Sally Potter is not normally known for comedy; her most famous film, Orlando (which put Tilda Swinton on the map) certainly has its comedic moments, but her work (such as The Tango Lesson and Yes) tend to more serious examinations of what my colleague Sophie Mayer calls the politics of love. In her latest film The Party, however, she turns her astute eye in a most hilarious way to this politics of love (and the love of politics). Part biting satire, part drawing room farce, its frenetic vision of the most disastrous celebratory dinner is a masterpiece, and a timely commentary on recent political events and the said politics of human emotion. Janet (Kristen Scott Thomas) has just been appointed Shadow Minister of Health in the UK Parliament, fulfilling...
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- 2/15/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Paul Mason (How will the movie industry respond to the Trump era?, 15 November) might like to watch, for starters, Frozen River (Courtney Hunt), Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik), Middle of Nowhere (Ava DuVernay), Amreeka (Cherien Dabis), Drunktown’s Finest (Sydney Freeland), Tangerine (Sean Baker), American Honey (Andrea Arnold) and Certain Women (Kelly Reichardt) to get a fuller picture of how American cinema – albeit independent – is narrating a range of working-class lives. Yes, the protagonists – and directors – are predominantly women. Perhaps, beyond chastising the money-chasing studios, it’s more pertinent to insist that the media amplify these powerful, award-winning films that already exist, so that audiences can find and see them. Could it be, as Laura Dern’s character says in Certain Women, that no one is paying attention to them because they are (by and about) women?
Dr Sophie Mayer
Author, Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema
• Join the debate – email guardian.
Dr Sophie Mayer
Author, Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema
• Join the debate – email guardian.
- 11/15/2016
- by Letters
- The Guardian - Film News
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday morning. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: In the wake of the election, Filmmaker Magazine published a piece about the intrinsically political nature of movies, in which the writer argued: “For the next four years (and long afterwards), every time someone leaves a movie theater feeling contented, feeling set in their values, feeling numbed and entertained and nothing else, that’s a problem.”
How does filmmaking — and film criticism — need to adapt in the age of Trump?
Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Filmmakers need to make films and film critics need to write about them. None of them need instruction; the hardest thing in good and bad times...
This week’s question: In the wake of the election, Filmmaker Magazine published a piece about the intrinsically political nature of movies, in which the writer argued: “For the next four years (and long afterwards), every time someone leaves a movie theater feeling contented, feeling set in their values, feeling numbed and entertained and nothing else, that’s a problem.”
How does filmmaking — and film criticism — need to adapt in the age of Trump?
Richard Brody (@tnyfrontrow), The New Yorker
Filmmakers need to make films and film critics need to write about them. None of them need instruction; the hardest thing in good and bad times...
- 11/14/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
We don’t need “a Jeff Nichols of our own” to tell the stories of race and racism in Britain on film (Review: Heartfelt but reticent portrait of defiance against racism, 17 May). We have Amma Asante, director of Belle and A United Kingdom, both of which, like Jeff Nichols’ film Loving, are historical dramas centred on high-profile mixed-race relationships and their dramatic consequences. In the month when three reports, from Calling the Shots, Directors UK, and European Women’s Audiovisual network, have drawn attention to the stark gender and racial inequality in British film-making, Peter Bradshaw misses a chance to draw attention to a trailblazing director already brilliantly at work. As Melissa Silverstein says, #SeeHerNow.
Dr Sophie Mayer
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
Continue reading...
Dr Sophie Mayer
London
• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com
Continue reading...
- 5/17/2016
- by Letters
- The Guardian - Film News
Lgbt festival also sees industry and filmmaker delegate numbers double.
BFI Flare: London Lgbt Film Festival (March 16-27) has reported a 9% audience boost for its 30th anniversary edition, which closed on Sunday with a gala screening of Catherine Corsini’s French lesbian drama Summertime.
Audiences at all events and screenings over the 11-day festival totalled 25,623 – up on the 23,500 recorded in 2015.
This year’s festival also saw a boost in industry numbers with 168 visiting filmmakers and more than 300 press and industry delegates – up on the 120 filmmakers and 200+ industry that attended last year.
This was due to an expanded industry offering that included daily press screenings, alongside talks with an Lgbt focus on development, production and distribution with speakers including Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) and new series The Makers, with key international filmmakers Silas Howard (Transparent), Fenton Bailey (Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures), and Donna Deitch (Desert Hearts).
Expanding vision
Clare Stewart, head of festivals...
BFI Flare: London Lgbt Film Festival (March 16-27) has reported a 9% audience boost for its 30th anniversary edition, which closed on Sunday with a gala screening of Catherine Corsini’s French lesbian drama Summertime.
Audiences at all events and screenings over the 11-day festival totalled 25,623 – up on the 23,500 recorded in 2015.
