Still mulling it, but wild anyone views Oppenheimer as morally timid or ambiguous. Nolan has never been subtle. Here, he mixes the Los Alamos team’s stamping feet as they celebrate Hiroshima several decibels louder than the Trinity blast itself. It’s people who frighten him.
“In 50 years no one will know who Joe Russo is."
Film writers and more are sounding off after "Avengers" director Joe Russo took a playful jab at Martin Scorsese over box office. BeyondFest says: "Let’s just be honest, Joe Russo is a rich asshole hack.."
I only met Hou Hsiao-hsien once, outside Lincoln Center in 2015. It was the briefest of encounters, cut short by my bursting into tears as he shook my hand. I said "thank you" and then quickly walked away so as not to embarrass him. There was so much I wanted to tell him... 1/
Big result: Democrats have flipped the sheriff's race in Cape Cod (Barnstable County).
Why is this big?
This was one of the chief elections I was watching for immigration. The closest county to ICE in New England, and the winner promised to 'rip it up.'
A great American filmmaker has died and the national paper of record's obit boils down to "he never regained his earlier acclaim," while dismissing his best film as "long, labored and not particularly thrilling." Just another fucking Monday.
We braved nearly 100 years of Academy Awards to choose some of our favorite American films that received no nominations. From CITY LIGHTS to UNCUT GEMS, the Academy might have missed these movies—but you shouldn't! SNUBBED opens on JAN 20.
Every picture of Bordwell people have shared over the past 24 hours features a man wearing a broad smile and a glint in his eye. A good reminder at this time that the spirit of cinema ought be pure, infectious, and big hearted, not purist, toxic, and narrow minded.
...but finally there was nothing to say. His films changed my life, as I know they did so many other lives, not the least of which include the filmmakers who we would not have were it not for his influence: Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Jia Zhang-ke, Lee chang-dong, et. al.. 2/
It would be no understatement to say that Hou Hsiao-hsien is to modern East Asian cinema as Griffith was to the American narrative tradition. He gave them, and all of us, a framework. 3/3
@JohnMagary
I believe that’s specious logic which leads to the idea that the most successful actors can’t be true allies to SAG rank and file. It’s a cynical if intuitively seductive line that plays into the hands of capital, which wants the solidarity within the unions to collapse.
Hey film twitter, Hamaguchi’s got a message for you: “I considered placing Edward Yang’s A Brighter Summer Day in this slot, but not enough attention is given to Hou Hsiao-hsien.”
There is a sequence in “The House of Mirth” where Davies cues a recording of Mozart’s trio Soave sia il vento from Cosi fan tutti over a montage of slow, stately tracking shots of a mansion. It is one of the most exquisitely, and achingly, beautiful passages in movies.
Seems I was being too coy. So to be clear, I think "The Killer" is a self-reflexive tour de force about its own marginalization as just more grist for the content mill. Its hollowness is by design. As the tagline for one Fincher film went, "the feel bad movie of the year."
I can’t recall the last time I saw a movie as purposefully off-putting, as pointedly hollow, as The Killer. It’s as if Fincher said, “you guys wanted content? Here’s some content.” Then, when you asked if you might have some meaning with that, he just smiled and walked away.
Hamaguchi's eco-horror film "Evil Does Not Exist" fails the Kurosawa, Immamura, Ozu, Oshima, Mizoguchi and Godzilla test. Here's why:
@FilmForum
@FilmLinc
#Hamaguchi
The ratio of revelations to screenings in this series is very nearly 1:1. Hiroshi Shimizu was one of the great filmmakers, and for those who’ve seen or plan to see the superb new Hamaguchi, the spirit of Shimizu infuses its bloodstream.
Watch our exclusive trailer debut for the 27-film, all-35mm retrospective of Hiroshi Shimizu, running May 4—June 1 at Japan Society and the Museum of the Moving Image:
ARMAGEDDON TIME is a portrait of innocence shading into experience set among the shadows of an American past that could scarcely feel more present. Read
@edogoesboating
's review of James Gray's haunting, multilayered film:
Saw Hou Hsiao-hsien's THE TIME TO LIVE AND THE TIME TO DIE at London's
@TheGardenCinema
today. Great screening with a lovely, specially recorded intro by Tony Rayns.
Sorry to hear from that intro that Hou's health is failing him and he likely won't make another film. 😔
It's a bad state of affairs that Mizoguchi isn't instantly and automatically taken to be their equal in both artistry and recognition. Answer: his films. Excluding him, too: 25 months ago, I'd have said Giants and Toys; then I saw Forever a Woman, my choice now.
My best of 2023 for
@FilmComment
. With apologies to UNREST and LOVE LIFE, which I feel I should've kept on this list in retrospect.
