Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi achieved notoriety in 1962 with the sensationalistic documentary Mondo Cane, a globetrotting exposé of bizarre rites and other human grotesqueries that opened the floodgates for a deluge of Mondo titles. When the release of their 1966 film Africa Addio (a.k.a. Africa: Blood and Guts), a despairing look at the continent’s decolonization movements, led to accusations of racism, Jacopetti and Prosperi sought to address the charges by revealing (some would say reveling in) the history of slavery in America. The resulting film, Goodbye Uncle Tom, is an extremely disturbing, at times almost unwatchable, descent into the inferno of an unpardonable institution.
Goodbye Uncle Tom leaves any pretense of objectivity behind in the dust. Using a conceit similar to such Peter Watkins classics as Culloden and The War Game, Jacopetti and Prosperi’s film brings modern-day documentary technology back into a historical setting, using it in...
Goodbye Uncle Tom leaves any pretense of objectivity behind in the dust. Using a conceit similar to such Peter Watkins classics as Culloden and The War Game, Jacopetti and Prosperi’s film brings modern-day documentary technology back into a historical setting, using it in...
- 4/13/2024
- by Budd Wilkins
- Slant Magazine
There have already been several hundred complaints to Ofcom over Gregg Wallace’s “documentary” The British Miracle Meat, which aired on Channel 4 in July, and introduced the nation to the supposed rise in lab-grown meat derived from human flesh.
This groundbreaking satire was an instant viral hit, but seemed to divide the nation between those who thought it was a genius piece of television, and those who were disturbed, disgusted, or even duped.
But this is far from the first time that British television has controversially traumatised the nation: The British Miracle Meat is merely the latest in this country’s rich tradition of using dystopian TV shows and hoaxes to permanently scar the public. Let’s take a look (if you dare) at this particularly bleak area of British TV history, most of which you’ve probably long-since wiped from your memory (sorry):
The War Game (1966)
So...
This groundbreaking satire was an instant viral hit, but seemed to divide the nation between those who thought it was a genius piece of television, and those who were disturbed, disgusted, or even duped.
But this is far from the first time that British television has controversially traumatised the nation: The British Miracle Meat is merely the latest in this country’s rich tradition of using dystopian TV shows and hoaxes to permanently scar the public. Let’s take a look (if you dare) at this particularly bleak area of British TV history, most of which you’ve probably long-since wiped from your memory (sorry):
The War Game (1966)
So...
- 8/7/2023
- by Lauravickersgreen
- Den of Geek
Above: Poster by Frank Stella for the 9th New York Film Festival.Compared to the 32 films in the main slate of this year’s New York Film Festival, not to mention the seemingly hundreds of others playing in sidebars, the 1971 edition of the NYFF, half a century ago, was a lean affair. With only 18 films, down from 78 just four years earlier, the ninth edition of the NYFF was, according to its director Richard Roud, a “belt-tightening festival, a year of consolidation.” In fact, the financially strapped festival almost didn’t take place that year. A New York Times article published midway through the event mentions that “outside the 984-seat Vivian Beaumont Theater, there is only one poster announcing the festival [one assumes it was the beautiful Frank Stella poster above] that is quietly and modestly taking place inside.” A far cry from the glorious phalanx of digital billboards currently beaming outside Alice Tully Hall and the Elinor Bunin Center.The...
- 10/6/2021
- MUBI
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Awaken (Tom Lowe)
Capturing the awe-inspiring wonders of our world has been an endeavor since the dawn of image-making, and with ever-evolving advancements in technology there’s an unparalleled pristineness in one’s ability to record such beauty. In his feature debut Awaken, director Tom Lowe takes this pursuit to heart, traversing the planet with the eye of a treasure hunter, collecting only the most stunning shots imaginable to convey the splendor of where we all collectively call home. The film’s main calling card––being executive produced by Terrence Malick and Godfrey Reggio––inevitably also sets a perhaps unfairly high bar as the film falls short of achieving...
Awaken (Tom Lowe)
Capturing the awe-inspiring wonders of our world has been an endeavor since the dawn of image-making, and with ever-evolving advancements in technology there’s an unparalleled pristineness in one’s ability to record such beauty. In his feature debut Awaken, director Tom Lowe takes this pursuit to heart, traversing the planet with the eye of a treasure hunter, collecting only the most stunning shots imaginable to convey the splendor of where we all collectively call home. The film’s main calling card––being executive produced by Terrence Malick and Godfrey Reggio––inevitably also sets a perhaps unfairly high bar as the film falls short of achieving...
- 4/9/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Nobody director Ilya Naishuller joins Josh and Joe to talk about his favorite movies.
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Nobody (2021)
Hardcore Henry (2016)
Billy Jack (1971)
My Winnipeg (2007)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Top Gun (1986)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Seven (1995)
Bill Hicks: Revelations (1993)
The Mission (1986)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Captivity (2007)
The Killing (1956)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
You And I (2008)
Infested (2002)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Goodfellas (1990)
Goldfinger (1964)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Papillon (1973)
Papillon (2017)
Midnight Run (1988)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Oldboy (2003)
Parasite (2019)
Assassins (1995)
Ladder 49 (2004)
Waterworld (1995)
Heathers (1989)
Mad Max (1979)
A History Of Violence (2005)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Punishment Park (1971)
The War Game (1966)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Uncut Gems (2019)
Culloden (1964)
Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Let The Right One In (2008)
Patton (1970)
Hardcore (1979)
Mr. Nobody (2009)
District 9 (2009)
Paths of Glory (1957)
A Clockwork Orange...
Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode
Nobody (2021)
Hardcore Henry (2016)
Billy Jack (1971)
My Winnipeg (2007)
The Usual Suspects (1995)
Top Gun (1986)
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
Seven (1995)
Bill Hicks: Revelations (1993)
The Mission (1986)
The Killing Fields (1984)
Captivity (2007)
The Killing (1956)
The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou (2004)
Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
You And I (2008)
Infested (2002)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)
Goodfellas (1990)
Goldfinger (1964)
Pulp Fiction (1994)
Reservoir Dogs (1992)
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood (2019)
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)
Papillon (1973)
Papillon (2017)
Midnight Run (1988)
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Oldboy (2003)
Parasite (2019)
Assassins (1995)
Ladder 49 (2004)
Waterworld (1995)
Heathers (1989)
Mad Max (1979)
A History Of Violence (2005)
The ’Burbs (1989)
Punishment Park (1971)
The War Game (1966)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Uncut Gems (2019)
Culloden (1964)
Bonnie Prince Charlie (1948)
Dr. Strangelove (1964)
Fail Safe (1964)
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011)
Let The Right One In (2008)
Patton (1970)
Hardcore (1979)
Mr. Nobody (2009)
District 9 (2009)
Paths of Glory (1957)
A Clockwork Orange...
