The Sundance Film Festival is regarded as one of the most prestigious independent film festivals, where filmmakers have been premiering their movies and documentaries since 1984.
The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.
Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors and actors to develop their original independent projects.
By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...
The festival was founded in 1978 by Sterling Van Wagenen, the head of Robert Redford’s company Wildwood, and John Earle of the Utah Film Commission under the name Utah/US Film Festival to attract more filmmakers to Utah.
Redford founded the Sundance Institute in 1981 to foster independence, risk-taking, and new voices in American film. That year, 10 emerging filmmakers were invited to the Sundance Resort in the mountains of Utah, where they worked with leading writers, directors and actors to develop their original independent projects.
By 1984, the festival had established itself and was officially renamed the Sundance Film Festival after Redford’s character in his 1969 film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. That year, the Grand Jury Prize in Dramatics was awarded to Old Enough, an...
- 1/26/2024
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
For four decades, Sundance has maintained a reputation as one of the most important film festivals in America for independent filmmakers from around the globe. To commemorate its 40th anniversary in 2024 and the enormity (and reciprocity) of that cultural footprint, festival leadership set a series of restoration screenings to highlight many of the most memorable films programmed throughout its history.
“When you look at the way the independent film movement has evolved and changed over the years, from the maturation of an industry and the opportunities that artists have found, to the way that an audience has been built around the work, you see a festival that has evolved alongside it,” says John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives.
This year’s festival takes place Jan. 18-28, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from Jan. 25-28. The...
“When you look at the way the independent film movement has evolved and changed over the years, from the maturation of an industry and the opportunities that artists have found, to the way that an audience has been built around the work, you see a festival that has evolved alongside it,” says John Nein, senior programmer and director of strategic initiatives.
This year’s festival takes place Jan. 18-28, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from Jan. 25-28. The...
- 1/16/2024
- by Nick Clement
- Variety Film + TV
Stalked By My Doctor.Recently I was flipping through the seasonal calendar at a Boston-area repertory cinema, and a program dedicated to the enterprising feminist filmmaker Joyce Chopra caught my eye. I wondered how Chopra’s six-decade career, spanning everything from short-form documentaries and TV movies to Sundance-winning features and stage plays televised for PBS, would be condensed into a curated selection of screenings. In fact it would only be two: Smooth Talk (1985), one of Chopra’s two theatrically-released features, and Joyce at 34 (1972), a short documentary that she co-directed with Claudia Weill early in her career.I’m not ignorant of the creative merits or historical importance of these films, nor the rights/access issues resolved by Criterion’s recent physical release of a 4K restoration of Smooth Talk, which includes Joyce at 34 as a special feature. But as I look at rep theater programs across the country and see...
- 6/7/2023
- MUBI
Chopra editing with daughter Sarah on her lap.I asked Joyce Chopra about the title of her recently published memoir, Lady Director, during a Zoom interview earlier this year.She laughed. “When I was doing television movies, they’d say, ‘Well, get a woman director,’ because it’s about emotion,” she told me. We then discussed the inherent awkwardness of saying “woman director”—or is it “female director”? “Man director” just sounds weird, and “male director”…well, who would ever say that? After all, isn’t it implied? Chopra’s memoir—a brisk but lively read, spanning a long life and prodigious career, published in November 2022 by City Lights Publishers—provides firsthand insight into the inherently precarious situation of being a woman in a man’s world, from a genuine, if woefully under-recognized, trailblazer of the artform. Her films explore a range of seemingly disparate subjects, but nevertheless evince a distinct,...
- 4/21/2023
- MUBI
For our latest dive into recent books on or related to cinema, we’re spending time with some icons––fictional (James Bond) and non. Let’s start with 50 color palettes and one beautifully unique new text.
Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco (Frances Lincoln)
Colors of Film is an engrossing study of how filmmakers utilize color in complex, ingenious, emotionally impactful ways. Some of these examples (e.g. the red jacket in Schindler’s List) have inspired much discourse. What makes this book––by the always-entertaining and -intelligent critic Charles Bramesco––so special is its focus on less-obvious films. A noteworthy case: Hype Williams’ Belly and its “flights of stylistic fancy.” During its hyper-stylized opening, as gangsters Buns and Sin “prowl through the dance floor, ceiling-mounted blacklights make the men look extraterrestrial, their eyeballs glowstick-turquoise against deeper blue skin.” Other entries focus on everything...
Colors of Film: The Story of Cinema in 50 Palettes by Charles Bramesco (Frances Lincoln)
Colors of Film is an engrossing study of how filmmakers utilize color in complex, ingenious, emotionally impactful ways. Some of these examples (e.g. the red jacket in Schindler’s List) have inspired much discourse. What makes this book––by the always-entertaining and -intelligent critic Charles Bramesco––so special is its focus on less-obvious films. A noteworthy case: Hype Williams’ Belly and its “flights of stylistic fancy.” During its hyper-stylized opening, as gangsters Buns and Sin “prowl through the dance floor, ceiling-mounted blacklights make the men look extraterrestrial, their eyeballs glowstick-turquoise against deeper blue skin.” Other entries focus on everything...
- 3/14/2023
- by Christopher Schobert
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSNo Bears.Jafar Panahi was released on bail last Friday, two days after starting a hunger strike to protest his seven-month imprisonment. “His next fight is to have the cancellation of his sentence officially recognized,” said Michèle Halberstadt, his French distributor. “He’s outside, he’s free, and this is already great.”Recommended VIEWINGPersonal Problems.Maya Cade of the Black Film Archive has chosen 28 films for the 28 days of Black History Month in the US and compiled online streaming links for each. The lineup includes films by Saundra Sharp, Bill Gunn, and many others.Filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun (We're All Going to the World's Fair)'s A Self-Induced Hallucination, their archival documentary about the Slenderman, is available for free on Vimeo. For more on the project,...
- 2/7/2023
- MUBI
When filmmaker Joyce Chopra was coming of age in post-World War II New York, she ran into a serious problem: She’d never seen a film directed by a woman. Even the film history books she read didn’t make mention of what Chopra herself would eventually become: a “lady director.”
After more than 50 years in the business, Chopra is reclaiming that eye-rolling moniker for her first memoir, “Lady Director, Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond,” an insightful, emotional, and often quite dishy rollercoaster ride through her life and career. At 86, Chopra is as curious, clever, and damn fun to talk to as ever, all of which is reflected in her eye-opening memoir.