It's nice to see that ASTEROID CITY made the top 20, a victory of art over the winds of current fashion. The Fincher & Dardennes should have too.
Bergman’s “Fanny and Alexander” is one of those films that really ought to have retained, even improved, its position on the Sight and Sound poll. An immense work. Come see it at MoMI this weekend. Then take your family to it on Christmas:
Part fairy tale, part existential drama, FANNY AND ALEXANDER is a lush banquet of a film, featuring gorgeous, Oscar-winning cinematography, art direction, and costume design. Don't miss Bergman’s preferred version, screening DEC 11–26. Tickets:
THE MASSEURS AND A WOMAN is my favorite Hiroshi Shimizu film. It was a personal project. He wrote the script himself, setting it in his beloved Izu. It’s also his boldest experiment in digressive narrative form, achieving a cinematic poetry that’s unlike anything before or since.
A blind man’s stirrings of romantic longing for a mysterious young woman provide the wisp of a story in Shimizu’s most eccentrically personal film, THE MASSEURS AND A WOMAN, shot on his favored Izu Peninsula. See it May 12 at MoMI, in 35mm:
I have now read the director's quote several times and I still have no idea what they mean when they say those presenters and recipients who spoke out should have made "more differentiated statements on this issue." This is Kendall Roy levels of incoherent PR pleading.
Berlinale Files Criminal Charges Over the Spreading of Anti-Semitic Posts / Criticism of Statements Made by Artists at the Berlinale Award Ceremony
See full press release via:
Overjoyed for Claire Denis, whose films mean more to me than any other living filmmaker (save one). I’m sure she’ll retire when she’s good and ready, and I hope that’s never.
Every audience that came out for THE SEARCHERS in 70mm this weekend showed their appreciation for the film and its presentation by clapping and it was quite moving. Ford's film is nearly seventy. Ford himself died over fifty years ago, but his spirit spoke through the work.
This old post referred to Hou Hsiao-hsien’s “The Puppetmaster,” a film that seems to me to fulfill a century’s worth, and then some, of modern dreams and longings regarding the possibilities of cinema, literature, painting, and, hell, art itself to encompass human experience.
Thankful to the NYFF team for allowing us to screen the Godard and Glazer together. Both films, with Scorsese’s “Flower Moon” and, in its way, “Oppenheimer,” invite us to contemplate the 20th c.’s legacy of atrocity and the just way for cinematic images to approach that legacy.
“Until proven otherwise, it’s not Godard who’s dead, it’s us. We, the ‘bit’ generation. Our 21st century urgently needs to be reinvented. We will have to be reborn, open our eyes and cinemas, and learn the lessons. ‘Beauty is the splendor of truth.’” - Leos Carax (1/2)
I can’t recall the last time I saw a movie as purposefully off-putting, as pointedly hollow, as The Killer. It’s as if Fincher said, “you guys wanted content? Here’s some content.” Then, when you asked if you might have some meaning with that, he just smiled and walked away.
Some
@brofromanother
-style measured ambivalence from yours truly on Jonathan Glazer's THE ZONE OF INTEREST, a film I find fascinating and frustrating in equal measure.
"It's a film formally premised on the structural interdependency of disclosure and concealment, where that which is revealed comes to presence only by virtue of that which is hidden."
@edogoesboating
reckons with Jonathan Glazer's THE ZONE OF INTEREST.
Particularly excited about all of the wonderful guests who will be joining us this year: Kelly Reichardt, Mark Mylod, Ari Aster, Ira Sachs, Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, Joana Pimenta, and Alexander Payne. Hopefully, we'll have a few more to announce soon!
We're pleased to announce the lineup for Curators' Choice, our annual survey of favorite films from the past year—many consensus titles but also some surprises! Dec 26–Jan 28:
Only 5 films in this program are DCP. Several of the prints are courtesy of the UCLA, LoC, Academy and MoMA archives, as well as private collectors. Long live film. 🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞🎞
ICYMI: One of the best to ever do it, celebrated cinematographer James Wong Howe is the subject of this major new film series, which highlights his incredible range of work, from classics like SWEET SMELL OF SUCCESS to HUD, and so much more. Opens MAY 13.
I urge my film/art peers to sign this statement whether or not you fully align with its framing. What is being done to the people of Gaza is a human catastrophe that must cease. I will add that I find abhorrent institutional attempts to cow people in our community into silence.
These shows of Fred Camper’s newly preserved 16mm films are truly not to be missed. Plus both Anthology and MoMI are accompanying them with killer Brakhage programs that Fred personally put together. Check below for all details 👇🏼
People of New York City! You can see the films of Fred Camper (preserved on 16mm by yours truly) at
@MovingImageNYC
on Saturday 1/14 and
@AnthologyFilm
on Monday 1/16! With Fred Camper in person!
