Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSLa Práctica.The New York Film Festival has announced its Main Slate. Alongside a good showing of Cannes prizewinners, the festival will present new films from Radu Jude, Yorgos Lanthimos, Andrew Haigh, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Hong Sang-soo (x2 this year), Raven Jackson, Martín Rejtman, and the feature debut from playwright Annie Baker.In an interview with Indiewire, Ira Sachs shared that he and Ben Whishaw are preparing a new film about the photographer Peter Hujar, titled Peter Hujar’s Day (and presumably inspired by Linda Rosenkrantz’s book of the same name).Recommended VIEWINGIn memory of William Friedkin, who died this week at the age of 87, revisit Christopher Small and James Corning’s video essay about his films’ deftly constructed endings. “Over the course of Friedkin's films,” they write in their introduction, “our perspective...
- 8/9/2023
- MUBI
The news of beloved and revered French filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier’s death has struck a chord in France and around the world with a flurry of cinephiles, filmmakers, critics, industry figures and talents remembering him on social media on Thursday.
Aside from his prolific career as filmmaker, Tavernier, was also a driving force behind the Institut Lumiere and its annual heritage film festival in Lyon which he ran alongside Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux. Tavernier brought tremendous support to film preservation and livened up the cultural life of Lyon, his hometown, through his dedicated work at the Institut Lumiere.
“We would have soon celebrated our 40 years of friendship and common work, since he reached out a helping hand when I was a student,” Fremaux told Variety. “And we had many adventures together, including the Lumiere festival and his last documentary [‘Journey Through French Cinema’]. He was a great cinephile, and a great human being,...
Aside from his prolific career as filmmaker, Tavernier, was also a driving force behind the Institut Lumiere and its annual heritage film festival in Lyon which he ran alongside Cannes artistic director Thierry Fremaux. Tavernier brought tremendous support to film preservation and livened up the cultural life of Lyon, his hometown, through his dedicated work at the Institut Lumiere.
“We would have soon celebrated our 40 years of friendship and common work, since he reached out a helping hand when I was a student,” Fremaux told Variety. “And we had many adventures together, including the Lumiere festival and his last documentary [‘Journey Through French Cinema’]. He was a great cinephile, and a great human being,...
- 3/25/2021
- by Elsa Keslassy
- Variety Film + TV
A central figure in French cinema, Bertrand Tavernier has an encyclopedic knowledge of the craft of filmmaking akin to the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. The sense of history he possesses is seen in both his narrative and documentary, the latter of which is perhaps best exemplified in his recent film My Journey Through French Cinema. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, that 2016 documentary has now received a follow-up expansion with an eight-part series and we’re pleased to debut the U.S. trailer.
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
- 12/27/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Alfonso Cuarón will present a restored version of Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining and Peter Fonda will present a restored Easy Rider as part of this year’s Cannes Classics lineup.
Kubrick’s horror classic was has been remastered by Warner Bros in 4K using a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. After being presented 50 years ago on the Croisette, Dennis Hopper’s 1969 classic Easy Rider has been restored in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna. It was restored from the 35mm original picture negative.
The sidebar (see the full lineup below) will screen three Luis Buñuel films and Vittorio De Sica’s Miracle In Milan. There will also be a tribute to Lina Wertmüller, the first female filmmaker ever nominated as a director at the Academy Awards in 1977 for Pasqualino Settebellezze. Wertmüller will introduce the film with lead actor Giancarlo Giannini in attendance.
Kubrick’s horror classic was has been remastered by Warner Bros in 4K using a new 4K scan of the original 35mm camera negative. After being presented 50 years ago on the Croisette, Dennis Hopper’s 1969 classic Easy Rider has been restored in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment in collaboration with Cineteca di Bologna. It was restored from the 35mm original picture negative.
The sidebar (see the full lineup below) will screen three Luis Buñuel films and Vittorio De Sica’s Miracle In Milan. There will also be a tribute to Lina Wertmüller, the first female filmmaker ever nominated as a director at the Academy Awards in 1977 for Pasqualino Settebellezze. Wertmüller will introduce the film with lead actor Giancarlo Giannini in attendance.
- 4/26/2019
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
I Was at Home, But...There is no shortage of essay films at the Berlinale, and Thomas Heise’s documentary Heimat Is a Space in Time suggests that the personal address possible in this kind of documentary can be a very powerful tool indeed. This feeling was confirmed with an almost painfully moving encounter at the festival, Frank Beauvais’s extraordinary Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream. It is a kind of memoir of the director’s life between April and October 2016 in images and words, and while the words, beautifully written, are what one may expect—concise but rich details of family upbringing, personal worries, life events, anxieties and encounters, observations on home, town, and country—the images are not. To construct the image-story of this seven-month time period, a period filled with national and international attacks and terror, love for and hatred of his home in a small Alcasian town,...
- 2/14/2019
- MUBI
Veteran French helmer Bertrand Tavernier (“The French Minister”) is curating a 15-film retrospective of films by Henri Decoin (1890-1969), a larger-than-life character who before directing his first feature, at the age of 43, was an Olympic swimmer, Wwi pilot, sports journalist and novelist.
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
Decoin is one of the three directors – alongside Jean Grémillon and Max Ophuls – featured in the first episode of Tavernier’s “My Journeys Through French Cinema,” a follow-up project to his documentary “My Journey Through French Cinema”.
Tavernier believes that Decoin left a decisive mark on Gallic cinema due to the fluidity of his directing style, inspired in part by his sojourn in Hollywood in 1938, his innovative exploration of genres such as crime, espionage thrillers, historical sagas and psychological dramas, his remarkable adaptations of novels by George Simenon and his notable collaboration with actors such as Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet and his second wife, Danielle Darrieux.
The retrospective...
- 10/18/2018
- by Martin Dale
- Variety Film + TV
Bertrand Mandico's The Wild Boys (2017), which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing September 14 – October 14, 2018 as a Special Discovery.French director Bertrand Mandico shared with us the films he thought about before, during, and after making his feature debut, The Wild Boys:ISLANDSThe Saga of AnatahanMatango: Attack of the Mushroom People: The island and its fauna and flora, the mushroom-men, the sinking. A sublime film.Lord Jim: The tempest sequence in the opening and the cowardice of Lord Jim—an amazing film.A High Wind in Jamaica: For the confusion of the captain played by Antony Quinn, the phlegm of James Coburn and the beauty of his young crew.The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (Lewis John Carlino, 1976): For the erotic figure of the Captain (Kris Kristofferson) and its clique of violent boys.Remorques: A romantic and captivating film with sequences...
