Guys at a_film_by think that J. Hoberman's review of El Topo is awesome...
... and I think it's pointless. The reviewer boasts about meeting Jodorowsky in Mexico back in the hippie days, talking about fucking and pissing on cars. I mean, yeah! great insight on the psychedelic movement and on this subversive piece of underground cinema that is El Topo!
I just saw it last night, with Jodorwsky in attendance. He talked about mysticism, symbolism, subconscious, aesthetics... The hypocritical system that had him to distribute his film as 4 short films to by-pass the censors, which explains his quadripartite structure. There is so many things to say on the film. It is still revolutionary today. And not just because of the offending material. The discontinuous montage for instance creates thought provoking counter-shots bending time and space. The Holy Mountain is a more sophisticated masterpiece, and Santa Sangre has a deeper psychoanalytical content, but this one is quite interesting formally. I wish I had more time to view it several times and deconstruct it sequence by sequence... Anyway, thanks to the restoration of the Cannes Classics program, the film gets a conventional distribution, and the films will be released on DVD, remastered.
On december 8 2006, I participated to the Live Chat with Jean-Michel Frodon at Cahiers, about the problems of distribution in France : "Is there too many films?". (transcript in French)
"Free form underground poetry," Czarnecki calls it. But about what? All of this waxing nostalgic about the bygone Golden Age of arthouse exhibition in the 70s, when the opening of the new Fassbinder film guaranteed a full house (as they're fond of telling us young 'uns, all gathered 'round the fire, in my neck of the woods) makes me wary. He's dating the film by choosing to write about it in the context of the irreplicable (today) atmosphere it played in Back Then, tacitly suggesting that it is only relevant insofar as it is a relic of the past...
Yeah these details about a hippie moment are so clichés. I didn't mind the backstory of Midnight Movies in the eponymous documentary telling us how the craze around El Topo built its reputation. But that was in a documentary. I expect something else in a newspaper review. Especially for a movie that was almost invisible for 30 years. And Hoberman even admits he didn't like the film. So he takes the opportunity to show off how he was the FIRST to interview the master, even if he didn't like the film...
What a marvelous grab bag of commentary and critique!! Will I ever have time to read all this marvelous stuff? I certainly appreciate your taking the time to at least alert us to same.
I'm planning on being in Paris next October, Harry. Shall we go watch movies together?
1. Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien) + Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien) 2. L'armée des Ombres (1969/Melville) + Les Statues meurent aussi (1953/Resnais) DOC short 3. The War Tape (Scranton) DOC + Iraq in Fragments (Longley) DOC 4. Cuadecuc-Vampir (1970/Portabella) + Warsaw Bridge (1990/Portabella) 5. Find me guilty (Lumet) + Half Nelson (Fleck/Boden) 6. Citadel (2004/Egoyan) DOC + The Power of Nightmares (2004/Curtis) DOC 7. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Jones) + The Illusionist (Burger) 8. Ask the Dust (Towne) + Hollywoodland (Coulter) 9. Moments Choisis des Histoire(s) du Cinema (Godard) DOC + My Dad Is 100 Years Old (Maddin) DOC short 10.Fast Food Nation (Linklater/Schlosser) + Bobby (Estevez)
Rosenbaum extend the traditional top10 to 20, by pairs, because there has been too many good releases, yet 4 of them are older films, 7 hardly had an official release... 7 documentaries and 2 short movies. I've seen only 6 on the list so far (many didn't get a French release yet).
New issue of cinemascope (#29) is online. Articles on Jia Zhang-ke's Still Life, Lynch's Inland Empire, Hong Sang-soo's Woman on the beach, Films of Sissako, 12:08 East of Bucharest...
At a_film_by, Adrian Martin and Jonathan Rosenbaum recommend reading Emilie Bickerton's writing on cinema : - in NEW LEFT REVIEW #42 (Nov-Dec 2006) : Adieu to Cahiers (not free) - in NEW LEFT REVIEW #27 (May-Jun 2004) : The Camera Possessed, on Jean Rouch (not free) - Vertigo (Spring 2006) : Squaring the Circle, The dynamic cinema of Iran’s Jafar Panahi moves from the topical to the timeless
Radio : Projection Privée, December 23 2006, Michel Ciment interviews Richard Leacock (DP on Louisiana Story) about the oeuvre of Robert J. Flaherty. (in French online until saturday)
at Variety : Discussion on the films of 2006 with Rosenbaum, Molly Haskell, Jose Carlos Avellar, who argue about the year's best and talk about the trade of criticism, cinephilia, internet and DVDs.
Slate's 9th Movie Club, traditional held by David Edelstein (now moved to the New York Magazine), is hosted by his successor Dana Stevens who will discuss 2006 movies with Carina Chocano (LA Times), Wesley Morris (Boston Globe), and Keith Phipps (AV Club)(no invitation to Edelstein to join?). Let's see how the legacy of what used to be a great debate will continue this week. 2 emails have been published so far today.
