Once upon a time, Roger Ebert held that "no movie featuring either Harry Dean Stanton or M. Emmet Walsh in a supporting role can be altogether bad." The Stanton-Walsh rule could be violated, as Ebert noted in his scathing review of the unfathomably awful "Wild Wild West," but you only did yourself a favor if you cast one of these gentlemen. The script could be dire and the direction poor, but an appearance from Stanton and/or Walsh was/is – we lost Stanton in 2017, but Walsh is still going strong at 88 years old — only ever a joyous occasion.
The Stanton-Walsh rule applies to other character actors, and I can't think of many performers who've given me more pleasure over the last few decades than Sam Rockwell. He first popped for me in Tom Dicillo's hugely underrated indie comedy "Box of Moonlight" as a ball of non-conformist energy who...
The Stanton-Walsh rule applies to other character actors, and I can't think of many performers who've given me more pleasure over the last few decades than Sam Rockwell. He first popped for me in Tom Dicillo's hugely underrated indie comedy "Box of Moonlight" as a ball of non-conformist energy who...
- 12/11/2023
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
The relationship drama premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale.
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
Michael Koch’s second feature A Piece Of Sky was named best feature film at this year’s Swiss Film Awards which were held at a gala ceremony in Geneva at the weekend.
The Alpine love story premiered in competition at the 2022 Berlinale and was Switzerland’s entry for the International Feature Film category of the Academy Awards this year.
Members of the Swiss Film Academy voted Elena Avdija’s Stuntwomen (Cascadeuses) as best documentary, while Ursula Meier’s The Line - which premiered at the Berlinale in the main competition...
- 3/28/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
Alison Lohman rarely gets recognized anymore, and that’s just the way she likes it.
It helps that Lohman has long since left Hollywood, an industry that made anonymity impossible for her in the early aughts when the Palm Springs native was one of the most in-demand talents in town. A self-described shy child who was obsessed with musicals, Lohman got her start on stage before her 10th birthday by performing in community theater in the desert in productions of The Sound of Music, Kiss Me, Kate and Annie before moving to Los Angeles around the time she turned 18.
Though she initially toyed with the idea of a music career or studying drama at NYU (where she got accepted), Lohman’s destiny unfolded on the West Coast where acting work came quickly and consistently, mostly on the small screen to start with bit...
Alison Lohman rarely gets recognized anymore, and that’s just the way she likes it.
It helps that Lohman has long since left Hollywood, an industry that made anonymity impossible for her in the early aughts when the Palm Springs native was one of the most in-demand talents in town. A self-described shy child who was obsessed with musicals, Lohman got her start on stage before her 10th birthday by performing in community theater in the desert in productions of The Sound of Music, Kiss Me, Kate and Annie before moving to Los Angeles around the time she turned 18.
Though she initially toyed with the idea of a music career or studying drama at NYU (where she got accepted), Lohman’s destiny unfolded on the West Coast where acting work came quickly and consistently, mostly on the small screen to start with bit...
- 10/10/2022
- by Chris Gardner
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Martin McDonagh’s cult hit man feature comes to 4K looking extremely good: fans of low-key black humor and droll sentimentality, kinda-like-the-Coens, kinda-like-Tarantino, love this picture. Cute characterizations from Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson & Ralph Fiennes bring light to a ‘killers with a heart’ story. It keeps us watching to see what happens next, that’s for sure. And when’s the last time that 13th century European art and architecture figured so heavily in a mob saga?
In Bruges
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
2008/ Color / 2:39 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Thekla Reuten, Ciarán Hinds, Zeljko Ivanek, Jordan Prentice.
Cinematography: Eigil Bryld
Production Designer: Michael Carlin
Art Director: Chris Lowe
Film Editor: Jon Gregory
Original Music: Carter Burwell
Produced by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
How can we fairly...
In Bruges
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
2008/ Color / 2:39 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date September 27, 2022 / available through Kino Lorber / 39.95
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Thekla Reuten, Ciarán Hinds, Zeljko Ivanek, Jordan Prentice.
Cinematography: Eigil Bryld
Production Designer: Michael Carlin
Art Director: Chris Lowe
Film Editor: Jon Gregory
Original Music: Carter Burwell
Produced by Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
How can we fairly...
- 10/1/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Kevin Smith's latest film, "Clerks III," catches up with the characters of Dante (Brian O'Halloran) and Randall (Jeff Anderson) after their brief dalliance with low-level employment at a burger joint in 2006's "Clerks II." At the end of that film, Dante and Randall found themselves directionless after spending their 40s in minimum-wage jobs. Dante left his fiancée, and the pair found themselves in jail with the perpetual stoners Jay and Silent Bob (Jason Mewes and Smith). Dante and Randall found that their way out of their rut was to go back. Using weed money from Jay and Silent Bob, Dante and Randall merely bought the convenience store they felt trapped in back in the original "Clerks."
It was a happy ending for Dante and Randall, but also a declaration from Smith. Staying put (critics might say stagnating) was, Smith declared, a form of triumph.
In "Clerks III," however, Dante...
It was a happy ending for Dante and Randall, but also a declaration from Smith. Staying put (critics might say stagnating) was, Smith declared, a form of triumph.
In "Clerks III," however, Dante...
- 9/15/2022
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
With fears our winter travel will need a, let’s say, reconsideration, the Criterion Channel’s monthly programming could hardly come at a better moment. High on list of highlights is Louis Feuillade’s delightful Les Vampires, which I suggest soundtracking to Coil, instrumental Nine Inch Nails, and Jóhann Jóhannson’s Mandy score. Notable too is a Sundance ’92 retrospective running the gamut from Paul Schrader to Derek Jarman to Jean-Pierre Gorin, and I’m especially excited for their look at one of America’s greatest actors, Sterling Hayden.
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
Special notice to Criterion editions of The Killing, The Last Days of Disco, All About Eve, and The Asphalt Jungle, and programming of Ognjen Glavonić’s The Load, among the better debuts in recent years.
See the full list of January titles below and more on the Criterion Channel.
-Ship: A Visual Poem, Terrance Day, 2020
5 Fingers, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1952
After Migration: Calabria,...
- 12/20/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Mubi is closing the year out on a high note with their December lineup, featuring some of 2021’s most acclaimed U.S. releases.
Highlights include Tsai Ming-liang’s Days (along with his previous feature Afternoon), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Andreas Fontana’s Azor, Anders Edströ & C.W. Winter’s eight-hour epic The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), Frank Beauvais’ Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream, and Michael M. Bilandic’s soon-to-premiere Project Space 13.
Also among the lineup is Arnaud Desplechin’s Esther Kahn, a quartet of Godard classics, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s short The Bones, produced by Ari Aster, and much more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
December 1 | Pierrot le fou | Jean-Luc Godard | The Cinema of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s
December 2 | Le bel indifferent | Jacques Demy | Scenes from a Small Town:...
Highlights include Tsai Ming-liang’s Days (along with his previous feature Afternoon), Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Wife of a Spy, Andreas Fontana’s Azor, Anders Edströ & C.W. Winter’s eight-hour epic The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin), Frank Beauvais’ Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream, and Michael M. Bilandic’s soon-to-premiere Project Space 13.
Also among the lineup is Arnaud Desplechin’s Esther Kahn, a quartet of Godard classics, Cristóbal León and Joaquín Cociña’s short The Bones, produced by Ari Aster, and much more.
Check out the lineup below and get 30 days free here.
December 1 | Pierrot le fou | Jean-Luc Godard | The Cinema of Marx and Coca-Cola: Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960s
December 2 | Le bel indifferent | Jacques Demy | Scenes from a Small Town:...
- 11/23/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Peter Dinklage may be one of the most recognizable actors working today, but that doesn’t limit his range. As a clip reel of his nearly 30-year career in film and TV proved ahead of a tribute on the first day of the Telluride Film Festival, Dinklage can play a sensitive loner (“The Station Agent”) just as well as an icy mob boss (“I Care a Lot”) and the anarchic schemer Tyrion Lannister from “Game of Thrones.” The screening of his new movie that followed a brief onstage conversation, “Cyrano,” also proved that Dinklage can sing.
Director Joe Wright’s lavish adaptation of the 2019 off-Broadway musical, written by Dinklage’s wife Erica Schmidt, finds the actor embodying Cyrano de Bergerac as a swashbuckling 17th century wordsmith who buries his attraction to childhood friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett) by helping an inarticulate guardsman (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) romance the woman by writing love letters for him.
Director Joe Wright’s lavish adaptation of the 2019 off-Broadway musical, written by Dinklage’s wife Erica Schmidt, finds the actor embodying Cyrano de Bergerac as a swashbuckling 17th century wordsmith who buries his attraction to childhood friend Roxanne (Haley Bennett) by helping an inarticulate guardsman (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) romance the woman by writing love letters for him.
- 9/3/2021
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
What started as an alternative to the establishment, to the 9-to-5 work routine, the white picket fence and the routine of a monogamous marriage defined by traditional gender roles soon turned out to be a failed experiment, if we look at some communities which tried to make up their own society. Rather than constituting their own kind of community and trying their own experiment, many artists have approached these ideas through their work. Much like his colleagues, such as Seijun Suzuki or Nobuhiko Obayashi, director Masashi Yamamoto has created a niche for himself during his career, and also experimented with narration and form, with the goal of destroying a sense of unity in the feature film, as he once stated. In his 1988 effort “Robinson’s Garden”, the director combines these tendencies in his work with a story about one of those social experiments, about its rewards and how it can...
- 8/20/2021
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
The Criterion Channel’s July 2021 Lineup Includes Wong Kar Wai, Neo-Noir, Art-House Animation & More
The July lineup at The Criterion Channel has been revealed, most notably featuring the new Wong Kar Wai restorations from the recent box set release, including As Tears Go By, Days of Being Wild, Chungking Express, Fallen Angels, Happy Together, In the Mood for Love, 2046, and his shorts Hua yang de nian hua and The Hand.