- 9/13/2018
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe controversial production of Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovskiy's Dau has come to an end, and there is now a trailer and a promotional website to prove it. The film was rumored to have taken nearly twelve years, recruiting a cast and crew of thousands in an isolated town that recreated life in the 1950s Soviet Union. Dau will likely be released as multiple films and a television series, but the new trailer presents it as primarily an "experiment." As Siddhant Adlakha says in his 2017 dissection of the film, "the remaining details, both factual and emotional, are still speculation that falls in the realm of audience interpretation." Professor and Kubrick expert Nathan Abrams has discovered the presumably lost screenplay to Kubrick's Burning Secret, an adaptation of a 1913 novella by Viennese writer Stefan Zweig. Long...
- 7/18/2018
- MUBI
Welcome to the world of Jean Grémillon, where adult characters work through adult problems without benefit of melodramatic excess. The impressively directed experiences of Micheline Presle’s lady doctor on a storm-swept island opts for a progressive point of view, not sentimentality.
The Love of a Woman
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 104 min. / Street Date August 22, 2017 / L’amour d’une femme / Available from Arrow Video 39.95
Starring: Micheline Presle, Massimo Girotti, Gaby Morlay, Paolo Stoppa, Marc Cassot, Marius David, Yvette Etiévant, Roland Lesaffre, Robert Naly, Madeleine Geoffroy.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Louisette Hautecoeur, Marguerite Renoir
Production Design: Robert Clavel
Original Music: Elsa Barraine, Henrie Dutilleux
Written by René Fallet, Jean Grémillon, René Wheeler
Produced by Mario Gabrielli, Pierre Géin
Directed by Jean Grémillon
Film critics that pride themselves on rediscovering older directors haven’t done very well by France’s Jean Grémillon, at least not in this country.
The Love of a Woman
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 104 min. / Street Date August 22, 2017 / L’amour d’une femme / Available from Arrow Video 39.95
Starring: Micheline Presle, Massimo Girotti, Gaby Morlay, Paolo Stoppa, Marc Cassot, Marius David, Yvette Etiévant, Roland Lesaffre, Robert Naly, Madeleine Geoffroy.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Louisette Hautecoeur, Marguerite Renoir
Production Design: Robert Clavel
Original Music: Elsa Barraine, Henrie Dutilleux
Written by René Fallet, Jean Grémillon, René Wheeler
Produced by Mario Gabrielli, Pierre Géin
Directed by Jean Grémillon
Film critics that pride themselves on rediscovering older directors haven’t done very well by France’s Jean Grémillon, at least not in this country.
- 9/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Love Of A Woman (1953 – L’amour d’une femme) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD + Blu-ray will be available August 22nd from Arrow Academy. Pre-order Here</strong
The Love Of A Woman (L’amour d’une femme) was the final feature of the great French filmmaker Jean Grémillon, concluding a string of classics that included such greats as Remorques, Lumière d’été and Pattes blanches.
Marie, a young doctor, arrives on the island of Ushant to replace its retiring physician. She experiences prejudice from the mostly male population, but also love in the form of engineer André.
Starring Micheline Presle, whose impressive career has encompassed French, Italian and Hollywood cinema, and Massimo Girotti, best-known for his performance in Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione, The Love of a Woman is a sad, beautiful, romantic masterpiece.
Special Edition Contents
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition presentations of the feature, from materials supplied by...
The Love Of A Woman (L’amour d’une femme) was the final feature of the great French filmmaker Jean Grémillon, concluding a string of classics that included such greats as Remorques, Lumière d’été and Pattes blanches.
Marie, a young doctor, arrives on the island of Ushant to replace its retiring physician. She experiences prejudice from the mostly male population, but also love in the form of engineer André.
Starring Micheline Presle, whose impressive career has encompassed French, Italian and Hollywood cinema, and Massimo Girotti, best-known for his performance in Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione, The Love of a Woman is a sad, beautiful, romantic masterpiece.
Special Edition Contents
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition presentations of the feature, from materials supplied by...
- 8/8/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
ZamaThe programme for the 2017 edition of the Venice Film Festival has been unveiled, and includes new films from Darren Aronofsky, Lucrecia Martel, Frederick Wiseman, Alexander Payne, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Abdellatif Kechiche, Takeshi Kitano and many more.COMPETITIONmother! (Darren Aronofsky)First Reformed (Paul Schrader)Sweet Country (Warwick Thornton)The Leisure Seeker (Paolo Virzi)Una Famiglia (Sebastiano Riso)Ex Libris - The New York Public Library (Frederick Wiseman)Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu)The Whale (Andrea Pallaoro)Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (Martin McDonagh)Foxtrot (Samuel Maoz)Ammore e malavita (Manetti Brothers)Jusqu'a la garde (Xavier Legrand)The Third Murder (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Mektoub, My Love: Canto Uno (Abdellatif Kechiche)Lean on Pete (Andrew Haigh)L'insulte (Ziad Doueiri)La Villa (Robert Guediguian)The Shape of Water (Guillermo del Toro)Suburbicon (George Clooney)Human Flow (Ai Weiwei)Downsizing (Alexander Payne)Out Of COMPETITIONFeaturesOur Souls at Night (Ritesh Batra)Il Signor Rotpeter (Antonietta de Lillo)Victoria...
- 7/27/2017
- MUBI
The Festival de Cannes has announced the lineup for the official selection, including the Competition and Un Certain Regard sections, as well as special screenings, for the 69th edition of the festival:COMPETITIONOpening Night: Café Society (Woody Allen) [Out of Competition]Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)Julieta (Pedro Almodóvar)American Honey (Andrea Arnold)Personal Shopper (Olivier Assayas)La Fille Inconnue (Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne)Juste La Fin du Monde (Xavier Dolan)Ma Loute (Bruno Dumont)Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)Rester Vertical (Alain Guiraudie)Aquarius (Kleber Mendonça Filho)Mal de Pierres (Nicole Garcia)I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach)Ma' Rosa (Brillante Mendoza)Bacalaureat (Cristian Mungiu)Loving (Jeff Nichols)Agassi (Park Chan-Wook)The Last Face (Sean Penn)Sieranevada (Cristi Puiu)Elle (Paul Verhoeven)The Neon Demon (Nicolas Winding-Refn)The Salesman (Asgha Farhadi)Un Certain REGARDOpening Film: Clash (Mohamed Diab)Varoonegi (Behnam Behzadi)Apprentice (Boo Junfeng)Voir du Pays (Delphine Coulin & Muriel Coulin)La Danseuse (Stéphanie Di Giusto)La...