- 3/30/2021
- by Kris Millsap
- Trailers from Hell
Forget Poldark’s pecs – with his film Bait, Mark Jenkin has captured the real Cornwall, a place of struggling locals and second-homeowners in simmering conflict
Twenty years ago, Mark Jenkin returned to his boyhood home in north Cornwall to shoot his debut film, Golden Burn, about the tensions between local lads and the owner of a caravan park. Jenkin had been studying in Bournemouth, then living in London and would soon move back permanently. “What’s your Cornwall?” his character asks. “Weekend getaway, summer retreat, Cornish pasties and clotted cream, pixies? Or is it your home? Not your second home – your only home?”
While he was filming in Porthcothan, Jenkin thought up another film, this one about a Cornish civil war. It was August 1999 and thousands of visitors were driving out of the county on the A30, then a single lane, after witnessing the solar eclipse. Named in tribute to...
Twenty years ago, Mark Jenkin returned to his boyhood home in north Cornwall to shoot his debut film, Golden Burn, about the tensions between local lads and the owner of a caravan park. Jenkin had been studying in Bournemouth, then living in London and would soon move back permanently. “What’s your Cornwall?” his character asks. “Weekend getaway, summer retreat, Cornish pasties and clotted cream, pixies? Or is it your home? Not your second home – your only home?”
While he was filming in Porthcothan, Jenkin thought up another film, this one about a Cornish civil war. It was August 1999 and thousands of visitors were driving out of the county on the A30, then a single lane, after witnessing the solar eclipse. Named in tribute to...
- 8/23/2019
- by Laura Snapes
- The Guardian - Film News
Kaarin Fairfax and Chris Haywood in ‘Skewwhiff.’
Chris Haywood is so committed to making a thriller based on the Australian novel The Crossing he has agreed to produce as well as star in the feature film.
First-time feature director James Khehtie sent the novel by B. Michael Radburn to the actor, who loved the premise: Taylor Bridges flees from Victoria to an isolated Tasmanian town to work as a park ranger after his daughter disappeared, triggering the breakdown of his marriage.
When a young girl who was the same age as his daughter vanishes, Bridges, a chronic sleepwalker, begins to wonder what happens when he sleepwalks.
“I did not want to produce but James insisted,” Haywood tells If, recalling that he has served as a producer only once before, on writer-director Peter Watkins’ 1991 feature doc The Media Project, which critiqued Australian media coverage of the first Gulf war.
Radburn has...
Chris Haywood is so committed to making a thriller based on the Australian novel The Crossing he has agreed to produce as well as star in the feature film.
First-time feature director James Khehtie sent the novel by B. Michael Radburn to the actor, who loved the premise: Taylor Bridges flees from Victoria to an isolated Tasmanian town to work as a park ranger after his daughter disappeared, triggering the breakdown of his marriage.
When a young girl who was the same age as his daughter vanishes, Bridges, a chronic sleepwalker, begins to wonder what happens when he sleepwalks.
“I did not want to produce but James insisted,” Haywood tells If, recalling that he has served as a producer only once before, on writer-director Peter Watkins’ 1991 feature doc The Media Project, which critiqued Australian media coverage of the first Gulf war.
Radburn has...
- 5/1/2019
- by The IF Team
- IF.com.au
Above: French poster for A Grin Without a Cat.Starting today, the Metrograph in New York will be launching an extensive series celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the most dedicated, unsung heroes of U.S. film distribution: Icarus Films. Founded in 1978 by filmmaker Ilan Ziv and sold two years later (in exchange for a video camera) to Jonathan Miller who has run the company ever since, Icarus has become one of the leading repositories for aesthetically challenging, politically engaged documentary cinema. The two-week long series contains 56 films by some of the most important names in documentary film: Chantal Akerman, Jean Rouch, Peter Watkins, Chris Marker, Marcel Ophuls and Wang Bing, to name just a few.Finding posters for a lot of these films was not easy. Many of the titles were never really theatrical material (they range in length from 44 minutes to 345) and so a theatrical poster would...
- 9/14/2018
- MUBI
A hundred million viewers tuned in to ABC back in ’83 to find out if the world would end with a bang or a whimper. Edward Hume and Nicholas Meyer’s daring docudrama reacquainted Americans with their status as hostages in a global game of nuclear roulette. Gruesome nuclear annihilation visuals complement fine performances led by Jason Robards. The tense, thoughtful show is presented in separate TV and theatrical versions.
The Day After
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen & 1:33 flat TV / 122 & 127 min. / Street Date August 7, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, Jim Dahlberg, John Lithgow, Bibi Besch, Lori Lethin, Amy Madigan, Jeff East, Georgann Johnson, William Allen Young, Calvin Jung, Lin McCarthy, Dennis Lipscomb.
Cinematography: Gayne Rescher
Film Editor: William Paul Dornisch, Robert Florio
Original Music: David Raksin
Special Effects: Robert Blalack
Written by Edward Hume
Produced by Robert A. Papazian
Directed by Nicholas...
The Day After
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1983 / Color / 1:78 widescreen & 1:33 flat TV / 122 & 127 min. / Street Date August 7, 2018 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Jason Robards, JoBeth Williams, Steve Guttenberg, Jim Dahlberg, John Lithgow, Bibi Besch, Lori Lethin, Amy Madigan, Jeff East, Georgann Johnson, William Allen Young, Calvin Jung, Lin McCarthy, Dennis Lipscomb.
Cinematography: Gayne Rescher
Film Editor: William Paul Dornisch, Robert Florio
Original Music: David Raksin
Special Effects: Robert Blalack
Written by Edward Hume
Produced by Robert A. Papazian
Directed by Nicholas...
- 7/21/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Recommended VIEWINGThe conversation surrounding the liberties of restorations continues with this eye-opening new video from Krishna Ramesh Kumar comparing different versions of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.With Claire Denis's new film Let the Sunshine In currently in cinemas, we're delighted to discover that one of the director's rarest films, her 2005 documentary Towards Mathilde—which was for a long time only available on Mubi, back when the platform was called The Auteurs—will finally be receiving distribution in the Us. Below is the magnetic new trailer for this largely undiscovered gem:Gus Van Sant returns to the biopic genre with Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, about Portland cartoonist John Callahan, played in the film by Joaquin Phoenix. We caught it at the Berlin Film Festival and found it sweet and moving,...
