This essay is an excerpt from Spectacle Every Day: Essays on Classical Mexican Cinema, 1940-1969 (Les éditions de l'Œil, 2023), edited by Jorge Javier Negrete Camacho and Alonso Diaz de la Vega, and published on the occasion of the Locarno Film Festival's retrospective, Spectacle Every Day — The Many Seasons of Mexican Popular Cinema, curated in partnership with Mubi. Thanks to the authors, editors, publisher, and festival for permission to republish online.Spectacle Every Day—The Many Seasons of Mexican Popular Cinema is now showing on Mubi from August 2, 2023.For ApiLa mente y el crimen. © Archive of the Mexican Film Institute.It’s easy for any Mexican to get used to the way in which our country handles tragedies, misfortunes, accidents or any other scabrous aspects of everyday life. It would take just looking at the images from La Prensa—one of the widest nota roja newspapers (tabloids) in Mexico City, among...
- 8/9/2023
- MUBI
When Louis Feuillade’s “Les Vampires” premiered in 1915, escalating the war of attrition between French film companies Pathe and Gaumont — in the middle of the actual armed conflict of World War I — it wasn’t a given that narrative feature films would become the dominant format for cinematic storytelling. In the 1910s, serials were in. It was equally likely, and more economical, for filmmakers to string together hours of storytelling via 12-minute reels that would stand as individual episodes and end on a cliffhanger, prompting the audience to return to the theater next week to see how it all turns out. Film was still as much an emerging technology as it was an art form, one with various and uncertain business models that were being tested simultaneously. Feuillade has more in common with any director working in the Age of Streaming than with Fellini or Ford, and making a “Les Vampires...
- 11/30/2022
- by Sarah Shachat
- Indiewire
Wassim Beji, the French producer of “Boite noire,” and Snd have acquired the adaptation rights to iconic French detective novels “Fantomas” and are planning a film and a series based on the franchise.
A ruthless and multi-faceted thief and assassin, Fantomas “was the first occidental super-villain featured in a serialized format, first through comic strips and later in a radio series,” said Beji, adding that “Fantomas” has also been a source of inspiration for some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including the surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire.
Created in 1911 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, Fantomas is one of France’s most popular fictional characters, along with Arsene Lupin. Fantomas was first adapted for the big screen by into a silent crime film serial directed by Louis Feuillade for Gaumont in 1913. The property was later adapted into a crime comedy trilogy starring Jean Marais and Louis de Fines...
A ruthless and multi-faceted thief and assassin, Fantomas “was the first occidental super-villain featured in a serialized format, first through comic strips and later in a radio series,” said Beji, adding that “Fantomas” has also been a source of inspiration for some of the greatest artists of the 20th century, including the surrealist poet Guillaume Apollinaire.
Created in 1911 by Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre, Fantomas is one of France’s most popular fictional characters, along with Arsene Lupin. Fantomas was first adapted for the big screen by into a silent crime film serial directed by Louis Feuillade for Gaumont in 1913. The property was later adapted into a crime comedy trilogy starring Jean Marais and Louis de Fines...
- 8/10/2022
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
Call it a remake, a reboot, or a rethinking, the “Irma Vep” series on HBO is above all meta. Start with Louis Feuillade’s 1915 French serial about a criminal gang, Les Vampires; jump eight decades into the future to 1996, when Olivier Assayas’ “Irma Vep” found Hong Kong star Maggie Cheung starring in a movie-within-a-movie adaptating the serial. Now, more than a quarter century later, the “Personal Shopper” director’s latest work both expands upon and in some ways contradicts the Cheung movie.
The fast-paced dialogue, twisty narratives, freewheeling soundtrack, and extraordinary visuals are back. Alicia Vikander plays Mira Harberg, a Swedish actor famous for American comic-book blockbusters, who arrives on set as director René Vidal (the remarkable Vincent Macaigne) is struggling with a special effects shot. As the series unfolds, relationships form and break, careers shift, and ghosts from the past haunt the set. But Assayas brings an honesty, sincerity...
The fast-paced dialogue, twisty narratives, freewheeling soundtrack, and extraordinary visuals are back. Alicia Vikander plays Mira Harberg, a Swedish actor famous for American comic-book blockbusters, who arrives on set as director René Vidal (the remarkable Vincent Macaigne) is struggling with a special effects shot. As the series unfolds, relationships form and break, careers shift, and ghosts from the past haunt the set. But Assayas brings an honesty, sincerity...
- 7/26/2022
- by Daniel Eagan
- Indiewire
Explaining what exactly Olivier Assayas' HBO series "Irma Vep" is is surprisingly complicated. It's been billed as a re-imagining, rather than a remake, of his 1996 film of the same name. Assayas original film followed actress Maggie Cheung, who is cast in a remake of "Les Vampires," an epic silent-era serial directed by Louis Feuillade, about a criminal gang who called themselves the vampires. It's perhaps easiest to describe the HBO series as an updated, expanded version of the '96 film. Both are nearly identical in concept, with Cheung being replaced by Alicia Vikander in this contemporary retelling. There are...
The post Irma Vep Review: Olivier Assayas Turns His Wonderful 1996 Film Into a Muddled Miniseries appeared first on /Film.
The post Irma Vep Review: Olivier Assayas Turns His Wonderful 1996 Film Into a Muddled Miniseries appeared first on /Film.
- 6/3/2022
- by Barry Levitt
- Slash Film
You’d think it’d be near impossible for Olivier Assayas to add any more meta-textual layers to his 1996 masterpiece, “Irma Vep,” which followed a fictional film crew in their attempts to remake the (real) 1916 movie serial “Les Vampires” by Louis Feuillade. Assayas’ solution? To remake his own remake, but this time as a limited series.
Read More: ‘Irma Vep’ Review: Olivier Assayas Reckons With The Ghosts Of His Filmmaking Past In Meta New HBO Series [Cannes]
Instead of Maggie Cheung (who played herself in the ‘96 movie), the series sees Alicia Vikander as Mira, an American star dissatisfied with her career and eager for a new (non-English language) challenge.
Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’ Trailer: Alicia Vikander Is A Movie Star In Olivier Assayas’ Meta-Remake For HBO at The Playlist.
Read More: ‘Irma Vep’ Review: Olivier Assayas Reckons With The Ghosts Of His Filmmaking Past In Meta New HBO Series [Cannes]
Instead of Maggie Cheung (who played herself in the ‘96 movie), the series sees Alicia Vikander as Mira, an American star dissatisfied with her career and eager for a new (non-English language) challenge.
Continue reading ‘Irma Vep’ Trailer: Alicia Vikander Is A Movie Star In Olivier Assayas’ Meta-Remake For HBO at The Playlist.
- 6/2/2022
- by Oliver Weir
- The Playlist
French director Olivier Assayas walked a tightrope with his 1996 unclassifiable, meta-moviemaking drama “Irma Vep.” It starred Hong Kong icon Maggie Cheung as herself, starring in a French film whose director was played by cinema legend Jean-Pierre Leaud, as they attempted to remake Louis Feuillade’s classic silent film serial “Les Vampires.” A treatise on Hollywood? A lampoon of the French film industry? A meta exercise in the negotiations between a major actress and a serious director? All of the above.
Now, Olivier Assayas is remaking his own movie for television with “Irma Vep,” coming to HBO and HBO Max on June 6 and now with Alicia Vikander in the role originated by Cheung. The show is first set to stop off at the Cannes Film Festival — Assayas’ stomping grounds with films like “Personal Shopper” and “Summer Hours” in competition and also the original “Irma Vep” in Un Certain Regard — before hitting the small screen.
