An Outpost of Progress“Shadow,” said he,“Where can it be –This land of Eldorado?” —Edgar Allan Poe, “Eldorado”, 1849While critics mine film festivals for hidden or sometimes unattainable gems, a parallel quest for an El Dorado can be seen as a thematic undercurrent within the larger focus of the Berlin International Film Festival’s Forum section on migration. This quest is especially apparent in the gold mines of the Peruvian Andes in Salomé Lamas’ Eldorado Xxi and the jade mines of northern Myanmar in Midi Z’s City of Jade. Set in the same war-torn region as the latter film, Wang Bing’s Ta'ang follows people from the eponymous minority group seeking safer shelter across the Chinese border. In An Outpost of Progress and competition film Letters from War, the Portuguese filmmakers Hugo Vieira da Silva and Ivo M. Ferreira deal explicitly with the colonial connotations of the notion of El Dorado.
- 2/24/2016
- by Ruben Demasure
- MUBI
The new issue of Lola features work by the late Peter von Bagh and on Max Ophüls, Terrence Malick, Aoyama Shinji, Wang Bing and more. And the new issue of Cinema Comparat/ive Cinema focuses on Portuguese cinema and the work of Manoel de Olivera, Pedro Costa, Paolo Rocha and António Reis. Also in today's roundup: Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson discuss 70mm and more, plus interviews with Caveh Zahedi and Charles Poekel, early word on new projects by Christopher Nolan and Hirokazu Koreeda, best-of-2015 lists from Jonathan Rosenbaum and others, a review of David Thomson's new book, How to Watch a Movie—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 12/28/2015
- Keyframe
The new issue of Lola features work by the late Peter von Bagh and on Max Ophüls, Terrence Malick, Aoyama Shinji, Wang Bing and more. And the new issue of Cinema Comparat/ive Cinema focuses on Portuguese cinema and the work of Manoel de Olivera, Pedro Costa, Paolo Rocha and António Reis. Also in today's roundup: Quentin Tarantino and Paul Thomas Anderson discuss 70mm and more, plus interviews with Caveh Zahedi and Charles Poekel, early word on new projects by Christopher Nolan and Hirokazu Koreeda, best-of-2015 lists from Jonathan Rosenbaum and others, a review of David Thomson's new book, How to Watch a Movie—and more. » - David Hudson...
- 12/28/2015
- Fandor: Keyframe
Chis Marker's Chat écoutant la musiqueThere are dog people and there are cat people, this we know, and there are even people who claim to be of both—though latent sympathies remain unspoken, like with a parent and which child is their favorite. With the Vienna Film Festival welcoming me with a tumbling collection of dog and cat short films spanning cinema's history—the Austrian Film Museum, an essential destination each year collaborating with the Viennale, is hosting a “a brief zoology of cinema” throughout the festivities—it is clear that filmmakers, too, have their preference. Silent cinema decidedly prefers the more easily trained and exhibited canine, with 1907’s surreal favorite Les chiens savants as a certain kind of cruel pinnacle. For the cats, Chris Marker, already the presiding figure over so much in 20th century art, I think we can easily claim is the cine-laureate. One need not know...
- 11/8/2015
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
We're very excited that Lola, one of our favorite film journals, has started to roll out its 5th issue entitled "Shows." The pieces published so far include Joe McElhaney on German filmmakers in Hollywood, Lesley Stern on the "Ghostliness of Gesture", and Dorian Stuber & Marianne Tettlebaum on To Be or Not to Be. Still to come: "essays on Claire Denis, Eduardo Coutinho, anime, Blade Runner, the filmic object, film criticism, and more ... plus a special interview with James Benning." The Museum of the Moving Image's "First Look" lineup has been announced and includes new films by Ulrich Seidl, Ken Jacobs, and Gina Telaroli. The series will be running between January 9th and 18th. For Criterion, Farren Smith Nehme writes on Frank Capra's It Happened One Night:
"An ideal romantic comedy doesn’t ignore reality; it converses with it. The Depression may be softened by moonlight and shining eyes,...
"An ideal romantic comedy doesn’t ignore reality; it converses with it. The Depression may be softened by moonlight and shining eyes,...