- 5/2/2018
- MUBI
Hey kids! Learn about the great time we’ll be having if the world powers plunge us into a nuclear winter! This post-atomic horror show traumatized England in 1984, and thanks to the liberal media magnate Ted Turner, even saw some airings in the U.S.. The most extreme prime-time response to Ronald Reagan’s heating up of the Cold War standoff, it remains an honest look at a possible grim future, that rubs our noses in the full consequences of a nuclear exchange.
Threads
Blu-ray
1984 / Color / 1:33 flat 16mm /
117 (112) min. / Street Date February 13, 2018 / 19.99
Starring: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierley, Rita May, Nicholas Lane, Jane Hazelgrove, Henry Moxon, June Broughton, Harry Beety, Ruth Holden, Patrick Allen (voice).
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn, Paul Morris
Film Editors: Donna Bickerstaff, Jim Latham
Visual Effects: Graham Brown, Peter Wragg
Written by Barry Hines
Produced and Directed by Mick Jackson
1965’s The War Game by Peter Watkins...
Threads
Blu-ray
1984 / Color / 1:33 flat 16mm /
117 (112) min. / Street Date February 13, 2018 / 19.99
Starring: Karen Meagher, Reece Dinsdale, David Brierley, Rita May, Nicholas Lane, Jane Hazelgrove, Henry Moxon, June Broughton, Harry Beety, Ruth Holden, Patrick Allen (voice).
Cinematography: Andrew Dunn, Paul Morris
Film Editors: Donna Bickerstaff, Jim Latham
Visual Effects: Graham Brown, Peter Wragg
Written by Barry Hines
Produced and Directed by Mick Jackson
1965’s The War Game by Peter Watkins...
- 2/13/2018
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
This beautiful pair of illustrated posters for two late 50s Maigret adaptations by Jean Delannoy is the work of Nathan Gelgud, an artist who by now should be well known to cinephiles in New York and Los Angeles. Nathan is the creator of the auteur tote bag, an essential cinephilic fashion accessory for the 2010s, more on which later. Full disclosure: I was involved in the art direction on these posters at Kino Lorber, whose repertory division is re-releasing Maigret Sets a Trap (originally released in the Us as Inspector Maigret and later re-released as Woman Bait) at Metrograph today and will be releasing both films on Blu-ray in December. I’d been aware of Nathan’s work for a while, but it was his comic-book style resumé poster for Metrograph’s Alain Tanner retrospective this summer that convinced me he’d be perfect for Maigret. And, as luck would have it,...
- 10/20/2017
- MUBI
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The single greatest filmography of any living actor is celebrated in “Jean-Pierre Léaud, from Antoine Doinel to Louis Xiv,” including an all-day Doinel marathon on Sunday.
Metrograph
More seminal sci-fi in “The Singularity,” some of Buñuel’s best films, the Donnie Darko restoration (read our interview with Richard Kelly here), rock music,...
Film Society of Lincoln Center
The single greatest filmography of any living actor is celebrated in “Jean-Pierre Léaud, from Antoine Doinel to Louis Xiv,” including an all-day Doinel marathon on Sunday.
Metrograph
More seminal sci-fi in “The Singularity,” some of Buñuel’s best films, the Donnie Darko restoration (read our interview with Richard Kelly here), rock music,...
- 3/31/2017
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Kate Plays Christine screens Sunday, Nov. 6 at 1:00pm at .Zack (3224 Locust Avenue). Kate Plays Christine Director Robert Greene will be in attendance. Ticket information can be found Here .
A gripping, nonfiction psychological thriller, Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (“House of Cards,” “The Girlfriend Experience,” “Listen Up Philip”) as she prepares for her next role: playing Christine Chubbuck, a Florida newscaster who committed suicide live on-air in 1974. As Kate investigates Chubbuck’s story (long rumored to be the inspiration for the classic Hollywood film “Network”), uncovering new clues and information, she becomes increasingly obsessed with her subject. Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Kate Plays Christine is a cinematic mystery that forces us to question everything we see and everything we’re led to believe. Greene — filmmaker-in-chief at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of...
A gripping, nonfiction psychological thriller, Robert Greene’s Kate Plays Christine follows actress Kate Lyn Sheil (“House of Cards,” “The Girlfriend Experience,” “Listen Up Philip”) as she prepares for her next role: playing Christine Chubbuck, a Florida newscaster who committed suicide live on-air in 1974. As Kate investigates Chubbuck’s story (long rumored to be the inspiration for the classic Hollywood film “Network”), uncovering new clues and information, she becomes increasingly obsessed with her subject. Winner of a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, Kate Plays Christine is a cinematic mystery that forces us to question everything we see and everything we’re led to believe. Greene — filmmaker-in-chief at the Murray Center for Documentary Journalism at the Missouri School of...
- 11/2/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Above: Italian 2-foglio for Loves of a Blonde (Miloš Forman, Czechoslovakia, 1965).As the 54th New York Film Festival winds to a close this weekend I thought it would be instructive to look back at its counterpart of 50 years ago. Sadly, for the sake of symmetry, there are no filmmakers straddling both the 1966 and the 2016 editions, though Agnès Varda (88 years old), Jean-Luc Godard (85), Carlos Saura (84) and Jirí Menzel (78)—all of whom had films in the 1966 Nyff—are all still making films, and Milos Forman (84), Ivan Passer (83) and Peter Watkins (80) are all still with us. There are only two filmmakers in the current Nyff who could potentially have been in the 1966 edition and they are Ken Loach (80) and Paul Verhoeven (78). The current Nyff is remarkably youthful—half the filmmakers weren’t even born in 1966 and, with the exception of Loach and Verhoeven, the old guard is now represented by Jim Jarmusch, Pedro Almodóvar,...
- 10/15/2016
- MUBI
Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones and Diane Varsi star in American-International's most successful 'youth rebellion' epic -- a political sci-fi satire about a rock star whose opportunistic political movement overthrows the government and puts everyone over 35 into concentration camps... to be force-fed LSD. Wild in the Streets Blu-ray Olive Films 1968 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 97 min. / Street Date August 16, 2016 / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98 Starring Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, Diane Varsi, Hal Holbrook, Millie Perkins, Richard Pryor, Bert Freed, Kevin Coughlin, Larry Bishop, Michael Margotta, Ed Begley, May Ishihara. Cinematography Richard Moore Film Editor Fred Feitshans Jr., Eve Newman Original Music Les Baxter Written by Robert Thom from his short story "The Day it All Happened, Baby" Produced by Burt Topper Directed by Barry Shear
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back around 1965 - 1966 we endured this stupid buzzword concept called The Generation Gap, a notion that there was a natural divide between old people and their kids.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Back around 1965 - 1966 we endured this stupid buzzword concept called The Generation Gap, a notion that there was a natural divide between old people and their kids.
