Pia Marais: At Ellen's Age (2010)
A woman runs off the rails. We're seen that before, but Jeanne Balibar does it with style. Pia Marais, in her sophomore effort, gives good atmosphere in a German animal rights commune and in Africa, where a leopard walks onto the runway and a boy who rolls cigarettes shoots poachers in the game preserves.
Mohamed Diab: Cairo 678 (2010)
Three Cairo women of different backgrounds and life situations deal with sexual harassment in the streets and on the bus (#678) in this first feature by five-time screenwriter Mohamed Diab. An issue movie that's also quite engaging to watch. In Egyptian Arabic.
Screening times and dates for ND/NF:
2011-03-26 | 3:30 PM | MoMA
2011-03-28 | 9:00 PM | FSLC
The title was originally listed as 6,7,8, but in the film it's 678. For the series it's now been revised to Cairo 678.
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-24-2011 at 04:55 PM.
Göran Hugo Olsson: The Black Power Mixtape: 1967-1975 (2011)
Recdntly unearthed Swedish footage from the period includes Stokeley Carmichael interviewing his mother, Emile De Antonio lambasting TV Guide, a jail interview with Kathleen Cleaver, Luis Farrakhan just before he rose to power, and lovely color 16mm footage of Harlem and other locations. These are commented on periodically by a handful of black artists today who were there back then. The result may be some new perspective, and anyway a chance to revisit and reassess for ourselves this crucial time and movement in 20th century American history.
ND/NF screening schedule:
2011-03-26 | 9:00 PM | MoMA
2011-03-28 | 6:00 PM | FSL
.
.
.
.
.
Subway ad for the New Directors/New Films series 2011.
Denis Côté: Curling (2010)
A shy handyman in rural Quebec keeps his teenage daughter isolated from the world to protect her. Côté is intentionally careless in spinning his miserabilist yarn.
Shown at Locarno in compettion, the film won the Best Director prize there. Seen and reviewed as part of New Directors/New Films presented March 23-April 4, 2011 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, New York. In French-Canadian dialect. 92min. In 35mm.
ND/NF screening times:
Sat Mar 26: 6:15 pm - MoMA
Sun Mar 27: 3:30 pm - FSLC |
Dee Rees: Pariah (2011)
Dee Rees' Sundance-Workshop-developed first film is a brightly colored black gay lesbian coming-of-age story with good acting work from the young cast members, especially star Adepero Oduye.
Debuted at Sundance January 2011, Pariah has been picked up by Focus Features. Seen and reviewed as part of the New Directors/New Films series presented from March 23 through April 4, 2011 by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, New York.
ND/NF showtimes and locations:
Sat Mar 26: 8:00 pm FSLC
Mon Mar 28: 9:00 pm - MoMA
P. David Ebersole: Hit So Hard (2011)
A rocumentary about the second, and perhaps best, drummer of Courtney Love's band Hole, Patty Schemel, who was a close friend of Kurt Cobain, and went under to drugs after an ego-crushing experience in the recording studio. Rare unseen footage of Hole on tour and tender moments shortly before Cobain's death in 1994. Narrative by Patty Schemel herself recounts how she came back from life on the street in LA as a crack addict to six years clean and a happy and productive life, married to the woman she loves, raising her child, running her own dog day care business, and instructing girls to become rock star drummers. The film won't appeal to everybody, but covers Grunge, the generation of the Nineties, drugs and rock, coming out as a gay woman, and women drummers.
The film was also shown March 15 and 18 at the SXSW festival, Austin, Texas.
ND/NF screening times:
2011-03-28 | 6:00 PM | MoMA
2011-03-30 | 9:00 PM | FSLC
Rebecca Zlowtowski: Belle Épine (2010)
In this coming-of-age film and its director's debut, featured at Critics' Week at Cannes last year, Prudence, 17, a nice Jewish girl, has just lost her mother 16 days earlier and her father is away. She escapes from grieving into misbehavior and risk-taking, getting another girl to take her to illegal motorcycle races. Not an unqualified success (the screenplay is too unfocused), this is nonetheless a promising and original effort. The bright young cast features Léa Seydoux (as Prudence), with Agathe Schlenker, Anaïs Demoustier, and Johan Libéreau.
ND/NF sceenings:
2011-03-24 | 6:00 PM | FSLC
2011-03-26 | 1:00 PM | MoMA
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-15-2011 at 08:33 PM.
Ahmad Abdalla: Microphone (2010)
An exploration of lively alternative forms of music in Alexandria.
Egypt, 120 min. In Egyptian Arabic. Hisham Saqr won a well-deserved best editing prize at Dubai for this film, which was also shown at Toronto, London, and other festivals. Seen and reviewed as part of the New Directors/New Films series presented March 23-April 4, 2011 by MoMA and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, NYC.
ND/NF screenings:
2011-03-29 | 8:30 PM | MoMA
2011-03-31 | 6:00 PM | FSLC
Paddy Considine: Tyrannosaur (2010)
Well-established English actor Considine has produced a searing, harsh, powerful first film (which he also wrote) about a violent, alcoholic widower and the abused thrift shop clerk he befriends. Peter Mullan and Olivia Colman won acting prizes and Considine won a directing prize at Sundance.
A Strand Films US theatrical release is scheduled for October 11, 2011. Seen and reviewed as part of the New Directors/New Films series presented from March 23 to April 4, 2011 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, NYC.
Click on the title in blue for the Filmleaf Festival Coverage review
ND/NF screenings:
2011-03-30 | 6:00 PM | MoMA
2011-03-31 | 9:00 PM | FSLC
Last edited by Chris Knipp; 03-17-2011 at 06:49 AM.
Sameh Zoabi: Man Without a Cell Phone (2010)
A gentle, rueful comedy about the depredations suffered by Palestinians living in an Arab town that is part of Israel.
Clidk on the title for the Filmleaf Festival Coverage review.
83 minutes. In Palestinian Arabic. Cinematography by Hichame Alaouie, editing by Simon Jacquet; music by Krishna Levy. Bidoun mobile was featured at the Doha Festival. Seen and reviewed as part of New Directors/New Films, presented from March 23 through April 4, 2011 by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, New York.
ND/NF screenings:
2011-04-01 | 6:00 PM | FSLC
2011-04-03 | 1:30 PM | MoMA
Koji Fukada: Hospitalité (2010)
In working-class Tokyo, a man like Serji Lopez in Dominik Moll's With a Friend Like Harry, who pretends to be an old friend and invades a house, bringing in strange people and taking over. A deliberate perversion of Ozu and a droll, chilly, and surreal satire on Japanese xenophobia.
Click on the title for the Filmleaf Festival Coverage review.
Koji Fukada, who is 31, and who wrote, directed, and edited, is a member of Seinendan Theatre Company. This is his fourth film. It debuted at the Tokyo Film Festival in October 2010 and is coming to Hong Kong's. Seen and reviewed as part of New Directors/New Films March 23-April 4, 2011, presented by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and MoMA, New York.
ND/NF screenings:
2011-04-02 | 5:15 PM | MoMA
2011-04-03 | 1:00 PM | FSLC
I’m sorry that you didn’t feel engaged with this film and thought the main characters seemed unengaged. I had a different experience. I could definitely feel the pain of Prudence’s loneliness and felt very involved with the story. I have someone in my family whose mother died recently and she has never cried and is unwilling to even discuss it, so what Prudence was going through was very real for me.Originally Posted by Chris Knipp
I’m not exactly clear what you mean by saying the screenplay needed more shape. It was a bit non-structured I agree, but I didn’t find it rambling or lacking in clarity. I thought its lack of shape exemplified the turmoil that Prudence was experiencing.
For me, the importance of the Rosh Hashonah dinner where she appears uninterested in the Jewish traditions to me says that she is not turning away from her religion as such, but only in so far as it reminds her of her mother and her unwillingness to emotionally confront her death.
You say that the death of the biker jolts her back to an awareness of her own loss. This is a true statement but it is more than awareness in my view. It allows her repressed feelings of grief to finally surface. Likewise the scene at the end, for me, was more than just a “nice” scene. It was an epiphany. For her (and me), this was no “phantom.” She is able to come to terms with her own feelings by experiencing real communication with her dead mother.
In this regard, I disagree that the film “never finds itself.” Prudence has repressed her grief over her mother’s loss and goes through many spaces before she is able to confront her loss. That seems like finding itself.
I thought that Lea Seydoux’s performance was amazing and that, as you also say, for a first effort, it suggests a very promising future for this director.
"They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey
You're right, I failed to engage with the film to the degree that you did.
Prudence's failure to feel her grief over her mother's death didn't come through to me as it did to you. How are we supposed to know that she is resisting the grief and just didn't care much about her mother? Her feelings for her mother while her mother was alive are not established. The movie begins with the scene of Prudence being a bad girl. It wasn't completely clear to me what her family situation was. Was she a rich girl who had a whole Paris flat all to herself, or was her dad only away temporarily? It wasn't completely clear. The girl she was searched with in the store for shoplifting: was she a classmate, an outside acquaintance, or somebody she'd never met before? I wasn't quite clear on that either. Her interest in the illegal bike racing and the exciting motorcyclists at Rungis: where did that come from? Anther thing that slipped by me. when she went to the dinner at her relatives, I was not clear at first that they were relatives or that she was Jewish. Why should she have to have the meaning of basic Jewish holidays explained to her if she was Jewish? You see, a lot was not clear to me. Why doesn't she have any more proper bourgeois friends who are contemporaries, instead of inviting the bad boys and their girlfriends to come and semi-trash her apartment? Where are her usual friends and associates and activities?
You say the movie "was a bit non-structured I agree." When I say the biker's death jolts her back to an awareness of her loss, I of course meant that it led her back to her grief. I did not understand what the phantom of her mother meant at first either. Then I realized it meant awareness of her mother's absence was finally coming through to her. At first I thought it might mean she had only been pretending that her mother was dead and that her mother had been away like her father. Yes, you could say that a whole lot of this movie was not clear to me, and the elliptical, jerky presentation augmented that confusion for me. However I liked the dark Pialat-esque mise-en-scene. I was not put off by, rather attracted by, the whole thing. It just didn't wholly work.
