by the flash and dazzle of his direction and the editing by Ron Patane (“A Most Violent Year”).
For popular girls Lily,...
- 9/21/2018
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Welcome to a pair of vintage mysteries with George Simenon’s popular Inspector Jules Maigret, a gumshoe who gets the tough cases. Top kick French actor Jean Gabin is the cop who keeps cool, until it’s time to rattle a recalcitrant suspect. In two separate cases, he tracks a serial killer in the heart of Paris, and travels to his hometown to unearth a murder conspiracy.
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
Maigret Sets a Trap
and
Maigret and the St. Fiacre Case
Blu-ray (separate releases)
Kino Classics
1958, 1959 / B&W /1:37 flat; 1:66 widescreen / 118, 101 min. / Street Date December 5, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber: Trap, St. Fiacre / 29.95 ea.
Starring: Jean Gabin, Annie Girardot, Jean Desailly, Olivier Hussenot, Lucienne Bogaert, Paulette Dubost, Lino Ventura, Dominique Page / Jean Gabin, Michel Auclair, Valentine Tessier, Michel Vitold, Camille Guérini, Gabrielle Fontan, Micheline Luccioni, Jacques Marin, Paul Frankeur, Robert Hirsch.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Henri Taverna
Original Music: Paul Misraki...
- 12/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Radical changes were required to adapt Lillian Hellman's Broadway play for post-Code Hollywood, to eradicate a theme that in 1934 was entirely taboo. But were audiences really unaware of the subject matter switch? William Wyler excels with this bowdlerized, yet curiously near-perfect, story about the power of scandal. These Three DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1936 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 93 min. / Street Date February 9, 2016 / available through the WBshop / 21.99 Starring Miriam Hopkins, Merle Oberon, Joel McCrea, Catharine Doucet, Alma Kruger, Bonita Granville, Marcia Mae Jones , Carmencita Johnson, Mary Ann Durkin, Margaret Hamilton, Walter Brennan. Cinematography Gregg Toland Film Editor Daniel Mandell Original Music Alfred Newman Written by Lillian Hellman Produced by Samuel Goldwyn Directed by William Wyler
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
William Wyler directed half a decade's worth of silent westerns before his big break came. From that point on he made high profile dramas, almost all of which are excellent movies.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
William Wyler directed half a decade's worth of silent westerns before his big break came. From that point on he made high profile dramas, almost all of which are excellent movies.
- 8/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Berlinale has come and gone so quickly, so intensely. Everyone was catching the flu or a cold, and I was left with the sniffles. My last two days I was lucky to be able to catch some films. Before that I only saw Don Jon’s Addiction which I was charmed by. Scarlett Johanssen played the best role of her life, she is a great comedienne. And Joseph Gordon-Levitt was delightful. Upstream Color bit off more than it could chew. The reviews express my feelings about it better than I can.
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
A quick list of films seen by me and by other discerning women:
Concussion, starring Catherine Deneuve, a bored house wife story has been told before. This time, the two protagonists were attractive lesbian women and it was beautifully filmed, but nothing beats Belle de Jour also starring Catherine Deneuve.
The Weimar Touch is a series of films from the Weimar era in Germany which preceded the Nazi era and films which were influenced by filmmakers of the Weimar era. MoMA Chief Curator of Film, Rajendra Roy and Laurence Kardish, the former Senior Curator of Film at MoMA were members of the Curatorial Board (along with Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek, Connie Betz (Deutsche Kinemathek, Programme Coordinator Retrospective, and Hans-Michael Bock (Cinegraph, Hamburg). Maybe I could catch more of these fantastic sounding films in New York.