- 8/22/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Paul Greengrass has spent the past twenty-plus years crafting lean, energetic action films such as his Bourne entries — a franchise he returns to this Friday with Jason Bourne — and equally taut docudramas such as Captain Philips and United 93. His staging and editing of action has become a seminal staple of modern cinema, though it has proven hard to properly imitate as the coherence he often achieves is lost on his imitators. His films explore national paranoia and wounded heroes (often Matt Damon), while his style focuses on kinetic, intimate, and spur-of-the-moment action and storytelling.
Thanks to BFI‘s most recent Sight & Sound poll, Greengrass has compiled a list of his ten favorite films, many of which globe trot outside of the U.S. to everywhere from France (Godard), to Japan (Kurosawa), and Russia (Eisenstein), among others. There’s a clear connective thread between the French New Wave style of...
Thanks to BFI‘s most recent Sight & Sound poll, Greengrass has compiled a list of his ten favorite films, many of which globe trot outside of the U.S. to everywhere from France (Godard), to Japan (Kurosawa), and Russia (Eisenstein), among others. There’s a clear connective thread between the French New Wave style of...
- 7/26/2016
- by Mike Mazzanti
- The Film Stage
Located in the dusty stretch of hell that lies between homage and pastiche, Mickey Keating’s “Carnage Park” is a lean, mean, motherfucker of a movie that confirms the young director’s outsized potential but fails to follow through on his most explicit promise. A twisted “true crime” story that’s heavily indebted to Quentin Tarantino and boasts all the historical validity of “Inglourious Basterds,” this gnarly gore-fest opens with the kind of reckless, apocryphal declaration that’s only made by geniuses or kids too young to know any better: “The film you are about to see is perhaps the most bizarre episode in the annals of American crime.” That’s a mighty big gauntlet to drop at the feet of an unsuspecting audience, but “Carnage Park” nearly lives up to its own hype — at least for a little while, anyway.
1978. A deranged Vietnam vet named Wyatt Moss (played by...
1978. A deranged Vietnam vet named Wyatt Moss (played by...
- 7/7/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
★★★☆☆ Edvard Munch's paintings were critically savaged in his lifetime. His preference for personal expression over natural representation shocked an art world not yet ready to peer inside the mind of a man racked with dread and anxiety. This is the core message of Peter Watkins' Edvard Munch - a film which is unflinchingly bleak, but only in its pursuit of a comprehensive atmosphere to match the life of a very troubled man.
- 6/14/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
British cinematographer Peter Suschitzky is known for his collaborations with David Cronenberg (Cosmopolis, A Dangerous Method, Eastern Promises, A History of Violence, Spider, eXistenZ, Crash, Naked Lunch and Dead Ringers). His eclectic career saw him start working in fantastical “what if” tales on It Happened Here (1966) and Privilege (1967). He worked with Peter Watkins, Albert Finney, Peter Watkins, John Boorman, Ken Russell and Warris Hussein in Britain, before Hollywood came calling. is first trip to Cannes, working on Charlie Bubbles by Albert Finney, was cancelled after the festival was stopped by the May ’68 protests led by Jean Luc-Godard. This year, I met him at the […]...
- 6/9/2016
- by Kaleem Aftab
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
★★★★★ Peter Watkins didn't enjoy an especially long career at the BBC. The furore surrounding his second documentary saw him not only resign, but flee the UK into self-imposed exile. The project that sparked the controversy was 1965's The War Game, a harrowing imagining of a potential Soviet nuclear attack on Kent. The UK government had concerns over its damning portrayal of the country's nuclear preparedness and put pressure on the BBC to bury it upon its completion. Despite a theatrical release that resulted in it winning the Best Documentary prize at the 1967 Academy Awards it wasn't aired in Britain until 1985, and now receives a much appreciated BFI Blu-ray release alongside Watkins' other BBC offering.
- 4/4/2016
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
The parameters, mutually agreed upon by my editor Danny Kasman and myself, are these: A bi-weekly (every two weeks) column, entitled "On Mubi / Off," covering two films—one currently available on the Mubi streaming platform in the United States, the other screening offsite (in theaters, on VOD, Blu-ray/DVD, etc). The movies may share some similarities in approach, execution and theme, or they may not. Mostly, my own interests and curiosity will dictate what films are covered and in what way, and I hope you'll find the prose, the pairings, and/or the analysis compelling enough to follow along.On MUBITerminal Island (Stephanie Rothman, 1973)Sight unseen, I thought Stephanie Rothman's 1973 exploitation cheapie Terminal Island would make for a good inaugural article lead-off—something Z-grade disreputable to complement the A-level sleaze (not necessarily a criticism) of the other movie covered in this column. (We'll get to you momentarily, Mr. Bond.
- 11/23/2015
- by Keith Uhlich
- MUBI
Brian Trenchard-Smith's outrageous futuristic gore-fest imagines an Australian extermination camp run by the sadistic Michael Craig and Roger Ward, where jaded rich folk come to hunt human prey. The leading targets for this week's jaunt are Steve Railsback and Olivia Hussey. It is snarky? Is it subversive? An alternate title was Blood Camp Thatcher! Turkey Shoot Blu-ray Severin Films 1982 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 93 80 min. / Escape 2000, Blood Camp Thatcher / Street Date September 22, 2015 / 24.98 Starring Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey, Michael Craig, Carmen Duncan, Noel Ferrier, Lynda Stoner, Roger Ward, Michael Petrovitch, Gus Mercurio, John Ley. Cinematography John McLean Film Editor Alan Lake Original Music Brian May Special Effects John Stears Second Unit Director / Executive Producer David Hemmings Written byJon George, Neill Hicks, George Schenck, Robert Williams, David Lawrence Produced by William Fayman, Antony I. Ginnane Directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Who cannot appreciate a movie that carries the alternate title Blood Camp Thatcher?...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Who cannot appreciate a movie that carries the alternate title Blood Camp Thatcher?...
- 9/22/2015
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
The War Game is among the films screening in Berwick Berwick-upon-Tweed celebrates the 11th edition of its Film and Media Arts Festival from September 23 to 27. Following on from last year's theme of Border Crossing, the 2015 festival expands even further into nebulous territories by taking the theme of Fact or Fiction to encourage visitors and viewers to navigate, explore and question the overlapping borders between fact and fantasy, journalism and propaganda, and preconceived conceptions of documentary and narrative film.