“Buttafuoco is one of the most prominent voices of Italy’s new right-wing, which has seen political success in the election last year of Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and her Fratelli d’Italia party.”
THREAD. I know *many* await my oh so unique take on that PTA movie, but instead I’m gonna be obnoxiously on brand and share my love for some of the more under the radar films from First Look, which opens tomorrow (🚨):
Thanks to the saintly Hamaguchi, seeing some love for fifties Renoir on the TL. Just so happens we’re showing “French Cancan” tomorrow and Sunday on 35mm: …
MR. THANK YOU is simply one of Hiroshi Shimizu’s major works, a stone cold classic 1930s cinema. It was shot in Izu, Shimizu’s most beloved region, incorporating non-actors met during the scout, including a startlingly frank encounter with Korean migrant laborers.
A genial bus driver carries travelers—a microcosm of depression-era Japan—from rural outskirts to a local train station. Shot on location, Shimizu's MR. THANK YOU is a timeless classic, comparable to Ford's STAGECOACH. One show only: Sun, 5/5 in rare 35mm
According to this story, projectionists at an NYC Alamo Drafthouse (unclear which) filed a petition to unionize Weds
On Fri, Alamo sent an email notifying of its intention to eliminate the projectionist role and replace with with "technical engineer"
The relationship between Eustache’s Numero Zero and Hou’s The Puppetmaster—two films about storytelling, the cyclical vagaries of provincial life in the early 20th century, the passing (on) of tradition, and the braided births of modernity and of cinema—seems profound.
RICHARD LINKLATER is set to shoot a new film in Paris, entirely in French. The plot will revolve around the making of JEAN-LUC GODARD’s “Breathless” & the creation of the French New Wave. Roles currently being cast include Godard, Bresson, Rohmer, Rivette
Largely ducking the
@SightSoundmag
poll fray, but yesterday I learned Koji Fukada’s👌🏽ballot includes Naruse’s FLOWING and Yamanaka’s HUMANITY AND PAPER BALLOONS. This moved me, partly because he and I were two of just three participants who voted for each of these films… (1/2)
A scholar who had an immeasurably seismic impact on our field, but what I’ll always recall most warmly about Bordwell is his agile, accessible, impassioned, and gleefully nerdy analyses of asian cinema, particularly of Ozu, Johnnie To, and Hou Hsiao-hsien.
Ryusuke Hamaguchi's Top 10! ✨
The award-winning director of DRIVE MY CAR selects a list of films that are close to his heart, including work by international auteurs he considers underrated.
This film moves like a WB/First National precode. It packs more into one hour than most directors manage in three today. Like a Wellman film, it's also a brutally frank social comment. Shimizu's use of dissolves within a single shot to signal temporal change is utterly singular.
Shimizu’s A HERO OF TOKYO (1935) follows the travails of a family abandoned by their grifter father, and the sacrifices made by the devoted mother. In its taut 63-min. runtime, the kids grow to adulthood and contend with their parents’ choices. Sat, 5/4,
Often we praise movies for their restraint. We’re putting a stop to such gentility with the latest
#SeeItBig
series, a super-sized, bursting-at-the-seams program that features films that push cinematic style into excess. EXTRAVAGANZAS! (Part 1) opens NOV 5
It’s been incredibly moving and heartening to see so many people join us
@MovingImageNYC
to discover and enjoy the films of Hiroshi Shimizu. I hope
@shochiku_corp
can prioritize restoring the films so that an even wider audience can someday do so.
Proud of this program, more like an extravaganza. David and I were delighted by these films from some of the best doing it:
@ndorsky
, Carl Elsaesser,
@keversonkevin
, Eva Giolo, Lew Klahr, Simon Liu, Alee Peoples,
@Maxwolf333
, Bruno Delgado Ramo,
@bramruiter
,
@es_zip
, Mike Stoltz
So glad to collaborate with amazing and obsessive programmer
@edogoesboating
on this rock-solid avant-garde program for First Look
@MovingImageNYC
. Incredible program and many of the artists will be there.
Came late to this.
