News

The Lord of the Ringsstar Orlando Bloom has been cast in a new movie that features sisters Kate and Rooney Mara teaming up in their first film. Per Deadline, Bloom as well as actor Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina)have joined the cast of the new drama Bucking Fastard from Oscar-nominated director Werner Herzog.

Bucking Fastards wrapped filming in Europe over the weekend. Real-life sisters Kate and Rooney Mara will play Jean and Joan Holbrooke, who are described as “two sisters who are so close to each other that they speak in unison, love the same man, and have the same dreams. They even make the same slip of the tongue in unison. In search of an imaginary land, the Orkneys - where true love is possible - they start digging a tunnel through an entire mountain range.”

Bloom will play the sisters’ rowdy ex-lover, Gareth Mulroney. Gleeson will portray Timothy,...

The animated anthropomorphic shoe movie “Sneaks” reminds me a lot of Werner Herzog, and not just because one time he ate a freakin’ shoe.

The director of “Fitzcarraldo” and “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” also claimed that humanity was “starving for new images,” a challenge many filmmakers have taken to heart. I cannot say with absolute certainty that Herzog will think highly of a film in which a phalanx of living footwear marches through Central Park in the middle of the night as giant murder rats dart at them from the shadows, slaughtering each shoe one by one. But I’m pretty sure he’d have to concede that yes, this really is a new image. Well played, “Sneaks.”

“Sneaks” is the latest in a long line of films that wonder whether the little things we take for granted in life have feelings. “The Brave Little Toaster” argued that we...

Werner Herzog will receive the Golden Lion for lifetime achievement at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival this August.

“I feel deeply honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Honorary Golden Lion by the Venice Biennale. I have always tried to be a Good Soldier of Cinema, and this feels like a medal for my work. Thank you,” the director said in a Tuesday statement. “However, I have not gone into retirement. I work as always. A few weeks ago, I just finished a documentary in Africa, ‘Ghost Elephants,’ and at this moment, I am shooting my next feature film, ‘Bucking Fastard,’ in Ireland. I am developing an animated film, based on my novel, ‘The Twilight World,’ and I am acting the voice of a creature in Bong Joon-ho’s upcoming animated film. I am not done yet.”

The La Biennale board of directors selected Herzog upon the recommendation from Vff artistic director Alberto Barbera.

The Venice Film Festival will fete German filmmaker Werner Herzog with its honorary Golden Lion at its forthcoming 82nd edition.

Accepting the honor, Herzog said: “I feel deeply honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Honorary Golden Lion by the Venice Biennale. I have always tried to be a Good Soldier of Cinema, and this feels like a medal for my work. Thank you.”

The filmmaker, often known for his biting humor, added: “However, I have not gone into retirement. I work as always. A few weeks ago, I just finished a documentary in Africa, Ghost Elephants, and at this moment, I am shooting my next feature film, Bucking Fastard, in Ireland. I am developing an animated film, based on my novel, The Twilight World, and I am acting the voice of a creature in Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming animated film. I am not done yet.”

Born in Munich in...

The Venice Film Festival will honor iconoclastic German director Werner Herzog — whose body of work comprises “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo” and Nosferatu the Vampyre” — with its 2025 Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement.

“I feel deeply honored to receive a Lifetime Achievement Honorary Golden Lion by the Venice Biennale,” Herzog said in a statement. “I have always tried to be a Good Soldier of Cinema, and this feels like a medal for my work: Thank you.”

“However,” Herzog went on to note, “I have not gone into retirement.”

“I work as always. A few weeks ago, I just finished a documentary in Africa, ‘Ghost Elephants,’ and at this moment, I am shooting my next feature film, ‘Bucking Fastard,’ in Ireland. I am developing an animated film, based on my novel, ‘The Twilight World,’ and I am acting the voice of a creature in Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming animated film.

Giacomo Gex’s “The Treasure Hunter,” which had its world premiere this week in the Newcomers Competition at Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, follows the director’s best friend, Jack, as he searches for treasure in the Philippines. It’s a tale reminiscent of Werner Herzog’s “Fitzcarraldo.” Variety debuts the trailer here.

According to local legend, during World War II the Japanese Army took booty they had looted from across South-East Asia to the Philippines and buried it at various locations. Jack, funded by his father, decided to join the many treasure hunters on the archipelago. “The Treasure Hunter” follows Jack as he plows millions of dollars into this quixotic search, digging at various sites, based on local rumors.

Although many of the scenes in the jungle were shot underground in caves and in shafts dug in the hope they would lead to caves, Gex didn’t suffer from claustrophobia. The dangers were real enough,...

