The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist Gay Talese...
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist Gay Talese...
- 8/23/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist...
Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.
Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist...
- 8/23/2017
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
Mubi's retrospective Film Is a Theorem: The Documentaries of Sergei Loznitsa is showing January 16 - March 15, 2017 in the United Kingdom and many other countries around the world.Landscape“Film is a theorem that has to arrive at a final point.”—Sergei Loznitsa It’s something of a critical cliché to say that a film or filmmaker is fixated on the notion of time; but there aren’t many contemporary filmmakers who fulfill that description as well as Belarus-born director Sergei Loznitsa. Although best known for his recent work—a trio of documentaries, Maidan (2014), The Event (2015) and Austerlitz (2016)—and a brief foray into fiction—My Joy (2010) and In the Fog (2012)—Loznitsa first started out with a string of documentary features and shorts, five of which are part of Mubi’s ongoing retrospective: “Film is a Theorem: The Documentaries of Sergei Loznitsa.” With a methodical, almost scientific rigor (indicative of Loznitsa’s...
- 2/26/2017
- MUBI
As a critic, especially if you cover the festival circuit, befriending filmmakers is both a pleasant matter of course and a recurring cause for minor ethical quandaries. When they release a new film, do you avoid writing about it? And if not, will you be able to remain critical even if you dislike it, potentially severing a friendship?It’s therefore with some trepidation that I approached Railway Sleepers by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, whom I’d met in 2014 on the set of Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery of Splendour, where he was the 1st Assistant Director (since starting out as an intern on The Adventure of Iron Pussy, Sompot has worked on the majority of Apichatpong’s films). He first told me about his film on the ride back from the shoot one day, during a discussion about the Dardennes’ Two Days, One Night. He wanted to see the Dardennes’ film to...
- 2/14/2017
- MUBI
Last year, 2.5 billion people traveled by rail across the wild expanse of China. With each passing year the country continues to sink massive amounts of money into the high speed infrastructure – this year alone the China Railway Corp. plans to spend a whopping $121.5 billion toward construction and expansion. In The Iron Ministry, the latest feature production from Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab, director/editor/cameraman J.P. Sniadecki attempts to convey what those numbers look like from the inside out. Riding tracks throughout China throughout 2011 and on through 2013 with the camera rolling, Sniadecki’s curious findings flow with affectionate intrigue and an instinctive eye for beauty in the mundane.
The Iron Ministry joins an immense body of train-centric documentary cinema, from its birth back at the beginnings of film itself by way of the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat through D.A. Pennebaker’s mid-century short Daybreak Express...
The Iron Ministry joins an immense body of train-centric documentary cinema, from its birth back at the beginnings of film itself by way of the Lumière brothers’ Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat through D.A. Pennebaker’s mid-century short Daybreak Express...
- 2/16/2016
- by Jordan M. Smith
- IONCINEMA.com
Documentaries come in all shapes and sizes. With the aesthetic boundaries being pushed further and further by filmmakers like Joshua Oppenheimer and the team over at Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab (the team behind films like Leviathan and last year’s The Iron Ministry) expectations for what any given non-fiction feature will do visually are quite high. However, there are few things quite like a documentary, no matter the aesthetic constraints or experimentation, that brings to light a subject that is utterly captivating.
That’s the case with the formally bland but narratively enthralling documentary The Art Of The Prank. To many, the name Joey Skaggs means little to nothing. However, fans of comedy or media satire will tell you that there are few voices more influential within that world than this legendary New York artist. Blending archival footage with interview sequences as well as a glimpse into the man...
That’s the case with the formally bland but narratively enthralling documentary The Art Of The Prank. To many, the name Joey Skaggs means little to nothing. However, fans of comedy or media satire will tell you that there are few voices more influential within that world than this legendary New York artist. Blending archival footage with interview sequences as well as a glimpse into the man...
- 1/29/2016
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Hadwin’s Judgement
Directed by Sasha Snow
Documentaries are one of the veins through which Viff’s lifeblood flows. Attracting large crowds of socially conscientious viewers, they are usually among the first films to sell out. Unfortunately, given their commercial appeal, many of them begin to mirror each other, turning into dull affairs filled with “talking heads”, bland B-roll, and an easily digestible message to wash it all down.
