Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.As part of our Cannes 2024 coverage, we asked filmmakers and critics for their notes on anything but the films at the festival.Sign up for the Weekly Edit to receive exclusive reports from the Croisette straight to your inbox.Isabel Stevens (managing editor, Sight and Sound)Overheard at the festival: (on the Croisette) “Do you have time for a photoshoot with Jean-Claude Van Damme?”; “The security guard for this party said to my friend, ‘You have to wear heels. Flat shoes are not allowed.’”; “I think I need..maybe… $50 million”; “They are spending £370 million to send people to Rwanda. Can you believe that?”; (on the beach) “Is this the Atlantic Ocean?”; (at the security gates) “Is this a Camembert?”; (at parties) “I’m not going to thank my husband. He’s shite. But he does what he’s told.”; “I’m going to get ChatGPT to write my speech.
- 5/24/2024
- MUBI
Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.Throughout the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, we'll be publishing a wide variety of interviews, dispatches, capsules, ballots, and lists. Subscribe to the Weekly Edit newsletter for exclusive contributions from filmmakers, critics, and programmers on the Croisette.Interviews“A Whole World: A Conversation with Andrea Arnold” by Caitlin QuinlanThe Carrosse d’Or–winner describes her raw, lived-in films as cinematic jigsaw puzzles.Dispatches“The Center Will Not Hold” by Leonardo GoiWhile the festival maintained its routine ostrich-like stance, some of the most intriguing films dove right into our troubled times.“Final Warnings” by Daniel KasmanQuentin Dupieux’s latest and Jean-Luc Godard’s last interrogate the death and life of great cinema.Capsules“First Impressions” by Giovanni Marchini Camia, Jordan Cronk, Beatrice Loayza, Flavia Dima, Leonardo Goi, and Daniel Kasman“One Moment” by Miriam Bale, Daniel Kasman, Caitlin Quinlan, Nicolas Rapold, Hannah Strong, Adam Piron, Jon Dieringer, Illyse Singer,...
- 5/24/2024
- MUBI
Illustrations by Maddie Fischer.As part of our Cannes 2024 coverage, we invited critics, filmmakers, and programmers to give their first impressions of the festival. Sign up for the Weekly Edit to receive exclusive reports from the Croisette straight to your inbox.Giovanni Marchini CamiaThe reconstruction of Napoléon, as seen by Abel Gance, was the first film to play at this year’s festival—after the Berlinale’s TinyHouse, this is symbolism at its most ready-made. Impossible to watch this inordinately glorious, inordinately chauvinistic film at Cannes without thinking of Thierry Frémaux, the festival world’s very own Napoleon, the man everyone loves to hate. As rumors of an impending labor strike and #MeToo bombshell crescendoed ahead of that evening’s opening ceremony, no image could have been more fitting than Napoleon braving a furious storm on a rickety fishing boat, a French flag fashioned into a sail as his only lifeline.
- 5/17/2024
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSTiny, a Canadian technology holding company, has completed a majority acquisition of the film-oriented social networking platform Letterboxd, Business Wire reports. Letterboxd’s founders Matthew Buchanan and Karl von Randow will continue to lead the business independently as the company scales up.REMEMBERINGThe Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover.Michael Gambon has died aged 82. A notable stage actor, Gambon appeared in Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, the Thief, His Wife and Her Lover (1989) before taking on memorable roles in Michael Mann's The Insider (1999), Robert Altman's Gosford Park (2001), and the Harry Potter films, in which he took over the role of Albus Dumbledore from Richard Harris. "Gambon left school aged 15 and, unlike many of his contemporaries, did not receive any formal training at drama school," writes Chris Wiegand in his Guardian obituary.
- 10/4/2023
- MUBI
Below you will find the results of Notebook's critics' poll for the best films of the Cannes Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage of the festival.Awardstop 101. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)2. The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer)3. May December (Todd Haynes)4. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)5. Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice)6. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)7. La chimera (Alice Rohrwacher)8. The Pot-au-feu (Tràn Anh Hùng)9. A Prince (Pierre Creton)10. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)(Poll contributors: Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, Anna Bogutskaya, Jordan Cronk, Flavia Dima, Lawrence Garcia, Leonardo Goi, Daniel Kasman, Jessica Kiang, Roger Koza, Elena Lazic, Beatrice Loayza, Guy Lodge, Łukasz Mańkowski, Savina Petkova, Caitlin Quinlan, Vadim Rizov, Christopher Small, Öykü Sofuoğlu, Blake Williams)DISPATCHESThe Obscenity of EvilLeonardo Goi on The Zone of Interest (Jonathan Glazer), The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams), Eureka (Lisandro Alonso), and Killers of the Flower Moon...
- 6/14/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThe Act of Killing. Though he’s known for nonfiction, Joshua Oppenheimer just began production on a musical about the end of the world, fittingly called The End. Filming now in Dublin, it stars Tilda Swinton and George Mackay, via the production company’s website.After 23 years, A.O. Scott is stepping away from film criticism at the New York Times, transitioning to a new role as a critic at large for the Book Review. He conducts his own exit interview.In comedy news, Safdie muse and Razzie record-breaker Adam Sandler was awarded the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor this week in Washington, D.C.Finally, we’re thinking of the character actor Lance Reddick this week, who died suddenly last Friday at...
- 3/22/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSLandscape Suicide, included on Benning's Sight & Sound ballot.Sight & Sound has made individual ballots available for their Greatest Films of All Time poll. You can browse the full, alphabetical list of critics and filmmakers here, along with voters’ comments and accompanying essays. Some favorites of ours so far: James Benning on self-referentiality, Genevieve Yue on the wind.Eight years after The Intern, Nancy Meyers has a new romantic comedy in the works at Netflix, reportedly budgeted at $130 million. Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Owen Wilson, and Michael Fassbender are all in early talks, according to The Hollywood Reporter.Author and curator Barbara Wurm has been appointed the new head of the Berlinale Forum program, succeeding Cristina Nord.Recommended VIEWINGIf it's too bad to be true,...
