To the Wonder will finally, finally unveil itself at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday, and reviews from scenic Italy would, normally, be the most substantial reports on the film so far. A few days out from its first screening, after all, the closest thing to an update involves those who didn’t make it past Terrence Malick’s editing scissors.
Update: The first reviews have arrived from Venice, check them out here and read on for more details below.
Before that, we’ve got something which, if you’ll excuse the overwhelming bravado, peels back far more layers than anything else up to this point, possibly more than anything short of seeing the actual film. “That’s not saying much,” one could argue, and they’d be right — again, you only know Rachel Weisz probably won’t attend the premiere — so how about a full synopsis, eye-opening comments from Ben Affleck,...
Update: The first reviews have arrived from Venice, check them out here and read on for more details below.
Before that, we’ve got something which, if you’ll excuse the overwhelming bravado, peels back far more layers than anything else up to this point, possibly more than anything short of seeing the actual film. “That’s not saying much,” one could argue, and they’d be right — again, you only know Rachel Weisz probably won’t attend the premiere — so how about a full synopsis, eye-opening comments from Ben Affleck,...
- 8/31/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
From April 6, Cannes favourite Le Havre will be in cinemas. But for those who might prefer (and live in the UK or Ireland), you can stream it here via Curzon on Demand. Either way, be sure to tune in for our Q&A with top evolutionary theorist Mark Pagel next Friday night
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
Cannes 2011, on reflection, looks an absolutely vintage year. Not only did it introduce us to The Artist and Melancholia, The Tree of Life and Take Shelter, it also gave us The Skin I Live In, Footnote, Drive, The Kid on the Bike and Once Upon a Time in Anatolia.
And now we're approaching the release one of the films which Peter Bradshaw wrote about most warmly last May: Le Havre.
Reviewing the latest from Aki Kaurismäki – the deadpan Finnish film-maker behind I Hired A Contract Killer, The Match Factory Girl, Leningrad Cowboys Go America and The Man Without...
- 3/29/2012
- The Guardian - Film News
The acclaimed, eccentric director of Women in Love and The Devils died this week, prompting tributes from the press and former colleagues
The big story
Ken Russell died this week, leaving behind a body of work that shocked and surprised, teased and titillated. He was, said Xan Brooks in our early news story a man of "wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes", a "juggler of high and low culture who invariably courted controversy".
Russell's career path - from his documentary work for the 1960s BBC series Monitor, to the short films he made at home in later years - was hard to map. His most infamous and innovative works - The Devils, Altered States - flashed by in the wake of semi-hits Women in Love (which won him an Oscar in 1971) and Tommy. He was, said friends an "iconoclast" (Venessa Redgrave). "Fearless, eccentric and silly" (Melvyn Bragg). "Capable of...
The big story
Ken Russell died this week, leaving behind a body of work that shocked and surprised, teased and titillated. He was, said Xan Brooks in our early news story a man of "wild drama, gaudy conflagrations and operatic flourishes", a "juggler of high and low culture who invariably courted controversy".
Russell's career path - from his documentary work for the 1960s BBC series Monitor, to the short films he made at home in later years - was hard to map. His most infamous and innovative works - The Devils, Altered States - flashed by in the wake of semi-hits Women in Love (which won him an Oscar in 1971) and Tommy. He was, said friends an "iconoclast" (Venessa Redgrave). "Fearless, eccentric and silly" (Melvyn Bragg). "Capable of...
- 12/1/2011
- by Henry Barnes
- The Guardian - Film News
The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced that, as part of its Hidden Histories program, it'll be screening work by Ai Weiwei, "six long films which he refers himself to as 'social documentaries' and four documentary art videos. There is a remarkable difference between Ai's sometimes highly conceptual art videos and his social documentaries. For the latter, he acts — before and behind the camera — as a committed research journalist, persistent to bring injustice in the open." Ai Weiwei was, of course, arrested in Beijing earlier this year, imprisoned for 81 days and released in June, though he's still not allowed to leave Beijing. Hidden Histories will feature new work by other Chinese documentary filmmakers as well, including He Yuan, Yu Guangyi and Xu Tong. The 41st edition of the Iffr runs from January 25 through February 5.
More events. Craig Baldwin for the San Francisco Cinematheque on this evening's program: "The selection of...
More events. Craig Baldwin for the San Francisco Cinematheque on this evening's program: "The selection of...
- 11/18/2011
- MUBI
Terrence Malick's latest could be his first direct challenge to Stanley Kubrick's supremacy. John Patterson admires the audacity
The Tree Of Life suggests that Terrence Malick has now elected to engage openly and directly with the director he superficially most resembles: Stanley Kubrick. Both "reclusive" – or just intensely private – and gestating movies over decades with intense perfectionism, each man has constructed a genre distinct unto itself, built on an instantly recognisable style and underpinned by complete creative control. But Malick's wispy, gossamer qualities, his organic, handheld imagery – always seeking wonder in harmony and balance – seem in total opposition to Kubrick's head-on, locked-down fish-eye compositions, his fanatically precise tracking-shots, sudden upsurges of brutal violence and abiding pessimism.