Alongside the Fact or Fiction titles - which include Peter Watkins's long-censored The War Game (1965) and Vampir-Cuadecuc (Pere Portabella, 1970), one of the strangest behind-the-scenes films ever made (transforming Jess Franco's Count Dracula (1970) with Christopher Lee into something genuinely otherworldly) - the 2015 festival also introduces a new strand: Berwick New Cinema. This section includes films such as Androids Dream (Ion de Sosa, 2014), Abdul & Hamza (Marko Grba Singh, 2015) and A Spell Of Fever.
Alongside the Fact or Fiction titles - which include Peter Watkins's long-censored The War Game (1965) and Vampir-Cuadecuc (Pere Portabella, 1970), one of the strangest behind-the-scenes films ever made (transforming Jess Franco's Count Dracula (1970) with Christopher Lee into something genuinely otherworldly) - the 2015 festival also introduces a new strand: Berwick New Cinema. This section includes films such as Androids Dream (Ion de Sosa, 2014), Abdul & Hamza (Marko Grba Singh, 2015) and A Spell Of Fever.
- 9/11/2015
- by Rebecca Naughten
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
In today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum's interviews with Mark Rappaport and Béla Tarr and his review of Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871); two new books on Stanley Kubrick, one on The Shining, the other on 2001: A Space Odyssey; reviews of Criterion's new release of François Truffaut's Day for Night; "Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history"; interviews with Jerry Schatzberg, Lily Tomlin, Joe Dante and John Magary; a tribute to Mike Leigh; Christopher Nolan's admiration for Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay; a listener's guide to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/19/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
In today's roundup: Jonathan Rosenbaum's interviews with Mark Rappaport and Béla Tarr and his review of Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871); two new books on Stanley Kubrick, one on The Shining, the other on 2001: A Space Odyssey; reviews of Criterion's new release of François Truffaut's Day for Night; "Straight Outta Compton’s revisionist history"; interviews with Jerry Schatzberg, Lily Tomlin, Joe Dante and John Magary; a tribute to Mike Leigh; Christopher Nolan's admiration for Stephen Quay and Timothy Quay; a listener's guide to Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 8/19/2015
- Keyframe
The art magazine Frieze has opened up its archives, making back issues dating back nearly 25 years freely available. We're highlighting past articles on David Lynch, Andy Warhol, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jonas Mekas, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Olivier Assayas, Peter Watkins, Gregory Markopoulos, Luchino Visconti, Dario Argento, Stan Brakhage, Eric Rohmer, Guy Maddin, Todd Haynes, Volker Schlöndorff and Christian Petzold. Also in today's roundup: Interviews with Woody Allen and Andrew Bujalski, an appraisal of Joshua Oppenheimer's documentaries, a Philippe Garrel retrospective, a conversation about Ken Loach, a remembrance of Pierre Cottrell and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/30/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The art magazine Frieze has opened up its archives, making back issues dating back nearly 25 years freely available. We're highlighting past articles on David Lynch, Andy Warhol, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Jonas Mekas, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Olivier Assayas, Peter Watkins, Gregory Markopoulos, Luchino Visconti, Dario Argento, Stan Brakhage, Eric Rohmer, Guy Maddin, Todd Haynes, Volker Schlöndorff and Christian Petzold. Also in today's roundup: Interviews with Woody Allen and Andrew Bujalski, an appraisal of Joshua Oppenheimer's documentaries, a Philippe Garrel retrospective, a conversation about Ken Loach, a remembrance of Pierre Cottrell and more. » - David Hudson...
- 7/30/2015
- Keyframe
The director of Scum, Made in Britain and The Firm made films that were brilliant, disconcerting and radical – and set the template for others to follow
I’ve been thinking about Alan Clarke recently. That’s not unusual: he’s a director I love, and his glorious, bristling films mean a lot to me. So it was his name that I first came up with when I started work on six short videos about the mavericks of British film. Maverick is a tricky word to parse, but if it meant anything at all, then Clarke – off on his own path, sparring with authority – has to be the benchmark.
Although we start in 1964 with Peter Watkins’s Culloden, four of the subjects are still alive and making films. All the same, it was hard not to feel a pang while we worked, and Clarke was why. Part of that was simply...
I’ve been thinking about Alan Clarke recently. That’s not unusual: he’s a director I love, and his glorious, bristling films mean a lot to me. So it was his name that I first came up with when I started work on six short videos about the mavericks of British film. Maverick is a tricky word to parse, but if it meant anything at all, then Clarke – off on his own path, sparring with authority – has to be the benchmark.
Although we start in 1964 with Peter Watkins’s Culloden, four of the subjects are still alive and making films. All the same, it was hard not to feel a pang while we worked, and Clarke was why. Part of that was simply...
- 6/8/2015
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
The second edition of Art of the Real opens tomorrow at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center with the premieres of new short films by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, Eduardo Williams and Matt Porterfield, all of whom will be present for a Q&A. Closing on April 26 with Jenni Olson's The Royal Road, the series features a tribute to Agnès Varda and a spotlight on reenactments. Other highlights include films by Peter Watkins, James Benning, Harun Farocki, Jill Godmilow, Derek Jarman and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/9/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
The second edition of Art of the Real opens tomorrow at New York's Film Society of Lincoln Center with the premieres of new short films by João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata, Eduardo Williams and Matt Porterfield, all of whom will be present for a Q&A. Closing on April 26 with Jenni Olson's The Royal Road, the series features a tribute to Agnès Varda and a spotlight on reenactments. Other highlights include films by Peter Watkins, James Benning, Harun Farocki, Jill Godmilow, Derek Jarman and more. » - David Hudson...
- 4/9/2015
- Keyframe
Entering only its second year, the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Art Of The Real series is, nonetheless, one of the must-see film events of the spring, and perhaps the year.This is in large measure due to the boundless, eclectic mix of films, which, while generally classified as documentary, stretch and morph our notions of what both fiction and non-fiction filmmaking can look and feel like.Running April 10 - 26 at the FilmLinc theater complex (full lineup and ticket info here), the series not only features a plethora of new, beguiling works from contemporary filmmakers across the globe, but also includes a tribute to the work of the audacious Agnès Varda, as well as a spotlight on reenactment in film, including Peter Watkins' masterwork Edvard...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
[Read the whole post on twitchfilm.com...]...
- 4/9/2015
- Screen Anarchy
Rachael Rakes and Leo Goldsmith have won a grant to complete a book on Peter Watkins. More film book news: Miranda July's debut novel, The First Bad Man, will be out on January 13. Iain Sinclair reviews Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed: Conversations with Paul Cronin for the Tls. For Slate, Michelle Orange reviews a reissue of MacDonald Harris's 1982 novel Screenplay. In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Andrew Nette revisits the 1970 novel by Ted Lewis that became Get Carter. And in the New York Times, Janet Maslin reviews Scott Saul's Becoming Richard Pryor. » - David Hudson...
- 12/5/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Rachael Rakes and Leo Goldsmith have won a grant to complete a book on Peter Watkins. More film book news: Miranda July's debut novel, The First Bad Man, will be out on January 13. Iain Sinclair reviews Werner Herzog: A Guide for the Perplexed: Conversations with Paul Cronin for the Tls. For Slate, Michelle Orange reviews a reissue of MacDonald Harris's 1982 novel Screenplay. In the Los Angeles Review of Books, Andrew Nette revisits the 1970 novel by Ted Lewis that became Get Carter. And in the New York Times, Janet Maslin reviews Scott Saul's Becoming Richard Pryor. » - David Hudson...
- 12/5/2014
- Keyframe
John Boorman's career is littered with misfires, maybe the price we pay for the huge artistic risks he takes. In between the early triumphs of Point Blank (1967) and Hell in the Pacific (1968) and his masterwork Deliverance (1972) lies Leo the Last, which gets very little love and not even the kind of scornful attention accorded to catastrophes like Zardoz (1974) and Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977).
Maybe this is because bad drama has kitsch value, whereas bad comedy nobody can stand, and Leo the Last appears, at times, to be attempting humor, a surprising choice for Boorman whose very humorlessness can seem a strength in his successful films and a weakness in his failures. There's something heroic about the fact that it apparently never occurred to Boorman that a man having sex wearing full plate armor (Excalibur), Sean Connery in thigh boots, bandoliers and nappy (Zardoz) and Linda Blair doing a musical...
Maybe this is because bad drama has kitsch value, whereas bad comedy nobody can stand, and Leo the Last appears, at times, to be attempting humor, a surprising choice for Boorman whose very humorlessness can seem a strength in his successful films and a weakness in his failures. There's something heroic about the fact that it apparently never occurred to Boorman that a man having sex wearing full plate armor (Excalibur), Sean Connery in thigh boots, bandoliers and nappy (Zardoz) and Linda Blair doing a musical...
- 11/20/2014
- by David Cairns
- MUBI
In today's roundup of news and views: Peter Watkins on the "Media Crisis"; revisiting Philip Roth's film criticism from 1957; Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on Robert Bresson; Peter Cowie's brief chat with Jacques Tati in 1974; Adrian Martin on Mike Hoolboom; Robert Greene's talk with Joshua Oppenheimer about The Look of Silence; Bilge Ebiri on David Lynch's Mulholland Drive as a horror movie; a "Barbara Steele Halloween"; a documentary about Samuel Fuller; news of forthcoming films by Todd Solondz and Paul Greengrass; and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/25/2014
- Keyframe
In today's roundup of news and views: Peter Watkins on the "Media Crisis"; revisiting Philip Roth's film criticism from 1957; Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on Robert Bresson; Peter Cowie's brief chat with Jacques Tati in 1974; Adrian Martin on Mike Hoolboom; Robert Greene's talk with Joshua Oppenheimer about The Look of Silence; Bilge Ebiri on David Lynch's Mulholland Drive as a horror movie; a "Barbara Steele Halloween"; a documentary about Samuel Fuller; news of forthcoming films by Todd Solondz and Paul Greengrass; and more. » - David Hudson...
- 10/25/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Peter Watkins' cinema is known for its difficulty, its intractability, its utter lack of compromise. Several of his films are also known for their daunting length. His arthouse breakthrough, Edvard Munch (1974), was 210 minutes long; The Freethinker (1994), his biography of August Strindberg, is 276 minutes; and his final film to date, La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2001) is 345 minutes long. But in 1987 he released what in some ways has come to be his definitive project, The Journey, an 873-minute global documentary focused on nuclear proliferation, the military-industrial complex and the media’s collusion not only with our leaders but with a generalized incapability to envision a better, safer world.
- 10/25/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
Peter Watkins' cinema is known for its difficulty, its intractability, its utter lack of compromise. Several of his films are also known for their daunting length. His arthouse breakthrough, Edvard Munch (1974), was 210 minutes long; The Freethinker (1994), his biography of August Strindberg, is 276 minutes; and his final film to date, La Commune (Paris, 1871) (2001) is 345 minutes long. But in 1987 he released what in some ways has come to be his definitive project, The Journey, an 873-minute global documentary focused on nuclear proliferation, the military-industrial complex and the media’s collusion not only with our leaders but with a generalized incapability to envision a better, safer world.
- 10/25/2014
- Keyframe
Punishment Park
Written and directed by Peter Watkins
1971, USA
Images of the heavy-handed police response to protests of the fatal shooting of unarmed Missouri teenager Michael Brown have re-ignited discussion about the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces.
They are also reminiscent of this indelible image from Punishment Park, a powerful faux documentary that brought police militarization to its extreme but inevitable conclusion over 40 years ago.
While hardware is a large part of the Ferguson story, Punishment Park’s $95,000 budget (per the original press kit, which is included with a 2005 DVD release) perhaps precluded director Peter Watkins from equipping the cast with anything quite as threatening, but the film’s impacted is hardly blunted. The press kit insists “Punishment Park takes place tomorrow, yesterday or five years from now. It is also happening today.” And this can still be said of it.
Punishment Park is not only a prescient...
Written and directed by Peter Watkins
1971, USA
Images of the heavy-handed police response to protests of the fatal shooting of unarmed Missouri teenager Michael Brown have re-ignited discussion about the increasing militarization of U.S. police forces.
They are also reminiscent of this indelible image from Punishment Park, a powerful faux documentary that brought police militarization to its extreme but inevitable conclusion over 40 years ago.
While hardware is a large part of the Ferguson story, Punishment Park’s $95,000 budget (per the original press kit, which is included with a 2005 DVD release) perhaps precluded director Peter Watkins from equipping the cast with anything quite as threatening, but the film’s impacted is hardly blunted. The press kit insists “Punishment Park takes place tomorrow, yesterday or five years from now. It is also happening today.” And this can still be said of it.
Punishment Park is not only a prescient...