- 4/22/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Section to include world premiere of Bertrand Tavernier doc; a cinema masterclass with William Friedkin and a tribute to documentary giants Raymond Depardon and Frederick Wiseman.
Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).
The revered French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”
Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.
As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored prints of 20 international classics including rare gems...
Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).
The revered French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”
Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.
As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored prints of 20 international classics including rare gems...
- 4/20/2016
- ScreenDaily
Section to include a cinema masterclass with William Friedkin, the 70th anniversary of the Fipresci prize, a tribute to documentary giants Raymond Depardon and Frederick Wiseman and the double Palme d’Or of 1966.
Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).
The legendary French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”
Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.
As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored...
Bertrand Tavernier’s documentary about French cinema Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français will receive a world premiere at the Cannes Classic section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 11-22).
The legendary French filmmaker has described his latest work as an expression of “gratitude to all the filmmakers, writers, actors and musicians that have appeared suddenly in my life.”
Voyage à Travers le Cinéma Français is a Little Bear-Gaumont-Pathé co-production and was made in participation with Canal+, Cine+ and the Sacem, with the support of Région Ile-de-France and Cnc. Gaumont will handle international sales and Pathé have distribution in France. The film will be released in theaters in October 2016.
As in previous years, Cannes Classic will also feature nine documentaries about cinema and restored...
- 4/20/2016
- ScreenDaily
Now that most of the Cannes Film Festival 2016 line-up has been settled when it comes to new premieres, their Cannes Classics sidebar of restored films is not only a treat for those attending, but a hint at what we can expect to arrive at repertory theaters and labels like Criterion in the coming years.
Today they’ve unveiled their line-up, which is toplined by Bertrand Tavernier‘s new 3-hour and 15-minute documentary about French cinema, Voyage à travers le cinéma français. They will also be screening William Friedkin‘s Sorcerer following his masterclass. Along with various documentaries, both classics in the genre and ones about films, they will also premiere new restorations of Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Solaris, Jean-Luc Godard‘s Masculin féminin, two episodes of Krzysztof Kieślowski‘s The Decalogue, as well as films from Kenji Mizoguchi, Marlon Brando, Jacques Becker, Mario Bava, and more.
Check out the line-up below.
Today they’ve unveiled their line-up, which is toplined by Bertrand Tavernier‘s new 3-hour and 15-minute documentary about French cinema, Voyage à travers le cinéma français. They will also be screening William Friedkin‘s Sorcerer following his masterclass. Along with various documentaries, both classics in the genre and ones about films, they will also premiere new restorations of Andrei Tarkovsky‘s Solaris, Jean-Luc Godard‘s Masculin féminin, two episodes of Krzysztof Kieślowski‘s The Decalogue, as well as films from Kenji Mizoguchi, Marlon Brando, Jacques Becker, Mario Bava, and more.
Check out the line-up below.
- 4/20/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2015?Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2015—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2015 to create a unique double feature.All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2015 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/4/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Waking Dreams of Wojciech Has, a retrospective of 14 films including The Hourglass Sanatorium and The Saragossa Manuscript, opens today at BAMcinématek and runs through October 27. Also in New York, the Japan Society will be screening three new restorations of films by Kon Ichikawa this weekend and, next week, Film Forum presents John Waters's Polyester in glorious Odorama. More goings on: A Jean Grémillon retrospective in Los Angeles, an evening of short films by Curtis Harrington in Nashville and a discussion of John Berger’s life and work in London. » - David Hudson...
- 10/15/2015
- Keyframe
The Waking Dreams of Wojciech Has, a retrospective of 14 films including The Hourglass Sanatorium and The Saragossa Manuscript, opens today at BAMcinématek and runs through October 27. Also in New York, the Japan Society will be screening three new restorations of films by Kon Ichikawa this weekend and, next week, Film Forum presents John Waters's Polyester in glorious Odorama. More goings on: A Jean Grémillon retrospective in Los Angeles, an evening of short films by Curtis Harrington in Nashville and a discussion of John Berger’s life and work in London. » - David Hudson...
- 10/15/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
For the first time in Venice, the recipient of the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement has been given “carte blanche” to select rare, forgotten or underestimated films for the Venice Classics section. This year's festival runs September 2-12, 2015. French cinema auteur (and dedicated film critic) Bertrand Tavernier will present four masterpieces he has personally chosen as Guest Director of the Venice Classics section: "White Paws" by Jean Grémillon (France, 1949, 92’, B&W), "The Vixen" by Alberto Lattuada (Italy, 1953, 93’, B&W), "Ray of Sunshine" by Pál Fejös (Germany/Austria, 1933, 87’, B&W) and "A Matter Of Life and Death" by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (UK, 1946, 104’, Color). Read More: Fellini Restoration Makes World Premiere in Venice Also, Italian film director Francesco Patierno will chair the Jury of film students which, for the third time, will award Best Restored Film and Best...
- 7/20/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Akahige, Amarcord, Aleksandr Nevskij among Venice Classics titles; Bertrand Tavernier selects four films.
Akahige, Amarcord, Aleksandr Nevskij and A Matter of Life and Death are among 21 titles announced today to screen in Venice’s (September 2-12) Classics section, which will reveal further titles later this month.
Director Bertrand Tavernier, who is to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award, has selected and will present four films for the Classics strand: Pattes Blances (White Paws) by Jean Grémillion, La Lupa (The Vixen) by Alberto Lattuada, Sonnenstrahl (Ray of Sunshine) by Pál Fejös and A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell and Eric Pressburger.
The 21 restorations:
Akahige (Red Beard) by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1965, 185’, B&W), restoration by Tōhō Co., Ltd.
Aleksandr Nevskij (Alexander Nevsky) by Sergej Michajlovič Ėjzenštejn (Ussr, 1938, 108’, B&W), restoration by Mosfilm
Amarcord by Federico Fellini (Italy, 1973, 123’, Color) restoration by Cineteca di Bologna with the support of yoox.com and the...
Akahige, Amarcord, Aleksandr Nevskij and A Matter of Life and Death are among 21 titles announced today to screen in Venice’s (September 2-12) Classics section, which will reveal further titles later this month.