- 3/8/2023
- MUBI
Each December, we invite Notebook contributors to pair a new release with an older film they watched for the first time that year, creating a “fantasy double feature.” In practice, this offers something like a collective viewing diary, speaking to the breadth of moving-image art and the imagination of our writers. Even a quick scroll through this year’s doubles—dreamed up and defended by over 60 Notebook contributors—reveals an inspired bounty. Where else would you find Ulrike Ottinger on a bill with Adam Curtis or Jackass Forever?Our annual poll, now in its fifteenth year, is less about anointing the best than it is about bottling the year’s energy. What unexpected resonances arise between the past and present?CONTRIBUTORSArun A.K. | Jennifer Lynde Barker | Juan Barquin | Margaret Barton-Fumo | Rafaela Bassili | Joshua Bogatin | Anna Bogutskaya | Danielle Burgos | Adrian Curry | Frank Falisi | The Ferroni Brigade | Soham Gadre | Lawrence Garcia | Sean...
- 1/6/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThis week, we’re remembering the iconoclastic, anti-capitalist filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub, who has died at the age of 89. In the course of revisiting Christopher Small’s Straub-Huillet Companion column, we were moved by this quotation from Straub, from a 1974 edition of Jump Cut:The revolution is like God’s grace, it has to be made anew each day, it becomes new every day, a revolution is not made once and for all. And it’s exactly like that in daily life. There is no division between politics and life, art and politics. I think one has no other choice, if one is making films that can stand on their own feet, they must become documentary, or in any case they must have documentary roots. Everything must be correct,...
- 11/23/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSUncut Gems.According to Adam Sandler in a new Vanity Fair profile, he will be shooting a new film with the Safdie brothers this winter. Not much is known about the project, but Sandler had previously mentioned that the film would take place in “the world of sports.” Artist-filmmaker Sky Hopinka has been named as one of 25 recipients of the MacArthur Fellowship’s prestigious “genius grant.” (Michael Sicinski interviewed Hopinka for Notebook in 2020.)A new TV series based on Herbert Asbury’s 1927 nonfiction book The Gangs of New York has been announced. Martin Scorsese, who directed the book’s 2002 feature film adaptation, is attached as executive producer of the series and director of the first two episodes.Recommended Viewinga trailer has arrived for Laura Poitras’s latest feature All the Beauty and the Bloodshed...
- 10/21/2022
- MUBI
TÁR (Todd Field).VENICEAwardsTop 10: Leonardo Goi1. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)2. No Bears (Jafar Panahi)3. The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)4. Saint Omer (Alice Diop)5. The Kiev Trial (Sergei Loznitsa)6. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)7. Blonde (Andrew Dominik)8. A Couple (Frederick Wiseman)9. Athena (Romain Gavras)10. TÁR (Todd Field)Coverageby Leonardo GoiDispatch 1: White Noise (Noah Baumbach), Bardo (or a False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths) (Alejandro González Iñárritu), TÁR (Todd Field)Dispatch 2: A Couple (Frederick Wiseman), Athena (Romain Gavras), Argentina, 1985 (Santiago Mitre)Dispatch 3: Master Gardener (Paul Schrader), The Whale (Darren Aronofsky), The Eternal Daughter (Joanna Hogg)Dispatch 4: The Kiev Trial (Sergei Loznitsa), Saint Omer (Alice Diop), Blonde (Andrew Dominik)Dispatch 5: No Bears (Jafar Panahi), Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)TORONTOTop 10: Daniel Kasman (Unranked)All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)Eventide (Sharon Lockhart)The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)F1ghting Looks Different 2 Me Now (Fox Maxy)How...
- 9/30/2022
- MUBI
The Maiden (Graham Foy).Welcome to Festival Chatroom, a transcribed festival-wrap conversation. After the Toronto International Film Festival came to a close, Notebook's Daniel Kasman and Chloe Lizotte invited three guests—critic Juan Barquin, programmer Inney Prakash, and filmmaker Sophy Romvari—to share their highlights and reflections over Slack. Read on for their conversation, covering standout experimental shorts, breakout Canadian filmmakers, and the "pocket universe" of the festival.Chloe Lizotte (Notebook): How are you all doing? Has the dust settled, memories cleared?Sophy Romvari: I feel like I’m recovering from three TIFFs instead of one—very sleepy!Inney Prakash: I'm okay. I always crash a little after coming home from a fest. Ideally I'd hop from one to the next without stopping, escaping the realities of everyday life entirely. But that's no way to live. (Or is it?)Sophy: I would perish.Danny Kasman (Notebook): For me,...
- 9/26/2022
- MUBI
After 18 days of in-person screenings, over 370 movies and the allocation of a new prize fund totaling 210,000 Aud the Melbourne International Film Festival (Miff) has to be one of the lengthiest, liveliest and now most lucrative film festivals in the world. The winning films were announced at Saturday evening’s closing gala, with Afrofuturist sci-fi musical “Neptune Frost,” a U.S.-Rwandan co-production directed by Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman, taking the Bright Horizons top prize of 140,000 Aud. Jub Clerc, the Indigenous Australian director of coming-of-age road movie “Sweet As,” scooped the Blackmagic Design Australian Innovation Award of 70,000 Aud.
This is the first year of the Bright Horizons competition. After being selected from an exceptionally strong 11-film lineup, which included festival favourites like Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia López Gallardo’s “Robe of Gems,” Williams and Uzeyman were clearly moved while accepting the award via Zoom.