- 8/20/2014
- by Steven Fouchard
- SoundOnSight
Erik Poppe, Paul Mayersberg, Aage Aaberge team on painter biopic.
Erik Poppe is attached to direct a new biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch.
Poppe, whose latest drama A Thousand Times Goodnight took the Best Film Prize at this week’s Amanda Awards in Norway, will collaborate on the project with veteran UK writer Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and Norwegian producer Aage Aaberge (Kon-Tiki).
Aaberge, of Neofilm told ScreenDaily at Haugesund that the film is “a dream project” of his.
“For eight years I have wanted to make a film of Munch, Norway’s greatest artists,” he said. “After all, the latest effort, by UK director Peter Watkins, dates back to 1974.”
“But it was difficult to find the right way to approach the project, until I met writer-director Paul Mayersberg.”
Loosely based on Norwegian author Ketil Bjørnstad’s book, The Story of Edvard Munch, the film will...
Erik Poppe is attached to direct a new biopic of Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch.
Poppe, whose latest drama A Thousand Times Goodnight took the Best Film Prize at this week’s Amanda Awards in Norway, will collaborate on the project with veteran UK writer Paul Mayersberg (The Man Who Fell to Earth, Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence) and Norwegian producer Aage Aaberge (Kon-Tiki).
Aaberge, of Neofilm told ScreenDaily at Haugesund that the film is “a dream project” of his.
“For eight years I have wanted to make a film of Munch, Norway’s greatest artists,” he said. “After all, the latest effort, by UK director Peter Watkins, dates back to 1974.”
“But it was difficult to find the right way to approach the project, until I met writer-director Paul Mayersberg.”
Loosely based on Norwegian author Ketil Bjørnstad’s book, The Story of Edvard Munch, the film will...
- 8/19/2014
- by jornrossing@aol.com (Jorn Rossing Jensen)
- ScreenDaily
Stars: Patrick Boland, Kent Foreman, Carmen Argenziano, Luke Johnson, Katherine Quittner, Scott Turner, Stan Armsted, Mary Ellen Kleinhall | Written and Directed by Peter Watkins
“Under the provision of Title 2 of the 1950 Internal Security Act, also known as the McCarran Act, the President of the United States of America is still authorized, without further approval by Congress to determine an event of insurrection within the United States and to declare the existence of an “internal security emergency”. The President is then authorized to apprehend and detain each person as to whom there is reasonable ground to believe probably will engage in certain future acts of sabotage. Persons apprehended shall be given a hearing, without right of bail, without the necessity of evidence and shall then be confined to places of detention.”
Peter Watkins, a British filmmaker who would work for the BBC in the 1960’s before finally directing Punishment Park in...
“Under the provision of Title 2 of the 1950 Internal Security Act, also known as the McCarran Act, the President of the United States of America is still authorized, without further approval by Congress to determine an event of insurrection within the United States and to declare the existence of an “internal security emergency”. The President is then authorized to apprehend and detain each person as to whom there is reasonable ground to believe probably will engage in certain future acts of sabotage. Persons apprehended shall be given a hearing, without right of bail, without the necessity of evidence and shall then be confined to places of detention.”
Peter Watkins, a British filmmaker who would work for the BBC in the 1960’s before finally directing Punishment Park in...
- 6/12/2014
- by Chris Cummings
- Nerdly
Found footage films get a bad rap - and worse reviews. But the genre combines the vitality of punk rock with the reach of a video viral, and it has earned, if not respectability, then at least a respectful reappraisal. Some found footage (hereafter Ff) films are, admittedly, unwatchable (see The Devil Inside or, better, don't). But others, such as recent West Country-set religious chiller The Borderlands, or Bobcat Goldthwait's creepy Bigfoot hunt Willow Creek (out on May 2), are closer to unmissable.
Beyond an ominous title card, Ff films require little backstory, and the genre has only a brief history of its own. An uncompromising, hand-over-the-camera-lens look at totalitarianism in Vietnam-era America, Peter Watkins' 1971 mock-doc Punishment Park is considered Ff's chief forebear. Ruggiero Deodato's still-troubling Cannibal Holocaust (1979), however, is the most striking early archetype. Following a gonzo film crew into tribal Amazonia, it puts video-nasty atrocities through a film-school filter,...
Beyond an ominous title card, Ff films require little backstory, and the genre has only a brief history of its own. An uncompromising, hand-over-the-camera-lens look at totalitarianism in Vietnam-era America, Peter Watkins' 1971 mock-doc Punishment Park is considered Ff's chief forebear. Ruggiero Deodato's still-troubling Cannibal Holocaust (1979), however, is the most striking early archetype. Following a gonzo film crew into tribal Amazonia, it puts video-nasty atrocities through a film-school filter,...
- 4/12/2014
- Digital Spy
Doc Talk is a biweekly column devoted to documentary cinema, typically featuring an essay concentrated on a currently relevant topic for discussion followed by critic picks for new theatrical and home video releases. This week’s focus is on two documentaries to watch on Halloween. Halloween may be best associated with the horror film genre, but there is an increasing amount of documentaries suited for viewing on the holiday too. Classic nonfiction works with related subject matter include Benjamin Christensen’s 1922 history of demon and witch superstition Haxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages, and Peter Watkins’s Oscar-winning 1965 nuclear war hypothesis The War Game. More recently, doom-and-gloom films like Lucy Walker’s doc on current nuclear...
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- 11/1/2012
- by Christopher Campbell
- Movies.com
London Spanish Film Festival
This year's festival includes a separate focus on Catalan cinema, just weeks after Catalans came out in droves to campaign for independence. Partisan or not, Spanish cinema still looks to be in decent shape. There are accessible commercial movies here – Los Pelayo is a sort of Mallorcan Ocean's Eleven; A Game Of Werewolves is a Galician horror. But there's also more pensive cinema, such as Los Pasos Dobles, a Mali-set meditation on art and memory.
Ciné Lumière, SW7, Fri to 10 Oct
Safar: A Journey Through Popular Arab Cinema, London
Call yourself a global cinema aficionado? If names like Soad Hosny or Adel Imam mean nothing to you, you're still a few regions short of all-encompassing movie omnipotence. So here's the place to quickly fill that gap. Despite the title, what we're mostly talking about here is Egyptian cinema – the biggest player in the region. Hosny, who...
This year's festival includes a separate focus on Catalan cinema, just weeks after Catalans came out in droves to campaign for independence. Partisan or not, Spanish cinema still looks to be in decent shape. There are accessible commercial movies here – Los Pelayo is a sort of Mallorcan Ocean's Eleven; A Game Of Werewolves is a Galician horror. But there's also more pensive cinema, such as Los Pasos Dobles, a Mali-set meditation on art and memory.