Pitched somewhere between science-fiction and fable, director Gabriel Mascaro’s “The Blue Trail” finds a beacon of optimism within its own dystopian view of the future. Set in the director’s native Brazil — and showcasing the astonishing natural beauty (side by side with decay) of the Amazon in every high-definition frame — the film centers a 77-year-old woman, Tereza (Denise Weinberg), in a society that has deemed anyone above the age of 75 an impediment to its economic success. Mascaro sees her differently, and so will we by the end of what unexpectedly turns out to be the greatest South American houseboat movie since “Fitzcarraldo.”

The “Neon Bull” director has always had an incredible visual sense, though his plots tend to lack focus. Not this one. Judging by its concept alone, “The Blue Trail” could technically be classified alongside “Children of Men” on video store shelves. And yet, in both genre and tone,...

The city of Ojai has a long-established reputation as one of California’s most quintessentially laid-back small towns. But residents and frequent visitors who have a love for movies may actually have to work up some adrenaline to keep up with the aggressive film programming schedule being announced for the reopening of the Ojai Playhouse, a 110-year-old venue that sits smack in the middle of the historic main street located amid the Topatopa Mountains, roughly an hour and a half north of Los Angeles.

After being dark for the last decade due to a devastating flood, the mission revival-style theater has gotten a $10-million-plus renovation from a new owner and is officially coming back into action next week. There may be some L.A.-based cineastes who quietly start looking up real estate in the vicinity of the tourist town since this now state-of-the-art, 200-seat showpiece is suddenly starting to...

The 110-year-old Ojai Playhouse, a movie theater darkened for the past decade, has been revived by music industry impresario David Berger. He bought the historic property, which debuted in the silent era, after selling his VIP concert ticketing company to WME in 2018 and moving to industry-favored Ojai. Berger has since invested more than $10 million into turning the theater into a state-of-the-art venue.

Other high-profile Hollywood figures with homes in the area — including Universal Studios head Donna Langley and Eric Goode, the Tiger King and Chimp Crazy documentarian who’s developing the boutique El Roblar Hotel across the street — had also looked into purchasing the Playhouse. “I grew up as a ticket-taker and usher and concessionaire and, later, a projectionist at theaters just outside of Boston,” he says. “So, for me, this was meant to be.”

Berger’s iteration of the 200-seat Playhouse will blend first-run studio films, art house offerings,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Museum of Modern Art

As the career-spanning Johnnie To retrospective continues, a Samuel L. Jackson series includes Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and Jungle Fever on 35mm.

Bam

A Duras-Akerman double bill plays Sunday.

Film at Lincoln Center

NYFF Revivals continues with films by Robert Bresson, Raymond Depardon, and Clive Barker, Compensation, and more.

Film Forum

A George Stevens retrospective begins; restorations of The Devil, Probably and Lancelot du lac continue; Shane screens on Sunday.

Anthology Film Archives

“Kill Yr Landlords” includes work by John Schlesinger, Hal Ashby, and Nikos Papatakis; films by Dovzhenko and Dreyer play in “Essential Cinema.”

Roxy Cinema

Apocalypse Now: Final Cut plays Friday.

Museum of the Moving Image

A Frank Oz retrospective begins; Burden of Dreams and Fitzcarraldo both screen.

Metrograph

Pulp Fiction, There Will Be Blood, The Flavor of Green Tea Over Rice, Lolita, and...

The Paddington saga is one of the most highly successful animated films of all time. Not only the first two films performed well at the box office, but they also earned critical acclaim. Such feat warranted another sequel, and this time, fans will be transported in a jungle adventure in Paddington in Peru.

Credits: Paddington in Peru / StudioCanal

The third installment is the first project in the franchise that won’t be helmed by director Paul King, though he took part in the story conceptualization, ensuring that the new film aligns with the core theme and message of the previous ones.

Paddington in Peru Oozes With Peruvian Culture and Folklore

Helmed by Dougal Wilson, Paddington in Peru will follow the adventures of Paddington, voiced by Ben Whishaw, and his adopted family as they traverse the Amazon rainforest and the Peruvian mountains in search of Aunt Lucy.

While it sounds like a typical comedy adventure story,...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures has unveiled a killer lineup of programming for fall 2024, including in-person appearances from Rita Moreno, Sophia Loren, Werner Herzog and more, as well as exciting new screening events and a special free admission day on September 29 for the museum’s third anniversary.

Herzog will present a new 4K restoration of the documentary “Burden of Dreams,” about the making of his masterpiece “Fitzcarraldo,” on September 7. Moreno will appear in conversation October 17, followed by a screening of a 70mm print of Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins’ “West Side Story.” Loren will appear November 7 and 8 as part of the screening series Sophia Loren: La Diva di Napoli (running November 7 to 30), which celebrates her 90th birthday.

Also, on September 14, the Museum will present “American Fiction”: A Conversation with Cord Jefferson and Dr. Patricia Hill Collins, followed by a screening of the Oscar-winning movie. For Halloween, there will be Monster Mash,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die begins screening in a new restoration.

