While it was fascinating to see the results of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll, we’re just as curious to see what lies outside the established canon. As part of a comprehensive project at the essential resource They Shoot Pictures, Don’t They?, Ángel González polled nearly 839 critics on the best films that didn’t receive a single vote on the Sight & Sound poll, which they’ve now compiled into a massive Beyond the Sight & Sound Canon, which initially features 1,030 films but expands to a whopping 14,558 total films.
As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller,...
As a preview, we’ve collected the films that received at least 20 votes in this new poll, which is 263. It’s led by Spike Jonze’s Her, and they’ve also noted the directors that were most represented. Fritz Lang leads the pack with eight films mentioned, while François Truffaut has seven, and Anthony Mann, Clint Eastwood, Eric Rohmer, John Ford, Samuel Fuller,...
- 4/8/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Anthology Film Archives
“Essential Cinema” brings films by Mekas’ Walden and Journey to Lithuania, Man Ray, Duchamp, René Clair and more; a Quebec cinema retrospective is underway.
Museum of the Moving Image
Hal Hartley’s masterpiece Henry Fool plays on 35mm this Sunday; a Jim Henson program shows on Saturday and Sunday; a Warner Bros. cartoon collection screens Friday and Sunday.
Metrograph
A complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong has begun.
Film Forum
Le Samouraï and the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques continue playing in new 4K restorations; It Came from Outer Space plays in 3D this Sunday.
Paris Theater
A dual retrospective of Steven Zaillian and Patricia Highsmith brings films by Hitchcock, Fincher, Scorsese, Haynes, Wenders, and more.
IFC Center
The End of Evangelion continues its run, while Paprika, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Repo! The Genetic Opera show late.
The...
Anthology Film Archives
“Essential Cinema” brings films by Mekas’ Walden and Journey to Lithuania, Man Ray, Duchamp, René Clair and more; a Quebec cinema retrospective is underway.
Museum of the Moving Image
Hal Hartley’s masterpiece Henry Fool plays on 35mm this Sunday; a Jim Henson program shows on Saturday and Sunday; a Warner Bros. cartoon collection screens Friday and Sunday.
Metrograph
A complete retrospective of Lee Chang-dong has begun.
Film Forum
Le Samouraï and the Belmondo-led Classe tous risques continue playing in new 4K restorations; It Came from Outer Space plays in 3D this Sunday.
Paris Theater
A dual retrospective of Steven Zaillian and Patricia Highsmith brings films by Hitchcock, Fincher, Scorsese, Haynes, Wenders, and more.
IFC Center
The End of Evangelion continues its run, while Paprika, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, and Repo! The Genetic Opera show late.
The...
- 4/5/2024
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
To Save and Project: The 19th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation – See Screening Dates
The Museum of Modern Art announced in early December the To Save and Project: The 19th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation, the latest edition of the annual festival dedicated to celebrating newly preserved and restored films from archives, studios, distributors, foundations, and independent filmmakers from around the world. Running from January 12 to February 2, 2023, this year’s program will open and close with the restoration premieres of two major silent films from MoMA’s archive: Paul Leni’s horror comedy The Cat and the Canary (1927) and Ernst Lubitsch’s comedy The
Marriage Circle (1924), respectively. To Save and Project is organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and Cindi Rowell, independent curator, with special thanks to Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, and Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, Department of Film.
The 2023 program includes the highly anticipated new version of Tod Browning’s insidious silent horror film...
Marriage Circle (1924), respectively. To Save and Project is organized by Dave Kehr, Curator, Department of Film, The Museum of Modern Art, and Cindi Rowell, independent curator, with special thanks to Olivia Priedite, Film Program Coordinator, and Steve Macfarlane, Department Assistant, Department of Film.
The 2023 program includes the highly anticipated new version of Tod Browning’s insidious silent horror film...
- 12/27/2022
- by Movies Martin Cid Magazine
- Martin Cid Magazine - Movies
Brief Encounter.The Sight & Sound critics' poll of the greatest films of all time has for decades stood as one of the more controversial and arguably the most influential measures of cinematic excellence. Originally published in 1952, the list and its formation has been updated every ten years, with new titles added, others vanishing, and additional modifications along the way. According to an excerpt from the autumn 1952 issue, the ranking was a “sequel” to the Brussels Referendum, which had been featured in a previous edition of the publication. In that poll, 100 directors were asked to vote for their ten best films ever made. As a follow-up, Sight & Sound turned to the critics, 85 of them from ten different countries; 63 responded. Since then, the sample size has obviously increased as more films were released; new contributors took part (846 critics in 2012); and historical, social, and aesthetic perspectives shifted the ultimate evaluation of what merits final inclusion.
- 11/30/2022
- MUBI
France’s Tamasa Distribution has acquired a number of new films and classic titles, including works by Volker Schlondörff, Signe Baumane, Alain Cavalier and Jean-Louis Bertucelli.
The Paris-based distributor secured Schlondörff’s new documentary “The Forest Maker,” a portrait of Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo, who has found a way to grow trees in the most barren areas by activating the tree stumps and roots that have continued to live for decades. Known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, the method has secured the livelihood of thousands of farmers in Africa’s Sahel region, restoring not only soil but dignity and hope.
“My Love Affair With Marriage”
Tamasa also picked up Baumane’s award-wining animated film “My Love Affair With Marriage,” which premiered this year at the Tribeca Festival and won the jury prize at the Annecy Animation Festival. It follows Zelma, who is convinced from an early age that love would...
The Paris-based distributor secured Schlondörff’s new documentary “The Forest Maker,” a portrait of Australian agronomist Tony Rinaudo, who has found a way to grow trees in the most barren areas by activating the tree stumps and roots that have continued to live for decades. Known as Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration, the method has secured the livelihood of thousands of farmers in Africa’s Sahel region, restoring not only soil but dignity and hope.
“My Love Affair With Marriage”
Tamasa also picked up Baumane’s award-wining animated film “My Love Affair With Marriage,” which premiered this year at the Tribeca Festival and won the jury prize at the Annecy Animation Festival. It follows Zelma, who is convinced from an early age that love would...
- 10/17/2022
- by Ed Meza
- Variety Film + TV
Normal 0 false false false En-us X-none X-none
“Tomorrow’S News Today!”
By Raymond Benson
One wonders if Bond villain Elliot Carver ever saw the 1944 comedy-fantasy, It Happened Tomorrow. Carver’s evil plot involved making bad news happen so that his newspapers could scoop the headlines before other media outlets even learned about the events. “Tomorrow’s News Today!” was his slogan.
In the fanciful and entertaining It Happened Tomorrow, a newspaper man receives tomorrow’s news today, allowing him to write the piece and get it ready to go to the presses before the incident occurs.
French filmmaker René Clair had come to Hollywood in the early 1940s after working for a time in the U.K. He made a handful of pictures for different studios, namely I Married a Witch (1942) and And Then There Were None (1945). In-between those notable titles came It Happened Tomorrow, which was based on an...
“Tomorrow’S News Today!”
By Raymond Benson
One wonders if Bond villain Elliot Carver ever saw the 1944 comedy-fantasy, It Happened Tomorrow. Carver’s evil plot involved making bad news happen so that his newspapers could scoop the headlines before other media outlets even learned about the events. “Tomorrow’s News Today!” was his slogan.
In the fanciful and entertaining It Happened Tomorrow, a newspaper man receives tomorrow’s news today, allowing him to write the piece and get it ready to go to the presses before the incident occurs.
French filmmaker René Clair had come to Hollywood in the early 1940s after working for a time in the U.K. He made a handful of pictures for different studios, namely I Married a Witch (1942) and And Then There Were None (1945). In-between those notable titles came It Happened Tomorrow, which was based on an...
- 6/4/2021
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
It Happened Tomorrow
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1944 / 1.33:1 / 85 min.
Starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie
Cinematography by Archie Stout, Eugen Schüfftan
Directed by René Clair
René Clair takes a trip through The Twilight Zone in It Happened Tomorrow, the story of a reporter’s perilous adventure with a different kind of time machine. Like Clair’s I Married a Witch and The Ghost Goes West, this 1944 fantasy is lighter than air but its feet are planted firmly on the ground. Dick Powell plays Larry Stevens, a struggling journalist with a literal dead end job—he writes obituaries for The Evening News. Linda Darnell is Sylvia Smith, a stage performer who predicts fortunes with the help of Oscar Cigolini, né Smith, her showboating uncle played by Jack Oakie. Sylvia isn’t the only one with insight into the future, Larry gets in on the act when he’s handed a...
Blu ray
Kino Lorber
1944 / 1.33:1 / 85 min.
Starring Dick Powell, Linda Darnell, Jack Oakie
Cinematography by Archie Stout, Eugen Schüfftan
Directed by René Clair
René Clair takes a trip through The Twilight Zone in It Happened Tomorrow, the story of a reporter’s perilous adventure with a different kind of time machine. Like Clair’s I Married a Witch and The Ghost Goes West, this 1944 fantasy is lighter than air but its feet are planted firmly on the ground. Dick Powell plays Larry Stevens, a struggling journalist with a literal dead end job—he writes obituaries for The Evening News. Linda Darnell is Sylvia Smith, a stage performer who predicts fortunes with the help of Oscar Cigolini, né Smith, her showboating uncle played by Jack Oakie. Sylvia isn’t the only one with insight into the future, Larry gets in on the act when he’s handed a...
- 5/22/2021
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
"The Furniture," by Daniel Walber. (Click on the images for magnified detail)
Once upon a time, the Oscars were in November! Well, thrice upon a time. The 3rd, 4th and 5th Academy Awards were held in the fall - the last of them on November 18th, 1932. Nathaniel covreed the biggest piece of trivia from that night earlier this morning. But there were also a few firsts, including the debut of the short film categories and the first-ever foreign-language nominee. René Clair’s À nous la liberté was nominated for Best Art Direction, an award it lost to a cruise ship comedy called Transatlantic.
But it’s Clair and art director Lazare Meerson who have the last laugh, as their losing film is now largely regarded as a classic and Transatlantic barely has a Wikipedia page. A nous la liberte is a charming little oddity, a musical comedy about the alienation inherent in modern industry.
Once upon a time, the Oscars were in November! Well, thrice upon a time. The 3rd, 4th and 5th Academy Awards were held in the fall - the last of them on November 18th, 1932. Nathaniel covreed the biggest piece of trivia from that night earlier this morning. But there were also a few firsts, including the debut of the short film categories and the first-ever foreign-language nominee. René Clair’s À nous la liberté was nominated for Best Art Direction, an award it lost to a cruise ship comedy called Transatlantic.
But it’s Clair and art director Lazare Meerson who have the last laugh, as their losing film is now largely regarded as a classic and Transatlantic barely has a Wikipedia page. A nous la liberte is a charming little oddity, a musical comedy about the alienation inherent in modern industry.
- 11/18/2020
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmExperience
The Lady Eve
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
Blu ray
Criterion
1941/ 94 min.
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, William Demarest
Cinematography by Victor Milner
Directed by Preston Sturges
In The Lady Eve a wealthy ophiologist named Charlie Pike and a sexy card shark named Jean Harrington fall in love. It’s a rapid-fire romance fueled by equal portions of love and lust and when the affair crashes and burns, director Preston Sturges simply restarts the movie: Jean reintroduces herself to Charlie as a British socialite named Eve and la affaire d’amour begins anew. The brazenness of her charade is part and parcel of Sturges’s own impudent take on the Human Comedy – the result is a screwball work of art.
Henry Fonda is Charlie and Barbara Stanwyck plays Jean – they meet aboard a cruise ship where Jean’s father, an avuncular but remorseless con man played by Charles Coburn, has pigeonholed Charlie as a sucker par excellence.
- 7/25/2020
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
Dušan Makavejev was born on King Milutin Street in Belgrade on October 13, 1932. This was about nine years before the city was occupied by the Nazis, at which point the Chinese embassy across the street became the headquarters of the German Chief Command of the Southeast. As a child, he watched German officers go in and out of the building, one of whom, Kurt Waldheim, would later become the Secretary of the United Nations—though of course the young Makavejev didn’t know this at the time. Following the Second World War, it was under Tito's Communist, but anti-Stalinist Yugoslavia that Makavejev first emerged as a major Eastern European filmmaker, initially associated with the loosely defined Novi Film (new film) movement. His eclectic career, the subject of a major retrospective at New York's Anthology Archives, garnered praise from the likes of Amos Vogel, Robin Wood, Stanley Cavell, Jonas Mekas, and Roger Ebert,...
- 2/27/2020
- MUBI
A central figure in French cinema, Bertrand Tavernier has an encyclopedic knowledge of the craft of filmmaking akin to the likes of Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. The sense of history he possesses is seen in both his narrative and documentary, the latter of which is perhaps best exemplified in his recent film My Journey Through French Cinema. Clocking in at 3.5 hours, that 2016 documentary has now received a follow-up expansion with an eight-part series and we’re pleased to debut the U.S. trailer.
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
Titled Journeys Through French Cinema, the director-writer-actor-producer explores the filmmakers that most influenced him, how the cinema of France changed when the country was German occupation, the unknown films and filmmakers he admires (with a focus on female directors), and much more. From better-known filmmakers such as Jacques Tati, Robert Bresson, and Jacques Demy to ones in need of (re)discovery such as Raymond Bernard, Maurice Turner,...
- 12/27/2019
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
"The genius of the system" is a contradiction in terms, but it seems to have stuck as an alternative to the auteur theory in explaining how the Hollywood studio system made so many good films. Yet René Clair, specialist in comic-romantic soufflés, reported that he was offered a project developed for Fritz Lang, and where was the sense (or genius?) in that?Still, the system was maintained by men possessed, if not of genius, then of horse sense: when someone proposed that Raoul Walsh direct, as a change of pace, a tender love story, Darryl F. Zanuck of Twentieth Century Fox swatted the idea down, saying, "Raoul Walsh's idea of a tender love story is to set fire to a whorehouse."This month, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is offering another great season of films from Fox (before it merged with Twentieth Century), including five from Walsh...
- 3/12/2019
- MUBI
Paris — A True Renaissance Man of French cinema, director, historian and film preservationist Bertrand Tavernier can now claim another title – maestro.
For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.
The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.
What are the roots of this project?
This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...
For the past several months, the filmmaker has been working on a project honoring several pioneering French composers, restoring several pieces and putting together a program that he presents on Saturday January 19 in conjunction with UniFrance’s Rendez-Vous With French Cinema.
To be held in Paris’ Maison de la Radio, the concert, called “May the Music Begin!” will pay tribute to several classic French films and their composers. As an added lure, the show will premiere three restorations of scores never before played in concert.
The director sat down with Variety to explain both his process and goals on this new venture.
What are the roots of this project?
This project sprung from my passion for music and from the two documentaries that I made, the feature film “My...
- 1/15/2019
- by Ben Croll
- Variety Film + TV
A master of suspense admired even by Hitchcock, Henri-Georges Clouzot is famous for acid-tinged thrillers about cold-blooded murder and ugly politics, whether in a French town or a Latin American oil field. But his early writing career was quite different: he provided the scenarios and dialogue for ten years’ worth of clever farces and affecting melodramas, often with musical numbers.
Clouzot The Early Works
Blu-ray
My Cousin from Warsaw, Dragnet Night, The Unknown Singer, I’ll Be Alone After Midnight, The Terror of Batignolles, Tell Me Tonight, Dream Castle
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1931- 1933 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 511 min.
Street Date November 20, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 59.95
Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot
If one digs into older movies away from the usual standard titles, the history of filmmaking opens up like a grand epic. All those acknowledged French masterpieces of the 1930s weren’t necessarily the popular norm. Just as in America,...
Clouzot The Early Works
Blu-ray
My Cousin from Warsaw, Dragnet Night, The Unknown Singer, I’ll Be Alone After Midnight, The Terror of Batignolles, Tell Me Tonight, Dream Castle
Kino Lorber Kino Classics
1931- 1933 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 511 min.
Street Date November 20, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 59.95
Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot
If one digs into older movies away from the usual standard titles, the history of filmmaking opens up like a grand epic. All those acknowledged French masterpieces of the 1930s weren’t necessarily the popular norm. Just as in America,...
- 11/24/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The first Esposizione d’Arte Cinematografica, later to be known as the Venice Intl. Film Festival, kicked off Aug. 6, 1932, with a screening of Rouben Mamoulian’s “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” on the terrace of the Lido’s Hotel Excelsior, followed by a grand ball.
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
The pic, produced by Paramount, went on to win an acting Oscar for Fredric March in an auspicious start, at least as an awards tastemaker, for the world’s oldest international film fest. It kicks off its 75th edition on Aug. 29.
Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night,” above, Edmund Goulding’s “Grand Hotel,” King Vidor’s “The Champ” and “A Nous la liberté” by René Clair are among other titles, now classics, that screened during that first edition. The fest was born from Italy’s desire to be seen as the center of art and culture in the wake of the disastrous World War I,...
- 8/28/2018
- by Nick Vivarelli
- Variety Film + TV
They’re non-corporeal cut-ups, rich ghosts on the town with nothing better to do than spice up the love life of Roland Young’s harried, henpecked bank president. Hal Roach’s screwball hit did good things for everybody concerned, especially star Cary Grant and bit player Arthur Lake. But the show’s nostalgic heart is Billie Burke, of the tinkly-glass voice. Also starring platinum blonde Constance Bennett, Alan Mowbray and Eugene Pallette.
Topper
Blu-ray
Vci
1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Street Date October, 2017 / 20.99
Starring: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper, Virginia Sale, Theodore von Eltz, J. Farrell MacDonald, Elaine Shepard, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Lana Turner, Russell Wade, Claire Windsor.
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Film Editor: William Terhune
Art Director: William Stevens
Original Music: Marvin Hatley
Written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, Eddie Moran from a novel by Thorne Smith...
Topper
Blu-ray
Vci
1937 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 97 min. / Street Date October, 2017 / 20.99
Starring: Constance Bennett, Cary Grant, Roland Young, Billie Burke, Alan Mowbray, Eugene Pallette, Arthur Lake, Hedda Hopper, Virginia Sale, Theodore von Eltz, J. Farrell MacDonald, Elaine Shepard, Ward Bond, Hoagy Carmichael, Lana Turner, Russell Wade, Claire Windsor.
Cinematography: Norbert Brodine
Film Editor: William Terhune
Art Director: William Stevens
Original Music: Marvin Hatley
Written by Jack Jevne, Eric Hatch, Eddie Moran from a novel by Thorne Smith...
- 10/17/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Welcome to the world of Jean Grémillon, where adult characters work through adult problems without benefit of melodramatic excess. The impressively directed experiences of Micheline Presle’s lady doctor on a storm-swept island opts for a progressive point of view, not sentimentality.
The Love of a Woman
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 104 min. / Street Date August 22, 2017 / L’amour d’une femme / Available from Arrow Video 39.95
Starring: Micheline Presle, Massimo Girotti, Gaby Morlay, Paolo Stoppa, Marc Cassot, Marius David, Yvette Etiévant, Roland Lesaffre, Robert Naly, Madeleine Geoffroy.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Louisette Hautecoeur, Marguerite Renoir
Production Design: Robert Clavel
Original Music: Elsa Barraine, Henrie Dutilleux
Written by René Fallet, Jean Grémillon, René Wheeler
Produced by Mario Gabrielli, Pierre Géin
Directed by Jean Grémillon
Film critics that pride themselves on rediscovering older directors haven’t done very well by France’s Jean Grémillon, at least not in this country.
The Love of a Woman
Blu-ray + DVD
Arrow Video USA
1953 / B&W / 1:37 flat full frame / 104 min. / Street Date August 22, 2017 / L’amour d’une femme / Available from Arrow Video 39.95
Starring: Micheline Presle, Massimo Girotti, Gaby Morlay, Paolo Stoppa, Marc Cassot, Marius David, Yvette Etiévant, Roland Lesaffre, Robert Naly, Madeleine Geoffroy.
Cinematography: Louis Page
Film Editor: Louisette Hautecoeur, Marguerite Renoir
Production Design: Robert Clavel
Original Music: Elsa Barraine, Henrie Dutilleux
Written by René Fallet, Jean Grémillon, René Wheeler
Produced by Mario Gabrielli, Pierre Géin
Directed by Jean Grémillon
Film critics that pride themselves on rediscovering older directors haven’t done very well by France’s Jean Grémillon, at least not in this country.
- 9/9/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The Love Of A Woman (1953 – L’amour d’une femme) 2-Disc Special Edition DVD + Blu-ray will be available August 22nd from Arrow Academy. Pre-order Here</strong
The Love Of A Woman (L’amour d’une femme) was the final feature of the great French filmmaker Jean Grémillon, concluding a string of classics that included such greats as Remorques, Lumière d’été and Pattes blanches.
Marie, a young doctor, arrives on the island of Ushant to replace its retiring physician. She experiences prejudice from the mostly male population, but also love in the form of engineer André.
Starring Micheline Presle, whose impressive career has encompassed French, Italian and Hollywood cinema, and Massimo Girotti, best-known for his performance in Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione, The Love of a Woman is a sad, beautiful, romantic masterpiece.
Special Edition Contents
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition presentations of the feature, from materials supplied by...
The Love Of A Woman (L’amour d’une femme) was the final feature of the great French filmmaker Jean Grémillon, concluding a string of classics that included such greats as Remorques, Lumière d’été and Pattes blanches.
Marie, a young doctor, arrives on the island of Ushant to replace its retiring physician. She experiences prejudice from the mostly male population, but also love in the form of engineer André.
Starring Micheline Presle, whose impressive career has encompassed French, Italian and Hollywood cinema, and Massimo Girotti, best-known for his performance in Luchino Visconti’s Ossessione, The Love of a Woman is a sad, beautiful, romantic masterpiece.
Special Edition Contents
• High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) and Standard Definition presentations of the feature, from materials supplied by...
- 8/8/2017
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Jacqueline Bisset’s in a heck of a fix. Her hubby Alan Alda has been seduced by promises of fame and fortune from creepy concert genius Curt Jurgens, and is responding to weird overtures from Curt’s daughter Barbara Parkins. The pianist’s mansion is stuffed with occult books, and he displays an unhealthy interest in Alda’s piano-ready hands. Do you think the innocent young couple could be in a diabolical tight spot? Nah, nothing to worry about here.
The Mephisto Waltz
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1971 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Brad(ford) Dillman, William Windom, Kathleen Widdoes, Pamelyn Ferdin, Curt Jurgens, Curt Lowens, Kiegh Diegh, Berry Kroeger, Walter Brooke, Frank Campanella.
Cinematography: William W. Spencer
Film Editor: Richard Brockway
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Ben Maddow from a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart
Produced...
