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Romanian director of 12:08 East of Bucharest uses a police procedural format for an in part dryly ironic discussion of the role of words in action. Another film from the much-heralded new Romanian cinema.
Cornelieu Porumboliu: Police, Adjective (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 09-26-2009 at 11:38 AM.
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Clair Denis returns to Africa in a film about civil war and white plantation owners. "Of course, postcolonial critiques are not wholly unexpected in French art filmmaking, and neither are dramatizations of war-torn Africa from white perspectives uncommon. Yet with Claire Denis at the helm, this is hardly the same old story."--Michael Koresky, Indiewire.
Claire Denis: White Material (2009)
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Rivette's relatively short (85m) new film about a declining circus troupe and an Italian who seeks the clue to a lady's departure from the troupe fifteen years earlier, may provide a kind of skeleton key to the French master's themes. (French title: 36 vues du pic Saint Loup.)
Jacques Rivette: Around a Small Mountain (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:50 PM.
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"This is a serious film about guilt and forgiveness, about pedophilia and how the paranoia it inspires has come to poison normal human relations and innocent displays of affection — but it is told in Mr. Solondz’s often very funny, deadpan, surreal manner." --Robert Conway Morris, NYTimes rountdup article on the Venice festival.
Todd Solondz: Life During Wartime (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:54 PM.
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"Polygamy and the double standards for men and women get a necessary drubbing in Malian director Souleymane Cisse’s first feature set not only in an urban milieu, but also among the country’s bourgeoisie. . . . Tell Me Who You Are, however, fails to deliver much that’s new to the battle of the sexes, despite tackling the issue of polygamy. In addition, few will respond to its visual murkiness and redundant scenes of the up-and-down relationship between the lead couple. "--Howard Feinstein, Screen Daily.
Souleymane Cisse': Min Ye: Tell Me Who You Are (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:55 PM.
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Visual poetry and relaxed musical moments from Pedro Costa, Philipe Morel, and Jeanne Balibar.
Film from the Director's Fortnight at Cannes, opening in January 2010 in France.
Pedro Costa; Ne Change Rien (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:56 PM.
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"Can the most regressive work yet by an artist known for arrested development also be a sign of his newfound maturity?" "--Dennis Lim, Cinema Scope.
Harmony Korine: Trash Humpers (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:57 PM.
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I'll say it again: this year's fest has more films from directors I care about than any other I can remember. Just amazing...
The new Rivette reads absolutely delightful to me, even more so than the three previous films he made. But this one does not have a US distributor, at least not at the moment. The Miami fest should show it, along with the Costa one which will not get a theatrical release. Not a chance. Korine has ceased to intrigue me.
*Minor suggestion: correct the spelling of Tourneur. And, because both father and son, Maurice and Jacques, were outstanding filmmakers, perhaps you ought to specify which one is being compared with Pedro Costa.
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Thanks for your comment, even if it repeats what you said before, I wish there were more comments. I changed the spelling of Tourneur but the first name is not always given in discussions. I think anybody who is interested will know it is Jacques. I didn't say Costa is linked with those directors, but that he has linked himself with them. You could say either, but I made the distinction for a reason.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 10-02-2009 at 06:51 PM.
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"Directed by Lee Daniels, who established himself as a producer (with Monster's Ball and The Woodsman) before making his directorial debut with the risible 2005 mother-and-son assassin romp Shadowboxer, Push isn't half the piece of controlled, confident craftsmanship that Ballast was, but it may be that Daniels's crude, wildly undisciplined, anything-goes directorial style is exactly what the movie calls for. Hothouse melodrama one moment, pungent social realism the next, with dashes of slapstick farce (be they intentional or not) in between, Push takes the better part of an hour to settle on something resembling a consistent tone, yet even when the movie is at its most schizoid, you can't take your eyes off of it."--Scott Foundas' excellent short review from Sundance in the Village Voice.
Lee Daniels: Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:58 PM.
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Breillat continues her new focus on historical costume dramas based on famous French stories, providing a feminist angle on first serial-killer-of-women tale.
"However, the original story is only part of the film. The film is narrated by two young sisters in the 1950s. They update the fairytale's fantastical depictions of curiosity, conflict, cruelty and sisterly love into the everyday. Their love is less confrontational than A Ma Soeur! but it's nonetheless dark (despite the charming interaction). In fact, the abrupt ending results from a sister's avowed refusal to be curious, her attempt to hide from the cruelties of Bluebeard."--Brannavan Gnanalingam in The Lumiere Reader.
Catherine Breillat: Bluebeard (2008)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 01:59 PM.
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Experimental young Filipino filmmaker makes a film nostalgically evoking the early silents and talkies of his country (now mostly lost) and referring to flight from the American invasion at the turn of the century. "Though everything is obviously shot on a studio set with potted plants and a painted backdrop, the effect is to cast the characters into a magical world that can be both quaint and wondrous. Some silent film tropes are deliciously used, like the characters' dreams of sex and violence which are visualized as quaint "bubbles" over the heads of the sleeper."--Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter.
Raya Martin: Independencia (2009)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 02:00 PM.
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Elaborate festival presentation, laced with ironies, of the recently discovered earliest extant Korean film, a silent, with live music, two singers in costume, and a costumed dramatic narrator (pyosa).
An Jong-hwa: Crossroads of Youth (1934)
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 02:01 PM.
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L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of those documentaries, like Fulton and Pepe's Lost in La Mancha, about a movie that never got finished. Clouzot was one of the biggest French directors in 1964 when he got so wound up in elaborate psychological visuals and over-shooting simple scenes that his male lead walked off, he had a heart attack, and there was to be only one more major film from his hand before he died at 70, thirteen yeas later.
Bomberg, Medea: Henri-Georges Clouzot's 'Inferno' (2009_
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 02:02 PM.
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Update of liks
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 06-10-2010 at 02:03 PM.
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