On its face, Criterion’s Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978 is an essential set for offering key early works, some more obscure than others, from the career of one of the great film artists. But the pleasures here run deeper. Akerman used each of her initial films as a springboard to the next, and watching them in chronological order sees her consolidating and complicating her aesthetic and thematic preoccupations with each successive project.
Consider Akerman’s first film, 1968’s Saute ma ville. Akerman made this 13-minute short at the age of 18, and its debt to the antic energy and seriocomic political inclinations of the French New Wave makes it an outlier in a body of work fixated on structuralism and more meditative atmospheres. Yet in the film’s depiction of a young woman (Akerman herself) trashing her apartment emerges an outlandish expression of what will become a more somberly explored theme in upcoming shorts,...
Consider Akerman’s first film, 1968’s Saute ma ville. Akerman made this 13-minute short at the age of 18, and its debt to the antic energy and seriocomic political inclinations of the French New Wave makes it an outlier in a body of work fixated on structuralism and more meditative atmospheres. Yet in the film’s depiction of a young woman (Akerman herself) trashing her apartment emerges an outlandish expression of what will become a more somberly explored theme in upcoming shorts,...
- 1/26/2024
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
Our Member Lens feature spotlights current Film Independent Members to see how they got started, where they are now and what being part of Film Independent means to them. To celebrate 30 years of our Artist Development department, our summer 2023 series focuses on our incredible roster of Film Independent Fellows.
Film Independent is currently in the middle of a Matching Campaign to raise support for the next 30 years of filmmaker support. All donations make before or on September 15 will be doubled—dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000.
Hailing from the mostly white suburban-exurban neighborhoods of central California, first-generation Filipino-American documentarian Pj Raval’s eclectic career has taken him places to places up (a 100-foot tall army barrack tower), down (post-Katrina New Orleans) and all around. With three features under his belt and more on the way, the current University of Texas at Austin film professor and proud Film Independent Member’s 2023-24 dance card...
Film Independent is currently in the middle of a Matching Campaign to raise support for the next 30 years of filmmaker support. All donations make before or on September 15 will be doubled—dollar-for-dollar up to $100,000.
Hailing from the mostly white suburban-exurban neighborhoods of central California, first-generation Filipino-American documentarian Pj Raval’s eclectic career has taken him places to places up (a 100-foot tall army barrack tower), down (post-Katrina New Orleans) and all around. With three features under his belt and more on the way, the current University of Texas at Austin film professor and proud Film Independent Member’s 2023-24 dance card...
- 9/15/2023
- by Matt Warren
- Film Independent News & More
Yvonne Rainer’s first film is a fascinating immersion in radical art practice in all its meta-narrative incoherence and mess
Here is the first film from avant garde film-maker Yvonne Rainer, showing as part of a retrospective of her work at the Ica in London, affording viewers a chance to appreciate the wonky, wonderful weirdness that was integral to the New York experimental art scene in the early 1970s. Aptly enough for an artist who started her career in the dance world (having studied with such luminaries as Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham), Rainer grounds this in the world of dance, opening with a rehearsal of a company running through different moves. Don’t be alarmed if no sound is coming through – it’s meant to be that way. Rainer plays throughout with audience expectations and need for narrative closure, offering little titbits of story and then whipping them away...
Here is the first film from avant garde film-maker Yvonne Rainer, showing as part of a retrospective of her work at the Ica in London, affording viewers a chance to appreciate the wonky, wonderful weirdness that was integral to the New York experimental art scene in the early 1970s. Aptly enough for an artist who started her career in the dance world (having studied with such luminaries as Martha Graham and Merce Cunningham), Rainer grounds this in the world of dance, opening with a rehearsal of a company running through different moves. Don’t be alarmed if no sound is coming through – it’s meant to be that way. Rainer plays throughout with audience expectations and need for narrative closure, offering little titbits of story and then whipping them away...