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
Also among the lineup is a series on neo-noir with Body Double, Manhunter, Thief, The Last Seduction, Cutter’s Way, Brick, Night Moves, The Long Goodbye, Chinatown, and more. The channel will also feature a spotlight on art-house animation with work by Marcell Jankovics, Satoshi Kon, Ari Folman, Don Hertzfeldt, Karel Zeman, and more.
With Jodie Mack’s delightful The Grand Bizarre, the landmark doc Hoop Dreams, Orson Welles’ take on Othello, the recent Oscar entries Preparations to Be Together for an Unknown Period of Time and You Will Die at Twenty, and much more,...
- 6/24/2021
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Set in and around New York’s meatpacking district in the mid-aughts, Tom Dicillo‘s 2006 drama/comedy Delirious is a film about mercenary paparazzi, venal agents and managers, and the commercial manufacture of fame. That said, the picture, available now on Blu-ray and digital platforms in an official directors cut 15 years after its release, is surprisingly sweet. Set well before Instagram and TikTok created new categories of celebrity, Delirious depicts a world where genuine human emotion can co-exist amidst planted Page Six items and staged photo calls. In a rich performance snapping from broad comedy to lacerating self-pity Steve Buscemi plays Les […]
The post "In a Strange Way, the Film Feels Absolutely New to Me": Director Tom Dicillo on the Release of the Director's Cut of His 2006 Feature, Delirious first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "In a Strange Way, the Film Feels Absolutely New to Me": Director Tom Dicillo on the Release of the Director's Cut of His 2006 Feature, Delirious first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/4/2021
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Set in and around New York’s meatpacking district in the mid-aughts, Tom Dicillo‘s 2006 drama/comedy Delirious is a film about mercenary paparazzi, venal agents and managers, and the commercial manufacture of fame. That said, the picture, available now on Blu-ray and digital platforms in an official directors cut 15 years after its release, is surprisingly sweet. Set well before Instagram and TikTok created new categories of celebrity, Delirious depicts a world where genuine human emotion can co-exist amidst planted Page Six items and staged photo calls. In a rich performance snapping from broad comedy to lacerating self-pity Steve Buscemi plays Les […]
The post "In a Strange Way, the Film Feels Absolutely New to Me": Director Tom Dicillo on the Release of the Director's Cut of His 2006 Feature, Delirious first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post "In a Strange Way, the Film Feels Absolutely New to Me": Director Tom Dicillo on the Release of the Director's Cut of His 2006 Feature, Delirious first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/4/2021
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
"They're just people, no different from you and me." Anyone remember this one? Shout Factory debuted a new trailer for an indie film titled Delirious, now being re-released as a special "Director's Cut" edition after more than 12 years. This originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007 (and I reviewed it way back then!) and years later Tom Dicillo has come back to it and secured the rights and restored it to his original version. "Just before its original release some editing choices were forced upon me which I've always regretted. When I finally found the [rights] owner... I jumped at the chance to restore the film to its original cut. I wrote it for Steve Buscemi and he delivers one of his finest performances. I'm thrilled this Director's Cut will give people a chance to appreciate it." Buscemi stars a paparazzi who takes in a strange homeless kid, played by Michael Pitt,...
- 9/23/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Steve Buscemi has no shortage of iconic roles. We’re talking about the actor that has turned in incredible performances in projects such as “Ghost World,” “Reservoir Dogs,” “The Sopranos,” “Boardwalk Empire,” and “Fargo,” just to name several. But one of his more underseen and underrated performances is in the 2006 feature, “Delirious.” And for those who haven’t had the chance to catch his work in that film, there’s good news, as director Tom Dicillo returns to his film more than a decade later to craft a new Director’s Cut.
Continue reading ‘Delirious’ Director’s Cut Trailer: Tom Dicillo Returns To Craft The Definitive Edition Of The Steve Buscemi Film at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Delirious’ Director’s Cut Trailer: Tom Dicillo Returns To Craft The Definitive Edition Of The Steve Buscemi Film at The Playlist.
- 9/22/2020
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
Delirious will be released on VOD & Digital HD on October 6th from Shout Factory, and on Blu-Ray and DVD on October 13 from Mvd Entertainment Group. Here’s a trailer:
Les (Steve Buscemi) is a small-time paparazzi with dreams of making it big. His luck changes for the better when he befriends a young homeless kid, Toby (Michael Pitt), and makes him his assistant. The two form an unlikely bond running through the sham and glam of NYC’s celebrity scene but when Toby falls for a pop diva and becomes a reality TV star, Les takes the rejection personally. The never-before-seen Director’s Cut features bonus and behind-the-scenes content including a new filmed introduction by director Tom Dicillo detailing the motivation behind his 12-year search for the film.
“Delirious is a very meaningful film for me, both personally and artistically,” states Dicillo. Just before its original release some editing choices...
Les (Steve Buscemi) is a small-time paparazzi with dreams of making it big. His luck changes for the better when he befriends a young homeless kid, Toby (Michael Pitt), and makes him his assistant. The two form an unlikely bond running through the sham and glam of NYC’s celebrity scene but when Toby falls for a pop diva and becomes a reality TV star, Les takes the rejection personally. The never-before-seen Director’s Cut features bonus and behind-the-scenes content including a new filmed introduction by director Tom Dicillo detailing the motivation behind his 12-year search for the film.
“Delirious is a very meaningful film for me, both personally and artistically,” states Dicillo. Just before its original release some editing choices...
- 9/22/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
“Deadpan Alley”
By Raymond Benson
The maverick independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch burst into art-house public consciousness in 1984 with his strikingly original slice-of-life comedy, Stranger Than Paradise, and we hadn’t really seen anything like it before. I remember going to see it at the little cinema across from Lincoln Center in New York City. As the guy interviewed in front of the theater in the supplemental documentary on this Criterion Collection doozy says, the queue of people to get inside was indeed full of “hipsters.” It was the picture to see if you were in tune to the downtown arts scene, avant-garde theatre/music/film/literature, and far-from-Hollywood-mainstream moviemaking.
For me, it was my favorite film of the year. Audience members who dug it found subtle humor in the three main characters’ seemingly aimless existences and motivations to live their lives in a spontaneous, who cares? fashion. Those viewers who...
By Raymond Benson
The maverick independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch burst into art-house public consciousness in 1984 with his strikingly original slice-of-life comedy, Stranger Than Paradise, and we hadn’t really seen anything like it before. I remember going to see it at the little cinema across from Lincoln Center in New York City. As the guy interviewed in front of the theater in the supplemental documentary on this Criterion Collection doozy says, the queue of people to get inside was indeed full of “hipsters.” It was the picture to see if you were in tune to the downtown arts scene, avant-garde theatre/music/film/literature, and far-from-Hollywood-mainstream moviemaking.
For me, it was my favorite film of the year. Audience members who dug it found subtle humor in the three main characters’ seemingly aimless existences and motivations to live their lives in a spontaneous, who cares? fashion. Those viewers who...
- 4/27/2019
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Exclusive: The cast for Amazon Prime Video’s vengeance-driven Nazi-hunting series executive produced by Academy Award winner Jordan Peele continues to grow with Kate Mulvany joining as a series regular and James Le Gros, Ebony Obsidian, Caleb Emery, Henry Hunter Hall and Jeannie Berlin boarding in key recurring roles. They join an already robust cast including Al Pacino, Logan Lerman, Jerrika Hinton, Josh Radnor as well as Lena Olin, Carol Kane, Saul Rubinek, Tiffany Boone, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Greg Austin and Dylan Baker.
The Hunt, created by David Weil, follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. The Hunters, as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.
The Hunt, created by David Weil, follows a diverse band of Nazi hunters living in 1977 New York City. The Hunters, as they’re known, have discovered that hundreds of high-ranking Nazi officials are living among us and conspiring to create a Fourth Reich in the U.S. The eclectic team of Hunters will set out on a bloody quest to bring the Nazis to justice and thwart their new genocidal plans.
- 4/11/2019
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
What would you do if you were trapped in a cage deep into the ocean, surrounded by a handful of great white sharks? It’s a terrifying prospect, and ever since Jaws hit theaters back in the ‘70s, moviegoers have been fascinating with the danger surrounding sharks.
In the film 47 Meters Down, we see two women get trapped in such a circumstance. Will they stay calm, collected, and find a way out of this mess, or will they succumb to the forces of the sea? That remains to be seen.
Recently, Lrm had the opportunity to attend a press junket, and while there, we had the opportunity to attend a roundtable with several other outlets, and speak with co-stars of the film Matthew Modine and Yani Gellman, who play the characters Captain Taylor and Louis, respectively. Throughout they interview, they discuss the filmmaking process, the experience in shooting on location,...
In the film 47 Meters Down, we see two women get trapped in such a circumstance. Will they stay calm, collected, and find a way out of this mess, or will they succumb to the forces of the sea? That remains to be seen.
Recently, Lrm had the opportunity to attend a press junket, and while there, we had the opportunity to attend a roundtable with several other outlets, and speak with co-stars of the film Matthew Modine and Yani Gellman, who play the characters Captain Taylor and Louis, respectively. Throughout they interview, they discuss the filmmaking process, the experience in shooting on location,...
- 6/16/2017
- by Nancy Tapia
- LRMonline.com
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “The Little Stranger,” excluding the U.K., France and Switzerland, where it will be distributed by Pathé. Academy Award nominee Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”) will direct the film, a chilling ghost story, which will begin production in the U.K. this summer for release in 2018. “The Little Stranger” will star Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson and Will Poulter. Lucinda Coxon, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Focus’ “The Danish Girl,” has adapted “The Little Stranger” from Sarah Waters’ acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name.