Hangmen Also Die! by Fritz Lang sounded so great. I got the ticket, but damn I missed the film because of a meeting. The notes written for Hangmen Also Die by Rainer Rother of the Deutsche Kinemathek, "Prague 1942. Following the assassination of Nazi Reich Protector Heydrich...a professor’s daughter hides the culprit in her parents’ apartment…sadistic, elegant and effeminate." Doesn’t that sound great? The gender bending in Vicktor Viktoria was charming and funny. Julie Andrews saw this actress and copied her style perfectly. They look like twins. Other films in the Restrospective had me going to the Film Museum to ask for the boxed set, but the prints are from so many places, the clearance on them would be nearly impossible I guess…no boxed set. Other films in The Weimar Touch were so enticing! I had seen A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Max Reinhardt himself and William Dieterle, (U.S. 1935) the last time when I was in high school and then didn’t know who Max Reinhardt was. Car of Dreams was a favorite of those who saw it. Casablanca in which Victor Lazlo and Ilse Lund play out their doomed love was directed by Hungarian born director Mihaly Kertesz (Michael Curtiz) and Humphrey Bogart is almost the only “real” American in the ensemble. I had never been aware of how The Weimar Touch formed that film. Others: The Chase, Confessions of a Nazi Spy, Le Corbeau – what a great film that is, a film that was saved only by Sartre and Cocteau’s speaking out in favor of director Henri-Georges Clouzot. This is a film Michael Haneke saw when he created The White Ribbon. A Dutch film, Somewhere in the Netherlands by Ludwig Berger in 1940, Gerhard Lamprecht’s Einmal Eine Grosse Dame Sein, British film, First a Girl, by Victor Saville, Fury by Fritz Lang, Gado Bravo from Portugal 1934, Gluckskinder from Germany in 1936, The Golem, The Mystery of Moonlight Sonata, Hitler’s Madman, How Green Was My Valley by John Ford in 1941 which was influenced by his friend F.W. Murnau, Max Ophuls’ Comedy About Gold, Letter from an Unknown Woman by Max Ophuls, M by Joseph Losey, Mollenard by Robert Siodmak, None Shall Live by Andre de Toth, Out of the Past by Jacques Tourneur, Peter, Pieges, The Queen of Spades, The Small Back Room, Some Like it Hot, To Be or Not to Be by Lubitsch, Touch of Evil by Orson Welles, Cabaret by Bob Fosse, Dial M for Murder, On the Waterfront, The Student of Prague, Tokyo Story were all touched by The Weimar Touch. What a collection!
Tokyo Kazoku (Tokyo Story) by Yoji Yamada was sweet and sad as the parents travel from their hometown of Hiroshima to visit their grown children in Tokyo – different from Ozu’s Tokyo Story, but “the story of family estrangement and the isolation inherent in modern society” as expressed in the story notes of Rainer Rother along with the reminders of the recent tsunami and its losses make this story deeply touching.
Interesting was Dark Blood by George Sluizer. It was not as spooky as The Vanishing, but to see River Phoenix, so beautiful in this role with such a sexy Judy Davis was a treat, if a bit dated. Elle s’en va with a Catherine Deneuve, aged after Umbrellas of Cherbourg and perhaps the same character takes a funny tour through rural France that I enjoyed. I missed Pourquoi Israel, part of the Homage to Claude Lanzmann but got to see Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943 which was astounding. The bravery of the hero who was on screen the entire time, Yehuda Lerner, looked like a movie star. The entire story was so unexpected for me; how did it happen that I had never heard the story of the uprising at Sobibor before? I know Shoah and sat through it without a minute of disinterest – but that was in college. Claude Lanzmann justifiably said that this story was too unique and special to include in Shoah.
An odd Romanian film, the comedy A Farewell to Fools directed by Goodan Dreyer and starring child actor Boodan Iancu, Gerard Depardieu, Harvey Keitel and a cruelly beautiful Laura Morante, (and dubbed!) it is being sold in the market by Shoreline. It stands out in contrast to the Golden Bear Winner, the Romanian film Child’s Pose directed by Calin Peter Netzer and produced by Ada Solomon. This feisty portrayal of the nouveau riche seems like a fictional continuation of the doc her husband directed and which she produced in 2010: Kapitalism: Our Improved Formula.