“It...
This is the first year of the Bright Horizons competition. After being selected from an exceptionally strong 11-film lineup, which included festival favourites like Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun,” Laura Wandel’s “Playground” and Natalia López Gallardo’s “Robe of Gems,” Williams and Uzeyman were clearly moved while accepting the award via Zoom.
“It...
- 8/20/2022
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
Triangle of Sadness.Below you will find an index of our coverage from the Cannes Film Festival, Directors' Fortnight, and Critics' Week in 2022, as well as our favorite films.Awardstop 101. Pacifiction (Albert Serra)2. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)3. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg)4. De Humani Corporis Fabrica (Véréna Paravel & Lucien Castaing-Taylor) & One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve)6. Triangle of Sadness (Ruben Östlund)7. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook)8. Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)9. Eo (Jerzy Skolimowski)10. Diary of a Fleeting Affair (Emmanuel Mouret)(Poll contributors: Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, Jordan Cronk, Flavia Dima, Daniel Fairfax, Lawrence Garcia, Leonardo Goi, Daniel Kasman, Łukasz Mańkowski, Caitlin Quinlan, Savina Petkova)Correspondences#1 Daniel Kasman previews the festival | Read#2 Leonardo Goi on Scarlet (Pietro Marcello), Alma Viva (Cristèle Alves Meira), God's Creatures (Saela Davis & Anna Rose Holmer) | Read#3 Lawrence Garcia on The Mother and the Whore (Jean Eustache), Corsage (Marie Kreutzer), One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Løve) | Read...
- 5/31/2022
- MUBI
Projects to receive up to 80,000 in funding and will premiere at the next Jeonju International Film Festival.
Chilean filmmaker José Luis Torres Leiva’s When Clouds Hide The Shadow and Korean director Jero Yun’s Breath took the top prizes last night (May 3) at the 14th Jeonju Project industry programme.
The Jeonju Cinema Project: Next Edition prizes – awarded to a Korean and international feature – provide up to KW100m in funding for projects to be produced with the caveat that they make their world premieres at the Jeonju International Film Festival. The titles were among eight pitched the previous day.
Chilean filmmaker José Luis Torres Leiva’s When Clouds Hide The Shadow and Korean director Jero Yun’s Breath took the top prizes last night (May 3) at the 14th Jeonju Project industry programme.
The Jeonju Cinema Project: Next Edition prizes – awarded to a Korean and international feature – provide up to KW100m in funding for projects to be produced with the caveat that they make their world premieres at the Jeonju International Film Festival. The titles were among eight pitched the previous day.
- 5/4/2022
- by Jean Noh
- ScreenDaily
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Titane (2021).Actor Vincent Lindon has been announced as the president of this year's Cannes competition jury, leading a group that includes Rebecca Hall, Deepika Padukone, Jeff Nichols, and Joachim Trier. The festival has also added several pleasant surprises to the lineup: films by Serge Bozon, Albert Serra, Louis Garrel, Patricio Guzmán, and more.Subscribe to our limited-edition, print-only Notebook magazine by April 30 to secure your copy of Issue 1, featuring a conversation between Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Yoshitomo Nara, a carte blanche contribution by Christopher Doyle, and much more.Recommended VIEWINGAbove: I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) .Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation has launched a virtual screening room for restored films, called the Restoration Screening Room. The fun begins with Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1945 film I Know Where I'm Going!, which will be available for...
- 4/27/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSCarla Simón’s Alcarrás (Courtesy of MK2 Films)This year's Berlinale has now concluded, with Carla Simón’s Alcarrás taking home the Golden Bear, and Hong Sang-soo, Claire Denis and Natalia Lopez Gallardo taking home prizes as well. Check out the full list of awards winners here.Horror filmmaker and production designer Alfred Sole has died at the age of 78. Sole famously directed the cult horror classic Alice, Sweet Alice (1976). However, he first gained notoriety with his X-rated film Deep Sleep (1972), which was pulled from theaters. Sole continued as a prolific production designer for many television films and shows like Veronica Mars and Melrose Place. Netflix has officially signed an updated windowing agreement with France's film industry, which will "see the window between theatrical and SVOD release significantly reduced" from 36 months to 15 months. And as Deadline points out,...
- 2/23/2022
- MUBI
Our annual tradition of Fantasy Double Features asks the year's Notebook contributors to pair something new with something old, with the only requirement being the films have to have been freshly seen this year.Part diary of memorable viewing during 2021, part creative prompt to think about how cinema's present speaks to its past (and vice versa), the 14th edition of our end of year poll weaves between theater-going and home-viewing so seamlessly as to suggest that early pandemic impediments from last year are now quite normal. Yet clearly that hasn't stopped us from watching, being delighted by, and thinking about movies, and the wonderful combinations below are testaments to the dynamic, idiosyncratic, and interactive vitality of moviegoing wherever and however its being practiced.CONTRIBUTORSJett Allen | Paul Attard | Jennifer Lynde Barker | Susana Bessa | Michael M. Bilandic | Ela Bittencourt | Johannes Black | Joshua Bogatin | Alex Broadwell | Celluloid Liberation Front | Lillian Crawford | Adrian Curry...
- 1/13/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Fox Maxy's Maat Means Land (2020) MoMA has announced the lineup and schedule for “To The Lighthouse,” a thrilling carte blanche program by curator Mark McElhatten featuring new films by Nathaniel Dorsky, Ernie Gehr, Jodie Mack, Dani and Sheilah ReStack, and more, along with older films by Rivette, Joseph H. Lewis, Claire Denis, and Marguerite Duras.An essential annual list, Filmmaker Magazine's 25 new faces of film for 2021 includes Kate Gondwe (the founder of Dezda Films), filmmaker Fox Maxy, Omnes Films (the collective behind Tyler Taormina's Ham on Rye), and others. A24 and Emma Stone’s production company, Fruit Tree Banner, have come together to back Jane Schoenbrun's I Saw The TV Glow. The film, a follow-up to Schoenbrun's debut from this year, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, follows...
