by Cláudio Alves
In 2016, Bolivian director Kiro Russo took his first feature to Locarno, where the Jury for the Golden Peacock presented him with a special Centenary Award for Best Debut Film. Dark Skull was an exercise in modern Neorealism, reinventing that movement from Italian cinema to a Latin American setting and deep-rooted specificity. More in line with the operatic myth of Visconti's La Terra Trema than with De Sica's urban melodramas, the film followed Elder's return to his desolate hometown upon his father's death. With the patriarch fallen, the son takes on his work, going into the mines like those before him. Those shadowy realms become the entrails of a cavernous titan through the gaze of Russo's camera, the industrial work shattered into a nightmare by mad editing, expressionist sound.
Underrated and under-discussed, Dark Skull was a tremendous triumph, and The Great Movement follows in its steps.
In 2016, Bolivian director Kiro Russo took his first feature to Locarno, where the Jury for the Golden Peacock presented him with a special Centenary Award for Best Debut Film. Dark Skull was an exercise in modern Neorealism, reinventing that movement from Italian cinema to a Latin American setting and deep-rooted specificity. More in line with the operatic myth of Visconti's La Terra Trema than with De Sica's urban melodramas, the film followed Elder's return to his desolate hometown upon his father's death. With the patriarch fallen, the son takes on his work, going into the mines like those before him. Those shadowy realms become the entrails of a cavernous titan through the gaze of Russo's camera, the industrial work shattered into a nightmare by mad editing, expressionist sound.
Underrated and under-discussed, Dark Skull was a tremendous triumph, and The Great Movement follows in its steps.
- 8/15/2022
- by Cláudio Alves
- FilmExperience
Ramin Bahrani, Oscar-nominated writer/director of The White Tiger, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The White Tiger (2021)
Man Push Cart (2005)
Chop Shop (2007)
99 Homes (2015)
The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)
The Time To Live And The Time To Die (1985)
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
La Terra Trema (1948)
Umberto D (1952)
Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)
Nomadland (2020)
The Runner (1984)
Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989)
A Moment Of Innocence a.k.a. Bread And Flower Pot (1996)
The House Is Black (1963)
The Conversation (1974)
Mean Streets (1973)
Nashville (1975)
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)
The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Vagabond (1985)
Luzzu (2021)
Bait (2019)
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Abigail’s Party (1977)
Meantime (1983)
Fish Tank (2009)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Malcolm X (1992)
Nothing But A Man (1964)
Goodbye Solo (2008)
The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)
Dekalog (1989)
The Double Life Of Veronique...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
The White Tiger (2021)
Man Push Cart (2005)
Chop Shop (2007)
99 Homes (2015)
The Boys From Fengkuei (1983)
The Time To Live And The Time To Die (1985)
The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie (1976)
Bicycle Thieves (1948)
La Terra Trema (1948)
Umberto D (1952)
Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)
Nomadland (2020)
The Runner (1984)
Bashu, the Little Stranger (1989)
A Moment Of Innocence a.k.a. Bread And Flower Pot (1996)
The House Is Black (1963)
The Conversation (1974)
Mean Streets (1973)
Nashville (1975)
Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972)
The Enigma Of Kaspar Hauser (1974)
Paris, Texas (1984)
Cléo from 5 to 7 (1962)
Vagabond (1985)
Luzzu (2021)
Bait (2019)
Sweet Sixteen (2002)
Abigail’s Party (1977)
Meantime (1983)
Fish Tank (2009)
Do The Right Thing (1989)
Malcolm X (1992)
Nothing But A Man (1964)
Goodbye Solo (2008)
The Spook Who Sat By The Door (1973)
Dekalog (1989)
The Double Life Of Veronique...
- 4/20/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Giuseppe Tornatore’s romantic ode to the movies charmed America, convincing theater-goers that little Italian kids are the cutest in the world. Little Salvatore Cascio grows up in a projection booth under the life-tutelage of kindly Philippe Noiret. Arrow presents the theatrical version of this Best Foreign Picture Oscar winner in 4K Ultra HD. The (greatly) extended version is on a second Blu-ray — it plays like a different movie entirely.
Cinema Paradiso
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 174, 155, 124 min. / Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 49.95
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste.