- 8/14/2023
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
The event’s 42nd edition is kicking off (and closing to the public) at the Pompidou Centre in Paris, notably offering 13 feature films in the international competition and celebrating Pedro Costa. Update: Following the announcement made by the Prime Minister at midday regarding the ban on gatherings of upwards of 100 people, all public screenings and meetings linked with the Cinéma du réel Festival are now cancelled. Badgeholders can, however, watch the competition films via the event's online videotheque at Festival Scope, Tënk, Mediapart and UniversCiné (read about the details here). Last night saw Babette Mangolte’s French-American co-production Calamity Jane & Delphine Seyrig, A Story open (as a prologue) the 42nd Cinéma du Réel Festival (scheduled to unspool in Paris’s Pompidou Centre from 13 to 22 March) against the rather peculiar backdrop of the Coronavirus epidemic and the progressive strengthening of precautionary measures adopted by the French government (namely the...
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.News We are devastated to learn that the late Theodoros Angelopoulos' home, which housed the director's archives, has burnt down amidst the Attica wildfires in Greece. It is currently unclear what has been lost in the fire. This is the house that housed the whole archives of late director Theo Angelopoulos. Everything has been burnt. A massive loss to not only modern Greek culture but world culture. pic.twitter.com/DM60QxWP6a— Konn1e (@ntina79) July 25, 2018Recommended Viewing The ever-elegant "Mandopop diva" Faye Wong reprises her cover of The Cranberries' "Dreams"—best known for its appearance in Wong Kar-Wai's Chungking Express—in the first episode of Phantacity, a Chinese variety show that creates "music video-worthy performances." The full episode can be viewed here. Lucrecia Martel has directed a music video for Argentine...
- 8/1/2018
- MUBI
In an interview with The Criterion Collection in preparation for the release of her masterpiece Jeanne Dielman, 23 Commerce Quay, 1080 Brussels, released in 1975, director Chantal Akerman was asked about why she hired women for nearly every job available on set. She elaborated on the history of the film business and eloquently spoke about the lack of opportunities women get with technical jobs in the film industry. She pointed out that it wasn’t rare to see a woman work in costuming or hair and make-up or even editing, but it was rare to see a woman in the director’s chair or work as a director of photography. She wanted to prove a point that women could work any job a man could on a film set, and she did. It was also in 1975 when Laura Mulvey wrote her landmark essay Visual Pleasure in Narrative Cinema on the theory of the...
- 7/27/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
The Female Gaze is a two-week, July 26 to August 9, survey of 36 films shot by 23 female cinematographers programmed by the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York. The retrospective will feature incredible films by trailblazing international directors of photography, including Agnès Godard, Natasha Braier, Kirsten Johnson, Joan Churchill, Maryse Alberti, Ellen Kuras, Babette Mangolte, and Rachel Morrison.
Captions are courtesy of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
Captions are courtesy of the Film Society of Lincoln Center.
- 7/23/2018
- by Chris O'Falt
- Indiewire
Warning: The following piece was written without regard to the presence of “spoilers.”
We see the interior of a quiet apartment. It is lit with the waning diffuseness of a grey afternoon, and there is a woman moving about its hallways with a steadiness of purpose. The camera which affords us this look into her living space is fixated at an angle perpendicular to the front door, gazing at eye level down the main hallway toward a closed door. The woman greets the man who walks in the front door with indifferent familiarity, with silence. She takes his coat, hangs it on a hook somewhere beyond the purview of the frame, and they both continue quietly toward the far door, completing the introduction to an encounter they have engaged in many times before. The camera remains motionless as they close the door, and we never see what happens once it shuts.
We see the interior of a quiet apartment. It is lit with the waning diffuseness of a grey afternoon, and there is a woman moving about its hallways with a steadiness of purpose. The camera which affords us this look into her living space is fixated at an angle perpendicular to the front door, gazing at eye level down the main hallway toward a closed door. The woman greets the man who walks in the front door with indifferent familiarity, with silence. She takes his coat, hangs it on a hook somewhere beyond the purview of the frame, and they both continue quietly toward the far door, completing the introduction to an encounter they have engaged in many times before. The camera remains motionless as they close the door, and we never see what happens once it shuts.