Director Bertrand Tavernier, who is to receive the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement award, has selected and will present four films for the Classics strand: Pattes Blances (White Paws) by Jean Grémillion, La Lupa (The Vixen) by Alberto Lattuada, Sonnenstrahl (Ray of Sunshine) by Pál Fejös and A Matter of Life and Death by Michael Powell and Eric Pressburger.
The 21 restorations:
Akahige (Red Beard) by Akira Kurosawa (Japan, 1965, 185’, B&W), restoration by Tōhō Co., Ltd.
Aleksandr Nevskij (Alexander Nevsky) by Sergej Michajlovič Ėjzenštejn (Ussr, 1938, 108’, B&W), restoration by Mosfilm
Amarcord by Federico Fellini (Italy, 1973, 123’, Color) restoration by Cineteca di Bologna with the support of yoox.com and the...
- 7/20/2015
- by mantus@masonlive.gmu.edu (Madison Antus)
- ScreenDaily
How would you program this year's newest, most interesting films into double features with movies of the past you saw in 2014?
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
Looking back over the year at what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2014—in theatres or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2014 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were given the option to write some text explaining their 2014 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch...
- 1/5/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the second of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Passion...
Passion...
- 12/11/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the first of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Filmmaker maudit?...
Filmmaker maudit?...
- 11/30/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Publicity still of Remorques. Courtesy of Janus Films.
"Melodrama – 2. now, a drama with sensational, romantic, often violent action, extravagant emotions, and, generally, a happy ending" —1959 Webster's New World Dictionary
The “melo” of melodrama, a word from the French, takes its root from the Greek melos, meaning “song.” Originally, the two-pronged word was said to be a sensational or romantic stage play with songs or orchestral accompaniment. The recently departed Alain Resnais took the prefix for the title of his superb 1986 film Melo, about a love triangle involving a violinist and a pianist. Only one of the three Jean Grémillon’s films (Remorques, Lumière d'été, and Le Ciel est à vous) in the Museum of the Museum Image's major and rare retrospective, made during WWII and the French Occupation, carries the music or the happy ending, which Webster’s affixed to melodrama’s meaning in the year of the filmmaker’s death,...
"Melodrama – 2. now, a drama with sensational, romantic, often violent action, extravagant emotions, and, generally, a happy ending" —1959 Webster's New World Dictionary
The “melo” of melodrama, a word from the French, takes its root from the Greek melos, meaning “song.” Originally, the two-pronged word was said to be a sensational or romantic stage play with songs or orchestral accompaniment. The recently departed Alain Resnais took the prefix for the title of his superb 1986 film Melo, about a love triangle involving a violinist and a pianist. Only one of the three Jean Grémillon’s films (Remorques, Lumière d'été, and Le Ciel est à vous) in the Museum of the Museum Image's major and rare retrospective, made during WWII and the French Occupation, carries the music or the happy ending, which Webster’s affixed to melodrama’s meaning in the year of the filmmaker’s death,...
- 11/28/2014
- by Greg Gerke
- MUBI
Above: 2-panel poster for Remorques aka Stormy Waters (Jean Grémillon, France, 1941). Poster by Henri Monnier.
I’ve posted a couple of gorgeous posters for the films of Jean Grémillon in other contexts, but now that the unsung auteur is getting his due with a month-long retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image, I thought it was time to look at his entire oeuvre in posters. Grémillon has been written about often and eloquently in these pages by David Cairns, and the Notebook has just published the first part of a translation of a terrific 1978 article on the director, so I feel there’s little I can add in the way of exegesis. But I have managed to gather posters for thirteen of his feature films which I present in chronological order from 1928 to 1953. My favorite, beyond that stunning Daïnah la métisse which I’ve written about before, is the...
I’ve posted a couple of gorgeous posters for the films of Jean Grémillon in other contexts, but now that the unsung auteur is getting his due with a month-long retrospective at the Museum of the Moving Image, I thought it was time to look at his entire oeuvre in posters. Grémillon has been written about often and eloquently in these pages by David Cairns, and the Notebook has just published the first part of a translation of a terrific 1978 article on the director, so I feel there’s little I can add in the way of exegesis. But I have managed to gather posters for thirteen of his feature films which I present in chronological order from 1928 to 1953. My favorite, beyond that stunning Daïnah la métisse which I’ve written about before, is the...
- 11/23/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
When, back in 2012, Il Cinema Ritrovato presented a retrospective of films by Jean Grémillon (1901 - 1959) and Criterion followed up by releasing Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation, I posted a roundup collecting that summer's wave of nearly ecstatic critical reception. Now New Yorkers have the opportunity to see twelve features and eight shorts on the Museum of the Moving Image's big screen, and we're tracking a second wave. So far: The New York Times on Remorques (1941), Reverse Shot on Maldone (1928) and more. The Jean Grémillon retrospective opened yesterday and runs through December 21. » - David Hudson...
- 11/22/2014
- Keyframe
When, back in 2012, Il Cinema Ritrovato presented a retrospective of films by Jean Grémillon (1901 - 1959) and Criterion followed up by releasing Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation, I posted a roundup collecting that summer's wave of nearly ecstatic critical reception. Now New Yorkers have the opportunity to see twelve features and eight shorts on the Museum of the Moving Image's big screen, and we're tracking a second wave. So far: The New York Times on Remorques (1941), Reverse Shot on Maldone (1928) and more. The Jean Grémillon retrospective opened yesterday and runs through December 21. » - David Hudson...
- 11/22/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
This week, Christie’s, the world’s largest fine arts auction house, is hosting an inaugural online-only sale of what are billed as Vintage Film Posters, though it is an eclectic collection of old and new. There are plenty of familiar faces, like Reynold Brown’s Attack of the 50Ft. Woman, Saul Bass’s The Man With the Golden Arm, Giorgio Olivetti’s La Dolce Vita, Bob Peak’s My Fair Lady, and Philip Castle’s Clockwork Orange, but what is interesting in terms of the auction market is the inclusion of a number of recent Mondo posters by Tyler Stout, Todd Slater and Laurent Durieux. The auction also includes La Boca’s already-classic, four-year-old set of silkscreen teasers for Black Swan.
The poster that really caught my eye, however, and one I’d never seen before, is this stunning Deco design by one Ram Richman for Jean Grémillon’s...
The poster that really caught my eye, however, and one I’d never seen before, is this stunning Deco design by one Ram Richman for Jean Grémillon’s...