Museum of the Moving Image

A new 70mm print of The Searchers plays this weekend.

Japan Society

A restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving and Toshiharu Ikeda’s Mermaid Legend play on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Film Forum

New restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, and Fitzcarraldo begin screening; Seven Samurai and Powell and Pressburger’s The Small Back Room continue.

Anthology Film Archives

Enrique Gómez Vadillo’s rarely screened Death on the Beach shows in a new restoration this Friday; Stan Brakhage plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues, including A Matter of Life and Death and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Nitehawk Cinema

Lucio Fulci...

If you had to name the greatest documentaries of all time, well, that’s tough, but if you had to name the greatest portrait documentaries of all time, well, at the very least, “Burden of Dreams” would easily be in the top ten and likely on the all-time list too. Directed by the late legendary documentarian Les Blank, the award-winning “Burden Of Dreams” (1982) centers on German filmmaker Werner Herzog, actor Klaus Kinski, and the nearly disastrous making of their third collaboration, “Fitzcarraldo” (1982).

Continue reading ‘Burden Of Dreams’ Trailer: Les Blank’s Classic Werner Herzog Doc Gets A 4K Restoration & Theatrical Release at The Playlist.

As much a standard-bearer for behind-the-scenes docs as Hearts of Darkness––maybe there’s something about watching famed auteurs lose their grip in the jungle––Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams cuts through much mythos and memery that’s defined Werner Herzog, burrowing deep into the making of his life-threatening (in some cases -ending) Fitzcarraldo. Whether it’s actually better than the final product is a worthwhile debate, and one that can be had in greater spirit soon: a restoration’s to be released by Argot Pictures on July 19 at Film Forum, which will also screen Fitzcarraldo, and a new trailer’s arrived.

Here’s the synopsis: “Burden Of Dreams is the riveting account of the near-disastrous production of director Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo, starring Klaus Kinski in the titular role and Claudia Cardinale, which traces the story of one man’s attempt to build an opera house deep in the Amazon jungle.

In an exclusive interview with Variety, German maestro filmmaker Werner Herzog discussed his plans to lead the 3rd Film Accelerator program organized by Barcelona-based La Selva. Herzog and his long-time cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger will be on hand to guide the 25 directing and 25 cinematography aspirants who will pair up to create short films no longer than 10 mins in length.

On day one, he will give them a framework on which to base their project. “They’re not to come with a pre-formulated plan for their projects,” said Herzog, who revealed that he was lending his voice to “Parasite” director Bong Joon Ho’s upcoming hand-drawn animated feature about deep-sea creatures.

This would not be the first time for Herzog, who has lent his distinguished gravelly voice to many other parts in the past, most notably in episodes of “The Simpsons,” “The Boondocks” as well as Adult Swim’s “Rick and Morty” and “Metalocalypse.

On Friday nights, IndieWire After Dark takes a feature-length beat to honor fringe cinema in the streaming age.

First, the spoiler-free pitch for one editor’s midnight movie pick — something weird and wonderful from any age of film that deserves our memorializing.

Then, the spoiler-filled aftermath as experienced by the unwitting editor attacked by this week’s recommendation.

The Pitch: Can Documentaries Make for Great Midnight Movies?

American documentaries are facing headwinds in awards. It’s not my area of expertise. But Anne Thompson’s predictions for the Best Documentary Feature race ahead of the 96th Oscars on Sunday explain the situation well.

“With the international membership now representing more than 20 percent of the total voters, this year all five documentary nominees were international,” Thompson wrote, tying the trend to numerous non-fiction films left without distributors at Sundance.

“As the top American film festival for docs, Sundance usually supplies...

In Jon Favreau's 2008 film "Iron Man," the title hero (Robert Downey Jr.) was assisted in his high-tech superhero lab by an artificially intelligent butler-like presence named J.A.R.V.I.S. Iron Man's digital butler not only wrangled the hero's complicated engineering projects, but also controlled the even-higher-tech devices in his lab. When Iron Man went out on patrol, J.A.R.V.I.S.'s voice could be heard inside his helmet. J.A.R.V.I.S. was voiced by Paul Bettany. As the Marvel Cinematic Universe continued to grow, so too did Iron Man's computerized friend. Eventually, J.A.R.V.I.S. was shunted into an indestructible android body and renamed Vision (also Bettany). 

When Vision became sentient and autonomous, that meant Tony Stark had to program a new computer helper, and invented F.R.I.D.A.Y. (voiced by Kerry Condon...

One performer's intense portrayal of the villain in Jack Reacher was so convincing that it affected his real life. After the movie was released, his wife received concerned calls from her friends in Paris, offering her shelter because they were frightened by his character's evilness. He reveals that he knew he did a good job with his performance because people's genuine fear and concern for his real-life persona validated his portrayal of the terrifying villain.

Jack Reacher villain Werner Herzog explained how he knew his performance was effective. The 2012 movie, which starred Tom Cruise, was adapted from the Lee Child novel One Shot, and became the first of three onscreen adaptations of Child's Jack Reacher series, which now includes the sequel Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and the ongoing Prime Video show Reacher starring Alan Ritchson. In the first movie, retired Army MP Jack Reacher is dragged into a...

Filmmaker Werner Herzog believes that Star Wars offers a new perspective on humans' role in the universe and that its mythology is significant. Despite criticism, Herzog thinks Star Wars is important not only in the film industry but also in culture as it creates new mythologies and a fresh way of seeing our place in the universe. The world-building and mythology of Star Wars is a major factor that makes the franchise appealing and why Disney has the potential to create countless projects based on its characters and plots.

Filmmaker Werner Herzog, who played The Client in the first season of The Mandalorian, thinks Star Wars presents a new way to understand humans' role in the universe and that the mythology of the franchise is really important. The universe created by George Lucas has proven to be one of the most vast and complex in the world of cinema. More...

Werner Herzog has had a remarkably varied and prolific career. Ever since working on his first short film, Herakles, back in 1961, he’s gone on to produce, write and direct more than 60 feature films and documentaries, including adventure-drama :a[Fitzcarraldo]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/fitzcarraldo-review/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}, historical epic :a[Aguirre, The Wrath Of God]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/aguirre-wrath-god-review/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}, the 1979 version of the classic blood-sucking tale, :a[Nosferatu The Vampyre]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/nosferatu-vampyre-review/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'}, and many, many more.

Also included in that huge filmography is a trip to a galaxy far, far away. Yes, Herzog is part of the :a[Star Wars]{href='https://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/star-wars-timeline-chronological-order/' target='_blank' rel='noreferrer noopener'} family too, having played The...

Steven Caple, Jr.'s 2023 movie, "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," took place partly in Peru and was filmed in notable locations around the country. According to Andina, the Peruvian news agency, "Rise of the Beasts" was filmed partly in the lush jungles of San Martin where Optimus Prime (Peter Cullen) and Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman) met to discuss tactics in taking down the wicked robot Scourge (Peter Dinklage). Other parts of "Beasts" were shot in Saqsayhuaman on the outskirts of the ancient city of Cusco, which is an enormous stone network of structures in the shape of a puma. It is one of Peru's most-visited locations. The filmmakers also filmed near the thousands of salt ponds of Maras, as well as near Macchu Picchu, the 15th-century Incan citadel you read all about in your fifth-grade geography class. 

Naturally, the Peruvian tourism boards have begun offering "Transformers"-themed tours of Machu Picchu.

Exclusive: Wavelength’s documentary Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer is proving a hot property. The Emmy-winning film production company headed by Jenifer Westphal today announced Shout! Studios has acquired U.S. distribution rights to the film, and MetFilm has acquired international rights.

Thomas von Steinaecker wrote and directed the documentary about Herzog, the legendary German filmmaker who has brought to life dozens of films including Aguirre, The Wrath of God (1972), Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982), and documentaries Grizzly Man (2005), Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010), and Meeting Gorbachev (2018). Von Steinaecker’s film “presents a comprehensive portrait of an iconic artist of our time and features interviews with Robert Pattinson, Nicole Kidman, Chloé Zhao, Christian Bale, and more,” according to a release. “With exclusive behind-the-scenes access into Herzog’s everyday life, rare and never-before-seen archival material and in-depth interviews with the man himself and celebrated collaborators, we are given an exciting glimpse into his process and personal life.

Behrooz Karamizade’s Iranian drama “Empty Nets,” which has its international premiere in the Crystal Globe Competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival, offers a sobering look at the increasingly difficult, sometimes hopeless lives of young working-class people in Iran as they strive for better lives.

Set on Iran’s northern Caspian Sea coast, the film follows Amir (Hamid Reza Abbasi), a young man who, desperate to marry his girlfriend Narges (Sadif Asgari), seeks work at a local fishery with the hope of earning enough money for an appropriate dowry and winning over her upper-class parents. Once there, illicit opportunities present themselves and he is soon drawn into the dangerous but lucrative business of sturgeon poaching and the black market caviar trade.

The Iranian-German director, who grew up in Germany, says he always wanted to shoot his first feature film in Iran. “I’m very impressed by Iranian cinema and...

“For the most part, it is dramatic and fairly dark,” declares Alex Buono about the new limited category “Documentary Now!” has been moved to for the Emmy Awards. He continues, “There is a lot of murdery, dark, bleak storytelling in this category. I’m hoping there is room for a pretty silly absurdist comedy. His fellow showrunner Rhys Thomas adds, “We’re campaigning on a platform of joy, if you’re a fan of happiness you’ve got to vote for ‘Documentary Now!’” Watch the exclusive video interview above.

SEEEmmys shocker: ‘Documentary Now’ forced out of variety categories, into limited series categories [Exclusive]

“Documentary Now!” is an IFC and AMC+ comedy show, under the guise of a series featuring acclaimed documentaries. Dame Helen Mirren introduces each feature, which is a mockumentary parodying a real-life documentary. It means each episode has a distinct shooting style and story. The series was created by Fred Armisen,...

Claudia Squitieri with her mother Claudia Cardinale on Werner Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo: “it’s one of her most adventurous experiences.” Photo: courtesy of Claudia Squitieri

In the second instalment with Claudia Squitieri we discuss more of the films her mother, Claudia Cardinale, starred in. Werner Herzog, Klaus Kinski, Mick Jagger, Jason Robards, Thomas Mauch, My Best Fiend, and filming Fitzcarraldo; encountering Fernando Trueba (The Artist And Model) in Deauville and reconnecting with Jean Rochefort; Manoel de Oliveira and an “atmosphere of mysticality” during the making of Gebo and the Shadow with Jeanne Moreau and Michael Lonsdale, shot by Renato Berta; Blake Edwards and The Pink Panther, the problem with sequels and playing Roberto Benigni’s mother in Son Of The Pink Panther all came up in our conversation.

Claudia Squitieri from Paris on Roberto Benigni with Claudia Cardinale: “He was going “Claudia!!!!” Jumping around every time he saw my mother.

Festival will also host tributes to Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-liang and late director Shinji Aoyama.

US director Julie Taymor is to preside over the international competition jury of Tokyo International Film Festival, which has also announced plans to revive the Akira Kurosawa Award and host tribute screenings to Taiwan’s Tsai Ming-liang and late Japanese director Shinji Aoyama.

The festival has unveiled highlights of its 35th edition, which will run October 24 to November 2, ahead of the announcement of its full line up on September 21.

Taymor is known for directing features such as Frida, Titus, Across The Universe and The Glorias...

Werner Herzog’s career entered a renaissance when most directors his age slow down. After 2005’s “Grizzly Man” turned his distinctive Bavarian accent into a pop culture phenomenon, the director previously best known for German New Wave entries “Fitzcarraldo” and “Aguirre, Wrath of God” was suddenly both fodder for internet memes galore and a Hollywood actor playing villains in “The Mandalorian” and “Jack Reacher” (not to mention his voicework on multiple episodes of “The Simpsons”). Yet none of these strange twists got in the way of his main career as a filmmaker. “I’m plowing ahead,” he said in a conversation with IndieWire over Zoom this month.

Herzog turns 80 on September 5, when he’ll be attending the Telluride Film Festival, where one of the main venues bears his name. He assumed some kind of celebration was in the works. “I have no clue what to expect there,” he said, “but I’ll face it.

The movie business teaches you to be wary of big spenders. Broad Green came and went in a blur of miscalculated flops. Annapurna downsized after several reckless buying sprees and finally stopped acquiring movies altogether. Now comes whispers that Canadian investment studio Bron — which helped finance films like “Joker” and “Licorice Pizza” — is going down a similar path.

Sources tell me that the studio launched by husband-and-wife team Aaron and Brenda Gilbert in 2010 laid off several senior roles and will merge its film and TV divisions into a single unit. Rather than produce the live-action features, I’m told that Bron is now working to secure new corporate partners as it restructures its business model around its Bron Digital division. That means a renewed focus on animation and games designed to create new franchises, not the usual blend of blockbusters and A-list auteurs that it has supported in the past.

The director of Spencer, Pablo Larraín, discusses a few of his favorite movies with host Josh Olson.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Spencer (2021)

Jackie (2016)

Tony Manero (2008)

Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) – David DeCoteau’s trailer commentary

Back To The Future (1985) – Tfh’s time-traveling quiz

Fitzcarraldo (1982) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Herzog guide

Burden of Dreams (1982)

Aguirre: The Wrath Of God (1972)

Paris, Texas (1984) – Karyn Kusama’s trailer commentary

Eyes Wide Shut (1999) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Barry Lyndon (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Shining (1980) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehman’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Full Metal Jacket (1987)

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Salò, Or The 120 Days of Sodom (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Theorem (1968)

Medea (1969)

Naked (1993)

Secrets And Lies (1996) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Vera Drake (2004)

Topsy-Turvy (1999)

Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

A History Of Violence (2005)

There Will Be Blood (2007)

The Master (2012)

Phantom Thread (2017) – Dennis...