- 9/16/2017
- by Dennis Cozzalio
- Trailers from Hell
Yvonne Rainer’s artistic output is a wellspring of innovation and singularity. In 1962, she co-founded the Judson Dance Theater and created new worlds with experimental, expressive movement that stripped dance of its spectacular nature in favor of creating a new language through the human body. But as daring as her choreography happened to be, she found the end result limiting at the time and looked for other outlets of expression. This is how Rainer came to filmmaking, and she took what she learned from dance to once again trail-blaze a path for her voice — this time in the landscape of art films in New York from the ’70s onward. To celebrate her work, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is offering a rare glimpse into the filmography of Rainer with a retrospective spanning her entire career, as well as influences, from July 21-27.
In the late ’60s, Rainer began infusing...
In the late ’60s, Rainer began infusing...
- 7/21/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles is a thriller. It’s as claustrophobic, psychologically penetrating, and exactingly-directed an apartment film as anything Roman Polanski has made. That it takes 200 minutes to watch is almost besides the point. The more you give yourself over to it – shutting out distractions, not breaking it into sections – the tighter its hold. I’ve seen the film three times now, twice at home with all the intrusions that comes with that, and once in a theater with all the peace it suggests. Except, peace for this film means an acute focus on its inner torment.
Jeanne (Delphine Seyrig) is a widow raising her teenage son in a single-bedroom apartment (he sleeps in the pull-out couch in the living room). Over the course of three non-consecutive days, we see Jeanne cook, clean, run errands, knit, read letters, and cook some more (there’s a lot of...
Jeanne (Delphine Seyrig) is a widow raising her teenage son in a single-bedroom apartment (he sleeps in the pull-out couch in the living room). Over the course of three non-consecutive days, we see Jeanne cook, clean, run errands, knit, read letters, and cook some more (there’s a lot of...
- 5/27/2017
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Babette Mangolte. © Fleur van Muiswinkel If the name Babette Mangolte doesn’t ring with the same familiarity as such storied French cinematographers as Raoul Coutard and William Lubtchansky, it’s not for lack of innovation or accomplishment. Born in Montmorot in 1941, Mangolte moved to New York in 1970 following a number of years as an assistant cinematographer and apprentice to director Marcel Hanoun. There she quickly integrated herself into the city’s burgeoning experimental cinema scene, befriending luminaries such as Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage, and soon after met a 20-year-old Chantal Akerman whom she proceeded to collaborate with on a series of groundbreaking works throughout the mid-70s. Influenced as much by structuralism as the films of the French New Wave, Mangolte and Akerman deftly utilized time and space as cinematic conduits to visually articulate themes of dislocation, alienation, and female autonomy. Their most celebrated work, the landmark feminist dispositif Jeanne Dielman,...
- 3/30/2017
- MUBI
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.NEWSThe great French essayist Chris Marker remains on our minds nearly four years after his death—the mystery of his life and his work remains haunting. Which is why we're very intrigued by the news that his adopted daughter has penned a new book about their relationship, Chris Marker (le livre impossible).Okay, Sofia Coppola's A Very Murray Christmas was pretty wretched (though we can't help but love that it was shot in New York's Bemelmans Bar), but we adore Don Siegel's Southern Gothic, Civil War-set, Clint Eastwood-starring kinky horror film (!), The Beguiled—and so are tremendously curious about the news that Coppola will remake that 1971 film with Nicole Kidman.Speaking of films in the works, Terry Gilliam may...finally...start...shooting Don Quixote, produced by Paulo Branco,...
- 4/6/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
NYC’s IFC Center has plans to expand, and they could use your help to let city officials know you support it.
Watch Don Cheadle analyze a scene from Miles Ahead:
Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan begins shooting on July 9th, Le Journal de Quebec reports.
Cinematographer Jeff Cutter discusses shooting 10 Cloverfield Lane with Filmmaker Magazine:
Anamorphic lenses just have a feeling that reminded Dan and I of what it used to be like watching these great widescreen movies when we were kids that were shot anamorphic. It just makes it feel like a big movie and that was something that we really,...
NYC’s IFC Center has plans to expand, and they could use your help to let city officials know you support it.
Watch Don Cheadle analyze a scene from Miles Ahead:
Xavier Dolan‘s The Death and Life of John F. Donovan begins shooting on July 9th, Le Journal de Quebec reports.