Cinematography: Blasco Giurato
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Andrea Morricone
Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli
Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Every so often there comes along a European movie that so captures American audiences, one would...
Cinema Paradiso
4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 174, 155, 124 min. / Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date December 8, 2020 / 49.95
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste.
Cinematography: Blasco Giurato
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio Morricone, Andrea Morricone
Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli
Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Every so often there comes along a European movie that so captures American audiences, one would...
- 1/12/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Franco Zeffirelli, the stylish and sometimes controversial theater, opera and film director, has died. He was 96.
Zeffirelli, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” died at his home in Rome at noon on Saturday, his son Luciano told the Associated Press. “He had suffered for a while, but he left in a peaceful way,” Luciano said.
While Zeffirelli was fond of making films with literary antecedents such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Taming of the Shrew” and “Jane Eyre,” his legacy as director of extravagant opera and theater productions is probably more consistent and long-lasting.
He directed, co-wrote and co-produced the 1966 production of “Taming of the Shrew,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, one of the twice-married celebrated pair’s most successful co-starring assignments. Spirited and amusing, it paved the way for a youthful and sexy “Romeo and Juliet,” which was a major box office success in the U.
Zeffirelli, who was Oscar-nominated for his 1968 version of “Romeo and Juliet,” died at his home in Rome at noon on Saturday, his son Luciano told the Associated Press. “He had suffered for a while, but he left in a peaceful way,” Luciano said.
While Zeffirelli was fond of making films with literary antecedents such as “Romeo and Juliet,” “Hamlet,” “Taming of the Shrew” and “Jane Eyre,” his legacy as director of extravagant opera and theater productions is probably more consistent and long-lasting.
He directed, co-wrote and co-produced the 1966 production of “Taming of the Shrew,” starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, one of the twice-married celebrated pair’s most successful co-starring assignments. Spirited and amusing, it paved the way for a youthful and sexy “Romeo and Juliet,” which was a major box office success in the U.
- 6/15/2019
- by Richard Natale
- Variety Film + TV
One of international cinema’s undisputed greats in costume design, Piero Tosi’s work first faced the awards season spotlight 64 years ago with only his third film, Luchino Visconti’s masterwork “Senso,” which competed for the Golden Lion in Venice in 1954.
Nominated for five Oscars for costume design and recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2013, Tosi’s impact on the art of film is immeasurable. Visconti’s films such as “The Damned,” “Ludwig,” “Death in Venice” and the incomparable “The Leopard” garnered international acclaim as stunning period visual masterpieces and were all spectacular showcases for Tosi’s celebrated designs. Other triumphs included “La Cage Aux Folles,” “The Night Porter,” Federico Fellini’s “Toby Dammit” and Oscar foreign language film-winner “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
Also noted as mentor and teacher for generations of costume designers, Tosi’s work in this field is on view in “Piero Tosi. Exercises on Beauty. The...
Nominated for five Oscars for costume design and recipient of an honorary Oscar in 2013, Tosi’s impact on the art of film is immeasurable. Visconti’s films such as “The Damned,” “Ludwig,” “Death in Venice” and the incomparable “The Leopard” garnered international acclaim as stunning period visual masterpieces and were all spectacular showcases for Tosi’s celebrated designs. Other triumphs included “La Cage Aux Folles,” “The Night Porter,” Federico Fellini’s “Toby Dammit” and Oscar foreign language film-winner “Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow.”
Also noted as mentor and teacher for generations of costume designers, Tosi’s work in this field is on view in “Piero Tosi. Exercises on Beauty. The...
- 12/17/2018
- by Andrea Sorrentino
- Variety Film + TV
When lauded Italian director Luchino Visconti first conceived of his big screen adaptation of Camillo Boito’s novella “Senso,” the “La Terra Trema” filmmaker aimed high: he wanted to cast no less than Ingrid Bergman and Marlon Brando in the film’s lead roles, a conspiring contessa and an Austrian deserter who woo amidst the dying embers of the Risorgimento. Both casting plans were waylaid by strange industry politics — Bergman’s then-husband Roberto Rossellini didn’t want the actress to work with other directors, while the film’s producers weren’t sold on the star power of Brando.
Still, “Senso” managed to make it to the big screen with some serious talent behind it: prolific Italian actress Alida Valli snagged the lead role, while Hollywood heavy hitter Farley Granger came on as her jilted lover. Behind the scenes, Visconti lined up eventual directors Franco Zeffirelli and Francesco Rosi as his own assistants.