Out November 22 from City Lights Publishers, “Lady Director” follows Chopra through her early, revelatory documentary career, the making of her Sundance winner “Smooth Talk,” the incredible disappointments that followed, and her eventual move into television, where she...
After more than 50 years in the business, Chopra is reclaiming that eye-rolling moniker for her first memoir, “Lady Director, Adventures in Hollywood, Television and Beyond,” an insightful, emotional, and often quite dishy rollercoaster ride through her life and career. At 86, Chopra is as curious, clever, and damn fun to talk to as ever, all of which is reflected in her eye-opening memoir.
Out November 22 from City Lights Publishers, “Lady Director” follows Chopra through her early, revelatory documentary career, the making of her Sundance winner “Smooth Talk,” the incredible disappointments that followed, and her eventual move into television, where she...
- 11/17/2022
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
It is fair to assume Criterion could plunder the world of licensed film to build an ultimate noir playlist; credit, then, for focusing sharp and nabbing deep cuts. The Criterion Channel’s November / Noirvember program will be headlined by “Fox Noir,” an eight-title program with Otto Preminger deep cut Fallen Angel, three by Henry Hathaway, Siodmak, Dassin, Kazan, and Robert Wise, and while retrospectives of Veronica Lake and John Garfield will bring some canon into the fold, I’m mostly thinking about that potential for discovery.
Following “Free Jazz,” Bob Hoskins, and Joyce Chopra programs, the other big series is a 30-year survey of Sony Pictures Classics: Sally Potter, Satoshi Kon, Panahi, Errol Morris, Almodóvar, Haneke, Mike Leigh, just a murderer’s row. Streaming premieres include 499 and A Night of Knowing Nothing, two recent epitomes of I Wish I Had Seen That; Criterion Editions comprise Cure, Brazil, Sullivan’s Travels,...
Following “Free Jazz,” Bob Hoskins, and Joyce Chopra programs, the other big series is a 30-year survey of Sony Pictures Classics: Sally Potter, Satoshi Kon, Panahi, Errol Morris, Almodóvar, Haneke, Mike Leigh, just a murderer’s row. Streaming premieres include 499 and A Night of Knowing Nothing, two recent epitomes of I Wish I Had Seen That; Criterion Editions comprise Cure, Brazil, Sullivan’s Travels,...
- 10/26/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Click here to read the full article.
The much-publicized backlash that has surrounded Andrew Dominik’s Nc-17 biopic Blonde has had the surprising, simultaneous effect of elevating interest in another Marilyn Monroe project that might otherwise have slipped into the past. In 2001, pioneering female filmmaker Joyce Chopra shot a two-part TV miniseries for CBS, adapting the very same Joyce Carol Oates novel Dominik would later spend over a decade bringing to screen for Netflix.
Dominik’s harrowing, nearly three-hour telling of the Marilyn story has been widely criticized for its almost exclusive focus on the many traumas of the Hollywood icon’s life, and for devoting little interest to the episodes where she exercised undeniable agency and self-determination. As The Hollywood Reporter’s lead critic David Rooney put it in his review, “This is a treatise on celebrity and the sex symbol that blurs not only reality with fantasy but also empathy with exploitation.
The much-publicized backlash that has surrounded Andrew Dominik’s Nc-17 biopic Blonde has had the surprising, simultaneous effect of elevating interest in another Marilyn Monroe project that might otherwise have slipped into the past. In 2001, pioneering female filmmaker Joyce Chopra shot a two-part TV miniseries for CBS, adapting the very same Joyce Carol Oates novel Dominik would later spend over a decade bringing to screen for Netflix.
Dominik’s harrowing, nearly three-hour telling of the Marilyn story has been widely criticized for its almost exclusive focus on the many traumas of the Hollywood icon’s life, and for devoting little interest to the episodes where she exercised undeniable agency and self-determination. As The Hollywood Reporter’s lead critic David Rooney put it in his review, “This is a treatise on celebrity and the sex symbol that blurs not only reality with fantasy but also empathy with exploitation.
- 10/13/2022
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
What becomes a legend most? Well, in the case of Marilyn Monroe, it’s countless books, feature films, TV movies, limited series, documentaries and even a Broadway musical. “Blonde,” the latest film about the influential sex symbol, who starred in such films as 1953’s “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” and 1959’s ‘Some Like it Hot” and tragically died at the age of 36 in 1962, has been polarizing critics and audiences since it premiered at the recent Venice Film Festival.
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ best-selling 2000 novel, “Blonde” offers a fictionalized look at the troubled actress. Currently in theaters and streaming on Netflix, “Blonde” stars Ana de Armas. She has been singled out by critics for her work, but director Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”) hasn’t been so lucky. “’Blonde’ has been conceived as a slow-motion death march,” said the L.A. Times Justin Chan.
The...
Based on Joyce Carol Oates’ best-selling 2000 novel, “Blonde” offers a fictionalized look at the troubled actress. Currently in theaters and streaming on Netflix, “Blonde” stars Ana de Armas. She has been singled out by critics for her work, but director Andrew Dominik (“The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford”) hasn’t been so lucky. “’Blonde’ has been conceived as a slow-motion death march,” said the L.A. Times Justin Chan.
The...
- 10/3/2022
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
It’s ironic that Andrew Dominik, director of the latest Marilyn Monroe biopic “Blonde,” wonders if anyone still watches Marilyn Monroe movies. I’d say the many Monroe biopics that exist, whether directly retelling the events of her life or loosely inspired by them like his own, says otherwise. It’s even more frustrating to look at the landscape of Marilyn portrayals onscreen and realize only two have been directed by women; and just one has been written and directed by a woman. It is that same movie, also based on Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, that seems to have a better awareness of Marilyn and her movies.
CBS aired the two-part miniseries “Blonde,” directed by Joyce Chopra and written by Joyce Eliason, in 2001. The TV movie tells the familiar story of Norma Jean Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe (played by Poppy Montgomery), as she navigates a tortured upbringing with a mentally ill mother,...
CBS aired the two-part miniseries “Blonde,” directed by Joyce Chopra and written by Joyce Eliason, in 2001. The TV movie tells the familiar story of Norma Jean Baker, aka Marilyn Monroe (played by Poppy Montgomery), as she navigates a tortured upbringing with a mentally ill mother,...
- 9/28/2022
- by Kristen Lopez
- Indiewire
A humdrum thriller that clumsily digs into themes of sexual and emotional trauma, Amy Redford’s sophomore feature “What Comes Around” follows Anna (Grace Van Dien), an archetypal perceptive teenage girl on the cusp of maturity. Because she’s the observant kind who yearns for big ideas and possibilities outside of her small suburban world, it’s no surprise that it isn’t a square teenage boy from her school that romantically sweeps Anna off her feet, but a man of nearly 30 years of age she’s met online.
He’s the creepily mysterious Eric, someone who ignites Anna’s all-consuming emotions, shares her love of Emily Dickinson and notices (at least on the surface) the complexities of this young girl who wants to cross over to adulthood fast. But when he shows up at Anna’s doorstep uninvited all too abruptly after traveling hundreds of miles, he rattles the disturbed Anna,...
He’s the creepily mysterious Eric, someone who ignites Anna’s all-consuming emotions, shares her love of Emily Dickinson and notices (at least on the surface) the complexities of this young girl who wants to cross over to adulthood fast. But when he shows up at Anna’s doorstep uninvited all too abruptly after traveling hundreds of miles, he rattles the disturbed Anna,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Tomris Laffly
- Variety Film + TV
Some people are born to act, and the wondrous Laura Dern is one of those people. The daughter of Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd, Laura entered the world of acting at a young age with bit parts in films like "Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore" and "White Lightning" before beginning her acting career in earnest years later.
Her career has been impressively varied, and she's worked with many great directors, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Joyce Chopra. She's also enjoyed a particularly successful collaboration with David Lynch. She's been at the forefront of both independent and blockbuster films, with one of her most famous roles being in Spielberg's...
The post The 15 Best Laura Dern Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
Her career has been impressively varied, and she's worked with many great directors, including Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, and Joyce Chopra. She's also enjoyed a particularly successful collaboration with David Lynch. She's been at the forefront of both independent and blockbuster films, with one of her most famous roles being in Spielberg's...
The post The 15 Best Laura Dern Movies, Ranked appeared first on /Film.
- 8/7/2022
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
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By Todd Garbarini
Some of the best literary achievements and their respective motion picture counterparts had their genesis in real-life. Robert Bloch made the grave-robber and necrophiliac Ed Gein into the motel manager Norman Bates in Psycho (1960); William Peter Blatty took the ostensibly possessed boy in Cottage City, MD and gave him the identity of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973); and Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek breathed celluloid life into Kit and Holly respectively in Badlands (1973), based upon Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s brilliant 1985 film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s equally excellent 1966 short story “Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going?", is no exception. While it may seem odd to begin this review of what is on the surface, and for all intents and purposes, a story of a teen-age girl’s sexual awakening,...
By Todd Garbarini
Some of the best literary achievements and their respective motion picture counterparts had their genesis in real-life. Robert Bloch made the grave-robber and necrophiliac Ed Gein into the motel manager Norman Bates in Psycho (1960); William Peter Blatty took the ostensibly possessed boy in Cottage City, MD and gave him the identity of Regan MacNeil in The Exorcist (1973); and Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek breathed celluloid life into Kit and Holly respectively in Badlands (1973), based upon Waste Land: The Savage Odyssey of Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate. Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s brilliant 1985 film adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’s equally excellent 1966 short story “Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going?", is no exception. While it may seem odd to begin this review of what is on the surface, and for all intents and purposes, a story of a teen-age girl’s sexual awakening,...
- 7/17/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
Cinema Village
“Abel Ferrara’s Cinema Village,” a nine-title selection of films both from and beloved by the great director, is underway with tickets running only $5. Read our interview with Ferrara here.
Film at Lincoln Center
The restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk continues, while Hou Hsiao-hsien’s masterpiece Flowers of Shanghai and Muhammad Ali, the Greatest screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Prints of Full Metal Jacket and The Shining have showings, while 2001 plays on Dcp; non-Kubrick screenings include Beau Travail and The Right Stuff.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge La Piscine,...
- 7/2/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge has been given a new 4K restoration, while La Piscine and 8½ continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the new restoration of In the Mood for Love continues playing daily, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk begins a week-long run.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big” has a major weekend with Daughters of the Dust, Beau Travail, The Piano, and Do the Right Thing; meanwhile, 2001 plays on 70mm this Friday.
IFC Center
The restoration of Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls continues.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of John Waters’ Polyester and...
Film Forum
Le Cercle Rouge has been given a new 4K restoration, while La Piscine and 8½ continue.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the new restoration of In the Mood for Love continues playing daily, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk begins a week-long run.
Museum of the Moving Image
“See It Big” has a major weekend with Daughters of the Dust, Beau Travail, The Piano, and Do the Right Thing; meanwhile, 2001 plays on 70mm this Friday.
IFC Center
The restoration of Lizzie Borden’s Working Girls continues.
Roxy Cinema
Prints of John Waters’ Polyester and...
- 6/24/2021
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSFilmmaker Bertrand Mandico has illustrated the 70th anniversary cover of Cahier du Cinéma, entitled "Gloria, angel of the history of the cinema." The Museum of Modern Art and Film at Lincoln Center have announced the lineup for the 50th edition of New Directors/New Films. Screenings will take place from April 28-May 8 through the MoMA and Flc virtual cinemas, and in-person screenings at Flc through May 13. The lineup of 27 features and 11 shorts includes Theo Anthony's All Light, Everywhere, Andreas Fontana's Azor, Alice Diop's We (Nous), and Jane Schoenbrun's We’re All Going to the World’s Fair. Recommended VIEWINGAnother Gaze's free streaming project, Another Screen, has announced two new programmes: Hands Tied, about hands, and Eating the Other, about gendered notions of eating. The first official trailer for Mamoru Hosoda's Belle, which...