Ada Solomon’s speech at the Awards Ceremony Closing Night deserves an award itself. Starting with the comment that she is more used to fighting than to winning, she pointedly thanked not only those who helped her but also those who did not help her whose resistance to her making this film made her stronger and more powerful. She pointed out the great need to have equal representation of women in the ranks of directors and producers as well, a theme which has been expressed repeatedly during this festival in many forms. (Read Melissa Silverstein’s blog on the joint meeting of women's films festivals initiated in Berlin by The International Women's Film Festival Dortmund|Cologone and the Athena Film Festival entitled "You Cannot Be Serious" in which women from many countries discussed the statistics and the status of women directors and other positions in the industry and continued the creation of a worldwide network pushing towards a more level playing field. Check out The International Women's Film Festival Network for more information).
Child's Pose, good in the vein of Separation, went head to head with the Chilean critic's choice, Gloria whose star Paulina Garcia, won the Best Actress Award. Could have gone both ways. The two older women were both great.
By the Way, Gloria was produced by Fabula, the Chilean company of the Lorrain Brothers who produced No as well as Crystal Fairy and director Sebastian Silva’s other films.
Jay Weissberg of Variety describes Child's Pose best as a "dissection of monstrous motherly love" and a "razor-sharp jibe at Romania's nouveau riche (the type is hardly confined to one country), a class adept at massaging truths and ensuring that the world steps aside when conflict arises."
I would like to suggest to the festival event planners that next year the Awards Ceremony’s onscreen presentation (which goes on simultaneously with the announcements of the prize winners) post the name of the winner along with the film title in its own language and in English as well as the country of origin. It’s difficult enough to follow the film with simultaneous translation in English via earphones; at least put the film titles in English for us foreigners.
A friend of mine remarks that the 2 most prestigious prizes at the festival went not to American or West European films, but to those from smaller countries with developing film cultures, Child’s Pose from Romania and Denis Tanovic’s Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker from Bosnia/ Herzogovina.
She goes on with her commentary of what she saw:
"Competition film Gold by Thomas Arslan provoked mixed response, but I liked it – Nina Hoss as the lead is excellent, plus there are long passages of the group on horseback trekking thru Alaska to the Klondike amidst spectacular landscapes. And the camerawork is wonderful. So that’s enough to keep me in my seat.
Night Train to Lisbon has been panned by virtually every trade publication critic as boring at the least. Nevertheless I enjoyed all the famous actors –Jeremy Irons, Lena Olin, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Courtenay, and yes Bruno Ganz. It is a story about the oppressive regime and a secret resistance group of in 1970s Portugal. Circles is a powerful and tough film by Srdan Folubovic about the revelations amidst survivors of a terrible event 12 years after the end of the war in Yugoslavia. Terrific performances support a complex and tough tale of how history permeates memory and behavior down thru the generations. Cold Bloom is the 4th feature of Atsushi Funahashi, who made last year’s powerful Nuclear Nation documentary about the effects if the tsunami. A drama about how the tsunami affected young workers and small businesses in the region is told thru the tragedy of a young couple. The title refers to a fantastic closing sequence under the cherry trees at night illuminated by street lamps, at once beautiful and bizarre. Gloria winner of the Golden Bear was clearly everyone’s favorite (although I could not get into the screening). Portrait of a middle aged woman in Chile (and winner of Best Actress award) it will hopefully make it across the ocean to these shores.
And finally, it is worth noting that the Forum Expanded section was extensive this year, showing diverse kinds of work including off site installations from every corner of the globe. Probably it is the single most important showcase for artists work in the film festival world. Kudos to the curators and the artist/filmmakers for keeping this exciting new work in front of the public year after year!"
Another friend who can’t decide whether to be credited here, a transplanted Los Angeleno who was born in Germany and lives in Berlin now had a very interesting insight into Two Women, wondering out loud if the two women and the two boys were transferring their homosexual feelings upon their cross parental lovers and likewise whether the two mothers were not actually acting out their lesbian affinities.
She also noted the sexual complexities of many of the films was of great interest to her. Examples she sites are the homosexual (But Not) pedophiliac feelings of a priest as depicted in In The Name Of; Gloria – not breaking news that a 58 woman is sexually alive – this film has a popular crowd pleasing charm which almost disqualifies it from the “festival” seriousness of a film like Child’s Pose, but both women are stellar.