- 6/21/2014
- by Adrian Curry
- MUBI
On the occasion of its 700th issue, legendary French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma has partnered with the French Institute Alliance Française (Fiaf), New York's premiere French cultural center, to present a special two-part CinéSalon film series. Beginning this week, the series features a selection of rarely shown treasures from French film history and continues in June with a showcase of top picks that have been championed in the pages of the magazine. Indiewire pleased to be partnering with Fiaf and Cahiers du Cinéma to present reviews of films in the series originally published in the magazine and available here in English for the first time with translations by Nicholas Elliott, the magazine's New York correspondent. Jean Grémillon’s "Little Lise" and "Daïnah la métisse" inaugurate the series today. The following articles are recent appreciations of Jean Grémillon's films by current Cahiers editor-in-chief Stéphane Delorme and curator and film theorist Dominique Païni,...
- 5/5/2014
- by Stéphane Delorme and Dominique Païni
- Indiewire
The bloodless Cahiers du cinéma wars induced a vague but hugely influential criterion for what was to be considered good and bad in film. Elaborate sets, one of French cinema’s major traits that, in certain genres, could compete with Hollywood, were deemed stifling and were rejected in favor of urban spaces and real locations.
The infamy that Cahiers du cinéma’s critical bombardment brought to certain filmmakers, at least among a small circle of cinephiles, took years to reverse. While Cahiers du cinéma happened to be more generous to American cinema, fewer French directors were allowed to enter their cannon. If, for instance, one Robert Bresson did, otherwise many Jean Delannoys did not. While the art of some great filmmakers was acknowledged and they were given the throne, many others, who were less stylistically consistent, fell into oblivion.
Today, more than half a century after the Cahiers wars, and regardless of their accomplishments,...
The infamy that Cahiers du cinéma’s critical bombardment brought to certain filmmakers, at least among a small circle of cinephiles, took years to reverse. While Cahiers du cinéma happened to be more generous to American cinema, fewer French directors were allowed to enter their cannon. If, for instance, one Robert Bresson did, otherwise many Jean Delannoys did not. While the art of some great filmmakers was acknowledged and they were given the throne, many others, who were less stylistically consistent, fell into oblivion.
Today, more than half a century after the Cahiers wars, and regardless of their accomplishments,...
- 12/30/2013
- by Ehsan Khoshbakht
- MUBI
Every time I see a Jean Grémillon film, I write about it for The Forgotten. I'm now going to break with tradition slightly, because thanks to the Edinburgh Film Festival's Grémillon retrospective, subtitled Symphonies of Life, I've now seen too many films to catch up on except through a kind of overview, which I will now attempt. I should stress that the retrospective isn't over yet, I haven't been able to see all of it, and anyway there are some films not showing. So this should be considered a work in progress.
Between La petite Lise (1930), which deserves to be considered alongside Lang's M when early sound cinema is discussed, and Gueule d'amour (1937), a magnificent melodrama that works along far more stylistically conventional lines, it's been hard to see exactly what kind of filmmaker Grémillon is. A great one, certainly, but what qualities unite his work?
This is now a bit clearer to me.
Between La petite Lise (1930), which deserves to be considered alongside Lang's M when early sound cinema is discussed, and Gueule d'amour (1937), a magnificent melodrama that works along far more stylistically conventional lines, it's been hard to see exactly what kind of filmmaker Grémillon is. A great one, certainly, but what qualities unite his work?
This is now a bit clearer to me.
- 7/8/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Above: L'amour d'une femme.
Edinburgh International Film Festival, under the direction of Chris Fujiwara, has ended for the year, and with it the Jean Grémillon retrospective, Symphonies of Life. Gathering most of the features (saving a few for-hire assignments) and all the surviving shorts, the season afforded an overview rarely possible with this neglected filmmaker.
Though the shorts were not my favorite Grémillons, they do illuminate the rest of his body of work. Documentaries on alchemy and astrology expose the filmmaker's fascination with the esoteric sciences, a major part of his life, which informs the tarot scenes in Lumière d'été and Maldone, where the cards indeed know all. Grémillon's sonorous, dreamy tones probably make him the greatest director-narrator outside of Orson Welles, and his self-penned music may be the finest outside of Chaplin's. The festival also played, at a fascinating symposium, the player piano score Grémillon wrote for a lost silent short,...
Edinburgh International Film Festival, under the direction of Chris Fujiwara, has ended for the year, and with it the Jean Grémillon retrospective, Symphonies of Life. Gathering most of the features (saving a few for-hire assignments) and all the surviving shorts, the season afforded an overview rarely possible with this neglected filmmaker.
Though the shorts were not my favorite Grémillons, they do illuminate the rest of his body of work. Documentaries on alchemy and astrology expose the filmmaker's fascination with the esoteric sciences, a major part of his life, which informs the tarot scenes in Lumière d'été and Maldone, where the cards indeed know all. Grémillon's sonorous, dreamy tones probably make him the greatest director-narrator outside of Orson Welles, and his self-penned music may be the finest outside of Chaplin's. The festival also played, at a fascinating symposium, the player piano score Grémillon wrote for a lost silent short,...
- 7/8/2013
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The programme for the 67th Edinburgh International Film Festival has launched and the selection looks every bit as eclectic and exciting as last year’s proved to be. For the second year running, artistic director Chris Fujiwara and his team have put together an unpredictable, intriguing and determinedly international array of films, allowing plenty of opportunity for emerging talents and lesser-known directors to showcase their work.
As well as the big opening and closing night gala films, respectively Breathe In and the world premiere of Scottish rom-com Not Another Happy Ending (starring Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan), the highlights include strands from South Korea, America and Sweden, Jean Grémillon and Richard Fleischer retrospectives, and several interesting-looking documentaries.
Due to the variety and unconventiality of the selection, it is difficult, and not entirely preferable, to pick out a list of sure-fire hits, but here are ten films that you should certainly...
As well as the big opening and closing night gala films, respectively Breathe In and the world premiere of Scottish rom-com Not Another Happy Ending (starring Doctor Who’s Karen Gillan), the highlights include strands from South Korea, America and Sweden, Jean Grémillon and Richard Fleischer retrospectives, and several interesting-looking documentaries.
Due to the variety and unconventiality of the selection, it is difficult, and not entirely preferable, to pick out a list of sure-fire hits, but here are ten films that you should certainly...
- 6/7/2013
- by Rob Dickie
- SoundOnSight
Breathe In
After an excellent start to the tenure of new artistic director Chris Fujiwara in 2012, the Edinburgh International Film Festival returns this June with a similarly promising, extremely eclectic line-up. Last summer I provided Sound on Sight’s first ever coverage of the event, the world’s longest continuously running film festival, and shall be continuing to do so in a few weeks time; the festival runs from June 19th to 30th.