Cinematographer Jeff Cutter discusses shooting 10 Cloverfield Lane with Filmmaker Magazine:
Anamorphic lenses just have a feeling that reminded Dan and I of what it used to be like watching these great widescreen movies when we were kids that were shot anamorphic. It just makes it feel like a big movie and that was something that we really,...
- 4/4/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Vilmos ZsigmondNEWSVilmos Zsigmond, 1930 - 2016: In December we lost Haskell Wexler, and now another one of cinema's great photographers has passed. Zsigmond was paramount to such films as Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller, Spielberg's Close Encounter of the Third Kind, Cimino's Heaven's Gate, De Palma's Blow Out, and many more. Keyframe has a roundup.After many, many years under construction the new home of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (Bampfa) will open in Berkeley, CA on January 31. "For the first time in sixteen years, Bampfa film screenings will take place under the same roof as the institution’s art galleries." Included in the announcement is the terrific news that the Pfa "will expand the number of film screenings it presents, hosting programs 52 weeks per year." Retrospectives devoted to Maurice Pialat,...
- 1/6/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Read More: 5 Key Takeaways from the Documentary Film Preservation Summit Starting tomorrow, November 4, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City will revive some of cinema's long-buried treasures for To Save and Project: The 13th MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation. The three-week program is a landmark event for cinephiles, as numerous films will be receiving their first American screenings since their original release decades ago, while others, in new restored versions, will be shown for the first time in New York. Films selected include everything from silent film comedies to European feminist films, Iranian New Wave classics and Cuban documentaries, many of which have been impossible to screen in any capacity here in the United States. Guest speakers include Guy Maddin, Babette Mangolte, and noted film historians John Canemaker, Tom Gunning and Eddie Muller, among others. To Save and Project runs November 4-25 at MoMA. Visit the event website for more.
- 11/3/2015
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
'I was overcome by an emotion I can't quite define — something to do with happiness," Chantal Akerman says during her sole, fleeting onscreen appearance in the sublime One Day Pina Asked . . ., the 1983 documentary she made on Pina Bausch and her dancers. The director is attempting to elucidate the feelings stirred by watching one of the works by the mighty, if blade-thin, choreographer; what Akerman can't express in words, she makes piercingly specific with her images.
Bausch revolutionized the art with her Tanztheater ("dance theater"), her choreography emphasizing big emotions, Sisyphean gestures, and the pleasingly absurd. Akerman and her crew — including her frequent cinematographer Babette Mangolte, who shot Judson Dance Theater cofounder Yvonne Raine...
Bausch revolutionized the art with her Tanztheater ("dance theater"), her choreography emphasizing big emotions, Sisyphean gestures, and the pleasingly absurd. Akerman and her crew — including her frequent cinematographer Babette Mangolte, who shot Judson Dance Theater cofounder Yvonne Raine...
- 6/4/2014
- Village Voice
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: July 15, 2014
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95, DVD $24.99
Studio: Criterion
Martin Lasalle and Marika Green in Pickpocket.
The 1959 crime drama Pickpocket is an incomparable story of crime and redemption from French master Robert Bresson (The Devil, Probably).
The film follows Michel (Martin Lasalle), a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As his compulsive pursuit of the thrill of stealing grows, however, so does his fear that his luck is about to run out.
A cornerstone in the career of Bresson, one of the most economical and profoundly spiritual of filmmakers, Pickpocket is an elegantly crafted, tautly choreographed study of humanity in all its mischief and grace. It is indeed the work of a director at the height of his powers.
Presented in French with English subtitles, Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD combo and single-disc editions of Pickpocket contains the following features:
• New,...
Price: Blu-ray/DVD Combo $39.95, DVD $24.99
Studio: Criterion
Martin Lasalle and Marika Green in Pickpocket.
The 1959 crime drama Pickpocket is an incomparable story of crime and redemption from French master Robert Bresson (The Devil, Probably).
The film follows Michel (Martin Lasalle), a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. As his compulsive pursuit of the thrill of stealing grows, however, so does his fear that his luck is about to run out.
A cornerstone in the career of Bresson, one of the most economical and profoundly spiritual of filmmakers, Pickpocket is an elegantly crafted, tautly choreographed study of humanity in all its mischief and grace. It is indeed the work of a director at the height of his powers.