Now, Olivier Assayas is remaking his own movie for television with “Irma Vep,” coming to HBO and HBO Max on June 6 and now with Alicia Vikander in the role originated by Cheung. The show is first set to stop off at the Cannes Film Festival — Assayas’ stomping grounds with films like “Personal Shopper” and “Summer Hours” in competition and also the original “Irma Vep” in Un Certain Regard — before hitting the small screen.
- 5/17/2022
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
There was plenty doubt, even confusion over news Olivier Assayas would return to arguably his greatest film, Irma Vep, for HBO and A24, who turned their Euphoria cache into… resurrecting mid-90s European co-productions built from a Louis Feuillade serial. And replacing the more-iconic-every-year Maggie Cheung with Alicia Vikander, about whom I’ve never heard a real opinion expressed, didn’t help. But if Feuillade’s Les Vampires were a serialized narrative, Irma Vep about the futility of contemporizing it, and Assayas an ever-canny purveyor of modern trends, it seems worth considering a prospect.
We’ll know more when the first part debuts at Cannes this weekend, then see for ourselves with a June 6 HBO premiere. In the meantime there’s a first trailer, cut and scored to emphasize the drama of film production and young stardom over all else—less than, I’ll readily assume, the show has on its mind.
We’ll know more when the first part debuts at Cannes this weekend, then see for ourselves with a June 6 HBO premiere. In the meantime there’s a first trailer, cut and scored to emphasize the drama of film production and young stardom over all else—less than, I’ll readily assume, the show has on its mind.
- 5/17/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
It’s something completely different . . . a genuine obscurity, a Swiss spy fantasy from the 1960s with major appeal to fans keen on (not in this order) art cinema, Fritz Lang, superspy romps, surreal silent serials, Eurocult actors, and visuals with a New Wave-ish flair. Teams of assassins vie for an atom secret held by mad scientist Daniel Emilfork. The spies target his gorgeous, innocent daughter Marie-France Boyer, but she’s obsessed with a romantic memory from ‘last summer in Shandigor.’ Jean-Louis Roy’s unique, precision-crafted gem evokes the graphic-novel pulp appeal of Dr. Mabuse, Alphaville, Judex or Diabolik — yet it is unlike any of them. It’s comic nonsense, but also earnest and original.
The Unknown Man of Shandigor
Blu-ray
Deaf Crocodile Films
1967 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date January 22, 2022 / L’inconnu de Shandigor / Available through Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98
Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, Serge Gainsbourg,...
The Unknown Man of Shandigor
Blu-ray
Deaf Crocodile Films
1967 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 90 min. / Street Date January 22, 2022 / L’inconnu de Shandigor / Available through Vinegar Syndrome / 34.98
Starring: Marie-France Boyer, Ben Carruthers, Daniel Emilfork, Jacques Dufilho, Serge Gainsbourg,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
HBO’s “Irma Vep” has added eight new cast members to play featured roles alongside series star Alicia Vikander.
Vincent Macaigne, Jeanne Balibar, Lars Eidinger, Vincent Lacoste, Hippolyte Girardot, Alex Descas, Nora Hamzawi and Antoine Reinartz have joined the series.
“Irma Vep” stars Vikander as Mira, an American movie star who travels to France to star in French filmmaker René Vidal’s remake of “Les Vampires.” As tensions mount around the production, Mira begins to have difficulty distinguishing between her own identity and the character she plays in the film.
Macaigne will play Vidal, while the other newly announced cast members will play various crew members and actors on Vidal’s remake of Louis Feuillade’s “Les Vampires.”
The group joins a list of previously announced cast members that includes Vikander, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Jerrod Carmichael, Fala Chen and Devon Ross.
The limited series is a reimagining of sorts for director Olivier Assayas.
Vincent Macaigne, Jeanne Balibar, Lars Eidinger, Vincent Lacoste, Hippolyte Girardot, Alex Descas, Nora Hamzawi and Antoine Reinartz have joined the series.
“Irma Vep” stars Vikander as Mira, an American movie star who travels to France to star in French filmmaker René Vidal’s remake of “Les Vampires.” As tensions mount around the production, Mira begins to have difficulty distinguishing between her own identity and the character she plays in the film.
Macaigne will play Vidal, while the other newly announced cast members will play various crew members and actors on Vidal’s remake of Louis Feuillade’s “Les Vampires.”
The group joins a list of previously announced cast members that includes Vikander, Adria Arjona, Carrie Brownstein, Jerrod Carmichael, Fala Chen and Devon Ross.
The limited series is a reimagining of sorts for director Olivier Assayas.
- 11/23/2021
- by J. Kim Murphy
- Variety Film + TV
Scope around certain movie sites or Film Twitter and you may find reference to a slated upcoming DC comics adaptation title Justice League Dark—Guillermo del Toro and Doug Liman have been attached, so it’s probably not too embarrassing. The French Dispatch, in a similar naming fashion, could really be title Wes Anderson Dark, or even Wes Anderson After Dark. The film is primarily presented in black-and-white academy ratio; in the occasional color sequences its palette is still a grim, swirling miasma of moonlit tones. And the themes and subject matter couldn’t be accused of indulging anyone’s inner child, wonderful as the likes of Rushmore and Fantastic Mr. Fox remain. Isle of Dogs, flawed and sometimes misguided as it was, provided hints Anderson was growing tired of his patented, semi-cutesy aesthetic fussiness. The French Dispatch pleases as a larger fulfillment of this promise.
Just as his partner...
Just as his partner...
- 7/13/2021
- by David Katz
- The Film Stage
In the quarter-century since its debut, Olivier Assayas’ hilarious, mischievous, altogether unclassifiable Irma Vep stands merrily uninterested in many things contemporary movies are meant to be interested in—not ultra-sophisticated narrative gimmickry nor obsequious adherence to genre constraints nor even universality, the ability to speak at once to the interests and experiences of all audience members. Cinephiles, a group left ravenous this past year for very obvious reasons, remains the ideal and intended viewers for Irma Vep, which is being released by the Criterion Collection in a new, director-approved 2k digital restoration made from the original camera negative.
Irma Vep still has something of importance to say to those, like its writer-director, who care deeply about the movies and want to, perhaps, radically reorganize the priorities of the form by bringing its maddening contradictions to the fore. Assayas doesn’t offer any easy fixes to the troubles afflicting cinema circa...
Irma Vep still has something of importance to say to those, like its writer-director, who care deeply about the movies and want to, perhaps, radically reorganize the priorities of the form by bringing its maddening contradictions to the fore. Assayas doesn’t offer any easy fixes to the troubles afflicting cinema circa...
- 4/26/2021
- by Matthew Eng
- The Film Stage
Olivier Assayas takes a very different trip into silent movie nostalgia, with a director’s ill-fated attempt to remake the 1915 serial Les Vampires. Hong Kong action star Maggie Cheung is cast as the erotic rooftop nightcrawler Irma Vep! We see the state of Paris filmmaking in the mid-90s, with a clueless, frustrated director (Jean-Pierre Léaud) out of ideas — what business has Irma Vep in the modern world? Meanwhile, Cheung dons her vinyl catsuit for a personal creepy crawly mission — just to see if it gives her a thrill. Criterion’s special edition contains both a full episode of the silent serial plus a must-see documentary on the life and work of the legendary Musidora, a major sex symbol of the silent era.