In a remote English village after the close of World War II, a local practitioner, Dr. Faraday (Gleeson), is called to the...
– Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “The Little Stranger,” excluding the U.K., France and Switzerland, where it will be distributed by Pathé. Academy Award nominee Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”) will direct the film, a chilling ghost story, which will begin production in the U.K. this summer for release in 2018. “The Little Stranger” will star Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson and Will Poulter. Lucinda Coxon, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Focus’ “The Danish Girl,” has adapted “The Little Stranger” from Sarah Waters’ acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name.
In a remote English village after the close of World War II, a local practitioner, Dr. Faraday (Gleeson), is called to the...
- 5/26/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Aaron Brookner’s melancholy doc about his dead uncle – an artistic collaborator of William Burroughs and Jim Jarmusch – recaptures a vanished era
There’s a persistent melancholy tone to this study of New York film-maker Howard Brookner, made by his nephew Aaron, and focusing initially on the unique and attention-grabbing movie Brookner made in 1983 about William Burroughs with the help of his film-school contemporaries, sound recordist Jim Jarmusch and cinematographer Tom Dicillo, who are both interviewed here.
Aaron visits Burroughs’s somewhat claustrophobic New York apartment, nicknamed “the Bunker”, which appears to have been kept exactly as Burroughs had it, and where the Brookner archive still is. The movie then goes on to become a broader yet sadder film about Brookner, who emerged from Burroughs’s celebrity shadow and went on to direct more work, including Bloodhounds of Broadway, a period comedy starring Madonna and Matt Dillon. He had an...
There’s a persistent melancholy tone to this study of New York film-maker Howard Brookner, made by his nephew Aaron, and focusing initially on the unique and attention-grabbing movie Brookner made in 1983 about William Burroughs with the help of his film-school contemporaries, sound recordist Jim Jarmusch and cinematographer Tom Dicillo, who are both interviewed here.
Aaron visits Burroughs’s somewhat claustrophobic New York apartment, nicknamed “the Bunker”, which appears to have been kept exactly as Burroughs had it, and where the Brookner archive still is. The movie then goes on to become a broader yet sadder film about Brookner, who emerged from Burroughs’s celebrity shadow and went on to direct more work, including Bloodhounds of Broadway, a period comedy starring Madonna and Matt Dillon. He had an...
- 12/15/2016
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
"I had been searching for my Uncle Howard's first film..." Pinball London has debuted a trailer for a doc called Uncle Howard, which has played at film fests all over the world including Sundance, Berlinale and the New York Film Festival most recently. Uncle Howard is made by Aaron Brookner, nephew of American director Howard Brookner, a little-known but well-regarded filmmaker who died of AIDS in the late 80s. In the film, Aaron goes on a journey to "discover his uncle's films and the legacy" - meeting people like Jim Jarmusch and Tom Dicillo along the way. It's a very fascinating, very personal doc but should be inspiring to other filmmakers. It's not my favorite doc I've seen this year, but it's one of the better ones. Take a look. Here's the official trailer (+ poster) for Aaron Brookner's doc Uncle Howard, in high def from Apple: Uncle Howard is...
- 10/24/2016
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
How many great filmmakers have been lost as a result of disease and human catastrophe? That seems to be the question on the mind of documentary filmmaker Aaron Brookner in his debut film, Uncle Howard, a deeply personal piece of work that offers both an introduction (or re-introduction?) to the director’s uncle — a once-burgeoning independent filmmaker who died of AIDS in 1989 at just 31 years of age — and a somber meditation on talent lost.
Howard Brookner was born in New York, raised on Long Island, and graduated with an M.A. in Art History and Film from Nyu. His first feature would be Burroughs: The Movie, an acclaimed documentary on Beat poet William S. Burroughs. He got his college buddies Tom Dicillo and Jim Jarmusch to respectively serve as cinematographer and boom guy. The New York Times would later attribute its “comprehensiveness” to Brookner’s “unusual degree of liveliness and curiosity.
Howard Brookner was born in New York, raised on Long Island, and graduated with an M.A. in Art History and Film from Nyu. His first feature would be Burroughs: The Movie, an acclaimed documentary on Beat poet William S. Burroughs. He got his college buddies Tom Dicillo and Jim Jarmusch to respectively serve as cinematographer and boom guy. The New York Times would later attribute its “comprehensiveness” to Brookner’s “unusual degree of liveliness and curiosity.
- 2/13/2016
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
This study of documentarian Howard Brookner is a family relic, a snapshot of New York’s 1980s gay scene and an unearthing of quirky cinematic detritus
Here is a sensitive, intelligent portrait of film director Howard Brookner made by his nephew Aaron – a film-maker of some note, too. It also indulges in a little literary excavation, and functions as a window on the mid-1980s New York gay community that was decimated by the Aids epidemic.
Howard Brookner’s reputation chiefly rests on a documentary profile of novelist William S Burroughs, who he filmed in the writer’s latter years – initially – while at New York University film school. (An unexpected byplay is that Brookner’s sound recordist on the Burroughs film turns out to be an equally studenty Jim Jarmusch, and his cinematographer was Tom Dicillo, another director-to-be.) As Aaron Brookner – who bears a striking resemblance to his uncle – chases down Howard’s Burroughs footage,...
Here is a sensitive, intelligent portrait of film director Howard Brookner made by his nephew Aaron – a film-maker of some note, too. It also indulges in a little literary excavation, and functions as a window on the mid-1980s New York gay community that was decimated by the Aids epidemic.
Howard Brookner’s reputation chiefly rests on a documentary profile of novelist William S Burroughs, who he filmed in the writer’s latter years – initially – while at New York University film school. (An unexpected byplay is that Brookner’s sound recordist on the Burroughs film turns out to be an equally studenty Jim Jarmusch, and his cinematographer was Tom Dicillo, another director-to-be.) As Aaron Brookner – who bears a striking resemblance to his uncle – chases down Howard’s Burroughs footage,...
- 2/12/2016
- by Andrew Pulver
- The Guardian - Film News
The Berlinale's added to its Panorama section, completed its Perspektive Deutsches Kino lineup and announced the complete Berlinale Classics program, which includes new restorations of James Whale's The Road Back, Fritz Lang's Destiny, Heiner Carow's The Russians Are Coming, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Daughter of the Nile, John Huston's Fat City and Yasujiro Ozu's Early Summer. We can look forward to new films from Alex Gibney, Doris Dörrie, James Schamus, Wayne Wang, Ira Sachs and Emir Baigazin as well as Uncle Howard, a documentary by Aaron Brookner featuring Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver, Tom Dicillo, Brad Gooch, Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs. » - David Hudson...
- 1/17/2016
- Keyframe
The Berlinale's added to its Panorama section, completed its Perspektive Deutsches Kino lineup and announced the complete Berlinale Classics program, which includes new restorations of James Whale's The Road Back, Fritz Lang's Destiny, Heiner Carow's The Russians Are Coming, Hou Hsiao-hsien's Daughter of the Nile, John Huston's Fat City and Yasujiro Ozu's Early Summer. We can look forward to new films from Alex Gibney, Doris Dörrie, James Schamus, Wayne Wang, Ira Sachs and Emir Baigazin as well as Uncle Howard, a documentary by Aaron Brookner featuring Jim Jarmusch, Sara Driver, Tom Dicillo, Brad Gooch, Robert Wilson and William S. Burroughs. » - David Hudson...
- 1/17/2016
- Fandor: Keyframe
Looking for a worthy project to complete for his thesis film at Nyu back in 1978, with his genuine sense of interest and weasily persuasive personality, Howard Brookner somehow convinced the then world famous writer William Burroughs to let himself become the subject of the warm cinematic portrait that would become Burroughs: The Movie. Brookner gathered his fellow film students Jim Jarmusch and Tom Dicillo to serve as sound recordist and cinematographer, respectively, and they set about filming on and off for five years, observing Burroughs in all aspects of his life, both public and private. After the film premiered in New York City in 1983 and followed with a brief world tour, the film sat in storage and was nearly forgotten about after Brookner succumbed to AIDS in 1989.
Thankfully, Howard’s nephew Aaron Brookner grew up with a taste for cinema, had visited his uncle’s sets, worked as a production...
Thankfully, Howard’s nephew Aaron Brookner grew up with a taste for cinema, had visited his uncle’s sets, worked as a production...
- 12/15/2015
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
In Living in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 triptych of the agony and ecstasy of indie film production, Murphy’s cinematic law is in full effect. Prima donna actors. Uncooperative smoke machines. Blown lines. Soft focus. Booms in the frame. However, the film’s most soul-crushing moment comes when the camera isn’t even rolling. It arrives when the faux film’s director, played by Steve Buscemi, takes a moment to run lines with his two lead actresses. And of course — with the camera sitting idle and the cinematographer off set vomiting out-of-date milk from the meager craft services table — the scene comes […]...
- 11/12/2015
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
In Living in Oblivion, Tom Dicillo’s 1995 triptych of the agony and ecstasy of indie film production, Murphy’s cinematic law is in full effect. Prima donna actors. Uncooperative smoke machines. Blown lines. Soft focus. Booms in the frame. However, the film’s most soul-crushing moment comes when the camera isn’t even rolling. It arrives when the faux film’s director, played by Steve Buscemi, takes a moment to run lines with his two lead actresses. And of course — with the camera sitting idle and the cinematographer off set vomiting out-of-date milk from the meager craft services table — the scene comes […]...
- 11/12/2015
- by Matt Mulcahey
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Andrew Bujalski's turned in a terrific piece on Sylvester Stallone's Rocky franchise for the New Yorker. Also in today's roundup: Interviews with Todd Haynes, Gregg Turkington, Woody Harrelson, Tom Dicillo and David Shapiro, plus pieces on Thelma & Louise, Alfred Hitchcock, Julien Duvivier in the 30s, Michael Haneke's Code Unknown, Aleksey German and Frederick Wiseman. And Nathaniel Dorsky in San Francisco, Manoel de Oliveira in Vienna, Elvis Costello and D.A. Pennebaker on Bob Dylan, and a new podcast focuses on Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976) and Tom McCarthy's Spotlight. » - David Hudson...
- 11/11/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Andrew Bujalski's turned in a terrific piece on Sylvester Stallone's Rocky franchise for the New Yorker. Also in today's roundup: Interviews with Todd Haynes, Gregg Turkington, Woody Harrelson, Tom Dicillo and David Shapiro, plus pieces on Thelma & Louise, Alfred Hitchcock, Julien Duvivier in the 30s, Michael Haneke's Code Unknown, Aleksey German and Frederick Wiseman. And Nathaniel Dorsky in San Francisco, Manoel de Oliveira in Vienna, Elvis Costello and D.A. Pennebaker on Bob Dylan, and a new podcast focuses on Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976) and Tom McCarthy's Spotlight. » - David Hudson...
- 11/11/2015
- Keyframe
Tom Dicillo's satire about the pitfalls of low budget filmmaking is less farce than it is a loving valentine to the difficult task of getting something relevant on film. Steve Buscemi is the frustrated director, Catherine Keener the insecure actress, and Peter Dinklage the little person not pleased that he's been hired to play a phantom in a dream sequence. Hilariously clever, the show also has a big heart. Living in Oblivion Blu-ray + DVD Shout! Factory 1995 / Color & B&W / 1:85 widescreen / 92 min. / Street Date November 17, 2015 / $29.99 Starring Steve Buscemi, Catherine Keener, Dermot Mulroney, Danielle von Zerneck, James LeGros, Rica Martens. Cinematography Frank Prinzi Production Designer Stephanie Carroll, Thérèse DePrez Art Direction Janine Michelle, Scott Pask Film Editor Dana Congdon, Camilla Toniolo Original Music Jim Farmer Produced by Hilary Gilford, Michael Griffiths, Robert M. Sertner, Marcus Viscidi, Frank von Zerneck Written and Directed by Tom Dicillo
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
A charming,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
A charming,...
- 11/10/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In the latest entry in Escape from New York, Reverse Shot's ongoing series on cinephilia around the world, Giovanni Marchini Camia takes us to Berlin. Also in today's roundup of news and views: a major Carl Theodor Dreyer online resource, Rick Alverson on Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, Tom Dicillo on Noah Baumbach's While We're Young, Glenn Kenny on Woody Allen's reputation, interviews with Ondi Timoner, Ellen Burstyn, Keith David, Christopher McDonald and Mark Margolis—and remembering Helmut Dietl. » - David Hudson...
- 4/1/2015
- Keyframe
In the latest entry in Escape from New York, Reverse Shot's ongoing series on cinephilia around the world, Giovanni Marchini Camia takes us to Berlin. Also in today's roundup of news and views: a major Carl Theodor Dreyer online resource, Rick Alverson on Kornél Mundruczó’s White God, Tom Dicillo on Noah Baumbach's While We're Young, Glenn Kenny on Woody Allen's reputation, interviews with Ondi Timoner, Ellen Burstyn, Keith David, Christopher McDonald and Mark Margolis—and remembering Helmut Dietl. » - David Hudson...
- 4/1/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
40. Empire Records
Directed by: Allan Moyle
Ah, the coming-of-age story. There was no sub-genre more hijacked for a quick buck in the 1990′s. In between the good ones (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyz in the Hood”), the cheesy ones (“She’s All That,” “She Drives Me Crazy”), and the under-appreciated ones (“The Man in the Moon,” “Angus”), there were the middling ones that, if anything, boasted a cast that would go on to bigger, better things. Enter “Empire Records,” which is not only a coming-of-age story, but one that takes place at a record store, no less. Talk about the double dip. The entire film takes place over the course of one day, focusing on the employees, played by Anthony Lapaglia, Ethan Embry, Renee Zellweger, Rory Cochrane, and Liv Tyler. The independent record store is in Delaware – the hot spot of American music – and sees Joe (Lapaglia) allowing night manager Lucas...
Directed by: Allan Moyle
Ah, the coming-of-age story. There was no sub-genre more hijacked for a quick buck in the 1990′s. In between the good ones (“Dazed and Confused,” “Boyz in the Hood”), the cheesy ones (“She’s All That,” “She Drives Me Crazy”), and the under-appreciated ones (“The Man in the Moon,” “Angus”), there were the middling ones that, if anything, boasted a cast that would go on to bigger, better things. Enter “Empire Records,” which is not only a coming-of-age story, but one that takes place at a record store, no less. Talk about the double dip. The entire film takes place over the course of one day, focusing on the employees, played by Anthony Lapaglia, Ethan Embry, Renee Zellweger, Rory Cochrane, and Liv Tyler. The independent record store is in Delaware – the hot spot of American music – and sees Joe (Lapaglia) allowing night manager Lucas...
- 1/31/2015
- by Joshua Gaul
- SoundOnSight
Whether you are a filmmaker, or one of the Sundance programmers whose task it is to identify the films that make up a line-up, it is indeed the most wonderful, panic-filled and nerve racking time of the year. The 31st edition of the Sundance Film Festival kicks off on January 22nd with Park City and Salt Lake City playing host to some of the more innovative, thought-provoking narrative and non-fiction films of 2015. Last year, a Jenga tall order of 4,057 features and 8,161 shorts were submitted. Now let’s think about those numbers for a second.
Twenty years ago, Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb claimed the Grand Jury Prize Documentary award, Living in Oblivion‘s Tom Dicillo was honored with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and Edward Burns’ micro-budgeted The Brothers McMullen (there is a read-worthy, lively, eleventh hour account on how it was submitted to the fest in Ted Hope’s “Hope...
Twenty years ago, Terry Zwigoff’s Crumb claimed the Grand Jury Prize Documentary award, Living in Oblivion‘s Tom Dicillo was honored with the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award, and Edward Burns’ micro-budgeted The Brothers McMullen (there is a read-worthy, lively, eleventh hour account on how it was submitted to the fest in Ted Hope’s “Hope...
- 11/17/2014
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
We haven't been lacking in depictions of William S. Burroughs on the big screen in recent years with both Viggo Mortensen ("On The Road") and Ben Foster ("Kill Your Darlings") portraying the famed writer. But now a film thought to be long lost has resurfaced, giving fans and newcomers a window in Burroughs' world via the gnarled Beat eminence himself. Today, the Playlist has an exclusive clip from "Burroughs: The Movie." Starting as a thesis project in the late 1970s at New York University by director Howard Brookner (with sound by Jim Jarmusch, and cinematography by Tom Dicillo), production on "Burroughs: The Movie" eventually spanned over five years, with the filmmaker not only logging plenty of time with his subject, but also with fellow travelers like Allen Ginsberg, Terry Southern, John Giorno, and Brion Gysin. However, when Brookner passed due to AIDS in 1989, his film was thought to be lost.
- 10/9/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
★★★★☆Decades before the phrase was put through the commercial wringer, hipster culture was brought to the fore via the films of singular Us filmmaker Jim Jarmusch. A guiding light in the burgeoning independent scene of the 1980s, Jarmusch's efforts are being recognised at the BFI via a well-earned retrospective entitled Jim Jarmusch and Friends, which also includes features from filmmakers who share a kinship with the director (sadly, work from his former protégé Tom Dicillo is conspicuously absent). Part of that line-up includes Jarmusch's renowned third feature Down by Law (1986), which has been fully re-mastered and is also receiving a limited theatrical run courtesy of the BFI and UK distributor Soda Pictures.
- 9/17/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Back in 1991 when Tom Dicillo's "Johnny Suede" hit theatres, Brad Pitt was only known as the good looking dude from "Thelma & Louise." He was only starting his ascension to become the megawatt star we know today, and the movie barely registered a blip on the radar, opening in one theatre before heading to home video where it would become a cult favorite. But Dicillo was never satisfied with the film's theatrical cut, and now he's been given a chance to showcase his preferred rendition. In March, "Johnny Suede" quietly made its way to Netflix, but there was a problem — Miramax hadn't cleared streaming rights. Understandably, Dicillo was upset. He engaged with Miramax and was allowed to re-edit the movie, dropping a voiceover added by Harvey Weinstein and snipping seven minutes from the movie, bringing it down to 90 minutes total. "It's distilled and improves the film so much," Dicillo told THR.
- 8/11/2014
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Susan Kouguell speaks with director Aaron Brookner on his journey of re-mastering and re-leasing the documentary on William Burroughs, Burroughs: The Movie (1983) directed by his uncle, Howard Brookner, and Smash the Control Machine the feature documentary that tells the story of Aaron Brookner’s investigation into the mysterious life and missing films of Howard Brookner, who died of AIDS at age 34 in 1989 on the cusp of fame. Howard Brookner’s films also include Bloodhounds on Broadway (1989) and Robert Wilson and The Civil Wars (1987).
Born in New York City, Aaron Brookner began his career working on Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes and Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity before making the award-winning documentary short The Black Cowboys (2004). His first feature documentary was a collaboration with writer Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront), and his film, The Silver Goat (2012) was the first feature created exclusively for iPad, released as an App and downloaded across 24 countries, making it into the top 50 entertainment apps in the UK and Czech Republic.
The re-mastered print of Burroughs: The Movie will have its premier University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, 2014.
Susan Kouguell: On your Kickstarter site you wrote:
“Howard Brookner directed three films before his death in 1989 from AIDS at the age of thirty-four. In the final year of his life he wrote:
If I live on it is in your memories and the films I made.
It was this quote that inspired me, Howard's nephew and enthusiastic Burroughsian, to search for the missing print of his first film, Burroughs: The Movie. After a long search I found the only print in good condition and embarked on a project to digitally remaster it and make it available to the public.”