Based on the acts of Grant Hadwin, as told in John Valiant’s award winning book, The Golden Spruce, the film navigates its way through a compelling story which may not be common knowledge outside of Canada, or even B.C. Hadwin, a logging enginner who explored the vast swathes of B.C. in search of the best logging sites, becomes disillusioned with his role in destroying the countryside. In a miscalculated act of outrage at the harsh logging methods in...
Directed by Sasha Snow
Documentaries are one of the veins through which Viff’s lifeblood flows. Attracting large crowds of socially conscientious viewers, they are usually among the first films to sell out. Unfortunately, given their commercial appeal, many of them begin to mirror each other, turning into dull affairs filled with “talking heads”, bland B-roll, and an easily digestible message to wash it all down.
Based on the acts of Grant Hadwin, as told in John Valiant’s award winning book, The Golden Spruce, the film navigates its way through a compelling story which may not be common knowledge outside of Canada, or even B.C. Hadwin, a logging enginner who explored the vast swathes of B.C. in search of the best logging sites, becomes disillusioned with his role in destroying the countryside. In a miscalculated act of outrage at the harsh logging methods in...
- 9/26/2015
- by Josh Hamm
- SoundOnSight
The centerpiece of New York Magazine's fall preview is Lane Brown's wide-ranging interview with Quentin Tarantino. Also in today's roundup: Richard Brody on how Joe Swanberg and his generation have changed the relationship between actor and director; Fabian Cantieri talks with Tag Gallagher, author of essential books on John Ford and Roberto Rossellini; Eric Hynes on J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry; Dan Callahan on Ruth Chatterton; and we mark the passing of Pierre Jansen, known primarily to cinephiles for his work with Claude Chabrol. » - David Hudson...
- 8/24/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The centerpiece of New York Magazine's fall preview is Lane Brown's wide-ranging interview with Quentin Tarantino. Also in today's roundup: Richard Brody on how Joe Swanberg and his generation have changed the relationship between actor and director; Fabian Cantieri talks with Tag Gallagher, author of essential books on John Ford and Roberto Rossellini; Eric Hynes on J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry; Dan Callahan on Ruth Chatterton; and we mark the passing of Pierre Jansen, known primarily to cinephiles for his work with Claude Chabrol. » - David Hudson...
- 8/24/2015
- Keyframe
To many, the name J.P. Sniadecki doesn’t ring much of a bell. Even to many storied cinephiles, the young documentarian and his work is a relatively blank spot on their selective film canvas. However, with films like Leviathan and Manakamana, the team at Harvard’s Sensory Ethnography Lab have become some of non-fiction cinema’s most interesting and truly beloved voices. Sniadecki, along with directors like Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Verena Paravel (the latter of which Sniadecki teamed with on the film People’s Park), have risen to the absolute top of the documentary world with their engrossing and experimental motion pictures.
And now it’s time for Sniadecki to go it alone.
With The Iron Ministry comes the latest film out of the Hsel collective, and it’s yet another confounding achievement. Shot over the span of three years on various trains in China, the film is a definitive...
And now it’s time for Sniadecki to go it alone.
With The Iron Ministry comes the latest film out of the Hsel collective, and it’s yet another confounding achievement. Shot over the span of three years on various trains in China, the film is a definitive...
- 8/21/2015
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
The Iron Ministry takes place on a moving train, whose compartments expand over the course of the film to reveal a host of rocking sights: hanging raw meat, cigarettes floating in water, boxed goods in transit, and myriad people engaged in conversations about politics and its impact on their daily lives. The people and their destinations are often both left unnamed, with a ceaseless sense of forward motion remaining as the greatest takeaway. “This is a civilized train, so please feel free to piss, shit, and throw trash all over the aisle,” says a young boy early on in parody of […]...