My unnamed friend also said that, Camille Claudel failed to engage as did The Nun.
I would like to take this further, but it is very late for Berlin and now on to Guadalajara, a fascinating city and the seat of international, Iberoamerican co-productions which I think will become my obsession for the rest of the year.
Adios!
- 3/10/2013
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Le Corbeau
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Written by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, and Pierre Larquey
France, 92 min – 1943.
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau is a witch hunt. The site of this “hunt” is a small French town. A mysterious person has begun airing out the town’s immoral actions and secrets, in the form of letters, signed as “Le Corbeau” (the raven). The victim of these letters is Dr. Remy Germain (Pierre Fresnay), who is accused of performing abortions and having affairs with fallen women and married women alike. The townspeople ostracize Dr. Germain and others named by the raven. However, when a single letter causes the death of a hospital patient, townspeople mob against the likeliest culprits, all to save their community from slinking into the gray areas of morality.
One of the historically discussed themes of Le Corbeau deals with morality. It shows...
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Written by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, and Pierre Larquey
France, 92 min – 1943.
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau is a witch hunt. The site of this “hunt” is a small French town. A mysterious person has begun airing out the town’s immoral actions and secrets, in the form of letters, signed as “Le Corbeau” (the raven). The victim of these letters is Dr. Remy Germain (Pierre Fresnay), who is accused of performing abortions and having affairs with fallen women and married women alike. The townspeople ostracize Dr. Germain and others named by the raven. However, when a single letter causes the death of a hospital patient, townspeople mob against the likeliest culprits, all to save their community from slinking into the gray areas of morality.
One of the historically discussed themes of Le Corbeau deals with morality. It shows...
- 2/15/2013
- by Karen Bacellar
- SoundOnSight
It's that time of year and Barnes and Noble is selling Criterion Collection titles at 50% off (shop here). The problem is, what do you buy? Well, hopefully I can help you with that as I believe there are certain titles from Criterion that are absolute must owns for any cinemaphile and taking into account you are considering buying Criterion Collection titles in the first place, I'm certainly talking to you. So, with that said, let's dive in as I'll give you what I consider to be the top 15 must own Criterion Blu-ray titles as well as a few alternate considerations here and there. 15.) The Thin Red Line Why Should You Buy It? What else is there to expect other than an absolutely gorgeous film from Terrence Malick and that's exactly what you get from The Thin Red Line, but on top of the film you also get a wealth of special features,...
- 7/11/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
From the 19th-century French avant garde to Damien Hirst, artists have revelled in Poe's world of bohemian depravity
In Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1943 film Le Corbeau – The Raven – a small French town is torn apart by anonymous letters that claim to expose the citizens' crimes. Made during the German occupation, it is a disturbing, claustrophobic drama of secrets, lies and paranoia. It is also one in a long series of works of art that invoke the spectre of Edgar Allan Poe – right up to the new film The Raven that stars John Cusack.
In Le Corbeau, the poison-pen letter-writer signs his or her sinister missives with the title of Poe's most famous poem. A French audience in 1943 would have instantly recognised the reference to the American gothic writer because he had a immense influence on French modern art.
Poe was illustrated by no less a modern master than Edouard Manet, as...
In Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1943 film Le Corbeau – The Raven – a small French town is torn apart by anonymous letters that claim to expose the citizens' crimes. Made during the German occupation, it is a disturbing, claustrophobic drama of secrets, lies and paranoia. It is also one in a long series of works of art that invoke the spectre of Edgar Allan Poe – right up to the new film The Raven that stars John Cusack.
In Le Corbeau, the poison-pen letter-writer signs his or her sinister missives with the title of Poe's most famous poem. A French audience in 1943 would have instantly recognised the reference to the American gothic writer because he had a immense influence on French modern art.
Poe was illustrated by no less a modern master than Edouard Manet, as...