Still, “Senso” managed to make it to the big screen with some serious talent behind it: prolific Italian actress Alida Valli snagged the lead role, while Hollywood heavy hitter Farley Granger came on as her jilted lover. Behind the scenes, Visconti lined up eventual directors Franco Zeffirelli and Francesco Rosi as his own assistants.
- 10/9/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
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
One of the most important restorations of the last few years makes its way to Blu-ray this week with Milestone’s exquisite release of Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960). A brutally realistic, emotionally charged family saga that flies by in three of the most involving hours ever put on film, Rocco and His Brothers is an extraordinary combination of Visconti’s neorealist side (previously seen in Ossessione and La Terra Trema) and the operatic, ambitious tendency toward tumultuous historical change and penetrating social commentary that characterizes later masterpieces like The Leopard and The Damned. The film follows the brothers of […]...
- 7/13/2018
- by Jim Hemphill
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
One of the most important restorations of the last few years makes its way to Blu-ray this week with Milestone’s exquisite release of Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers (1960). A brutally realistic, emotionally charged family saga that flies by in three of the most involving hours ever put on film, Rocco and His Brothers is an extraordinary combination of Visconti’s neorealist side (previously seen in Ossessione and La Terra Trema) and the operatic, ambitious tendency toward tumultuous historical change and penetrating social commentary that characterizes later masterpieces like The Leopard and The Damned. The film follows the brothers of […]...
- 7/13/2018
- by Jim Hemphill
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Above: French poster for Ossessione (1943). Artist: Boris Grinsson.To commemorate the complete retrospective of the films of Luchino Visconti starting today at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center, I decided to choose my favorite poster for each film in Visconti’s titanic body of work (including the three portmanteau films to which he contributed episodes). For many of his films the range of posters are an embarrassment of riches ranging from tempestuous Italian romanticism and beautifully executed French realism to stark German stylization and wry Polish surrealism. Although I think that Italian romanticism certainly suits Visconti best of all in terms of really representing his work—Averardo Ciriello’s stirring portrait of storm-lashed fishermen for La terra trema being a case in point—it is the more gnomic Polish films that I seem to have gravitated to most. There are eight Polish posters here and what is remarkable is...
- 6/8/2018
- MUBI
Making all of us not in New York jealous yet again, the Film Society of Lincoln Center has partnered with Istituto Luce Cinecittà to present a complete retrospective of Luchino Visconti’s feature films. Most of the Italian master’s work, from “The Leopard” and “Rocco to His brothers” to “Senso” and “Death in Venice,” will be screening on new restorations and imported prints; the series will conclude with a weeklong run of “Ludwig,” playing here on a new 35mm print. Avail yourself of a trailer for the series below.
Visconti’s films are a sensory delight, and “The Leopard” — based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s majestic novel of the same name — is especially acclaimed. His 1963 adaptation, which runs just shy of three hours, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. Flsc’s look back at Visconti’s career doesn’t stop there,...
Visconti’s films are a sensory delight, and “The Leopard” — based on Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa’s majestic novel of the same name — is especially acclaimed. His 1963 adaptation, which runs just shy of three hours, won the Palme d’Or at Cannes and was released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Criterion Collection. Flsc’s look back at Visconti’s career doesn’t stop there,...
- 5/31/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Giuseppe Tornatore’s ode to the Italian love of movies was a major hit here in 1990, despite being severely cut by Miramax. In 2002 the director reworked his long version into an almost three-hour sentimental epic that enlarges the film’s scope and deepens its sentiments.
Cinema Paradiso
Region B Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / Special Edition / 174, 155, 124 min. /
Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date March 21, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste
Cinematography: Blasco Giurato
Production Designer: Andrea Crisanti
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio and Andrea Morricone
Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli
Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Your average foreign import movie, it seems, makes a brief splash around Oscar time and then disappears as if down a rabbit hole. A few years back I saw a fantastic Argentine movie called The Secret in Their Eyes.