Presented in French with English subtitles, Criterion’s Blu-ray/DVD combo and single-disc editions of Pickpocket contains the following features:
• New,...
- 4/21/2014
- by Laurence
- Disc Dish
Criterion has announced their July 2014 titles and among them is one fans have been waiting a long time to see introduced, David Cronenberg's head-exploding sci-fi Scanners, set for a July 15 release. The set will include a newly restored 2K digital film transfer, supervised by Cronenberg, "The Scanners Way" visual effects documentary, a new interview with Michael Ironside, a 2012 interview with actor and artist Stephen Lack, an excerpt from a 1981 interview with Cronenberg on the CBC's "The Bob McLean Show" and Cronenberg's first feature film, Stereo (1969). Also on July 15 comes Robert Bresson's 1959 classic Pickpocket, telling the story of Michel (Martin Lasalle), a young pickpocket who spends his days working the streets, subway cars, and train stations of Paris. Features include: New, 2K digital film restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray Audio commentary by film scholar James Quandt Introduction by writer-director Paul Schrader The Models of "Pickpocket," a...
- 4/16/2014
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
The 26th annual Images Festival will be taking over Toronto on April 11-20 with an epic series of experimental film screenings, media installations, expanded cinema performances, workshops, artist talks and tons more. With so much going on, the Underground Film Journal is just listing all the screening events below. For everything Images has to offer, please visit their official website.
Before the screenings list, here are some of the highlights:
Opening Night: Accompanying the documentary imagery of prolific filmmaker Robert Todd will be live music performed by electronic music deconstructionist Tim Hecker. Plus, there will be a new audiovisual work by SlowPitch called Emoralis, which pairs images of snails with crackly and droning rhythms.
Closing Night: Corredor will be a live performance piece combining South American imagery by artist Alexandra Gelis, accompanied by live music by drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist David Mott.
Live Performances: Jodie Mack will provide live...
Before the screenings list, here are some of the highlights:
Opening Night: Accompanying the documentary imagery of prolific filmmaker Robert Todd will be live music performed by electronic music deconstructionist Tim Hecker. Plus, there will be a new audiovisual work by SlowPitch called Emoralis, which pairs images of snails with crackly and droning rhythms.
Closing Night: Corredor will be a live performance piece combining South American imagery by artist Alexandra Gelis, accompanied by live music by drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist David Mott.
Live Performances: Jodie Mack will provide live...
- 4/11/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Right now is not a bad time for admirers of Robert Bresson. A traveling retrospective has made its way across numerous cities, and people who'd never gotten a chance to glimpse Four Nights of a Dreamer (1971) now get to watch it on the big screen in a proper print. Furthermore, the critical and cinephilic culture surrounding Bresson's work is probably more alive now than it has been in a long time. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the wider interest in (and affection for) the director's late color films, earlier misunderstood and dismissed in some quarters as odd aberrations which lacked the spiritual clarity or asceticism of the black-and-white work. It's for this reason that film culture can welcome a second, revised edition of James Quandt's crucial anthology, Robert Bresson.
There is simply no more essential book of material on Bresson to be found in the English language, unless...
There is simply no more essential book of material on Bresson to be found in the English language, unless...
- 4/9/2012
- MUBI
The Thessaloniki International Film Festival, set to run November 4-13, has announced the 38 films making up its fourth annual Experimental Forum, titled "The Myth of Disappearance/The Disappearance of Myth." The Collectif Jeune Cinema section features a selection of experimental films from throughout the last 40 years, highlighted by films by Marguerite Duras and Babette Mangolte. The festival will also present a J.X. Williams retrospective, a collection of films by ...
- 10/13/2011
- Indiewire
The following press release from the British Film Institute indicates some exciting events going on at the BFI Southbank Theatre in London:
In 2011 BFI Southbank will present some of the most influential artists of British and world cinema throughout the year, igniting the public’s imagination for film in new and surprising ways and offering unique film experiences. The New Year kicks off with a definitive two month Howard Hawks season, accompanied by an Extended Run of The Big Sleep (1946), an enduringly popular Audrey Hepburn retrospective, including a national release of the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) for the film’s 50th anniversary, the continuation of the TV Variety season and new season The Long Goodbye: A Cinematic Memento Mori will explore a taboo subject in surprising and thought provoking ways.