Prudence goes to Rungis in the middle of the night. This is meant to be shocking and dark, and the excitement of her adventure comes through nicely. But it's also disorienting. The way the movie goes back and forth from Prudence's home to the edgy locales she seeks out is part of the confusion. In this sense the screenplay is "rambling" and since I did not follow some key points, it is also "lacking in clarity" Actually several things you say about the plot toward the end seem possibly incorrect, so you may not have followed the action as well as you think. I refer to Franck's sex with Prudence and Prudence's encounter with Franck's mother.
Here's an excerpt from Alissa Simon's Variety review:Of the people I talked to at the screening, one woman who is very perceptive said she understood exactly what Prudence was going through. Several men did not and thought the film unsuccessful. On Allociné the spectator rating is quite a bit lower than the critics' and this fits with what the Variety reviewer said, that the public would not like this movie as well as the reviewers. The critics' rating is 3.5, which is good (4.0 is a top rating) but the viewers' is 2.7. I'll see if I can talk to other people at the screening and see what they thought.An uneasy mix of subject matter that avoids introspection, the screenplay by Zlotowski and Gaelle Mace has the prickly feeling of unprocessed material brought out in therapy. This sensation of a past nightmare recalled is furthered by the production design's lack of specific historic or geographic references, as well as pic's many nighttime scenes.
On the plus side, however, Seydoux (appearing in three Cannes official selection titles) shows the goods that make her among France's most sought-after young actresses, and strong craft credits exert an almost hypnotic spell. . .
From my point of view, all of these questions do not really matter in the big scheme of things. Her economic status was not relevant. As for her relationship with her mother, the final scene of the film indicated clearly to me that she had had a good relationship with her mother but had been unable to come to terms with her loss. It doesn’t matter why her father wasn’t around. Presumably he was away on business. The only thing that was germane was that she felt lost and lonely.
Like many adolescents who are angry, she acted out her rebellion by seeking an escape through the bike racing scene. In this case, it appeared that she was angry at her mother for dying but could not confront that, so she internalized it by turning the anger inward against herself. She apparently did not have any close friends that she could turn to.Her interest in the illegal bike racing and the exciting motorcyclists at Rungis: where did that come from?
Not every Jew is familiar with the reasons and purposes of the holidays especially if they do not come from a particularly religious upbringing. In my case, we did celebrate the high holy days by going to temple, but it never had much meaning to me and I never understood the reasons behind the holidays until I was an adult.Another thing that slipped by me. when she went to the dinner at her relatives, I was not clear at first that they were relatives or that she was Jewish. Why should she have to have the meaning of basic Jewish holidays explained to her if she was Jewish? You see, a lot was not clear to me. Why doesn't she have any more proper bourgeois friends who are contemporaries, instead of inviting the bad boys and their girlfriends to come and semi-trash her apartment? Where are her usual friends and associates and activities?
I understand that it didn’t work for you.You say the movie "was a bit non-structured I agree." When I say the biker's death jolts her back to an awareness of her loss, I of course meant that it led her back to her grief. I did not understand what the phantom of her mother meant at first either. Then I realized it meant awareness of her mother's absence was finally coming through to her. At first I thought it might mean she had only been pretending that her mother was dead and that her mother had been away like her father. Yes, you could say that a whole lot of this movie was not clear to me, and the elliptical, jerky presentation augmented that confusion for me. However I liked the dark Pialat-esque mise-en-scene. I was not put off by, rather attracted by, the whole thing. It just didn't wholly work.
I think the confusion and the disoriented nature of the presentation was meant to mirror the state of Prudence’s mind as she goes through a process of rebellion and discovery. What was it that I said about the plot toward the end seemed incorrect?Prudence goes to Rungis in the middle of the night. This is meant to be shocking and dark, and the excitement of her adventure comes through nicely. But it's also disorienting. The way the movie goes back and forth from Prudence's home to the edgy locales she seeks out is part of the confusion. In this sense the screenplay is "rambling" and since I did not follow some key points, it is also "lacking in clarity" Actually several things you say about the plot toward the end seem possibly incorrect, so you may not have followed the action as well as you think. I refer to Franck's sex with Prudence and Prudence's encounter with Franck's mother.
With all due respect, while I am interested in what others say about a film, everyone's in a different space and reacts differently. In the final analysis, like viewing a painting, I always go with my experience and what it means to me on a personal level.Of the people I talked to at the screening, one woman who is very perceptive said she understood exactly what Prudence was going through. Several men did not and thought the film unsuccessful. On Allociné the spectator rating is quite a bit lower than the critics' and this fits with what the Variety reviewer said, that the public would not like this movie as well as the reviewers. The critics' rating is 3.5, which is good (4.0 is a top rating) but the viewers' is 2.7. I'll see if I can talk to other people at the screening and see what they thought.
"They must find it hard, those who have taken authority as truth, rather than truth as authority" Gerald Massey
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks