The title of Girish Kasaravalli's 1977 film "Ghatashraddha" is directly translated as "The Ritual," although the on-screen English title is "Ritual of Excommunication." Both titles reflect the bleak circumstances of the film's protagonist, even though "The Ritual" implies that women are abused and discarded as a matter of course. "Ghatashraddha" is a bleak tragedy about a woman named Yamuna (Meena Kuttappa) who lives with her religious schoolteacher father (Ramaswamy Iyengar) and who is already a widow at a young age. Yamuna is already seeing another man, also a schoolteacher, although their affair is secret ... as is her pregnancy. The only person who treats Yamuna with any friendliness is a young boy named Naani (Ajith Kumar), who serves as a witness to the story.
When her father goes out of town to raise money for his school, everything falls apart. The school deteriorates, gossip begins to spread, and Yamuna becomes an outcast.
When her father goes out of town to raise money for his school, everything falls apart. The school deteriorates, gossip begins to spread, and Yamuna becomes an outcast.
- 2/28/2024
- by Witney Seibold
- Slash Film
Argentine-born Brazil-based director Hector Babenco wasted little time making his mark on the world of cinema. In just his first handful of films he was recognized by the likes of the Cannes Film Festival and Academy Awards, and was an instant crossover hit upon his arrival in Hollywood.
Below, Variety revisits the director’s body of work.
1973 – “O Fabuloso Fittipaidi” Babenco’s feature debut, this documentary covers the life and career of Brazilian formula one racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi from the beginning of his driving career through to the height of his success and international popularity.
1975 – “King of the Night” A Brazilian man recalls his life story in this, Babenco’s fiction debut. A now old Tertuliano recalls the love stories of his youth including with a sickly girl who moved half a world away, a prostitute and the three daughters of his mother’s friend.
1977 – “Lúcio Flávio” Babenco’s...
Below, Variety revisits the director’s body of work.
1973 – “O Fabuloso Fittipaidi” Babenco’s feature debut, this documentary covers the life and career of Brazilian formula one racing driver Emerson Fittipaldi from the beginning of his driving career through to the height of his success and international popularity.
1975 – “King of the Night” A Brazilian man recalls his life story in this, Babenco’s fiction debut. A now old Tertuliano recalls the love stories of his youth including with a sickly girl who moved half a world away, a prostitute and the three daughters of his mother’s friend.
1977 – “Lúcio Flávio” Babenco’s...
- 1/27/2021
- by Jamie Lang
- Variety Film + TV
One year ago, the documentary “Honeyland” became the first film ever nominated for Oscars in both the Best Documentary Feature and the Best International Feature Film categories. And in a way, it feels as if that nomination for the nonfiction film from North Macedonia has had a ripple effect on this year’s international Oscar race, where documentaries like “Collective,” “The Mole Agent” and “Notturno” are among the high-profile contenders in a wide-open year.
The presence of docs in the international Oscar category certainly isn’t new — in fact, the seven documentaries in this year’s race are two fewer than the nine that competed in the foreign-language category two years ago. But in the aftermath of “Honeyland,” a cinema vérité look at a beekeeper in a remote mountain village, voters seem to be taking nonfiction films more seriously in a category where the only other nominated docs in this century were two animated ones,...
The presence of docs in the international Oscar category certainly isn’t new — in fact, the seven documentaries in this year’s race are two fewer than the nine that competed in the foreign-language category two years ago. But in the aftermath of “Honeyland,” a cinema vérité look at a beekeeper in a remote mountain village, voters seem to be taking nonfiction films more seriously in a category where the only other nominated docs in this century were two animated ones,...
- 1/5/2021
- by Steve Pond
- The Wrap
“I have already lived my death — all that’s left is to make the movie.” So says celebrated Argentine-Brazilian filmmaker Héctor Babenco in a documentary that, sure enough, attempts to bring closure to a life already concluded. After three decades of living with cancer and related complications, Babenco passed away in 2016 aged 70; directed by his widow Bárbara Paz, “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die” movingly serves as both valedictory and valentine, channeling and preserving the spirit of an artist who vocally feared that his life’s work hadn’t been completed. “Tell Me When I Die” may technically be Paz’s first film rather than the eponymous director’s last, but an intimate air of collaboration colors the whole monochrome affair: As a portrait of a dying man trying to at least co-direct his own farewell, it’s so sorely tender as to be a little discomfiting.
The first documentary...
The first documentary...
- 12/28/2020
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
In late director Hector Babenco’s last film, “My Hindu Friend,” the doctor attending to Willem Dafoe’s character, a cancer-stricken Babenco alter-ego, observes: “Those who have a dream to fulfill have a better chance of survival.”
These sage words best encapsulate what kept Babenco alive for more than three decades after he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer at the age of 38. He made just 11 feature films in his illustrious career but each film was a miracle that kept him going until he passed away at 70 in 2016.
“Cinema was his oxygen; the films were Hector, Hector was his films,” says filmmaker-actress Barbara Paz, who marks her directorial feature debut with “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die,” the Brazilian submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, Best Documentary Oscar, and the Spirit Awards for Documentary. While Brazil has sent many fact-based fiction films to the Oscars, this is the first documentary to represent the country.
These sage words best encapsulate what kept Babenco alive for more than three decades after he was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer at the age of 38. He made just 11 feature films in his illustrious career but each film was a miracle that kept him going until he passed away at 70 in 2016.
“Cinema was his oxygen; the films were Hector, Hector was his films,” says filmmaker-actress Barbara Paz, who marks her directorial feature debut with “Babenco: Tell Me When I Die,” the Brazilian submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, Best Documentary Oscar, and the Spirit Awards for Documentary. While Brazil has sent many fact-based fiction films to the Oscars, this is the first documentary to represent the country.
- 12/16/2020
- by Anna Marie de la Fuente
- Variety Film + TV
The September 2020 lineup of The Criterion Collection has been unveiled, and it’s a packed one. Leading the list is Claire Denis’s masterpiece Beau travail, which has finally received a new 4K digital restoration and features a conversation between the director and Barry Jenkins, and much more.
The third edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is also getting a release, featuring films from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). David Lynch’s second feature The Elephant Man will get the Criterion treatment as well with a new 4K restoration, plus a special feature lineup featuring Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna reading from their book Room to Dream.
The full-length, four-hour restored cut of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli will also be arriving in September. Lastly, a pair of crime drama classics from Jules Dassin...
The third edition of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is also getting a release, featuring films from Brazil (Pixote), Cuba (Lucía), Indonesia (After the Curfew), Iran (Downpour), Mauritania (Soleil Ô), and Mexico (Dos monjes). David Lynch’s second feature The Elephant Man will get the Criterion treatment as well with a new 4K restoration, plus a special feature lineup featuring Lynch and critic Kristine McKenna reading from their book Room to Dream.
The full-length, four-hour restored cut of Francesco Rosi’s Christ Stopped at Eboli will also be arriving in September. Lastly, a pair of crime drama classics from Jules Dassin...
- 6/15/2020
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Please welcome new contributor Nick Taylor who is providing us with extra Supporting Actress pleasure inbetween the Smackdown events.
How close was Hector Babenco’s Pixote to an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980? Or rather, why was it disqualified? Already lauded in Brazil for its unflinching, documentary-style depiction of the country’s unique epidemic of child criminality and the institutions benefitting from it, the film got axed for doing test screenings outside The Academy’s allotted time frame. That sounds as "necessary" as many of their eligibility nitpicks. Disqualified from consideration for 1980, Pixote became fair game upon its U.S. release in 1981, winning most of the critics prizes for Best Foreign Language Film and scoring a Golden Globe nomination over Oscar’s eventual winner, Hungary's Mephisto.
Pixote also won Best Film from Boston, who took a page from the National Society of Film Critics and gave Marília Pêra their Best Actress award.
How close was Hector Babenco’s Pixote to an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film in 1980? Or rather, why was it disqualified? Already lauded in Brazil for its unflinching, documentary-style depiction of the country’s unique epidemic of child criminality and the institutions benefitting from it, the film got axed for doing test screenings outside The Academy’s allotted time frame. That sounds as "necessary" as many of their eligibility nitpicks. Disqualified from consideration for 1980, Pixote became fair game upon its U.S. release in 1981, winning most of the critics prizes for Best Foreign Language Film and scoring a Golden Globe nomination over Oscar’s eventual winner, Hungary's Mephisto.
Pixote also won Best Film from Boston, who took a page from the National Society of Film Critics and gave Marília Pêra their Best Actress award.
- 5/2/2020
- by Nick Taylor
- FilmExperience
London-based sales and production company Taskovski Films has acquired world sales rights to Barbara Paz’s debut documentary, “Babenco — Tell Me When I Die,” which bows in Venice Classics on Sept. 2.
Brazilian helmer Héctor Babenco was a commanding presence on the international film scene, directing pics of the caliber of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which was Oscar nominated for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and actor, with William Hurt winning in his category. Other notable films by Babenco include “Ironweed” and “Pixote.”
Paz’s film represents a passing of the baton between a mentor and his student, who were also lovers. It is in a way Babenco’s last work. A film that functions as a loving portrait of the man and the filmmaker, but also as a love letter to the filmmaking process itself.
It is a deeply stylized, black-and-white documentary with intricate editing that shuttles between Babenco...
Brazilian helmer Héctor Babenco was a commanding presence on the international film scene, directing pics of the caliber of “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” which was Oscar nominated for best picture, director, adapted screenplay and actor, with William Hurt winning in his category. Other notable films by Babenco include “Ironweed” and “Pixote.”
Paz’s film represents a passing of the baton between a mentor and his student, who were also lovers. It is in a way Babenco’s last work. A film that functions as a loving portrait of the man and the filmmaker, but also as a love letter to the filmmaking process itself.
It is a deeply stylized, black-and-white documentary with intricate editing that shuttles between Babenco...
- 9/1/2019
- by Emiliano Granada
- Variety Film + TV
Dukhtar which in Urdu means daughter is a film from Pakistan and premiered at Toronto . It was screened in several other film festivals and went on to win many accolades for the subject it handles.
A ten-year-old girl becomes part of a truce between two feuding tribes when her father decides to give her hand in marriage to the head of the other tribe. Her mother is obviously vexed and decides to take the girl and run. And as forgiving is a trait that does not get along well with honour, the runaways have an arduous road ahead. A truck driver with problems of his own takes them with him. The movie is about their struggle to stay alive against many odds.
Second half of the movie and how it ends do not justify the intensity with which it all starts. Some of it has to do with the half-baked performances.
A ten-year-old girl becomes part of a truce between two feuding tribes when her father decides to give her hand in marriage to the head of the other tribe. Her mother is obviously vexed and decides to take the girl and run. And as forgiving is a trait that does not get along well with honour, the runaways have an arduous road ahead. A truck driver with problems of his own takes them with him. The movie is about their struggle to stay alive against many odds.
Second half of the movie and how it ends do not justify the intensity with which it all starts. Some of it has to do with the half-baked performances.
- 4/6/2019
- by Arun Krishnan
- AsianMoviePulse
The cinema of Iran has often been marked by stylistic qualities of delicacy and restraint. It has found ways to speak loudly with a whisper. But “Sheeple,” the traumatically explosive closing-night selection of 1st Iranian Film Festival New York, amounts to a rather spectacular counterexample. It’s a drama set in the lower depths of society — it follows a bedraggled family of drug dealers in the south of Tehran — and it’s a violent, charged-up, attack-the-block movie that comes at you with a feverish spirit of underworld degradation that’s startling to behold.
The characters are scurrilous desperadoes and derelicts (you might have to reach back to “Pixote” to find a street drama this purged of romance), and they have a way of stepping on each other’s words that has you racing to read the subtitles. Yet there’s a larger vision at work here — an image of appetite...
The characters are scurrilous desperadoes and derelicts (you might have to reach back to “Pixote” to find a street drama this purged of romance), and they have a way of stepping on each other’s words that has you racing to read the subtitles. Yet there’s a larger vision at work here — an image of appetite...
- 1/15/2019
- by Owen Gleiberman
- Variety Film + TV
Spike Lee is gearing up for the release of his Cannes-winning drama “BlacKkKlansman” in August, and the latest stop on the director’s press tour was at GQ. For the magazine’s August profile, Lee opened up on a wide variety of different career topics, including the fact he has never won a competitive Oscar.
Lee was nominated for writing the script to “Do the Right Thing” at the 1990 Academy Awards, but the film was notoriously snubbed in the best picture race, as was Lee for best director. Lee told GQ the Academy’s lack of recognition for “Do the Right Thing” made it clear to him he would rarely be in contention for Oscars in the future. While the Academy gave Lee an honorary prize in 2015, Lee has made peace with his relationship to the Oscars, especially when he remembers the results of the 1990 Oscars compared to the legacy of “Do the Right Thing.
Lee was nominated for writing the script to “Do the Right Thing” at the 1990 Academy Awards, but the film was notoriously snubbed in the best picture race, as was Lee for best director. Lee told GQ the Academy’s lack of recognition for “Do the Right Thing” made it clear to him he would rarely be in contention for Oscars in the future. While the Academy gave Lee an honorary prize in 2015, Lee has made peace with his relationship to the Oscars, especially when he remembers the results of the 1990 Oscars compared to the legacy of “Do the Right Thing.
- 7/30/2018
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
We pay tribute to the film stars and directors from around the world who sadly passed away in 2016.Hector BabencoArgentine-born Brazilian director Hector Babenco died on July 13 at 70-years-old.He found international success with Brazilian slum drama Pixote (1981), going on to make Kiss Of
We pay tribute to the film stars and directors from around the world who sadly passed away in 2016.
Hector Babenco
Argentine-born Brazilian director Hector Babenco died on July 13 at 70-years-old.
He found international success with Brazilian slum drama Pixote (1981), going on to make Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned a best director Oscar nominee and William Hurt earned an Oscar win for best actor.
Babenco went on to direct Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in Ironweed (1987) and Tom Berenger and John Lithgow in At Play In The Fields Of The Lord (1991).
After undergoing cancer treatment in the 1990s, he returned to the director’s chair for films including Brazilian prison...
We pay tribute to the film stars and directors from around the world who sadly passed away in 2016.
Hector Babenco
Argentine-born Brazilian director Hector Babenco died on July 13 at 70-years-old.
He found international success with Brazilian slum drama Pixote (1981), going on to make Kiss Of The Spider Woman (1985), for which he earned a best director Oscar nominee and William Hurt earned an Oscar win for best actor.
Babenco went on to direct Meryl Streep and Jack Nicholson in Ironweed (1987) and Tom Berenger and John Lithgow in At Play In The Fields Of The Lord (1991).
After undergoing cancer treatment in the 1990s, he returned to the director’s chair for films including Brazilian prison...
- 12/31/2016
- ScreenDaily
Reel-Important People is a monthly column that highlights those individuals in or related to the movies that have left us in recent weeks. Below you'll find names big and small and from all areas of the industry, though each was significant to the movies in his or her own way. Hector Babenco (1946-2016) - Brazilian Filmmaker. He was nominated for an Oscar for directing Kiss of the Spider Woman. His other movies include Ironweed, Carandiru, At Play in the Fields of the Lord and Pixote. He also acts in Julian Schnabel's Before Night Falls. He died of a heart attack on July 13. (THR) Chief David Bald Eagle (1919-2016) - Native American Actor. He was a technical advisor for and appears in Dances With Wolves. Earlier he was...
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- 8/3/2016
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
Reaching for the Moon director Bruno Barreto: "Héctor’s greatest film 'Pixote'. Poetry and violence fill the screen in a ruthless way." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Héctor Babenco died on July 13, 2016. His adaptation of Manuel Puig's Kiss Of The Spider Woman, screenplay Leonard Schrader, starring Raúl Juliá, William Hurt and Sônia Braga, received four Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay with Hurt winning Best Actor.
Tom Waits was in two of Babenco's films, William Kennedy's Ironweed, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (both Oscar nominated) and the adaptation of Peter Matthiessen's At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, screenplay by Babenco, Jean-Claude Carrière and Vincent Patrick, starring Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Kathy Bates.
"One of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema - Fernando Ramos da Silva (Pixote) is nursed by Marília Pêra (the...
Héctor Babenco died on July 13, 2016. His adaptation of Manuel Puig's Kiss Of The Spider Woman, screenplay Leonard Schrader, starring Raúl Juliá, William Hurt and Sônia Braga, received four Oscar nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay with Hurt winning Best Actor.
Tom Waits was in two of Babenco's films, William Kennedy's Ironweed, starring Jack Nicholson and Meryl Streep (both Oscar nominated) and the adaptation of Peter Matthiessen's At Play In The Fields Of The Lord, screenplay by Babenco, Jean-Claude Carrière and Vincent Patrick, starring Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn and Kathy Bates.
"One of the greatest scenes in the history of cinema - Fernando Ramos da Silva (Pixote) is nursed by Marília Pêra (the...