This has been both a personal and artistic journey for you. When did this journey begin?
Aaron Brookner: It probably began when Howard died, originally. My lasting memories of him were of watching him make his final movie Bloodhounds on Broadway on the set, hanging out together and rough-housing, walking around downtown, the secret handshake and spoken greeting we had, the cool toys from Japan he brought me, messing around with video cameras, trips down to Miami, and oddly enough the Rolling Stones 3D halftime show during the 1989 Super Bowl.
But I also had seen him in a hospital bed. I had been to the AIDS ward. I was over at his apartment quite a bit during his final few months of life. Watched his funeral. And I was seven. Kids know everything that’s going on around them even when they don’t. I guess this was the case and that making Smash the Control Machine is some sort of way to articulate my childlike perspective on the story, as an adult. It’s also a way to satisfy my curiosity.
Howard, I’ve found out, in some weird cinematic way, left clues all over the world really, which show how he lived, and what he lived. He documented everything.
A few years ago when I started the search for the Burroughs: The Movie print, I started to find all these pieces to his puzzle. Not to mention his films! So I went all the way and committed to gathering up everything and telling his story, which has brought me into contact with the people who knew him best -- and survived him -- who each knew a completely different yet same Howard. It’s amazing to watch Howard come to life in the eyes of someone that knew him, through the stories they recall.
It’s been a very interesting journey, and still is. It was a hard one to start, obviously, because of the awful tragedy looming at the end, and I was sensitive to not want to stir this back up for the people who really suffered his death, but the feeling has really changed. There is so much life and joy of living and making movies that transcends through Howard’s work which I’ve discovered, and in the people who knew him best; that this feeling of life and art really trumps death and AIDS, and a lot of the political bulls--t that fueled that fire, and this is a good feeling, and sort of what I hope to bring out in my film.
Sk: You successfully raised more than the requested budget with Kickstarter to fund your film. Talk about the pros and cons of using this crowdsourcing resource.
Ab: A big pro is that you skip all the gatekeepers, which saves a lot of time. You go straight to the audience and in the case of remastering Howard’s Burroughs: The Movie film there was pretty straightforward thinking behind it. I thought if enough people know about this film and want it back, or if they want it for the first time, they’ll help me deliver. If not, so be it.
A con, and I don’t know if I’d call it a con or just the reality, is that you’re never getting something for nothing; you’ve got a lot of work to do to run a crowd-funding campaign. It’s great if there’s an audience for your project, but how are they gonna hear about it?! My partner, Paula Vaccaro, and I spent months working on this day and night, not knowing if we’d even succeed. A little stressful...but overall I think it’s amazing that crowd-sourcing exists, and that it can work. It’s also a pretty great exercise in clearly communicating what you want to do and why, and what’s the plan for how.
Sk: Smash the Control Machine, the film you are making on Howard’s story and the search for his lost work was selected in its early stages for the Berlinale. What was that experience like for you?
Ab: In a lot of ways it was like the Burroughs: The Movie Kickstarter experience, in that first of all, it was a great endorsement and support to have, and that it certainly helped to streamline the concept and see what worked and what didn’t.
We were specifically selected to the Talent Project Market at Berlinale as the only documentary of 10 total films from around the world. It was a few very intense and focused days like a workshop on all the different angles around your film, that as a creator you might not be thinking about -- like what your pitch is going to be and how to pitch for that matter -- to what are the comparable going numbers around and how an international co-production might work. It’s great to learn this because then, after the workshop days, you’re sitting at a table where film market people are coming to meet you and talk to you, and you kind of understand where they are coming from, so you’re confident in talking about your project, and knowing what’s good or not good for it.
Sk: Do you have any international partners with whom you are working?
Ab: The main production company for the film is Pinball London, which is mainly based in London, UK, our other partners are of course the executive producer of the film, Jim Jarmusch, producer Sara Driver in New York City, the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Talent Project Market, (who have been invaluable allies of the film) the Jerome Foundation, Media Program (the European Union’s main audiovisual development program (http://ec.europa.eu/culture/media/index_en.htm), the Independent Filmmaker Project in NYC, which runs our fiscal sponsorship campaign and supports the film with knowledge and an amazing network, and the generous support of other partners, such as the Arnie Glassman Foundation and private individual donors. We’re currently having conversations with other co-producers, distributors, transmedia partners, as well as sales companies from Us and EU but I can’t go into more details at this stage.
Sk: Film director Jim Jarmusch, who worked with Howard, is your executive producer. His features Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise, were influential works not only to the downtown New York City art film scene, but to the wider independent/art film movement. You mentioned that through this filmmaking process you have been exposed to the art and film created during this time and its staying power. Please elaborate.
Ab: New York City in the late 1970s was really the last place and time where two generations of artists overlapped and met and fed off each other. They lived in the same neighborhood, did the same drugs, went to the same clubs, and in some cases slept with the same people. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, much as they were artistic innovators for the way they completely broke the rules of literature, were also pioneering in the way they were open about their homosexuality and the way they put in their work.
Writer Brad Gooch, Howard’s long-time partner, told me that his and Howard’s was the first generation who really got to live openly when they got to New York. All the first love straight people get to experience in high school, gay men (and women) were experiencing at age twenty-five in downtown NYC against this epic backdrop of all sorts of art and space and time to create it. This sexual liberation really fed into the art scene. It was political without having a message, just by being.
The films that Jim Jarmusch and others were making at this time, they sort of applied the total lack of respect for rules that Burroughs and Ginsberg had laid in literature, and applied it to cinema. They took what they saw around them and put it in their work. And in the case of Howard making Burroughs: The Movie, with Jim and also Tom Dicillo who was doing camera, he went straight to the source. Howard decided not only am I going to apply the lack of rules, rule to movie-making, I’m gonna turn the camera on this moment in time as it’s really happening. I mean it’s incredible. They’re filming Burroughs at home, working out his speech to protest Proposition 6 in 1978, which Burroughs then incorporates into his reading at the Nova Convention -- to a packed-to-the-rafters theatre filled with 20 and 30-year-olds. Howard and his crew actually shot this.
There is just so much truth that shines through this work, and the work of that time like in Jarmusch’s films, and I think it’s because you had new artists’ energy directly side by side with the source. It was exceptionally rare, I think, historically, where one generation of artists so directly influenced another, only with the newer generation using a different medium, which of course was film.
Sk: You discovered more than 35 hours of film Howard shot from 1978-1983 that was stored in Burroughs’ bunker for 30 years. These reels include footage of Andy Warhol, Burroughs and Howard in the Chelsea Hotel, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa and Patti Smith. How did you learn about this footage?
Ab: James Grauerholz, who was very close friends with my uncle and co-produced Burroughs: The Movie, who is William Burroughs’ heir, early on when I was looking for a print of the film sent me a detailed inventory of everything Howard had stored in the bunker (Burroughs’ NYC residence). I looked at the list and my jaw dropped. Howard had finished Burroughs: The Movie with the BBC (who provided completion funds) in 1983. Sometime later they shipped back these giant trunks of all of Howard’s rushes, outtakes, workprints, and negative rolls. Howard didn’t have a permanent residence at that time because he was traveling the globe making his next film on theatre director , who was preparing six different international plays around the world to all come together for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. So Howard got these trunks of his films and asked Burroughs if he could stash it in the back room of the Bunker. And there it sat undisturbed for 30 years! After Burroughs died, John Giorno, who lived above the bunker, decided to keep it as a sort of museum to William. And of course along with Burroughs’ hat, canes, and spices from 1978, are Howard’s films.
Sk: What condition are the reels?
Ab: The negatives look great. The work-prints are all kind of pink, which happens to color film over time, but this is fixable with a good colorist as per example:
There’s a tiny bit of shrinkage, as photochemical film will shrink over time, but it is very minimal considering 30 years with no climate and humidity control. Only one roll was lost completely to severe water damage. It’s very fortunate really so much of it survived. It was a race against the clock. Film is a living breathing organic material.
Sk: How were you able to access them? Where was/is the bunker?
It was a complicated battle. I fought, with support, a dedicated fight that lasted for well over a year. It was extremely anxiety-provoking, as every day there was a potential risk these precious films could have been destroyed. For all I knew there could have been vinegar in the cans, which happens to deteriorated film. There was a lot of faith involved, a bit like the Kickstarter campaign. You can image what Hurricane Sandy did to my nervous system. It was indeed a race against the clock with all sorts of obstacles, and so stressful I had to document it to cope, and because it really illustrated an issue that’s central to my film, which is: What happens to the work created by artists when they are gone? And this is key to artists who died of AIDS as they generally did not have the time or resources to prepare for their legacy. So, now that is a part of my film. There was a more or less happy ending. But you’ll have to see the film to get the story! The Bunker is on the Bowery in NYC.
Sk: With some of the clips you’ve shown me, this is quite a treasure trove that captures an important history.
Ab: There is a definite staying power of the art from that time because of its authenticity, and also because of New York City; these film rolls capture what New York City was like! So much space. Desolate downtown streets. Gritty details. It’s just pure beautiful decay. No one watching you. It looks like artistic paradise. And I’ve seen Howard’s rental contract for his loft on Prince and Bowery: $100/month!
Sk: Film preservation is vital, and as you mentioned, it’s a race against the clock before more films are lost.
Ab: This is a huge issue. Hundreds of thousands of films that maybe aren’t necessarily directly on the Hollywood radar are really in danger of being lost forever. You got time working against you because film deteriorates. You got money working against you because it costs a lot to keep climate and humidity-controlled vaults. Traditionally, labs all had vaults, but labs are closing. If not very nearly all closed. So it comes down to institutions and their funding, space and ability. You also got technology working against you. How many people out there know how to fix a film splice or thread a projector, or read camera roll code? And how many people will know this in 30 years? Who’s going to know how to fix the old film machines that stopped seeing use decades ago? It really needs attention because we’re looking at a century of film facing extinction.