Cinema Paradiso
Region B Blu-ray
Arrow Academy
1988 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / Special Edition / 174, 155, 124 min. /
Nuovo cinema Paradiso / Street Date March 21, 2017 / 39.95
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Antonella Attili, Salvatore Cascio, Marco Leonardi, Jacques Perrin, Agnese Nano, Brigitte Fossey, Pupella Maggio, Leopoldo Trieste
Cinematography: Blasco Giurato
Production Designer: Andrea Crisanti
Film Editor: Mario Morra
Original Music: Ennio and Andrea Morricone
Produced by Mino Barbera, Franco Cristaldi, Giovanna Romagnoli
Written and Directed by Giuseppe Tornatore
Your average foreign import movie, it seems, makes a brief splash around Oscar time and then disappears as if down a rabbit hole. A few years back I saw a fantastic Argentine movie called The Secret in Their Eyes.
- 3/14/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
We return with a look at Luchino Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers. Enjoy!
From Masters of Cinema:
From Luchino Visconti — the master director of such classics as La terra trema, Bellissima, and The Leopard — comes this epic study of family, sex, and betrayal. Alongside Fellini’s La dolce vita and Antonioni’s L’avventura, Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers [Rocco e i suoi fratelli] ushered Italian cinema into a new era, one unafraid to confront head-on the hypocrisies of the ruling class, the squalor in urban living, and the collision between generations.
When a tight-knit family moves from Italy’s rural south to metropolitan Milan, the new possibilities – and threats – present in their fresh surroundings have alarming, unforeseen consequences. Operatically weaving the five brothers’ stories across a vast canvas, with an extraordinary cast including Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale, Rocco and His Brothers stands as one of the most majestic and influential works of its era.
From Masters of Cinema:
From Luchino Visconti — the master director of such classics as La terra trema, Bellissima, and The Leopard — comes this epic study of family, sex, and betrayal. Alongside Fellini’s La dolce vita and Antonioni’s L’avventura, Visconti’s Rocco and His Brothers [Rocco e i suoi fratelli] ushered Italian cinema into a new era, one unafraid to confront head-on the hypocrisies of the ruling class, the squalor in urban living, and the collision between generations.
When a tight-knit family moves from Italy’s rural south to metropolitan Milan, the new possibilities – and threats – present in their fresh surroundings have alarming, unforeseen consequences. Operatically weaving the five brothers’ stories across a vast canvas, with an extraordinary cast including Alain Delon, Annie Girardot and Claudia Cardinale, Rocco and His Brothers stands as one of the most majestic and influential works of its era.
- 2/15/2017
- by Tom Jennings
- CriterionCast
After being a major influence on his work, Martin Scorsese worked with Milestone Films to bring forth a stellar-looking restoration of Luchino Visconti’s 1960 classic drama Rocco and His Brothers. After stopping by various festivals, including Tiff and Nyff, it’ll be released in NYC and Los Angeles next month, followed by hopefully a home release.
We now have a new trailer, which is fairly brief, but gives us a glimpse at the restoration while introducing our main ensemble. Starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, and Claudia Cardinale, check out the trailer and gorgeous poster (designed by Lauren Caddick) below for the film which kicks off its three-week run at Film Forum on Friday, October 9.
Joining the tragic exodus of millions from Italy’s impoverished south, the formidable matriarch of the Parondi clan (Katina Paxinou, Best Supporting Oscar winner, For Whom the Bell Tolls) and her brood emerge from Milan’s...
We now have a new trailer, which is fairly brief, but gives us a glimpse at the restoration while introducing our main ensemble. Starring Alain Delon, Annie Girardot, and Claudia Cardinale, check out the trailer and gorgeous poster (designed by Lauren Caddick) below for the film which kicks off its three-week run at Film Forum on Friday, October 9.
Joining the tragic exodus of millions from Italy’s impoverished south, the formidable matriarch of the Parondi clan (Katina Paxinou, Best Supporting Oscar winner, For Whom the Bell Tolls) and her brood emerge from Milan’s...
- 9/17/2015
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The new issue of Theory & Event features a symposium on Lars von Trier. Also in today's roundup: Glauber Rocha on Jean-Luc Godard, Luc Moullet on Samuel Fuller, Peter Bogdanovich on Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind, Fernando F. Croce on Luchino Visconti's La terra trema, Dennis Cooper on Karen Black, plus news: Alfonso Cuarón will head the jury in Venice, Spike Lee's lined up Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Kanye West and Jennifer Hudson for Chiraq, and we have notes the passing of Chris Burden and Elizabeth Wilson. » - David Hudson...
- 5/11/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The new issue of Theory & Event features a symposium on Lars von Trier. Also in today's roundup: Glauber Rocha on Jean-Luc Godard, Luc Moullet on Samuel Fuller, Peter Bogdanovich on Orson Welles's The Other Side of the Wind, Fernando F. Croce on Luchino Visconti's La terra trema, Dennis Cooper on Karen Black, plus news: Alfonso Cuarón will head the jury in Venice, Spike Lee's lined up Samuel L. Jackson, John Cusack, Kanye West and Jennifer Hudson for Chiraq, and we have notes the passing of Chris Burden and Elizabeth Wilson. » - David Hudson...
- 5/11/2015
- Keyframe
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the second of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Passion...
Passion...
- 12/11/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the first of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Filmmaker maudit?...
Filmmaker maudit?...
- 11/30/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
In a festival whose dedication to celluloid is readily apparent, why not declare it directly? And so one of the Vienna International Film Festival's Special Programs this year is a bastion of that most wonderful format, 16mm film. Programmed by Katja Wiederspahn and Haden Guest with an admirably variegated range, the programs were gathered around collective films, war films, sex films, expanded cinema, and more. Key to the section's expanse, which begins in the 1920s and touches every decade between here and there, is also in highlighting new work done in this increasingly outmoded, "out of date," and unprojectionable format. Included amongst these are films every bit as exciting as the history and canon "Revolution in 16mm" touches on: Jodie Mack's Razzle Dazzle (written about here), Richard Touhy's masterpiece of color Ginza Strip, and, most excitingly, a quartet of new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, the film poet who makes...
- 11/3/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
What do film directors Alfred Hitchcock, Stanley Kubrick, Agnès Varda, Robert Wise, Fred Zinnemann, Luis Buñuel, Alain Resnais, Roman Polanski, Sidney Lumet, Robert Altman, Louis Malle, Richard Linklater, Tom Tykwer, Alexander Sokurov, Paul Greengrass, Song Il-Gon, Alfonso Cuarón, and Alejandro Iñárritu have in common? More specifically, what type of film have they directed, setting them apart from fewer than 50 of their filmmaking peers? Sorry, “comedy” or “drama” isn’t right. If you’ve looked at this article’s headline, you’ve probably already guessed that the answer is that they’ve all made “real-time” films, or films that seemed to take about as long as their running time.
The real-time film has long been a sub-genre without much critical attention, but the time of the real-time film has come. Cuarón’s Gravity (2013), which was shot and edited so as to seem like a real-time film, floated away with the most 2014 Oscars,...
The real-time film has long been a sub-genre without much critical attention, but the time of the real-time film has come. Cuarón’s Gravity (2013), which was shot and edited so as to seem like a real-time film, floated away with the most 2014 Oscars,...
- 10/18/2014
- by Daniel Smith-Rowsey
- SoundOnSight
Dr. Garth Twa talks to Basil Da Cunha about After the Night.
Basil Da Cunha’s first feature, After The Night, is a unique hybrid in the bestiary of film. Set in the creole ghettos of Lisbon, it has the documentary grunge of social realism, like La Terra Trema (1948), Luchino Visconti’s glamorously grimy Italian neo-realist classic; or Life of Jesus (1997), Bruno Dumont’s unflinching excursion in youthful destruction; or last year’s The Selfish Giant (2013) by Clio Barnard with its traditional British surfeit of absence of hope. It’s like these films, only without the glitz. But After the Night is also a genre film, a favela noir, with a hapless, hopeless doomed anti-hero, Sombra, always on the hurt end of a beating, with bad debts and bad loans, his sass with woman turning into meek groveling, always in the wrong place.
Basil Da Cunha’s first feature, After The Night, is a unique hybrid in the bestiary of film. Set in the creole ghettos of Lisbon, it has the documentary grunge of social realism, like La Terra Trema (1948), Luchino Visconti’s glamorously grimy Italian neo-realist classic; or Life of Jesus (1997), Bruno Dumont’s unflinching excursion in youthful destruction; or last year’s The Selfish Giant (2013) by Clio Barnard with its traditional British surfeit of absence of hope. It’s like these films, only without the glitz. But After the Night is also a genre film, a favela noir, with a hapless, hopeless doomed anti-hero, Sombra, always on the hurt end of a beating, with bad debts and bad loans, his sass with woman turning into meek groveling, always in the wrong place.