Irma Vep
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1074
1996 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 99 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 27, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard, Bernard Nissile,...
Irma Vep
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1074
1996 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 99 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 27, 2021 / 39.95
Starring: Maggie Cheung, Jean-Pierre Léaud, Nathalie Richard, Bernard Nissile,...
- 4/17/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.To fill the void left by the absence of this year’s Cannes Film Festival, for the next two weeks, this column will be dedicated to films that premiered at the festival over the course of seven decades.
When the news broke that Olivier Assayas was collaborating with A24 on a TV version of “Irma Vep,” the only truly surprising thing about it was that the project had been conceived before the pandemic. The prospect of Assayas remaking his 1996 masterpiece would have seemed unfathomable just a few short months ago. Although Assayas’ previous foray into television produced the most exciting crime epic of the last 10 years (“Carlos”), the pitch reeked of desperation, a fetishistic desire for “normalcy,” and the need to keep working at any cost.
When the news broke that Olivier Assayas was collaborating with A24 on a TV version of “Irma Vep,” the only truly surprising thing about it was that the project had been conceived before the pandemic. The prospect of Assayas remaking his 1996 masterpiece would have seemed unfathomable just a few short months ago. Although Assayas’ previous foray into television produced the most exciting crime epic of the last 10 years (“Carlos”), the pitch reeked of desperation, a fetishistic desire for “normalcy,” and the need to keep working at any cost.
- 5/15/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
“France’S Answer To Bond”
By Raymond Benson
Way back in 1911, French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre created a super-villain who became a worldwide phenomenon in literature, comics, and film—Fantômas, a master of disguise, thief, killer, and head of his own network of criminals. The two authors wrote 32 books featuring the character, and then Allain alone continued with 11 more. There was a serial of silent films made in France beginning with Fantômas. Over the last century, more films, comics, books, and television series were produced, leading up to the hugely popular reboot of the character in the 1960s.
After the success of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), the French studio Gaumont quickly got into the act of making their own answer to what was becoming a phenomenon. Once From Russia with Love (1963) proved that 007 wasn’t a one-shot wonder, director André Hunebelle and writers Jean Halain...
By Raymond Benson
Way back in 1911, French writers Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre created a super-villain who became a worldwide phenomenon in literature, comics, and film—Fantômas, a master of disguise, thief, killer, and head of his own network of criminals. The two authors wrote 32 books featuring the character, and then Allain alone continued with 11 more. There was a serial of silent films made in France beginning with Fantômas. Over the last century, more films, comics, books, and television series were produced, leading up to the hugely popular reboot of the character in the 1960s.
After the success of the first James Bond film Dr. No (1962), the French studio Gaumont quickly got into the act of making their own answer to what was becoming a phenomenon. Once From Russia with Love (1963) proved that 007 wasn’t a one-shot wonder, director André Hunebelle and writers Jean Halain...
- 5/1/2020
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Dušan Makavejev was born on King Milutin Street in Belgrade on October 13, 1932. This was about nine years before the city was occupied by the Nazis, at which point the Chinese embassy across the street became the headquarters of the German Chief Command of the Southeast. As a child, he watched German officers go in and out of the building, one of whom, Kurt Waldheim, would later become the Secretary of the United Nations—though of course the young Makavejev didn’t know this at the time. Following the Second World War, it was under Tito's Communist, but anti-Stalinist Yugoslavia that Makavejev first emerged as a major Eastern European filmmaker, initially associated with the loosely defined Novi Film (new film) movement. His eclectic career, the subject of a major retrospective at New York's Anthology Archives, garnered praise from the likes of Amos Vogel, Robin Wood, Stanley Cavell, Jonas Mekas, and Roger Ebert,...
- 2/27/2020
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Olivier Assayas' Irma Vep (1996) is showing November 30 - December 30, 2017 in the United States and December 6 - January 5, 2018 in most countries around the world.An action movie star from Hong Kong, Maggie Cheung (played by Maggie Cheung) arrives in Paris and right off the airplane, exhausted and jet-lagged, finds herself in the production hell of an arthouse film that she was hired to star in. The movie is a creative (allegedly) remake of Louis Feuillade’s classic silent series Les vampires, helmed by an aging New Wave director René Vidal (Jean-Pierre Léaud). Vidal, way past his prime, doesn’t seem entirely certain about what he is doing and why but he is adamant about his vision of Maggie as Irma Vep (an anagram of ‘vampire’)—an acrobatic thief whose tight black garment is for the remake’s...
- 12/5/2017
- MUBI
Olivier Assayas and Kristen Stewart. Courtesy of IFC Films.This week sees the release of Olivier Assayas’s Personal Shopper, starring Kristen Stewart. Assayas’s prior film, The Clouds of Sils Maria, also featured Stewart. This repetition of casting is nothing new for Assayas. Maggie Cheung has been in several of his films, as has Juliet Binoche (who stars opposite Stewart in The Clouds of Sils Maria). Assayas began his career as a writer for Cahiers du cinéma and his films are clearly reflections on the cinema as much as about any other subject. The repetition of a major star is part of this reflection. Viewing Assayas’s works featuring Maggie Cheung, Juliet Binoche, and Kristen Stewart provides a complex exploration of actress and character.In three films that star these actresses—Irma Vep (1996), The Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), and Personal Shopper (2016)—supposed truth readily blends into fiction. Script and spontaneity collide.
- 3/10/2017
- MUBI
An unusual concoction, this 1963 Georges Franju picture, which goes about its business as if the nouvelle vague never existed, among other things. An homage to the 1915 Louis Feuillade serial about an almost super-powered crime fighter who nonetheless has a fairly arduous time bringing the main evildoes to justice (the defining paradox of such serials, I suppose), it honors Feuillade as a surrealist precursor by introducing (or at least we believe we haven't seen him before) the title character as something out of a Max Ernst collage. Having warned the banker villain Favraux that unless he atones for his murderous deeds at midnight he'll be punished, Judex shows up at Favraux's costume party, the eyes of his bird mask more magnificently accusing than any of the others. He produces what seems to be a flock of doves with his bare hands. And soon Favraux collapses. Dead? No. Drugged. It's all part...
- 9/19/2016
- MUBI
In an age of franchises and “cinematic universes” that seems to number in the thousands, it should come as no shock that the idea of feature length, serialized motion pictures date back to the earliest days of silent cinema. However, while most cinephiles are obviously familiar with franchises like James Bond and Star Wars, and even lay people are cognisant of the Marvel “Cmu”, few people outside the realm of film scholarship mention the silent serials like Louis Feuillade’s Fantomas. Even when legendary auteurs are the creative forces behind them.
Such is the case with Fritz Lang and his superb action/adventure serial, The Spiders. Drawing inspiration from the aforementioned Feuillade series, this 1919 serial was originally intended to be a four part epic, with only two “episodes” being filmed. Broken into The Golden Sea and The Diamond Ship, the story introduces us to a man named Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt...
Such is the case with Fritz Lang and his superb action/adventure serial, The Spiders. Drawing inspiration from the aforementioned Feuillade series, this 1919 serial was originally intended to be a four part epic, with only two “episodes” being filmed. Broken into The Golden Sea and The Diamond Ship, the story introduces us to a man named Kay Hoog (Carl de Vogt...