Ben Rivers's Ghost Strata (2019) and Now, at Last! (2018) are exclusively showing October and November 2020 on Mubi in the series Ben Rivers: As Time Goes By.Above: Ghost StrataOver the course of nearly two decades, Ben Rivers has been called many things: a portraitist, a documentarian, an experimental ethnographer—even, in his own words, an “accidental anthropologist.” Early in his 2019 film Ghost Strata, a tarot reader points to a less remarked upon feature of Rivers’s work: “All your movies are about you,” she says, suggesting an autobiographical through-line in a filmography rarely acknowledged for its personal aspects.While a rereading of Rivers’s entire body of work is a fascinating proposition, one might look to Ghost Strata and another film he shot the same year, Now, at Last! (2018), for evidence of how these personal elements have manifested in the British director’s recent work. In Ghost Strata, a diary-like...

John Williams is great and all, but there aren’t a ton of his iconic film scores that I might actually want to listen to while working out. For that, you need to turn to the rock stars, the guys who perform to 20,000 screaming people one night and then collaborate with David Fincher the next. They make the kind of scores that raise the eyebrows of writers at Pitchfork and inspire bedroom hipsters to go out and see an indie film that might otherwise never get an audience.

Trent Reznor

The Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor burst out onto the film score scene when he composed the icy, digitized beats for David Fincher’s “The Social Network” in 2010. He and his collaborator Atticus Ross won the Oscar that year, and he’s since had a wave of creativity on other Fincher films like “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Gone Girl.

Within the ranks of the great masters of cinema, the works of German director Werner Herzog stand out as perhaps one of the boldest body of work of a filmmaker. While still largely known for his collaborations with actors Klaus Kinski, Herzog’s work has moved far beyond masterpieces like “Fitzcarraldo” or “Nosferatu”, focusing on works of great thematic variety as feature films as well as documentaries. In his new work, “Family Romance, LLC” blends both feature film and documentary while telling the story of the real existing agency Family Romance, managed by Yuichi Ishii, who is also the star of the film. Through its various stories, some comedic, some more dramatic, Herzog explores the issue of modern relationships and lonesomeness in the 21st century.

“Family Romance, LLC” is screening at Nippon Connection 2020

For many years now “Family Romance, LLC” has been in business, offering the service of renting out...

The American Society of Cinematographers said Thursday that it will give this year’s Board of Governors Award to Werner Herzog. The prolific writer-director and occasional actor (Disney+’s The Mandalorian) will be honored January 25 at the 34th annual Asc Awards for Outstanding Achievement at Hollywood & Highland’s Ray Dolby Ballroom.

The Asc Board of Governors Award is given to industry stalwarts whose body of work has made significant and indelible contributions to cinema. It is reserved for filmmakers who have been champions for directors of photography and the visual art form.

The German-born Herzog has produced, written, and directed more than 70 feature and documentary films, with Oscar nominations for his documentary Encounters at the End of the World (2009) and an Emmy nom for Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997).

His credits at the vanguard of German cinema along with fellow filmmakers Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff include Aguirre, the Wrath of God...

British music and film producer Nik Powell, who was among the Virgin Group co-founders with Richard Branson and became an influential force in U.K. cinema, producing more than 60 titles including Neil Jordan’s Oscar-winning “The Crying Game,” died Thursday at age 69.

The cause of death was an unspecified form of cancer, Britain’s National Film and Television School (Nfts) – which Powell headed for more than a decade – said in a statement. He died in Oxford surrounded by his family.

Born on November 4, 1950, in the small village of Great Kingshill, in Buckinghamshire, Powell started out running a record shop and was among the founding partners in 1972 of Virgin Records, which became one of the U.K.’s top recording labels before being sold to Emi 20 years later.

In 1983 Powell co-founded U.K. video label and production outfit Palace Pictures with Stephen Woolley. They produced a string of standout titles such...

“Chained for Life” opens with a long quotation from Pauline Kael, the point of which is difficult to disagree with: actors and actresses tend to be more beautiful than the rest of us. Though the reason for this phenomenon is simple enough — people enjoy looking at pretty things, including and especially other people — its effects tend to be more complicated.

One case in point is writer-director Aaron Schimberg’s film, which makes good on its epigraph by exploring our conception of beauty (among many other things) with unexpected tenderness — unexpected because, at first glance, it looks like an ill-advised riff on “Freaks” that could easily turn exploitative.

Alongside Jess Weixler (“It Chapter Two”), who’s one of countless thespians to demonstrate Kael’s point, the film stars Adam Pearson, a performer familiar both for his scene-stealing turn in “Under the Skin” and for a condition called neurofibromatosis, which covers his face in tumors.

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack)

A time capsule that’s as fresh and powerful an experience as it must have been when recorded live in Watts in 1972, Amazing Grace is arguably one of the year’s most-anticipated films arriving after years of litigation and a fetal technical glitch that was resolved thanks to digital workflows. The film that exists, finished by producer Alan Elliot, bursts with intimacy and immediacy capturing a captivating and sublime performance by Aretha Franklin. In between the incredible artistry we discover and are introduced to several influences of Franklin’s including her father the minister and civil rights activist Cl Franklin who provides...

Have you ever wondered what are the films that inspire the next generation of visionary filmmakers? As part of our monthly Ioncinephile profile this June, we ask the filmmaker (this month: Lila Avilés) to identify their all time top ten favorite films. Aviles’ The Chambermaid is receiving its release on Friday, June 26th at the Film Forum in New York City via the Kino Lorber folks. We have a list that exceeds the ten mark, so in no particular order, here are top fourteen films of all time as of June 2019.

Au Hasard Balthazar – Robert Bresson (1966)

Barry Lyndon – Stanley Kubrick (1975)

Drifting Clouds – Aki Kaurismäki (1996) / The Man Without a Past (2002)

Fanny and Alexander – Ingmar Bergman (1982)

Fitzcarraldo – Werner Herzog (1982)

In The Mood For Love – Wong Kar Wai (2000) / Days of Being Wild (1990)

La Ciénaga – Lucrecia Martel (2001)

Love Streams – John Cassavetes (1984)

Nostalgia – Andrei Tarkovsky (1983)

The Salt of the Earth – Wim Wenders (2014)

Songs from the...

Italy’s Biografilm Festival, an event billed as a cinematic celebration of human lives, will pay tribute to Werner Herzog, whose Japanese-language film “Family Romance, LLC” will launch locally following its Cannes premiere, as will “Meeting Gorbachev,” his sit-down conversation with the former Soviet leader.

The prolific Herzog, 76, whose long career comprises feature films such as “Aguirre: The Wrath of God” and “Fitzcarraldo” and a slew of docs, including, more recently Netflix’s “Into the Inferno,” is expected to be on hand at the Bologna-based fest to receive its Celebration of Lives Award on June 10.

As previously announced, Biografilm, which will run June 7-17, is also celebrating Participant Media this year, in particular Diane Weyermann, head of the U.S. company’s documentary film and television unit, who will receive the fest’s Making it Real Award, honoring excellence in producing. The tribute to Participant will include the European premiere...

Following an indigenous family torn apart by a marijuana boom, this arresting Colombian film combines magical realism with the epic sweep of The Godfather

With the dreamy, haunting masterpiece Embrace of the Serpent, Colombian director Ciro Guerra secured his country’s first Oscar nomination for best foreign language film. It was an astonishing movie, inverting the colonial themes of Herzog’s Fitzcarraldo and Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, presenting its mythical narrative from the perspective of the indigenous Amazonian tribespeople in the jungles of Vaupés.

Now, Guerra shares directorial credit with his long-time producer, Cristina Gallego, to tell a tale of “gangsters and spirits”, played out against the arresting backdrop of the La Guajira region of northern Colombia. Described by its creators as an investigation of “the great tragedy that would curse us forever; the great taboo that we are not allowed to discuss”, Birds of Passage revisits the birth of...

Werner Herzog has a near-mythic presence in world cinema. The 76-year-old German director makes brutally authentic features — Aguirre, the Wrath of God, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fitzcarraldo — and, with the likes of Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, fantastically imaginative documentaries. "They are often fictions in disguise," Herzog says, in that ponderous Germanic monotone familiar from the countless voiceovers on his films that has become almost as famous as the filmmaker himself.

The fuzzy and fluid border between the real and the imagined has been a constant in Herzog’s work — as it is in his new ...

Werner Herzog has a near-mythic presence in world cinema. The 76-year-old German director makes brutally authentic features — Aguirre, the Wrath of God, The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser, Fitzcarraldo — and, with the likes of Grizzly Man and Cave of Forgotten Dreams, fantastically imaginative documentaries. "They are often fictions in disguise," Herzog says, in that ponderous Germanic monotone familiar from the countless voiceovers on his films that has become almost as famous as the filmmaker himself.

The fuzzy and fluid border between the real and the imagined has been a constant in Herzog’s work — as it is in his new ...

For those raised on a diet of hot dogs and hamburgers, think back to the first time you ever heard of sushi, and the idea of eating raw fish. Werner Herzog’s “Family Romance, LLC” extends a comparably otherizing attitude to Japan’s niche rent-a-relative phenomenon, exposing for Western eyes a peculiar Tokyo-based company that caters to fulfilling nonsexual but undeniably intimate fantasies for its clientele. Weird? Yes, but so is the way Americans convince their kids to climb into the laps of white-bearded strangers in Santa costumes.

Homo sapiens are a strange species, and few capture that more satisfyingly than Herzog, even if this is clearly one of his minor works. Not quite 90 minutes, the film might actually be more effective at half the length. As is, it feels padded with slow-motion footage, long shots in which characters stare out in wordless contemplation, and an awkward dream sequence involving a gang of swordless samurai.

Film Bridge International has entered into a two-picture production deal with Dublin-based Merlin Films headed by Kieran Corrigan and Deliverance director, John Boorman. Film Bridge founder and CEO Ellen Wander will partner with Corrigan and Boorman to produce two features, heist thriller Underground and gritty action thriller Assassins Club. Boorman, whose latest work as director was 2015’s Queen & Country, will helm the former with Stephen Saint Leger (Vikings) on the latter. Worldwide sales will be handled by Wander in Cannes. Underground is set in Boston where an Irish mob family is struggling to get out of the business, but is tempted by the discovery of an abandoned tunnel beneath Tiffany & Co. Assassins Club centers on a man offered a contract to kill seven people from around the globe. The targets, in turn, are also assassins with contracts to kill him. The only way out is to leave a...

Acclaimed German director Werner Herzog will be honored with a lifetime achievement honor by the European Film Academy.

The director of Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Grizzly Man (2005) will receive the lifetime honor at the 32nd European Film Awards on Dec. 7 in Berlin.

Herzog has written, produced and directed more than 70 feature and documentary films and has collected a trophy case of awards, including a Berlinale Silver Bear for his 1968 debut Signs of Life, a best director honor in Cannes for Fitzcarraldo and an Oscar nomination for the 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World.

Surprisingly, he ...

Acclaimed German director Werner Herzog will be honored with a lifetime achievement honor by the European Film Academy.

The director of Aguirre, Wrath of God (1972), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Grizzly Man (2005) will receive the lifetime honor at the 32nd European Film Awards on Dec. 7 in Berlin.

Herzog has written, produced and directed more than 70 feature and documentary films and has collected a trophy case of awards, including a Berlinale Silver Bear for his 1968 debut Signs of Life, a best director honor in Cannes for Fitzcarraldo and an Oscar nomination for the 2007 documentary Encounters at the End of the World.

Surprisingly, he ...

Throughout his career, Werner Herzog has shared a deep connection with his daring explorer subjects, be it with “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” “Fitzcarraldo,” “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,” or “Grizzly Man.” That’s again true with “Nomad: In the Footsteps of Bruce Chatwin,” the prolific filmmaker’s heartfelt documentary tribute to his celebrated writer friend, who passed away from AIDS in 1989. Duplicating many of Chatwin’s most notable journeys, Herzog evokes the late English wanderer’s restless soul and curious fascination with profound issues that have long captivated the director. Following its Tribeca Film Festival world premiere, this sincere homage should entice adventurous viewers when it premieres on BBC Two later this year.

Channeling Chatwin, whom he rightfully dubs a “kindred spirit,” Herzog embarks on a “similar erratic quest” for the “nature of human existence” in “Nomad.” He begins with a trip to the Patagonia cave where Chatwin’s...

The verteran German director was giving a masterclass at Nyon’s Visions du Reel festival.

German director Werner Herzog voiced his reluctant support of film piracy during a masterclass at Switzerland’s documentary-focused Visions du Réel International Film Festival in Nyon which closed on April 13.

¨Piracy has been the most successful form of distribution worldwide,” said Herzog in response to a comment from Ukrainian producer Illia Gladshtein of Phalanstery Films. Gladshtein said he was only able to access the filmmaker’s works via illegal Torrent sites in Ukraine.

“If you don’t get [films] through Netflix or state-sponsored television in your country,...

Jay Douglas, the former Svp Acquisitions at Anchor Bay Entertainment and the driving force behind the company’s late 1990s rise as a “Criterion Collection for cult films,” has died. He was 65.

Douglas died of an apparent heart attack on Tuesday in Green Valley, Az, according to former associates and social media postings by his family.

Douglas joined the upstart Anchor Bay in 1995 and over the next decade his passions came to define the company’s eclectic library of genre films, off-kilter cinema curiosities, lost classics, obscure gems, and, most especially, unforgettable horror movies of any and every quality level.

During the rise of VHS and then DVD, Anchor Bay became a powerhouse name in genre circles and renowned for giving quality treatment to movies that others dismissed as too scruffy, silly, sordid, or strange to deserve a second look much less a second life. The library also found room for television artifacts,...

It’s a meeting for the ages. In one corner, the architect of Perestroika. In the other, the director who nearly tamed Klaus Kinski.

“Meeting Gorbachev,” a nonfiction film documenting a series of interviews between filmmaker Werner Herzog and Mikhail Gorbachev, has been acquired by the Orchard. The indie distributor plans to release the film theatrically in 2019. “Meeting Gorbachev” premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival and played at the Toronto International Film Festival. It is directed by Herzog and his longtime collaborator André Singer.

Herzog, famous for “Fitzcarraldo” and “Aguirre, the Wrath of God,” interviewed Gorbachev on three separate occasions over six months. He captured the last leader of the Soviet Union’s thoughts on peace and history.

“’Meeting Gorbachev’ is an enthralling look back at a fascinating leader and diplomat, all the more impactful based on what the world looks like today,” said Paul Davidson, the Orchard’s Evp of film and television.