- 10/13/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn. Radu Jude's Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn has won the Golden Bear at the 71st Berlinale. See the list of this year's award winners here. Recommended VIEWINGFeminist film journal Another Gaze has announced the upcoming launch of its free streaming platform, Another Screen, which will be available worldwide from March 12. Programming will begin with a retrospective dedicated to the late Italian filmmaker Cecilia Mangini. The official trailer for Roy Andersson's About Endlessness, which won Best Director at the Biennale in 2019. Read Leonardo Goi's Venice review of the film here.Janus Films has released its trailer for the restoration of Eric Rohmer's Tale of Four Seasons, an elegant cycle of moral parables. Until March 23, viewers have the opportunity to watch Tsai Ming-Liang's Madam...
- 3/11/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Martha Stewart in In A Lonely Place. Actress Martha Stewart, best known for playing Mildred Atkinson in Nicholas Ray's In A Lonely Place (1950), has died. Check out the new website for listings resource Screen Slate! The website now has sections for specially curated listings and articles, as well as a store featuring surveys and readers. Joaquin Phoenix is officially joining the cast of Ari Aster's next film, Disappointment Blvd. Produced by A24, the film reportedly is “an intimate, decades-spanning portrait of one of the most successful entrepreneurs of all time.” Recommended VIEWINGLingua Franca director Isabel Sandoval's short film Shang-ri Lais the latest of Miu Miu's Women's Tales, now playing on Mubi. The sensual story takes place in California during the Great Depression, and depicts a Filipino farmhand whose strong feelings...
- 2/24/2021
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Luis Buñuel (left) and Jean-Claude Carrière (right).The great Jean-Claude Carrière has died. The prolific screenwriter worked across genres and penned scripts from Philip Kaufman's The Unbearable Lightness of Being to Luis Buñuel's The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, and more recently, Philippe Garrel's The Salt of Tears. Revisit Notebook contributor Lawrence Garcia's overview of Carrière's wide-ranging career here. Actor Christopher Plummer, one of the last links between Classic Hollywood and today, has also died. Throughout his long and illustrious career, Plummer worked with filmmakers like Nicholas Ray, Sidney Lumet, Anthony Mann, Robert Mulligan, Anatole Litvak, Michael Mann, Spike Lee, Terrence Malick, and Pete Docter.The International Film Festival Rotterdam has come to an end, and the winners of this year's awards can be found here. The Berlinale is continuing...
- 2/10/2021
- MUBI
Time (dir. Garrett Bradley)Top Picksdoug DIBBERN1. Time (Garrett Bradley)2. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)3. Gunda (Viktor Kossakovsky)4. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-Soo)5. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)6. The Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel)7. Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)8. The Calming (Song Fang)9. Night of Kings (Philippe Lacôte)10. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)Daniel KASMAN1. Figure Minus Fact (Mary Helena Clark)2. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)3. Untitled Sequence Of Gaps (Vika Kirchenbauer)4. Labor of Love (Sylvia Schedelbauer)5. Beginning (Dea Kulumbegashvili)6. The Disciple (Chaitanya Tamhane)7. Red, White and Blue (Steve McQueen)8. Isabella (Matías Piñeiro)9. The Calming (Song Fang)10. Humongous! (Aya Kawazoe)Michael SICINSKI1. Figure Minus Fact (Mary Helena Clark)2. Lovers Rock (Steve McQueen)3. Her Socialist Smile (John Gianvito)4. The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili)5. Apiyemiyeki? (Ana Vaz)6. The Human Voice (Pedro Almodóvar)7. Time (Garrett Bradley)8. Isabella (Matías Piñeiro)9. The Last City (Heinz Emigholz)10. Trust Study #1 (Shobun Baile)Correpondences#1 Daniel Kasman introduces the 2020 festival and reviews Lovers...
- 10/14/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.Newsa number of this year's fall blockbusters have been delayed and rescheduled for 2021 releases, including Warner Bros.' The Batman, the latest James Bond picture No Time to Die, and Denis Villeneuve's Dune.Recommended VIEWINGSan Francisco Cinematheque has made the program Memories of Earth: (A)wake in a House of Worlds available for free online. The program, which includes artists from Yoko Ono and Yvonne Rainer to Sky Hopinka and Kevin Jerome Everson, features films that "recast notions of what constitutes the cinematic, the political and the poetic." From Ken Jacobs' Vimeo channel, his 2004 experimental feature Star Spangled to Death—a six-hour commentary and critique of the United States—in its entirety.An official trailer for Robert Zemeckis' adaptation of Roald Dahl's The Witches (produced by Guillermo Del Toro), set to premiere on HBO Max.
- 10/7/2020
- MUBI
Exclusive: Arthouse streaming platform Mubi has acquired all rights to well-reviewed Cannes 2020 Official Selection Sweat for the U.S., Latin America, India and Turkey.
Magnus von Horn’s Polish-Swedish co-production follows three days in the life of a fitness motivator and social media influencer, played by breakout actress Magdalena Koleśnik. Despite having hundreds of thousands of online followers the influencer craves true intimacy in real life.
The film was produced by Lava Films and co-produced by Zentropa Sweden, Film i Väst, Canal Plus, EC1 Łódź – Miasto Kultury, Opus Film, and Di Factory, with the support of the Polish Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, and Creative Europe’s Media program. Arp snapped up French rights last month.