Radio show : Laure Adler talks with Mylène Bresson and Florence Delay [Jeanne d'Arc] about Bresson's cinématographe and Les Anges du Péché (1943). Plus a visual analysis of the last scene of Pickpocket (1959) by Caroline Champetier (French DP). Only online here until next Wednersday.
The Hollywood Reporter organize an exceptional roundtable about the challenges of filmmaking with David Lynch (Inland Empire), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Emilio Estevez (Bobby), Dayton & Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), and Nancy Meyers (The Holiday).
Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed (out of Borat character) on NPR. 45' of insightful questions and answers to finally know what it was like to plan and act this experimental comedy.
Andy Horbal propose a blogosphere situation room to comment the ongoing Slate's Movie Club (see above). Let's criticize the critics who critic the top 2006.
27 commentaires:
Profession Critique : series of interviews of French critics at Metz University (Canal Socio) by Laurent Jullier.
Real audio (in French)
- Michel ciment (42')
- Jean-Michel Frodon (40')
- Serge Kaganski (44')
Low, middle and high culture at Jahsonic
A la recherche du temps perdu collection of articles on the state of distribution in France (2004) at Film de Culte.
Projection Privée Radio broadcast by Michel Ciment, panel on La Nouvelle Vague.
Series of lectures at La Cinémathèque in Paris around the German Expresionism retrospective (Real audio online in French):
1)- Où commence et où finit l'expressionnisme ? (Jacques Aumont, 10-26-2006)
2)- Le Mabuse de Fritz Lang : folie, expressionnisme, hypnose, mise en scène (Raymond Bellour, 11-02-2006)
3)- Existe-t-il une esthétique du cinéma expressionniste ? (Franck Kessler, 11-09-2006)
4)- Quel -isme pour Murnau ? (Emmanuel Siéty, 11-16-2006)
Le Masque et la Plume, radio broadcast, panel of critics, available online in French:
11-26-2006 : Babel, The Prestige, Coeurs, Fast Food Nation, Borat.
12-10-2006 : The Departed, Blackbook, L'intouchable, A Prairie Home Companion...
The Boss of it All (2006/Lars Von Trier/Denmark) at Bordwell's blog
Girish posts the 6 types of Documentaries as defined by Bill Nichols.
World Cinema: The Independent Spirit of the Toronto International Film Festival
By M.S. Smith (from CultureSpace)
Violence in Film at The Pagan Agenda, on Apocalypto and The Departed.
Pacze Moj links to rare video downloads: Rivette's Out 1: Noli me tangere (1971) and the rushes from Parajanov's Sayat Nova (1968)
The end of cinema is (only the) beginning at Lost in Negative Space discussion around the Death of Cinema.
European Cinema & American Movies at 16:9 Cinematic Filmblog
A Brief History of Modern Screenplay Structure 16:9 Cinematic Filmblog
Guys at a_film_by think that J. Hoberman's review of El Topo is awesome...
... and I think it's pointless. The reviewer boasts about meeting Jodorowsky in Mexico back in the hippie days, talking about fucking and pissing on cars. I mean, yeah! great insight on the psychedelic movement and on this subversive piece of underground cinema that is El Topo!
I just saw it last night, with Jodorwsky in attendance. He talked about mysticism, symbolism, subconscious, aesthetics... The hypocritical system that had him to distribute his film as 4 short films to by-pass the censors, which explains his quadripartite structure.
There is so many things to say on the film. It is still revolutionary today. And not just because of the offending material. The discontinuous montage for instance creates thought provoking counter-shots bending time and space. The Holy Mountain is a more sophisticated masterpiece, and Santa Sangre has a deeper psychoanalytical content, but this one is quite interesting formally.
I wish I had more time to view it several times and deconstruct it sequence by sequence...
Anyway, thanks to the restoration of the Cannes Classics program, the film gets a conventional distribution, and the films will be released on DVD, remastered.
On december 8 2006, I participated to the Live Chat with Jean-Michel Frodon at Cahiers, about the problems of distribution in France : "Is there too many films?".
(transcript in French)
I like Hoberman, but I agree with you, Harry.
"Free form underground poetry," Czarnecki calls it. But about what? All of this waxing nostalgic about the bygone Golden Age of arthouse exhibition in the 70s, when the opening of the new Fassbinder film guaranteed a full house (as they're fond of telling us young 'uns, all gathered 'round the fire, in my neck of the woods) makes me wary. He's dating the film by choosing to write about it in the context of the irreplicable (today) atmosphere it played in Back Then, tacitly suggesting that it is only relevant insofar as it is a relic of the past...
Yeah these details about a hippie moment are so clichés. I didn't mind the backstory of Midnight Movies in the eponymous documentary telling us how the craze around El Topo built its reputation. But that was in a documentary. I expect something else in a newspaper review. Especially for a movie that was almost invisible for 30 years. And Hoberman even admits he didn't like the film. So he takes the opportunity to show off how he was the FIRST to interview the master, even if he didn't like the film...