Robert Wilson is a majorly important figure in the theatre and art world. Most people don’t know about Howard’s second feature documentary, which took the audience inside Robert Wilson’s creative process, and emotional process of making his work. I know this because I found part of these original film rolls packed into unmarked Igloo picnic containers stashed in the supply room behind the toilet in an archive in Hamburg.
Sk: When and where will Smash the Control Machine have its premiere?
Ab: The film is currently in early production and there is a very strong element of unpredictability in this story, making deadlines pretty impossible. But, Berlinale really gave us great support at a very early stage, and it would be a very nice honor to premier the film with them in 2015. But we will need to keep working and see what unfolds. There is a long year ahead.
Sk: What are the distribution plans for Burroughs: The Movie and Smash the Control Machine ?
Ab: For Burroughs: The Movie, we’ll be unveiling the remastered Dcp (Digital Cinema Package) of the film at University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, followed by other Burroughs events throughout the year, such as at the Ica in London and the Photographer’s Gallery for their William Burroughs/Andy Warhol/David Lynch show.
The New York City premier will happen next fall at the New York Film Festival -- where the film first screened in 1983(!) -- possibly followed by a theatrical re-release and DVD/Blu-ray sale towards the end of the year. (Those who pledged for a DVD through our Kickstarter campaign however, will be sent their own copies of the film shortly.)
I’m also putting together a video art/sound installation piece from some of the never before seen material, that will show along with the film at Bafici in April, and likely in New York and London if not elsewhere. And we’re putting together a record with All Tomorrow’s Parties, using much of the never before heard audio from Howard’s Burroughs archive, to be sampled by select musicians.
For Smash the Control Machine: There are various plans I can’t discuss at this stage. What I can say is that our distribution will be tied to other impactful activities and events. I am working closely to build partnerships with those who care about the subjects of the film and the themes. Gentrification, Gay history, art legacy lost to AIDS. There are many great ways to distribute this film along these lines, as well as having a commercial release. My producer, PaulaVaccaro, and I are working hard to make sure this is tied up with whatever the film will do out there.
Sk: What advice do you have for aspiring documentary filmmakers?
Ab: Sometimes the best story for a film is right under your nose!
Breaking News: We are now working together with Janus Films and Criterion Collection for the distribution of Burroughs: The Movie. We are still creating a plan for the film although we know we will do a theatrical run in the Us sometime after the re-launch at the Nyff
See the Trailer Here
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting and film at Tufts University and presents international seminars. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com .
Born in New York City, Aaron Brookner began his career working on Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes and Rebecca Miller’s Personal Velocity before making the award-winning documentary short The Black Cowboys (2004). His first feature documentary was a collaboration with writer Budd Schulberg (On the Waterfront), and his film, The Silver Goat (2012) was the first feature created exclusively for iPad, released as an App and downloaded across 24 countries, making it into the top 50 entertainment apps in the UK and Czech Republic.
The re-mastered print of Burroughs: The Movie will have its premier University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, 2014.
Susan Kouguell: On your Kickstarter site you wrote:
“Howard Brookner directed three films before his death in 1989 from AIDS at the age of thirty-four. In the final year of his life he wrote:
If I live on it is in your memories and the films I made.
It was this quote that inspired me, Howard's nephew and enthusiastic Burroughsian, to search for the missing print of his first film, Burroughs: The Movie. After a long search I found the only print in good condition and embarked on a project to digitally remaster it and make it available to the public.”
This has been both a personal and artistic journey for you. When did this journey begin?
Aaron Brookner: It probably began when Howard died, originally. My lasting memories of him were of watching him make his final movie Bloodhounds on Broadway on the set, hanging out together and rough-housing, walking around downtown, the secret handshake and spoken greeting we had, the cool toys from Japan he brought me, messing around with video cameras, trips down to Miami, and oddly enough the Rolling Stones 3D halftime show during the 1989 Super Bowl.
But I also had seen him in a hospital bed. I had been to the AIDS ward. I was over at his apartment quite a bit during his final few months of life. Watched his funeral. And I was seven. Kids know everything that’s going on around them even when they don’t. I guess this was the case and that making Smash the Control Machine is some sort of way to articulate my childlike perspective on the story, as an adult. It’s also a way to satisfy my curiosity.
Howard, I’ve found out, in some weird cinematic way, left clues all over the world really, which show how he lived, and what he lived. He documented everything.
A few years ago when I started the search for the Burroughs: The Movie print, I started to find all these pieces to his puzzle. Not to mention his films! So I went all the way and committed to gathering up everything and telling his story, which has brought me into contact with the people who knew him best -- and survived him -- who each knew a completely different yet same Howard. It’s amazing to watch Howard come to life in the eyes of someone that knew him, through the stories they recall.
It’s been a very interesting journey, and still is. It was a hard one to start, obviously, because of the awful tragedy looming at the end, and I was sensitive to not want to stir this back up for the people who really suffered his death, but the feeling has really changed. There is so much life and joy of living and making movies that transcends through Howard’s work which I’ve discovered, and in the people who knew him best; that this feeling of life and art really trumps death and AIDS, and a lot of the political bulls--t that fueled that fire, and this is a good feeling, and sort of what I hope to bring out in my film.
Sk: You successfully raised more than the requested budget with Kickstarter to fund your film. Talk about the pros and cons of using this crowdsourcing resource.
Ab: A big pro is that you skip all the gatekeepers, which saves a lot of time. You go straight to the audience and in the case of remastering Howard’s Burroughs: The Movie film there was pretty straightforward thinking behind it. I thought if enough people know about this film and want it back, or if they want it for the first time, they’ll help me deliver. If not, so be it.
A con, and I don’t know if I’d call it a con or just the reality, is that you’re never getting something for nothing; you’ve got a lot of work to do to run a crowd-funding campaign. It’s great if there’s an audience for your project, but how are they gonna hear about it?! My partner, Paula Vaccaro, and I spent months working on this day and night, not knowing if we’d even succeed. A little stressful...but overall I think it’s amazing that crowd-sourcing exists, and that it can work. It’s also a pretty great exercise in clearly communicating what you want to do and why, and what’s the plan for how.
Sk: Smash the Control Machine, the film you are making on Howard’s story and the search for his lost work was selected in its early stages for the Berlinale. What was that experience like for you?
Ab: In a lot of ways it was like the Burroughs: The Movie Kickstarter experience, in that first of all, it was a great endorsement and support to have, and that it certainly helped to streamline the concept and see what worked and what didn’t.
We were specifically selected to the Talent Project Market at Berlinale as the only documentary of 10 total films from around the world. It was a few very intense and focused days like a workshop on all the different angles around your film, that as a creator you might not be thinking about -- like what your pitch is going to be and how to pitch for that matter -- to what are the comparable going numbers around and how an international co-production might work. It’s great to learn this because then, after the workshop days, you’re sitting at a table where film market people are coming to meet you and talk to you, and you kind of understand where they are coming from, so you’re confident in talking about your project, and knowing what’s good or not good for it.
Sk: Do you have any international partners with whom you are working?
Ab: The main production company for the film is Pinball London, which is mainly based in London, UK, our other partners are of course the executive producer of the film, Jim Jarmusch, producer Sara Driver in New York City, the Berlinale Talent Campus and the Talent Project Market, (who have been invaluable allies of the film) the Jerome Foundation, Media Program (the European Union’s main audiovisual development program (http://ec.europa.eu/culture/media/index_en.htm), the Independent Filmmaker Project in NYC, which runs our fiscal sponsorship campaign and supports the film with knowledge and an amazing network, and the generous support of other partners, such as the Arnie Glassman Foundation and private individual donors. We’re currently having conversations with other co-producers, distributors, transmedia partners, as well as sales companies from Us and EU but I can’t go into more details at this stage.
Sk: Film director Jim Jarmusch, who worked with Howard, is your executive producer. His features Permanent Vacation and Stranger Than Paradise, were influential works not only to the downtown New York City art film scene, but to the wider independent/art film movement. You mentioned that through this filmmaking process you have been exposed to the art and film created during this time and its staying power. Please elaborate.
Ab: New York City in the late 1970s was really the last place and time where two generations of artists overlapped and met and fed off each other. They lived in the same neighborhood, did the same drugs, went to the same clubs, and in some cases slept with the same people. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, much as they were artistic innovators for the way they completely broke the rules of literature, were also pioneering in the way they were open about their homosexuality and the way they put in their work.
Writer Brad Gooch, Howard’s long-time partner, told me that his and Howard’s was the first generation who really got to live openly when they got to New York. All the first love straight people get to experience in high school, gay men (and women) were experiencing at age twenty-five in downtown NYC against this epic backdrop of all sorts of art and space and time to create it. This sexual liberation really fed into the art scene. It was political without having a message, just by being.
The films that Jim Jarmusch and others were making at this time, they sort of applied the total lack of respect for rules that Burroughs and Ginsberg had laid in literature, and applied it to cinema. They took what they saw around them and put it in their work. And in the case of Howard making Burroughs: The Movie, with Jim and also Tom Dicillo who was doing camera, he went straight to the source. Howard decided not only am I going to apply the lack of rules, rule to movie-making, I’m gonna turn the camera on this moment in time as it’s really happening. I mean it’s incredible. They’re filming Burroughs at home, working out his speech to protest Proposition 6 in 1978, which Burroughs then incorporates into his reading at the Nova Convention -- to a packed-to-the-rafters theatre filled with 20 and 30-year-olds. Howard and his crew actually shot this.
There is just so much truth that shines through this work, and the work of that time like in Jarmusch’s films, and I think it’s because you had new artists’ energy directly side by side with the source. It was exceptionally rare, I think, historically, where one generation of artists so directly influenced another, only with the newer generation using a different medium, which of course was film.
