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Camera Obscura have announced Look to the East, Look to the West, their first new album in over 10 years, out May 3rd via Merge Records. Plus, the Scottish indie pop veterans have mapped out a 2024 North American tour and shared the lead single, “Big Love.”

Led by guitarist/vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, Camera Obscura reunited with previous producer Jari Haapalainen to record Look to the East, Look to the West. The band had gone on hiatus following the 2015 passing of founding keyboard Carey Lander, but reconnected for Belle & Sebastian’s 2019 Boaty Weekender cruise and a pair of warm-up shows in Glasgow.

Donna Maciocia joined Camera Obscura on keys and vocals for those gigs, and has since become a regular songwriting partner of Campbell’s alongside founding members Kenny McKeeve (guitar and vocals), Gavin Dunbar (bass), and Lee Thomson (drums and percussion). Pre-orders for Look to the East, Look to the West are ongoing.

One of the best international thrillers ever has almost become an obscurity, for reasons unknown – this Blu-ray comes from Australia. Edward Fox’s wily assassin for hire goes up against the combined police and security establishments of three nations as he sets up the killing of a head of state – France’s president Charles de Gaulle. The terrific cast features Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig and Cyril Cusack; director Fred Zinnemann’s excellent direction reaches a high pitch of tension – even though the outcome is known from the start.

The Day of the Jackal

Region B+A Blu-ray

Shock Entertainment / Universal

1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99

Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

The many adaptations of Wuthering Heights — from Buñuel to Andrea Arnold to Rivette — are highlighted in a new series.

Metrograph

A restoration of Philippe Garrel’s Les Hautes Solitudes begins playing.

Films from Wilder, Scorsese, Minnelli, and Hitchcock play as part of a Best Picture series.

Anthology Film Archives

Films from Cronenberg,...

Confines of the World

Director: Guillaume Nicloux

Writer: Jerome Beaujour

The fast paced Guillaume Nicloux (who has premiered a new film project in succession from 2012 to 2016) embarks on an ambitious WWII project, Confines of the World, adapted from Erwan Bergot’s “Commando Vandenberghe: Le Pirate du Delta by scribe Jerome Beaujour (who worked in Nicloux’s version of The Nun, based on a novel by Denis Diderot and initially filmed by Jacques Rivette in 1966).

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I know just how hagiographic it sounds when I say, and nevertheless say with full sincerity, that being in Anna Karina’s presence is sort of a shocking thing. The French New Wave’s feminine icon — perhaps the screen icon of ‘60s cinema, period, at least if her recent immortalization in innumerable GIFs could count for anything — has often seemed inscrutable: as quick-witted as she is goofy, as likely to indulge in cartoonish physical gestures as she is to display her preternatural beauty, and always hiding something behind the eyes. With that perception established, you might understand why, as she walked down the steps of BAMcinématek’s theater 3 for a Q & A following Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman, the seemingly innocuous figure almost immediately elicited this thought from myself and, I’d imagine, several others: “Holy shit — that’s Anna Karina.”

That feeling will soon dissipate — not...

For the first time in the Us, Jacques Rivette’s 1961 directorial debut, Paris Belongs to Us is available thanks to an accomplished new restoration from Criterion. A neglected title associated with the same crew of vibrant auteurs eventually known as the Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Rivette’s thunder was stolen by more famous films from critics turned filmmakers Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Francois Truffaut (even though it technically went into production before several of theirs). The initial lackluster response explains Rivette’s slower rise to notability, his particular methods and idiosyncrasies eventually embraced nearly a decade later when items like Mad Love (1969) and the monolithic Out 1 (1971), the legendary near thirteen hour production, were released.

Anne (Betty Schneider) is a young literature student in Paris, following in the footsteps of her older brother, Pierre (Francois Maistre). Afetr a disturbing interaction with a neighbor at her hostel,...

The French New Wave director’s noted films included La Belle Noiseuse, Celine And Julie Go Boating and Out 1.

Director Jacques Rivette, the director of titles including Celine And Julie Go Boating and La Belle Noiseuse, has died at the age of 87.

Rivette was a notable film-maker of the French New Wave movement during the 1950s and 60s, alongside the likes of François Truffautand Jean-Luc Godard.