- 4/25/2014
- by Dr. Garth Twa
- Pure Movies
On the outskirts of Tbilisi there is a enormous prison. It hovers over those who come to visit and the first images of Tinatin Kajrishvili‘s Brides are of this approach. Women stand on below, looking up at this aging monolith while they wait to be allowed inside. It is an eternal sight that echoes the women of Aci Trezza watching the sea for the return of their sons and husbands in the Neorealist classic La Terra Trema, though here cinematographer Goga Devadiani uses a more intimate framing. Grandeur can be found in the building itself, an imposition of state power. Its walls are so oppressive and its hallways so drab that a viewer unfamiliar with the nation of Georgia might mistake much of this film to be a Soviet-era period piece rather than a contemporary narrative. But back to those women. One of them is Nutsa (Mari Kitia), a young mother whose long-time partner is being...
- 4/17/2014
- by Daniel Walber
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Redes
Written by Agustin Velásquez Chávez and Paul Strand
Directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann
Mexico, 1936
A River Called Titas
Written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak
Bangladesh, 1973
Touki bouki
Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
Senegal, 1973
The Criterion Collection set assembling films rediscovered through the efforts of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is one of the company’s premier achievements. Bringing together six diverse titles from six different regions of the globe, the collection is a treasure trove for those seeking obscure, rare, and fascinating works that extend well beyond film history’s conventional canon. As stated by Criterion itself, “Each is a cinematic revelation, depicting a culture not often seen by outsiders on-screen.” The set also emphasizes, through its calling attention to the efforts of the Wcp initiative, just how necessary and beneficial film preservation and restoration can be. The films included here are only...
Written by Agustin Velásquez Chávez and Paul Strand
Directed by Emilio Gómez Muriel and Fred Zinnemann
Mexico, 1936
A River Called Titas
Written and directed by Ritwik Ghatak
Bangladesh, 1973
Touki bouki
Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
Senegal, 1973
The Criterion Collection set assembling films rediscovered through the efforts of Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project is one of the company’s premier achievements. Bringing together six diverse titles from six different regions of the globe, the collection is a treasure trove for those seeking obscure, rare, and fascinating works that extend well beyond film history’s conventional canon. As stated by Criterion itself, “Each is a cinematic revelation, depicting a culture not often seen by outsiders on-screen.” The set also emphasizes, through its calling attention to the efforts of the Wcp initiative, just how necessary and beneficial film preservation and restoration can be. The films included here are only...
- 12/27/2013
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
DVD Release Date: Dec. 11, 2012
Price: DVD $49.98
Studio: Entertainment One
Helmut Berger and Romy Schneider star in Visconti's 1972 epic Ludwig.
Luchino Visconti: Four Films is a five-disc collection that spotlights a quartet of the great Italian filmmaker’s works that span nearly three decades.
Through an impressive and highly acclaimed canon, Luchino Visconti (Senso, Conversation Piece) contributed significantly to the post-World War II revolution in Italian filmmaking, earned him the title of “Father of Neorealism” in the process.
The collection’s four films include the following:
La Terra Trema (1948): This a haunting film uses the early neorealism format developed by Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica to trace the doom and disintegration of one Sicilian fishing family. Winner of the International Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, the movie was a New York Times Critic’s Pick when it ran theatrically in 1965,
Bellissima (1951): Anna Magnani...
Price: DVD $49.98
Studio: Entertainment One
Helmut Berger and Romy Schneider star in Visconti's 1972 epic Ludwig.
Luchino Visconti: Four Films is a five-disc collection that spotlights a quartet of the great Italian filmmaker’s works that span nearly three decades.
Through an impressive and highly acclaimed canon, Luchino Visconti (Senso, Conversation Piece) contributed significantly to the post-World War II revolution in Italian filmmaking, earned him the title of “Father of Neorealism” in the process.
The collection’s four films include the following:
La Terra Trema (1948): This a haunting film uses the early neorealism format developed by Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica to trace the doom and disintegration of one Sicilian fishing family. Winner of the International Award for Best Film at the Venice Film Festival, the movie was a New York Times Critic’s Pick when it ran theatrically in 1965,
Bellissima (1951): Anna Magnani...