Sk: You discovered more than 35 hours of film Howard shot from 1978-1983 that was stored in Burroughs’ bunker for 30 years. These reels include footage of Andy Warhol, Burroughs and Howard in the Chelsea Hotel, Allen Ginsberg, Frank Zappa and Patti Smith. How did you learn about this footage?
Ab: James Grauerholz, who was very close friends with my uncle and co-produced Burroughs: The Movie, who is William Burroughs’ heir, early on when I was looking for a print of the film sent me a detailed inventory of everything Howard had stored in the bunker (Burroughs’ NYC residence). I looked at the list and my jaw dropped. Howard had finished Burroughs: The Movie with the BBC (who provided completion funds) in 1983. Sometime later they shipped back these giant trunks of all of Howard’s rushes, outtakes, workprints, and negative rolls. Howard didn’t have a permanent residence at that time because he was traveling the globe making his next film on theatre director , who was preparing six different international plays around the world to all come together for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics. So Howard got these trunks of his films and asked Burroughs if he could stash it in the back room of the Bunker. And there it sat undisturbed for 30 years! After Burroughs died, John Giorno, who lived above the bunker, decided to keep it as a sort of museum to William. And of course along with Burroughs’ hat, canes, and spices from 1978, are Howard’s films.
Sk: What condition are the reels?
Ab: The negatives look great. The work-prints are all kind of pink, which happens to color film over time, but this is fixable with a good colorist as per example:
There’s a tiny bit of shrinkage, as photochemical film will shrink over time, but it is very minimal considering 30 years with no climate and humidity control. Only one roll was lost completely to severe water damage. It’s very fortunate really so much of it survived. It was a race against the clock. Film is a living breathing organic material.
Sk: How were you able to access them? Where was/is the bunker?
It was a complicated battle. I fought, with support, a dedicated fight that lasted for well over a year. It was extremely anxiety-provoking, as every day there was a potential risk these precious films could have been destroyed. For all I knew there could have been vinegar in the cans, which happens to deteriorated film. There was a lot of faith involved, a bit like the Kickstarter campaign. You can image what Hurricane Sandy did to my nervous system. It was indeed a race against the clock with all sorts of obstacles, and so stressful I had to document it to cope, and because it really illustrated an issue that’s central to my film, which is: What happens to the work created by artists when they are gone? And this is key to artists who died of AIDS as they generally did not have the time or resources to prepare for their legacy. So, now that is a part of my film. There was a more or less happy ending. But you’ll have to see the film to get the story! The Bunker is on the Bowery in NYC.
Sk: With some of the clips you’ve shown me, this is quite a treasure trove that captures an important history.
Ab: There is a definite staying power of the art from that time because of its authenticity, and also because of New York City; these film rolls capture what New York City was like! So much space. Desolate downtown streets. Gritty details. It’s just pure beautiful decay. No one watching you. It looks like artistic paradise. And I’ve seen Howard’s rental contract for his loft on Prince and Bowery: $100/month!
Sk: Film preservation is vital, and as you mentioned, it’s a race against the clock before more films are lost.
Ab: This is a huge issue. Hundreds of thousands of films that maybe aren’t necessarily directly on the Hollywood radar are really in danger of being lost forever. You got time working against you because film deteriorates. You got money working against you because it costs a lot to keep climate and humidity-controlled vaults. Traditionally, labs all had vaults, but labs are closing. If not very nearly all closed. So it comes down to institutions and their funding, space and ability. You also got technology working against you. How many people out there know how to fix a film splice or thread a projector, or read camera roll code? And how many people will know this in 30 years? Who’s going to know how to fix the old film machines that stopped seeing use decades ago? It really needs attention because we’re looking at a century of film facing extinction.
Robert Wilson is a majorly important figure in the theatre and art world. Most people don’t know about Howard’s second feature documentary, which took the audience inside Robert Wilson’s creative process, and emotional process of making his work. I know this because I found part of these original film rolls packed into unmarked Igloo picnic containers stashed in the supply room behind the toilet in an archive in Hamburg.
Sk: When and where will Smash the Control Machine have its premiere?
Ab: The film is currently in early production and there is a very strong element of unpredictability in this story, making deadlines pretty impossible. But, Berlinale really gave us great support at a very early stage, and it would be a very nice honor to premier the film with them in 2015. But we will need to keep working and see what unfolds. There is a long year ahead.
Sk: What are the distribution plans for Burroughs: The Movie and Smash the Control Machine ?
Ab: For Burroughs: The Movie, we’ll be unveiling the remastered Dcp (Digital Cinema Package) of the film at University of Indiana’s Burroughs 100th birthday event on February 6th, followed by other Burroughs events throughout the year, such as at the Ica in London and the Photographer’s Gallery for their William Burroughs/Andy Warhol/David Lynch show.
The New York City premier will happen next fall at the New York Film Festival -- where the film first screened in 1983(!) -- possibly followed by a theatrical re-release and DVD/Blu-ray sale towards the end of the year. (Those who pledged for a DVD through our Kickstarter campaign however, will be sent their own copies of the film shortly.)
I’m also putting together a video art/sound installation piece from some of the never before seen material, that will show along with the film at Bafici in April, and likely in New York and London if not elsewhere. And we’re putting together a record with All Tomorrow’s Parties, using much of the never before heard audio from Howard’s Burroughs archive, to be sampled by select musicians.
For Smash the Control Machine: There are various plans I can’t discuss at this stage. What I can say is that our distribution will be tied to other impactful activities and events. I am working closely to build partnerships with those who care about the subjects of the film and the themes. Gentrification, Gay history, art legacy lost to AIDS. There are many great ways to distribute this film along these lines, as well as having a commercial release. My producer, PaulaVaccaro, and I are working hard to make sure this is tied up with whatever the film will do out there.
Sk: What advice do you have for aspiring documentary filmmakers?
Ab: Sometimes the best story for a film is right under your nose!
Breaking News: We are now working together with Janus Films and Criterion Collection for the distribution of Burroughs: The Movie. We are still creating a plan for the film although we know we will do a theatrical run in the Us sometime after the re-launch at the Nyff
See the Trailer Here
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell teaches screenwriting and film at Tufts University and presents international seminars. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide. www.su-city-pictures.com .
- 1/29/2014
- by Susan Kouguell
- Sydney's Buzz
The Boardwalk Empire star on how the Republicans have held the Us hostage and why the pursuit of money is not a worthy goal
Dressed in dark colours and a black baseball cap, in person the 55-year-old Steve Buscemi cuts basically the same slight, rumpled figure we met a quarter-century ago in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. He might be a roadie coming off a world tour. His famously exophthalmic eyes are a washed-out blue and he's tired, back home in Brooklyn after staying at his house in upstate New York. He likes to go there and hang out and do nothing, he says, maybe take a walk or do a bit of yardwork: he spent the weekend raking leaves. Self-effacing, friendly, polite, it's clear he's here under low-grade sufferance; interviews, he says in his quick, metallic, slightly strangulated way, "aren't my favourite thing to do".
He is a patient...
Dressed in dark colours and a black baseball cap, in person the 55-year-old Steve Buscemi cuts basically the same slight, rumpled figure we met a quarter-century ago in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train. He might be a roadie coming off a world tour. His famously exophthalmic eyes are a washed-out blue and he's tired, back home in Brooklyn after staying at his house in upstate New York. He likes to go there and hang out and do nothing, he says, maybe take a walk or do a bit of yardwork: he spent the weekend raking leaves. Self-effacing, friendly, polite, it's clear he's here under low-grade sufferance; interviews, he says in his quick, metallic, slightly strangulated way, "aren't my favourite thing to do".
He is a patient...
- 10/20/2013
- by Nick Laird
- The Guardian - Film News
It’s nothing new to say that the term “independent filmmaking” has come to no longer reference the actual practice of making films outside the studio system, and alerts more directly to an aesthetic of hipness. That the cute-and-quirky consecutive multi-Oscar nominees Little Miss Sunshine and Juno were similarly marketed by Fox Searchlight as “independent films” despite the fact that the former was actually produced independently and the latter was funded by studio dollars, effectively put the nail in the coffin for actual independent filmmaking to have any meaningful visibility. Meanwhile, first-time directors who make their name at Sundance like Marc Webb, Doug Liman, and Seth Gordon quickly reveal themselves to be aspiring directors-for-hire rather than anti-Hollywood renegades. Tom Dicillo, Hal Hartley, and Jim Jarmusch seem ever more like naïve, idealist relics each passing year. It’s clear what the blurring of the lines between independence and studio filmmaking has meant for the mainstream: as my friend...
- 12/18/2012
- by Landon Palmer
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
His turn in Seven Psychopaths is another of his hyperactive puppy roles – but it may be his last. Sam Rockwell is happy to be getting lines on his face and growing up
The hotel room where I am waiting for Sam Rockwell feels fit for a torture session: it is bare save for two clapped-out chairs, a couple of lamps and a bathtub. But when Rockwell bowls in, he brings his own ambience. Interviewing him is like being the only audience member at a one-man acting masterclass. He's not averse to leaping to his feet to demonstrate how posture and movement affect characterisation. His conversation is focused but there's a twitchy energy about him. Within a few seconds of declaring that he has stopped impersonating his friend Christopher Walken ("I really didn't feel good about doing it once I got to know him"), he has a silent change of heart.
The hotel room where I am waiting for Sam Rockwell feels fit for a torture session: it is bare save for two clapped-out chairs, a couple of lamps and a bathtub. But when Rockwell bowls in, he brings his own ambience. Interviewing him is like being the only audience member at a one-man acting masterclass. He's not averse to leaping to his feet to demonstrate how posture and movement affect characterisation. His conversation is focused but there's a twitchy energy about him. Within a few seconds of declaring that he has stopped impersonating his friend Christopher Walken ("I really didn't feel good about doing it once I got to know him"), he has a silent change of heart.