- 9/2/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
When Fritz Lang began in film he was a better writer than director. This lavish two-part thriller sees him concocting a multi-genre mashup, shoehorning cowboy action thrills and an exotic lost Incan civilization into dagger-and-poison serial skullduggery. The Spiders Blu-ray Kino Classics 1919 / B&W / 1:33 flat / 173 min. / Street Date August 23, 2016 / Die Spinnen / available through Kino Classics / 29.95 Starring Carl de Vogt, Ressel Orla, Lil Dagover, Georg John. Cinematography Karl Freund Designers Otto Hunte, Carl Ludwig Kirmse, Heinrich Umlauff, Hermann Warm Music (2012) Ben Model Produced by Erich Pommer Written and Directed by Fritz Lang There appears to be nothing new under the sun, even if lovers of Indiana Jones don't realize that most everything he did, had been done long before in silent serials. I have a lazy habit here of claiming that Fritz Lang invented most of the basic ideas we see in every adventure genre except the western. But these...
- 8/13/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Though we’re barely into a new calendar year, Kino Lorber has released one of the year’s most notable Blu-ray restorations, a superb presentation of Louis Feuillade’s famous silent serial Fantômas with a five title set ranging from 1913 to 1914. Surprisingly violent and full of cunning twists (based on the pulp novellas of Marcel Allain and Pierre Souvestre), the criminal overlord was an early template for genre cinema staples, including Feuillade’s later iconic characters such as Irma Vep or the crime fighter Judex (each in turn inspiring an innumerable amount of other auteurs, from Fritz Lang to Georges Franju to Olivier Assayas). But this was Feuillade’s first master of disguise, a cold hearted criminal intent on rending all the jewelry and other worldly goods from Belle Epoch Parisian women he could get his greedy fingers on.
Feuillade remains one of the most prolific auteurs of all time,...
Feuillade remains one of the most prolific auteurs of all time,...
- 1/19/2016
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
Several more titles play in the Museum’s excellent Maurice Pialat retrospective. Read more about his work here.
Wiseman‘s Model and Central Park show on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Anthology Film Archives
Olivier Assayas‘s Irma Vep and its central inspiration, Louis Feuillade‘s eight-hour Les Vampires, play on Friday and Saturday & Sunday,...
Museum of the Moving Image
Several more titles play in the Museum’s excellent Maurice Pialat retrospective. Read more about his work here.
Wiseman‘s Model and Central Park show on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.
Anthology Film Archives
Olivier Assayas‘s Irma Vep and its central inspiration, Louis Feuillade‘s eight-hour Les Vampires, play on Friday and Saturday & Sunday,...
- 10/23/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Queen Of Earth's Elisabeth Moss and director Alex Ross Perry at MoMA with Josh Siegel Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
The disquieting power of laughter, shooting a film in sequence, countering movie clichés about female friendship, a Doris Day Pillow Talk moment, hysteria, editing time (by Robert Greene and Peter Levin), Edvard Munch, Musidora in Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires, slow zooms (cinematography by Sean Price Williams), plus Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski's use of food, entered into Josh Siegel's conversation with Queen Of Earth director Alex Ross Perry and star Elisabeth Moss.
Alex Ross Perry introducing Queen Of Earth Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Catherine (Moss) visits her old friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) at her family's lake house to recover and possibly come to terms with two recent traumatic events in her life. Her father, a famous artist whose estate Catherine manages, committed suicide, and her longtime boyfriend James (Kentucker Audley) left her.
The disquieting power of laughter, shooting a film in sequence, countering movie clichés about female friendship, a Doris Day Pillow Talk moment, hysteria, editing time (by Robert Greene and Peter Levin), Edvard Munch, Musidora in Louis Feuillade's Les Vampires, slow zooms (cinematography by Sean Price Williams), plus Alfred Hitchcock and Roman Polanski's use of food, entered into Josh Siegel's conversation with Queen Of Earth director Alex Ross Perry and star Elisabeth Moss.
Alex Ross Perry introducing Queen Of Earth Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Catherine (Moss) visits her old friend Virginia (Katherine Waterston) at her family's lake house to recover and possibly come to terms with two recent traumatic events in her life. Her father, a famous artist whose estate Catherine manages, committed suicide, and her longtime boyfriend James (Kentucker Audley) left her.
- 8/26/2015
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
What good is a canon? It's a question that hovers in endless debate near cinephile culture. The idea of distilling cinema down to its "best" or "most essential" films is like a game or a thought experiment, and whether it be the AFI or Sight & Sound or a group of Young Turks looking to rattle conventional wisdom, canon-making demonstrates nothing so much as a desire to assemble an expansive, fragmented, and still-evolving sense of film history into some sort of definitive order. Canons, each with its own biases, are useful chiefly as a starting point or a basecamp. The best answer is to always be looking, always curious. And cinema has barely more than a century to keep up with. I wonder how bibliophiles cope.One of the virtues of the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, which begins on May 28th, is how it mixes classics and arcana on a level plane.
- 6/3/2015
- by Duncan Gray
- MUBI
Watching a film by Olivier Assayas is a little like wandering into the bedroom of a teenager, taking in the aesthetic décor that clings to his or her walls and bookshelves—posters, pop records, hastily cut-out collages of idols, and literature—and being left to draw a logical conclusion based on these ephemeral scraps. This idea of collage, assembling or reinventing an identity, has always been a concept inherent to punk and youth culture: British punk historian Jon Savage coined the term “living collage” to describe European teenagers in the 1970s who tore apart thrifted vintage clothing at the seams to fuse and repurpose them with safety pins. Assayas’ work is essentially the filmic equivalent of that same idea: he populates his frames with torrents of ideas and surfaces and lets loose cinematographers Yorick Le Saux and Eric Gautier to pan wildly, struggling to encapsulate everything into their widescreen, handheld compositions.
- 5/8/2015
- by Mark Lukenbill
- MUBI
Louis Feuillade’s Fantômas opens with a series of disguises, image overlays revealing to us Fantomas’ various personas.Often used by silent filmmakers attempting to conjure the supernatural, they conjure the abstract instead:“It’s a visual medium”–John Ford“[Erich von] Stroheim asked me personally to take on the assignment (after the studio removed him from the film), and I did so without any protest on his part…”– Josef von Sternberg***We move from dissolves to hard cuts:Later in The Wedding March:Counterpoints:And beyond:We call for help, mere seconds later our cries our answered: “We’ve got a trial ahead of us.”Time is meaningless: there is no difference between past and present.Impressionism becomes Expressionism:But we keep being reborn:Love exists:Love unites us all, re-engages us with the world:We cease being individuals:And become a collective--We become a crowd:None of us are alone:*** Sources:Fantômas (Louis Feuillade, 1913)India Matri Bhumi (Roberto Rossellini,...
- 3/15/2015
- by Neil Bahadur
- MUBI
There nothing better than seeing silent films with live music, especially in the cozy confines of Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 E. Lockwood in Webster Groves). This Sunday, February 15th, at 7pm, Webster University, in conjunction with Cinema St. Louis, will screen the 1927 French film Verdun, Visions Of History from director Léon Poirier accompanied by live music from pianist Hakim Bentchouala-Golobitch. Admission is Free.
Because of the political, social, economic and cultural impact it generated worldwide, the First World War is a singular event in the history of mankind. With 4.4 million soldiers mobilized and a financial contribution of 500 billion today, the United States played a major role in the Great War and the victory of the Triple Entente. The long French-American friendship was strengthened by this conflict.
Since September 2014, as part of the worldwide commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago,...