What a marvelous grab bag of commentary and critique!! Will I ever have time to read all this marvelous stuff? I certainly appreciate your taking the time to at least alert us to same.
I'm planning on being in Paris next October, Harry. Shall we go watch movies together?
Sure Michael, I'll grant you an interview too ;)
For those interested, a profound discussion continues, with Maya, in the comments of my 3 Pan's Labyrinth posts below (1, 2, 3)! Check it out.
Jonathan Rosenbaum's top10 x 2 at Chicago Reader :
1. Café Lumière (Hou Hsiao-hsien) + Three Times (Hou Hsiao-hsien)
2. L'armée des Ombres (1969/Melville) + Les Statues meurent aussi (1953/Resnais) DOC short
3. The War Tape (Scranton) DOC + Iraq in Fragments (Longley) DOC
4. Cuadecuc-Vampir (1970/Portabella) + Warsaw Bridge (1990/Portabella)
5. Find me guilty (Lumet) + Half Nelson (Fleck/Boden)
6. Citadel (2004/Egoyan) DOC + The Power of Nightmares (2004/Curtis) DOC
7. The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Jones) + The Illusionist (Burger)
8. Ask the Dust (Towne) + Hollywoodland (Coulter)
9. Moments Choisis des Histoire(s) du Cinema (Godard) DOC + My Dad Is 100 Years Old (Maddin) DOC short
10.Fast Food Nation (Linklater/Schlosser) + Bobby (Estevez)
Rosenbaum extend the traditional top10 to 20, by pairs, because there has been too many good releases, yet 4 of them are older films, 7 hardly had an official release...
7 documentaries and 2 short movies.
I've seen only 6 on the list so far (many didn't get a French release yet).
Relativism and cinema criticism, essay by Laurent Jullier (in French at Metz University website)
A new online Rendez-Vous featured on Cahiers website : SoOtaku (Interviews and reports from Tokyo by Stephen Sarrazin)
- Introduction to So Otaku
- Interview with Satoshi Kon about Paprika
- Masterclass 1 (Mise en scene) & 2 (Post casting) by Masumoru Oshii + Intro + journal of his new film (soon)
New issue of cinemascope (#29) is online. Articles on Jia Zhang-ke's Still Life, Lynch's Inland Empire, Hong Sang-soo's Woman on the beach, Films of Sissako, 12:08 East of Bucharest...
At a_film_by, Adrian Martin and Jonathan Rosenbaum recommend reading Emilie Bickerton's writing on cinema :
- in NEW LEFT REVIEW #42 (Nov-Dec 2006) : Adieu to Cahiers (not free)
- in NEW LEFT REVIEW #27 (May-Jun 2004) : The Camera Possessed, on Jean Rouch (not free)
- Vertigo (Spring 2006) : Squaring the Circle, The dynamic cinema of Iran’s Jafar Panahi moves from the topical to the timeless
Radio : Le Masque et la Plume on Branagh's La Flûte Enchantée, Rolf de Heer's Ten Canoes, Tony Scott's Déjà Vu... (in French online)
Radio : Projection Privée, December 23 2006, Michel Ciment interviews Richard Leacock (DP on Louisiana Story) about the oeuvre of Robert J. Flaherty. (in French online until saturday)
Radio : L'Avventura, Laure Adler on Marlon Brando's legend.
(One scene from Last Tango in Paris analyzed by Caroline Champetier) in French
Chicago Reader's blog is online since November!
at Variety : Discussion on the films of 2006 with Rosenbaum, Molly Haskell, Jose Carlos Avellar, who argue about the year's best and talk about the trade of criticism, cinephilia, internet and DVDs.
Slate's 9th Movie Club, traditional held by David Edelstein (now moved to the New York Magazine), is hosted by his successor Dana Stevens who will discuss 2006 movies with Carina Chocano (LA Times), Wesley Morris (Boston Globe), and Keith Phipps (AV Club)(no invitation to Edelstein to join?).
Let's see how the legacy of what used to be a great debate will continue this week.
2 emails have been published so far today.
Radio show : Laure Adler talks with Mylène Bresson and Florence Delay [Jeanne d'Arc] about Bresson's cinématographe and Les Anges du Péché (1943). Plus a visual analysis of the last scene of Pickpocket (1959) by Caroline Champetier (French DP). Only online here until next Wednersday.
The Hollywood Reporter organize an exceptional roundtable about the challenges of filmmaking with David Lynch (Inland Empire), Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Emilio Estevez (Bobby), Dayton & Faris (Little Miss Sunshine), and Nancy Meyers (The Holiday).
Sacha Baron Cohen interviewed (out of Borat character) on NPR. 45' of insightful questions and answers to finally know what it was like to plan and act this experimental comedy.
Andy Horbal propose a blogosphere situation room to comment the ongoing Slate's Movie Club (see above). Let's criticize the critics who critic the top 2006.
broken link above, correction : Chicago Reader Blog
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