- 4/6/2021
- MUBI
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Joyce Chopra's Smooth Talk has always stood out among teenage-girl-coming-of-age films for several reasons. It was the filmmaker's fiction narrative debut after a successful career in documentary film; it was Laura Dern's first major leading role; and - though perhaps this is hindsight talking - it's one of the few films from this era in which a woman's perspective on those important formative years, and how girls learn about the predatory nature of men, takes centre stage. Based on the short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, tt's deceptively complex in presentation and layers of narrative, and long overdue for the Criterion treatment. Winner of the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, it tells the story of a fateful...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/23/2021
- Screen Anarchy
It was the Grand Jury Prize winner of the Sundance Film Festival in its year. It launched the storied career of Laura Dern in earnest. And it opened in theaters alongside largely favorable reviews. But Joyce Chopra’s elusive, heartbreaking, and even terrifying female-centric coming-of-age movie “Smooth Talk” (1985) didn’t exactly stay top of mind as one of the prime examples of movies about teenage angst, at least not when compared to something like “Dazed and Confused” or the films of John Hughes.
Continue reading Director Joyce Chopra On The ‘Smooth Talk’ Restoration, Casting Laura Dern & The Film’s Timely Story [Interview] at The Playlist.
Continue reading Director Joyce Chopra On The ‘Smooth Talk’ Restoration, Casting Laura Dern & The Film’s Timely Story [Interview] at The Playlist.
- 2/23/2021
- by Tomris Laffly
- The Playlist
Michel Delahaye and Ingrid Bourgoin in Marie-Claude Treilhou’s Simone Barbès Or Virtue
At the New York Film Festival in 2020, there were a number of terrific free talks, including Gianfranco Rosi on Notturno (Italy’s Oscar submission); Christian Petzold with Heinz Emigholz (The Last City and The Lobby with John Erdman); Steve McQueen with Small Axe cinematographer Shabier Kirchner and his Lovers Rock (Opening Night Gala selection) cast Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Micheal Ward; Laura Dern, Joyce Chopra, and Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk (Revivals selection); Chloé Zhao with Nomadland (Centerpiece selection) producer Peter Spears; Dea Kulumbegashvili on Beginning, and Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Azazel Jacobs on French Exit (Closing Night selection).
Serge Bozon discussed Simone Barbès Or Virtue with Marie-Claude Treilhou Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Serge Bozon (director of Madame Hyde,...
At the New York Film Festival in 2020, there were a number of terrific free talks, including Gianfranco Rosi on Notturno (Italy’s Oscar submission); Christian Petzold with Heinz Emigholz (The Last City and The Lobby with John Erdman); Steve McQueen with Small Axe cinematographer Shabier Kirchner and his Lovers Rock (Opening Night Gala selection) cast Amarah-Jae St. Aubyn and Micheal Ward; Laura Dern, Joyce Chopra, and Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk (Revivals selection); Chloé Zhao with Nomadland (Centerpiece selection) producer Peter Spears; Dea Kulumbegashvili on Beginning, and Michelle Pfeiffer, Lucas Hedges and Azazel Jacobs on French Exit (Closing Night selection).
Serge Bozon discussed Simone Barbès Or Virtue with Marie-Claude Treilhou Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Serge Bozon (director of Madame Hyde,...
- 1/5/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
The Criterion Collection continues 2021 with a recently rediscovered classic, an established tenet of the conspiracy genre, a horribly underrepresented African filmmaker (evergreen), and two by Ramin Bahrani. Respectfully, those are: Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk; Alan J. Pakula’s The Parallax View; Ousmane Sembène’s Mandabi; as well as Bahrani’s Chop Shop and Man Push Cart.
Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.
New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayConversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by TCM host Alicia MaloneNew interview with ChopraNew interview with production designer David WascoKPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1976), three short films by ChopraAudio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,...
Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.
New, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised by director Joyce Chopra, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-rayConversation among Chopra, author Joyce Carol Oates, and actor Laura Dern from the 2020 New York Film Festival, moderated by TCM host Alicia MaloneNew interview with ChopraNew interview with production designer David WascoKPFK Pacifica Radio interview with Chopra from 1985Joyce at 34 (1972), Girls at 12 (1975), and Clorae and Albie (1976), three short films by ChopraAudio reading of the 1966 Life magazine article “The Pied Piper of Tucson,...
- 11/13/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe prolific, captivating Sean Connery has died. As critic Glenn Kenny writes in his obituary for Decider, Connery will always be "tied to the role of James Bond, [but] so many of Connery’s non-Bond roles were [...] fascinating, challenging, and cinematically important." Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films' official trailer for the new 4k digital restoration of Manoel de Oliveira's 1981 Francisca, an adaptation of Agustina Bessa-Luís’ acclaimed novel. Oscilloscope has released the first trailer for The Twentieth Century, Matthew Rankine's dark comedy-drama that reimagines the life of former Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. The film won the Fipresci prize in the Forum section of the 2019 Berlinale. The Asian Film Archive has announced Monographs 2020, a series of video essays commissioned and conceived during lockdown. Featuring a wide range of filmmakers, the series aims to offer "an...
- 11/4/2020
- MUBI
One of the great, perhaps overlooked movies of the ’80s, Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk is poised to be rediscovered with a new 4K restoration. Starring Laura Dern––in one of her earliest, most impressive roles––Smooth Talk is based on a Joyce Carol Oates short story about a young girl who comes into the orbit of a mysterious, dangerous older man (Treat Williams). As Dern’s Connie becomes more and more entangled with this strange man, Smooth Talk becomes an unforgettable commentary on sexual politics and a young woman’s coming of age.
Co-starring Mary Kay Place, Margaret Welsh, and Levon Helm, while Smooth Talk opened to critical acclaim at the time (it won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), it also feels perfect for rediscovery today for its uncompromising exploration of female sexuality and the career ascendency of Laura Dern. Get a preview of the 4K restoration by Janus Films,...
Co-starring Mary Kay Place, Margaret Welsh, and Levon Helm, while Smooth Talk opened to critical acclaim at the time (it won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival), it also feels perfect for rediscovery today for its uncompromising exploration of female sexuality and the career ascendency of Laura Dern. Get a preview of the 4K restoration by Janus Films,...
- 10/30/2020
- by Stephen Hladik
- The Film Stage
Joyce Carol Oates on Smooth Talk: “Our species is so impressionable, we’re very vulnerable to any kind of mesmerising person …”
Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern with Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place (Diane in Kent Jones’s award-winning début feature Diane), Levon Helm, Elizabeth Berridge, Margaret Welsh, Sara Inglis, and Geoff Hoyle, is a highlight in the Revivals programme of the 58th New York Film Festival. The screenplay by Tom Cole is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Dern’s Connie, a giggly 16-year old when out at the beach or the mall with her girlfriends Laura (Margaret Welsh) and Jill (Sara Inglis), is more sombre and a different kind of unruly at home with her parents and well-behaved sister June (Elizabeth Berridge).
Joyce Carol Oates: “I think also the movie is a brilliant, poetic work of...
Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern with Treat Williams, Mary Kay Place (Diane in Kent Jones’s award-winning début feature Diane), Levon Helm, Elizabeth Berridge, Margaret Welsh, Sara Inglis, and Geoff Hoyle, is a highlight in the Revivals programme of the 58th New York Film Festival. The screenplay by Tom Cole is based on Joyce Carol Oates’ short story, Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?
Dern’s Connie, a giggly 16-year old when out at the beach or the mall with her girlfriends Laura (Margaret Welsh) and Jill (Sara Inglis), is more sombre and a different kind of unruly at home with her parents and well-behaved sister June (Elizabeth Berridge).
Joyce Carol Oates: “I think also the movie is a brilliant, poetic work of...
- 9/25/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Sean Donovan looks at two films from NYFF's "Revivals" section...
The major film festivals of the world, New York included, take as much responsibility for cinema’s past as its future. Alongside new hyped arthouse projects, festivals program curios from the past that may have fallen through the cracks or not received their due recognition in their day. In other instances, festivals re-deploy older films to the contemporary moment in an act of deliberate commentary, the film speaking to culture in a way that feels freshly vital for 2020 (that is certainly the case of one of the selections profiled here). Over the past weekend, New York Film Fest virtual cinema uploaded two of their revival selections, Joyce Chopra’s Sundance-winning drama Smooth Talk (1985) and a Blaxploitation cult film The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Both are canny, fascinating picks from the NYFF, and well worth the revisit in 2020...
The major film festivals of the world, New York included, take as much responsibility for cinema’s past as its future. Alongside new hyped arthouse projects, festivals program curios from the past that may have fallen through the cracks or not received their due recognition in their day. In other instances, festivals re-deploy older films to the contemporary moment in an act of deliberate commentary, the film speaking to culture in a way that feels freshly vital for 2020 (that is certainly the case of one of the selections profiled here). Over the past weekend, New York Film Fest virtual cinema uploaded two of their revival selections, Joyce Chopra’s Sundance-winning drama Smooth Talk (1985) and a Blaxploitation cult film The Spook Who Sat by the Door (1973). Both are canny, fascinating picks from the NYFF, and well worth the revisit in 2020...
- 9/22/2020
- by Sean Donovan
- FilmExperience
Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that directors Garrett Bradley (Time); Ephraim Asili (The Inheritance); Valeria Sarmiento (The Tango Of The Widower And Its Distorting Mirror); Nicolás Pereda (Fauna); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile); Matías Piñeiro (Isabella); Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno) Heinz Emigholz; Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski; Tsai Ming-liang (Days), Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile), and Christian Petzold (Undine) will participate in Free Talks during the 58th New York Film Festival. In addition, Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue; Steve McQueen speaks about The Making of Small Axe, and Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk.
Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
“Several roundtable discussions highlight thematic trends within this year’s program: Outside the Canon,...
Film at Lincoln Center has announced that directors Garrett Bradley (Time); Ephraim Asili (The Inheritance); Valeria Sarmiento (The Tango Of The Widower And Its Distorting Mirror); Nicolás Pereda (Fauna); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile); Matías Piñeiro (Isabella); Gianfranco Rosi (Notturno) Heinz Emigholz; Filip Jan Rymsza and Bob Murawski; Tsai Ming-liang (Days), Sam Pollard (MLK/FBI); John Gianvito (Her Socialist Smile), and Christian Petzold (Undine) will participate in Free Talks during the 58th New York Film Festival. In addition, Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue; Steve McQueen speaks about The Making of Small Axe, and Joyce Chopra and Joyce Carol Oates will discuss Smooth Talk.
Marie-Claude Treilhou talks with Serge Bozon on Simone Barbes or Virtue Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
“Several roundtable discussions highlight thematic trends within this year’s program: Outside the Canon,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
As the New York Film Festival readies to roll out its 58th edition tomorrow (and running through October 11), IndieWire is pleased to share an exclusive look at the many festival-sponsored Talks which will roll out during this year’s event. HBO serves as the presenting sponsor of Talks, which supplement NYFF’s screenings with a series of free and live panel discussions and in-depth conversations with a wide range of guests.
As announced by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins. The Talks are taking a new shape, too, and while they are not available as in-person events, as they have been in years past, the festival is hoping to turn them into “an essential live, online meeting place for audiences,...
As announced by festival brass earlier this summer, this year’s NYFF is going to operate differently than it has in previous incarnations. The event will combine a brand-new virtual presence with carefully designed outdoor screenings, including two drive-ins. The Talks are taking a new shape, too, and while they are not available as in-person events, as they have been in years past, the festival is hoping to turn them into “an essential live, online meeting place for audiences,...
- 9/16/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Joyce Carol Oates published her short story Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? in 1966, the year before Laura Dern, star of Joyce Chopra’s 1985 film adaptation, was born. Watching Smooth Talk (screenplay by Tom Cole) in the Revivals programme of the 2020 New York Film Festival adds yet another turn of the temporal screw to this tale of a teenage girl and her encounter with a recondite man named Arnold Friend (Treat Williams).
Dern’s Connie, a giggly 16-year old when out at the beach or the mall with her girlfriends Laura (Margaret Welsh) and Jill (Sara Inglis), is more sombre and a different kind of unruly at home with her parents and well-behaved sister June (Elizabeth Berridge). This is rural America...
Dern’s Connie, a giggly 16-year old when out at the beach or the mall with her girlfriends Laura (Margaret Welsh) and Jill (Sara Inglis), is more sombre and a different kind of unruly at home with her parents and well-behaved sister June (Elizabeth Berridge). This is rural America...