Things kick off with the European premiere of Breathe In, following its debut at Sundance earlier this year. Drake Doremus’ follow-up to Like Crazy stars Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan and Kyle MacLachlan, and concerns the change in a family’s relationship dynamics when a foreign exchange student comes to stay. The closing gala film is romantic comedy Not Another Happy Ending, which receives its world premiere at the festival. The Glasgow-set film stars Doctor Who...
After an excellent start to the tenure of new artistic director Chris Fujiwara in 2012, the Edinburgh International Film Festival returns this June with a similarly promising, extremely eclectic line-up. Last summer I provided Sound on Sight’s first ever coverage of the event, the world’s longest continuously running film festival, and shall be continuing to do so in a few weeks time; the festival runs from June 19th to 30th.
Things kick off with the European premiere of Breathe In, following its debut at Sundance earlier this year. Drake Doremus’ follow-up to Like Crazy stars Guy Pearce, Felicity Jones, Amy Ryan and Kyle MacLachlan, and concerns the change in a family’s relationship dynamics when a foreign exchange student comes to stay. The closing gala film is romantic comedy Not Another Happy Ending, which receives its world premiere at the festival. The Glasgow-set film stars Doctor Who...
- 5/30/2013
- by Josh Slater-Williams
- SoundOnSight
New British films and American independents loom large in the Scottish cinema showcase, which also features two retrospectives and a revival of The Gorbals Story
The 2013 edition of the Edinburgh international film festival has revealed its full lineup, joining Drake Doremus's Sundance hit Breathe In, which was earlier announced as the opening film.
Twelve films have been selected to compete for the festival's premier competition, the Michael Powell award for best British feature film, including Matt Hulse's Dummy Jim, Mister John from the Helen team of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Cannes hit For Those in Peril and Not Another Happy Ending, starring Karen Gillan, which is also the closing film.
A particularly strong year for American independent cinema has been reflected in the creation of a new strand, American Dreams, which brings together titles as diverse as Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, the Juno Temple/Michael Cera-starring Magic Magic,...
The 2013 edition of the Edinburgh international film festival has revealed its full lineup, joining Drake Doremus's Sundance hit Breathe In, which was earlier announced as the opening film.
Twelve films have been selected to compete for the festival's premier competition, the Michael Powell award for best British feature film, including Matt Hulse's Dummy Jim, Mister John from the Helen team of Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor, Cannes hit For Those in Peril and Not Another Happy Ending, starring Karen Gillan, which is also the closing film.
A particularly strong year for American independent cinema has been reflected in the creation of a new strand, American Dreams, which brings together titles as diverse as Sofia Coppola's The Bling Ring, the Juno Temple/Michael Cera-starring Magic Magic,...
- 5/30/2013
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
Edinburgh International Film Festival today announced it will feature a Jean Grémillon retrospective this year. It has also announced the return of the popular Audience Award, which was last awarded in 2010.
French director Grémillon - known for some of the most highly regarded French films of the German Occupation - began filmmaking in the 1920s. The festival said: "Grémillon made the transition from silent to sound cinema, and his early sound films are notable for their innovative and imaginative use of music and sound effects. His late documentary shorts reflect his continuing experimentation with the medium of film and his strong links to the avant-garde and the other arts."
The Retrospective will include Remorques (Stormy Waters; 1940), Lumière d'été (Summer Light; 1942), and Le Ciel Est à Vous (The Sky Is Yours; 1944), together with key examples of his imaginative silent work such as Maldone (1928) and Gardiens De Phare (The...
French director Grémillon - known for some of the most highly regarded French films of the German Occupation - began filmmaking in the 1920s. The festival said: "Grémillon made the transition from silent to sound cinema, and his early sound films are notable for their innovative and imaginative use of music and sound effects. His late documentary shorts reflect his continuing experimentation with the medium of film and his strong links to the avant-garde and the other arts."
The Retrospective will include Remorques (Stormy Waters; 1940), Lumière d'été (Summer Light; 1942), and Le Ciel Est à Vous (The Sky Is Yours; 1944), together with key examples of his imaginative silent work such as Maldone (1928) and Gardiens De Phare (The...
- 2/11/2013
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
A father, worried sick that his wife may be dead, walks his son and daughter across a rain-slicked square, while a long line of black-clad children from an orphanage snakes past them in the other direction. The bars of a castle-shaped birdcage, which has been the backdrop for a bitter quarrel between an aristocrat and his middle-aged mistress, gives way to a shot of a mountaintop hotel crisscrossed by countless panes of glass. A man and woman on the verge of an affair walk through an empty seaside house that evokes both their waning marriages and the life they will never have together.
Those are three moments from the three movies in Eclipse's set, Jean Grémillon During the Occupation: Le ciel est à vous, Lumière d'été and Remorques. This DVD release marks an extraordinary stroke of luck for those who, like me, had barely heard of this director. How often does anyone encounter,...
Those are three moments from the three movies in Eclipse's set, Jean Grémillon During the Occupation: Le ciel est à vous, Lumière d'été and Remorques. This DVD release marks an extraordinary stroke of luck for those who, like me, had barely heard of this director. How often does anyone encounter,...
- 9/11/2012
- MUBI
Every time I watch a Jean Grémillon film I feel compelled to write about the experience here. Either the films are excellent, like Gueule d'amour, or they're something more than that, like Maldone or La petite Lise—attempts to reinvent cinema or to send the talking picture spinning off into a new direction.
Daïnah la métisse (1932) shows Gremillon still pushing the expressive possibilities of sound cinema that he had opened up in the poorly-received La petite Lise. If the rejection of that first talkie, regarded as both too seedy and downbeat and too experimental and strange, caused him to rethink his approach, there's little evidence here, since Daïnah is a tragic tale delivered with a similarly somnambular pace, making free use of unexpected angles and a bold approach to both sound effects and narrative. It's as if Grémillon trusted the world to come around to his way of looking at things.
Daïnah la métisse (1932) shows Gremillon still pushing the expressive possibilities of sound cinema that he had opened up in the poorly-received La petite Lise. If the rejection of that first talkie, regarded as both too seedy and downbeat and too experimental and strange, caused him to rethink his approach, there's little evidence here, since Daïnah is a tragic tale delivered with a similarly somnambular pace, making free use of unexpected angles and a bold approach to both sound effects and narrative. It's as if Grémillon trusted the world to come around to his way of looking at things.