Because of the political, social, economic and cultural impact it generated worldwide, the First World War is a singular event in the history of mankind. With 4.4 million soldiers mobilized and a financial contribution of 500 billion today, the United States played a major role in the Great War and the victory of the Triple Entente. The long French-American friendship was strengthened by this conflict.
Since September 2014, as part of the worldwide commemoration of the centenary of the First World War, the Cultural Service at the Consulate General of France in Chicago,...
- 2/11/2015
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
While 2014 saw the passing of (reluctant) New Wave icon Alain Resnais, there was an intense resurgence of interest in the directorial efforts of Last Year at Marienbad (1961) scribe Alain Robbe-Grillet. Grillet and Resnais would never collaborate again, but it left the screenwriter with his own directorial options, which he used to explore his abstract fetishes in a filmography that would span ten films, many of which never made it to the United States. Kino Lorber’s Redemption label resurrected five rare titles for Blu-ray over the past year, including his 1963 debut L’immortelle and New Wave classic Trans-Europ-Express (1967). But it would be Grillet’s eighth feature that would serve to be his most internationally renowned, the 1983 La Belle Captive, which chanteys its way into Blu-ray this month courtesy of Olive Films. No more cohesive than any of the other puzzling titles in his filmography, the stunning work from DoP Henri Alekan...
- 2/3/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
"Nobody's really captured the quality of a film festival," observed musician/composer Neil Brand, "You're doing something that's pleasurable, but then the fatigue sets in..." It's true—a celluloid feast like Il Cinema Ritrovato in Bologna is a particular case, too, since so many of the films are rarities. It's like being a cake specialist and suddenly somebody offers you fifty magnificent cakes of unique recipe but says "You have to eat them all in an hour or I'll take them away and you'll never see them again." You plunge in, and even when nausea starts to replace pleasure you can't bring yourself to stop...
Cinephiles like to grumble, and the venues of Bologna attract a certain amount of criticism (one has a bar which runs between the front row and the screen, cutting the subtitles in half; air conditioning is switched on and off at random; and then there's...
Cinephiles like to grumble, and the venues of Bologna attract a certain amount of criticism (one has a bar which runs between the front row and the screen, cutting the subtitles in half; air conditioning is switched on and off at random; and then there's...
- 7/7/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Crime, Costumes, And Masks
By Raymond Benson
Apparently the French had their own Batman-like character in the early days of silent film. Created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède, Judex (“judge” in Latin) was a crime-fighting avenger that appeared in silent serials in 1916-17. The character was resurrected once in 1934 in a sound feature, and once again in 1963 by celebrated director Georges Franju. The Criterion Collection has seen fit to release Judex, this later version, on Blu-ray and DVD in a dual format package. The results are splendid.
Judex doesn’t bother to disguise his face when he’s in character. He wears a black cape and a Zorro-like hat. You could say he’s kind of like The Shadow. By day, though, he applies old-age makeup and assumes the role of Vallieres, the right-hand man to an evil banker. Judex is in love with the banker’s daughter, Jacqueline,...
By Raymond Benson
Apparently the French had their own Batman-like character in the early days of silent film. Created by Louis Feuillade and Arthur Bernède, Judex (“judge” in Latin) was a crime-fighting avenger that appeared in silent serials in 1916-17. The character was resurrected once in 1934 in a sound feature, and once again in 1963 by celebrated director Georges Franju. The Criterion Collection has seen fit to release Judex, this later version, on Blu-ray and DVD in a dual format package. The results are splendid.
Judex doesn’t bother to disguise his face when he’s in character. He wears a black cape and a Zorro-like hat. You could say he’s kind of like The Shadow. By day, though, he applies old-age makeup and assumes the role of Vallieres, the right-hand man to an evil banker. Judex is in love with the banker’s daughter, Jacqueline,...
- 6/30/2014
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the 1980s (with a particular focus on filmmakers from the New Wave), offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema. Judex will screen as part of the festival at 8:30pm Saturday, June 28th at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium.
This effortlessly cool crime caper, directed by Georges Franju, is a marvel of dexterous plotting and visual invention. Conceived as an homage to Louis Feuillade’s 1916 cult silent serial of the same name, “Judex” kicks off with the mysterious kidnapping of a corrupt banker by a shadowy crime fighter (American magician Channing Pollock) and spins out into a thrillingly complex web of deceptions. Combining stylish ’60s modernism with silent-cinema touches and even a few unexpected sci-fi accents, “Judex” is a delightful bit of superhero pulp fiction...
This effortlessly cool crime caper, directed by Georges Franju, is a marvel of dexterous plotting and visual invention. Conceived as an homage to Louis Feuillade’s 1916 cult silent serial of the same name, “Judex” kicks off with the mysterious kidnapping of a corrupt banker by a shadowy crime fighter (American magician Channing Pollock) and spins out into a thrillingly complex web of deceptions. Combining stylish ’60s modernism with silent-cinema touches and even a few unexpected sci-fi accents, “Judex” is a delightful bit of superhero pulp fiction...
- 6/27/2014
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Despite political instability in the country and lack of resources, the Odessa International Film Festival will take place July 11 - 19, 2014, after a successful Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign (See article Here) The festival has also announced its first guests and new information on its non-competitive program. Awards for films in development, presented at the Industry Office, have been raised. The Film Market for Ukrainian Films will be held from July 14 to 17, 2014.
Stephen Freas Retrospective
The honorary guest, Stephen Frears, will receive a Golden Duke for his contribution to motion picture arts during the festival’s Opening Ceremony. A retrospective of his work is shown at the Festival. While in Odessa, he will also give insights in his work during a master class for the students of the Summer Film School.
Frears is best known for his provocative, stylish and low-budget films about people living on the edge of social and sexual norms. The director of Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen and Philomena has won numerous prestigious awards. He was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Special Guests
The festival will welcome the Irish film and theater actor Aidan Turner , best known for his performance in the TV-series Desperate Romantics, The Tudors and the three part fantasy film "The Hobbit."
Lord David Puttnam, the British film producer, will be a lector at the Summer Film School. Films he produced include "Midnight Express," "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission". So far, his films received 10 Academy Awards and 25 main prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Also for the Summer Film School, American director
Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream," "The Wrestler , " "Black Swan," "Noah"), will present an online master class.
Open-Air Screening Potemkin Stairs
The Oiff audience will have a chance to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s "Blackmail," accompanied by a symphonic orchestra, as part of the traditional Potemkin Stairs screenings. Shot in 1929, the film occupies a special place in the work of the director, as it was Hitchcock’s both last silent and first sound film. A lesser-known silent version will be screened at the festival.
Also screened open air, Louis Feuillade ’s Fantomas (1913) will be presented at the Langeron descent.
Festival Of The Festivals Program
The Oiff 2014 non-competitive program includes several international hits, such as the black and white Polish film "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski; "Life of Riley" , the last film of the great French director Alain Resnais; "Of Horse and Men" , a film by Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson; and "Still Life" , the Italian tragicomedy by Uberto Pasolini.
Oiff Film Industry Office – New Awards
The Film Industry Office program will include pitching sessions, work in progress presentations and “Producer+Director” programs. The invited speakers will present master classes on pitching technologies, scriptwriting and work with audiences. The program is sponsored by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation for Development of Ukraine.