- 11/30/2012
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
I fondly remember the glee I had at xeroxing from library archives a good chunk of Sight & Sound’s top favorite list back in 92′ when cinephilia officially took over me and with further research I learned that any year that ends in a “2″ meant that it was time to revisit the official order. Over the past three polls (80′s, 90′s and 00′s) Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 classic progressively moved up the rankings making its way as announced today to the number one spot dislodging Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane. My prediction for 2022: Another Brit filmmaker will continue to make strides in the top ten list – Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey should move up several spots.
Based on 846 critics’ top-ten lists and a Directors’ poll of 358 entries it is Vertigo who ends a five decade reign of the iconic snow globe and the name “Rosebud”. If anythin the list inspires a long-lasting debate,...
Based on 846 critics’ top-ten lists and a Directors’ poll of 358 entries it is Vertigo who ends a five decade reign of the iconic snow globe and the name “Rosebud”. If anythin the list inspires a long-lasting debate,...
- 8/1/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
In 1948, Italian director Luchino Visconti gave audiences a lovely nugget of neorealist cinema. That film is La Terra Trema and it is a black and white subtitled docufiction about fishermen who are exploited and the steps they take to rid themselves of these poor work conditions. Using non-professional actors and filmed in a unique style, La Terra Trema is a very interesting film that is both beautiful and realistic.
The film takes place in Aci Trezza, a tiny fishing village on the coast of Sicily. The Valastro family is one of many fishing families that are being exploited. They then try to go into business for themselves but are met with disaster and opposition bringing further hardship to the family.
Read more...
The film takes place in Aci Trezza, a tiny fishing village on the coast of Sicily. The Valastro family is one of many fishing families that are being exploited. They then try to go into business for themselves but are met with disaster and opposition bringing further hardship to the family.
Read more...
- 4/7/2012
- by Randall Unger
- JustPressPlay.net
Young filmmaker Colin Levy reached out to Martin Scorsese asking him for some film recommendations to further his cinematic education and Scorsese's assistant responded with the following list and a note that read: Mr. Scorsese asked that I send this your way. This should be a jump start to your film education! The list is comprised of 39 foreign films and I've gone through and put a little check mark next to those that I have personally seen, which, I guess, means I have 19 films I need to begin to explore. Of those I haven't seen, Rocco and His Brothers and Children of Paradise are two I've meant to watch for a long time. Rocco was one Francis Ford Coppola told me was one of his favorite films back when I interviewed him for Tetro and I've still yet to give it a watch. (slacking) According to the post from Colin at Reddit,...
- 3/26/2012
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
DVD Playhouse—March 2012
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
By Allen Gardner
J. Edgar (Warner Bros.) Director Clint Eastwood provides a rock-solid, albeit rather flat portrait of polarizing FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, covering his life from late teens to his death. Leonardo DiCaprio does an impressive turn as Hoover, never crossing the line into caricature, and creating a Hoover that is all too human, making for an all the more unsettling look at absolute power run amuck. Where the film stumbles is the love story at its core: Hoover’s relationship with longtime aide Clyde Tolson (Armie Hammer). In the hands of an openly-gay director like Gus Van Sant, this could have been a heartbreaking, tender story of forbidden (unrequited?) love, but Eastwood seems to tiptoe around their romance, with far too much delicacy and deference. The film works well when recreating the famous crimes and investigations which Hoover made his name on (the Lindbergh kidnapping,...
- 3/7/2012
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
Anna Magnani in (what looks like) Luchino Visconti's Bellissima At the end of Giuseppe Tornatore's Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner Cinema Paradiso, small-town projectionist Philippe Noiret has died and the Nuovo Cinema Paradiso has become a pile of rubble. The bratty Italian boy Salvatore Cascio has grown into the classy Frenchman Jacques Perrin (like Noiret, dubbed in Italian), a filmmaker who sits to watch a mysterious reel of film the deceased projectionist had left him. It turns out the reel contains clips from films censored by the prudish local parish priest, whose family values found kisses, embraces, and bare breasts and legs a danger to society. Now, who's doing all that kissing, embracing, and breast/leg-displaying in that film reel? (Please scroll down for the Cinema Paradiso clip.) Here are the ones I recognize: Silvana Mangano and Vittorio Gassman in Giuseppe De Santis' Bitter Rice (1949); Mangano...