- 9/15/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung is a Revival selection Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Film at Lincoln Center has announced the Revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival will include Terence Dixon’s Meeting The Man: James Baldwin In Paris, shot by Jack Hazan and Steve McQueen Selects: Jean Vigo’s Zero For Conduct (Zéro De Conduite) available for free 'limited rentals'. Other highlights in the program are Joyce Chopra’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams; William Klein’s Muhammad Ali, The Greatest; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers Of Shanghai with Tony Leung, Michiko Hada and Vicky Wei; Béla Tarr’s collaboration with László Krasznahorkai on Damnation, and Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Leung. Wong Kar Wai was the Artistic Director for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute...
Film at Lincoln Center has announced the Revivals of the 58th New York Film Festival will include Terence Dixon’s Meeting The Man: James Baldwin In Paris, shot by Jack Hazan and Steve McQueen Selects: Jean Vigo’s Zero For Conduct (Zéro De Conduite) available for free 'limited rentals'. Other highlights in the program are Joyce Chopra’s adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates’ Smooth Talk, starring Laura Dern and Treat Williams; William Klein’s Muhammad Ali, The Greatest; Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Flowers Of Shanghai with Tony Leung, Michiko Hada and Vicky Wei; Béla Tarr’s collaboration with László Krasznahorkai on Damnation, and Wong Kar Wai’s In The Mood For Love, starring Maggie Cheung and Leung. Wong Kar Wai was the Artistic Director for The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute...
- 8/24/2020
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Yesterday, the New York Film Festival made another 2020 announcement, this one looking back on the past a bit. Yes, longtime festival goers know that NYFF each year has a robust Revivals lineup, and this year will be no exception. The 58th incarnation of the fest will include a ton of diverse selections, celebrating the history of cinema. At a time when the present and future of the industry is somewhat up in the air, screenings of this sort can be even more powerful, as a reminder of what has been, and what eventually can be again. Read on for more about what NYFF is cooking up here, which includes a recent classic like In the Mood for Love, among many other movies… This is the New York Film Festival press release: Film at Lincoln Center announces Revivals for the 58th New York Film Festival (September 17 – October 11). “We are thrilled with our selections for Revivals,...
- 8/19/2020
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
The New York Film Festival is rolling out a “reshaped” version of its Revivals section for this year’s edition of the festival, with a rich assortment of repertory cinema that runs the gamut from beloved classics to rarities seeking new life. The lineup includes a Tony Leung double bill, thanks to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai” and Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” while Joyce Chopra’s 1986 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner, “Smooth Talk,” shows off a breakout performance by a young Laura Dern.
Other highlights include Jia Zhangke’s rarely screened “Xiao Wu,” Mohammad Reza Aslani’s rediscovered “The Chess Game of the Wind,” and Béla Tarr’s black-and-white noir, “Damnation.” Opening night filmmaker Steve McQueen also had a hand in the selection: he’s opted to screen Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct,” which he says inspired his latest project, a five-film anthology series,...
Other highlights include Jia Zhangke’s rarely screened “Xiao Wu,” Mohammad Reza Aslani’s rediscovered “The Chess Game of the Wind,” and Béla Tarr’s black-and-white noir, “Damnation.” Opening night filmmaker Steve McQueen also had a hand in the selection: he’s opted to screen Jean Vigo’s “Zero for Conduct,” which he says inspired his latest project, a five-film anthology series,...
- 8/18/2020
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.
HBO Max
The latest streaming service has arrived with HBO Max, which pulls together what was offered on the HBO platform with quite an expanded library. While the WarnerMedia platform is certainly the most scattered of its competitors in terms of the range of content, if you dig deeper, there’s plenty of worthwhile offerings. Led by the Studio Ghibli catalog, they also have a Turner Classic Movies channel, featuring Criterion Collection classics, a Charlie Chaplin collection, landmark westerns, all of the A Star is Borns, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Abyss, and more. Happy watching.
Where to Stream: HBO Max
End of Sentence (Elfar Adalsteins)
To...
HBO Max
The latest streaming service has arrived with HBO Max, which pulls together what was offered on the HBO platform with quite an expanded library. While the WarnerMedia platform is certainly the most scattered of its competitors in terms of the range of content, if you dig deeper, there’s plenty of worthwhile offerings. Led by the Studio Ghibli catalog, they also have a Turner Classic Movies channel, featuring Criterion Collection classics, a Charlie Chaplin collection, landmark westerns, all of the A Star is Borns, Citizen Kane, Casablanca, The Abyss, and more. Happy watching.
Where to Stream: HBO Max
End of Sentence (Elfar Adalsteins)
To...
- 5/29/2020
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Smooth Talk. Courtesy of Janus Films/PhotofestThe new retrospective at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (Bam), "Punks, Poets, and Valley Girls" offers such an abundance of stylistic and narrative through-lines that it’s hard to distill them. This is partly the point of the Bam programmer Jesse Trussell: that if you forego focusing on commonly consecrated auteurs, suddenly the 1980s yield not a dearth or a trickle but rather a flood of films by women. If there’s one thing to be said about these films it’s that their sexual and identity politics are as rich as you’d expect them to be—from L.A Rebellion films, by filmmakers such as Monona Wali, that address communal demands for justice, to the feminist films of Lizzie Borden and Donna Deitch, to the quieter, more ambiguous works, such as Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk (1985), an assured debut, and a lean,...
- 8/7/2019
- MUBI
Hannah Bonner Mar 8, 2019
Gender equality continues to be an ongoing issue in Hollywood. We examine why that is and who are 26 voices you should look for.
While Green Book winning Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars was a sour surprise for many viewers, and Olivia Colman’s Best Actress win pure sweetness, the Oscars was glaringly predictable in one key area before the red carpet even unfurled. The absence of women directors (again!) in the Best Director and Best Picture category points to the sustained systematic exclusion of females from two of the most acclaimed, and coveted, prizes in Hollywood.
The Hollywood industry hasn’t cottoned much to female directors. How else do we explain that women account for 4.6 percent of directors of major studio films as of 2015? How else do we explain that it wasn’t until 2010 that a woman won an Oscar for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker...
Gender equality continues to be an ongoing issue in Hollywood. We examine why that is and who are 26 voices you should look for.
While Green Book winning Best Picture at the 2019 Oscars was a sour surprise for many viewers, and Olivia Colman’s Best Actress win pure sweetness, the Oscars was glaringly predictable in one key area before the red carpet even unfurled. The absence of women directors (again!) in the Best Director and Best Picture category points to the sustained systematic exclusion of females from two of the most acclaimed, and coveted, prizes in Hollywood.
The Hollywood industry hasn’t cottoned much to female directors. How else do we explain that women account for 4.6 percent of directors of major studio films as of 2015? How else do we explain that it wasn’t until 2010 that a woman won an Oscar for Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker...
- 2/10/2016
- Den of Geek
Each weekend we highlight the best repertory programming that New York City has to offer, and it’s about to get even better. Opening on February 19th at 7 Ludlow Street on the Lower East Side is Metrograph, the city’s newest indie movie theater. Sporting two screens, they’ve announced their first slate, which includes retrospectives for Fassbinder, Wiseman, Eustache, and more, special programs such as an ode to the moviegoing experience, and new independent features that we’ve admired on the festival circuit (including Afternoon, Office 3D, and Measure of a Man).
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
Artistic and Programming Director Jacob Perlin says in a press release, “Jean Eustache in a Rocky t-shirt. This is the image we had in mind while making this first calendar. Great cinema is there, wherever you can find it. The dismissed film now recognized as a classic, the forgotten box-office hit newly resurrected, the high and the low,...
- 1/20/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Joan Collins in 'The Bitch': Sex tale based on younger sister Jackie Collins' novel. Author Jackie Collins dead at 77: Surprisingly few film and TV adaptations of her bestselling novels Jackie Collins, best known for a series of bestsellers about the dysfunctional sex lives of the rich and famous and for being the younger sister of film and TV star Joan Collins, died of breast cancer on Sept. 19, '15, in Los Angeles. The London-born (Oct. 4, 1937) Collins was 77. Collins' tawdry, female-centered novels – much like those of Danielle Steel and Judith Krantz – were/are immensely popular. According to her website, they have sold more than 500 million copies in 40 countries. And if the increasingly tabloidy BBC is to be believed (nowadays, Wikipedia has become a key source, apparently), every single one of them – 32 in all – appeared on the New York Times' bestseller list. (Collins' own site claims that a mere 30 were included.) Sex...
- 9/22/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Read More: Stream Joyce Chopra's Vintage Feminist Short 'Joyce at 34' (Exclusive) In 1972, filmmaker Joyce Chopra documented her final days of pregnancy and her first few months of motherhood. Hoping to continue with her career, Chopra looked at the struggles many mothers face when choosing between staying at home to raise their child and trying to pursue their jobs. The result was "Joyce at 34," a remarkable autobiographical documentary that looks at glaring, unfair issues that are still present today. The film raises an incredible amount of questions about the topic, heralded as both a seminal documentary and an important feminist text. Last night, the SundanceNow Doc Club held a special screening of "Joyce at 34" at the IFC Center in New York. Chopra was in attendance and did a Q&A after the film was finished. Read the highlights from the talk below: On what inspired her and how the film was made.
- 7/24/2015
- by Ethan Sapienza
- Indiewire
Kino Lorber is proud to announce the acquisition of all North American rights to Les Blank & Gina Leibrecht‘s How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy, a moving tribute by one cinema verité master to another.
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
Opening at New York’s Film Forum on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, How To Smell Of Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock In Normandy was co-directed by Les Blank and his longtime creative partner, Gina Leibrecht. How To Smell A Rose: A Visit With Ricky Leacock is the penultimate film directed by Les Blank, before he passed away on April 7, 2013.
During its theatrical run at Film Forum, How To Smell A Rose will be screened with the Leacock-Joyce Chopra classic, Happy Mother’S Day, on the 1963 birth of the Fischer quintuplets in Aberdeen, South Dakota. In further national theatrical engagements “Rose” will be presented with Les Blank’s now classic...
- 7/22/2015
- by Michelle McCue
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Documentary streaming service SundanceNow Doc Club is now hosting the digital premiere of Joyce Chopra's pioneering 28-minute film about modern motherhood, "Joyce at 34," a groundbreaking short in 1972 during the seas changes of second-wave feminism. Unveiled on Doc Club in time for Mother's Day, the film looks at what it means to be a working mother in the 1970s. "Over 40 years later, as balancing a career and family continues to be a hot button topic for men and women, the film stands as a vital document for stirring discussion," said Doc Club curator and doc whiz Thom Powers. Chopra has since written and directed myriad films including Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner "Smooth Talk" (1985) with Laura Dern, and "The Lemon Sisters" (1989) starring Diane Keaton. "Joyce at 34" is part of MoMA's permanent collection, and you can stream it for the first time here. Watch a clip below.
- 5/8/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Our look at underappreciated films of the 80s continues, as we head back to 1988...
Either in terms of ticket sales or critical acclaim, 1988 was dominated by the likes of Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Coming To America. It was the year Bruce Willis made the jump from TV to action star with Die Hard, and became a star in the process.
It was the year Leslie Nielsen made his own jump from the small to silver screen with Police Squad spin-off The Naked Gun, which sparked a hugely popular franchise of its own. Elsewhere, the eccentric Tim Burton scored one of the biggest hits of the year with Beetlejuice, the success of which would result in the birth of Batman a year later. And then there was Tom Cruise, who managed to make a drama about a student-turned-barman into a $170m hit, back when $170m was still an...
Either in terms of ticket sales or critical acclaim, 1988 was dominated by the likes of Rain Man, Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Coming To America. It was the year Bruce Willis made the jump from TV to action star with Die Hard, and became a star in the process.
It was the year Leslie Nielsen made his own jump from the small to silver screen with Police Squad spin-off The Naked Gun, which sparked a hugely popular franchise of its own. Elsewhere, the eccentric Tim Burton scored one of the biggest hits of the year with Beetlejuice, the success of which would result in the birth of Batman a year later. And then there was Tom Cruise, who managed to make a drama about a student-turned-barman into a $170m hit, back when $170m was still an...
- 5/6/2015
- by ryanlambie
- Den of Geek
Above: Us one sheet for The 4th Man (Paul Verhoeven, Netherlands, 1983).