The money prize for the winner of the Ukrainian full-length projects pitching has been raised in 2014 from 25 to 50 thousand hryvnias, thanks to the festival’s Partner, the development company Udp . The official Odessa Film Festival air carrier, Ukrainian International Airlines , introduces a new prize for the best Ukrainian film project in progress, worth Usd 3000 for flights provided by the company.
The Film Market will be held from July 14 to 17, 2014.
Stephen Freas Retrospective
The honorary guest, Stephen Frears, will receive a Golden Duke for his contribution to motion picture arts during the festival’s Opening Ceremony. A retrospective of his work is shown at the Festival. While in Odessa, he will also give insights in his work during a master class for the students of the Summer Film School.
Frears is best known for his provocative, stylish and low-budget films about people living on the edge of social and sexual norms. The director of Dangerous Liaisons, The Queen and Philomena has won numerous prestigious awards. He was nominated for the Academy Award, Golden Globe and Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Special Guests
The festival will welcome the Irish film and theater actor Aidan Turner , best known for his performance in the TV-series Desperate Romantics, The Tudors and the three part fantasy film "The Hobbit."
Lord David Puttnam, the British film producer, will be a lector at the Summer Film School. Films he produced include "Midnight Express," "The Killing Fields" and "The Mission". So far, his films received 10 Academy Awards and 25 main prizes at the Cannes Film Festival. Also for the Summer Film School, American director
Darren Aronofsky ("Requiem for a Dream," "The Wrestler , " "Black Swan," "Noah"), will present an online master class.
Open-Air Screening Potemkin Stairs
The Oiff audience will have a chance to watch Alfred Hitchcock’s "Blackmail," accompanied by a symphonic orchestra, as part of the traditional Potemkin Stairs screenings. Shot in 1929, the film occupies a special place in the work of the director, as it was Hitchcock’s both last silent and first sound film. A lesser-known silent version will be screened at the festival.
Also screened open air, Louis Feuillade ’s Fantomas (1913) will be presented at the Langeron descent.
Festival Of The Festivals Program
The Oiff 2014 non-competitive program includes several international hits, such as the black and white Polish film "Ida" by Paweł Pawlikowski; "Life of Riley" , the last film of the great French director Alain Resnais; "Of Horse and Men" , a film by Icelandic director Benedikt Erlingsson; and "Still Life" , the Italian tragicomedy by Uberto Pasolini.
Oiff Film Industry Office – New Awards
The Film Industry Office program will include pitching sessions, work in progress presentations and “Producer+Director” programs. The invited speakers will present master classes on pitching technologies, scriptwriting and work with audiences. The program is sponsored by Rinat Akhmetov Foundation for Development of Ukraine.
The money prize for the winner of the Ukrainian full-length projects pitching has been raised in 2014 from 25 to 50 thousand hryvnias, thanks to the festival’s Partner, the development company Udp . The official Odessa Film Festival air carrier, Ukrainian International Airlines , introduces a new prize for the best Ukrainian film project in progress, worth Usd 3000 for flights provided by the company.
The Film Market will be held from July 14 to 17, 2014.
- 6/26/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Moviefone's Top DVD of the Week
"The Lego Movie"
What's It About? A boring, regular dude Lego named Emmet (Chris Pratt) is suddenly called upon to save the world. Will Ferrell voices bad guy President Business, Elizabeth Banks as the super cool Wyldstyle, Alison Brie as Princess Unikitty, and Nick Offerman as a pirate named Metal Beard.
Why We're In: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller accomplished the unthinkable -- they made what seemed like a craven toy tie-in into a movie that everyone loves. It's kind of crazy.
Post by Moviefone.
Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week
"Picnic at Hanging Rock" (Criterion)
What's It About? A group of schoolgirls and their teacher go on a lovely picnic at Hanging Rock, a scenic rock formation in Australia. Their Valentine's Day outing takes a turn for the weird when several of them go missing, leaving a devastated community in their wake.
Why We're In: It's a gorgeous,...
"The Lego Movie"
What's It About? A boring, regular dude Lego named Emmet (Chris Pratt) is suddenly called upon to save the world. Will Ferrell voices bad guy President Business, Elizabeth Banks as the super cool Wyldstyle, Alison Brie as Princess Unikitty, and Nick Offerman as a pirate named Metal Beard.
Why We're In: Phil Lord and Christopher Miller accomplished the unthinkable -- they made what seemed like a craven toy tie-in into a movie that everyone loves. It's kind of crazy.
Post by Moviefone.
Moviefone's Top Blu-ray of the Week
"Picnic at Hanging Rock" (Criterion)
What's It About? A group of schoolgirls and their teacher go on a lovely picnic at Hanging Rock, a scenic rock formation in Australia. Their Valentine's Day outing takes a turn for the weird when several of them go missing, leaving a devastated community in their wake.
Why We're In: It's a gorgeous,...
- 6/17/2014
- by Jenni Miller
- Moviefone
Blu-ray & DVD Release Dates: June 17, 2014
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
A criminal masquerade is perpetrated in Judex.
This 1963 effortlessly cool French crime caper film Judex, directed by Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face), is a marvel of dexterous plotting and visual invention.
Conceived as an homage to Louis Feuillade’s 1916 cult silent serial of the same name, Judex kicks off with the mysterious kidnapping of a corrupt banker (Michel Vitold) by the shadowy crime fighter Judex (American magician Channing Pollock) and spins out into a thrillingly complex web of deceptions.
Combining stylish Sixties modernism with silent-cinema touches and even a few unexpected sci-fi accents, Judex is a delightful bit of pulp fiction and a testament to the art of illusion.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo and DVD standalone editions of the movie include the following features:
• New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray...
Price: DVD $24.95, Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95
Studio: Criterion
A criminal masquerade is perpetrated in Judex.
This 1963 effortlessly cool French crime caper film Judex, directed by Georges Franju (Eyes Without a Face), is a marvel of dexterous plotting and visual invention.
Conceived as an homage to Louis Feuillade’s 1916 cult silent serial of the same name, Judex kicks off with the mysterious kidnapping of a corrupt banker (Michel Vitold) by the shadowy crime fighter Judex (American magician Channing Pollock) and spins out into a thrillingly complex web of deceptions.
Combining stylish Sixties modernism with silent-cinema touches and even a few unexpected sci-fi accents, Judex is a delightful bit of pulp fiction and a testament to the art of illusion.
Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD Combo and DVD standalone editions of the movie include the following features:
• New 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray...
- 3/25/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
I just received my review copy of Ingmar Bergman's Pesona (3/25) today so I'm a little high on Criterion love at the moment and only minutes after receiving that in the mail I received today's announcement listing the films coming to the Collection in June. I'm sure many will be excited to see Peter Weir's Picnic at Hanging Rock getting the Blu-ray upgrade. The remastered release includes a new piece on the making of the film, a new introduction by film scholar David Thomson as well as Weir's 1971 black comedy Homesdale among other additional features. The disc will hit shelves on June 17. The title I'm most looking forward to is Michelangelo Antonioni's L'eclisse the third film in his informal trilogy that includes L'avventura and La notte. This is the only one of those three I haven't yet seen and what a cast as it tells the story of...