Von Horn’s debut feature The Here After played in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2015.
Daniel Kasman, VP of Content, Mubi said: “We are thrilled to distribute the second feature by Magnus van Horn, a...
Magnus von Horn’s Polish-Swedish co-production follows three days in the life of a fitness motivator and social media influencer, played by breakout actress Magdalena Koleśnik. Despite having hundreds of thousands of online followers the influencer craves true intimacy in real life.
The film was produced by Lava Films and co-produced by Zentropa Sweden, Film i Väst, Canal Plus, EC1 Łódź – Miasto Kultury, Opus Film, and Di Factory, with the support of the Polish Film Institute, Swedish Film Institute, and Creative Europe’s Media program. Arp snapped up French rights last month.
Von Horn’s debut feature The Here After played in Cannes Directors’ Fortnight in 2015.
Daniel Kasman, VP of Content, Mubi said: “We are thrilled to distribute the second feature by Magnus van Horn, a...
- 7/30/2020
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Mubi has acquired the SVOD and TV rights to Werner Herzog’s feature “Family Romance, LLC” for North America, Germany, Latin America (excluding Brazil), Turkey, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. The sale was negotiated by Film Constellation.
The film stars Yuichi Ishii, the real-life CEO of Family Romance LLC, a company that rents out human surrogates for his clients’ every need—a family member for a social event, someone to take the blame for a mistake at work, a stranger to help you relive the best moment of your life.
In the film, a mother asks Ishii to impersonate her long-absent husband, and reconnect with her teenage daughter. The situation becomes a tangled net of transaction and emotion.
The film, written and directed by Herzog, used a tiny crew, with Herzog serving as cameraman. It was produced by Roc Morin.
It premiered in the Special Screenings section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival,...
The film stars Yuichi Ishii, the real-life CEO of Family Romance LLC, a company that rents out human surrogates for his clients’ every need—a family member for a social event, someone to take the blame for a mistake at work, a stranger to help you relive the best moment of your life.
In the film, a mother asks Ishii to impersonate her long-absent husband, and reconnect with her teenage daughter. The situation becomes a tangled net of transaction and emotion.
The film, written and directed by Herzog, used a tiny crew, with Herzog serving as cameraman. It was produced by Roc Morin.
It premiered in the Special Screenings section at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival,...
- 6/10/2020
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Awards: Golden Bear for Mohammad Rasoulof's There Is No EvilTOP Picksdaniel KASMAN1. The Salt of Tears (Philippe Garrel)2. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)3. Corporate Accountability (Jonathan Perel)4. Voices in the Wind (Nobuhiro Suwa)5. Undine (Christian Petzold)6. Generations (Lynne Siefert)7. Blue Eyes and Colorful My Dress (Polina Gumiela)8. Siberia (Abel Ferrara)9. The Woman Who Ran (Hong Sang-soo)10. Chronicle of Space (Akshay Indikar)Ela BITTENCOURT1. First Cow (Kelly Reichardt)2. Letter to a Friend (Emily Jacir)3. Days (Tsai Ming-liang)4. Malmkrog (Cristi Puiu)5. Dau6. The Trouble with Being Born (Sandra Wollner)7. Kill It and Leave This Town (Mateusz Wilczyński)8. Orphea9. The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)10. Tango of the Widower and Its Distorning MirrorCoveragedaniel KASMANFirst Encounters of the 70th YearPhilippe Garrel's Portrait of the Cad as a Young ManChristian Petzold's Fairy Tale BerlinHong Sang-soo's Options for WomanhoodPolitical LandscapesChild's PlayELA BITTENCOURTHighlights from Forum and Forum ExpandedDreaming the Impossible CinemaDau and the...
- 3/22/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbel Ferrara's SiberiaThe Berlin Film Festival Competition lineup has finally been unveiled, revealing a roster of heavy hitters that includes Ilya Khrzhanovsky's controversial installation project Dau, Abel Ferrara's long-delayed Siberia, Hong Sang-soo's latest The Woman Who Ran, and the anticipated return of Christian Petzold, Rithy Panh, Tsai Ming-liang, Sally Potter, and Philippe Garrel. Actor, writer, and director Terry Jones, best known for his involvement in the Monty Python comedy group and for directing the 1983 Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, has died. Recommended VIEWINGGrasshopper Films has released a trailer for Pedro Costa's bold Vitalina Varela, about a woman who arrives in Lisbon from Cape Verde to attend her estranged husband's funeral. Upon its premiere at 2019's Locarno Film Festival, editor Daniel Kasman described it as "a film of fierce determination and paramount resonance.
- 1/29/2020
- MUBI
Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party (2019)(Warning: Flashing lights.) The prolific Ken Jacobs, whose avant-garde epics transform archival footage into anaglyphs to create stunning simulations of depth, has often made his work freely available to the public, usually in the form of short GIFs on his Twitter and excerpts of his films on his Vimeo page. However, a recent batch of invaluable uploads expand this collection with the inclusion of the full-length films Return to the Scene of the Crime (2008) and A Primer in Sky Socialism 2-D (2014), Popeye Quartet (a compilation comprised of four shorts), and the shorts Painted Poster, Rain Clouds, and Sebastian and Jonas Leaving the Party (2019). Jacobs's Return to the Scene of the Crime sets the stage for the latter experimentations: The filmmaker isolates a single shot from the 1905 short Tom Tom, The Piper's Son (the subject of Jacobs's 1969 film of the same name) and proceeds to...
