The new issue of Screening the Past features articles on Béla Tarr's Damnation, Robert Altman, Barbara Stanwyck, Otto Preminger and costume designer Edith Head. Also in today's roundup: The films besides Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo that inform Christian Petzold's Phoenix; more discussion of David Foster Wallace and The End of the Tour; Frederick Raphael's memoir; Jonathan Rosenbaum's conversation with Jim Jarmusch about Dead Man; Xavier Dolan on Tom at the Farm; Jacques Rivette revivals on both sides of the Atlantic; a Vittorio De Sica retrospective; Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story tops a list of the best of Asian cinema; and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/14/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The new issue of Screening the Past features articles on Béla Tarr's Damnation, Robert Altman, Barbara Stanwyck, Otto Preminger and costume designer Edith Head. Also in today's roundup: The films besides Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo that inform Christian Petzold's Phoenix; more discussion of David Foster Wallace and The End of the Tour; Frederick Raphael's memoir; Jonathan Rosenbaum's conversation with Jim Jarmusch about Dead Man; Xavier Dolan on Tom at the Farm; Jacques Rivette revivals on both sides of the Atlantic; a Vittorio De Sica retrospective; Yasujiro Ozu's Tokyo Story tops a list of the best of Asian cinema; and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/14/2015
- Keyframe
"Camp" is the theme of the new issue of cléo, featuring articles on Bollywood’s camp aesthetic, the transmisogyny of Sleepaway Camp (1983), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Mad Max: Fury Road, Portfolio (1983), Showgirls (1995), Crossroads (2002), Glitter (2001), Dirty Dancing (1987), Little Darlings (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), Addams Family Values (1993) and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Also today: Michael Smith talks with Alex Ross Perry about Queen of Earth, Bret Easton Ellis on The End of the Tour, Barbara Steele on Federico Fellini, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Chris Marker, Ben Brantley on Blue Velvet and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"Camp" is the theme of the new issue of cléo, featuring articles on Bollywood’s camp aesthetic, the transmisogyny of Sleepaway Camp (1983), Joan Crawford and Bette Davis in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? (1962), Mad Max: Fury Road, Portfolio (1983), Showgirls (1995), Crossroads (2002), Glitter (2001), Dirty Dancing (1987), Little Darlings (1980), Friday the 13th (1980), Addams Family Values (1993) and Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night (2014). Also today: Michael Smith talks with Alex Ross Perry about Queen of Earth, Bret Easton Ellis on The End of the Tour, Barbara Steele on Federico Fellini, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Chris Marker, Ben Brantley on Blue Velvet and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/11/2015
- Keyframe
Jonathan Rosenbaum reviews two new DVD/Blu-ray releases highlighting the work of Orson Welles—who'll be feted in Venice the day before the festival begins. Also in today's roundup: Terrence Malick on making Days of Heaven, John Waters on his influences (including Pier Paolo Pasolini), Spike Jonze as an actor, Shane Meadows as a successor to Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, Andrew Haigh on 45 Years with Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, Marc Maron's interview with Lynn Shelton, Woody Allen in Los Angeles, Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/10/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Jonathan Rosenbaum reviews two new DVD/Blu-ray releases highlighting the work of Orson Welles—who'll be feted in Venice the day before the festival begins. Also in today's roundup: Terrence Malick on making Days of Heaven, John Waters on his influences (including Pier Paolo Pasolini), Spike Jonze as an actor, Shane Meadows as a successor to Mike Leigh and Ken Loach, Andrew Haigh on 45 Years with Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay, Marc Maron's interview with Lynn Shelton, Woody Allen in Los Angeles, Greta Gerwig's solo directorial debut—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/10/2015
- Keyframe
opinion from the man who, after all, made the picture." That's Orson Welles in an excerpt from a 58-page memo he wrote in 1957 to Edward Muhl, head of Universal Pictures. Jonathan Rosenbaum introduces an excerpt. Also in today's roundup: Reno Lauro on Terrence Malick, James Longley (Iraq in Fragments) on Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, Fernando F. Croce on John Cassavetes's Shadows, John Marks on Ava DuVernay's Selma and Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, Daft Punk in the movies—and the day we might see Jerry Lewis's The Day the Clown Cried. » - David Hudson...
- 8/7/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
opinion from the man who, after all, made the picture." That's Orson Welles in an excerpt from a 58-page memo he wrote in 1957 to Edward Muhl, head of Universal Pictures. Jonathan Rosenbaum introduces an excerpt. Also in today's roundup: Reno Lauro on Terrence Malick, James Longley (Iraq in Fragments) on Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, Fernando F. Croce on John Cassavetes's Shadows, John Marks on Ava DuVernay's Selma and Clint Eastwood's American Sniper, Daft Punk in the movies—and the day we might see Jerry Lewis's The Day the Clown Cried. » - David Hudson...
- 8/7/2015
- Keyframe
In Reverse Shot, Michael Pattison writes about the 18 films Sergei Loznitsa has made since 1996: "In his three best-known films"—My Joy (2010), In the Fog (2012) and Maidan (2014)—"he shows himself to be—all at once—an artist, a documentarian, an ethnographer, a historian, and a storyteller." Also in today's roundup: David Bordwell on Jean-Luc Godard, Burt Lancaster and Bill Forsyth; Howard Hampton on Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud; James Slaymaker on Robert Greene; Patrick Z. McGavin's interview with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss; plus Jacques Rivette's interview with Jean Renoir and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/4/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In Reverse Shot, Michael Pattison writes about the 18 films Sergei Loznitsa has made since 1996: "In his three best-known films"—My Joy (2010), In the Fog (2012) and Maidan (2014)—"he shows himself to be—all at once—an artist, a documentarian, an ethnographer, a historian, and a storyteller." Also in today's roundup: David Bordwell on Jean-Luc Godard, Burt Lancaster and Bill Forsyth; Howard Hampton on Stephen Frears's My Beautiful Laundrette; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Carl Dreyer’s Gertrud; James Slaymaker on Robert Greene; Patrick Z. McGavin's interview with Christian Petzold and Nina Hoss; plus Jacques Rivette's interview with Jean Renoir and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/4/2015
- Keyframe
Whatever you think of the results of the poll of critics the BBC's conducted to come up with its list of the "100 greatest American films," we can surely all agree that we're glad to have the notes on the top 25: Glenn Kenny, for example, on #1, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, Stephanie Zacharek on #2, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Ali Arikan on #4, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bilge Ebiri on #6, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, Molly Haskell on #11, Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons, Jonathan Rosenbaum on #18, Charles Chaplin's City Lights and so on. Also today: Ai Weiwei gets his passport back; remembering E.L. Doctorow—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/22/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Whatever you think of the results of the poll of critics the BBC's conducted to come up with its list of the "100 greatest American films," we can surely all agree that we're glad to have the notes on the top 25: Glenn Kenny, for example, on #1, Orson Welles's Citizen Kane, Stephanie Zacharek on #2, Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Ali Arikan on #4, Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bilge Ebiri on #6, F.W. Murnau's Sunrise, Molly Haskell on #11, Welles's The Magnificent Ambersons, Jonathan Rosenbaum on #18, Charles Chaplin's City Lights and so on. Also today: Ai Weiwei gets his passport back; remembering E.L. Doctorow—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/22/2015
- Keyframe
With a Pedro Costa retrospective running in New York through Thursday (to be followed by a week-long run for Horse Money), Ruben Demasure reports in the Notebook on the many conversations Costa had with Thom Anderson at the Courtisane Festival in April. And Film Comment's posted Costa's 1990 piece on Howard Hawks's Land of the Pharaohs. Also in today's roundup: Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, Asif Kapadia's Amy, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Rudy Wurlitzer, an oral history of the making of John Boorman's Deliverance and Karina Longworth on Charles Manson, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. » - David Hudson...
- 7/19/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
With a Pedro Costa retrospective running in New York through Thursday (to be followed by a week-long run for Horse Money), Ruben Demasure reports in the Notebook on the many conversations Costa had with Thom Anderson at the Courtisane Festival in April. And Film Comment's posted Costa's 1990 piece on Howard Hawks's Land of the Pharaohs. Also in today's roundup: Joshua Oppenheimer's The Look of Silence, Asif Kapadia's Amy, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Rudy Wurlitzer, an oral history of the making of John Boorman's Deliverance and Karina Longworth on Charles Manson, Sharon Tate and Roman Polanski. » - David Hudson...
- 7/19/2015
- Keyframe
Thom Andersen and Pedro Costa on stage at the Courtisane Festival. Photo by Michiel Devijver.This year’s Courtisane Festival paired Pedro Costa and Thom Andersen as their artists in focus. Both filmmakers hung out with each other and the public for the full five days of this under-recognized gem of a festival in Ghent. What at first might seem very different directors with distinct backgrounds actually proved to be kindred spirits. In the end credits of his new cine-history, The Thoughts That Once We Had, Andersen thanks Costa, because “without [him] this motion picture would have been poorer.” Andersen has admired Costa’s work ever since he discovered In Vanda’s Room (2000) at the Montreal Festival du Nouveau Cinéma in 2001. He wrote about this experience and about Colossal Youth (2006) in Film Comment in 2007. Andersen has invited Costa to CalArts, where he teaches, more than once, and Cinema Scope published a...
- 7/17/2015
- by Ruben Demasure
- MUBI
Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland will serve on the first jury for the Toronto International Film Festival's new competitive program, Platform. Laura Poitras, director of the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, is suing the U.S. government for having been subjected to "Kafkaesque harassment." Kristin Scott Thomas has been named an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in France. Someone's stolen F.W. Murnau's skull. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Leos Carax, Robert Greene on Joshua Oppenheimer and Adam Curtisç, Grady Hendrix on Kazuhiko Hasegawa's The Man Who Stole the Sun—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/15/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Jia Zhangke, Claire Denis and Agnieszka Holland will serve on the first jury for the Toronto International Film Festival's new competitive program, Platform. Laura Poitras, director of the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, is suing the U.S. government for having been subjected to "Kafkaesque harassment." Kristin Scott Thomas has been named an officer of the Legion d’Honneur in France. Someone's stolen F.W. Murnau's skull. Also in today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Leos Carax, Robert Greene on Joshua Oppenheimer and Adam Curtisç, Grady Hendrix on Kazuhiko Hasegawa's The Man Who Stole the Sun—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/15/2015
- Keyframe
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: Jim Jarmusch photographed by Wim Wenders.The lineup for the 2015 Locarno Film Festival has been revealed, and includes new films by Hong Sang-soo, Andrzej Zulawski, Chantal Akerman, Athina Rachel Tsangari.A sad ending to an ambitious enterprise: The online, Us-based film publication The Dissolve has had to fold after only two years. Best of luck to their talented staff of editors and writings.Some good news from the online-film-criticism scene: the Norweigan film magazine Montages has launched its English-language international edition.!Portuguese great Manoel de Oliveira passed away last April at the age of 106. The documentary short Um Século de Energia, above, seems to be his final film.Critic Mike D'Angelo, a contributor to The Dissolve among many other publications, has written in defense of the "first-person review."If you were annoyed,...
- 7/15/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
In today's roundup of news and views: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Charles Chaplin, Pedro Costa and Nicholas Ray; Adrian Martin on David Cronenberg; Michael Atkinson on Aleksey German; La Furia Umana on George Miller, Michael Mann, Lewis Klahr and Ernie Gehr; World Picture on Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gregory Markopoulos, Zal Batmanglij, David Lean and Spike Jonze; Parallax View on Luis Buñuel; Jacques Rancière on Chris Marker; Julius Banzon on Tobe Hooper; a batch of articles on Orson Welles; Tony Williams on Mary Pickford; an interview with Monte Hellman; a conversation between Jonas Mekas and Hans Ulrich Obrist—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/13/2015
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Jonathan Rosenbaum on Charles Chaplin, Pedro Costa and Nicholas Ray; Adrian Martin on David Cronenberg; Michael Atkinson on Aleksey German; La Furia Umana on George Miller, Michael Mann, Lewis Klahr and Ernie Gehr; World Picture on Pier Paolo Pasolini, Gregory Markopoulos, Zal Batmanglij, David Lean and Spike Jonze; Parallax View on Luis Buñuel; Jacques Rancière on Chris Marker; Julius Banzon on Tobe Hooper; a batch of articles on Orson Welles; Tony Williams on Mary Pickford; an interview with Monte Hellman; a conversation between Jonas Mekas and Hans Ulrich Obrist—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/13/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Written by Jaromil Jires and Ester Krumbachová
Directed by Jaromil Jireš
Czechoslovakia, 1970
Beginning with Jaroslava Schallerová’s glance directly into the camera, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders instantly and insistently unravels in playful nods of incongruous and intentionally self-conscious stylization. Directed by Jaromil Jireš, this 1970 feature, in classic art film tradition, takes a basic narrative with reasonably standard character types and turns the whole thing topsy-turvy via stunning imagery, a proliferation of ambiguous symbolism, and a structure that leads to places quite unexpected, if certain sequences lead anywhere at all. It certainly is a wondrous week for young Valerie, and the film itself is equally astounding.
After Eaglet (Petr Kopriva) steals Valerie’s (Schallerová) magical earrings, apparently at the behest of the Constable (Jirí Prýmek), otherwise referred to/existing as the malicious Polecat, a vampire-type monster who terrorizes a small Czech town, an...
Written by Jaromil Jires and Ester Krumbachová
Directed by Jaromil Jireš
Czechoslovakia, 1970
Beginning with Jaroslava Schallerová’s glance directly into the camera, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders instantly and insistently unravels in playful nods of incongruous and intentionally self-conscious stylization. Directed by Jaromil Jireš, this 1970 feature, in classic art film tradition, takes a basic narrative with reasonably standard character types and turns the whole thing topsy-turvy via stunning imagery, a proliferation of ambiguous symbolism, and a structure that leads to places quite unexpected, if certain sequences lead anywhere at all. It certainly is a wondrous week for young Valerie, and the film itself is equally astounding.
After Eaglet (Petr Kopriva) steals Valerie’s (Schallerová) magical earrings, apparently at the behest of the Constable (Jirí Prýmek), otherwise referred to/existing as the malicious Polecat, a vampire-type monster who terrorizes a small Czech town, an...
- 7/7/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
With The Princess of France beginning its theatrical run, Matias Piñeiro discusses five of his favorite cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare's work at Indiewire. Naturally, one of them is Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Jana Prikryl and Jonathan Rosenbaum on Jaromil Jireš’s Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, interviews with Piotr Szulkin and John Waters, J. Hoberman on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack and Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's The Tribe, David Cairns on Fritz Lang, Bruce Labruce on Jason Banker’s Felt—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/1/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
With The Princess of France beginning its theatrical run, Matias Piñeiro discusses five of his favorite cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare's work at Indiewire. Naturally, one of them is Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight. Also in today's roundup of news and views: Jana Prikryl and Jonathan Rosenbaum on Jaromil Jireš’s Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, interviews with Piotr Szulkin and John Waters, J. Hoberman on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack and Miroslav Slaboshpitsky's The Tribe, David Cairns on Fritz Lang, Bruce Labruce on Jason Banker’s Felt—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/1/2015
- Keyframe
"There was no better filmmaker working at the dawn of the twenty-first century than Abbas Kiarostami," argued Michael J. Anderson in 2009. Today, we celebrate the renowned Iranian filmmaker's 75th birthday by linking to a few essential essays, such as Michael Sicinski's on Certified Copy and Jonathan Rosenbaum's dialogue with Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa on Shirin, and flagging the new issue of the excellent magazine, Fireflies. We've got a snippet from an interview in which Kiarostami suggests that The Report, Certified Copy and Like Someone in Love might constitute a trilogy. Meantime, his next film will be out in 2016. » - David Hudson...
- 6/22/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
"There was no better filmmaker working at the dawn of the twenty-first century than Abbas Kiarostami," argued Michael J. Anderson in 2009. Today, we celebrate the renowned Iranian filmmaker's 75th birthday by linking to a few essential essays, such as Michael Sicinski's on Certified Copy and Jonathan Rosenbaum's dialogue with Mehrnaz Saeed-Vafa on Shirin, and flagging the new issue of the excellent magazine, Fireflies. We've got a snippet from an interview in which Kiarostami suggests that The Report, Certified Copy and Like Someone in Love might constitute a trilogy. Meantime, his next film will be out in 2016. » - David Hudson...
- 6/22/2015
- Keyframe
Erich von Stroheim's Greed tops Jonathan Rosenbaum's list of "The Greatest American Films Ever Made." More lists: "25 Emerging North American Indie Directors You Need To Know" and "Experimental Film & Video @ Los Angeles (1958 - 2010)." Also today: Terrence Rafferty on "The Decline of the American Actor"; James Knight on Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, pro and con; interviews with John Akomfrah, Hirokazu Koreeda, Mia Hansen-Løve and Miroslav Slaboshpitsky; a big awards night for Sebastian Schipper's Victoria; Todd Solondz's sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse with Greta Gerwig and Julie Delpy—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/20/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Erich von Stroheim's Greed tops Jonathan Rosenbaum's list of "The Greatest American Films Ever Made." More lists: "25 Emerging North American Indie Directors You Need To Know" and "Experimental Film & Video @ Los Angeles (1958 - 2010)." Also today: Terrence Rafferty on "The Decline of the American Actor"; James Knight on Samuel Fuller's Forty Guns; Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, pro and con; interviews with John Akomfrah, Hirokazu Koreeda, Mia Hansen-Løve and Miroslav Slaboshpitsky; a big awards night for Sebastian Schipper's Victoria; Todd Solondz's sequel to Welcome to the Dollhouse with Greta Gerwig and Julie Delpy—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/20/2015
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A new short from Laura Poitras, a profile of Nick Zedd, an excerpt from Jeff Lipsky's forthcoming memoir, a mid-90s interview with Peter Greenaway, an examination of the connections between Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and Robert Wyatt's classic album Rock Bottom, Jonathan Rosenbaum on paintings by Manny Farber, an appreciation of Montgomery Clift, Josh Safdie and Alex Ross Perry on Entourage, interviews with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roy Andersson, rumors of forthcoming films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Haneke—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A new short from Laura Poitras, a profile of Nick Zedd, an excerpt from Jeff Lipsky's forthcoming memoir, a mid-90s interview with Peter Greenaway, an examination of the connections between Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now and Robert Wyatt's classic album Rock Bottom, Jonathan Rosenbaum on paintings by Manny Farber, an appreciation of Montgomery Clift, Josh Safdie and Alex Ross Perry on Entourage, interviews with Alejandro Jodorowsky and Roy Andersson, rumors of forthcoming films by Paul Thomas Anderson and Michael Haneke—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 6/9/2015
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: A rare video interview with Anthony Mann, the return of a distinguished film journal, a clip from an erotic movie edited by Orson Welles, words of grizzled wisdom from John Waters, Jonathan Rosenbaum on Raúl Ruiz, the guy who is definitely not Thomas Pynchon in Inherent Vice, Quentin Tarantino's ambitious plans for the release of The Hateful Eight—and Eugène Green is now shooting Le fils de Joseph with Mathieu Amalric, Fabrizio Rongione, Victor Ezenfis, Natacha Régnier and Dominique Blanc. » - David Hudson...
- 6/8/2015
- Keyframe
Jazz music has long expressed its capacity to borrow from various, sometimes contradictory sources in order to create something which in every sense transcends the original elements. Since the earliest days of jazz as a musical form, it has been inspired by military and funeral marches; has stylishly interpreted popular songs; and even brought the classical intricacies of Wagner into the domain of swinging brasses and reeds. This multiculturalism and eclecticism of jazz likens it to cinema which, in turn, has transformed pop culture motifs into something close to the sublime and mixed ‘high’ and ‘low’ artistic gestures to remarkable effect.In the history of jazz, the evolution from ragtime or traditional tunes, to discovering the treasure trove of Broadway songs was fast and smooth. The latter influence was shared by cinema, as the history of film production quickly marched on. The emergence of ‘talkies’ in the United States meant rediscovering Broadway,...
- 6/1/2015
- by Ehsan Khoshbakht
- MUBI
Part I.
In 1963, Film Quarterly published an essay entitled “Circles and Squares.” It addressed the French auteur theory, introduced to America by The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. Auteurism holds that a film’s primary creator is its director; Sarris’s “Notes on the Auteur Theory” further distinguished auteurs as filmmakers with distinct, recurring styles. Challenging him was a California-based writer named Pauline Kael.
Kael attacked Sarris’s obsession with trivial links between filmmaker’s movies, whether repeated shots or thematic preoccupations. This led critics to overpraise directors’ lesser films, as when Jacques Rivette declared Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business a masterpiece. “It is an insult to an artist to praise his bad work along with his good; it indicates that you are incapable of judging either,” Kael wrote.
She criticized auteurist preoccupation with Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock, claiming critics “work embarrassingly hard trying to give some semblance of intellectual respectability to mindless,...
In 1963, Film Quarterly published an essay entitled “Circles and Squares.” It addressed the French auteur theory, introduced to America by The Village Voice’s Andrew Sarris. Auteurism holds that a film’s primary creator is its director; Sarris’s “Notes on the Auteur Theory” further distinguished auteurs as filmmakers with distinct, recurring styles. Challenging him was a California-based writer named Pauline Kael.
Kael attacked Sarris’s obsession with trivial links between filmmaker’s movies, whether repeated shots or thematic preoccupations. This led critics to overpraise directors’ lesser films, as when Jacques Rivette declared Howard Hawks’ Monkey Business a masterpiece. “It is an insult to an artist to praise his bad work along with his good; it indicates that you are incapable of judging either,” Kael wrote.
She criticized auteurist preoccupation with Hawks and Alfred Hitchcock, claiming critics “work embarrassingly hard trying to give some semblance of intellectual respectability to mindless,...
- 5/10/2015
- by Christopher Saunders
- SoundOnSight
Today would’ve been Orson Welles’ 100th birthday, so to commemorate here’s a new video essay made by Kevin B. Lee with critic/avowed Wellesian Jonathan Rosenbaum. This clip-heavy overview argues that it’s more productive to think of Welles as a successful independent filmmaker who sometimes used Hollywood equipment rather than a failed prodigy who got himself kicked out of the studio system. Along the way, Rosenbaum touches on Welles’ views on actors, dislike of Antonioni, the way he stages combat scenes as if from a child’s point of view, and much more.
- 5/6/2015
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Today would’ve been Orson Welles’ 100th birthday, so to commemorate here’s a new video essay made by Kevin B. Lee with critic/avowed Wellesian Jonathan Rosenbaum. This clip-heavy overview argues that it’s more productive to think of Welles as a successful independent filmmaker who sometimes used Hollywood equipment rather than a failed prodigy who got himself kicked out of the studio system. Along the way, Rosenbaum touches on Welles’ views on actors, dislike of Antonioni, the way he stages combat scenes as if from a child’s point of view, and much more.
- 5/6/2015
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Orson Welles was born 100 years ago today and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum tells Kevin B. Lee in the video we posted the other day, we're still discovering him—in the films we believe we already know and in the films we know are out there but haven't yet seen. Following the rediscovery and restoration of Too Much Johnson (1938) and last year's restoration of Othello (1952), we've seen a restoration of Chimes at Midnight (1965) and the team working on The Other Side of the Wind is still at it, though, as Ray Kelly reports at Wellesnet, the project "is still far from done." But today's for celebrating. We're gathering links, videos and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/6/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Orson Welles was born 100 years ago today and, as Jonathan Rosenbaum tells Kevin B. Lee in the video we posted the other day, we're still discovering him—in the films we believe we already know and in the films we know are out there but haven't yet seen. Following the rediscovery and restoration of Too Much Johnson (1938) and last year's restoration of Othello (1952), we've seen a restoration of Chimes at Midnight (1965) and the team working on The Other Side of the Wind is still at it, though, as Ray Kelly reports at Wellesnet, the project "is still far from done." But today's for celebrating. We're gathering links, videos and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/6/2015
- Keyframe
The new issue of Artforum features Hito Steyerl and Laura Poitras in conversation, J. Hoberman on Jack Smith and Amy Taubin on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack. Also in today's roundup: Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme discuss Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Abbas Kiarostami; Adrian Martin on horror; Alyssa Rosenberg on The Wire and Baltimore; Geoffrey O'Brien on Jean-Pierre Melville's Le silence de la mer; Thomas Vinterberg on taking Ingmar Bergman's advice; Ian Tan on Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet; Erich Kuersten on John Carpenter's Escape from New York, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine twenty years on—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/4/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The new issue of Artforum features Hito Steyerl and Laura Poitras in conversation, J. Hoberman on Jack Smith and Amy Taubin on Crystal Moselle's The Wolfpack. Also in today's roundup: Glenn Kenny and Farran Smith Nehme discuss Alfred Hitchcock's The Paradine Case; Jonathan Rosenbaum on Abbas Kiarostami; Adrian Martin on horror; Alyssa Rosenberg on The Wire and Baltimore; Geoffrey O'Brien on Jean-Pierre Melville's Le silence de la mer; Thomas Vinterberg on taking Ingmar Bergman's advice; Ian Tan on Carlos Reygadas's Silent Light and Carl Theodor Dreyer's Ordet; Erich Kuersten on John Carpenter's Escape from New York, Mathieu Kassovitz's La Haine twenty years on—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 5/4/2015
- Keyframe
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