- 3/18/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
This week Simon Russell Beale takes on the royal role in a revival by Sam Mendes at the National Theatre. Here's a look back at Lear on film
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
One of the earliest film versions of King Lear (retitled Re Lear) was made in Italy in 1910 with Ermete Novelli as King Lear. What takes over three hours on stage was packed into a dense 16 minutes of action that remains haunting many decades on.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
Almost 80 years before the 1997 movie A Thousand Acres based on Jane Smiley's novel, which transposed the play to contemporary Iowa, French director Louis Feuillade was doing something similar in Le Roi Lear Au Village, a 1911 adaptation in which Lear becomes a blind French farmer who foolishly gives over his land to his two heartless daughters. Alas, I couldn't find any footage online.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
One of the earliest film versions of King Lear (retitled Re Lear) was made in Italy in 1910 with Ermete Novelli as King Lear. What takes over three hours on stage was packed into a dense 16 minutes of action that remains haunting many decades on.
Reading on a mobile? Click here to view
Almost 80 years before the 1997 movie A Thousand Acres based on Jane Smiley's novel, which transposed the play to contemporary Iowa, French director Louis Feuillade was doing something similar in Le Roi Lear Au Village, a 1911 adaptation in which Lear becomes a blind French farmer who foolishly gives over his land to his two heartless daughters. Alas, I couldn't find any footage online.
- 1/13/2014
- by Lyn Gardner
- The Guardian - Film News
In the years since Netflix added a library of streaming titles to its disc rent-by-mail business, that stream has become a gusher and streaming movies and TV shows changed the home video habits of American households. But while there are plenty of classics are readily available to stream via subscription or VOD, from "Birth of a Nation" and "The Rules of the Game" to "Citizen Kane" and "Chinatown," countless titles come and go. While this is far from a definitive list, these 10 noteworthy films that became available on streaming platforms in 2013 deserve singling out. To browse more, check out Indiewire parent company SnagFilms' classics section. "Fantomas: The Complete Saga" (1913-1914) The adventures of the cinema's first supervillain in five wicked, delirious surreal short features, "Fantomas" was Louis Feuillade's first great serial and there was no more creatively energetic, playfully inventive and entertainingly surreal filmmaking of the era. Fandor has the complete five-film.
- 12/16/2013
- by Sean Axmaker
- Indiewire
Infinite Anticipation
Here at the Vienna International Film Festival there are no multiplexes devoted to the festival. Every cinema is a single screen—all quite beautiful and some, like the Urania, Metro, Künstlerhaus, and Austrian Film Museum, very special indeed—and, scattered at a bit of a distance from one another, they trace a lopsided kind of ellipsis, a loop of cinema if you plan your itinerary right.
Above: Out 1, noli me tangere.
I came anticipating this particular suggestion of cinematic infinity, not just because of my memories of the last two years of repeatedly treading this touring path around the constrained city center of Vienna, but because of the promise of a much desired (by Jonathan Rosenbaum since 1996, and thereafter by an untold multitude of tantalized cinephiles) festival pairing of Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman's improvised serial intended for television, Out 1, noli me tangere (1971), and Louis Feuillade's...
Here at the Vienna International Film Festival there are no multiplexes devoted to the festival. Every cinema is a single screen—all quite beautiful and some, like the Urania, Metro, Künstlerhaus, and Austrian Film Museum, very special indeed—and, scattered at a bit of a distance from one another, they trace a lopsided kind of ellipsis, a loop of cinema if you plan your itinerary right.
Above: Out 1, noli me tangere.
I came anticipating this particular suggestion of cinematic infinity, not just because of my memories of the last two years of repeatedly treading this touring path around the constrained city center of Vienna, but because of the promise of a much desired (by Jonathan Rosenbaum since 1996, and thereafter by an untold multitude of tantalized cinephiles) festival pairing of Jacques Rivette and Suzanne Schiffman's improvised serial intended for television, Out 1, noli me tangere (1971), and Louis Feuillade's...
- 11/3/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
★★★★☆ The English translation of French maestro Jacques Rivette's debut feature Paris nous appartient (1962) is "Paris belongs to us". It could also have easily been the title of his 1981 oddball offering Le Pont du Nord. Coveted by cinephiles for years, this Masters of Cinema rerelease is most welcome. It's a magical work of blazing intelligence and imagination which sees Paris as a labyrinth full of hidden narratives and emotional fault lines. At just over two hours, it's a relatively short film for Rivette, but its rambling structure lets him pack a lot in; from the post-68 French mindset to generations in transition.
Le Pont du Nord follows an enigmatic treasure hunt undertaken by Marie and Baptiste, played by real-life mother and daughter duo Bulle and Pascale Ogier respectively (the latter would go on to win the Best Actress award at the 1984 Venice Film Festival). After being released from prison for involvement in a bank robbery,...
Le Pont du Nord follows an enigmatic treasure hunt undertaken by Marie and Baptiste, played by real-life mother and daughter duo Bulle and Pascale Ogier respectively (the latter would go on to win the Best Actress award at the 1984 Venice Film Festival). After being released from prison for involvement in a bank robbery,...
- 7/30/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Olivier Assayas looks back at the days following the events of May 1968 – and at his own youth – with a delicate wit
Link to video: Something in the Air: watch trailer here
The son of a movie director and now in his 50s, Olivier Assayas has built up an interestingly varied body of work as a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, authored several books including a monograph on Ingmar Bergman, and directed over the past 20 years a succession of modest, intelligent films. Most are concerned with moral problems and social responsibility in a middle-class setting like his Les Destinées sentimentales about a rebellious young man reluctantly taking over the family's prestigious porcelain factory in the 1920s, and Summer Hours, the tale of siblings and their elderly mother gathering to settle the estate of a recently deceased painter. Slightly different are Irma Vep, a cinéaste's celebration of Hong Kong movies and...
Link to video: Something in the Air: watch trailer here
The son of a movie director and now in his 50s, Olivier Assayas has built up an interestingly varied body of work as a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, authored several books including a monograph on Ingmar Bergman, and directed over the past 20 years a succession of modest, intelligent films. Most are concerned with moral problems and social responsibility in a middle-class setting like his Les Destinées sentimentales about a rebellious young man reluctantly taking over the family's prestigious porcelain factory in the 1920s, and Summer Hours, the tale of siblings and their elderly mother gathering to settle the estate of a recently deceased painter. Slightly different are Irma Vep, a cinéaste's celebration of Hong Kong movies and...
- 5/25/2013
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
Emil and the Detectives is a popular novel that was filmed several times and once by Disney. The version you want to see, however, and which you very possibly can't see, is the one scripted by Billy (or "Billie") Wilder and directed by some bloke called Gerhardt Lamprecht. I don't know his other films, but he appears to be amazing.
Look!
Emil, visiting his granny in Berlin, is drugged by an evil criminal man on the train and robbed of the money he was delivering. The film has carefully set Emil up as a spirited young fellow, kind and thoughtful but also a little naughty. A prank involving a public statue has left him in fear of being pinched by the police, so when he's robbed he joins forces with a gang of kids to get his cash back.
The combination of location naturalism and studio artifice, which is at...
Look!
Emil, visiting his granny in Berlin, is drugged by an evil criminal man on the train and robbed of the money he was delivering. The film has carefully set Emil up as a spirited young fellow, kind and thoughtful but also a little naughty. A prank involving a public statue has left him in fear of being pinched by the police, so when he's robbed he joins forces with a gang of kids to get his cash back.
The combination of location naturalism and studio artifice, which is at...
