THE PANDEMIC STREAMING WORLD: Oscilloscope, Kino Lorber, Music Box Films

[Chris Knipp]

More unique virtual releases from Film Forum.

Access the virtual cinema HERE.


EXCLUSIVE NYC PREMIERE
FRIDAY, MAY 1: CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
This is a new film.


Available to rent starting Friday, May 1

A FILM BY JUSTIN PEMBERTON

Based on the international bestseller by rock-star economist Thomas Piketty (which sold over three million copies worldwide and landed Piketty on TIME Magazine’s list of most influential people), this captivating documentary is an eye-opening journey through wealth and power, a film that breaks the popular assumption that the accumulation of capital runs hand in hand with social progress, and shines a new light on today’s growing inequalities. Traveling through time, the film assembles accessible pop-culture references coupled with interviews of some of the world’s most influential experts delivering an insightful and empowering journey through the past and into our future.

NEW ZEALAND 2020 103 MINS. KINO LORBER


And two more revivals om reissues by Rialto


(Jules Dassin)
FILM FORUM presents RIFIFI (1955)
Back from the pen, tough guy Jean Servais and some old cronies plan to knock over a jewelry store — the resulting heist a legendary 30-minute sequence without dialogue or music. Blacklisted Hollywood exile Jules Dassin turned a potboiler by milieu specialist Auguste Le Breton into an existential thriller that earned him Cannes’ Best Director prize and set the standard for screen robberies for decades to come.

JULES DASSIN Best Director, Cannes Film Festival

“THE UNDERWORLD EQUIVALENT OF A SUBLIME FRENCH MEAL.” - Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly

“FLAWLESS! FOR LOVERS OF TOUGH-GUY MOVIE-MAKING, RIFIFI MEANS PERFECTION.” - Michael Sragow, The New York Times

“THE BEST FILM NOIR I’VE EVER SEEN.” - François Truffaut

DIRECTED BY JULES DASSIN
FRANCE | 1955 | FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES
A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE

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VIRTUAL TICKET Watch Trailer Share



BAND OF OUTSIDERS
Directed by Jean-Luc Godard

Starring Anna Karina, Sami Frey and Claude Brasseur

(1964, Jean-Luc Godard) In the dreary suburb of Joinville, Claude Brasseur and Sami Frey (“Belmondo’s suburban cousins” - JLG) take turns romancing English language student Anna Karina, then light up when she mentions the big pile of cash stashed at her aunt’s villa. A piece of cake burglary, but then things go memorably awry. A jeu d’esprit – extracted from one of the blackest Série Noire novels, Fools’ Gold by Dolores Hitchens. – with echt Godardian set pieces including the trio line-dancing “Le Madison” and then “doing” the Louvre in record time. Approx. 95 min.

A RIALTO PICTURES RELEASE

[Chris Knipp]

KARIM MOUSSAOUI: UNTIL THE BIRDS RETURN/EN ATTENDANT LES HIRONDELLES (2017) - online from 1091 Media Film Room



This and other films now in digital and on demand from 1091 Media Front Room

I reviewed this three-part Algerian film, which has a European quality, on Filmleaf as part of New Directors/New Films 2018. It's a subtle and complex film and two years later it looks even better. You'll find that review in the Festival Coverage section HERE. I found it particularly interesting for its interplay of outside and local cultural influences and its picture of Algeria, which we don't glimpse that often onscreen. It is now coming out April 28th in digital and on demand via 1091 MEDIA FILM ROOM. As you'll see on their website, other current offerings include WHAT YOU GONNA DO WHEN THE WORLD'S ON FIRE, HIMALAYAN ICE, and the doc about Yves Saint Laurant's last season, CELEBRATION, which I have viewed, and liked; I've reviewed the first two here. Other films offered include LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE; LIVING HOME, COMING HOME: A PORTRAIT OF ROBERT FRANK; BIRDS OF PASSAGE, which I've also reviewed - and lots more, including films from the Sundance and Tribeca film festivals.

[Chris Knipp]

FILM FORUM addition.



Besides Godard's BAND OF OUTSIDERS, May 1 will see their exclusive Virtual Cinema release of the Kino Lorber documentary CAPITAL IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY (Justin Pemberton 2019), based on the French economist Thomas Piketty’s #1 bestseller, adapted by Matthew Metcalfe in collaboration with Pemberton and Piketty.

For full Film Forum Virtual Cinema offerings and details, go to https://filmforum.org/virtual-cinema

[Chris Knipp]

DEERSKIN/LE DAIN (Quentin Dupieux 2019)

This oddball crime tale, which friends said reminded them of Tarantino, reviewed here as part of this year's Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, will open May 1 as part of Greenwich Entertainment’s virtual cinema initiative. Greenwich is partnering with movie theaters that are currently closed because of Coronavirus precautions. You can support them by paying to view this new film. Every rental is $10, I believe. They also offer HUMAN NATURE, THE BOOKSELLERS, THE TIMES OF BILL CUNNINGHAM, CITIZEN K, WILD NIGHTS WITH EMILY, INCITEMENT, which I've reviewed, and other titles. See their website.

[Chris Knipp]

SXSW on Amazon Prime Video.

If you have Amazon Prime, their ten selections from this year's cancelled Austin, Texas festival can now for a limited time be watched free HERE.

[No longer available.]

[Chris Knipp]

A virtual festival-of-festivals. We Are One: A Global Film Festival announced for May 29-June 7, 2020



From Peter Bradshaw in the GUARDIAN comes word of

the new Covid-19-related We Are One: A Global Film Festival . . . a 10-day online festival beginning 29 May curated by Jane Rosenthal of the Tribeca film festival featuring arthouse films (though not the big-ticket Hollywood items) from Cannes, Venice, Berlin and many more, streaming for free in return for an optional donation to the World Health Organization’s Covid-19 fund.

Read the earlier GUARDIAN story HERE.

Peter Bradshaw hastens to point out this, watching movies at home on your laptop, is very far from what film festivals are all about. And he doubts that any really important new films will be included. Still, as an opportunity for people who can't go to Cannes, Locarno, Toronto, or Park City, it's unprecedented.

To connect with the event go here: https://www.youtube.com/WeAreOne

But it doesn't begin till a month from now so there's nothing going on there yet.

[Chris Knipp]

C̶a̶n̶n̶e̶s̶ ̶ ̶2̶0̶2̶0̶

Film festival ditches plans to postpone event until later in the year in favour of collaborating with other festivals, rather than take festival online\- GUARDIAN.

Cannes has decided not to reschedule to later in the year but to send its Competition films to other festivals. And there will be no Pandemic Streaming World Cannes Festival.

Even for cinephiles who've never been there, Cannes looms largest among the world's great film festivals. I've been covering Cannes 'virtually' on Filmleaf for several years. So it's a shock to learn there will be no Cannes as a place or Cannes as a brand in the world of international cinema in any form this year. Cannes will disappear.

Really?

A Guardian story explains.