- 2/14/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Italian film director celebrated for his insightful short films
The film director Vittorio De Seta, who has died aged 88, was best known for his short films. A selection of these, made in Sicily and Sardinia in the 1950s, was presented by Martin Scorsese at the 2005 Tribeca film festival in New York. Scorsese described De Seta's style as that of "an anthropologist who speaks with the voice of a poet". The film historian Goffredo Fofi has hailed De Seta as an Italian director "to be remembered alongside the Rossellinis and De Sicas, the Antonionis and the Fellinis"; he also deserves to be remembered alongside the great poetic documentary makers, such as Robert Flaherty, Humphrey Jennings and Basil Wright.
De Seta was born in Palermo, Sicily, to an aristocratic landowning family from Calabria. He enrolled in the navy during the second world war and, after the armistice in 1943, refused to sign allegiance...
The film director Vittorio De Seta, who has died aged 88, was best known for his short films. A selection of these, made in Sicily and Sardinia in the 1950s, was presented by Martin Scorsese at the 2005 Tribeca film festival in New York. Scorsese described De Seta's style as that of "an anthropologist who speaks with the voice of a poet". The film historian Goffredo Fofi has hailed De Seta as an Italian director "to be remembered alongside the Rossellinis and De Sicas, the Antonionis and the Fellinis"; he also deserves to be remembered alongside the great poetic documentary makers, such as Robert Flaherty, Humphrey Jennings and Basil Wright.
De Seta was born in Palermo, Sicily, to an aristocratic landowning family from Calabria. He enrolled in the navy during the second world war and, after the armistice in 1943, refused to sign allegiance...
- 12/12/2011
- by John Francis Lane
- The Guardian - Film News
Senso (1954) Direction: Luchino Visconti Cast: Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Heinz Moog, Nina Morelli, Massimo Girotti, Christian Marquand, Sergio Fantoni Screenplay: Suso Cecchi d'Amico, Luchino Visconti; from Camillo Boito's novella Highly Recommended Alida Valli, Farley Granger, Senso Critical consensus regards Luchino Visconti's Senso as a radical departure, a sign of the director's shift in focus from the gritty world of downtrodden proles (such as in his neorealist classics Ossessione and La Terra Trema) to a rather more exciting historical fantasy involving the illicit romance between Countess Serpieri (Alida Valli) and Lieutenant Mahler (Farley Granger) during the Italian revolt against Austria — shot in radiant three-strip Technicolor to boot. A rather more defensible truism portrays Senso as a dry run for Visconti's later adaptation of Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard. There are obvious parallels between the two: male leads played by American actors (Granger in Senso, Burt Lancaster in The Leopard), brilliant color cinematography,...
- 3/14/2011
- by Dan Erdman
- Alt Film Guide
Reviewer: Jeffrey M Anderson
Rating (out of 5): *****
The essayist Phillip Lopate came up with a perfect phrase for Luchino Visconti's style: operatic realism. Like his contemporaries Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica, Visconti experimented with a realistic style, though it can be argued that he made only one genuine "Italian Neo-Realist" film, La Terra Trema (1948). Visconti was interested in adding personal flourishes to his films in addition to the realism and the social commentary, and his films eventually grew bigger and showier through the decades, while focusing on more personal themes.
It can be argued that 1954's Senso (1954) is the culmination of Visconti's work, the perfect collision of style, themes and look --and perhaps his greatest film.
...
Rating (out of 5): *****
The essayist Phillip Lopate came up with a perfect phrase for Luchino Visconti's style: operatic realism. Like his contemporaries Roberto Rossellini and Vittorio De Sica, Visconti experimented with a realistic style, though it can be argued that he made only one genuine "Italian Neo-Realist" film, La Terra Trema (1948). Visconti was interested in adding personal flourishes to his films in addition to the realism and the social commentary, and his films eventually grew bigger and showier through the decades, while focusing on more personal themes.
It can be argued that 1954's Senso (1954) is the culmination of Visconti's work, the perfect collision of style, themes and look --and perhaps his greatest film.
...
- 3/4/2011
- by underdog
- GreenCine
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