@genevieveyue
defines the precise shape, dimensions, and scope of the current predicament facing makers, curators, and critics of so-called experimental work. A vigorous head-nodding, audible mouth-breathing kind of read. Really moved:
My vote for Pauline Kael is Lesley Manville. In a few months, we’ll know if Quentin was smart enough to cast her. Meantime, First Look opens today 3/15 and runs through 3/19
@MovingImageNYC
and I would like to tell you about a few of this edition’s wonderful films:
Saturday at MoMI and Anthology, the Spanish film scene comes to New York in three screenings of Super 8 and 16mm works, including two dazzling expanded performances, that have largely never shown in the US. Several artists made the trip for the occasion. Not to be missed! 📽🎞
Folk proclaiming STARS AT NOON the worst thing they’ve ever seen at Cannes are either performing for clicks or didn’t actually bother to see much at this year’s festival. I’ve seen several far less achieved films over the past eight days, and only a handful of better ones. 1/
Irma Vep may just be my favorite thing this year. That or Fabelmans. Both speak to the fragility of this thing we call “cinema”with a resigned yet humbled awareness of how obsolete their own conceptions of it have become.
One of our favorite cinematic experiences of the year, we're thrilled to present the entirety of Olivier Assayas's IRMA VEP series across two days (JAN 7–8). Screens part of our ongoing CURATORS' CHOICE. Tickets:
A STAR ATHLETE is the dark horse MVP of our retrospective. It is now less known than the other major films, as it wasn’t in Criterion or Shochiku’s DVD sets, but it has long been a historians’ favorite. Formally, it’s the purest, most exhilarating expression of Shimizu’s cinema.
A David Bordwell favorite for its bravura camerawork, including a sublime 40-shot sequence, A STAR ATHLETE turns on the rivalry between a laid-back runner and his hard-working peer, winking at Shimizu’s rep as a lazy genius. Only SUNDAY, 5/12 in rare 35mm:
"I was in Cannes watching Tarantino’s movie. I already had the project. I came out of the Palais and I thought: It’s her, only her." Guess that answers that, don't it? I think Qualley is excellent for most of the film. She has something of Jean Arthur in ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS.
Nolan’s films often focus on the traps his heroes create for themselves within fundamentally paradoxical universes. The ambition of “Oppenheimer” seems to be to trace this theme back to its world historic source. So asking whether it’s pro or anti-nuke might be missing the point?
More than 450 Jewish creatives, executives and Hollywood professionals have signed an open letter denouncing Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” Oscar speech.
Here are my favorite pre-war Shimizu films (no order):
A Star Athlete
The Masseurs and a Woman
Mr. Thank You
Notes of an Itinerant Performer
A Woman Crying in Spring
Japanese Girls at the Harbor
Introspection Tower
Children in the Wind
Four Seasons of Children
Ornamental Hairpin
The films of Ewelina Rosińska are impressionistic diary works whose montages create expansive connections between sounds and images that fuse disparate spaces, feelings, and moments in time. Join us for two special North American premieres on MAR 25.
Should the
#SpiritAwards
Cassavetes Award still exist when we know that making movies under 500k means no one earns a living wage? Should we be glorifying low budget exploitation in 2022?
This weekend
@MovingImageNYC
is better than film school: three by Chantal Akerman (including 'Jeanne Dielman'), 'Wavelength,' 'Sunrise,' and a Maya Deren program all play on prints —
I don’t hold “The Zone of Interest” in as high regard as some peers, but it’s not a cheap provocation nor a facile exercise, and the idea that it plays it safe, letting itself and viewers off the hook with its distancing effects, is a narrow read of how those effects operate.
This Saturday, we launch our retrospective of Noriaki Tsuchimoto, which will take place over the next three weekends through Thanksgiving. I’m really proud of this one, and couldn’t be more grateful for the maniacally dedicated
@solexyoghurt
for putting it together. 1/3
Cinema is seldom greater than Hiroshi Shimizu’s “Children of the Great Buddha,” a film that erects a space, a temple if you will, wherein to shelter and restore the castaways of a broken nation.
Like Kiarostami and his friend Ozu, Shimizu was one of the great directors of children. In the magical CHILDREN IN THE WIND, there’s a devastating scene where a young boy imagines playing hide and seek with his brother—taken to live elsewhere—and begins sobbing uncontrollably.
CHILDREN IN THE WIND, Shimizu’s most adored film in Japan, is the saga of two brothers whose idyllic country life is shattered when their father is wrongly arrested. A shimmering evocation of the growth pangs of childhood. One show: Fri, 5/10, rare 35mm:
With
#AsteroidCity
now out in wide release, see the film that put Wes Anderson on the map—spawning endless imitations, halloween costumes, lookbooks, and more.
THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS screens in
#35mm
JULY 2—9. Tickets:
The projector at the AMC where I’m seeing “The French Dispatch” has a magenta shift, cause they clearly haven’t replaced the optical block in these past two years. Wanna try harder
@AMCTheatres
?
We're thrilled to exclusively unveil the fantastic lineup for
@MovingImageNYC
's
#FirstLookFest
2023, featuring 'Tori and Lokita,' 'Fremont,' 'Mami Wata,' 'Rodeo,' 'The Eight Mountains,' and much more: