Jean-Pierre Melville in his own film, Two Men in Manhattan“A man isn't tiny or giant enough to defeat anything”—Yukio MishimaA voracious cinephile in his early youth, Jean-Pierre Grumbach's daily intake of films was interrupted by the Second World War when he enlisted in the Ffl (Forces Français Libres) and adopted the nom de guerre by which he's still known to these days: Jean-Pierre Melville. A tribute to his literary hero, Hermann Melville, and his novel Pierre: or the Ambiguities, the director would have his name officially changed after the war. The latter was to shape and inform many of his films and arguably all of his world-view, characterized by a sort of ethical cynicism where anti-fascism is understood as a moral duty rather than an act of heroic courage. Profoundly anti-rhetoric and filled with a terse dignity, his films about the Resistance, Army of Shadows (1969) above all,...
- 5/1/2017
- MUBI
First things first. There's an announcement from last week to catch up with: "Aldo Tambellini's Black Films and pioneering experimental works by four other filmmakers — Ian Hugo, the international banker-turned-artist who worked with Anaïs Nin; Mike Kuchar; Gregory Markopoulos; and Jud Yalkut — will soon be saved through the 2012 Avant-Garde Masters Grants from the National Film Preservation Foundation and The Film Foundation." Martin Scorsese, who began the initiative in 2003 through seed money from The Film Foundation: "There's no other program of its kind. I'm thrilled that the work of such artists as George Kuchar, Shirley Clark, and Kenneth Anger has been preserved and — equally important — made available so audiences can actually see these extraordinary films."
On a somewhat related note, Marilyn Ferdinand has put out a call regarding For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon, taking place in just a couple of weeks now: "Bloggers, we need to...
On a somewhat related note, Marilyn Ferdinand has put out a call regarding For the Love of Film: The Film Preservation Blogathon, taking place in just a couple of weeks now: "Bloggers, we need to...
- 4/23/2012
- MUBI
In 1973, Susan Sontag travelled to post-war Israel to film a documentary. As Promised Lands returns to the big screen, Steve Rose finds out how the movie holds up today
Did Susan Sontag enjoy making Promised Lands, her fragmented documentary about the 1973 Yom Kippur war? Shortly after its completion, and its less than enthusiastic reception, she wrote: "Film-making is nitpicking, anxiety, fights, claustrophobia, exhaustion, euphoria. Film-making is catching inspiration out on the wing. Film-making is flubbing the catch, and sometimes knowing the fool that's to blame is yourself. Film-making is blind instinct, petty calculations, smooth generalship, daydreaming, pigheadedness, grace, bluff, risk."
It can't have been easy for her. Sontag, who died in 2004, was best known as the "dark lady of American letters", the producer of influential essays, novels, short stories and plays. But in writing so authoritatively about culture, photography and every aspect of cinema, from sci-fi to the nouvelle vague,...
Did Susan Sontag enjoy making Promised Lands, her fragmented documentary about the 1973 Yom Kippur war? Shortly after its completion, and its less than enthusiastic reception, she wrote: "Film-making is nitpicking, anxiety, fights, claustrophobia, exhaustion, euphoria. Film-making is catching inspiration out on the wing. Film-making is flubbing the catch, and sometimes knowing the fool that's to blame is yourself. Film-making is blind instinct, petty calculations, smooth generalship, daydreaming, pigheadedness, grace, bluff, risk."
It can't have been easy for her. Sontag, who died in 2004, was best known as the "dark lady of American letters", the producer of influential essays, novels, short stories and plays. But in writing so authoritatively about culture, photography and every aspect of cinema, from sci-fi to the nouvelle vague,...
- 4/23/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Bradford International Film Festival
With 27 premieres, guests including Ray Winstone and Barbara Windsor, and more sub-strands than a macrame spaghetti holder, this festival packs it in. Highlights include Whit Stillman's lovable college satire Damsels In Distress, Indonesian martial arts epic The Raid and Samsara, another epic documentary from Ron "Baraka" Fricke. But it's really a case of pick your speciality: new American indies; European cinema; horror; Looney Tunes – all are well represented here. And not forgetting a 60th-anniversary tribute to the triple-screen Cinerama format at the traditional Widescreen Weekend.
Various venues, Thu to 29 Apr
Argentine Film Festival, London
It's fairly obvious even to those who have holed themselves up in cinemas for months on end that Anglo-Argentine relations might not be at a political high right now. But perhaps culture could be the antidote to all the Falklands-throwback sabre-rattling. This is Britain's first film festival dedicated solely to the country,...