The Mephisto Waltz
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1971 / Color /1:85 widescreen / 115 min. / Street Date April 18, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset, Barbara Parkins, Brad(ford) Dillman, William Windom, Kathleen Widdoes, Pamelyn Ferdin, Curt Jurgens, Curt Lowens, Kiegh Diegh, Berry Kroeger, Walter Brooke, Frank Campanella.
Cinematography: William W. Spencer
Film Editor: Richard Brockway
Original Music: Jerry Goldsmith
Written by Ben Maddow from a novel by Fred Mustard Stewart
Produced...
- 5/8/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Mubi is exclusively showing Billy Wilder and Alexander Esway's Mauvaise Graine a.k.a. Bad Seed (1934) in the United States and most countries around the world from August 18 - September 16, 2016.In light of his illustrious Hollywood career to follow, Billy Wilder’s obscure directorial debut, Mauvaise Graine (1934), may seem like a mere curiosity. Making the film as he was passing through France by way of Germany en route to America, Wilder regarded the work with little adoration. For him, the experience was one rife with difficulty; it wasn’t fun, there was tremendous pressure, and he simply wasn’t accustomed to have such sweeping control over a production. But the writing was on the wall by 1933, and Wilder, like so many others, was keen to get out of Berlin while the getting was good. Arriving first in Paris, he met other film professionals seeking refuge from the burgeoning Nazi party,...
- 8/19/2016
- MUBI
Since any New York cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Metrograph
The “Cassavetes/Rowlands” series ends on a real high note.
This Saturday, Dead Man plays with Jim Jarmusch and Chris Eyre in-person. It also screens on Sunday as part of “Native to America,” a series that brings the latter’s Smoke Signals on the same day.
Lucio Fulci‘s A Cat in the Brain screens on Saturday.
Metrograph
The “Cassavetes/Rowlands” series ends on a real high note.
This Saturday, Dead Man plays with Jim Jarmusch and Chris Eyre in-person. It also screens on Sunday as part of “Native to America,” a series that brings the latter’s Smoke Signals on the same day.
Lucio Fulci‘s A Cat in the Brain screens on Saturday.
- 7/22/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Women suffrage movie 'Mothers of Men': Dorothy Davenport becomes a judge and later State Governor in socially conscious thriller about U.S. women's voting rights. Women suffrage movie 'Mothers of Men': Will women's right to vote lead to the destruction of The American Family? Directed by and featuring the now all but forgotten Willis Robards, Mothers of Men – about women suffrage and political power – was a fast-paced, 64-minute buried treasure screened at the 2016 San Francisco Silent Film Festival, held June 2–5. I thoroughly enjoyed being taken back in time by this 1917 socially conscious drama that dares to ask the question: “What will happen to the nation if all women have the right to vote?” One newspaper editor insists that women suffrage would mean the destruction of The Family. Women, after all, just did not have the capacity for making objective decisions due to their emotional composition. It...
- 7/1/2016
- by Danny Fortune
- Alt Film Guide
Cambodian director Rithy Panh has lived in Paris since he fled his country’s brutal Khmer Rouge regime in 1979, and from that distance he has movingly taken on the mission to tell and re-tell for the cinema the tales of this usually ignored if not forgotten period in 20th century history. His last feature, The Missing Picture, directly addressed the tragic lack of images of the regime during its reign from 1975 - 1979, a gap in historical vision that Panh cleverly and endearingly tried to alleviate by using dioramas and clay figures to “picture” what was experienced by millions but has subsequently gone unseen.His new film, Exile, is more of a personal essay than that documentary and covers the next stage in Cambodia's history, the subsequent communist rule of the Democratic Kampuchea. Despite Panh being abroad during this time, the film has a particularly intimate and lyrical touch, and it,...
- 5/14/2016
- MUBI
Looking for a visionary and poetic film with something relevant to say about the ongoing personal tech revolution? Brilliant vintage film clips, many from experimental films, show how our desire for 'connectivity' reached critical mass. With brilliant editing, evocative music and a stirring narration read by Tilda Swinton. And it even has a sense of humor... Dreams Rewired DVD Icarus Films Home Video 2015 / B&W (and a little color) / 1:78 enhanced widescreen (variable, actually) / 85 min. / Street Date March 22, 2016 / available through Icarus Films / 29.98 Narrated by Tilda Swinton Animation Hanna Nordholt, Fritz Steingrobe Film Editor Oliver Neumann Original Music Siegfried Friedrich Written by Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart, Thomas Tode, Muku Patel Produced by Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu, Bady Minck Directed by Manu Luksch, Martin Reinhart, Thomas Tode
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In writing about science fiction I've seen the technological advances of the 20th century organized into fantasies about militarism, the invasion of privacy,...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In writing about science fiction I've seen the technological advances of the 20th century organized into fantasies about militarism, the invasion of privacy,...
- 3/26/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Director Jacques Rivette just passed away back in January. There's more interest lately in his 12-hour opus Out 1, but if you'll settle for just 2.5 hours, this unique early New Wave feature will take you inside Rivette's world of artists, students, and refugees from political persecution, all in conflict in a sunny Paris of 1958. It's just as revolutionary as an early Godard or Truffaut, but in a style all Rivette's own. Paris Belongs to Us Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 802 1961 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 141 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Paris nous appartient / Street Date March 8, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Betty Schneider, François Maistre, Giani Esposito, Françoise Prévost, Daniel Crohem, Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Marie Robain, Jean Martin. Cinematography Charles L. Bitsch Film Editor Denise de Casablanca Original Music Philippe Arthuys Written by Jacques Rivette, Jean Grualt Produced by Claude Chabrol, Roland Nonin Directed by Jacques Rivette
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The French New...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The French New...
- 3/15/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Life isn’t easy for witches. Sure, they have magical powers, live for hundreds of years, and can fly around on broomsticks — but it’s not all fun and games. Beyond the stinging social stigma attached to those who witch for a living, there’s also the constant threat of unruly villagers brandishing torches and pitchforks, hungry for a good old-fashioned witch-burning. It’s starkly amusing to recall that the archetypal witch caricature was born out of the cold-blooded, unlawful murder of innocent people, acts committed vainly in the name of religion. On film, the witch is prolific, with countless examples dating back to the dawn of the art form.
When examining the witch film genre, mounting similarities cannot be ignored. Some employ the witch in fairy tales, macabre bedtime stories intended to evoke fear and wonderment in equal measure. Others depict a society gone mad, fingers ever pointed at...
When examining the witch film genre, mounting similarities cannot be ignored. Some employ the witch in fairy tales, macabre bedtime stories intended to evoke fear and wonderment in equal measure. Others depict a society gone mad, fingers ever pointed at...
- 2/17/2016
- by Tony Hinds
- The Film Stage
"I have a weak bladder when it comes to this sort of stuff, so be careful," "Tangerine" director Sean Baker warns at the beginning of his trip inside the Criterion closet, and though he doesn't get that excited, his enthusiasm is infectious nonetheless. As Magnolia mounts pathbreaking Oscar campaigns for transgender stars Kitana Kiki Rodriguez (for Best Actress) and Mya Taylor (for Best Supporting Actress), his choices are a reminder than his sun-kissed L.A. adventure, shot on an iPhone, is rooted in the vernacular of the art film. Read More: "How Sean Baker Shot 'Tangerine' on an iPhone and Invented a New Cinema (Exclusive Video)" Funnily enough, of the growing pile of Blu-rays and DVDs he selects, it's Mike Leigh's "Life Is Sweet" (1990) and "Naked" (1993) that Baker says influenced "Tangerine." We learn that his father's favorite movie is René Clair's 1942 romantic comedy...
- 12/31/2015
- by Matt Brennan
- Thompson on Hollywood
Douglas Sirk's first American movie came out so well that Prc sold it to MGM, earning Sirk a promotion out of the Poverty Row studios. John Carradine is excellent - and underplays! -- as the Hangman of Prague who moonlights as a depraved sex criminal. But the context in this wartime propaganda movie is serious -- it commemorates the Nazi murder of an entire Czech town. Hitler's Madman DVD-r The Warner Archive Collection 1943 / B&W / 1:37 flat Academy / 84 min. / Street Date December 1, 2015 / available through the WBshop / 18.95 Starring Patricia Morrison, John Carradine, Alan Curtis, Howard Freeman, Ralph Morgan, Ludwig Stössel, Edgar Kennedy, Al Shean, Elizabeth Russell, Jimmy Conlin, Ava Gardner, Natalie Draper, Victor Kilian, Otto Reichow, Peter van Eyck, Hans Heinrich von Twardowski, Blanch Yurka. Cinematography (Eugen Schüfftan, credited as Technical Advisor), Jack Greenhalgh Film Editor Dan Milner Second unit and uncredited production designer Edgar G. Ulmer Original Music...
- 12/22/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...
- 12/18/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Totally and tragically unconventional, Peggy Guggenheim moved through the cultural upheaval of the 20th century collecting not only not only art, but artists. Her sexual life was -- and still today is -- more discussed than the art itself which she collected, not for her own consumption but for the world to enjoy.
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
Her colorful personal history included such figures as Samuel Beckett, Max Ernst, Jackson Pollock, Alexander Calder, Marcel Duchamp and countless others. Guggenheim helped introduce the world to Pollock, Motherwell, Rothko and scores of others now recognized as key masters of modernism.
In 1921 she moved to Paris and mingled with Picasso, Dali, Joyce, Pound, Stein, Leger, Kandinsky. In 1938 she opened a gallery in London and began showing Cocteau, Tanguy, Magritte, Miro, Brancusi, etc., and then back to Paris and New York after the Nazi invasion, followed by the opening of her NYC gallery Art of This Century, which became one of the premiere avant-garde spaces in the U.S. While fighting through personal tragedy, she maintained her vision to build one of the most important collections of modern art, now enshrined in her Venetian palazzo where she moved in 1947. Since 1951, her collection has become one of the world’s most visited art spaces.
Featuring: Jean Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst, Alberto Giacometti, Arshile Gorky, Vasil Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Willem de Kooning, Fernand Leger, Rene Magritte, Man Ray, Jean Miro, Piet Mondrian, Henry Moore, Robert Motherwell, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Kurt Schwitters, Gino Severini, Clyfford Still and Yves Tanguy.
Lisa Immordino Vreeland (Director and Producer)
Lisa Immordino Vreeland has been immersed in the world of fashion and art for the past 25 years. She started her career in fashion as the Director of Public Relations for Polo Ralph Lauren in Italy and quickly moved on to launch two fashion companies, Pratico, a sportswear line for women, and Mago, a cashmere knitwear collection of her own design. Her first book was accompanied by her directorial debut of the documentary of the same name, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012). The film about the editor of Harper's Bazaar had its European premiere at the Venice Film Festival and its North American premiere at the Telluride Film Festival, going on to win the Silver Hugo at the Chicago Film Festival and the fashion category for the Design of the Year awards, otherwise known as “The Oscars” of design—at the Design Museum in London.
"Peggy Guggenheim: Art Addict" is Lisa Immordino Vreeland's followup to her acclaimed debut, "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has to Travel". She is now working on her third doc on Cecil Beaton who Lisa says, "has been circling around all these stories. What's great about him is the creativity: fashion photography, war photography, "My Fair Lady" winning an Oscar."
Sydney Levine: I have read numerous accounts and interviews with you about this film and rather than repeat all that has been said, I refer my readers to Indiewire's Women and Hollywood interview at Tribeca this year, and your Indiewire interview with Aubrey Page, November 6, 2015 .
Let's try to cover new territory here.
First of all, what about you? What is your relationship to Diana Vreeland?
Liv: I am married to her grandson, Alexander Vreeland. (I'm also proud of my name Immordino) I never met Diana but hearing so many family stories about her made me start to wonder about all the talk about her. I worked in fashion and lived in New York like she did.
Sl: In one of your interviews you said that Peggy was not only ahead of her time but she helped to define it. Can you tell me how?
Liv: Peggy grew up in a very traditional family of German Bavarian Jews who had moved to New York City in the 19th century. Already at a young age Peggy felt like there were too many rules around her and she wanted to break out. That alone was something attractive to me — the notion that she knew that she didn't fit in to her family or her times. She lived on her own terms, a very modern approach to life. She decided to abandon her family in New York. Though she always stayed connected to them, she rarely visited New York. Instead she lived in a world without borders. She did not live by "the rules". She believed in creating art and created herself, living on her own terms and not on those of her family.
Sl: Is there a link between her and your previous doc on Diana Vreeland?
Liv: The link between Vreeland and Guggenheim is their mutual sense of reinvention and transformation. That made something click inside of me as I too reinvented myself when I began writing the book on Diana Vreeland .
Can you talk about the process of putting this one together and how it differed from its predecessor?
Liv: The most challenging thing about this one was the vast amount of material we had at our disposal. We had a lot of media to go through — instead of fashion spreads, which informed The Eye Has To Travel, we had art, which was fantastic. I was spoiled by the access we had to these incredible archives and footage. I'm still new to this, but it's the storytelling aspect that I loved in both projects. One thing about Peggy that Mrs. Vreeland didn't have was a very tragic personal life. There was so much that happened in Peggy's life before you even got to what she actually accomplished. And so we had to tell a very dense story about her childhood, her father dying on the Titanic, her beloved sister dying — the tragic events that fundamentally shaped her in a way. It was about making sure we had enough of the personal story to go along with her later accomplishments.
World War II alone was such a huge part of her story, opening an important art gallery in London, where she showed Kandinsky and other important artists for the first time. The amount of material to distill was a tremendous challenge and I hope we made the right choices.
Sl: How did you learn make a documentary?
Liv: I learned how to make a documentary by having a good team around me. My editors (and co-writers)Bent-Jorgen Perlmutt and Frédéric Tcheng were very helpful.
Research is fundamental; finding as much as you can and never giving up. I love the research. It is my "precise time". Not just for interviews but of footage, photographs never seen before. It is a painstaking process that satisfies me. The research never ends. I was still researching while I was promoting the Diana Vreeland book. I love reading books and going to original sources.
The archives in film museums in the last ten years has changed and given museums a new role. I found unique footage at Moma with the Elizabeth Chapman Films. Chapman went to Paris in the 30s and 40s with a handheld camera and took moving pictures of Brancusi and Duchamps joking around in a studio, Gertrude Stein, Leger walking down the street. This footage is owned by Robert Storr, Dean of Yale School of Art. In fact he is taking a sabbatical this year to go through the boxes and boxes of Chapman's films. We also used " Entre'acte" by René Clair cowritten with Dadaist Francis Picabia, "Le Sang du poet" of Cocteau, Hans Richter "8x8","Gagascope" and " Dreams That Money Can Buy" produced by Peggy Guggenheim, written by Man Ray in 1947.
Sl: How long did it take to research and make the film?
Liv: It took three years for both the Vreeland and the Guggenheim documentary.
It was more difficult with the Guggenheim story because there was so much material and so much to tell of her life. And she was not so giving of her own self. Diana could inspire you about a bandaid; she was so giving. But Peggy didn't talk much about why she loved an artist or a painting. She acted more. And using historical material could become "over-teaching" though it was fascinating.
So much had to be eliminated. It was hard to eliminate the Degenerate Art Show, a subject which is newly discussed. Stephanie Barron of Lacma is an expert on Degenerate Art and was so generous.
Once we decided upon which aspects to focus on, then we could give focus to the interviews.
There were so many of her important shows we could not include. For instance there was a show on collages featuring William Baziotes , Jackson Pollack and Robert Motherwell which started a more modern collage trend in art. The 31 Women Art Show which we did include pushed forward another message which I think is important.
And so many different things have been written about Peggy — there were hundreds of articles written about her during her lifetime. She also kept beautiful scrapbooks of articles written about her, which are now in the archives of the Guggenheim Museum.
The Guggenheim foundation did not commission this documentary but they were very supportive and the film premiered there in New York in a wonderful celebration. They wanted to represent Peggy and her paintings properly. The paintings were secondary characters and all were carefully placed historically in a correct fashion.
Sl: You said in one interview Guggenheim became a central figure in the modern art movement?
Liv: Yes and she did it without ego. Sharing was always her purpose in collecting art. She was not out for herself. Before Peggy, the art world was very different. And today it is part of wealth management.
Other collectors had a different way with art. Isabelle Stewart Gardner bought art for her own personal consumption. The Gardner Museum came later. Gertrude Stein was sharing the vision of her brother when she began collecting art. The Coen sisters were not sharing.
Her benevolence ranged from giving Berenice Abbott the money to buy her first camera to keeping Pollock afloat during lean times.
Djuana Barnes, who had a 'Love Love Love Hate Hate Hate' relationship with Peggy wrote Nightwood in Peggy's country house in England.
She was in Paris to the last minute. She planned how to safeguard artwork from the Nazis during World War II. She was storing gasoline so she could escape. She lived on the Ile St. Louis with her art and moved the paintings out first to a children's boarding school and then to Marseilles where it was shipped out to New York City.
Her role in art was not taken seriously because of her very public love life which was described in very derogatory terms. There was more talk about her love life than about her collection of art.
Her autobiography, Out of This Century: Confessions of an Art Addict (1960) , was scandalous when it came out — and she didn't even use real names, she used pseudonyms for her numerous partners. Only after publication did she reveal the names of the men she slept with.
The fact that she spoke about her sexual life at all was the most outrageous aspect. She was opening herself up to ridicule, but she didn't care. Peggy was her own person and she felt good in her own skin. But it was definitely unconventional behavior. I think her sexual appetites revealed a lot about finding her own identity.
A lot of it was tied to the loss of her father, I think, in addition to her wanting to feel accepted. She was also very adventurous — look at the men she slept with. I mean, come on, they are amazing! Samuel Beckett, Yves Tanguy, Marcel Duchamp, and she married Max Ernst. I think it was really ballsy of her to have been so open about her sexuality; this was not something people did back then. So many people are bound by conventional rules but Peggy said no. She grabbed hold of life and she lived it on her own terms.
Sl: You also give Peggy credit for changing the way art was exhibited. Can you explain that?
Liv: One of her greatest achievements was her gallery space in New York City, Art of This Century, which was unlike anything the art world has seen before or since in the way that it shattered the boundaries of the gallery space that we've come to know today — the sterile white cube. She came to be a genius at displaying her collections...
She was smart with Art of the Century because she hired Frederick Kiesler as a designer of the gallery and once again surrounded herself with the right people, including Howard Putzler, who was already involved with her at Guggenheim Jeune in London. And she was hanging out with all the exiled Surrealists who were living in New York at the time, including her future husband, Max Ernst, who was the real star of that group of artists. With the help of these people, she started showing art in a completely different way that was both informal and approachable. In conventional museums and galleries, art was untouchable on the wall and inside frames. In Peggy's gallery, art stuck out from the walls; works weren't confined to frames. Kiesler designed special chairs you could sit in and browse canvases as you would texts in a library. Nothing like this had ever existed in New York before — even today there is nothing like it.
She made the gallery into an exciting place where the whole concept of space was transformed. In Venice, the gallery space was also her home. Today, for a variety of reasons, the home aspect of the collection is less emphasized, though you still get a strong sense of Peggy's home life there. She was bringing art to the public in a bold new way, which I think is a great idea. It's art for everybody, which is very much a part of today's dialogue except that fewer people can afford the outlandish museum entry fees.
Sl: What do you think made her so prescient and attuned ?
Liv: She was smart enough to ask Marcel Duchamp to be her advisor — so she was in tune, and very well connected. She was on the cutting edge of what was going on and I think a lot of this had to do with Peggy being open to the idea of what was new and outrageous. You have to have a certain personality for this; what her childhood had dictated was totally opposite from what she became in life, and being in the right place at the right time helped her maintain a cutting edge throughout her life.
Sl: The movie is framed around a lost interview with Peggy conducted late in her life. How did you acquire these tapes?
Liv: We optioned Jacqueline Bogard Weld’s book, Peggy : The Wayward Guggenheim, the only authorized biography of Peggy, which was published after she died. Jackie had spent two summers interviewing Peggy but at a certain point lost the tapes somewhere in her Park Avenue apartment. Jackie had so much access to Peggy, which was incredible, but it was also the access that she had to other people who had known Peggy — she interviewed over 200 people for her book. Jackie was incredibly generous, letting me go through all her original research except for the lost tapes.
We'd walk into different rooms in her apartment and I'd suggestively open a closet door and ask “Where do you think those tapes might be?" Then one day I asked if she had a basement, and she did. So I went through all these boxes down there, organizing her affairs. Then bingo, the tapes showed up in this shoebox.
It was the longest interview Peggy had ever done and it became the framework for our movie. There's nothing more powerful than when you have someone's real voice telling the story, and Jackie was especially good at asking provoking questions. You can tell it was hard for Peggy to answer a lot of them, because she wasn't someone who was especially expressive; she didn't have a lot of emotion. And this comes across in the movie, in the tone of her voice.
Sl: Larry Gagosian has one of the best descriptions of Peggy in the movie — "she was her own creation." Would you agree, and if so why?
Liv: She was very much her own creation. When he said that in the interview I had a huge smile on my face. In Peggy's case it stemmed from a real need to identify and understand herself. I'm not sure she achieved it but she completely recreated herself — she knew that she did not want to be what she was brought up to be. She tried being a mother, but that was not one of her strengths, so art became that place where she could find herself, and then transform herself.
Nobody believed in the artists she cultivated and supported — they were outsiders and she was an outsider in the world she was brought up in. So it's in this way that she became her own great invention. I hope that her humor comes across in the film because she was extremely amusing — this aspect really comes across in her autobiography.
Sl: Finally, what do you think is Peggy Guggenheim's most lasting legacy, beyond her incredible art collection?
Liv: Her courage, and the way she used it to find herself. She had this ballsiness that not many people had, especially women. In her own way she was a feminist and it's good for women and young girls today to see women who stepped outside the confines of a very traditional family and made something of her life. Peggy's life did not seem that dreamy until she attached herself to these artists. It was her ability to redefine herself in the end that truly summed her up.
About the Filmmakers
Stanley Buchtal is a producer and entrepreneur. His movies credits include "Hairspray", "Spanking the Monkey", "Up at the Villa", "Lou Reed Berlin", "Love Marilyn", "LennoNYC", "Bobby Fischer Against the World", "Herb & Dorothy", "Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child", "Sketches of Frank Gehry", "Black White + Gray: a Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe", among numerous others.
David Koh is an independent producer, distributor, sales agent, programmer and curator. He has been involved in the distribution, sale, production, and financing of over 200 films. He is currently a partner in the boutique label Submarine Entertainment with Josh and Dan Braun and is also partners with Stanley Buchthal and his Dakota Group Ltd where he co-manages a portfolio of over 50 projects a year (75% docs and 25% fiction). Previously he was a partner and founder of Arthouse Films a boutique distribution imprint and ran Chris Blackwell's (founder of Island Records & Island Pictures) film label, Palm Pictures. He has worked as a Producer for artist Nam June Paik and worked in the curatorial departments of Anthology Film Archives, MoMA, Mfa Boston, and the Guggenheim Museum. David has recently served as a Curator for Microsoft and has curated an ongoing film series and salon with Andre Balazs Properties and serves as a Curator for the exclusive Core Club in NYC.
David recently launched with his partners Submarine Deluxe, a distribution imprint; Torpedo Pictures, a low budget high concept label; and Nfp Submarine Doks, a German distribution imprint with Nfp Films. Recently and upcoming projects include "Yayoi Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots", "Burden: a Portrait of Artist Chris Burden", "Dior and I", "20 Feet From Stardom", "Muscle Shoals", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Rats NYC", "Nas: Time Is Illmatic", "Blackfish", "Love Marilyn", "Chasing Ice", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Cutie and the Boxer"," Jean-Michel Basquiat: the Radiant Child", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Wolfpack, "Meru", and "Station to Station".
Dan Braun is a producer, writer, art director and musician/composer based in NYC. He is the Co-President of and Co-Founder of Submarine, a NYC film sales and production company specializing in independent feature and documentary films. Titles include "Blackfish", "Finding Vivian Maier", "Muscle Shoals", "The Case Against 8", "Keep On Keepin’ On", "Winter’s Bone", "Nas: Time is Illmatic", "Dior and I" and Oscar winning docs "Man on Wire", "Searching for Sugarman", "20 Ft From Stardom" and "Citizenfour". He was Executive Producer on documentaries "Kill Your Idols", (which won Best NY Documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival 2004), "Blank City", "Sunshine Superman", the upcoming feature adaptations of "Batkid Begins" and "The Battered Bastards of Baseball" and the upcoming horror TV anthology "Creepy" to be directed by Chris Columbus.
He is a producer of the free jazz documentary "Fire Music", and the upcoming documentaries, "Burden" on artist Chris Burden and "Kusama: a Life in Polka Dots" on artist Yayoi Kusama. He is also a writer and consulting editor on Dark Horse Comic’s "Creepy" and "Eerie 9" comic book and archival series for which he won an Eisner Award for best archival comic book series in 2009.
He is a musician/composer whose compositions were featured in the films "I Melt With You" and "Jean-Michel Basquiat, The Radiant Child and is an award winning art director/creative director when he worked at Tbwa/Chiat/Day on the famous Absolut Vodka campaign.
John Northrup (Co-Producer) began his career in documentaries as a French translator for National Geographic: Explorer. He quickly moved into editing and producing, serving as the Associate Producer on "Diana Vreeland: The Eye Has To Travel" (2012), and editing and co-producing "Wilson In Situ" (2014), which tells the story of theatre legend Robert Wilson and his Watermill Center. Most recently, he oversaw the post-production of Jim Chambers’ "Onward Christian Soldier", a documentary about Olympic Bomber Eric Rudolph, and is shooting on Susanne Rostock’s "Another Night in the Free World", the follow-up to her award-winning "Sing Your Song" (2011).
Submarine Entertainment (Production Company) Submarine Entertainment is a hybrid sales, production, and distribution company based in N.Y. Recent and upcoming titles include "Citizenfour", "Finding Vivian Maier", "The Dog", "Visitors", "20 Feet from Stardom", "Searching for Sugar Man", "Muscle Shoals", "Blackfish", "Cutie and the Boxer", "The Summit", "The Unknown Known", "Love Marilyn", "Marina Abramovic the Artist is Present", "Chasing Ice", "Downtown 81 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Wild Style 30th Anniversary Remastered", "Good Ol Freda", "Some Velvet Morning", among numerous others. Submarine principals also represent Creepy and Eerie comic book library and are developing properties across film & TV platforms.
Submarine has also recently launched a domestic distribution imprint and label called Submarine Deluxe; a genre label called Torpedo Pictures; and a German imprint and label called Nfp Submarine Doks.
Bernadine Colish has edited a number of award-winning documentaries. "Herb and Dorothy" (2008), won Audience Awards at Silverdocs, Philadelphia and Hamptons Film Festivals, and "Body of War" (2007), was named Best Documentary by the National Board of Review. "A Touch of Greatness" (2004) aired on PBS Independent Lens and was nominated for an Emmy Award. Her career began at Maysles Films, where she worked with Charlotte Zwerin on such projects as "Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser", "Toru Takemitsu: Music for the Movies" and the PBS American Masters documentary, "Ella Fitzgerald: Something To Live For". Additional credits include "Bringing Tibet Home", "Band of Sisters", "Rise and Dream", "The Tiger Next Door", "The Buffalo War" and "Absolute Wilson".
Jed Parker (Editor) Jed Parker began his career in feature films before moving into documentaries through his work with the award-winning American Masters series. Credits include "Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart", "Annie Liebovitz: Life Through a Lens", and most recently "Jeff Bridges: The Dude Abides".
Other work includes two episodes of the PBS series "Make ‘Em Laugh", hosted by Billy Crystal, as well as a documentary on Met Curator Henry Geldzahler entitled "Who Gets to Call it Art"?
Credits
Director, Writer, Producer: Lisa Immordino Vreeland
Produced by Stanley Buchthal, David Koh and Dan Braun Stanley Buchthal (producer)
Maja Hoffmann (executive producer)
Josh Braun (executive producer)
Bob Benton (executive producer)
John Northrup (co-producer)
Bernadine Colish (editor)
Jed Parker (editor)
Peter Trilling (director of photography)
Bonnie Greenberg (executive music producer)
Music by J. Ralph
Original Song "Once Again" Written and Performed By J. Ralph
Interviews Featuring Artist Marina Abramović Jean Arp Dore Ashton Samuel Beckett Stephanie Barron Constantin Brâncuși Diego Cortez Alexander Calder Susan Davidson Joseph Cornell Robert De Niro Salvador Dalí Simon de Pury Willem de Kooning Jeffrey Deitch Marcel Duchamp Polly Devlin Max Ernst Larry Gagosian Alberto Giacometti Arne Glimcher Vasily Kandinsky Michael Govan Fernand Léger Nicky Haslam Joan Miró Pepe Karmel Piet Mondrian Donald Kuspit Robert Motherwell Dominique Lévy Jackson Pollock Carlo McCormick Mark Rothko Hans Ulrich Obrist Yves Tanguy Lisa Phillips Lindsay Pollock Francine Prose John Richardson Sandy Rower Mercedes Ruehl Jane Rylands Philip Rylands Calvin Tomkins Karole Vail Jacqueline Bograd Weld Edmund White
Running time: 97 minutes
U.S. distribution by Submarine Deluxe
International sales by Hanway...
- 11/18/2015
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Museum of the Moving Image
Maurice Pialat‘s six-hour miniseries, Le maison de bois, will conclude the career-spanning retrospective.
“It Came from Within: A David Cronenberg Horror Weekend” brings the director’s classics to the big screen.
Film Forum
“Classic 3-D” offers three dimensions of repertory viewing, with titles such as Dial M for Murder and House of Wax.
Museum of the Moving Image
Maurice Pialat‘s six-hour miniseries, Le maison de bois, will conclude the career-spanning retrospective.
“It Came from Within: A David Cronenberg Horror Weekend” brings the director’s classics to the big screen.
Film Forum
“Classic 3-D” offers three dimensions of repertory viewing, with titles such as Dial M for Murder and House of Wax.
- 10/30/2015
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
'And Then There Were None' movie with Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, June Duprez, Louis Hayward and Roland Young. 'And Then There Were None' movie remake to be directed by Oscar nominee Morten Tyldum One of the best-known Agatha Christie novels, And Then There Were None will be getting another big-screen transfer. 20th Century Fox has acquired the movie rights to the literary suspense thriller first published in the U.K. (as Ten Little Niggers) in 1939. Morten Tyldum, this year's Best Director Academy Award nominee for The Imitation Game, is reportedly set to direct. The source for this story is Deadline.com, which adds that Tyldum himself “helped hone the pitch” for the acquisition while Eric Heisserer (A Nightmare on Elm Street 2010, The Thing 2011) will handle the screenplay adaptation. And Then There Were None is supposed to have sold more than 100 million copies worldwide, thus holding the...
- 9/29/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Each week, the fine folks at Fandor add a number of films to their Criterion Picks area, which will then be available to subscribers for the following twelve days. This week, the Criterion Picks focus on eight delightful French films.
Three decades of exceptional French cinema in the service of that most intoxicating, unpredictable and stubborn of muscles, to which laws of convention and commitment prove no barrier: the heart.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Children of Paradise by Marcel Carne
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children Of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault,...
Three decades of exceptional French cinema in the service of that most intoxicating, unpredictable and stubborn of muscles, to which laws of convention and commitment prove no barrier: the heart.
Don’t have a Fandor subscription? They offer a free trial membership.
Children of Paradise by Marcel Carne
Poetic realism reached sublime heights with Children Of Paradise, widely considered one of the greatest French films of all time. This nimble depiction of nineteenth-century Paris’s theatrical demimonde, filmed during World War II, follows a mysterious woman loved by four different men (all based on historical figures): an actor, a criminal, a count, and, most poignantly, a mime (Jean-Louis Barrault,...
- 9/22/2015
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
The following article has been adapted from a lengthier essay on the film written in 2011.Cinema is always in a state of change. Consequences of this constant flux become more obvious in retrospect, as movements come and go and film form evolves. One of the clearest indications of cinema’s major shifts lies in its technological advancements. Today’s changes are anything but subtle—we can notice them as they occur before us. Regardless of where one stands on the topic of cinema’s health as an art form, it can be agreed that it is going through some of its most monumental changes. Indeed it is even technically switching mediums, as the digital revolution is rendering celluloid obsolete. In Martin Scorsese’s Hugo (2011), new technology is revealed to be not a danger but a challenge, and an opportunity to explore new potential in filmmaking. The essentials of film form...
- 5/13/2015
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
This is a tale of chance encounters.1) René Clair is in London, making The Ghost Goes West (1935). Something of a flaneur, he has strolled down to the East End, and his noctivagation leads him to a Limehouse pub which strikes him with an intense but mysterious feeling of déjà vu."Of course!" he suddenly thinks. "D.W. Griffith: Broken Blossoms!" The pub is the very image of Griffith's Hollywood recreation of Victorian London from his 1919 film.And there, at the bar, sits D.W. Griffith himself. Clair approaches this mirage and learns that Griffith is in London to direct a remake of Broken Blossoms at Twickenham Studios. Drink is taken.2) All this comes from screenwriter Rodney Ackland's bittersweet memoir of his work in British cinema, The Celluloid Mistress, co-written with Elspeth Grant. He further explains that his idolisation of Griffith prompted him to volunteer his services in any capacity as...
- 4/16/2015
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
Marc Allégret: From André Gide lover to Simone Simon mentor (photo: Marc Allégret) (See previous post: "Simone Simon Remembered: Sex Kitten and Femme Fatale.") Simone Simon became a film star following the international critical and financial success of the 1934 romantic drama Lac aux Dames, directed by her self-appointed mentor – and alleged lover – Marc Allégret.[1] The son of an evangelical missionary, Marc Allégret (born on December 22, 1900, in Basel, Switzerland) was to have become a lawyer. At age 16, his life took a different path as a result of his romantic involvement – and elopement to London – with his mentor and later "adoptive uncle" André Gide (1947 Nobel Prize winner in Literature), more than 30 years his senior and married to Madeleine Rondeaux for more than two decades. In various forms – including a threesome with painter Théo Van Rysselberghe's daughter Elisabeth – the Allégret-Gide relationship remained steady until the late '20s and their trip to...
- 2/28/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Quite a few special events are happening this weekend for Valentine's Day that don't include the supposedly kinky sex of Fifty Shades Of Grey. Tonight at the Marchesa, the Austin Film Society is having a special premiere screening of 5 to 7. The movie stars Anton Yelchin (Star Trek) and Berenice Marlohe (Skyfall). If you'd rather go for classic romances on Saturday, Alamo Drafthouse Slaughter Lane is having a Gone With The Wind feast and Ritz is having a Casablanca feast. If you're a single women or gay man, you may prefer a Valentine's Day screening of Magic Mike at Alamo Lakeline. For that movie, the Alamo's typical "Don't Talk" rules are suspended and specialty cocktails are on the menu for a real free-for-all.
If you're completely twisted, then Alamo South Lamar has you covered too. They're teaming up with Chiller and Mondo for a Cannibal Holocaust screening on Saturday late night.
- 2/13/2015
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
At least audiences have the music of Whiplash to give them some relief over 100-plus minutes of bloodied hands and psychological trauma that were unleashed this past weekend.
Or maybe not.
The newest film from the young tandem of writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz takes a selection of jazz standards and turns them into a battle ground between aspiring jazz drummer Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) and his perfectionist mentor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons).
As Fletcher pushes Andrew to his physical and psychological limits as a musician, it is the repetition and perfection of a collection of standards that becomes the film’s musical theme.
Ironically, it is the repetition of a simple melody – one that Fletcher is seen performing on a piano in a jazz club in the film – that would serve as the foundation for Hurwitz score with fellow composer Tim Simonec.
But it is the...
Or maybe not.
The newest film from the young tandem of writer/director Damien Chazelle and composer Justin Hurwitz takes a selection of jazz standards and turns them into a battle ground between aspiring jazz drummer Andrew Neyman (Miles Teller) and his perfectionist mentor Terence Fletcher (J.K. Simmons).
As Fletcher pushes Andrew to his physical and psychological limits as a musician, it is the repetition and perfection of a collection of standards that becomes the film’s musical theme.
Ironically, it is the repetition of a simple melody – one that Fletcher is seen performing on a piano in a jazz club in the film – that would serve as the foundation for Hurwitz score with fellow composer Tim Simonec.
But it is the...
- 10/28/2014
- by Shane McNeil
- Cineplex
Marie Dubois, actress in French New Wave films, dead at 77 (image: Marie Dubois in the mammoth blockbuster 'La Grande Vadrouille') Actress Marie Dubois, a popular French New Wave personality of the '60s and the leading lady in one of France's biggest box-office hits in history, died Wednesday, October 15, 2014, at a nursing home in Lescar, a suburb of the southwestern French town of Pau, not far from the Spanish border. Dubois, who had been living in the Pau area since 2010, was 77. For decades she had been battling multiple sclerosis, which later in life had her confined to a wheelchair. Born Claudine Huzé (Claudine Lucie Pauline Huzé according to some online sources) on January 12, 1937, in Paris, the blue-eyed, blonde Marie Dubois began her show business career on stage, being featured in plays such as Molière's The Misanthrope and Arthur Miller's The Crucible. François Truffaut discovery: 'Shoot the...
- 10/17/2014
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
With Fantastic Fest taking over the Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar for the next week, not nearly as many specialty screenings as usual are going on in town. You will not, however, notice a lack of new releases in area theaters. I'll track those down below, but first I'll take a look at what is going on across town if you aren't engaging with the fest.
On Tuesday, the Austin Film Society will be screening Antonioni's 1966 mod classic Blow Up at the Marchesa. This special evening includes a 60s themed cocktail hour starting at 6:30 pm, complete with a "complimentary 60s themed hair and nail bar" courtesy of the Aveda Institute. The film will be introduced by Ned Rifkin at 7:30 pm. Bonus: if you show up dressed in your favorite 60s clothes, you may win a prize for the evening.
The Afs Screening Room is the place to be on...
- 9/19/2014
- by Matt Shiverdecker
- Slackerwood
Some of my favorite movies are about Paris! How I loved “Funny Face” which made me love everything Audrey Hepburn did. How I loved “American in Paris” and Gene Kelly forever after. And the classic French films of Paris, from René Clair’s “The Rooftops of Paris”, “Modigliani of Montparnasse”, “Elevator to the Scaffold” to “Amelie”…oh la la!
Now a new Paris classic is in the making! If only they would change title to reflect the love of Paris transforming a couple of sad victims of their scandalously delicious parents’ love affair into lovers. Kevin Kline, a luminous Kirsten Scott Thomas and a decrepit but spirited Dame Maggie Smith star in a film, to be released September 10, which I only hope will come out with a different title.
Now entitled, “My Old Lady” (what’s that supposed to mean?) Dame Maggie Smith as Mathilde belongs to no one. A free spirit who had a dalliance with no less than …., at 92 she cannot be evicted from the apartment Kevin Kline comes to Paris to sell, an apartment hidden behind walls in Paris we wish we could penetrate and which Kevin Kline, in the character of Mathias Gold, cannot see, so intent is he on selling to procure some filthy lucre. I kept waiting for Kevin to embody his Academy Award winning hilarity in “A Fish Called Wanda”, but he played it straight, an unhappy, intellectual with great talent on the piano, three unpublished novels, three divorces and not a cent in his pocket. Angry, self-righteous Mathias Gold discovers that real-estate and relationships send him into a turmoil that he never imagined.
Adapted for the screen and directed by Israel Horowitz from his 2002 of-Broadway production, “My Old Lady” the property was further developed into a screenplay with Kevin Kline himself who dropped by the playwright’s Greenwich Village residence for intermittent readings as the film script branched out from its theatrical roots.
Dame Maggie Smith read the script and was the first actor to officially sign on to the film version. Israel Horovitz traveled to London to meet with her and she accepted the part amid 25 competing scripts offered to her at the time. Horovitz recalls Smith joking during the meeting that it was the only script in the stack that didn’t end with her character dying. Adds Horovitz: “To my knowledge, it’s the first time Dame Maggie’s done a movie in which she doesn’t wear a wig.”
Produced by the writer-director’s own daughter, the well-known-in-our-circles- from-her-days-at-New Line (and later at Revolution Studios), who began her career as a publicist of Dino De Laurentiis on the film “Blue Velvet” which I happened to foster as the acquisitions executive at Lorimar when we acquired it: Rachael Horovitz (“Moneyball”, HBO’s “Grey Gardens”) and Gary Foster (“The Soloist”, “Sleepless in Seattle”), got the script to Kristin Scott Thomas who immediately signed on to play Mathilde’s confrontational daughter Chloé. The main casting was complete.
Chloé takes the story away from the developing and deepening relationship between Mattias and Mathilde and makes it her own…thus the misplaced title of the movie. It is no longer Mattias and “his old lady” Mathilde’s story but the threesome’s, and what a great story it is.
Complex and compelling, the story of two people who have been destroyed by the same love affair understand each other’s problems better than any fourth party could ever understand, and we, as the fourth party, are given access to their journey towards love…in Paris. Only in Paris could these events unfold with such panache.
The other supporting actors are those veteran French actors you have seen and loved in other Parisian settings. Dominique Pinon as the helpful real-estate agent Lefebre who explains the complex codes of the “viager” system” appears like an old friend to those of us who saw and loved Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” and “A Very Long Engagement”, “City of Lost Children” and Jeunet’s and Marc Caro’s 1991 film “ Delicatessen”. Noémi Lvovsky, the writer-director-actress who plays Mme. Girard’s physician, actor-director Stéphane Friess (“Welcome to the Sticks”) and the rapacious property developer Francois Roy who wants to buy Mathias’ apartment and turn it into a sleek hotel – as his father tried to do a generation earlier (how French!) -- round out a great supporting cast.
But without Paris, this familiar and yet totally unfamiliar Paris, the film would never have played out with such love. As a Paris habituée of many years, I kept searching for signs to tell me where this apartment was located. Was it a hotel particulière of the Marais?
Here is a little known secret of Paris: It was shot in la Manufature, located in les Gobelins in Paris’s 13th Arrondisement, operated and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. A vast complex comprising several main buildings and a slew of apartments (now used to house government functionaries), la Manufacture is the historical site of tapestry manufacturing for French royalty dating from the 17th century to the present day. Because there is no longer a huge demand for artisan tapestries in France, la Manufacture doubles as an ersatz soundstage for film and television productions, in this case standing in for the more central and tourist trod Marais, where Mme. Girard and Chloé reside. The Girard’s sprawling residence, overlooking a verdant garden came to life. Israel Horovitz and his crew jumped at the opportunity to film there.
He says, “Almost the entire movie was shot inside the compound. At one point in its history, la Manufacture was its own city within the city, with a thousand people living there. We could park our trucks inside the gated compound and shoot in a way we never could in the busy Marais. Finding the apartment we used, with its creaky floors and general disrepair, was really what made the movie possible. It was like having our own little studio.” The film shot in Paris for 24 days in autumn 2013.
At 75, Horovitz -- a veteran playwright who wrote “The Strawberry Statement” which won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival and who collaborated with István Szabó on the 1999 historical drama “Sunshine” about a Jewish family living in Hungary during the turbulent first half of the 20th century –decided to direct this, his first, film as he wrote the screenplay.
How was it working for your father? One might ask Rachael. Her answer: “He was the most prepared director I’ve ever worked with.” She praises Horovitz pére for his professionalism, sense of humor and grace under pressure, each one a boon for the intimate, familial-themed “My Old Lady”. “There is real humanity in this film thanks to those factors, “ she concludes. “Working with a family member is always a pleasure because there is the shorthand of communication you have with very few others.”
Producer Gary Foster also praises Israel Horovitz for his human touch, including his considerable grasp of human nature and conflict. “This movie is at its core about family and how people deal with the many challenges of their lives, “Foster states. “Everyone has harbored secrets at some point. ‘My Old Lady’ examines how people with secrets reveal themselves emotionally in order to locate truth. What’s special about Israel’s craft is how organic and truthful it feels. So much of this movie depends on the actors working with dialogue-rich scenes set inside cramped rooms with little action and no special effects – you have to buy into the dimensionality of these characters. Israel is at his best writing and directing scenes that feel real, al though you were a fly on the wall amid the revealing of this family’s secrets. He’s not afraid of being overly sentimental and open with emotions, and I think that’s hugely valuable.”
I completely agree. This is a marvelous movie, filled with marvels of France and family.
The Jewish side of this film is never touched on, but I must touch on it here because in these days of turmoil over the Jewish state and the state of the Jews living in the Diaspora, those in France are also in fearful flux. But this shows a France at its splendid best today and I think it is because of the love the filmmakers have for the story, the craft and the country. Producer David C. Barrot produced “ Eyes Wide Open” the 2009 Cannes’ Un Certain Regard film that dared open the subject of homosexuality in Jerusalem’s Orthodox community. I cannot speak of the provenance of Daniel Battsek the Executive Producer who between 1985 and 1991, was managing director of Palace Pictures where he was involved in all aspects of marketing, distribution and acquisitions in the U.K. and Ireland. He began his industry career at The Hoyts Film Corporation in Sydney where he quickly rose through the ranks to general manager in Victoria State overseeing distribution.
Battsek was first introduced to Disney in 1991, when he was asked to start up a U.K. Company as part of the worldwide distribution network for Buena Vista International. In 1992, he officially joined The Walt Disney Studios. Battsek was quickly promoted to vice president/managing director where he handled all aspects of theatrical film distribution in the U.K. He was later promoted to vice president, managing director and European acquisitions director of Bvi (U.K.) Limited. His responsibilities also included involvement in the acquisition of distribution rights across numerous territories for such films as “Muriel's Wedding”, “Shine”, “Central Station”, “Kolya”, and “ Ice Storm”. In 1998, he was promoted to senior vice president, Bvi (U.K.) Limited where he oversaw approximately 35 films per year from the Disney, Touchstone and Miramax labels. With his expanding role, Battsek began acquiring and developing British film projects for worldwide distribution. He created the Bvi U.K. Comedy Label which produced four films, likeHigh Heels and Low Lifes,Hope Springs,Calendar Girls, and Kinky Boots.
On 24 July 2005, he was named President of Miramax Films, after Harvey and Bob Weinstein left the company, due to creative and financial differences with Disney exec, Michael Eisner. Since he took control of the company, Miramax released such films asThe Queen,No Country for Old Men or Doubt, refocusing on producing films of high quality but low budget and was instrumental in acquiring, green-lighting or distributing such renowned and award winning films as “Tsotsi” winner of Best Foreign Language Oscar, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, “There will be Blood” among others. On 20 January 2010, Battsek became President of National Geographic Films where he brought in the Oscar-nominated “Restrepo”. He is now President of Cohen Media Group where he plays a key role.
Nor can I speak authoritatively of Producer, Nitsa Benchetrit, and Executive Producers, Raphaël Benoliel, Russ Krasnoff, but I have my suspicions. Certainly the Executive Producer, President and CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, one of the country’s most important commercial real estate owners/ developers s well as an influential patron, innovator and visionary of culture and the arts, Charles S. Cohen (also founder of The Cohen Media Group in 2008, on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) in Los Angeles, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, The Lighthouse International Theater, The Public Theater, the Stella Adler Studio and the Film Society of Lincoln Center) is living up to his name.
Even Kevin Kline suddenly seems to land inside this charmed circle of Diaspora Jews whose development and dedication to the finest
arts of the 21 st century must be praised and seen as a flowering of culture today.
While this is in no way a film which may ever be shown in the Jewish film festival circuit, it should be remarked that it is, in its way, a Jewish film because of the credentials of the filmmakers, because of the loving treatment of the neurotic family members and because it shows the natural habituation of people allowed to live in freedom in a society which values life.
I bring all this up in light of the reevaluation occurring today in the worlds of gender and religions and I want to go on record as pointing out that this film is an example of the flowering of culture; this is part of the culmination of centuries of developing a humane, forgiving and civilized way of life.
I say this as I contemplate the state of the world today to remind myself that art, not war, is my choice for my life and I believe the film is an affirmation of life above all.
Chapeau, Hats Off to the team that brought this film to life. Just change the title if you want to attract more people!
Now a new Paris classic is in the making! If only they would change title to reflect the love of Paris transforming a couple of sad victims of their scandalously delicious parents’ love affair into lovers. Kevin Kline, a luminous Kirsten Scott Thomas and a decrepit but spirited Dame Maggie Smith star in a film, to be released September 10, which I only hope will come out with a different title.
Now entitled, “My Old Lady” (what’s that supposed to mean?) Dame Maggie Smith as Mathilde belongs to no one. A free spirit who had a dalliance with no less than …., at 92 she cannot be evicted from the apartment Kevin Kline comes to Paris to sell, an apartment hidden behind walls in Paris we wish we could penetrate and which Kevin Kline, in the character of Mathias Gold, cannot see, so intent is he on selling to procure some filthy lucre. I kept waiting for Kevin to embody his Academy Award winning hilarity in “A Fish Called Wanda”, but he played it straight, an unhappy, intellectual with great talent on the piano, three unpublished novels, three divorces and not a cent in his pocket. Angry, self-righteous Mathias Gold discovers that real-estate and relationships send him into a turmoil that he never imagined.
Adapted for the screen and directed by Israel Horowitz from his 2002 of-Broadway production, “My Old Lady” the property was further developed into a screenplay with Kevin Kline himself who dropped by the playwright’s Greenwich Village residence for intermittent readings as the film script branched out from its theatrical roots.
Dame Maggie Smith read the script and was the first actor to officially sign on to the film version. Israel Horovitz traveled to London to meet with her and she accepted the part amid 25 competing scripts offered to her at the time. Horovitz recalls Smith joking during the meeting that it was the only script in the stack that didn’t end with her character dying. Adds Horovitz: “To my knowledge, it’s the first time Dame Maggie’s done a movie in which she doesn’t wear a wig.”
Produced by the writer-director’s own daughter, the well-known-in-our-circles- from-her-days-at-New Line (and later at Revolution Studios), who began her career as a publicist of Dino De Laurentiis on the film “Blue Velvet” which I happened to foster as the acquisitions executive at Lorimar when we acquired it: Rachael Horovitz (“Moneyball”, HBO’s “Grey Gardens”) and Gary Foster (“The Soloist”, “Sleepless in Seattle”), got the script to Kristin Scott Thomas who immediately signed on to play Mathilde’s confrontational daughter Chloé. The main casting was complete.
Chloé takes the story away from the developing and deepening relationship between Mattias and Mathilde and makes it her own…thus the misplaced title of the movie. It is no longer Mattias and “his old lady” Mathilde’s story but the threesome’s, and what a great story it is.
Complex and compelling, the story of two people who have been destroyed by the same love affair understand each other’s problems better than any fourth party could ever understand, and we, as the fourth party, are given access to their journey towards love…in Paris. Only in Paris could these events unfold with such panache.
The other supporting actors are those veteran French actors you have seen and loved in other Parisian settings. Dominique Pinon as the helpful real-estate agent Lefebre who explains the complex codes of the “viager” system” appears like an old friend to those of us who saw and loved Jean-Jacques Beineix’s “Diva”, Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s “Amelie” and “A Very Long Engagement”, “City of Lost Children” and Jeunet’s and Marc Caro’s 1991 film “ Delicatessen”. Noémi Lvovsky, the writer-director-actress who plays Mme. Girard’s physician, actor-director Stéphane Friess (“Welcome to the Sticks”) and the rapacious property developer Francois Roy who wants to buy Mathias’ apartment and turn it into a sleek hotel – as his father tried to do a generation earlier (how French!) -- round out a great supporting cast.
But without Paris, this familiar and yet totally unfamiliar Paris, the film would never have played out with such love. As a Paris habituée of many years, I kept searching for signs to tell me where this apartment was located. Was it a hotel particulière of the Marais?
Here is a little known secret of Paris: It was shot in la Manufature, located in les Gobelins in Paris’s 13th Arrondisement, operated and maintained by the French Ministry of Culture. A vast complex comprising several main buildings and a slew of apartments (now used to house government functionaries), la Manufacture is the historical site of tapestry manufacturing for French royalty dating from the 17th century to the present day. Because there is no longer a huge demand for artisan tapestries in France, la Manufacture doubles as an ersatz soundstage for film and television productions, in this case standing in for the more central and tourist trod Marais, where Mme. Girard and Chloé reside. The Girard’s sprawling residence, overlooking a verdant garden came to life. Israel Horovitz and his crew jumped at the opportunity to film there.
He says, “Almost the entire movie was shot inside the compound. At one point in its history, la Manufacture was its own city within the city, with a thousand people living there. We could park our trucks inside the gated compound and shoot in a way we never could in the busy Marais. Finding the apartment we used, with its creaky floors and general disrepair, was really what made the movie possible. It was like having our own little studio.” The film shot in Paris for 24 days in autumn 2013.
At 75, Horovitz -- a veteran playwright who wrote “The Strawberry Statement” which won the Jury Prize at the 1970 Cannes Film Festival and who collaborated with István Szabó on the 1999 historical drama “Sunshine” about a Jewish family living in Hungary during the turbulent first half of the 20th century –decided to direct this, his first, film as he wrote the screenplay.
How was it working for your father? One might ask Rachael. Her answer: “He was the most prepared director I’ve ever worked with.” She praises Horovitz pére for his professionalism, sense of humor and grace under pressure, each one a boon for the intimate, familial-themed “My Old Lady”. “There is real humanity in this film thanks to those factors, “ she concludes. “Working with a family member is always a pleasure because there is the shorthand of communication you have with very few others.”
Producer Gary Foster also praises Israel Horovitz for his human touch, including his considerable grasp of human nature and conflict. “This movie is at its core about family and how people deal with the many challenges of their lives, “Foster states. “Everyone has harbored secrets at some point. ‘My Old Lady’ examines how people with secrets reveal themselves emotionally in order to locate truth. What’s special about Israel’s craft is how organic and truthful it feels. So much of this movie depends on the actors working with dialogue-rich scenes set inside cramped rooms with little action and no special effects – you have to buy into the dimensionality of these characters. Israel is at his best writing and directing scenes that feel real, al though you were a fly on the wall amid the revealing of this family’s secrets. He’s not afraid of being overly sentimental and open with emotions, and I think that’s hugely valuable.”
I completely agree. This is a marvelous movie, filled with marvels of France and family.
The Jewish side of this film is never touched on, but I must touch on it here because in these days of turmoil over the Jewish state and the state of the Jews living in the Diaspora, those in France are also in fearful flux. But this shows a France at its splendid best today and I think it is because of the love the filmmakers have for the story, the craft and the country. Producer David C. Barrot produced “ Eyes Wide Open” the 2009 Cannes’ Un Certain Regard film that dared open the subject of homosexuality in Jerusalem’s Orthodox community. I cannot speak of the provenance of Daniel Battsek the Executive Producer who between 1985 and 1991, was managing director of Palace Pictures where he was involved in all aspects of marketing, distribution and acquisitions in the U.K. and Ireland. He began his industry career at The Hoyts Film Corporation in Sydney where he quickly rose through the ranks to general manager in Victoria State overseeing distribution.
Battsek was first introduced to Disney in 1991, when he was asked to start up a U.K. Company as part of the worldwide distribution network for Buena Vista International. In 1992, he officially joined The Walt Disney Studios. Battsek was quickly promoted to vice president/managing director where he handled all aspects of theatrical film distribution in the U.K. He was later promoted to vice president, managing director and European acquisitions director of Bvi (U.K.) Limited. His responsibilities also included involvement in the acquisition of distribution rights across numerous territories for such films as “Muriel's Wedding”, “Shine”, “Central Station”, “Kolya”, and “ Ice Storm”. In 1998, he was promoted to senior vice president, Bvi (U.K.) Limited where he oversaw approximately 35 films per year from the Disney, Touchstone and Miramax labels. With his expanding role, Battsek began acquiring and developing British film projects for worldwide distribution. He created the Bvi U.K. Comedy Label which produced four films, likeHigh Heels and Low Lifes,Hope Springs,Calendar Girls, and Kinky Boots.
On 24 July 2005, he was named President of Miramax Films, after Harvey and Bob Weinstein left the company, due to creative and financial differences with Disney exec, Michael Eisner. Since he took control of the company, Miramax released such films asThe Queen,No Country for Old Men or Doubt, refocusing on producing films of high quality but low budget and was instrumental in acquiring, green-lighting or distributing such renowned and award winning films as “Tsotsi” winner of Best Foreign Language Oscar, “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”, “There will be Blood” among others. On 20 January 2010, Battsek became President of National Geographic Films where he brought in the Oscar-nominated “Restrepo”. He is now President of Cohen Media Group where he plays a key role.
Nor can I speak authoritatively of Producer, Nitsa Benchetrit, and Executive Producers, Raphaël Benoliel, Russ Krasnoff, but I have my suspicions. Certainly the Executive Producer, President and CEO of Cohen Brothers Realty Corporation, one of the country’s most important commercial real estate owners/ developers s well as an influential patron, innovator and visionary of culture and the arts, Charles S. Cohen (also founder of The Cohen Media Group in 2008, on the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art (Moca) in Los Angeles, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, The Lighthouse International Theater, The Public Theater, the Stella Adler Studio and the Film Society of Lincoln Center) is living up to his name.
Even Kevin Kline suddenly seems to land inside this charmed circle of Diaspora Jews whose development and dedication to the finest
arts of the 21 st century must be praised and seen as a flowering of culture today.
While this is in no way a film which may ever be shown in the Jewish film festival circuit, it should be remarked that it is, in its way, a Jewish film because of the credentials of the filmmakers, because of the loving treatment of the neurotic family members and because it shows the natural habituation of people allowed to live in freedom in a society which values life.
I bring all this up in light of the reevaluation occurring today in the worlds of gender and religions and I want to go on record as pointing out that this film is an example of the flowering of culture; this is part of the culmination of centuries of developing a humane, forgiving and civilized way of life.
I say this as I contemplate the state of the world today to remind myself that art, not war, is my choice for my life and I believe the film is an affirmation of life above all.
Chapeau, Hats Off to the team that brought this film to life. Just change the title if you want to attract more people!
- 7/30/2014
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
By Mireille Latil-Le-Dantec. Originally published in Cinématographe, no. 35, February 1978 in an issue with a Chaplin dossier.
Translation by Ted Fendt. Thanks to Marie-Pierre Duhamel.
The Chaplinesque Quest
The overbearing weight of interpretative studies devoted to Chaplin makes any pretension to some "fresh look" at a universe already studied from every angle seem absurd from the outset. At least, on the occasion of the homages currently being made in theaters to the little man who would become so big, a few fragmentary re-viewings more modestly allow for the rediscovery of the thematic unity of this body of work and the inanity of any artificial divide between the "excellent" Charlie films and the "mediocre" Chaplin films – a divide corresponding, of course, to the event which his art was not supposed to have survived: the appearance of those talkies that – in the excellent company of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, René Clair and many others – he...
Translation by Ted Fendt. Thanks to Marie-Pierre Duhamel.
The Chaplinesque Quest
The overbearing weight of interpretative studies devoted to Chaplin makes any pretension to some "fresh look" at a universe already studied from every angle seem absurd from the outset. At least, on the occasion of the homages currently being made in theaters to the little man who would become so big, a few fragmentary re-viewings more modestly allow for the rediscovery of the thematic unity of this body of work and the inanity of any artificial divide between the "excellent" Charlie films and the "mediocre" Chaplin films – a divide corresponding, of course, to the event which his art was not supposed to have survived: the appearance of those talkies that – in the excellent company of Eisenstein, Pudovkin, René Clair and many others – he...
- 7/22/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Tomorrow when the Supporting Actress Smackdown 1941 hits, we'll just be discussing the five nominees (24 more hours to get your ballots in for the reader's section of the vote!). As it should be. But for the first time in a Smackdown I polled my fellow panelists as to who they would have nominated if, uh, they'd have been alive in 1941 and if, uh, they'd been AMPAS members.
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lust after Lana Turner & Ingrid Bergman. And so does our panel.
Angelica and I didn't vote (I haven't seen enough 1941 pictures, I confess) but our other three panelists have recommendations for you outside the Oscar shortlist. In fact, all three of them only co-signed 2 of Oscar's 5 choices... different ones mostly so the Smackdown should be interesting (I'm not telling you which as the critiques come tomorrow!). So here are some For Your Considerations for your rental queues or your...
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde lust after Lana Turner & Ingrid Bergman. And so does our panel.
Angelica and I didn't vote (I haven't seen enough 1941 pictures, I confess) but our other three panelists have recommendations for you outside the Oscar shortlist. In fact, all three of them only co-signed 2 of Oscar's 5 choices... different ones mostly so the Smackdown should be interesting (I'm not telling you which as the critiques come tomorrow!). So here are some For Your Considerations for your rental queues or your...
- 5/30/2014
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
A Criterion Grab Bag! kicks off this week at Trailers from Hell, with director and Tfh creator Joe Dante introducing "I Married a Witch."A savvy satire of both political and sexual gamesmanship, I Married A Witch, based on an unfinished novel by Topper author Thorne Smith, would seem to be the perfect union between two brilliant moviemakers, Rene Clair and Preston Sturges (Clair directed, Sturges produced). It’s full of his stock company of character actors but Sturges left the production due to artistic differences. Despite having its concepts ripped off by lesser productions over the years, this remains a strikingly modern and hilarious movie that hopefully will find new audiences through Criterion’s stellar digital transfer.
- 3/17/2014
- by Trailers From Hell
- Thompson on Hollywood
A savvy satire of both political and sexual gamesmanship, I Married A Witch, based on an unfinished novel by Topper author Thorne Smith, would seem to be the perfect union between two brilliant moviemakers, Rene Clair and Preston Sturges (Clair directed, Sturges produced). It’s full of his stock company of character actors but Sturges left the production due to artistic differences. Despite having its concepts ripped off by lesser productions over the years, this remains a strikingly modern and hilarious movie that hopefully will find new audiences through Criterion’s stellar digital transfer.
The post I Married a Witch appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post I Married a Witch appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 3/17/2014
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
The world is all out of whack: multiple Dutch tilts are on display in Voyage sans espoir (1943), an unbelievably glossy poetic realist proto-noir from Christian-Jaque: the film actually begins with railway tracks viewed from the front of a speeding train, upside down, as the camera drunkenly rolls upright and titles come flying towards us, slapping flat across the frame like flies hitting a windshield.
The plot is convoluted but crisp—chance encounters tie together Jean Marais, fleeing his job at a bank to see life and settle in Argentina, with an escaped jailbird of psychopathic demeanor (Paul Bernard) and his girlfriend, the radiant Simone Renant. There's also a likably crooked ship's captain carrying a torch for Renant, a sinister ethnic-type sailor (Ky Duyen), and a pair of hard-drinking but eternally sober detectives who resemble nothing more than the Thompson Twins from Tintin. The French had a nifty way with...
The plot is convoluted but crisp—chance encounters tie together Jean Marais, fleeing his job at a bank to see life and settle in Argentina, with an escaped jailbird of psychopathic demeanor (Paul Bernard) and his girlfriend, the radiant Simone Renant. There's also a likably crooked ship's captain carrying a torch for Renant, a sinister ethnic-type sailor (Ky Duyen), and a pair of hard-drinking but eternally sober detectives who resemble nothing more than the Thompson Twins from Tintin. The French had a nifty way with...
- 3/6/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
(Jacques Demy, 1964, StudioCanal)
One of the enduring attractions of the French New Wave is what is now thought of as Jacques Demy's seaside trilogy – three bittersweet musical films on the themes of love, loss and life not turning out the way you expect it to, all with recurring characters and taking place in ports on the Atlantic coast. All three are designed by Demy's school friend Bernard Evein with music by Michel Legrand.
The first, Lola (1961), Demy's directorial debut, is a cleverly patterned fairytale set in his native Nantes and stars Anouk Aimée as a golden-hearted nightclub prostitute reunited with her former love and is stunningly shot in black and white by key nouvelle vague cameraman Raoul Coutard.
The other two, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), are both in imaginatively used colour and pay homage to the Hollywood musical, most especially the films of Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen,...
One of the enduring attractions of the French New Wave is what is now thought of as Jacques Demy's seaside trilogy – three bittersweet musical films on the themes of love, loss and life not turning out the way you expect it to, all with recurring characters and taking place in ports on the Atlantic coast. All three are designed by Demy's school friend Bernard Evein with music by Michel Legrand.
The first, Lola (1961), Demy's directorial debut, is a cleverly patterned fairytale set in his native Nantes and stars Anouk Aimée as a golden-hearted nightclub prostitute reunited with her former love and is stunningly shot in black and white by key nouvelle vague cameraman Raoul Coutard.
The other two, The Umbrellas of Cherbourg and Les Demoiselles de Rochefort (1967), are both in imaginatively used colour and pay homage to the Hollywood musical, most especially the films of Vincente Minnelli and Stanley Donen,...
- 2/9/2014
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
I can give you another life.
Before the New Wave, there were French film institutions like Jean Renoir and René Clair. They began with the silent era and continued on to direct, at least in Renoir's case, what are widely held to be some of the best films of all time. Then came the French New Wave and the critic-filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard who pushed back against the institution--too frivolous, too much fantasy, cliché. Beauty of the Devil (1950), made in the Autumn of Clair's career, would have been a film everyone knew if it were made in English (and/or color). It is charming, fantastic, and a classic in every way. It is the story of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil.
Read more...
Before the New Wave, there were French film institutions like Jean Renoir and René Clair. They began with the silent era and continued on to direct, at least in Renoir's case, what are widely held to be some of the best films of all time. Then came the French New Wave and the critic-filmmakers François Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard who pushed back against the institution--too frivolous, too much fantasy, cliché. Beauty of the Devil (1950), made in the Autumn of Clair's career, would have been a film everyone knew if it were made in English (and/or color). It is charming, fantastic, and a classic in every way. It is the story of Faust, the man who sold his soul to the devil.
Read more...
- 1/29/2014
- by Jason Ratigan
- JustPressPlay.net
The Blue Angel
Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller, Robert Liebmann
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Germany, 1930
It’s strange that the work of Josef von Sternberg has not been better represented in the realm of Blu-ray production. Aside from 1930’s The Blue Angel, available now on a new Kino Classics 2-Disc Ultimate Edition, not a single Sternberg film exists on the format. For such a stylish director, one who was expressly concerned with the ornate visual texture of his films, the enhanced images that go along with the standard digital restorations of Blu-ray titles would seemingly be ideal. That said, with at least The Blue Angel, it does become clear that this format and this filmmaker are indeed made for each other.
While not as deliberately composed to accentuate frames bursting to their edges with fore- and background elements (see The Scarlet Empress, for example), The Blue Angel nevertheless...
Written by Carl Zuckmayer, Karl Vollmöller, Robert Liebmann
Directed by Josef von Sternberg
Germany, 1930
It’s strange that the work of Josef von Sternberg has not been better represented in the realm of Blu-ray production. Aside from 1930’s The Blue Angel, available now on a new Kino Classics 2-Disc Ultimate Edition, not a single Sternberg film exists on the format. For such a stylish director, one who was expressly concerned with the ornate visual texture of his films, the enhanced images that go along with the standard digital restorations of Blu-ray titles would seemingly be ideal. That said, with at least The Blue Angel, it does become clear that this format and this filmmaker are indeed made for each other.
While not as deliberately composed to accentuate frames bursting to their edges with fore- and background elements (see The Scarlet Empress, for example), The Blue Angel nevertheless...
- 12/20/2013
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
I took a week off to prep the Gift Guide, which is shaping up to be a doozy. So is this week's reminder episode of recent home entertainment releases, featuring The Beauty of the Devil (1950) from Rene Clair and (finally) a solid edition of Night of the Comet, courtesy of our good friends at Shout Factory. Also up are The Right Stuff Blu-ray Digibook and Passion, the new film from Brian De Palma. I've got monster movies like Grabbers and Body Bags, and art house supernaturalism like Byzantium and Nosferatu. I've also got a ton more titles. Too many to list. You can watch the entire video below. Vampire Twins shirt by Matt Mawson...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 11/18/2013
- Screen Anarchy
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