Ciné Lumière, SW7, Fri to 10 Oct
Safar: A Journey Through Popular Arab Cinema, London
Call yourself a global cinema aficionado? If names like Soad Hosny or Adel Imam mean nothing to you, you're still a few regions short of all-encompassing movie omnipotence. So here's the place to quickly fill that gap. Despite the title, what we're mostly talking about here is Egyptian cinema – the biggest player in the region. Hosny, who...
- 9/21/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
At least since the 1990s, Austria has commanded a central place within global cinema culture, certainly within that portion of it governed in a semi-official manner by film festivals and arthouses. Like many such European film scenes, many of its members have moved quite easily between fiction and documentary modes (Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger, to cite the most obvious and prolific). Still, the documentary element remains too seldom remarked upon as a spiritual source for the unique, penetrating gaze that characterizes so many of key Austrian films. Generally speaking, fictional features by the likes of Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner and Michael Schleinzer have drawn more attention from programmers and distributors than the documentaries of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. This is par for the course with nonfiction cinema. But it nevertheless seems worth mentioning here because, in terms of the tone, construction, and global attitude of Geyrhalter’s cinema, his work seems...
- 7/24/2012
- MUBI
Rating:
There is a period in American cinema history commonly referred to as the ‘New Hollywood’ era, in which filmmakers sought to undermine the prevailing conservative ideology of Nixon’s America from within the studio system itself. American directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, Dennis Hopper and Robert Altman are usually linked to such films. While they remain interesting films today, their power – or perceived radicalism – is arguably diminished through the sands of time. One film from this period, which is largely unseen, has refused to allow the corrosive passing of time liquidate its message. Punishment Park was stubbornly ignored by the Hollywood studio system, was written and directed by an Oscar-winning Englishman – Peter Watkins – and is undoubtedly one of the most persuasive and revolutionary films from the Vietnam period of American history. The film is as hauntingly relevant and prescient today as it was then.
There is a period in American cinema history commonly referred to as the ‘New Hollywood’ era, in which filmmakers sought to undermine the prevailing conservative ideology of Nixon’s America from within the studio system itself. American directors such as Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Brian De Palma, Dennis Hopper and Robert Altman are usually linked to such films. While they remain interesting films today, their power – or perceived radicalism – is arguably diminished through the sands of time. One film from this period, which is largely unseen, has refused to allow the corrosive passing of time liquidate its message. Punishment Park was stubbornly ignored by the Hollywood studio system, was written and directed by an Oscar-winning Englishman – Peter Watkins – and is undoubtedly one of the most persuasive and revolutionary films from the Vietnam period of American history. The film is as hauntingly relevant and prescient today as it was then.
- 1/24/2012
- by Robert Munro
- Obsessed with Film
Punishment Park
When this film was released in 1971, the events that inspired it (such as the Kent State shootings and the Vietnam war) were still fresh in the audience's minds.
When it arrived on DVD a few years back, it was the incarcerations at Guantánamo Bay that drew obvious comparisons. It's only fitting that this latest release, on Blu-ray (and DVD again) arrives soon after rioting and general unrest in Egypt, London, America and, sadly, plenty of other locations. Highly influential director Peter Watkins again uses the documentary style he developed with earlier classics The War Game and Culloden to great effect. A collection of student, arty types and suspicious-looking longhairs are paraded in front of a community tribunal (more a kangaroo court) for various crimes against society (some no more than daring to question the status quo). They are told they can have their long prison sentences commuted to...
When this film was released in 1971, the events that inspired it (such as the Kent State shootings and the Vietnam war) were still fresh in the audience's minds.
When it arrived on DVD a few years back, it was the incarcerations at Guantánamo Bay that drew obvious comparisons. It's only fitting that this latest release, on Blu-ray (and DVD again) arrives soon after rioting and general unrest in Egypt, London, America and, sadly, plenty of other locations. Highly influential director Peter Watkins again uses the documentary style he developed with earlier classics The War Game and Culloden to great effect. A collection of student, arty types and suspicious-looking longhairs are paraded in front of a community tribunal (more a kangaroo court) for various crimes against society (some no more than daring to question the status quo). They are told they can have their long prison sentences commuted to...
- 1/21/2012
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
It's an annual event as well as a browse that could suck up an entire weekend: Senses of Cinema's worldwide poll of… well, they're not all critics, so let's just call them friends of cinema. You'll want to scroll up and down the whole thing, but take a look, too, at the best of 2011 according to Notebook editor Daniel Kasman and contributors Celluloid Liberation Front, Christoph Huber, Olaf Möller and Dan Sallitt as well as a major presence here in the Forum and elsewhere, David Ehrenstein.
London. This is the year we'll be seeing the results of Sight & Sound's poll of more friends of cinema regarding the greatest films of all time. It happens only once every ten years and in the magazine's pages, Graham Fuller argues a mighty case for the return of Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934) to the top ten. The film's opening today for an extended run at BFI Southbank,...
London. This is the year we'll be seeing the results of Sight & Sound's poll of more friends of cinema regarding the greatest films of all time. It happens only once every ten years and in the magazine's pages, Graham Fuller argues a mighty case for the return of Jean Vigo's L'Atalante (1934) to the top ten. The film's opening today for an extended run at BFI Southbank,...
- 1/20/2012
- MUBI
Anthology Film Archives introduces its series, Anarchism on Film, opening today and running through December 23: "Although an entity called 'anarchist cinema' is almost impossible to define, anarchists with an interest in film have long been preoccupied with two interrelated strands: historical films that excavate a submerged anarchist history and films that synthesize an anti-authoritarian political impetus with innovative formal strategies. In this series, Jean Vigo's Zero for Conduct perhaps best embodies the latter tendency. In addition, Peter Watkins's La Commune (Paris, 1871) merges a powerful chronicle of the Paris Commune's anti-hierarchical legacy with a similarly egalitarian effort to democratize the film's casting and production process."
At the top of another fine roundup, this one on La Commune, Alt Screen notes that this "ultra-rare opportunity to see Watkins's 345-minute experimental documentary, which showed up on many recent Best of the Decade lists, on the big screen is one to be savored.
At the top of another fine roundup, this one on La Commune, Alt Screen notes that this "ultra-rare opportunity to see Watkins's 345-minute experimental documentary, which showed up on many recent Best of the Decade lists, on the big screen is one to be savored.
- 12/16/2011
- MUBI
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