With 27 premieres, guests including Ray Winstone and Barbara Windsor, and more sub-strands than a macrame spaghetti holder, this festival packs it in. Highlights include Whit Stillman's lovable college satire Damsels In Distress, Indonesian martial arts epic The Raid and Samsara, another epic documentary from Ron "Baraka" Fricke. But it's really a case of pick your speciality: new American indies; European cinema; horror; Looney Tunes – all are well represented here. And not forgetting a 60th-anniversary tribute to the triple-screen Cinerama format at the traditional Widescreen Weekend.
Various venues, Thu to 29 Apr
Argentine Film Festival, London
It's fairly obvious even to those who have holed themselves up in cinemas for months on end that Anglo-Argentine relations might not be at a political high right now. But perhaps culture could be the antidote to all the Falklands-throwback sabre-rattling. This is Britain's first film festival dedicated solely to the country,...
- 4/13/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
Netflix has revolutionized the home movie experience for fans of film with its instant streaming technology. Netflix Nuggets is my way of spreading the word about independent, classic and foreign films made available by Netflix for instant streaming.
This Week’s New Instant Releases…
Promised Lands (1974)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Documentary
Director: Susan Sontag
Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles
Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...
This Week’s New Instant Releases…
Promised Lands (1974)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Documentary
Director: Susan Sontag
Synopsis: Set in Israel during the final days of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, this powerful documentary — initially barred by Israel authorities — from writer-director Susan Sontag examines divergent perceptions of the enduring Arab-Israeli clash. Weighing in on matters related to socialism, anti-Semitism, nation sovereignty and American materialism are The Last Jew writer Yoram Kaniuk and military physicist Yuval Ne’eman.
Vision: From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen (2009)
Streaming Available: 04/19/2011
Cast: Barbara Sukowa, Heino Ferch, Hannah Herzsprung, Gerald Alexander Held, Lena Stolze, Sunnyi Melles
Synopsis: Directed by longtime star of independent German cinema Margarethe von Trotta, this reverent...
- 4/20/2011
- by Travis Keune
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
A look at what's new on DVD today:
"Game of Death" (2011)
Directed by Giorgio Serafini
Released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Quite possibly Wesley Snipes' last film for a long, long time, this action flick features the "Passenger 57" star as a CIA agent who is betrayed by his employer after he's deployed to take out an arms dealer in Detroit. "Grindhouse" star Zoe Bell is onhand to provide backup.
"Celestial Films: Lady Hermit" (1971)
Directed by Meng Hua Ho
Released by Funimation
An aspiring female kung fu warrior searches for an elusive master who turns out to pretend to be a servant in this Shaw Brothers produced action flick.
"Daylight Robbery" (2008)
Directed by Paris Leonti
Released by Well Go USA
Paris Leonti's heist flick involves a group of misfits who plot to rob the London Exchange of the loot in their underground vault.
"Disconnect" (2011)
Directed by Robin Christian...
"Game of Death" (2011)
Directed by Giorgio Serafini
Released by Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Quite possibly Wesley Snipes' last film for a long, long time, this action flick features the "Passenger 57" star as a CIA agent who is betrayed by his employer after he's deployed to take out an arms dealer in Detroit. "Grindhouse" star Zoe Bell is onhand to provide backup.
"Celestial Films: Lady Hermit" (1971)
Directed by Meng Hua Ho
Released by Funimation
An aspiring female kung fu warrior searches for an elusive master who turns out to pretend to be a servant in this Shaw Brothers produced action flick.
"Daylight Robbery" (2008)
Directed by Paris Leonti
Released by Well Go USA
Paris Leonti's heist flick involves a group of misfits who plot to rob the London Exchange of the loot in their underground vault.
"Disconnect" (2011)
Directed by Robin Christian...
- 2/15/2011
- by Stephen Saito
- ifc.com
"If there is one aspect of Susan Sontag's multifaceted life that has resisted enshrinement, it is her film career." In the Los Angeles Times, Dennis Lim addresses the impact of her film criticism before turning to her actual films, the third of which, Promised Lands, "took her abroad, to Israel in fall 1973, in the final days of the Yom Kippur War. New to DVD this week from Zeitgeist/KimStim, it is Sontag's only documentary and her best-regarded movie; she also considered it her most personal film… The most striking thing about Promised Lands, given who made it, is how little the film depends on words… The film's observational passages take in daily life on the streets, prayers at the Wailing Wall, a service at the war cemetery, a wax museum that memorializes Israel's often violent history and, most memorably, the aftermath of the desert combat. Sontag ventures into a...
- 2/9/2011
- MUBI
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