- 3/13/2012
- by Jonathan Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
Clouzot and Romy Schneider on the set of L'Enfer
"Watching a film by the French master Henri-Georges Clouzot, you often feel as if the walls were closing in on you — even when there are no walls," writes Terrence Rafferty in the New York Times. "The Wages of Fear (1953), the movie that opens the Museum of Modern Art's Clouzot retrospective [today], takes place almost entirely out of doors, yet it's as claustrophobic as a stretch in solitary confinement…. It is perhaps fortunate, for the sanity of his viewers, that he managed to complete only 11 features between 1942, when his deceptively light-hearted L'Assassin Habite au 21 (The Murderer Lives at No. 21) was released, and 1968, when his last movie, La Prisonnière, came out.... All 11 will be screened before the series ends on Dec 24, along with odds and ends like a couple of early-40s pictures for which he supplied screenplays and a 2010 documentary, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno,...
"Watching a film by the French master Henri-Georges Clouzot, you often feel as if the walls were closing in on you — even when there are no walls," writes Terrence Rafferty in the New York Times. "The Wages of Fear (1953), the movie that opens the Museum of Modern Art's Clouzot retrospective [today], takes place almost entirely out of doors, yet it's as claustrophobic as a stretch in solitary confinement…. It is perhaps fortunate, for the sanity of his viewers, that he managed to complete only 11 features between 1942, when his deceptively light-hearted L'Assassin Habite au 21 (The Murderer Lives at No. 21) was released, and 1968, when his last movie, La Prisonnière, came out.... All 11 will be screened before the series ends on Dec 24, along with odds and ends like a couple of early-40s pictures for which he supplied screenplays and a 2010 documentary, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno,...
- 12/10/2011
- MUBI
Filmmakers -- especially French ones, and especially those working before the 50s -- are often overly romanticized amongst cinephiles. We love a great film, but we really love the underlying legends and myths of the artist and the creative process, struggling and screaming and clawing to get each film made, centralized on a whirligig of backstabbing, betrayal, and romance. Failed projects, lusty affairs, bouts with depression, creative absences, controversial ideologies, and tragic deaths: it's the stuff that makes the singular genius of the director all the more untouchable; all the more storied. Enter, then, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the 'French Hitchcock' - perhaps the most improbable canonized auteur of them all. The Tiff Bell Lightbox in Toronto won't be spotlighting him with an 'art' exhibition ala Fellini's photo show last summer, but they will be giving his modestly sized filmography a run-through from mid-October to November 29. Unpretentiously titled The Wages of Fear...
- 10/20/2011
- IONCINEMA.com
John Cusack in The Raven
Photo: Relativity Media Relativity Media just sent over the above first official look at John Cusack as the tormented Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven, which is set to hit theaters on March 9, 2012 directed by V for Vendetta helmer James McTeigue.
We saw a couple of previous images of Cusack in the role which has been described as a fictionalized account of the final five "mysterious" days of Edgar Allan Poe's life. The story will follow the famous writer as he joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. "It's like the poem, 'The Raven,' itself, crossed with Se7en. It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well. I'm in the middle of casting," director James McTeigue said.
Just below is the official plot synopsis and you...
Photo: Relativity Media Relativity Media just sent over the above first official look at John Cusack as the tormented Edgar Allen Poe in The Raven, which is set to hit theaters on March 9, 2012 directed by V for Vendetta helmer James McTeigue.
We saw a couple of previous images of Cusack in the role which has been described as a fictionalized account of the final five "mysterious" days of Edgar Allan Poe's life. The story will follow the famous writer as he joins the hunt for a serial killer whose murders are inspired by his stories. "It's like the poem, 'The Raven,' itself, crossed with Se7en. It should be pretty cool. The script is really good and everyone responds to it really well. I'm in the middle of casting," director James McTeigue said.
Just below is the official plot synopsis and you...