He was also a critic for influential film journal Cahiers du Cinéma, writing with Eric Rohmer, Claude Chabrol and others under the tutelage of editor Andre Bazin.

Often noted for the length of his films, Rivette’s 1971 feature Out 1 ran for a remarkable 729 minutes (depending on which cut you watch) and has since become a cult hit for cinephiles.

Fleur Pellerin, the French culture minister, tweeted that Rivette was “one of the greatest filmmakers of intimacy and impatient love”.

Martin Scorsese issued the following statement: “The news of Jacques Rivette’s passing...

Jacques Rivette, the Cahiers du Cinema critic and director of "The Nun" (1966), "L'amour fou" (1969), "Celine and Julie Go Boating" (1974), Cannes Grand Prix winner "La belle noiseuse" (1991), and other classics of the French cinema — more than 20 features in all — died Friday morning at home in Paris. He had Alzheimer's disease, the New York Times reported his producer Martine Marignac as saying, while the French culture minister, on Twitter, called today one of "profound sadness." He was 87. Along with Cahiers colleagues Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Chabrol, and Eric Rohmer, Rivette reinvented both film and film criticism in the 1950s, 1960s, and beyond. Truffaut may have been correct that the French New Wave began "thanks to Rivette" — his 1961 film "Paris Belongs to Us," inspired by Italian neorealist Roberto Rossellini, was shot in 1958, after Chabrol's "Le Beau Serge" but...

As always, a number of deserving film festival entries are stragglers in need of distribution or funneled away by buyers to be released in the following year. One of the downsides of attending a number of film fests is seeing great cinema sometimes plopped unceremoniously into a limited theatrical (or even VOD) release over a year later without any traction. And if a film happened to receive a cold shoulder at a prestigious venue like Cannes the chances of convincing audiences otherwise is a difficult feat.

Happily, all but two titles from this list currently have Us distribution (and with a little luck, someone will eventually get around to snapping those up, too). A thankful shout out to the following distributors is in order, with Strand Releasing responsible for three of the titles, while Kino Lorber, Sundance Selects, Drafthouse, A24, and Alchemy make up the others. Until then, here’s...

Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.The New York Film Festival has revealed that Robert Zemeckis's much-anticipated 3D quasi-heist film The Walk will open the 2015 event. The newly released full trailer can be watched above.Famed writer Jean Gruault has died at the age of 90. Gruault had written scripts for François Truffaut (Jules and Jim), Jacques Rivette (The Nun), Alain Resnais (Mon oncle d'Amérique), and others, including writing the novel on which Valérie Donzelli's Cannes competitor this year, Marguerite & Julien, was based.We're crossing our fingers that Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight will make 50+ cinemas in the U.S. equipped to project 70mm.This week is a trailer bonanza, including Mistress America, the new Noah Baumbach collaboration with actress Greta Gerwig after Frances Ha.This Long Century has published several new pieces, including...

Jean Gruault, who wrote 25 screenplays between 1960 and 1995, has His screenplay for Alain Renais's Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980) was nominated for an Oscar and a César and won a David di Donatello Award. Other notable works include Jacques Rivette's debut feature, Paris Belongs to Us (1960), and Rivette's The Nun (1966); Roberto Rossellini's Vanina Vanini (1961) and The Taking of Power by Louis Xiv (1966); Jules and Jim (1962), co-written with François Truffaut, as well as Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971) and The Green Room (1978); Jean-Luc Godard's Les carabiniers (1963); Chantal Akerman's The Eighties (1983) and Golden Eighties (1986); the scenario for Resnais's Love Unto Death (1984); and he worked with Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne on You're on My Mind (1992). » - David Hudson...

Jean Gruault, who wrote 25 screenplays between 1960 and 1995, has His screenplay for Alain Renais's Mon oncle d'Amérique (1980) was nominated for an Oscar and a César and won a David di Donatello Award. Other notable works include Jacques Rivette's debut feature, Paris Belongs to Us (1960), and Rivette's The Nun (1966); Roberto Rossellini's Vanina Vanini (1961) and The Taking of Power by Louis Xiv (1966); Jules and Jim (1962), co-written with François Truffaut, as well as Truffaut's The Wild Child (1970), Two English Girls (1971) and The Green Room (1978); Jean-Luc Godard's Les carabiniers (1963); Chantal Akerman's The Eighties (1983) and Golden Eighties (1986); the scenario for Resnais's Love Unto Death (1984); and he worked with Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne on You're on My Mind (1992). » - David Hudson...

