These ten horror films, helmed by talented women directors, offer a diverse range of storytelling and filmmaking styles, proving that the horror genre is enriched by their unique perspectives and creative vision.
The Babadook (2014) – Directed by Jennifer Kent: This Australian psychological horror film follows a single mother and her son who are haunted by a sinister presence that emerges from a mysterious children’s book. Jennifer Kent’s masterful direction creates a chilling atmosphere and explores themes of grief and motherhood. American Psycho (2000) – Directed by Mary Harron: Based on the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, “American Psycho” is a satirical horror film that delves into the mind of a wealthy investment banker with psychopathic tendencies. Mary Harron’s direction infuses the film with dark humour and unsettling tension. Near Dark (1987) – Directed by Kathryn Bigelow: Kathryn Bigelow’s stylish and unconventional take on the vampire genre is a cult classic.
The Babadook (2014) – Directed by Jennifer Kent: This Australian psychological horror film follows a single mother and her son who are haunted by a sinister presence that emerges from a mysterious children’s book. Jennifer Kent’s masterful direction creates a chilling atmosphere and explores themes of grief and motherhood. American Psycho (2000) – Directed by Mary Harron: Based on the controversial novel by Bret Easton Ellis, “American Psycho” is a satirical horror film that delves into the mind of a wealthy investment banker with psychopathic tendencies. Mary Harron’s direction infuses the film with dark humour and unsettling tension. Near Dark (1987) – Directed by Kathryn Bigelow: Kathryn Bigelow’s stylish and unconventional take on the vampire genre is a cult classic.
- 4/9/2024
- by George P Thomas
- Nerdly
You don’t need to have lived in the proverbial middle of nowhere to understand the kind of terror Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury’s The Soul Eater mines from the fictional Roquenoix. As shot by Simon Roca, this remote hamlet in northeastern France isn’t a ghost town so much as a burial ground where humans and buildings alike are waiting to rot. A grandiose sanatorium once towered over the tree-shrouded hills, bringing in enough cash and tourists to fill the village’s coffers. But when a motorway was built across the valley, the tourists disappeared, the sanatorium was abandoned; and the few who stayed behind were left to wrestle with an ancestral legend and a series of murders that may or may not be connected with it.
The single most terrifying thing in The Soul Eater isn’t the titular devourer, but that spectral, lifeless town where its victims are stranded.
The single most terrifying thing in The Soul Eater isn’t the titular devourer, but that spectral, lifeless town where its victims are stranded.
- 2/2/2024
- by Leonardo Goi
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
’90s Horror, Art-House Horror, and Pre-Code Horror
It’s October, which means you are likely crafting an endless queue of horror films to consume. When it comes to a single streaming service to dedicate your eyes to this month, The Criterion Channel takes the cake with three different series. First up, ’90s horror brings together such films as The Rapture (1991), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Addiction (1995), and Ravenous (1999), while Art-House Horror features Häxan (1922), Vampyr (1932), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Carnival of Souls (1962), Onibaba (1964), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Sisters (1973), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Suspiria (1977), Arrebato (1979), The Brood (1979), The Vanishing (1988), Cronos (1993), Cure (1997), Donnie Darko (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Antichrist (2009), and more. Lastly, Pre-Code horrors brings together ’30s features such as Freaks (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House...
’90s Horror, Art-House Horror, and Pre-Code Horror
It’s October, which means you are likely crafting an endless queue of horror films to consume. When it comes to a single streaming service to dedicate your eyes to this month, The Criterion Channel takes the cake with three different series. First up, ’90s horror brings together such films as The Rapture (1991), In the Mouth of Madness (1994), The Addiction (1995), and Ravenous (1999), while Art-House Horror features Häxan (1922), Vampyr (1932), Eyes Without a Face (1960), Carnival of Souls (1962), Onibaba (1964), Night of the Living Dead (1968), Sisters (1973), Eraserhead (1977), House (1977), Suspiria (1977), Arrebato (1979), The Brood (1979), The Vanishing (1988), Cronos (1993), Cure (1997), Donnie Darko (2001), Trouble Every Day (2001), Antichrist (2009), and more. Lastly, Pre-Code horrors brings together ’30s features such as Freaks (1932), Island of Lost Souls (1932), The Old Dark House...
- 10/6/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
These last few years the Criterion Channel have made October viewing much easier to prioritize, and in the spirit of their ’70s and ’80s horror series we’ve graduated to––you guessed it––”’90s Horror.” A couple of obvious classics stand with cult favorites and more unknown entities (When a Stranger Calls Back and Def By Temptation are new to me). Three more series continue the trend: “Technothrillers” does what it says on the tin, courtesy the likes of eXistenZ and Demonlover; “Art-House Horror” is precisely the kind of place to host Cure, Suspiria, Onibaba; and “Pre-Code Horror” is a black-and-white dream. Phantom of the Paradise, Unfriended, and John Brahm’s The Lodger are added elsewhere.
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
James Gray is the latest with an “Adventures in Moviegoing” series populated by deep cuts and straight classics. Stonewalling and restorations of Trouble Every Day and The Devil, Probably make streaming debuts, while Flesh for Frankenstein,...
- 9/28/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
In 2001, Agnès Godard became the first woman to win the Césare award for Best Cinematography on her own (Marie Perennou shared it with three men in 1997 for her documentary “Microcosmos”). Godard’s prize was for shooting Claire Denis’ “Beau Travail,” the poetic riff on “Billy Budd” that investigates masculinity in the French Foreign Legion.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
“I thought it was funny because the film was about all these men,” she said, sitting down for an interview in New York ahead of a new film series of her work. “It was kind of ironic. I was smiling a bit. It wasn’t revenge. But it was funny.” But the milestone moment didn’t generate any headlines. “At the time, nobody mentioned it,” she said.
While the number of female cinematographers worldwide has inched up in recent years, it was a much narrower field when the 71-year-old Godard entered the profession over 30 years ago.
- 4/4/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Holy DC synergy! “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” stars Dame Helen Mirren and Zachary Levi will pop up on tonight’s episode of “The Masked Singer,” which is being billed as “DC Superheroes Night.” Variety has a first look at their appearance; scroll down to watch.
Also appearing will be DC chief creative officer Jim Lee. All three will pop up to offer “superclues” about some of the night’s contestants.
Mirren and Levi, who appear remotely on screen and not in person, present clues for two of the night’s contestants, “Gargoyle” and “Wolf,” while Lee presents a clue for “Squirrel.”
“I would not miss DC Superhero night for the world unless of course, you know, I was saving it,” Levi says in the clip. Here’s the clue: “Now nothing is set in stone. But this clue is rock solid. You’re about to get some real concrete answers.
Also appearing will be DC chief creative officer Jim Lee. All three will pop up to offer “superclues” about some of the night’s contestants.
Mirren and Levi, who appear remotely on screen and not in person, present clues for two of the night’s contestants, “Gargoyle” and “Wolf,” while Lee presents a clue for “Squirrel.”
“I would not miss DC Superhero night for the world unless of course, you know, I was saving it,” Levi says in the clip. Here’s the clue: “Now nothing is set in stone. But this clue is rock solid. You’re about to get some real concrete answers.