- 12/7/2012
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
There really is no business like show business. Everybody would love to make movies for a living, its the dream job of a lot of people. Making movies however can be a lot of hard work, long hours, can sometimes drive you to the brink of insanity, and at any given moment all hell could break loose costing thousands if not millions of dollars. Hey sounds like a great idea for a movie! Here are 10 great movies we feel sum up what its like to actually make a movie.
Don’t forget to check out Hitchcock, a movie about the making of one of Hollywood’s most classic films, Psycho. Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren opens November 23rd.
10. Living in Oblivion
This saucy little independent film tells the tale from 3 different perspectives about the worst things that could happen on set while shooting a saucy little independent film.
Don’t forget to check out Hitchcock, a movie about the making of one of Hollywood’s most classic films, Psycho. Hitchcock, starring Anthony Hopkins and Helen Mirren opens November 23rd.
10. Living in Oblivion
This saucy little independent film tells the tale from 3 different perspectives about the worst things that could happen on set while shooting a saucy little independent film.
- 11/9/2012
- by Kyle Hytonen
- Obsessed with Film
For many a young rising star, there comes the time to prove their worth at the ever-enigmatic box office all on their own. Any young gun can co-star in a successful feature with a proven star by his or her side (see potential stars Chris Pine and Ryan Reynolds ride Denzel’s coattails in Unstoppable and Safe House, respectively). To prove your name is valuable above a film’s title, you must lead it, meaning you are both the film’s star and the film’s marketing campaign. At some point (usually early on), these ambitious pseudo-celebs must go for it, headlining a somewhat small, but significant, studio picture in the hopes of finding an audience they’ve been told by their agents and managers they have already built.
Sometimes its works. Other times, it does not. In honor of the currently-in-theaters Premium Rush, led by the potentially-bankable star Joseph Gordon-Levitt,...
Sometimes its works. Other times, it does not. In honor of the currently-in-theaters Premium Rush, led by the potentially-bankable star Joseph Gordon-Levitt,...
- 8/28/2012
- by jpraup@gmail.com (thefilmstage.com)
- The Film Stage
"Sara Driver's long-lost No Wave adaptation of a Paul Bowles short story finally resurfaces," writes Alt Screen at the top of its roundup. "Co-written and shot by Jim Jarmusch (with Tom Dicillo as assistant) and featuring cameos by Nan Goldin and Luc Sante, You Are Not I [1981] has only screened at the Iceland Film Fest and the Portuguese Cinémathèque in Lisbon."
"A nervous mental patient (Suzanne Fletcher) escapes her hospital, and wanders past a horrific car crash en route to her sister's house," writes R Emmet Sweeney at Movie Morlocks. "She desperately wants to eject her frazzled sibling and replace her, to create space for the patient to live alone in her own head. Driver sets a mood that is dreamlike and elliptical — the crash is a pile-up of abstracted forms on grass, and the corpses are lined up like dominoes. We are witnessing the world through the patient's frazzled brain,...
"A nervous mental patient (Suzanne Fletcher) escapes her hospital, and wanders past a horrific car crash en route to her sister's house," writes R Emmet Sweeney at Movie Morlocks. "She desperately wants to eject her frazzled sibling and replace her, to create space for the patient to live alone in her own head. Driver sets a mood that is dreamlike and elliptical — the crash is a pile-up of abstracted forms on grass, and the corpses are lined up like dominoes. We are witnessing the world through the patient's frazzled brain,...
- 10/6/2011
- MUBI
Catherine Keener has been a supporting actor for years, with a reputation for being interesting in valuable, offbeat pictures
Catherine Keener is a beloved figure among the several million who are always hoping for the best from American independent pictures. She promises feeling, humour and a sense of life as it is really lived, plus a nice acidity. Keener has been attractive without threatening outright beauty or glamour. Her persona springs from ironic intelligence and that's what any wise man or woman should be searching for in life. The trouble is that in America, women actors are often supposed to be knockouts who dominate their pictures just by virtue of standing there and letting themselves be photographed.
So Keener has been a supporting actor for more than 25 years, with a reputation for being different and interesting in valuable, offbeat pictures. Indeed, she has often been taken as a talisman and even a guarantee.
Catherine Keener is a beloved figure among the several million who are always hoping for the best from American independent pictures. She promises feeling, humour and a sense of life as it is really lived, plus a nice acidity. Keener has been attractive without threatening outright beauty or glamour. Her persona springs from ironic intelligence and that's what any wise man or woman should be searching for in life. The trouble is that in America, women actors are often supposed to be knockouts who dominate their pictures just by virtue of standing there and letting themselves be photographed.
So Keener has been a supporting actor for more than 25 years, with a reputation for being different and interesting in valuable, offbeat pictures. Indeed, she has often been taken as a talisman and even a guarantee.
- 6/30/2011
- by David Thomson
- The Guardian - Film News
An eyepatch indicates the wearer has been in the wars or had his eye pecked out by a hawk like axe-hurling Kirk Douglas in The Vikings
Now that everyone has woken up to the genius that is Jeff Bridges, perhaps it's time to give John Heard his due. By the mid-1980s, after starring in a brace of films by Joan Micklin Silver, Paul Schrader's Cat People remake and pulp horror C.H.U.D, he looked all set for leading man status. But it never happened; instead he turned into one of those character actors whose presence never fails to cheer you up. It didn't help that the release of Cutter's Way, which gave him the role of his career, was bungled by United Artists, which saw it as a failed thriller instead of the noirish character study it was. It faded into obscurity, trailing a few rave...
Now that everyone has woken up to the genius that is Jeff Bridges, perhaps it's time to give John Heard his due. By the mid-1980s, after starring in a brace of films by Joan Micklin Silver, Paul Schrader's Cat People remake and pulp horror C.H.U.D, he looked all set for leading man status. But it never happened; instead he turned into one of those character actors whose presence never fails to cheer you up. It didn't help that the release of Cutter's Way, which gave him the role of his career, was bungled by United Artists, which saw it as a failed thriller instead of the noirish character study it was. It faded into obscurity, trailing a few rave...
- 6/23/2011
- by Anne Billson
- The Guardian - Film News
John Turturro likes killing cliches. Though he's best known as an actor, particularly for his work with Joel and Ethan Coen ("Barton Fink," "The Big Lebowski") and Spike Lee ("Do the Right Thing"), "Passione" is Turturro's fourth film as a director, and his first documentary. In it, he presents the music of the city of Naples in all its rich and vibrant character, from ancient ballads to classical compositions, to modern jazz, reggae, and more.
Turturro put his love of music on full display in his last film, 2005's "Romance and Cigarettes," which featured the likes of James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, and Christopher Walken bursting into song. "Passione" takes things even further; it's like a wild crazy jam session playing out on the streets of Naples, with one powerful performance after another all linked together with stories, personal anecdotes and even a few appearances by Turturro himself as narrator, storyteller,...
Turturro put his love of music on full display in his last film, 2005's "Romance and Cigarettes," which featured the likes of James Gandolfini, Kate Winslet, and Christopher Walken bursting into song. "Passione" takes things even further; it's like a wild crazy jam session playing out on the streets of Naples, with one powerful performance after another all linked together with stories, personal anecdotes and even a few appearances by Turturro himself as narrator, storyteller,...
- 6/20/2011
- by Matt Singer
- ifc.com
This post will self-destruct in two weeks...well, not exactly, but the videos below will be since Google unceremoniously announced the end of Google Video over the weekend that they are putting a kibosh on the video service as of April 29th that unlike the one they eventually bought, YouTube, allowed users to upload video longer than 10 minutes. This development won't be mourned by many, as the video quality was never that great and since 2009, users lost the ability to upload videos, so it became something of a barren wasteland in terms of content.
However, unrestricted by time and largely ungoverned, the site also became the place on the Internet where cinema's orphans could be widely seen, either because they now belong to the public domain or because issues legal or otherwise have prevented their release through traditional means. Naturally, this meant there was plenty of piracy on the site of more recent films,...
However, unrestricted by time and largely ungoverned, the site also became the place on the Internet where cinema's orphans could be widely seen, either because they now belong to the public domain or because issues legal or otherwise have prevented their release through traditional means. Naturally, this meant there was plenty of piracy on the site of more recent films,...
- 4/18/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
Film-makers usually come off badly when films get made about them. François Truffaut is the honourable exception
It speaks well of film-makers that movies about movies are usually black comedies. Our industry is so detestable – so filled with lies, thefts, backstabbing, blacklisting, drug dealing, and the occasional murder – that one would expect a tendency to cover things up. Instead, almost all the films I can think of which deal with the film-making process portray it in the grimmest possible light.
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a classic instance: a dark comedy in which a failed screenwriter (William Holden) attempts to gain fame on the back of a faded silent-movie star (Gloria Swanson): she ends up mad, he, shot and drowned. Even the good-hearted comedy Singin' in the Rain (1952) conversely, depicts a hierarchical system dominated by the talentless, in which people who are actually good at something (in this case dancing) are ritually humiliated,...
It speaks well of film-makers that movies about movies are usually black comedies. Our industry is so detestable – so filled with lies, thefts, backstabbing, blacklisting, drug dealing, and the occasional murder – that one would expect a tendency to cover things up. Instead, almost all the films I can think of which deal with the film-making process portray it in the grimmest possible light.
Billy Wilder's Sunset Boulevard (1950) is a classic instance: a dark comedy in which a failed screenwriter (William Holden) attempts to gain fame on the back of a faded silent-movie star (Gloria Swanson): she ends up mad, he, shot and drowned. Even the good-hearted comedy Singin' in the Rain (1952) conversely, depicts a hierarchical system dominated by the talentless, in which people who are actually good at something (in this case dancing) are ritually humiliated,...
- 2/18/2011
- by Alex Cox
- The Guardian - Film News
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