- 7/22/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Marília Pêra: Actress starred in Brazilian movie classic 'Pixote.' Marília Pêra: Brazilian film, TV and stage star Remembering Brazilian stage, television, and film star Marília Pêra, whose acting and singing career spanned more than five decades. Pêra died of lung cancer on Dec. 5, '15, in Rio de Janeiro. Born Marília Soares Pêra on Jan. 22, 1943, in Rio, she was 72 years old. 'Pixote' prostitute Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known as the loud, vulgar prostitute Sueli, who becomes acquainted with São Paulo street kid Fernando Ramos da Silva in Hector Babenco's well-received social drama Pixote / Pixote: A Lei do Mais Fraco (1981),[1] a fierce indictment of Brazilian society's utter disregard for its disadvantaged members. In one pivotal – and widely talked about scene – she lets the titular character (da Silva, at the time 12 years old)[2] suckle her breast. In another, she pulls down her panties and sits in...
- 2/11/2016
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marjorie Lord actress ca. early 1950s. Actress Marjorie Lord dead at 97: Best remembered for TV series 'Make Room for Daddy' Stage, film, and television actress Marjorie Lord, best remembered as Danny Thomas' second wife in Make Room for Daddy, died Nov. 28, '15, at her home in Beverly Hills. Lord (born Marjorie Wollenberg on July 26, 1918, in San Francisco) was 97. Marjorie Lord movies After moving with her family to New York, Marjorie Lord made her Broadway debut at age 17 in Zoe Akins' Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The Old Maid (1935). Lord replaced Margaret Anderson in the role of Tina, played by Jane Bryan – as Bette Davis' out-of-wedlock daughter – in Warner Bros.' 1939 movie version directed by Edmund Goulding. Hollywood offers ensued, resulting in film appearances in a string of low-budget movies in the late 1930s and throughout much of the 1940s, initially (and...
- 12/15/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Marília Pêra: Actress starred in Brazilian movie classic 'Pixote.' Marília Pêra: Brazilian star and National Board of Review Best Actress winner dead at 72 This article is being revised and expanded. Please check back later. Actress Marília Pêra, a top Brazilian stage, television, and film star whose acting and singing career spanned more than five decades, died of lung cancer on Dec. 5, '15, in Rio de Janeiro. Pêra (born on Jan. 22, 1943, in Rio de Janeiro) was 72 years old. 'Pixote' prostitute Internationally, Marília Pêra is best known as the loud, vulgar prostitute who becomes acquainted with São Paulo street kid Fernando Ramos da Silva – who suckles her breast in one pivotal scene – in Hector Babenco's well-regarded social drama Pixote, a fierce indictment of Brazilian society's utter disregard for its disadvantaged citizens. Although Pêra's screen time is relatively brief, she made enough of an impact to be...
- 12/10/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
It was the summer of 1995. Bill Clinton was president, Rudy Giuliani was mayor of New York, and Oj Simpson was on trial. That summer’s youth-oriented movies included Pixar's first movie Toy Story, the Disney musical Pocahontas — and Kids, in which wayward, stoned teens fuck each other senseless and head-stomp random strangers.
It might be hard to remember just how notorious Larry Clark's indie-skater odysey was. The movie grossed a modest $7 million at the box office that summer — a wild success when you account for the fact that it...
It might be hard to remember just how notorious Larry Clark's indie-skater odysey was. The movie grossed a modest $7 million at the box office that summer — a wild success when you account for the fact that it...
- 7/16/2015
- Rollingstone.com
Ron Moody as Fagin in 'Oliver!' based on Charles Dickens' 'Oliver Twist.' Ron Moody as Fagin in Dickens musical 'Oliver!': Box office and critical hit (See previous post: "Ron Moody: 'Oliver!' Actor, Academy Award Nominee Dead at 91.") Although British made, Oliver! turned out to be an elephantine release along the lines of – exclamation point or no – Gypsy, Star!, Hello Dolly!, and other Hollywood mega-musicals from the mid'-50s to the early '70s.[1] But however bloated and conventional the final result, and a cast whose best-known name was that of director Carol Reed's nephew, Oliver Reed, Oliver! found countless fans.[2] The mostly British production became a huge financial and critical success in the U.S. at a time when star-studded mega-musicals had become perilous – at times downright disastrous – ventures.[3] Upon the American release of Oliver! in Dec. 1968, frequently acerbic The...
- 6/19/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
I was a sceptic; I thought it could not be done. I did not believe that London could host such an important global event, let alone pull it off with such grandiose confidence. But now the Olympics are over and to be honest, I don’t want it to end. Particularly considering my last images may be that of Jessie J ruining Queen, or Liam Gallagher proving he needs Noel. But with Britain standing 3rd in the medal rankings, we can be proud of our athletes’ efforts. Whether it was handball, hockey or dressage, my eyes were opened to the magic of the Olympics and I’m sad to see them go. So why not cling on for a little bit longer and join me as I attempt to blur the realms of Film and the Summer Olympics.
I’m sure you read part 1 and part 2 of the Film Olympics,...
I’m sure you read part 1 and part 2 of the Film Olympics,...
- 8/26/2012
- by Dan Lewis
- Obsessed with Film
Pixote: a Lei do Mais Fraco (Original Release Date: 5 May 1981)
Hector Babenco's Pixote is a movie about kids trying to survive in a world that doesn't seem to want to let them. Outside of a documentary short like Ciro Durán's Gamín, my guess is that era reviews didn't have much to compare Pixote to beyond Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados or Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. I'd also guess that not all of these comparisons were flattering. Babenco's direction here lacks the visual punch of Buñuel's, and his characters are nowhere near as well-formed as Dickens's. With any Buñuel comparison, one must contend a sophistication that, to this day, leads people to argue over how much of the work is earnest, and how much of it is ironic or parodic. (This excludes film students. I'd say film students still love to debate whether Las Hurdes is a...
Hector Babenco's Pixote is a movie about kids trying to survive in a world that doesn't seem to want to let them. Outside of a documentary short like Ciro Durán's Gamín, my guess is that era reviews didn't have much to compare Pixote to beyond Luis Buñuel's Los Olvidados or Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. I'd also guess that not all of these comparisons were flattering. Babenco's direction here lacks the visual punch of Buñuel's, and his characters are nowhere near as well-formed as Dickens's. With any Buñuel comparison, one must contend a sophistication that, to this day, leads people to argue over how much of the work is earnest, and how much of it is ironic or parodic. (This excludes film students. I'd say film students still love to debate whether Las Hurdes is a...
- 5/6/2011
- by Thurston McQ
- Corona's Coming Attractions
A champion of the film might respond to the last point by saying that's the point. This champion might go on to say Babenco doesn't fail to reach any sort of visual punch or character development goal because he doesn't aim for them. And it's true that Babenco would go on to show his versatility as a director with movies such as Kiss of the Spider Woman and Ironweed. Here, he has a diffent aim. His focus is on achieving what film critics usually classify as neorealism (simply put, the attempt to achieve authenticity). It might be more accurate to call Pixote neo-Naturalist (meaning it attempts to portray the authentic while also imposing a political [usually leftist] agenda), though, as the aggressiveness of its look-how-bad-things-are-on-the-streets-of-Brazil agenda blows the air of authentic neorealism is supposed to observe out the window. (I say this knowing full well how easy it is for me to...
- 5/6/2011
- by Thurston McQ
- Corona's Coming Attractions
To celebrate its 20th Anniversary, it appears as though the Tiff Cinematheque is set to pull out all the stops.
According to Criterion, the Tiff, formerly known as the Cinematheque Ontario, will be bringing out a rather superb and cartoonishly awesome summer schedule, that will include films ranging from Kurosawa pieces, to films from Pier Paolo Pasolini. Other films include a month long series dedicated to James Mason, Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, a tribute to Robin Wood, and most interesting, a retrospective on the works of one Catherine Breillat.
Personally, while the Kurosawa, Pasolini, and Rohmer collections sound amazing, the Breillat series is ultimately the collective that I am most interested in. Ranging from films like the brilliant Fat Girl, to the superb and underrated Anatomy of Hell, these are some of the most interesting and under seen pieces of cinema of recent memory, and are more than...
According to Criterion, the Tiff, formerly known as the Cinematheque Ontario, will be bringing out a rather superb and cartoonishly awesome summer schedule, that will include films ranging from Kurosawa pieces, to films from Pier Paolo Pasolini. Other films include a month long series dedicated to James Mason, Eric Rohmer’s Six Moral Tales, a tribute to Robin Wood, and most interesting, a retrospective on the works of one Catherine Breillat.
Personally, while the Kurosawa, Pasolini, and Rohmer collections sound amazing, the Breillat series is ultimately the collective that I am most interested in. Ranging from films like the brilliant Fat Girl, to the superb and underrated Anatomy of Hell, these are some of the most interesting and under seen pieces of cinema of recent memory, and are more than...
- 5/26/2010
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
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