- 6/25/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
"Margot Benacerraf, now in her 80s, only ever made one feature-length film," begins Josef Braun, "but that film remains so extraordinary, so very nearly singular, that it merits an admiration on par with many more prolific and esteemed bodies of work. After studying and gathering numerous influential allies in France and elsewhere, Benacerraf returned to her native Venezuela, specifically to an island no one had heard of, though when was discovered by the Spanish 450 years earlier it was deemed a sort of paradise on account of its abundance of one resource: salt, as valuable back then as gold. We can see the ruins of colonial fortresses erected to protect the island and its salt marshes, once the center of piracy in the Caribbean, during the prologue of Araya (1959). But historical context quickly gives way to the seeming timelessness of hard labour, to Benacerraf's lyrical approach to depicting the life of a community that was,...
- 5/17/2011
- MUBI
By Vadim Rizov
American movies, for whatever reason, are low on killings that take place in bathtubs and swimming pools. The French, on the other hand, have several films that famously make soaking yourself in water a charged event: 1969's La Piscine has a brutal pool-side forced drowning, and the centerpiece of Diabolique is a messy tub murder. The atmosphere is fetid from the opening shot, a scum-level view of a pool, which becomes increasingly important after Christina (Vera Clouzot) and Nicole (Simone Signoret) kill Christina's brutal husband, school headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), and dump his corpse in the pool. When it doesn't rise to the top, the pool is drained, revealing a striking lack of dead people. Where's Michel? Numerous shots of puddles large and small hammer the question home.
Nominally a thriller, Diabolique (newly re-released on DVD in a digitally restored print via Criterion) is a pitch-dark...
American movies, for whatever reason, are low on killings that take place in bathtubs and swimming pools. The French, on the other hand, have several films that famously make soaking yourself in water a charged event: 1969's La Piscine has a brutal pool-side forced drowning, and the centerpiece of Diabolique is a messy tub murder. The atmosphere is fetid from the opening shot, a scum-level view of a pool, which becomes increasingly important after Christina (Vera Clouzot) and Nicole (Simone Signoret) kill Christina's brutal husband, school headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), and dump his corpse in the pool. When it doesn't rise to the top, the pool is drained, revealing a striking lack of dead people. Where's Michel? Numerous shots of puddles large and small hammer the question home.
Nominally a thriller, Diabolique (newly re-released on DVD in a digitally restored print via Criterion) is a pitch-dark...
- 5/17/2011
- GreenCine Daily
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Diabolique (Criterion Collection) I can't even begin to tell you how much I recommend this film, it as absolute stunner and I am frustrated I didn't get a chance to watch this new Blu-ray edition before leaving for Cannes as I'm sure it's just sitting back home in my mailbox waiting for me to devour. If you haven't seen it I wholeheartedly suggest you give it a try and if you are a regular Criterion customer I can't see how this wouldn't be an acceptable blind buy.
Also, while you're at it, you should also consider another great Henri-Georges Clouzot Blu-ray, Wages of Fear, which Criterion released last April. You can read my review of that right here and you can believe when I get home from Cannes I will be diving into Diabolique as well.
Oh, and while we're talking Clouzot,...
Diabolique (Criterion Collection) I can't even begin to tell you how much I recommend this film, it as absolute stunner and I am frustrated I didn't get a chance to watch this new Blu-ray edition before leaving for Cannes as I'm sure it's just sitting back home in my mailbox waiting for me to devour. If you haven't seen it I wholeheartedly suggest you give it a try and if you are a regular Criterion customer I can't see how this wouldn't be an acceptable blind buy.
Also, while you're at it, you should also consider another great Henri-Georges Clouzot Blu-ray, Wages of Fear, which Criterion released last April. You can read my review of that right here and you can believe when I get home from Cannes I will be diving into Diabolique as well.
Oh, and while we're talking Clouzot,...
- 5/17/2011
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Chicago – What truly defines a master of suspense? Is it the skill of keeping an audience’s attention rapt with slick pacing, elaborately designed set-pieces, and a whopper of a twist ending? Or is it simply the ability to viscerally convey the psychological trap of a character until the audience feels confined within it, and every onscreen gasp, scream and shiver becomes the viewer’s own?
Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the few filmmakers in cinema history who not only warrants comparison to the legendary Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, but deserves to be considered his equal (both men were greatly fond of storyboards). Though he only made a quarter as many pictures during his career, which spanned nearly four decades, he made some of the most influential and spellbinding thrillers ever made, including two renowned masterpieces, 1953’s “The Wages of Fear” and 1955’s “Diabolique.” The latter film certainly...
Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the few filmmakers in cinema history who not only warrants comparison to the legendary Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, but deserves to be considered his equal (both men were greatly fond of storyboards). Though he only made a quarter as many pictures during his career, which spanned nearly four decades, he made some of the most influential and spellbinding thrillers ever made, including two renowned masterpieces, 1953’s “The Wages of Fear” and 1955’s “Diabolique.” The latter film certainly...
- 9/14/2010
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
By modern standards, Quentin Tarantino would be considered an auteur; a director whose films reflect that his personal creative vision. But what exactly is that vision, and how is it reflected in his work? One major observation that one can make about Tarantino’s films is that he often incorporates a number of references, many of which refer to cinema, specific films, or pop culture. His films are laced with this intertextuality were the relationship between texts (or films) is constantly being redefined. This method of pastiche is one way that he draws attention to the fact that his film is a constructed piece of fiction, or a “simulation.”
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
His rational behind this is heavily influenced by French theorist Jean Baudrillard’s notion of “hyperreality.” Hyperreality in this case refers to the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy, as the two become blurred into one. Baudrillard argues that...
- 6/26/2010
- by Kristen Coates
- The Film Stage
I wanted to mention that on top of movie watching this week I also finally join the ranks of most of you out there as I read J.D. Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" for the first time. My literary upbringing was not that impressive and to think of the endless number of classic books I have not read all while having a college degree in print and broadcast journalism is embarrassing. Oh well, you can only try to play catch up in some aspects of life...
As for movies, I also watched several titles I will be reviewing this coming week including the Studio Canal Collection Blu-ray editions of Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (excellent film) and Akira Kurosawa's Ran as well as upcoming Warner Home Video Blu-ray releases of the original Clash of the Titans and The Neverending Story. That said, I also have a trio of...
As for movies, I also watched several titles I will be reviewing this coming week including the Studio Canal Collection Blu-ray editions of Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (excellent film) and Akira Kurosawa's Ran as well as upcoming Warner Home Video Blu-ray releases of the original Clash of the Titans and The Neverending Story. That said, I also have a trio of...
- 2/28/2010
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Quentin Tarantino does it again. Again.
Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds"
Photo: Universal Pictures
Quentin Tarantino is such an overflowingly talented maker of films that you wonder when he's going to grow up into a real filmmaker. Tarantino's new World War II movie, "Inglourious Basterds," brings with it the usual avalanche of insider film-geek references: A character named Aldo Raine is a reference to the late Aldo Ray, star of the 1955 war movie "Battle Cry"; the name of another character — Hugo Stiglitz — refers to a Mexican horror-film star. The most instructive of these little allusions, though, deals with two 1940s films by the French director Henri-Georges Clouzot. The title of one of these, "Le Corbeau," is glimpsed here on a movie-theatre marquee. A poster for the other, "L'Assassin Habite au 21," is seen on the wall in another shot. The star of both of those pictures was Pierre Fresnay, who also...
Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds"
Photo: Universal Pictures
Quentin Tarantino is such an overflowingly talented maker of films that you wonder when he's going to grow up into a real filmmaker. Tarantino's new World War II movie, "Inglourious Basterds," brings with it the usual avalanche of insider film-geek references: A character named Aldo Raine is a reference to the late Aldo Ray, star of the 1955 war movie "Battle Cry"; the name of another character — Hugo Stiglitz — refers to a Mexican horror-film star. The most instructive of these little allusions, though, deals with two 1940s films by the French director Henri-Georges Clouzot. The title of one of these, "Le Corbeau," is glimpsed here on a movie-theatre marquee. A poster for the other, "L'Assassin Habite au 21," is seen on the wall in another shot. The star of both of those pictures was Pierre Fresnay, who also...
- 8/21/2009
- MTV Movie News
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