- 3/8/2023
- by Michael Schneider
- Variety Film + TV
It’s been nine years since Tindersticks released a Claire Denis soundtrack; every listen to Stars at Noon (of which I’ve had several this week) justifies that wait. While I loved their bongo- and horn-laden spell cast across the film, both complementing and (frankly) sometimes elevating a characteristically slippery Denis picture, the full work’s a consummate pleasure heard standalone.
Whatever the consistency that can give it some symphonic character—shaped by and working from one of the great leitmotifs this 30-year-old band has yet devised—I’ve found myself returning to individual pieces (two favorites: “Motel Rain” and “Dawn Walk Home”) for their deviations, carefully amended tempos, arrangements, volumes. And the title track, which got a video last week, stands with “Trouble Every Day” or “Put Your Love In Me” as a precise meeting of Tindersticks’ abilities and Denis’ worlds.
Stream below:
The post Stream Tindersticks' Stars at...
Whatever the consistency that can give it some symphonic character—shaped by and working from one of the great leitmotifs this 30-year-old band has yet devised—I’ve found myself returning to individual pieces (two favorites: “Motel Rain” and “Dawn Walk Home”) for their deviations, carefully amended tempos, arrangements, volumes. And the title track, which got a video last week, stands with “Trouble Every Day” or “Put Your Love In Me” as a precise meeting of Tindersticks’ abilities and Denis’ worlds.
Stream below:
The post Stream Tindersticks' Stars at...
- 10/14/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Los Angeles Film Critics Association has chosen French writer-director Claire Denis as the recipient of this year’s Career Achievement Award, the organization announced Wednesday. Lafca’s first in-person awards ceremony in three years will be held on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023.
“We are thrilled to be honoring Claire Denis, one of the best living film auteurs and a master at depicting the identity crises faced by both the colonizer and the colonized,” said Lafca president Claudia Puig in a statement. “A distinctive sociopolitical point of view and anti-patriarchal sensibility infuse her work, which is deeply evocative — often tender and intimate but never sentimental — and always uncompromising.”
Also Read:
Oscars International Race 2022: Full List of Entries (So Far)
Denis’ film “Stars at Noon” – starring Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn and Robert Pattinson – won the second-place Grand Prix award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In February, Denis was awarded Venice...
“We are thrilled to be honoring Claire Denis, one of the best living film auteurs and a master at depicting the identity crises faced by both the colonizer and the colonized,” said Lafca president Claudia Puig in a statement. “A distinctive sociopolitical point of view and anti-patriarchal sensibility infuse her work, which is deeply evocative — often tender and intimate but never sentimental — and always uncompromising.”
Also Read:
Oscars International Race 2022: Full List of Entries (So Far)
Denis’ film “Stars at Noon” – starring Margaret Qualley, Joe Alwyn and Robert Pattinson – won the second-place Grand Prix award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. In February, Denis was awarded Venice...
- 10/12/2022
- by Sharon Knolle
- The Wrap
Could Claire Denis pull a rare two film in two back to back film festival (Berlinale-Cannes) double win a la Ryusuke Hamaguchi? As we saw with last night’s world premiere screening for Stars At Noon — it’s definitely a possibility. This is only Denis’ second time in competition – her last time in comp was in 1988 with Chocolat. In 1994, I Can’t Sleep was selected in the Un Certain Regard and after Trouble Every Day (2001) she became more of a Venice mainstay. Her 2013 film Bastards was also an Un Certain Regard section (it should have been in comp) and her 2017 film Let the Sunshine In opened the Directors’ Fortnight.…...
- 5/26/2022
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Claire Denis may have fallen in love with Margaret Qualley because of her coltish and carefree performance as one of the Manson girls in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, yet I can’t help but suspect that — if only subconsciously — there may be another reason why she decided to cast the young actress in the lead role of “Stars at Noon.”
Like so many of Denis’ films, this sweaty romantic thriller about two white foreigners who fall in love (or at least fuck a lot) against the background of Central American political tensions is a cryptic and carnal search for a way out of purgatory. And like so many of Denis’ films, the incandescent “Stars at Noon” is cut with such jagged atemporality that it often seems set in a space between time, where the past never happened and the future may never come.
In this case, that dislocated...
Like so many of Denis’ films, this sweaty romantic thriller about two white foreigners who fall in love (or at least fuck a lot) against the background of Central American political tensions is a cryptic and carnal search for a way out of purgatory. And like so many of Denis’ films, the incandescent “Stars at Noon” is cut with such jagged atemporality that it often seems set in a space between time, where the past never happened and the future may never come.
In this case, that dislocated...
- 5/25/2022
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film at Lincoln Center
A regular performer for Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka is celebrated in a retrospective of films she directed, as restored by Janus, alongside work by her collaborators.
Bam
“Lynchian” mostly does what it says on the tin—and plenty on 35mm—but also includes those influenced: Perfect Blue, Trouble Every Day, and Uncle Boonmee.
Film Forum
Joseph Losey’s great Mr. Klein has been restored, while School of Rock screens this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
Manhunter and Ikiru screen on 35mm this weekend.
Paris Theater
The all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective winds down with Holy Smoke and Bright Star.
Metrograph
Metrograph A to Z continues; two Muppet movies screen in Play Time; Eyes Without a Face, Vagabond, and The Young Girls of Rochefort lead “Left Bank Cinema“; South Park and Perfect Blue are in “Late Nights.
Film at Lincoln Center
A regular performer for Ozu, Mizoguchi, and Naruse, Kinuyo Tanaka is celebrated in a retrospective of films she directed, as restored by Janus, alongside work by her collaborators.
Bam
“Lynchian” mostly does what it says on the tin—and plenty on 35mm—but also includes those influenced: Perfect Blue, Trouble Every Day, and Uncle Boonmee.
Film Forum
Joseph Losey’s great Mr. Klein has been restored, while School of Rock screens this Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
Manhunter and Ikiru screen on 35mm this weekend.
Paris Theater
The all-35mm Jane Campion retrospective winds down with Holy Smoke and Bright Star.
Metrograph
Metrograph A to Z continues; two Muppet movies screen in Play Time; Eyes Without a Face, Vagabond, and The Young Girls of Rochefort lead “Left Bank Cinema“; South Park and Perfect Blue are in “Late Nights.
- 3/16/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After a hiatus as theaters in New York City and beyond closed their doors during the pandemic, we’re delighted to announce the return of NYC Weekend Watch, our weekly round-up of repertory offerings. While many theaters are still focused on a selection of new releases, there’s a handful of worthwhile repertory screenings taking place.
IFC Center
The films of Catherine Breillat are highlighted in an extensive retrospective, while Solaris screens for its 50th anniversary.
Film Forum
A massive Toshiro Mifune retrospective has begun, while the new 35mm print of The Conversation continues its run and Girl Shy plays Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
The truly, absolutely inimitable Vincent Gallo is paid tribute with 35mm screenings of Buffalo ’66, The Brown Bunny, and Trouble Every Day.
Anthology Film Archives
“Homecoming Films” offers work by Lang, Welles, Buñuel, Mekas and more.
Metrograph
Films by Minelli, Lubitsch, Renoir, and Powell & Pressburger screen in “Technicolor Romance.
IFC Center
The films of Catherine Breillat are highlighted in an extensive retrospective, while Solaris screens for its 50th anniversary.
Film Forum
A massive Toshiro Mifune retrospective has begun, while the new 35mm print of The Conversation continues its run and Girl Shy plays Sunday.
Roxy Cinema
The truly, absolutely inimitable Vincent Gallo is paid tribute with 35mm screenings of Buffalo ’66, The Brown Bunny, and Trouble Every Day.
Anthology Film Archives
“Homecoming Films” offers work by Lang, Welles, Buñuel, Mekas and more.
Metrograph
Films by Minelli, Lubitsch, Renoir, and Powell & Pressburger screen in “Technicolor Romance.
- 2/11/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
One of the most fruitful collaborations in cinema history has been between Claire Denis and Stuart Staples’ band Tindersticks. After working together on a number of films––Nénette et Boni, Trouble Every Day, The Intruder, 35 Shots of Rum, White Material, Bastards, and High Life––their latest team-up comes with Fire.
Led by Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Mati Diop, Grégoire Colin, Bulle Ogier, Issa Perica, and Binoche’s daughter Hana Magimel, the love-triangle romance is one of 2022’s most-anticipated. As our first real preview, Tindersticks have unveiled the closing song as well as revealing it’ll premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 12.
Titled Both Sides of the Blade, it’s part of their new greatest-hits collection Past imperfect : the best of tindersticks ’92 – ‘21, which is set for release on March 25. The music video for this rather beautifully somber track, depicting a woman shaving in front of a mirror,...
Led by Juliette Binoche, Vincent Lindon, Mati Diop, Grégoire Colin, Bulle Ogier, Issa Perica, and Binoche’s daughter Hana Magimel, the love-triangle romance is one of 2022’s most-anticipated. As our first real preview, Tindersticks have unveiled the closing song as well as revealing it’ll premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival on February 12.
Titled Both Sides of the Blade, it’s part of their new greatest-hits collection Past imperfect : the best of tindersticks ’92 – ‘21, which is set for release on March 25. The music video for this rather beautifully somber track, depicting a woman shaving in front of a mirror,...
- 1/18/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Daniela Leyva at La Mitad del Continente (“The Howls”), Andrea Toca at Mexico’s Un Beso Cine (“Human Animals”) and Diana Bustamante at Burning Sas (“Buy Me a Gun”) have teamed to co-produce the vampire drama “The Day is Long and Dark,” the eighth feature from one of Mexico’s most important directors, Julio Hernández Cordón.
“Working with Julio has always been an enthralling experience. With this film there is also a mixture of things that interests me on a narrative level. Julio’s cinema is always a welcomed surprise,” producer and artistic director of the Cartagena International Film Festival Diana Bustamante told Variety.
From his first film “Gasolina” – winner as a project at San Sebastian’s work in progress section in 2007 and one year later at its Horizontes showcase – Hernández’s features have played at festivals including Locarno, Mar del Plata (“I Promise You Anarchy”), San Sebastian and Torino...
“Working with Julio has always been an enthralling experience. With this film there is also a mixture of things that interests me on a narrative level. Julio’s cinema is always a welcomed surprise,” producer and artistic director of the Cartagena International Film Festival Diana Bustamante told Variety.
From his first film “Gasolina” – winner as a project at San Sebastian’s work in progress section in 2007 and one year later at its Horizontes showcase – Hernández’s features have played at festivals including Locarno, Mar del Plata (“I Promise You Anarchy”), San Sebastian and Torino...
- 9/24/2021
- by Emilio Mayorga
- Variety Film + TV
The Specials will release an album of cover songs, Protest Songs – 1924-2012, on September 24th. The release will include 12 new versions of protest songs by artists like Bob Marley, Leonard Cohen, and Frank Zappa.
The British group has previewed the album with a rendition of “Freedom Highway,” a song by the Staple Singers that was written for the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
“The beginning of 2020 saw us all together making a reggae record before we each fell ill with Covid-19 and had to put the album on ice,...
The British group has previewed the album with a rendition of “Freedom Highway,” a song by the Staple Singers that was written for the civil rights marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
“The beginning of 2020 saw us all together making a reggae record before we each fell ill with Covid-19 and had to put the album on ice,...
- 8/17/2021
- by Emily Zemler
- Rollingstone.com
French filmmaker Claire Denis’ most recent feature, “High Life,” was not only her English-language debut, but possibly the highest-profile movie of her career. It starred none other than Robert Pattinson, aka The Batman, who had wanted to work with the French auteur for years. Their second film together, “The Stars at Noon,” which was set to co-star Margaret Qualley, has been put on the shelf for now, due to Covid.
Continue reading ‘Fire’: Clarie Denis’ New Film Starring Juliette Binoche Shooting For Cannes Debut, ‘Stars At Noon’ May Shoot In April at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘Fire’: Clarie Denis’ New Film Starring Juliette Binoche Shooting For Cannes Debut, ‘Stars At Noon’ May Shoot In April at The Playlist.
- 1/8/2021
- by Charles Barfield
- The Playlist
While they are giants in the world of French filmmaking and recognized as international talents, it seems strange to think that the first time Juliette Binoche and filmmaker Claire Denis worked together was only in 2017 on “Let The Sunshine In.” They quickly followed that up with “High Life” in 2018 starring Robert Pattinson and perhaps they’re now making up for lost time as Binoche will now star in a third upcoming film from the filmmaker known for “White Material” with Isabelle Huppert, and “Trouble Every Day” with Vincent Gallo among others.
Continue reading Juliette Binoche Reunites With Claire Denis Again For ‘Radioscopie’ With Vincent Lindon at The Playlist.
Continue reading Juliette Binoche Reunites With Claire Denis Again For ‘Radioscopie’ With Vincent Lindon at The Playlist.
- 11/26/2020
- by Rodrigo Perez
- The Playlist
The election is days away. No one knows if there will be an orderly turnover or the disorderly donut hole of malevolent maneuverings. The nation is divided and civil unrest is in the air. This follows a summer which was prophetically and perennially summed up in “Trouble Every Day,” a song from Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention’s 1966 debut album Freak Out!
“Wednesday I watched the riot,” Zappa sings on the song he wrote after seeing the Watts Uprising of 1965. “I seen the cops out on the street. Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff, and chokin’ in the heat. … Watched while everybody on his street would take a turn to stomp n’ smash n’ bash n’ crash n’ slash n’ bust n’ burn.”
These and similar scenes were repeated during the global George Floyd protests in 2020, along with charges of accompanying police brutality.
Long before the #BlackLivesMatter movement highlighted white privileged compliance,...
“Wednesday I watched the riot,” Zappa sings on the song he wrote after seeing the Watts Uprising of 1965. “I seen the cops out on the street. Watched ’em throwin’ rocks and stuff, and chokin’ in the heat. … Watched while everybody on his street would take a turn to stomp n’ smash n’ bash n’ crash n’ slash n’ bust n’ burn.”