BFI Southbank will also continue to offer the most exciting and exclusive previews and events, such as this...
In 2011 BFI Southbank will present some of the most influential artists of British and world cinema throughout the year, igniting the public’s imagination for film in new and surprising ways and offering unique film experiences. The New Year kicks off with a definitive two month Howard Hawks season, accompanied by an Extended Run of The Big Sleep (1946), an enduringly popular Audrey Hepburn retrospective, including a national release of the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) for the film’s 50th anniversary, the continuation of the TV Variety season and new season The Long Goodbye: A Cinematic Memento Mori will explore a taboo subject in surprising and thought provoking ways.
BFI Southbank will also continue to offer the most exciting and exclusive previews and events, such as this...
- 1/12/2011
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
- Tons of stuff out on DVD worth watching, collecting, seeing for the first time, seeing for a second time and seeing for one time only (Duplicity). We begin with one of the best pictures of the year in Ramin Bahrani's Goodbye Solo (which comes equipped with a commentary track from the filmmaker and cinematographer Michael Simmonds). After bringing out films such as Branded to Kill, Criterion continues their further interest with a 5 film box set from Japan's Nikkatsu Noir period (I'll let their page do the heavy talking). Whit Stillman receives more Cc treatment, this time for his The Last Days of Disco and the one that is definitely worth checking out is Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles (check out the clip on the Criterion site). The Last Days of Disco New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Whit Stillman Audio
- 8/25/2009
- IONCINEMA.com
DVD Playhouse—August 2009
By
Allen Gardner
Watchmen—Director’S Cut (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday...
By
Allen Gardner
Watchmen—Director’S Cut (Warner Bros.) Director Zack Snyder’s film of Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons’ landmark graphic novel is as worthy an adaptation of a great book that has ever been filmed. In an alternative version of the year 1985, Richard Nixon is serving his third term as President and super heroes have been outlawed by a congressional act, in spite of the fact that two of the most high-profile “masks,” Dr. Manhattan (Billy Cruddup) and The Comedian (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) helped the U.S. win the Vietnam War. When The Comedian is found murdered, many former heroes become concerned that a conspiracy is afoot to assassinate retired costumed crime fighters. Former masks Nite Owl (Patrick Wilson), Silk Spectre (Malin Akerman) and still-operating Rorschach (Jackie Earle Haley, in an Oscar-worthy turn) launch an investigation of their own, all while the Pentagon’s “Doomsday...
- 8/10/2009
- by The Hollywood Interview.com
- The Hollywood Interview
A scene from Kagemusha
Photo: Criterion Collection Back at the end of March it was sadly announced Akira Kurosawa's Ran would not be able to be release on Criterion Blu-ray due to some sort of a rights issue. This meant Criterion's only May Blu-ray release would be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which -- if you read my review -- was fine with me, but I am more interested in old classics rather than the new ones from Criterion and it now appears a Kurosawa gem is taking the place of Ran, with a much better selection if you ask me. A scene from Kagemusha
Photo: Criterion Collection While I am sure most people would rather see Yojimbo, Rashomon, Ikiru or Seven Samurai as the first Criterion Blu-ray, the just announced August 18 release of Kagemusha is fine by me. A scene from Kagemusha
Photo: Criterion Collection Just look...
Photo: Criterion Collection Back at the end of March it was sadly announced Akira Kurosawa's Ran would not be able to be release on Criterion Blu-ray due to some sort of a rights issue. This meant Criterion's only May Blu-ray release would be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which -- if you read my review -- was fine with me, but I am more interested in old classics rather than the new ones from Criterion and it now appears a Kurosawa gem is taking the place of Ran, with a much better selection if you ask me. A scene from Kagemusha
Photo: Criterion Collection While I am sure most people would rather see Yojimbo, Rashomon, Ikiru or Seven Samurai as the first Criterion Blu-ray, the just announced August 18 release of Kagemusha is fine by me. A scene from Kagemusha
Photo: Criterion Collection Just look...
- 5/17/2009
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.