- 8/20/2015
- by Aaron Cutler
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Just like Leviathan and Manakamana before it, J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry is another striking sensory cinema experience. Closely associated with Havard Sensory Ethnography Lab and its esteemed Colleagues - Julien Castraing-Taylor, Verena Paravel, Stephanie Spray, Pacho Velez and others, Sniadecki continues exploring the cinematic medium to its new height with the film which takes place entirely on the moving trains in China.Sniadecki, fluent in Mandarin, has been making films in China since 2010. Chaiquian, his first film explored the changing landscape of China and its 'floating people' - mass workers' migration from rural areas to the cities, followed by People's Park - a breathtaking single take film strolling through the Chengdu park, then Yumen, a docu-hybrid taking place in the ghost city of the...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 8/19/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Above: the 2015 Crossroads Film Festival kicks off on Friday, April 10th, and features Paul Clipson's Hypnosis Display with a live soundtrack by Grouper. Check out the rest of the amazing lineup here. Like everyone, we're devastated that David Lynch will not be directing the Twin Peaks revival season after all. Above: the latest issue of La Furia Umana is online now and includes an intriguing survey of "What's (Not) Cinema Becoming?"From the new issue of The Brooklyn Rail: pieces on Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God, J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry, and an interview with Xin Zhou.For Cinema Scope, Jordan Cronk writes on this year's True/False Film Festival. There are two incredible websites for you to browse from La Cinématheque Francaise: one on Pier Paolo Pasolini, and one on Michelangelo Antonioni. For his blog Following Film, Christoph Huber writes on "The Siodmak Variations":...
- 4/10/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
In the new La Furia Umana: a symposium on the future of cinema plus articles on Harun Farocki, Jerry Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. The new Brooklyn Rail features pieces on Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God and J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry, exhibitions of work by Michael Snow and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and an interview with John Giorno. Also today: With Mad Max: Fury Road opening next month, a Ballardian primer to the Mad Max Universe; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Leni Riefenstahl; Robert Greene on Steve James's Hoop Dreams and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom; and lots more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/6/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In the new La Furia Umana: a symposium on the future of cinema plus articles on Harun Farocki, Jerry Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice. The new Brooklyn Rail features pieces on Tsai Ming-liang's Rebels of the Neon God and J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry, exhibitions of work by Michael Snow and cinematographer Gabriel Figueroa and an interview with John Giorno. Also today: With Mad Max: Fury Road opening next month, a Ballardian primer to the Mad Max Universe; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Leni Riefenstahl; Robert Greene on Steve James's Hoop Dreams and Michael Powell's Peeping Tom; and lots more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/6/2015
- Keyframe
Iffr reveals Big Screen Awards nominees and the complete line-up for its Bright Future and Spectrum strands, including world premieres from the Us, China and the Netherlands.
Second Coming, starring Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall, has been named as one of 10 films up for the Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) (Jan 21 - Feb 1).
The UK film, written and directed by Debbie Tucker Green, will be vying for a prize of €10,000 ($12,000) awarded specifically to support theatrical distribution of the film in The Netherlands
The 10 nominees are from Iffr’s Bright Future and Spectrum programmes with the winner chosen by a specially selected audience jury. Other titles include Lisandro Alonso’s Cannes Fipresci winner Jauja and Carlos Vermut’s San Sebastian winner Magical Girl.
The nominees are:
I Swear I’ll Leave This Town, Danial AragãoJauja, Lisandro AlonsoKey House Mirror, Michael NoerThe Lesson, Kristina Grozeva, Petar ValchanovMagical Girl, Carlos VermutA...
Second Coming, starring Idris Elba and Nadine Marshall, has been named as one of 10 films up for the Big Screen Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (Iffr) (Jan 21 - Feb 1).
The UK film, written and directed by Debbie Tucker Green, will be vying for a prize of €10,000 ($12,000) awarded specifically to support theatrical distribution of the film in The Netherlands
The 10 nominees are from Iffr’s Bright Future and Spectrum programmes with the winner chosen by a specially selected audience jury. Other titles include Lisandro Alonso’s Cannes Fipresci winner Jauja and Carlos Vermut’s San Sebastian winner Magical Girl.
The nominees are:
I Swear I’ll Leave This Town, Danial AragãoJauja, Lisandro AlonsoKey House Mirror, Michael NoerThe Lesson, Kristina Grozeva, Petar ValchanovMagical Girl, Carlos VermutA...
- 1/7/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Edited by Adam Cook
Above: One of the best short films of the year, Person to Person, directed by Dustin Guy Defa for The New Yorker.
The surprise trailer for Terrence Malick's new film, Knight of Cups, dropped this week, as did news it would premiere at the Berlinale in 2015. Above: no, Godard's Goodbye to Language didn't top Film Comment's Best of 2014 list, it finished 2nd to Richard Linklater's Boyhood, but at this rate we'll be leading with pictures from Boyhood every week with how many lists it's topping. Below are Film Comment's Top 10 of 2014 as well as their Top 10 Undistributed films of 2014. They have larger lists for your perusal here and here.
"1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, USA)
2. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, USA)
4. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK)
6. Stranger By the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France)
7. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras,...
Above: One of the best short films of the year, Person to Person, directed by Dustin Guy Defa for The New Yorker.
The surprise trailer for Terrence Malick's new film, Knight of Cups, dropped this week, as did news it would premiere at the Berlinale in 2015. Above: no, Godard's Goodbye to Language didn't top Film Comment's Best of 2014 list, it finished 2nd to Richard Linklater's Boyhood, but at this rate we'll be leading with pictures from Boyhood every week with how many lists it's topping. Below are Film Comment's Top 10 of 2014 as well as their Top 10 Undistributed films of 2014. They have larger lists for your perusal here and here.
"1. Boyhood (Richard Linklater, USA)
2. Goodbye to Language (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, USA)
4. Ida (Pawel Pawlikowski, Poland)
5. Under the Skin (Jonathan Glazer, UK)
6. Stranger By the Lake (Alain Guiraudie, France)
7. Citizenfour (Laura Poitras,...
- 12/30/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
As is usually the case, 2014 held a rich vein of great nonfiction cinema … that went mostly untapped by any wide audiences. But just because documentaries are perpetually under-served by popular (and even critical) attention doesn’t mean that we should neglect these films. This is a celebration of all the best docs to come out this year.
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
But first, for the sake of full disclosure, here are all the notable docs of 2014 that I haven’t gotten around to seeing yet:
1989, 20,000 Days on Earth, Ai Weiwei: The Fake Case, Big Joy, Big Men, Code Black, Evolution of a Criminal, The Great Flood, The Great Invisible, The Kill Team, National Gallery, The Missing Picture, Maidentrip, Manakamana, The Naked Opera, Virunga, Watchers of the Sky, What Now? Remind Me, Whitey
Next,we have some honorable mentions — other docs of 2014 that are well worth seeking out:
A Will for the Woods, Art and Craft,...
- 12/11/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- SoundOnSight
The Iron Ministry
Directed by J.P. Sniadecki
USA, 2014
The first few minutes of The Iron Ministry are a black screen overlaid with the sound of train machinery. The darkness goes on long enough that some patrons were muttering over whether or not the picture was being projected correctly. Gradually, however, images come into view, though hazy and out of focus; hard to identify. The gears and bellows of the train pulsate and throb. They don’t look mechanical. It looks like the workings of grey, diseased organs. The first sign of human activity is a closeup of cigarette butts sloshing in a water-filled nook. And then people themselves finally enter the picture, mites living in the larger host body of the train.
China has an extensive railway network, and it’s only spiderwebbed outwards in recent years, connecting the eastern part of the country to the remote mines of Tibet,...
Directed by J.P. Sniadecki
USA, 2014
The first few minutes of The Iron Ministry are a black screen overlaid with the sound of train machinery. The darkness goes on long enough that some patrons were muttering over whether or not the picture was being projected correctly. Gradually, however, images come into view, though hazy and out of focus; hard to identify. The gears and bellows of the train pulsate and throb. They don’t look mechanical. It looks like the workings of grey, diseased organs. The first sign of human activity is a closeup of cigarette butts sloshing in a water-filled nook. And then people themselves finally enter the picture, mites living in the larger host body of the train.
China has an extensive railway network, and it’s only spiderwebbed outwards in recent years, connecting the eastern part of the country to the remote mines of Tibet,...
- 11/9/2014
- by Dan Schindel
- SoundOnSight
This story first appeared in the Oct. 10 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Foxcatcher Centered on an astonishing turn by Steve Carell, Bennett Miller's beautifully modulated, fact-based wrestling drama has a great deal on its mind about America's privileged class and how sublimated urges can assert themselves in the most unsavory ways. -- Todd McCarthy The Iron Ministry American director J.P. Sniadecki's latest anthropological study of the world's most populous nation takes the form of a pungently immersive, frequently surprising semi-experimental documentary about traveling on Chinese trains. -- Neil Young See more 35 of 2014's Most Anticipated Movies
read more...
read more...
- 10/4/2014
- by THR Staff
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
From the Film Society of Lincoln Square This thrilling new film from J.P. Sniadecki (People’s Park, Foreign Parts), shot over three years during a series of train journeys across China, begins with metal: the sounds and sights of gears, wheels on tracks and linked railway cars meshing, crunching, and grinding. We are gradually introduced to the people who ride and work on the cars, with their luggage, their produce, the products they’re hawking, the goods they’re transporting. People are crammed into every corner of every train car, with the exception of a first-class compartment from which the filmmaker is barred. At one point, Sniadecki follows a food vendor from one [ Read More ]
The post New York Film Festival 2014: The Iron Ministry Gets New Clips appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post New York Film Festival 2014: The Iron Ministry Gets New Clips appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 9/7/2014
- by Rudie Obias
- ShockYa
J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry premiered in competition in Locarno last week and, in a dispatch to the House Next Door, Michael Pattison notes that "the focus is upon the claustrophobic clutter of China's economy-class train carriages that rattle along one of the largest rail networks in the world. Filming between 2011 and 2013, Sniadecki perhaps had too much material for his own good, and the process of trimming it all into a cohesive whole has resulted in something at once suitably chaotic and frustratingly unwieldy—but it's sometimes a marvelous and frequently alarming snapshot of the country's militantly upheld class divide." We've got more reviews and the trailer. » - David Hudson...
- 8/20/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
J.P. Sniadecki's The Iron Ministry premiered in competition in Locarno last week and, in a dispatch to the House Next Door, Michael Pattison notes that "the focus is upon the claustrophobic clutter of China's economy-class train carriages that rattle along one of the largest rail networks in the world. Filming between 2011 and 2013, Sniadecki perhaps had too much material for his own good, and the process of trimming it all into a cohesive whole has resulted in something at once suitably chaotic and frustratingly unwieldy—but it's sometimes a marvelous and frequently alarming snapshot of the country's militantly upheld class divide." We've got more reviews and the trailer. » - David Hudson...
- 8/20/2014
- Keyframe
Opening Night – World Premiere
Gone Girl
David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m
David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...
Gone Girl
David Fincher, USA, 2014, Dcp, 150m
David Fincher’s film version of Gillian Flynn’s phenomenally successful best seller (adapted by the author) is one wild cinematic ride, a perfectly cast and intensely compressed portrait of a recession-era marriage contained within a devastating depiction of celebrity/media culture, shifting gears as smoothly as a Maserati 250F. Ben Affleck is Nick Dunne, whose wife Amy (Rosamund Pike) goes missing on the day of their fifth anniversary. Neil Patrick Harris is Amy’s old boyfriend Desi, Carrie Coon (who played Honey in Tracy Letts’s acclaimed production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) is Nick’s sister Margo, Kim Dickens (Treme, Friday Night Lights) is Detective Rhonda Boney, and Tyler Perry is Nick’s superstar lawyer Tanner Bolt. At once a grand panoramic vision of middle America, a uniquely disturbing exploration of the fault lines in a marriage,...
- 8/20/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Just steps from the outdoor screen and the 8,000 seats that have been set up on the Piazza Grande where the 67th Locarno International Film Festival will open on 6 August, I sat down with Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to talk about films of the past and present, the American independent film line-up, Roman Polanski and Agnès Varda.