These and similar scenes were repeated during the global George Floyd protests in 2020, along with charges of accompanying police brutality.
Long before the #BlackLivesMatter movement highlighted white privileged compliance,...
- 10/29/2020
- by Mike Cecchini
- Den of Geek
[Spoiler Alert: The following article discusses the ending of new film “Amulet” in detail.]
Romola Garai loves the f-word. The actor’s feature film debut as writer-director, “Amulet,” now available on demand, began its buzz out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with audiences praising it as a feminist horror film — and Garai has no qualms with that label. “Oh, I’m always very comfortable with the f-word,” Garai says with a laugh. “It’s a word I feel extremely comfortable with and would like written on everything. If I had a glass of water and people asked, ’Is that a feminist glass of water?’ I’d be like, ‘Yes, yes it is!’”
Since Garai is best known as an actor for her work in acclaimed period productions like “Atonement” and the BBC miniseries “Emma,” horror might seem an odd choice for her first feature foray behind the camera. But Garai has long loved the genre; she cites Claire Denis...
Romola Garai loves the f-word. The actor’s feature film debut as writer-director, “Amulet,” now available on demand, began its buzz out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with audiences praising it as a feminist horror film — and Garai has no qualms with that label. “Oh, I’m always very comfortable with the f-word,” Garai says with a laugh. “It’s a word I feel extremely comfortable with and would like written on everything. If I had a glass of water and people asked, ’Is that a feminist glass of water?’ I’d be like, ‘Yes, yes it is!’”
Since Garai is best known as an actor for her work in acclaimed period productions like “Atonement” and the BBC miniseries “Emma,” horror might seem an odd choice for her first feature foray behind the camera. But Garai has long loved the genre; she cites Claire Denis...
- 7/27/2020
- by Jenelle Riley
- Variety Film + TV
A few years before Roy Thomas Baker gained fame as the producer for some of the greatest albums by Queen and the Cars, he was one of several engineers to work with the ever-prolific Frank Zappa.
A new four-disc box set, The Mothers 1970, spotlights some of the work Baker did with Zappa, including a rare early mix of “Sharleena,” the track that closed out Zappa’s Chunga’s Revenge LP.
Interestingly, it’s cleaner sounding and doesn’t have as much of the mushy background guitar that creeps up in the Chunga version,...
A new four-disc box set, The Mothers 1970, spotlights some of the work Baker did with Zappa, including a rare early mix of “Sharleena,” the track that closed out Zappa’s Chunga’s Revenge LP.
Interestingly, it’s cleaner sounding and doesn’t have as much of the mushy background guitar that creeps up in the Chunga version,...
- 5/28/2020
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
HBO Max, Peacock, Quibi, Disney+! The wealth of streaming services new or upcoming this year is enough to keep your eyeballs glued to the screen indefinitely. But for classic and indie cinephiles stuck indoors right now, there are plenty of indie alternatives (which IndieWire covers in the weekly Streaming Wars: Indie Edition column). Along with virtual cinemas popping up left and right, and of course the stalwart Criterion Channel, there’s a new indie offering in town via Mubi.
The over-the-top distribution service has just debuted Library, which, if you remember the old days of Mubi, is very similar to the platform’s original conceit. Library is now a filmgoer’s dream warehouse filled with tons of independent and classic movies, black-and-white favorites as far back as 1922’s “Nosferatu,” and more recent fare like “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” Luca Guadagnino’s lavish short film “The Staggering Girl,” starring Julianne Moore, plus “Bruce Lee and the Outlaw,...
The over-the-top distribution service has just debuted Library, which, if you remember the old days of Mubi, is very similar to the platform’s original conceit. Library is now a filmgoer’s dream warehouse filled with tons of independent and classic movies, black-and-white favorites as far back as 1922’s “Nosferatu,” and more recent fare like “Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda,” Luca Guadagnino’s lavish short film “The Staggering Girl,” starring Julianne Moore, plus “Bruce Lee and the Outlaw,...
- 5/23/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Unheard recordings from Frank Zappa’s short-lived but beloved 1970 lineup of the Mothers feature in the upcoming box set The Mothers 1970, a four-disc set featuring 70 unreleased studio and live tracks out of the legendary guitarist’s Vault.
The Zappa Trust announced the June 26th-bound release with the newly unearthed “Portuguese Fenders,” a searing live instrumental boasting a fiery Zappa solo; the track was discovered among other live performances Zappa recorded himself on his personal tape recorder.
The release celebrates the 50th anniversary of that Mothers (formerly “of Invention”) iteration, which...
The Zappa Trust announced the June 26th-bound release with the newly unearthed “Portuguese Fenders,” a searing live instrumental boasting a fiery Zappa solo; the track was discovered among other live performances Zappa recorded himself on his personal tape recorder.
The release celebrates the 50th anniversary of that Mothers (formerly “of Invention”) iteration, which...
- 5/8/2020
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
French filmmaker Claire Denis achieved a new level of exposure last year with A24’s release of her daring and decidedly anti-sci-fi science-fiction film “High Life,” cementing her place as the jewel of Film Twitter and a coveted collaborator among mainstream artists and actors. That includes The Weeknd, aka Abel Makkonen Tesfaye, a cinephile and self-professed fan of her work, from her sensual military tale “Beau Travail” to cannibal romance “Trouble Every Day.”
His fandom, as revealed in a recent “quarantine edition” interview with Claire Denis in Vulture, has spawned a collaboration. While A24 announced earlier this year that Denis would re-team with the studio and “High Life” star Robert Pattinson, for “The Stars at Night,” a love story set during the Nicaraguan Revolution and co-starring Margaret Qualley, Denis said she was about to start shooting another project with The Weeknd in Los Angeles when quarantine orders hit.
“Last month,...
His fandom, as revealed in a recent “quarantine edition” interview with Claire Denis in Vulture, has spawned a collaboration. While A24 announced earlier this year that Denis would re-team with the studio and “High Life” star Robert Pattinson, for “The Stars at Night,” a love story set during the Nicaraguan Revolution and co-starring Margaret Qualley, Denis said she was about to start shooting another project with The Weeknd in Los Angeles when quarantine orders hit.
“Last month,...
- 5/2/2020
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan, who is no stranger to collaborative projects, has joined up with a new collective called Humanist for a moody new song called “Shock Collar.”
In the video, he pleads that he “never lied,” in his signature croon, singing amid swirling guitars and electro drums as strobes flash red and blue around him. The song will appear on the first album by Humanist, due out February 21st.
Humanist is a new project by Rob Marshall, who plays guitar with Exit Calm and previously wrote two albums...
In the video, he pleads that he “never lied,” in his signature croon, singing amid swirling guitars and electro drums as strobes flash red and blue around him. The song will appear on the first album by Humanist, due out February 21st.
Humanist is a new project by Rob Marshall, who plays guitar with Exit Calm and previously wrote two albums...