But somehow they are united, yin-yang style, by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with which Malick seems to be in some kind of debate throughout The Tree Of Life. Picture the 24-year-old,...
The Tree Of Life suggests that Terrence Malick has now elected to engage openly and directly with the director he superficially most resembles: Stanley Kubrick. Both "reclusive" – or just intensely private – and gestating movies over decades with intense perfectionism, each man has constructed a genre distinct unto itself, built on an instantly recognisable style and underpinned by complete creative control. But Malick's wispy, gossamer qualities, his organic, handheld imagery – always seeking wonder in harmony and balance – seem in total opposition to Kubrick's head-on, locked-down fish-eye compositions, his fanatically precise tracking-shots, sudden upsurges of brutal violence and abiding pessimism.
But somehow they are united, yin-yang style, by Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, with which Malick seems to be in some kind of debate throughout The Tree Of Life. Picture the 24-year-old,...
- 7/1/2011
- by John Patterson
- The Guardian - Film News
Smothered in sunshine, dripping with glitz and jingling with cash, the Cannes festival is the place for film folk to be unseen
The big story
The secret to success at a film festival? Well, first of all, don't make films, or, if you must, do so only sparingly. Then forget about all that red carpet nonsense; in fact forget about publicising your work completely – the artist doesn't have to be a salesman. And lastly, when the festival offers you its top prize, don't, whatever you do, go along to pick it up. The event will lap up any photo non-opportunities you can throw its way. If you can follow these basic rules you are well on the road to glory, as Terrence Malick proved at Cannes at the weekend.
The enigmatic American auteur scooped the Palme d'Or in the south of France this week with his fifth film in 38 years,...
The big story
The secret to success at a film festival? Well, first of all, don't make films, or, if you must, do so only sparingly. Then forget about all that red carpet nonsense; in fact forget about publicising your work completely – the artist doesn't have to be a salesman. And lastly, when the festival offers you its top prize, don't, whatever you do, go along to pick it up. The event will lap up any photo non-opportunities you can throw its way. If you can follow these basic rules you are well on the road to glory, as Terrence Malick proved at Cannes at the weekend.
The enigmatic American auteur scooped the Palme d'Or in the south of France this week with his fifth film in 38 years,...
- 5/26/2011
- The Guardian - Film News
The film's depiction of pornography, as a flourishing adjunct to the 'respectable' worlds of cinema and newspapers, was what really shocked in 1960
This week sees the 50th anniversary re-release of Michael Powell's 1960 film Peeping Tom, about a serial killer obsessed with filming his victims' final moments, armed with a camera-tripod leg sharpened to a point. It's a moment to reflect, once again, on the amazing story of how a group of London film critics, convulsed by hysterical hostility and group rage, panicked the industry into withdrawing the film and scuppering Powell's career. Incredibly, they appeared to do to this what Winston Churchill could not manage in 1942 with Powell's planned Colonel Blimp film, with all the wartime powers of censorship at his disposal. It is a much rehashed story, but I think one that shows how the meaning of Peeping Tom is still not entirely understood.
My colleague John Patterson...
This week sees the 50th anniversary re-release of Michael Powell's 1960 film Peeping Tom, about a serial killer obsessed with filming his victims' final moments, armed with a camera-tripod leg sharpened to a point. It's a moment to reflect, once again, on the amazing story of how a group of London film critics, convulsed by hysterical hostility and group rage, panicked the industry into withdrawing the film and scuppering Powell's career. Incredibly, they appeared to do to this what Winston Churchill could not manage in 1942 with Powell's planned Colonel Blimp film, with all the wartime powers of censorship at his disposal. It is a much rehashed story, but I think one that shows how the meaning of Peeping Tom is still not entirely understood.
My colleague John Patterson...
- 11/16/2010
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Welcome to the second Guardian film newsletter. This week, Mike Leigh was in the house, and he wasn't taking any prisoners
Taking dictation from Mike Leigh, against the clock and on an unfamiliar keyboard, is not for the faint hearted. The director came in on Wednesday to answer questions you'd posted on the blog the day before. After cheese sandwiches and black tea, he read out his responses calmly, requesting precisely how many question or exclamation marks he wanted (though spelling and grammar was left to us … not always the best idea).
So, how did he go down? Well, some of you found his approach refreshingly rebarbative. Others thought it belied an over-sensitivity to criticism. I thought he was terrific, and especially liked his thoughts on the crop circles of Wiltshire.
In the news
• Who you gonna call back? Ghostbusters 3 has been greenlit
• The Asa has banned a rather...
Taking dictation from Mike Leigh, against the clock and on an unfamiliar keyboard, is not for the faint hearted. The director came in on Wednesday to answer questions you'd posted on the blog the day before. After cheese sandwiches and black tea, he read out his responses calmly, requesting precisely how many question or exclamation marks he wanted (though spelling and grammar was left to us … not always the best idea).
So, how did he go down? Well, some of you found his approach refreshingly rebarbative. Others thought it belied an over-sensitivity to criticism. I thought he was terrific, and especially liked his thoughts on the crop circles of Wiltshire.
In the news
• Who you gonna call back? Ghostbusters 3 has been greenlit
• The Asa has banned a rather...
- 11/4/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
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