This year’s festival also saw a boost in industry numbers with 168 visiting filmmakers and more than 300 press and industry delegates – up on the 120 filmmakers and 200+ industry that attended last year.
This was due to an expanded industry offering that included daily press screenings, alongside talks with an Lgbt focus on development, production and distribution with speakers including Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) and new series The Makers, with key international filmmakers Silas Howard (Transparent), Fenton Bailey (Mapplethorpe: Look At The Pictures), and Donna Deitch (Desert Hearts).
Expanding vision
Clare Stewart, head of festivals...
- 3/30/2016
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
George Miller
Australian director George Miller has been selected to head the jury at the upcoming 69th Cannes Film Festival running from May 11th to 22nd. Miller was at Cannes last May when Fury Road screened as an official out-of-competition selection.
In a statement, Miller says: "What an unmitigated delight. To be there in the middle of this storied festival at the unveiling of cinematic treasures from all over the planet. To spend time in passionate discourse with fellow members of the jury. Such an honor. I'll be there with bells on!" [Source: THR]
John Carpenter
Rare is the chance one gets to talk about the work of their heroes, rarer still does one get to do it with the help of some great people. Earlier this week I got to do that, discussing all things John Carpenter with the wonderful Lee Zachariah and Sophie Mayer for their prestigious podcast Hell is for Hyphenates,...
Australian director George Miller has been selected to head the jury at the upcoming 69th Cannes Film Festival running from May 11th to 22nd. Miller was at Cannes last May when Fury Road screened as an official out-of-competition selection.
In a statement, Miller says: "What an unmitigated delight. To be there in the middle of this storied festival at the unveiling of cinematic treasures from all over the planet. To spend time in passionate discourse with fellow members of the jury. Such an honor. I'll be there with bells on!" [Source: THR]
John Carpenter
Rare is the chance one gets to talk about the work of their heroes, rarer still does one get to do it with the help of some great people. Earlier this week I got to do that, discussing all things John Carpenter with the wonderful Lee Zachariah and Sophie Mayer for their prestigious podcast Hell is for Hyphenates,...
- 2/2/2016
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
New initiative Raising Films launches crowdfunding campaign in a bid to hire a project manager.
Raising Films, a UK-based initiative that aims to provide advice to parents attempting to juggle family with a career in the film business, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to further its cause.
The indiegogo campaign is currently at 25% of its goal to raise £6,000, which it will use to hire a project manager to deliver its objectives.
These objectives include building an online “supportive community” of parents in the film industry and launching its first campaign, which will investigate the issue of childcare, as well as setting up training events at festivals around the world to help filmmakers understand how they can develop their career while raising a family.
The collective of women behind Raising Films includes Hope Dickson Leach, currently producing her first feature The Levelling through iFeatures; London-based screenwriter Line Langebek; producer Nicky Bentham (The Silent Storm); indie film producer [link=nm...
Raising Films, a UK-based initiative that aims to provide advice to parents attempting to juggle family with a career in the film business, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to further its cause.
The indiegogo campaign is currently at 25% of its goal to raise £6,000, which it will use to hire a project manager to deliver its objectives.
These objectives include building an online “supportive community” of parents in the film industry and launching its first campaign, which will investigate the issue of childcare, as well as setting up training events at festivals around the world to help filmmakers understand how they can develop their career while raising a family.
The collective of women behind Raising Films includes Hope Dickson Leach, currently producing her first feature The Levelling through iFeatures; London-based screenwriter Line Langebek; producer Nicky Bentham (The Silent Storm); indie film producer [link=nm...
- 8/4/2015
- ScreenDaily
"Political turmoil. Terrorism. Economic shifts. Suspicion between citizens and state — and, following in the footsteps of Fassbinder, the emergence of a new independent film culture. The themes of Margarethe von Trotta's work couldn't be more compelling for a contemporary viewer, nor indeed their handy suggestions for the Big Society — her third feature The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978) is based on the true story of a young mother who robbed a bank in order to raise funds to keep open a child-care center threatened with closure by the government. The Birds Eye View festival's Filmmaker Focus on von Trotta is well-timed."
In her overview for Sight & Sound — also currently featuring Daniel Trilling's interview with Agnès Varda — Sophie Mayer notes that the program showcases "biopics of two remarkable German women: Rosa Luxemburg (1986) and Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009). Eight centuries apart, each woman — Marxist revolutionary and Benedictine...
In her overview for Sight & Sound — also currently featuring Daniel Trilling's interview with Agnès Varda — Sophie Mayer notes that the program showcases "biopics of two remarkable German women: Rosa Luxemburg (1986) and Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009). Eight centuries apart, each woman — Marxist revolutionary and Benedictine...
- 3/9/2011
- MUBI
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