- 1/24/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSIvan Passer by Irfan Khan for the Los Angeles TimesFilmmaker Ivan Passer, a key figure in the Czech New Wave alongside peers like Miloš Forman, has died. For The Guardian, Andrew Pulver writes of Passer's departure from Prague and entry into Hollywood. The latest lineup announcement for this year's Berlinale includes the very exciting world premieres of Charlatan by Agnieszka Holland and Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue by Jia Zhangke. The Cannes Film Festival has announced that Spike Lee will preside over its jury, making him the first Black jury head in the festival's history. In a statement, Lee writes: "You could easily say Cannes changed the trajectory of who I became in world cinema.”Amid increasing festival buzz, awards season also continues with the release of the Academy Awards nominations, which can be found here.
- 1/15/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSWe're saddened to hear that Anna Karina, one of the defining figures of the French New Wave, has died. Though primarily remembered as the muse of Jean-Luc Godard, Karina was a remarkable actor, writer, and filmmaker in her own right. Justin Chang of the L.A. Times recalls her toughness and charm as seen throughout her expansive career. Courtesy of Josh Martin, the Chinese Film Bureau has shared a promising updated on the long gestating anthology film Seven-Person Band (previously titled Eight & a Half). The omnibus film is produced by Johnnie To, and features "some of Hong Kong's most renowned directors," including the late Ringo Lam. Alex Ross Perry is set to adapt Stephen King's 1989 novel The Dark Half, which follows an author whose literary alter ego comes to life with grisly intentions.
- 12/19/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.WavesDear Danny and Fern, Maybe I should admit now that this year's festival has been fully filtered through the fact that only a day before it began, I finally saw Brian De Palma's Carlito's Way (1993). The Bronx-set film, which follows reformed gangster Carlito Brigante (Al Pacino) and his dream of love and freedom, is a wrenching double exposure: Thrashing scenes of gunfights and shady deals lose their opacity beneath the romance of Carlito and his lover Gail (Penelope Ann Miller), who are saving up to afford a future together. But soon worlds clash, and a decision must be made fast; between the two frames, one of love and another of death, where shall Carlito go? How kind it is that De Palma takes the position of a real friend,...
- 9/15/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.2008Dear Kelley and Fern,I think many of us, amateurs and professionals alike, come to film festivals to be wowed. No one is at the Toronto International Film Festival simply for a nice time: Audiences attend festivals precisely to have a unique experience. This is why, for me, the shorts program of the Wavelengths section always feels like my home base at Tiff: Minute for minute, it provides the most surprises. Foregrounding artists’ films—variously but frustratingly called avant-garde (ahead of what?) and experimental (which suggests incompleteness) cinema—this section is wildly diverse: celluloid and video, abstraction and essay film, the art world and that of the cinephile, self-reflexivity and country-hopping globalism. You cannot leave one of these programs without your mind activated, your senses agog, and opinions abounding.After attending Wavelengths for many years,...
- 9/13/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.CézanneDear Danny and Fern, As the halfway mark of the festival approaches, perhaps you also find yourself and notice that others are trying to articulate a précis of sorts with whatever permutations possible—what it all means, where the industry is headed, which culturally relevant but politically insensitive, formally middling mid-brow title could win Best Picture at the Academy Awards. But today I find the predictions premature, and am taking my precious time to soak in the pause provided by Luke Fowler’s Cézanne, which screened in the third Wavelengths shorts program (titled “Look Around”). The film starts as a guided tour, its title card a street sign labeled Cézanne. Fowler films in Aix-en-Provence, the location of the artist’s studio and garden now occupied by what Michael Sicinski, in his overview of the program,...
- 9/11/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.The PlatformDear Danny and Kelley,Funny you mention a good night’s sleep in your last piece, Danny, as that’s a friend I have yet to meet during festivals. Fears of being late to screenings or behind on my coverage often keep me from enjoying a truly refreshing slumber, while the adrenaline of the environment keep my eyes wide open during the daily dash from title to title. As a result, there are times when I’m not quite sure if a moment or a scene or a whole movie is real or if I’ve dreamt it. The Platform, for instance, lingers like a nightmare brought on by indigestion. Given that Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s vicious sci-fi parable traffics in food, vertiginous fluctuations and hellish repetition, however, a nightmare...
- 9/10/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.The Painted BirdDear Kelley and Fern,Leonardo has already written on Václav Marhoul’s sprawling and undeniably uncomfortable The Painted Bird, but since I know neither of you are seeing it, I wanted to expand a bit more on this picaresque of human suffering. Based on the 1965 novel by Polish writer Jerzy Kosiński (who also wrote Being There), it episodically shuttles an orphaned boy from person to person around an unnamed Eastern European countryside of such provincial poverty it might as well be pre-industrial. We see a Luftwaffe scout plane early on, yet the deliberately measured effect of Marhoul’s decidedly relaxed storytelling is that of slowly pushing this boy from an older, nearly medieval past of superstition, into a Christian community, then into the Second War World and a key post-war coda.
- 9/9/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.BalloonDear Danny and Fern,The most important thing is to have fun! When the excitement lapses, for whatever reason, I think a lot about sleep—not the sleep I’ve lost (there are no regrets), but how swiftly sleep arrives at the end of a continuous stream of movies. I’ve been rushing in and out of dreams all day, trying to divvy the material so that pools of plots do not spill into each other. What I especially seek in the films seen here is lucidity, to alert the mind when the senses have been clouded by circumstance. Of course, both the thrills and bores encountered in the theatre take on new meanings (and higher stakes) when considered within the context of ongoing institutional initiatives. I mentioned last year...
- 9/8/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.The Cordillera of DreamsDear Danny and Kelley,After missing out on the fun last year, it’s a tremendous joy to be back with you on the festival grid, especially when said festival is the multifaceted whirlwind known as Tiff. I eagerly look forward to the feeling of anticipation and mystery I often get as I rush from screen to screen over the course of the next ten days. To a provincial cinephile like myself, the sheer amount of films to choose from will always be as thrilling as it is daunting, the experience akin to discovering untold riches while being lost in a labyrinth. Where to begin? Where to end? What to do in between? I used to lose sleep over lists and schedules, but recently I’ve learned...