The Valley of Love

Director: Guillaume Nicloux // Writer: Guillaume Nicloux

Even with eleven feature films under his belt, director Guillaume Nicloux remains the least recognizable name on our top ten list, but his last two features have significantly elevated his international status, including his 2013 remake of the Jacques Rivette film The Nun (based on the novel by Denis Diderot, which starred Isabelle Huppert, Martina Gedeck, Louise Bourgoin and newcomer Pauline Etienne. While that film never received Us distribution, his 2014 title, The Kidnapping of Michel Houllebecq was picked up by Kino Lorber after winning Best Screenplay at Tribeca and will receive a theatrical release in the Us next spring. Nicloux’s latest promises to be his most anticipated to date, reuniting film stars Isabelle Huppert and Gerard Depardieu, who last worked together in the excellent Maurice Pialat film, Loulou (1980). Filming in California, the film concerns the story revolves around Isabelle and Gérard,...

Mon oncle d’Amérique

Written by Jean Gruault and Henri Laborit

Directed by Alain Resnais

France, 1980

To wax in a state of eulogy about Alain Resnais is to have reviewed his last few features at the times they premiered. With Wild Grass, You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet, and the incredibly recent Life of Riley, reviewers understandably noted his age. Resnais was in his late eighties and early nineties, still producing films containing a youthful charm, his resolution on the festival circuit as firm as ever. Perhaps then, it still came as a surprise that at the age of 91, Resnais had passed, leaving a remarkable six decades of major work behind, rivaled at this point only by 105-year-old arthouse compatriot Manoel de Oliveira. Surprising, yes, thanks to his experimental shock to the film world in Last Year at Marienbad and Hiroshima, mon amour being equaled by his recent output, a promising second wind.

Short Term 12 | Philomena | Thor: The Dark World | Milius | Gloria | Nosferatu The Vampyre | Drinking Buddies | Cutie And The Boxer | Child's Pose | The Nun | The Haunting In Connecticut 2: Ghosts Of Georgia | A Nightmare On Elm Stret

Short Term 12 (15)

(Destin Cretton, 2013, Us) Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Keith Stanfield, Rami Malek. 97 mins

A film that makes you care about people who care about people, this compact indie doesn't have to look hard for drama in a foster care home, whose young workers need help as much as the damaged teens in their charge. The storylines are a little convenient, but it's an emotional watch, and Larson is outstanding.

Philomena (12A)

(Stephen Frears, 2013, UK/Us/Fra) Judi Dench, Steve Coogan. 98 mins

Faith issues, "human interest" and even buddy comedy blend smoothly in this true-life tale of a retired Irish woman's search for her adult son, aided by a sceptical English hack.

★★☆☆☆ French writer Denis Diderot played an elaborate prank on the Marquis de Croismare, penning lengthy pleading letters from Suzanne - a fictional nun - which he forged into a single narrative after the jape was revealed. Guillaume Nicloux's new adaptation of the controversial novel, The Nun (2013), sees the Marquis incorporated into the wider story in a move that flirts with a degree of contextualisation, but sadly serves only to compound its inherent flaws. There is a fine central performance and some elegant aesthetics, but neither can make up for a generic critique of Catholicism laced with dubious gender politics.

If you’re a devout Catholic, or alternatively, just a fan of nuns – it may be worth steering clear of the cinema this weekend, because between the British drama Philomena and Guillaume Nicloux’s The Nun, the church comes under some real scrutiny, in films that challenge tradition and belief, as this French feature paints a somewhat bleak and disquieting picture of life in a convent.

Unlike her two older sisters, Suzanne Simonin’s (Pauline Etienne) parents cannot afford to marry off their daughter, instead forcing her against her will to live at a nunnery. Her agonising life transpires into becoming a tale of three Mother Superiors: the first being a kind-hearted woman who looks out for Suzanne, despite the teenager making reservations towards the church perfectly clear. The second is the vicious Christine (Louise Bourgoin), who subjects the youngster to both mental and physical abuse, while finally we have...

Andre Techine

This new column for Sound on Sight will feature Cahiers du Cinema critics-turned-filmmakers. However, it will not cover the infamous New Wave directors, but four other filmmakers who wrote for the journal and subsequently became directors. What follows is a brief history of the journal and its association with the four filmmakers that will be covered in this column.

I. A Brief History of Cahiers du Cinema

Cahiers du Cinema has been a prominent film journal for the last 60 years, famous for introducing the concept of les politiques des auteurs, which became the auteur theory in North America thanks to Andrew Sarris, and more famous for playing a major role in the French New Wave. The journal has gone through many shifts and turns, beginning with Andre Bazin as the editor-in-chief to the current editor-in-chief Stephane Delorme.

The history of the journal can be broken into six periods:...

Title: La Religieuse (The Nun) Director: Guillaume Nicloux Starring: Pauline Étienne, Isabelle Huppert, Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck, Françoise Lebrun. The father of French Enlightenment and co-founder of l’Encyclopédie along with Jean le Rond d’Alembert, Denis Diderot, in 1758 wrote the story of a freedom-loving woman who was forced into convent against her will (that was published posthumously in 1796). Diderot was very much of a rebel himself: he married a woman below his social status, the fatherless and dowryless Antoinette Champion. Their only daughter was named after Denis’ mother and sister Angélique. Diderot’s sibling was a nun who died from overwork in the convent and she might be the one [ Read More ]

The post La Religieuse (The Nun) Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

We’re here to start a little chat about the project which had “a potential winner of Berlinale” written all over it but as we know now, the movie is not among winners. Guillaume Nicloux‘s latest movie, simply titled The Nun premiered in competition at the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. Nicloux’s movie is based on Denis Diderot’s classic novel which tells the story of a woman trying to resist imposed religious values, revealing the dehumanizing effect of cloistered life. It follows the rebellion and tragic fate of Suzanne Simonin, a charming young woman from a bourgeois family who is cloistered away in a convent against...

Legendary French actress Isabelle Huppert has an extraordinarily lengthy filmography, with over 100 credits to her name. But she's come to the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival with a wholly new role: Supérieure Saint Eutrope, the super horny lesbian nun in Guillaume Nicloux’s "The Nun" (La Religieuse). Huppert's Eutrope is not the film's titular nun. That would be Pauline Etienne as 16-year-old Suzanne Simonin, the heroine at the center of Nicloux’s adaptation of Denis Diderot's controversial 18th century novel (previously adapted by the likes of Jacques Rivette). Simonin eventually finds herself at a convent headed by Huppert's character, who at first appears quite friendly (especially compared to some of the other characters in the film), but then quickly becomes a little too friendly. "I like the character I had to portray," Huppert said at the film's press conference. "It's the kind of...

★★☆☆☆ Guillaume Nicloux's The Nun (La Religieuse, 2013) is based upon French philosopher, art critic and writer Denis Diderot's controversial novel of the same name. Previously adapted by Jacques Rivette, whose daringly derogatory adaptation was originally banned by the French censors for its controversial representation of the church, The Nun's infamous story has all the ingredients required for a gripping, divisive religious expose. We're regaled with the confession of defiant sister Suzanne Simonin (played with aplomb by Pauline Etienne), whose forceful incarceration within a nunnery led her to compose a memoir of her suffering.

Read more »...

The Nun (La Religieuse) was considered too controversial to be published in the lifetime of its author, the 18th-century Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot. The story is told as a memoir from the perspective of a young nun, the illegitimate Suzanne, who has been forced into convent life by her mother. At three convents she causes a ruckus by voicing her desire to be released from vows.

David Cairns

The Forgotten: "And darkness was on the face of the deep."

The Forgotten: Open-Plan Dovecot Required

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The Forgotten: Street of Dreams

Adrian Curry

Movie Poster Trend of the Week: "Morning Glory"

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The Ferroni Brigade

The Golden Donkey Locarno 2010: The Shorts Shine Bright

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The Golden Donkey Venice 2010

Max Goldberg

Tuesday Foreign Region Blu-ray disc Report: "Le cercle rouge" (Jean-Pierre Melville, 1970)

Daniel Kasman

Today, on the Secret Online Film Sharing Networks #1

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