- 1/13/2020
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
Never one to shy away from audacious conceits, from a Moody Blues needle-drop in a late-19th century Parisian brothel in “House of Pleasures” to the sympathetic treatment of terrorist radicals in “Nocturama,” French director Bertrand Bonello returns with a brow-raising one in “Zombi Child,” a political horror film that bundles the sins of colonialism with those of mischievous boarding-school girls. Alternating between a fact-based case of zombieism in 1962 Haiti and a clique of privileged students in contemporary France, the film brings the legacy of Haitian suffering and hardship to the doorstep of a Legion of Honor school with ties to the Napoleonic age. Though Bonello eventually reveals a more concrete bridge between eras,
Though the story of Clairvius Narcisse is largely considered more legend than fact, he was a real Haitian man who supposedly turned into a zombie in 1962 and rematerialized in 1980 in perfectly normal health. The likely catalyst of his transformation was tetrodotoxin,...
Though the story of Clairvius Narcisse is largely considered more legend than fact, he was a real Haitian man who supposedly turned into a zombie in 1962 and rematerialized in 1980 in perfectly normal health. The likely catalyst of his transformation was tetrodotoxin,...
- 9/7/2019
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
Ever since Gaspar Noé cranked up his ambition with “Enter the Void” 10 years ago, the filmmaker has divided audiences with unruly, disorienting filmmaking techniques. Frames blink in and out, cameras float and speed through unexpected spaces, and neon palettes pulsate. His recent spate of movies often yield overwhelming experiences closer to the visceral terrain of avant-garde cinema than the narrative traditions he roots within the mayhem. His style can be a mixed bag of visual provocations, but his showmanship remains admirable for its bold swings each time out.
It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.
It’s hard to imagine that Noé could serve any master other than himself, and it comes as no great surprise that his recent assignment to make a 15-minute commercial for Yves Saint Laurent went awry when Noé turned it into his own weird thing: “Lux Æterna,” a 50-minute psychedelic mockumentary about a film shoot gone wrong, distills Noé’s talents to a more palatable serving size.
- 5/19/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
The words “hologram tour” conjure images of a cold, dystopian future. Video of the Japanese concert sensation Hatsune Miku looks a bit like a scene from Blade Runner 2049. The Tupac hologram is still surreal. And the technology could give Kiss the ability to launch final tours in every city every night into infinity, should they adopt it. One artist whom the practice makes complete sense for, though, is Frank Zappa. A few years before he died, he wrote in his autobiography that he would love to roll out what...
- 4/25/2019
- by Kory Grow
- Rollingstone.com
“Paris, Texas” doesn’t typically come to mind when people think of dangerous productions, but at least one incident on the set of Wim Wenders’ mournful classic starring Harry Dean Stanton was a close call. Speaking to Rian Johnson on the A24 podcast, “High Life” director Claire Denis revealed that, while serving as Wenders’ assistant on the film, she tried to convince him it would be a good idea for Stanton’s character to cross the Rio Grande — so much so, in fact, that she attempted the feat herself.
“I became crazy at that time and I told Wim, ‘Wim, maybe Harry Dean Stanton should cross over the Rio Grande?,’ and he told me, ‘Maybe he would be afraid?’ I said, ‘It’s nothing, I can cross the Rio Grande just like that. Once, twice,'” said Denis. “I went with my jeans on. And I kept my shoes because it’s full of stone.
“I became crazy at that time and I told Wim, ‘Wim, maybe Harry Dean Stanton should cross over the Rio Grande?,’ and he told me, ‘Maybe he would be afraid?’ I said, ‘It’s nothing, I can cross the Rio Grande just like that. Once, twice,'” said Denis. “I went with my jeans on. And I kept my shoes because it’s full of stone.
- 4/22/2019
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Don Kaye Apr 17, 2019
Actor Robert Pattinson and director Claire Denis expound on their cerebral new sci-fi movie High Life.
Robert Pattinson has pursued an eclectic career since becoming a pop culture icon as Edward in the Twilight movies. Instead of cashing in on his fame via one blockbuster role after another, he has pursued a largely off-beat path, working with directors outside the Hollywood system such as David Cronenberg on Maps to the Stars and Cosmopolis, David Michod on The Rover and James Gray on The Lost City of Z. So it makes sense that he has now teamed with French filmmaker Claire Denis, the iconoclastic artist behind movies like Beau Travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001), and White Material (2009).
In High Life, Denis’ first foray into science fiction--although she hesitates to call it that--Pattinson plays Monte, one of a group of criminals who exchange their sentences for an experimental voyage to a black hole.
Actor Robert Pattinson and director Claire Denis expound on their cerebral new sci-fi movie High Life.
Robert Pattinson has pursued an eclectic career since becoming a pop culture icon as Edward in the Twilight movies. Instead of cashing in on his fame via one blockbuster role after another, he has pursued a largely off-beat path, working with directors outside the Hollywood system such as David Cronenberg on Maps to the Stars and Cosmopolis, David Michod on The Rover and James Gray on The Lost City of Z. So it makes sense that he has now teamed with French filmmaker Claire Denis, the iconoclastic artist behind movies like Beau Travail (1999), Trouble Every Day (2001), and White Material (2009).
In High Life, Denis’ first foray into science fiction--although she hesitates to call it that--Pattinson plays Monte, one of a group of criminals who exchange their sentences for an experimental voyage to a black hole.
- 4/17/2019
- Den of Geek
Frank Zappa’s digital stand-in cranks out a guitar solo in rehearsal footage for the upcoming tour featuring a hologram of the late guitarist-composer.
In the clip, “Zappa” is decked out in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, wielding his signature red Gibson Sg — a visual that calls to mind his iconic performances documented on 1973’s Roxy & Elsewhere.
The promo is soundtracked by the studio version of bluesy fan favorite “Cosmik Debris” from 1974’s Apostrophe (’). The footage, however, doesn’t sync-up, instead previewing visual cues from several songs on the...
In the clip, “Zappa” is decked out in blue jeans and a black T-shirt, wielding his signature red Gibson Sg — a visual that calls to mind his iconic performances documented on 1973’s Roxy & Elsewhere.
The promo is soundtracked by the studio version of bluesy fan favorite “Cosmik Debris” from 1974’s Apostrophe (’). The footage, however, doesn’t sync-up, instead previewing visual cues from several songs on the...
- 4/11/2019
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
Jury will present three Cinéfondation prizes.
French filmmaker Claire Denis will be the president of the Cinéfondation and short films jury at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival (May 14 - 25).
Led by Denis, the Cinéfondation jury will watch 17 short and medium-length student films, and award three prizes at a ceremony on May 23.
Denis will also present the short film Palme d’Or at the festival closing ceremony on May 25.
She has directed 13 features, four of which were screened in the Cannes Film Festival official selection.
Her first film Chocolat, a semi-autobiographical tale about the Africa of her childhood, played in Competition...
French filmmaker Claire Denis will be the president of the Cinéfondation and short films jury at the 72nd Cannes Film Festival (May 14 - 25).
Led by Denis, the Cinéfondation jury will watch 17 short and medium-length student films, and award three prizes at a ceremony on May 23.
Denis will also present the short film Palme d’Or at the festival closing ceremony on May 25.
She has directed 13 features, four of which were screened in the Cannes Film Festival official selection.