- 9/7/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Tiff with an on-going correspondence between critics Fernando F. Croce, Kelley Dong, and editor Daniel Kasman.Color Out of SpaceDear Fernando and Kelley,The gang's all here! It is good to have you all back again for another Toronto International Film Festival. We have our work cut out for us, as usual: Tiff is giving no signs of slimming down its waistline. Often I wonder if, in a strange paradox, these mega festivals simply cannot afford to be smaller, that they need their size to justify their cost, and vice versa. Look back at our last eleven years of covering this festival and you will find, unabated, me and others grumbling about the sheer size of the enterprise, the unmanageably large slate of films. Apologies, then, for repeat readers. Covering Tiff would certainly be different if we were in less privileged, well-traveled position, as we could...
- 9/7/2019
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSTony Todd in Candyman (1992)Jordan Peele's Candyman (a "spiritual sequel" to the 1992 film) has officially started production, with a cast that includes Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo. Recommended VIEWINGFinally, a closer look at the long-anticipated film A Hidden Life, Terrence Malick's stirring portrait of an Austrian conscientious objector imprisoned during World War II. The official trailer from Alma Har'el's Honey Boy, starring, written by, and based on the childhood of Shia Lebeouf. Céline Sciamma's Portrait of a Lady on Fire, which won both Best Screenplay and the Queer Palm at this year's Cannes Film Festival. A warm and whimsical trailer for Greta Gerwig's adaptation of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. Jennifer Kent (The Babadook) returns with The Nightingale, which follows an imprisoned woman in colonial Australia,...
- 8/14/2019
- MUBI
For the eighth year in a row, the Locarno Film Festival is playing host to 12 aspiring film critics from around the world as part of the festival’s annual Critics Academy initiative.
Featuring participants from Switzerland, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Mexico, the U.S, the U.K., Nigeria and Czech Republic, the latest edition of the Locarno Critics Academy gives budding journalists the chance to interact with professional critics, programmers and filmmakers in attendance at Locarno.
The two-week long workshop encompasses the various aspects of the work of film critics — from pitching to composing articles to negotiating the world of industry, and finally to adapting their prose style to the working methods of different editors.
As part of the initiative, a collaboration between the Locarno festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (Foc), the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts), Swissinfo,...
Featuring participants from Switzerland, Pakistan, the Netherlands, Mexico, the U.S, the U.K., Nigeria and Czech Republic, the latest edition of the Locarno Critics Academy gives budding journalists the chance to interact with professional critics, programmers and filmmakers in attendance at Locarno.
The two-week long workshop encompasses the various aspects of the work of film critics — from pitching to composing articles to negotiating the world of industry, and finally to adapting their prose style to the working methods of different editors.
As part of the initiative, a collaboration between the Locarno festival, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, the Swiss Federal Office of Culture (Foc), the Swiss Association of Film Journalists, ZHdK (Zurich University of the Arts), Swissinfo,...
- 8/7/2019
- by Christopher Small
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDavid Cronenberg on the set of CrashThis year's Venice Film Festival will premiere a brand new 4K restoration of David Cronenberg's cult classic Crash. "Seems like only yesterday that we were shooting it," Cronenberg says. Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, best known for films Manuscripts Don't Burn (2013) and A Man of Integrity (2017), has been sentenced to one year in prison for "propaganda against the state," highlighting the plight of artists in Iran. Recommended VIEWINGBehold, the official trailer for Martin Scorsese's The Irishman, starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci. A first look at Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, the follow-up to The Witch, which follows two men struggling for both physical and mental survival in a tower on an isolated island. Notebook's Cannes correspondent Leonardo Goi describes the film as...
- 7/31/2019
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSJia Zhangke on the set of So Close to My LandThe latest from Jia Zhangke film is entitled So Close to My Land, an eight-chapter documentary that follows "esteemed Chinese writers Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua and Liang Hong" across four provinces. Jia also notes that the film is "an Eisenstein-styled film, with great subjective influence." Russian Ark filmmaker Aleksandr Sokurov has announced that he is shutting down his film foundation Primer Inotnatsii, which supports young Russian filmmakers, in response to pressure from Russia's culture ministry and a lack of funding. The organization helped producer Kantemir Balagov's Closeness, which Mubi premiered in May.Recommended VIEWINGThe first trailer for Takashi Miike's First Love, which follows an orphaned boxer caught in a turf war between Japanese yakuza and Chinese gangs. Read editor Daniel Kasman's review of the film here.
- 7/31/2019
- MUBI
John Carpenter. Photo courtesy of Thomas Smith for the Directors' Fortnight.In May, the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes presented John Carpenter with the Carrosse d'Or (Golden Coach), its lifetime achievement award named after Jean Renoir's 1952 classic film. This occasioned a ripe opportunity to talk to one of the great Hollywood masters of genre cinema whose influence was very much felt at the Fortnight in 2019 with premieres of Takashi Miike's thriller First Love and Robert Eggers's horror-tinged chamber drama The Lighthouse, as well as a revival of Carpenter's once-flop, now-classic The Thing (1982). A week before the festivities I spoke by phone with the director, who was delighted by his upcoming award, and while he seemed to be resting comfortably on a career about which didn't have much to add, we never the less had an amiably wry, easy-going, and laugh-filled conversation about storyboarding, special effects, the delight of...
- 7/19/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.LibertéDear Leo,The festival may almost be over, but that doesn’t mean the chance for controversy is gone. Abdellatif Kechiche’s new film, Mektoub, My Love: Intermezzo, premiered at the end of Cannes because it literally was finished this very month, but one might also suppose the festival preferred this presentation, enlivening the rapidly depopulating Croisette with scandal. I haven’t seen it yet, and in fact only caught up with the first Mektoub (subtitled Canto Uno) two weeks ago. Despite its 2017 premiere in competition at the Venice, it was never shown in North American film festivals and still has not been distributed. There is good reason for this shunning, even though the first film is Kechiche’s follow-up to the Palme d’Or-winning Blue Is the Warmest Color: it was brazenly and unredeemably misogynistic,...
- 5/29/2019
- MUBI
The 2019 Cannes Film Festival wrapped its 72nd edition on Sunday by awarding director Bong Joon-ho with the Palme d’Or for “Parasite,” his dark comedy about a lower-class family that schemes to overtake a wealthy household. It was the first time that the Palme d’Or went to a Korean director, and many critics felt that it was the right decision: “Parasite” topped IndieWire’s annual critics survey of the best films at Cannes, with 50 critics participating from around the world.
The outcome marked the second year in a row that a Korean film topped the survey, following the first-place finish for Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” in 2018.
“Parasite” also topped the category for best screenplay. For best director, however, another Cannes favorite ranked highly. French director Celine Sciamma topped that category with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which stars Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant as covert lovers in the 18th century.
The outcome marked the second year in a row that a Korean film topped the survey, following the first-place finish for Lee Chang-dong’s “Burning” in 2018.
“Parasite” also topped the category for best screenplay. For best director, however, another Cannes favorite ranked highly. French director Celine Sciamma topped that category with “Portrait of a Lady on Fire,” which stars Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant as covert lovers in the 18th century.
- 5/28/2019
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Below you will find an index of our coverage from the Cannes Film Festival, Directors' Fortnight, and Critics' Week in 2019, as well as our favorite films.Awardstop 101. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)2. Liberté (Albert Serra)3. Jeanne4. Bacurau5. Atlantics (Mati Diop)6. Zombi Child (Bertrand Bonello)7. A Hidden Life (Terrence Malick)8. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)9. The Whistlers (Corneliu Porumboiu)10. Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
(Contributors: Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, Ela Bittencourt, Annabel Ivy Brady-Brown, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Jordan Cronk, Jesse Cumming, Flavia Dima, Leonardo Goi, Daniel Kasman, Roger Koza, Boris Nelepo, Blake Williams)Correspondences#1 Daniel Kasman previews the festival | Read#2 Leonardo Goi reviews The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch), Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux) | Read#3 Daniel Kasman reviews Bacurau, Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov), Atlantics (Mati Diop) | Read#4 Leonardo Goi reviews Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach), Les misérables (Ladj Ly), A White, White Day (Hlynur Pálmason) | Read#5 Daniel Kasman reviews...
(Contributors: Pedro Emilio Segura Bernal, Ela Bittencourt, Annabel Ivy Brady-Brown, Giovanni Marchini Camia, Jordan Cronk, Jesse Cumming, Flavia Dima, Leonardo Goi, Daniel Kasman, Roger Koza, Boris Nelepo, Blake Williams)Correspondences#1 Daniel Kasman previews the festival | Read#2 Leonardo Goi reviews The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch), Deerskin (Quentin Dupieux) | Read#3 Daniel Kasman reviews Bacurau, Beanpole (Kantemir Balagov), Atlantics (Mati Diop) | Read#4 Leonardo Goi reviews Sorry We Missed You (Ken Loach), Les misérables (Ladj Ly), A White, White Day (Hlynur Pálmason) | Read#5 Daniel Kasman reviews...
- 5/28/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.Oh MercyDear Danny, I only left Cannes yesterday, and yet the Croisette seemed unrealistically far this morning, almost as if it had already begun to drift into a cloud in time—as though it had never happened. This is my last dispatch of the year; like yours, it finds me writing you from the comforts of home. I began my day re-reading our correspondences—partly to give in to the nostalgia, but also to remind myself of all we’ve seen the past couple of weeks. And with the benefits of a good night’s sleep, things looked a lot clearer, and double bills I hadn’t yet thought of began to surface: films we had seen and written on in separate dispatches, which suddenly made for eye-opening pairings. What to make of...
- 5/28/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.The HaltDear Leo,My last dispatch was focused on excess, confessions, and the vulgar. My final letter from Cannes will be devoted to political filmmaking. For Filipino director Lav Diaz there is no such thing as “political filmmaking,” for filmmaking is an inherently political act. This has always been true of his movies but has reached a greatly more heightened and indeed possibly perilous degree as his country has fallen under the blood-stained and repressive leadership of Rodrigo Duterte. Diaz’s last few movies have addressed this painful and dangerous new era indirectly: A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery is set in the time of the Philippine revolution in order to explore where the hopes for the country after colonialism could have gone, and his last, the musical Season of the Devil, is...
- 5/27/2019
- MUBI
The Notebook is covering Cannes with an on-going correspondence between critic Leonardo Goi and editor Daniel Kasman.Pain and GloryDear Danny, Few things feel as sad as the end of a festival, and as I begin to look back at my first year in Cannes, crouched inside a bus that’s gliding past seaside towns, East-bound, the post-Croisette spleen fills the air with the memories of the past two weeks—sounds and images that feel almost unfairly beautiful now the Palais and the festival around it is miles past me already. And while it may still be too early to give in to rankings, of all the great many things I’ve been able to sit down and watch the past couple of weeks, there are two I trust will stay in me longer than any others, two spell-binding moviegoing experiences which, coincidentally, took place on my very last festival day—yesterday.
- 5/27/2019
- MUBI
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