- 8/23/2012
- MUBI
Above: Remorques (Jean Gremillon, 1941). Artist: Henry Monnici.
When I heard that Film Forum was putting on a show called “The French Old Wave” I was hoping that it was going to be a revisionist look at the films that Truffaut and his compadres in the nouvelle vague famously dismissed as “Le cinéma de papa” or the “le cinéma de qualité.” In his epoch-making 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français”, the essay which gave rise to the phrase “la politique des auteurs” and thus the Auteur Theory, Truffaut asserted that the worst of Jean Renoir’s movies would always be more interesting than the best of the movies of Jean Delannoy.
While Delannoy has two films in the series (L’eternel retour from 1943 and La symphonie pastorale from 1946), Renoir has six, so the series is less of a revisionist look at the films that the New Wave lambasted, and more...
When I heard that Film Forum was putting on a show called “The French Old Wave” I was hoping that it was going to be a revisionist look at the films that Truffaut and his compadres in the nouvelle vague famously dismissed as “Le cinéma de papa” or the “le cinéma de qualité.” In his epoch-making 1954 essay “Une certaine tendance du cinéma français”, the essay which gave rise to the phrase “la politique des auteurs” and thus the Auteur Theory, Truffaut asserted that the worst of Jean Renoir’s movies would always be more interesting than the best of the movies of Jean Delannoy.
While Delannoy has two films in the series (L’eternel retour from 1943 and La symphonie pastorale from 1946), Renoir has six, so the series is less of a revisionist look at the films that the New Wave lambasted, and more...
- 8/20/2012
- MUBI
Who knew that some septuagenarian films in a non-English language about class conflicts, prisoners of war, and cancan dancing could still be the hottest tickets in town? The Tiff Cinematheque did, evidently, as they’ve watched their seats fill up without fail during many a French-filled summer in their twenty-odd year history. In 1997-99 – way back when they were still Cinematheque Ontario and Tiff was just a neighboring, momentary event – James Quandt and co. slathered their summer line-ups with exclusively French productions and practically nothing else. The Ago’s 200-seat Jackman Hall could hardly contain the swarms of cinephiles salivating for the opportunity to catch rare (even rarer now) 35mm prints of the medium’s staple masterpieces: The Poetic Realists, The French Impressionists, The New Wave, The Left Bank, and Pialat (who’s earned his own category).
While this year’s incarnation already kicked off with the aforementioned Jean Renoir...
While this year’s incarnation already kicked off with the aforementioned Jean Renoir...
- 7/23/2012
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
Introduction
In Laissez-passer [Safe Conduct], the film that the French director Bertrand Tavernier made in 2002, we see the French film industry of the Occupation years as a ruined and almost shut-down institution that is highly dependent on the factor of chance. In his story, Tavernier exculpates one of the key figures of the occupation cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, from the accusation of collaborating with the Nazis. He pictures Clouzot as a man whose Jewish wife has been held hostage by the Nazis and, and against all odds, he finishes Le corbeau about the vicious and nasty people of a small town in France, where someone is sending poison pen letters to its "honourable" citizens. Le corbeau became a very popular box-office hit during the Occupation, and, at the same time, the underground press attacked it for showing France as a land of the degenerate and perverted people, a view that, according to accusers,...
In Laissez-passer [Safe Conduct], the film that the French director Bertrand Tavernier made in 2002, we see the French film industry of the Occupation years as a ruined and almost shut-down institution that is highly dependent on the factor of chance. In his story, Tavernier exculpates one of the key figures of the occupation cinema, Henri-Georges Clouzot, from the accusation of collaborating with the Nazis. He pictures Clouzot as a man whose Jewish wife has been held hostage by the Nazis and, and against all odds, he finishes Le corbeau about the vicious and nasty people of a small town in France, where someone is sending poison pen letters to its "honourable" citizens. Le corbeau became a very popular box-office hit during the Occupation, and, at the same time, the underground press attacked it for showing France as a land of the degenerate and perverted people, a view that, according to accusers,...
- 7/16/2012
- MUBI
Above: Max Ophüls' Komedie om geld. Image courtesy of Cineteca di Bologna.
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is over—like the end of a dream. If you are lucky enough, and not so fond of sleeping and eating, and also have little social bonds that allow you the minimum of lingering with fellow cinephiles, then you would be able to see only 10 percent of the films shown at the festival. As much as it's a festival of discovery and cinephilia, it’s also a festival of guilt and regrets since you ineluctably miss many things.
Il Cinema Ritrovato is a miniature of life that among all the beautiful things you have to choose, and every decision grants you a piece of the truth. But all the images, all the pieces of this broken mirror in which we see ourselves is as valid as what the person next to me,...
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is over—like the end of a dream. If you are lucky enough, and not so fond of sleeping and eating, and also have little social bonds that allow you the minimum of lingering with fellow cinephiles, then you would be able to see only 10 percent of the films shown at the festival. As much as it's a festival of discovery and cinephilia, it’s also a festival of guilt and regrets since you ineluctably miss many things.
Il Cinema Ritrovato is a miniature of life that among all the beautiful things you have to choose, and every decision grants you a piece of the truth. But all the images, all the pieces of this broken mirror in which we see ourselves is as valid as what the person next to me,...
- 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.
***
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...
***
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
Starting July 13th and running through September 2nd, prepare yourself to be transported to a summer vacation in France. All you have to do is check in at Tiff Cinematheque (350 King Street West, Toronto).
The 41-film sabbatical will make take you to popular and renowned destinations that include Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (1965), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937).
We’ll even be making stops at more remote, recherché locations, such as Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore (1973) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969).
Remember to pack lightly, re-schedule accordingly, and prepare for the ultimate staycation. Bon voyage!
Screenings include:
La Grand Illusion (1937)
Friday July 13 at 6:00 Pm
Sunday July 22 at 7:30 Pm
117 minutes
Heralded as “one of the fifty best films in the history of cinema” by Time Out Film Guide, Jean Renoir...
The 41-film sabbatical will make take you to popular and renowned destinations that include Jean-Luc Godard’s Pierrot le Fou (1965), Luis Buñuel’s Belle de Jour (1967), François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959), and Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion (1937).
We’ll even be making stops at more remote, recherché locations, such as Jean Eustache’s The Mother and the Whore (1973) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s Army of Shadows (1969).