Her first film Chocolat, a semi-autobiographical tale about the Africa of her childhood, played in Competition...
- 4/5/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
It begins in a lush, green garden, but “High Life,” the quiet, bracing and ultimately moving first English-language film from acclaimed French director Claire Denis, is the antithesis of a creation story. A science-fiction parable of despair, filled with more brutality than kindness and more pessimism than hope, its optimistic title is a sliver of bitter irony.
The garden, bursting with vegetables and shrouded in mist, sits housed inside a shabby spaceship containing Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter Willow (Scarlett Lindsey), the last two living people onboard. In a series of flashbacks, the vessel’s function becomes somewhat clear and significantly more ominous: Formerly a cell block full of death-row inmates, this floating utilitarian prison box is on a one-way trip to a black hole.
Monte, in for murder alongside other violent criminals but assuming the role of the ship’s most monk-like crew member, delivers narration explaining the task.
The garden, bursting with vegetables and shrouded in mist, sits housed inside a shabby spaceship containing Monte (Robert Pattinson) and his baby daughter Willow (Scarlett Lindsey), the last two living people onboard. In a series of flashbacks, the vessel’s function becomes somewhat clear and significantly more ominous: Formerly a cell block full of death-row inmates, this floating utilitarian prison box is on a one-way trip to a black hole.
Monte, in for murder alongside other violent criminals but assuming the role of the ship’s most monk-like crew member, delivers narration explaining the task.
- 4/4/2019
- by Dave White
- The Wrap
As the vampire stud of the Twilight franchise, Robert Pattinson hit multiplex paydirt. Since then, he’s been raising his personal bar in the indie sphere (Good Time, Damsel). The star does himself proud in this elusive but bracing brainteaser from Claire Denis, the great French filmmaker (Beau Travail, Trouble Every Day) who’d much rather challenge audiences than coddle them. High Life is the writer-director’s first film in English, and the only one set in space. In the script she wrote with Jean-Pol Fargeau, her concerns about existence...
- 4/2/2019
- by Peter Travers
- Rollingstone.com
Hélène Fillières on Nick Cave's Into My Arms in Raising Colors (Volontaire): "It's probably the most romantic song I've ever heard." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze Laure (Diane Rouxel) with Commander Rivière (Lambert Wilson)
The last time I saw Lambert Wilson in person, he was performing his tribute to Yves Montand at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York. He was Jacques Cousteau in Jérôme Salle's The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) and now in Hélène Fillières' Raising Colors (Volontaire), co-written with Mathias Gavarry, he is Commander Rivière at the École Navale. The Commander is lovingly called 'the monk' by the chief training officer Albertini, played by Alex Descas. Laure (Diane Rouxel) in her twenties and with a first-rate education, decides to accept a job offer in the administration of the French Navy. Her mother (Josiane Balasko), a famous stage actress, is particularly upset and vocal about this turn of events.
The last time I saw Lambert Wilson in person, he was performing his tribute to Yves Montand at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York. He was Jacques Cousteau in Jérôme Salle's The Odyssey (L'Odyssée) and now in Hélène Fillières' Raising Colors (Volontaire), co-written with Mathias Gavarry, he is Commander Rivière at the École Navale. The Commander is lovingly called 'the monk' by the chief training officer Albertini, played by Alex Descas. Laure (Diane Rouxel) in her twenties and with a first-rate education, decides to accept a job offer in the administration of the French Navy. Her mother (Josiane Balasko), a famous stage actress, is particularly upset and vocal about this turn of events.
- 3/24/2019
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Blumhouse Productions founder Jason Blum stirred up controversy Wednesday when he claimed his studio hasn’t produced a theatrical release by a woman because there weren’t “a lot of female directors period, and even less who are inclined to do horror.” Many people took to Twitter to criticize Blum’s unqualified statement, with one user saying it took just one “quick Google search” to find the plethora of women at the helm of horror films. (Blum did say that he had tried to hire “The Babadook” director Jennifer Kent but she turned him down.)
Later that day, at the premiere for “Halloween,” which he produced, Blum apologized and said “Today was a great day for me because I learned a lot and because there are a lot of women out there that I’m going to meet as a result of today so I’m grateful for it.”
For...
Later that day, at the premiere for “Halloween,” which he produced, Blum apologized and said “Today was a great day for me because I learned a lot and because there are a lot of women out there that I’m going to meet as a result of today so I’m grateful for it.”
For...
- 10/18/2018
- by Rachel Yang
- Variety Film + TV
In the ranks of international arthouse auteurs, the status of Claire Denis is curiously ambiguous: depending on which lens you look through, she’s either among the most venerated or the most undervalued filmmakers working today. Ask the critical community, and you’ll leave very much with the former impression. Many writers, this one included, will heap her with lofty superlatives, “greatest working filmmaker” among them; in the last edition of Sight & Sound magazine’s famous decennial critics’ poll of the greatest films of all time, her hypnotic 1998 masterwork “Beau Travail” was one of just four films from the last 20 years to place in the top 100.
And yet, 30 years and 13 features into a career at once dauntingly consistent and thrillingly unpredictable, the diminutive 72-year-old Frenchwoman is held in curiously circumspect regard by her own industry. She has never won an award at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, with a Locarno Golden...
And yet, 30 years and 13 features into a career at once dauntingly consistent and thrillingly unpredictable, the diminutive 72-year-old Frenchwoman is held in curiously circumspect regard by her own industry. She has never won an award at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, with a Locarno Golden...
- 10/17/2018
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Never fear, director Claire Denis’ first foray into English-language filmmaking doesn’t appear to have put any kind of hitch in her unique step. The “Chocolat” and “Trouble Every Day” filmmaker has turned her attention to the wilds of space with her Robert Pattinson-starring “High Life.” The ambitious sci-fi thriller puts a twist on classic space films like “2001” and “Alien,” unspooling a strange and sexy exploration of both the human condition and the universe itself.
The film follows a group of prisoners, including Pattinson and Mia Goth, in the midst of a journey that will most likely not ever bring them back home. Juliette Binoche is also on deck as the nefarious Dr. Dibs, who has her own reasons for traveling on the black hole-bound spaceship, mainly centered around performing shocking and bizarre experiments on the ship’s criminal inhabitants.
In his glowing IndieWire review of the film from Tiff,...
The film follows a group of prisoners, including Pattinson and Mia Goth, in the midst of a journey that will most likely not ever bring them back home. Juliette Binoche is also on deck as the nefarious Dr. Dibs, who has her own reasons for traveling on the black hole-bound spaceship, mainly centered around performing shocking and bizarre experiments on the ship’s criminal inhabitants.
In his glowing IndieWire review of the film from Tiff,...
- 10/12/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Austin-based genre festival Fantastic Fest is accustomed to the big guns of genre cinema — both M. Night Shyamalan and Guillermo del Toro have made appearances — and this year, two iconic women of horror showed up to promote their new films (and old ones). Jamie Lee Curtis flipped off the audience and yucked it up for the Texas premiere of “Halloween,” while Jessica Harper surprised a stunned theater of Dario Argento superfans who anticipated the event’s secret screening would be Luca Guadagnino’s reimagining of “Suspiria.” It was, and god, was it dazzling. While these big-ticket guests and films are always a draw, the best of the fest lay in the scrappy, bizarre pics fighting tooth and nail to find their audiences.
Some of the films have already seen their world premieres at Sundance, Venice, Cannes or Tiff, but they’re no longer competing for audiences against the big mainstream...
Some of the films have already seen their world premieres at Sundance, Venice, Cannes or Tiff, but they’re no longer competing for audiences against the big mainstream...
- 9/28/2018
- by April Wolfe
- Indiewire
While High Life has understandably drawn all kinds of comparisons to the 60s and 70s cerebral sci-fi canon (notably Solaris and 2001: A Space Odyssey), for both its abstract use of space imagery and its minimalist ship design which more often than not resembles an artificially-lit hospital filled with dated technology, its soul is firmly in the sensibilities of its filmmaker, French master Claire Denis, who mines the genre for a deeply sensorial and moving portrait of the misery and horror parents are willing and perhaps responsible to endure so their children might not have to.
Denis herself has spoken frequently about her relationship with her father, who raised her in a French colonized West Africa and whose role in a machine of violence and oppression beyond her comprehension at that age has severely informed both her politics and artistry. She’s frequently wrestled with horrors of colonialism in narrative and form,...
Denis herself has spoken frequently about her relationship with her father, who raised her in a French colonized West Africa and whose role in a machine of violence and oppression beyond her comprehension at that age has severely informed both her politics and artistry. She’s frequently wrestled with horrors of colonialism in narrative and form,...
- 9/13/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
In many respects, the mesmerizing and elusive “High Life” is a first for writer-director Claire Denis: the first of her films to be shot in English, the first of her films to be set in space, and the first of her films to follow Juliette Binoche inside a metal chamber that’s referred to as “The Fuckbox,” where the world’s finest actress — playing a mad scientist aboard an intergalactic prison ship on a one-way trip to Earth’s nearest black hole — straddles a giant dildo chair and violently masturbates in a scene that’s endowed with the tortured energy of a Cirque du Soleil routine.
Needless to say, “High Life” isn’t your average science-fiction movie. In fact, Denis rejects the genre designation outright, insisting that her latest and most elliptical opus is far too grounded to be lumped in with the likes of “Star Wars” and “Solaris.
Needless to say, “High Life” isn’t your average science-fiction movie. In fact, Denis rejects the genre designation outright, insisting that her latest and most elliptical opus is far too grounded to be lumped in with the likes of “Star Wars” and “Solaris.
- 9/10/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
This shocking and amazing sci-fi drama directed by Claire Denis follows a group of voyaging astronauts who switch their attention from black holes to sex
In 2001, the French film-maker Claire Denis performed a full vivisection of the vampire film with Trouble Every Day, a philosophical, ambiguous take on the usual tropes of horror. She rendered the building blocks of an often schematic genre frightening and alien through novel formal techniques. Instead of lurking monsters jumping out to spook the audience, the camera often sneaked up on its subjects, while her narrative resisted convention at every turn in pursuit of loftier ideas about existence and transformation. The average Dracula fan might have thought they had wandered into a parallel dimension.
Seventeen years and six features later, and everything old is new again. Denis has turned her sights on sci-fi, reconfiguring its familiar components to create a startlingly fresh engagement with the...
In 2001, the French film-maker Claire Denis performed a full vivisection of the vampire film with Trouble Every Day, a philosophical, ambiguous take on the usual tropes of horror. She rendered the building blocks of an often schematic genre frightening and alien through novel formal techniques. Instead of lurking monsters jumping out to spook the audience, the camera often sneaked up on its subjects, while her narrative resisted convention at every turn in pursuit of loftier ideas about existence and transformation. The average Dracula fan might have thought they had wandered into a parallel dimension.
Seventeen years and six features later, and everything old is new again. Denis has turned her sights on sci-fi, reconfiguring its familiar components to create a startlingly fresh engagement with the...
- 9/10/2018
- by Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
The cinematography of an individual movie is oftentimes a difficult thing to judge, not only because it can be tough to separate the work of the cinematographer from the overall visual storytelling, but also because most viewers react to the look and style of a film through the lens of how we felt about the movie itself. Looking at a cinematographer’s body of work, however, can be a very different exercise, as it reveals what aesthetic aspects are specific to the cinematographer and how they impact the storytelling of the films they’ve shot.
When doing these lists, there is always a nagging feeling that we might be under-representing the great international filmmakers from around the world simply based on our own U.S.-centric viewing habits. The interesting thing about modern cinematography, though, is so many of great talents from around the world eventually feel the pull of...
When doing these lists, there is always a nagging feeling that we might be under-representing the great international filmmakers from around the world simply based on our own U.S.-centric viewing habits. The interesting thing about modern cinematography, though, is so many of great talents from around the world eventually feel the pull of...
- 5/25/2018
- by Chris O'Falt, Jude Dry, Bill Desowitz, Eric Kohn, David Ehrlich, Steve Greene, Jamie Righetti, William Earl, Zack Sharf, Jenna Marotta and Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
A new film by French auteur Claire Denis (Beau Travail, 35 Shots of Rum, White Material) is always cause for great anticipation. But perhaps even more with her latest film, High Life. While she has ventured into fantastic genre material before with her vampire film Trouble Every Day, this time she's going for science fiction, and she's taking Robert Pattinson (Twilight, Good Time) along for the ride. A synopsis of the story has been released, as well as the first image from the film. Deep space. Beyond our solar system. Monte and his infant daughter Willow live together aboard a spacecraft, in complete isolation. A solitary man, whose strict self-discipline is a protection against desire – his own and that of others – Monte fathered...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/16/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Horror movies are so much more than the sum of its parts, but no genre is more dependent on the power of discrete scenes, self-contained episodes to make you feel like you’re sweating through what’s happening on screen first-hand. It doesn’t matter if a horror movie is an atmospheric slow-burn, or if it’s a symphony of jump-scares that alternates between peaks of sustained tension and long valleys of eerie calm, all of the most terrifying films rely on a few unforgettable moments. Some of these instances are long setpieces, some are just perfectly executed jolts, but all of them are exquisitely traumatizing microcosms of the movies that contain them.
Read More:The 20 Best Foreign-Language Horror Films of the 21st Century, From ‘Trouble Every Day’ to ‘Let the Right One In’
Shut off the lights, turn up the sound, and enjoy our list of the 20 scariest movie scenes of the 21st Century.
Read More:The 20 Best Foreign-Language Horror Films of the 21st Century, From ‘Trouble Every Day’ to ‘Let the Right One In’
Shut off the lights, turn up the sound, and enjoy our list of the 20 scariest movie scenes of the 21st Century.
- 10/27/2017
- by David Ehrlich, Eric Kohn, Kate Erbland, Jamie Righetti, Chris O'Falt, Jenna Marotta, Michael Nordine and Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The question with a movie like “Jigsaw,” which was preceded by seven “Saw” movies and did not screen for press, isn’t “Is it good?” but rather “How bad is it?” The answer, dear reader, is “quite.” “Jigsaw” is quite bad.
Not that it matters much. The eighth installment in a horror franchise isn’t meant to be good; it’s meant to be gruesome. The Spierig Brothers’ contribution to the series is certainly that: One scene finds a team of medical examiners studiously examining a man with half his head blown off; another shows the results of a woman being injected with hydrochloric acid in all its gory detail. 13 years in, the filmmakers have all but given up pretending that such moments exist for any reason beyond their own sake.
Read More:‘Jigsaw’ Trailer: The ‘Saw’ Franchise Has Been Resurrected and It’s More Twisted Than Ever
It is...
Not that it matters much. The eighth installment in a horror franchise isn’t meant to be good; it’s meant to be gruesome. The Spierig Brothers’ contribution to the series is certainly that: One scene finds a team of medical examiners studiously examining a man with half his head blown off; another shows the results of a woman being injected with hydrochloric acid in all its gory detail. 13 years in, the filmmakers have all but given up pretending that such moments exist for any reason beyond their own sake.
Read More:‘Jigsaw’ Trailer: The ‘Saw’ Franchise Has Been Resurrected and It’s More Twisted Than Ever
It is...
- 10/27/2017
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
February is known as Women in Horror Month, when the spotlight is put on female filmmakers working inside our favorite genre, and many horror sites run pieces about movies directed by women. And that’s great! But there’s no reason why that spotlight should be limited to only one month, particularly when there are so many brilliant and talented female filmmakers working in the genre. Why not use this October to hit up these titles on Shudder and get to know some of the most exciting female voices in horror right now?
Prevenge (2016, dir. Alice Lowe) Alice Lowe writes, directs, and stars in this darkly comic, twisted fantasy about a woman who is very, very pregnant (Lowe herself was pregnant during shooting) and goes on a killing spree when her unborn baby talks to her and tells her to take revenge for a past tragedy. The film never fully transcends its gimmick,...
Prevenge (2016, dir. Alice Lowe) Alice Lowe writes, directs, and stars in this darkly comic, twisted fantasy about a woman who is very, very pregnant (Lowe herself was pregnant during shooting) and goes on a killing spree when her unborn baby talks to her and tells her to take revenge for a past tragedy. The film never fully transcends its gimmick,...
- 10/13/2017
- by Patrick Bromley
- DailyDead
New to Streaming: ‘Dawson City: Frozen Time,’ ‘Marjorie Prime,’ ‘Lady Macbeth,’ ‘Landline,’ and More
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Abundant Acreage Available (Angus MacLachlan)
Faith-based cinema is as diverse a genre as there is, from the extreme, often violent portraits of devotion from established directors like Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson, to the attacks on logic in the God’s Not Dead and Left Behind pictures. Angus MacLachlan, a great storyteller of the not-too-deep south, offers a nuanced example of what this genre can bring, returning with the moving Abundant Acreage Available.
Abundant Acreage Available (Angus MacLachlan)
Faith-based cinema is as diverse a genre as there is, from the extreme, often violent portraits of devotion from established directors like Martin Scorsese and Mel Gibson, to the attacks on logic in the God’s Not Dead and Left Behind pictures. Angus MacLachlan, a great storyteller of the not-too-deep south, offers a nuanced example of what this genre can bring, returning with the moving Abundant Acreage Available.
- 10/6/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Julia Ducournau’s debut feature about a young woman’s emerging taste for human flesh is an exhilarating blend of horror, humour and heartbreak
This exhilarating French-Belgian debut from writer/director Julia Ducournau is a feast for ravenous cinephiles, an extreme yet intimate tale of identity crises that blends Cronenbergian body horror with humour and heartbreak as it sinks its teeth deep into the sins of the flesh.
When a young woman arrives at veterinary college, her primary desire is to fit in, to follow in the footsteps of a proud family tradition. But when rookie hazing rituals force her to taste forbidden fruit (specifically, raw rabbit liver), the devout vegetarian discovers previously suppressed appetites. One minute she’s a strait-laced, straight-a student, the next she’s drooling at the sight of a freshly severed finger and lusting after the tempting torso of her muscular room-mate. What follows is a...
This exhilarating French-Belgian debut from writer/director Julia Ducournau is a feast for ravenous cinephiles, an extreme yet intimate tale of identity crises that blends Cronenbergian body horror with humour and heartbreak as it sinks its teeth deep into the sins of the flesh.
When a young woman arrives at veterinary college, her primary desire is to fit in, to follow in the footsteps of a proud family tradition. But when rookie hazing rituals force her to taste forbidden fruit (specifically, raw rabbit liver), the devout vegetarian discovers previously suppressed appetites. One minute she’s a strait-laced, straight-a student, the next she’s drooling at the sight of a freshly severed finger and lusting after the tempting torso of her muscular room-mate. What follows is a...
- 4/9/2017
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
Women are sinking their teeth ever deeper into horror. We chart their rise and talk to directors Ana Lily Amirpour, Julia Ducournau and Karyn Kusama
There’s a moment in French film-maker Julia Ducournau’s prize-winning feature debut Raw in which a young vegetarian (ethereally played by Garance Marillier) finds herself unexpectedly ravenous at the sight of a severed finger. It’s a deliciously horrifying vignette, squirm-inducingly squishy, yet somehow bizarrely sensual. Like Claire Denis’s controversial 2001 shocker Trouble Every Day, Raw takes an intimate approach to the taboo subject of cannibalism, sinking its teeth into the sins of the flesh. As all great horror films should, it touches a nerve – simultaneously repelling and seducing its audience, sucking us in and spitting us out.
For horror fans, Raw is the latest in an encouraging wave of genre-bending movies which have twisted familiar tropes to new and unsettling ends. At the...
There’s a moment in French film-maker Julia Ducournau’s prize-winning feature debut Raw in which a young vegetarian (ethereally played by Garance Marillier) finds herself unexpectedly ravenous at the sight of a severed finger. It’s a deliciously horrifying vignette, squirm-inducingly squishy, yet somehow bizarrely sensual. Like Claire Denis’s controversial 2001 shocker Trouble Every Day, Raw takes an intimate approach to the taboo subject of cannibalism, sinking its teeth into the sins of the flesh. As all great horror films should, it touches a nerve – simultaneously repelling and seducing its audience, sucking us in and spitting us out.
For horror fans, Raw is the latest in an encouraging wave of genre-bending movies which have twisted familiar tropes to new and unsettling ends. At the...
- 3/19/2017
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic Imogen CarterGuy LodgeKathryn Bromwich
- The Guardian - Film News
For a while there, French horror was the big thing. We horror fans were getting genre flicks that were so gruesome and grotesque, it almost boggled the mind. Films like Inside, Frontier(s), Trouble Every Day, and the like were shocking… Continue Reading →
The post Recollecting The Crimson Rivers, a Seemingly Forgotten French Horror/Thriller appeared first on Dread Central.
The post Recollecting The Crimson Rivers, a Seemingly Forgotten French Horror/Thriller appeared first on Dread Central.
- 2/23/2017
- by Jonathan Barkan
- DreadCentral.com
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