- 5/9/2013
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Xan Cassevetes, daughter to indie icons John Cassevetes and Gena Rowlands, follows in family's footsteps with her feature directorial-writing debut "Kiss of the Damned" (opening this Friday in select theaters and currently available on VOD). A feverish vampire story strictly aimed at the adult set (think more "True Blood" and less "Twilight"), "Kiss of the Damned" doesn't recall the work of her famous father, but that of European masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Claude Chabrol, Louis Feuillade, and even Dario Argento. Together with cinematographer Tobias Datum ("Smashed," "Terri"), Cassevetes conjures an intoxicating tale that seduces and frights in equal measure. What's Next: "I have four things in the works," Cassevetes told Indiewire. "One is something that I wrote before.The other are things that I’ve written since. They’re all very different, but I don’t know which one is going to be the one I am going to make.
- 5/2/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Why She's On Our Radar: Xan Cassevetes, daughter to indie icons John Cassevetes and Gena Rowlands, follows in family's footsteps with her feature directorial-writing debut "Kiss of the Damned" (playing the SXSW's Midnight section). A feverish vampire story strictly aimed at the adult set (think more "True Blood" and less "Twilight"), "Kiss of the Damned" doesn't recall the work of her famous father, but that of European masters like Michelangelo Antonioni, Claude Chabrol, Louis Feuillade, and even Dario Argento. Together with cinematographer Tobias Datum ("Smashed," "Terri"), Cassevetes conjures an intoxicating tale that seduces and frights in equal measure. What's Next: "I have four things in the works," Cassevetes told Indiewire. "One is something that I wrote before.The other are things that I’ve written since. They’re all very different, but I don’t know which one is going to be the one I am going to make. The...
- 3/10/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
A Planet Fury-approved selection of notable genre releases for August.
Jaws (1975) Universal Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo Available Now
Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller has been painstakingly restored from the original film elements. Amity Island has never been so beautiful. The movie itself seems to improve with age, with amazing performances and scenes that still manage to unnerve — Susan Backlinie’s death at the beginning is truly one of the most horrifying ever portrayed onscreen. Making this a true “special edition” is the long-awaited release of The Shark Is Still Working, an expansive documentary on the making and the impact of the 1975 film. All of the surviving cast and crew are interviewed along with several minutes of never-before-seen footage.
Special Features:
*Digitally remastered and fully restored from high resolution 35mm original film elements.
*Digital Copy of Jaws
*UltraViolet Copy of Jaws
*The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy...
Jaws (1975) Universal Blu-ray/DVD/Digital combo Available Now
Steven Spielberg’s classic thriller has been painstakingly restored from the original film elements. Amity Island has never been so beautiful. The movie itself seems to improve with age, with amazing performances and scenes that still manage to unnerve — Susan Backlinie’s death at the beginning is truly one of the most horrifying ever portrayed onscreen. Making this a true “special edition” is the long-awaited release of The Shark Is Still Working, an expansive documentary on the making and the impact of the 1975 film. All of the surviving cast and crew are interviewed along with several minutes of never-before-seen footage.
Special Features:
*Digitally remastered and fully restored from high resolution 35mm original film elements.
*Digital Copy of Jaws
*UltraViolet Copy of Jaws
*The Shark Is Still Working: The Impact & Legacy...
- 8/22/2012
- by Bradley Harding
- Planet Fury
No company in the world, with the possible exception of Eureka!'s Masters of Cinema, has taken as active a role is preserving the silent film era as Kino Lorber. This week sees the release of their latest magnificent addition to their collection, Louis Feuillade's immortal Les Vampires. Feuillade was among the most successful filmmakers to take advantage of the serial format in a way that shaped the filmgoing experience for a couple of decades, and Les Vampires was a big part of that success. Kino's release of Les Vampires may be barebones when it comes to bonus material, but the content and restoration can't be beat, this is a must own collection!For those who haven't yet seen Les Vampires, and I will count myself among...
- 8/13/2012
- Screen Anarchy
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: Aug. 14, 2012
Price: DVD $34.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Kino Lorber
Musidora is sleek and sexy assassin Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's classic 1915 serial Les Vampires.
The 1915 serialized silent adventure-crime movie Les Vampires is the greatest work of French filmmaker Louis Feuillade (Fantômas), the undisputed master of the espionage serial.
Comprised of ten episodes and clocking in at nearly seven hours, Les Vampires follows journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) in his efforts to expose a vast criminal organization known as “The Vampires.” Joined by a comical sidekick Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), and often competing against a rival gang lord (Fernand Herrmann), Guérande dethrones a succession of the Vampires’ Grand Masters. But most evasive of all is The Vampires’ muse, a seductive assassin who performs her job with deadly grace: Irma Vep (Musidora).
Feuillade crafted his films with labyrinthine plots, narrow escapes and unforgettable characters—all of which went on to influence multiple generations of filmmakers,...
Price: DVD $34.95, Blu-ray $39.95
Studio: Kino Lorber
Musidora is sleek and sexy assassin Irma Vep in Louis Feuillade's classic 1915 serial Les Vampires.
The 1915 serialized silent adventure-crime movie Les Vampires is the greatest work of French filmmaker Louis Feuillade (Fantômas), the undisputed master of the espionage serial.
Comprised of ten episodes and clocking in at nearly seven hours, Les Vampires follows journalist Philippe Guérande (Édouard Mathé) in his efforts to expose a vast criminal organization known as “The Vampires.” Joined by a comical sidekick Mazamette (Marcel Lévesque), and often competing against a rival gang lord (Fernand Herrmann), Guérande dethrones a succession of the Vampires’ Grand Masters. But most evasive of all is The Vampires’ muse, a seductive assassin who performs her job with deadly grace: Irma Vep (Musidora).
Feuillade crafted his films with labyrinthine plots, narrow escapes and unforgettable characters—all of which went on to influence multiple generations of filmmakers,...
- 8/3/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Back in November, after having written Movie Poster of the Week for almost three years, I decided to start a Tumblr as a place to display all those orphan posters I loved: the ones I couldn’t find all that much to say about, that didn’t fit any current trend or personal train of thought but which needed to be seen. It seemed natural to call it Movie Poster of the Day and so I decided I would try to post just one single poster a day, ideally something unfamiliar yet worthy of attention. In February, Flavorpill declared Movie Poster of the Day one of the “Essential Tumblrs for film fans” which persuaded me it was worth continuing and over the past eight months I have somehow managed to post something every single day. In the process I seem to have amassed over 15,000 followers on Tumblr.
I have a...
I have a...
- 7/6/2012
- MUBI
Still drifting with the time machine of Il Cinema Ritrovato, I can profoundly feel the endlessness of the medium. Though this is supposedly a journey through the past, as Henri Langlois points out, it also indicates our very future. In this regard, at least to me, Raoul Walsh is the future and cinephilia is nothing but shaping our future by returning to the rich heritage of the moving images.
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Raoul Walsh’s anti-vengeance Distant Drums (1951), starring Gary Cooper and set in Florida in 1840, is about a journey of professional soldiers and ordinary people through the dangerous Everglades, only to discover at the end that the promised land they are searching for is burnt down to the ground. As one can expect from a Walsh film, they stay on the land and fight, man-to-man. There is no room for self-pity or sentimentalism, and the journey itself becomes a metaphor for self-discovery...
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Raoul Walsh’s anti-vengeance Distant Drums (1951), starring Gary Cooper and set in Florida in 1840, is about a journey of professional soldiers and ordinary people through the dangerous Everglades, only to discover at the end that the promised land they are searching for is burnt down to the ground. As one can expect from a Walsh film, they stay on the land and fight, man-to-man. There is no room for self-pity or sentimentalism, and the journey itself becomes a metaphor for self-discovery...
- 7/2/2012
- MUBI
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