Remember to pack lightly, re-schedule accordingly, and prepare for the ultimate staycation. Bon voyage!
Screenings include:
La Grand Illusion (1937)
Friday July 13 at 6:00 Pm
Sunday July 22 at 7:30 Pm
117 minutes
Heralded as “one of the fifty best films in the history of cinema” by Time Out Film Guide, Jean Renoir...
- 7/2/2012
- by Justin Li
- SoundOnSight
The problem with writing daily updates for a film festival such as Il Cinema Ritrovato is that you never find time to do it! The screenings start from 9 in the morning and continue ceaselessly till the evening, and then you can go for the outdoor projection which starts at 10 pm, and if it is something like the restored version of Roman Polanski's Tess, then the end of screening would be on the following day.
To begin, let’s start with a cinephile, rather than the films: Olaf Möller is a hard-to-miss cinephile who dresses in black (but his beard distinguished him from Johnny Cash), and when he talks about Mosfilm director, Ivan Pyr’ev whose retrospective Möller curated, it looks as if he discovered Solomon's mines. Olaf’s aim is to go beyond the officially acknowledged names in the Soviet Union cinema. In the technical mastery of Pyr’ev,...
To begin, let’s start with a cinephile, rather than the films: Olaf Möller is a hard-to-miss cinephile who dresses in black (but his beard distinguished him from Johnny Cash), and when he talks about Mosfilm director, Ivan Pyr’ev whose retrospective Möller curated, it looks as if he discovered Solomon's mines. Olaf’s aim is to go beyond the officially acknowledged names in the Soviet Union cinema. In the technical mastery of Pyr’ev,...
- 6/28/2012
- MUBI
Soon after the airplane landed in Bologna, the Mediterranean heat immediately defrosted the freeze of the previous night in London Stansted, and after entering the small courtyard of the Il Cinema Ritrovato headquarters, the sight of Kristin Thompson, busy with papers and probably arranging a must-see list, affirmed that one more time cinephilia is going to put on a week-long performance. It's a festival in which rediscovery and wonder is mingled with remapping an often badly written history. Il Cinema Ritrovato is a week of revelation, appearing through the invaluable work of restorers and archivists who have the eye of a hawk for bringing life to the neglected and the forgotten.
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is a mad marathon of 316 films made in the last hundred years or so, most of them in the best available prints in the world. It is the festival which you can...
The 26th edition of Il Cinema Ritrovato is a mad marathon of 316 films made in the last hundred years or so, most of them in the best available prints in the world. It is the festival which you can...
- 6/26/2012
- MUBI
DVD Release Date: July 24, 2012
Price: DVD $44.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean Gabin gets involved with Michèle Morgan in Jean Grémillon's 1941 film Remorques.
The Criterion Collection continued its love affair with the great filmmakers of France with Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation, a selection of three film dramas and romances.
Though little known outside of France, Jean Grémillon was a consummate filmmaker from his country’s golden age. A classically trained violinist who discovered cinema as a young man when his orchestra was hired to accompany silent movies, he went on to make almost fifty films—which ranged from documentaries to avant-garde works to melodramas with major stars—in a career that started in the mid-1920s and didn’t end until the late 1950s. Three of his richest films came during a dire period in French history: Remorques was begun in 1939 but finished and released after Germany invaded France,...
Price: DVD $44.95
Studio: Criterion
Jean Gabin gets involved with Michèle Morgan in Jean Grémillon's 1941 film Remorques.
The Criterion Collection continued its love affair with the great filmmakers of France with Eclipse Series 34: Jean Grémillon During the Occupation, a selection of three film dramas and romances.
Though little known outside of France, Jean Grémillon was a consummate filmmaker from his country’s golden age. A classically trained violinist who discovered cinema as a young man when his orchestra was hired to accompany silent movies, he went on to make almost fifty films—which ranged from documentaries to avant-garde works to melodramas with major stars—in a career that started in the mid-1920s and didn’t end until the late 1950s. Three of his richest films came during a dire period in French history: Remorques was begun in 1939 but finished and released after Germany invaded France,...
- 5/3/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Summer is around the corner which means that with the cold weather a distant memory, people are going to want to spend their time outside in the sun and warmth while it lasts. Which likely means less time sitting at home watching movies. So perhaps with that in mind, The Criterion Collection is keeping it easy on the new titles for July, but they do have one new offering, a box set and healthy handful of Blu-Ray reboots.
Kicking things off, Aki Kaurismaki's delightful, humane, charming and utterly moving "Le Havre" is getting the wacky C stamp along with some pretty gorgeous artwork. The film about one man's attempt to help a young illegal immigrant from Africa find passage to England was one of the best films from 2011, a touching observation on the power of community and human connection. The film arrives with a decent set of extras including interviews with the cast,...
Kicking things off, Aki Kaurismaki's delightful, humane, charming and utterly moving "Le Havre" is getting the wacky C stamp along with some pretty gorgeous artwork. The film about one man's attempt to help a young illegal immigrant from Africa find passage to England was one of the best films from 2011, a touching observation on the power of community and human connection. The film arrives with a decent set of extras including interviews with the cast,...
- 4/16/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
The second in a short series celebrating the films of the Pathé-Natan company, 1926-1934.
La petite Lise (1930) seems like a film from Mars. It's so dazzling and unique that it should be a textbook classic, and then it wouldn't be so startling. I suppose its failure to perform at the box office is all the explanation we need for why it didn't join the canon, although other commercially unsuccessful movies have managed it. It's finally emerging into the light, I think, and taking its place as a truly innovative early sound film: dialogue occupies such a distant third place in the film's scheme that calling it a talkie seems quite wrong.
One anecdote stands out: when producer Bernard Natan first saw the film Jean Grémillon had made for his company, he told the director that he'd never again be employed by Pathè-Natan, in such forceful terms that Grémillon...
La petite Lise (1930) seems like a film from Mars. It's so dazzling and unique that it should be a textbook classic, and then it wouldn't be so startling. I suppose its failure to perform at the box office is all the explanation we need for why it didn't join the canon, although other commercially unsuccessful movies have managed it. It's finally emerging into the light, I think, and taking its place as a truly innovative early sound film: dialogue occupies such a distant third place in the film's scheme that calling it a talkie seems quite wrong.
One anecdote stands out: when producer Bernard Natan first saw the film Jean Grémillon had made for his company, he told the director that he'd never again be employed by Pathè-Natan, in such forceful terms that Grémillon...
- 3/15/2012
- MUBI
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.