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
The Festival
Kouguell: This is your second year as Artistic Director. What changes will we see at the Festival this year?
Chatrian: “Last year, I didn’t want to change the Festival that much because I felt, and still feel, that the structure is good and fits the goals -- to continue on the same path with (both) the history of cinema and new films. This year’s selection of new films will have more surprises than last year. The main competition last year was composed of mainly quite well-known directors; this year there is a good balance of first-time, lesser known and established directors.”
Kouguell: Are there any current trends in filmmaking that you have found in this year’s films?
Chatrian: “Cinema as an art form has more than one direction. Luckily there are filmmakers willing to take different directions and we see this here at this year’s Festival. I’m always a little bit concerned when some critics say, ‘the new cinema will be this or that’ -- what I can say is that cinema -- especially through young filmmakers -- seems quite vibrant and not a dead art form.”
On American Indie Films at the Festival
Chatrian: “We try to provide a complete panorama of American indie cinema but we are not concerned about being exhaustive. Locarno is a good festival to help the career of a director. One of the purposes of the Locarno Film Festival is to discover new talent. I’m happy to have back -- they were discovered by Locarno -- American indie directors Alex Ross Perry ( "Listen Up Philip"), Joel Potrykus ("Buzzard") and J.P. Sniadecki with his documentary "The Iron Ministry".”
The other American films include "Single Stream" directed by Ernst Karel, Toby Kim Lee and Pawel Wojtasik, "Songs from the North" by Soon-Mi Yoo, the "Tony Longo Trilogy" directed by indie cinema veteran Thom Anderson, "Creep" (Patrick Brice’s first feature- length genre film), "Thirst" a short narrative film directed by Rachel McDonald, and the fiction feature "Christmas Again" directed by Charles Poekel.
On Roman Polanski
Kouguell: Some might feel that inviting Roman Polanski to the Festival is a controversial choice. What are your thoughts on this?
Chatrian: “I’m aware of this. I don’t want to hurt anyone. When I had the chance to invite him to do a master class for the young filmmakers at the Locarno Summer Academy, it was a chance to gain an inside angle of this director. That’s the purpose of the festival -- we exchange ideas; Polanksi can give his film knowledge to other people. One side is justice and one is the filmmaker. He is a great creator of moving images and for me, not controversial, simple as that. He is willing to share his ideas with young directors. If anyone else wants to take him and bring him to justice this is not the right place to do it because we are a film festival.”
On Honoring Agnès Varda with The Pardo d’onore Swisscom Award
Chatrian: “It is important to pay tribute to her as a woman director, and as a major figure in modern and independent cinema. Varda and I discussed the titles to choose to screen at the Festival. As you see there are well known films -- and others not as known [like] the 2011 documentary television series Agnès de ci de là Varda.
“What is interesting in her work is that she is absolutely free to choose topics, format, length, and style. She is free to switch from documentaries to fiction -- to work with big stars or not, to reflect on her own experience. Through her work we can see and experience a number of important movements in the 20th Century -- the American Blank Panthers (Huey), the women’s movement, "The Gleaners and I," " Les cent et une nuits de Simon Cinéma," and more. Varda allows me and the Festival to watch cinema as language; she allows the festival to retell important stories of the past years. At age 86 she is full of energy and willing to exchange her experience with the audience.”
The Locarno International Film Festival offers a vast range of work from the past and present, a diverse selection of shorts, feature-length, narrative and documentary films, and a window onto the future of cinema around the globe.
The Locarno International Film Festival runs from August 6-16, 2014. For more information visit: www.pardo.ch
Award-winning screenwriter and filmmaker, Susan Kouguell presents international workshops and seminars on screenwriting and film. Author of Savvy Characters Sell Screenplays! and The Savvy Screenwriter, she is chairperson of Su-City Pictures East, LLC, a consulting company founded in 1990 where she works with over 1,000 writers, filmmakers, and executives worldwide.www.su-city-pictures.com , http://su-city-pictures.com/wpblog...
- 8/6/2014
- by Susan Kouguell
- Sydney's Buzz
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