I’ve always liked this elegant poster for Paul Verhoeven’s The 4th Man with its striking combination of soft realism and hard geometry (that knife-like number 4!) and I decided recently to look for other designs by the artist who signs himself Topazio. But, although I have found a number of pieces with his signature, I have so far come up short on much information on the man. Vincent Topazio was, it seems, an illustrator who worked from at least the mid 70s (I found a 1975 New York magazine illustration for an article on dog trainers credited to him as well as the cover for The Average White Band’s Cut the Cake from the same year) through at least the mid 80s. I have found seven of his movie posters, all illustrated in what seems to be a combination of crayon and airbrush.
I’ve always liked this elegant poster for Paul Verhoeven’s The 4th Man with its striking combination of soft realism and hard geometry (that knife-like number 4!) and I decided recently to look for other designs by the artist who signs himself Topazio. But, although I have found a number of pieces with his signature, I have so far come up short on much information on the man. Vincent Topazio was, it seems, an illustrator who worked from at least the mid 70s (I found a 1975 New York magazine illustration for an article on dog trainers credited to him as well as the cover for The Average White Band’s Cut the Cake from the same year) through at least the mid 80s. I have found seven of his movie posters, all illustrated in what seems to be a combination of crayon and airbrush.
- 1/23/2015
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
Moments of sartorial significance, and that glimmer of recognition that we feel upon seeing an onscreen outfit worn more than once are found throughout Smooth Talk, Joyce Chopra’s underseen 1986 adaptation of a Joyce Carol Oates short story. The film is rife with all the monotony of life and charming ensembles we expect of a teenage girl in the summer, yet it simultaneously offers complexity and creepiness. Laura Dern plays Connie, an ingénue spending her days as an “unfinished girl, waiting for completion of some sort” (Quart 74). In her essay, “Smoothing Out the Rough Spots: The Film Adaptation of ‘Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?’” Rebecca Sumner discusses some of the costumes in Smooth Talk (as designed by Carol Oditz) in the midst of a larger argument of how well the film functions as an adaptation. She writes that Connie’s wardrobe is “not sufficiently versatile to communicate...
- 11/23/2013
- by Christopher Laverty
- Clothes on Film
There was plenty of discussion across the movie blogosphere following last week's announcement that Vertigo had dethroned Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time according to Sight & Sound's decennial poll. In addition to revealing the top 50 as determined by critics, they also provided a top 10 based on a separate poll for directors only. In the print version of the magazine, they have taken it a step further by reprinting some of the individual top 10 lists from the filmmakers who participated, and we now have some of them here for your perusal. Among them, we have lists from legends like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino, but there are also some unexpected newcomers who took part including Richard Ayoade (Submarine), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene). Some of these lists aren't all that surprising (both Quentin Tarantino...
- 8/6/2012
- by Sean
- FilmJunk
Fine film-maker whose subjects ranged from Kennedy to Hendrix
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
If you remember the 1960s, you may well remember the documentary films shot by Richard Leacock, notably Monterey Pop (1968). This concert film, made in the summer of 1967 at a music festival in California, featured the Animals, Canned Heat, Otis Redding, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Mamas and the Papas, Jefferson Airplane, the Who and Ravi Shankar, among others. Leacock, who has died aged 89, was one of six cinematographers on the film – including its director, Da Pennebaker – and had already established himself as a leading figure in the "direct cinema" movement, the American version of cinéma vérité, which was characterised by filming events as they happen without interpretive editing or narration.
"I don't like being told things," Leacock said. "I like to observe." To this end, he was instrumental in perfecting a lightweight, handheld 16mm camera, synced to a quiet sound recorder,...
- 3/25/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
English Language Debut For The 2008 Palme d'Or Winner "The Class" helmer Laurent Cantet will be making his English language debut with an adaptation of Joyce Carol Oates' 1993 novel "Foxfire: Confessions Of A Girl Gang." It'll mark a resurgence in popularity for author Oates who has Andrew Dominik's gestating adaptation of her 2000 novel "Blonde"--a Pulitzer Prize-nominated fictional work based on the life of Marilyn Monroe--in the works as well as this after a 1985 Joyce Chopra adaptation of her short story "Smooth Talk" starring Laura Dern. Adapted for the screen once before by Annette Haywood-Carter in her 1996…...
- 11/7/2010
- The Playlist
American stage and screenwriter Tom Cole has lost his battle with cancer at the age of 75.
Cole died on 23 February at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut after suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, his wife, Joyce Chopra, has confirmed.
Best known for his film and stage writing, it was Cole's 1985 film Smooth Talk that helped launch Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Dern to fame after it became a surprise hit at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film was directed by Chopra, who also produced the television version of Cole's hit play Medal of Honor Rag. Cole's title character in the play was performed Off Broadway by Howard E. Rollins Jr. in 1976, and by rapper Heavy D in a Los Angeles-staged version produced by Will Smith in 2005.
Cole's other stage works include Fighting Bob and About Time, which became a signature performance piece for James Whitmore after he appeared in the original New York production in 1990.
The writer, who earned a master’s degree in Russian at Harvard University, was inspired by his experiences in the Slavic nation as an interpreter for a government-sponsored science exhibition to compose his first book, An End to Chivalry. He later taught Russian and English literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In addition to his wife, Cole is survived by a daughter, Sarah Rose Cole; a brother, Morrill; and a sister, Elizabeth.
Cole died on 23 February at his home in Roxbury, Connecticut after suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood, his wife, Joyce Chopra, has confirmed.
Best known for his film and stage writing, it was Cole's 1985 film Smooth Talk that helped launch Academy Award-nominated actress Laura Dern to fame after it became a surprise hit at the Sundance Film Festival.
The film was directed by Chopra, who also produced the television version of Cole's hit play Medal of Honor Rag. Cole's title character in the play was performed Off Broadway by Howard E. Rollins Jr. in 1976, and by rapper Heavy D in a Los Angeles-staged version produced by Will Smith in 2005.
Cole's other stage works include Fighting Bob and About Time, which became a signature performance piece for James Whitmore after he appeared in the original New York production in 1990.
The writer, who earned a master’s degree in Russian at Harvard University, was inspired by his experiences in the Slavic nation as an interpreter for a government-sponsored science exhibition to compose his first book, An End to Chivalry. He later taught Russian and English literature at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
In addition to his wife, Cole is survived by a daughter, Sarah Rose Cole; a brother, Morrill; and a sister, Elizabeth.
- 3/5/2009
- WENN
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