Each winter, we invite Notebook contributors to take part in our unique twist on the year-end poll. Rather than tally their favorite new releases from the year, they’re asked to creatively pair a new release with an older film they watched for the first time that year: a “fantasy double feature.” We’re delighted by the range of responses this year; this year’s doubles offer up inspired combinations of moving-image art that might otherwise slip through the cracks.We invite you to plunge into this collective viewing scrapbook, which captures our writers at their most imaginative, adventurous, and thoughtful—maybe it'll motivate you to test some of these out (or come up with your own) over the holidays.We hope you enjoy the read, and find our sixteenth year appropriately sweet!{{notebook_form}}Paul AttardNEW: Skinamarink + Old: Room Film 1973Homebound horror films shrouded in darkness, ones that transform...
- 12/23/2023
- MUBI
Playing with Cinema, a retrospective of John Smith’s work, is currently screening on Mubi. On October 1, 2022, a ten-week survey of Smith’s films, “John Smith: Introspective (1972-2022),” launched at London’s Ica, with further events at Close-Up Cinema. Screening 50 films to celebrate his 50 years of filmmaking, it is the most extensive look at his work to date.Hotel Diaries (2001-2007).In the films of John Smith, nothing is quite as it seems. Even if you already come to them with preconceived notions about the destabilizing powers of the avant-garde, Smith’s work still defies expectations. Its distinct marriage of formal dexterity and a clever, questioning, wily wit has been integral to the British filmmaker’s art world–transcending appeal and ongoing success in the field of moving images over the last 50 years.There are plenty of ways into Smith’s expansive body of work, from prescient debates on...
- 10/7/2022
- MUBI
Peter Strickland's Berberian Sound Studio (2012) and The Duke of Burgundy (2014) are showing in June and July, 2019 on Mubi in the United Kingdom.“…if the film or television image seems to ‘speak’ for itself, it is actually a ventriloquist’s speech.”—Michel Chion, Audio-Vision, 1990In an early scene in The Duke of Burgundy, a character describes how one can tell two seemingly-identical species of butterfly apart by the sound each makes, saying, “Since these species are so visually indistinguishable from each other, the sound they produce should differentiate the two.” In a way, the statement provides a thesis for much of the cinema of Peter Strickland relative to his aesthetic forebears. According to the majority of film writing that takes either of his two features Berberian Sound Studio or The Duke of Burgundy as a subject, Strickland’s oeuvre owes something to European genre cinema—more popularly known in French...
- 7/11/2019
- MUBI
Her Silent SeamingPerhaps more than most other forms of cinema, experimental film and video is an auteur’s medium through and through. Since the production model for avant-garde work is almost exclusively artisanal, with a single individual (or possibly a duo or an artists’ collective) making the work from a studio context similar to that or a sculptor or photographer, it only makes sense to consider these works are expressions of an artist’s point of view. As such, those of us who regularly engage with experimental work will inevitably use the artist as the primary mode of categorization—who to keep track of, who seems promising, etc.But there’s a bit more to it. One of the greatest joys of avant-garde filmgoing, as any fan will tell you, is seeing an expertly curated program of films, be they new short works, recontextualized classics, or some combination thereof. A...
- 1/22/2016
- by Michael Sicinski
- MUBI
Above: Notes of an Early Fall Part 1
The Ann Arbor Film Festival makes for an ideal entry point for festival novices wanting to dive into the cinema referred to as avant-garde, experimental, or simply, artist’s. The Michigan Theater hosts all of the screenings for the fest (minus a straggler here and there), making it easy to catch as many films as your heart desires. After 52 years, the festival has created a community for itself in the city. On one end, you have the pros who’ve been there since the beginning and openly opine for the good old days when the smell of activism filled the theater. On the other, you have “the youth”; the University of Michigan providing an inexhaustible supply of the curious and the studious. And, of course, you have the typical film fans and socializers balancing out the mix. This sense of community is cemented...
The Ann Arbor Film Festival makes for an ideal entry point for festival novices wanting to dive into the cinema referred to as avant-garde, experimental, or simply, artist’s. The Michigan Theater hosts all of the screenings for the fest (minus a straggler here and there), making it easy to catch as many films as your heart desires. After 52 years, the festival has created a community for itself in the city. On one end, you have the pros who’ve been there since the beginning and openly opine for the good old days when the smell of activism filled the theater. On the other, you have “the youth”; the University of Michigan providing an inexhaustible supply of the curious and the studious. And, of course, you have the typical film fans and socializers balancing out the mix. This sense of community is cemented...
- 5/30/2014
- by Alex Hansen
- MUBI
The London Indian Film Festival (June 20 – July 3) is exploring new boundaries and is proud to announce a brand new partnership with Tate Modern to present a rare showcase of Indian experimental film curated from Bangalore.
Festival Director Cary Sawhney says: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present as varied a picture of contemporary Indian cinema as possible. It gives us the opportunity to work with respected guest curators, in this case, Shai Heredia, director of India’s Experimenta Festival. And, of course, to expand our audience, since it is likely that the audience watching these programmes will be different to that at the high-octane gangster film or the RomCom.”
The curator, Shai Heredia,...
Festival Director Cary Sawhney says: “It’s terrific to have a world renowned organisation like Tate Modern partner with us this year and we hope this is the start of a long association. The inclusion of experimental, artist films in the festival’s line-up furthers our aim to present as varied a picture of contemporary Indian cinema as possible. It gives us the opportunity to work with respected guest curators, in this case, Shai Heredia, director of India’s Experimenta Festival. And, of course, to expand our audience, since it is likely that the audience watching these programmes will be different to that at the high-octane gangster film or the RomCom.”
The curator, Shai Heredia,...
- 6/19/2012
- by Stacey Yount
- Bollyspice
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