- 11/26/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
2. For Paulo Rocha
Weekend 2 - Day 1 - December 13th, 2013
The second Harvard-Gulbenkian program centers around a vitally important yet still under appreciated figure of the post-WW2 Portuguese cinema, the late Paulo Rocha whose influential masterpiece of poetic neo-realism, Mudar de vida (1966) is offered both in tribute to his recent passing and as an occasion to reconsider Rocha's cinema and legacy. Looking beyond the historic "Cinema Novo" movement with which this film and Rocha himself are most closely associated, Mudar de vida is placed here within a broader, alternate context: in dialogue with the films and presence of Víctor Gaviria and Billy Woodberry, two directors inspired, like Rocha, to renew the promise of a truly "popular cinema" intimate with the stories, experiences and landscapes of the people depicted and ultimately empowered by their films. Unseen in Portugal, the films of Gaviria and Woodberry offer revelational compliments to Rocha's lyrical realism, each...
Weekend 2 - Day 1 - December 13th, 2013
The second Harvard-Gulbenkian program centers around a vitally important yet still under appreciated figure of the post-WW2 Portuguese cinema, the late Paulo Rocha whose influential masterpiece of poetic neo-realism, Mudar de vida (1966) is offered both in tribute to his recent passing and as an occasion to reconsider Rocha's cinema and legacy. Looking beyond the historic "Cinema Novo" movement with which this film and Rocha himself are most closely associated, Mudar de vida is placed here within a broader, alternate context: in dialogue with the films and presence of Víctor Gaviria and Billy Woodberry, two directors inspired, like Rocha, to renew the promise of a truly "popular cinema" intimate with the stories, experiences and landscapes of the people depicted and ultimately empowered by their films. Unseen in Portugal, the films of Gaviria and Woodberry offer revelational compliments to Rocha's lyrical realism, each...
- 4/10/2014
- by Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian
- MUBI
Above: Trás-os-Montes (1976)
The origins of "Harvard at the Gulbenkian - Dialogues About Portuguese Film and World Cinema" lie in a series of influential programs and events organized by the Harvard Film Archive that together introduced Us audiences to the incredible richness of Portuguese cinema. Of special importance among these was "The School of Reis," a 2012 Harvard Film Archive program which explored the legacy of the late António Reis by grouping major works by Reis' students and collaborators together with the pioneering films that he directed, both alone and together with Margarida Cordeiro. "The School of Reis" was critically acclaimed not only in the Us, but also in Portugal where it was appreciated as an alternate way of historicizing the radical approaches to narrative cinema embraced by so many of the greatest Portuguese filmmakers.
Seeking a different approach to the work of those Portuguese filmmakers considered earlier by "The School of Reis,...
The origins of "Harvard at the Gulbenkian - Dialogues About Portuguese Film and World Cinema" lie in a series of influential programs and events organized by the Harvard Film Archive that together introduced Us audiences to the incredible richness of Portuguese cinema. Of special importance among these was "The School of Reis," a 2012 Harvard Film Archive program which explored the legacy of the late António Reis by grouping major works by Reis' students and collaborators together with the pioneering films that he directed, both alone and together with Margarida Cordeiro. "The School of Reis" was critically acclaimed not only in the Us, but also in Portugal where it was appreciated as an alternate way of historicizing the radical approaches to narrative cinema embraced by so many of the greatest Portuguese filmmakers.
Seeking a different approach to the work of those Portuguese filmmakers considered earlier by "The School of Reis,...
- 3/6/2014
- by Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian
- MUBI
Mubi is proud to present work produced for Harvard at the Gulbenkian, a collaboration between the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the Harvard Film Archive. Curated by Haden Guest and Joaquim Sapinho, and produced by Pedro Fernandes Duarte, Harvard at the Gulbenkian organizes a series of dialogues about Portuguese film and world cinema. The series consists of 12 weekends, between November 2013 and July 2014, in which a Portuguese filmmaker and one, two or three international filmmakers, and one or more important film critics or scholars of many nationalities are brought together for a series of screenings and public discussions. We will be hosting the articles and video conversations produced for the series, and this index will be updated as events take place in Lisbon.
"The inaugural weekend of the Harvard-Gulbenkian collaboration makes clear the central ambition and idea of our program: a radical rethinking and recontextualization of Portuguese cinema within the broader realm of world cinema.
"The inaugural weekend of the Harvard-Gulbenkian collaboration makes clear the central ambition and idea of our program: a radical rethinking and recontextualization of Portuguese cinema within the broader realm of world cinema.
- 3/6/2014
- by Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian
- MUBI
The inaugural weekend of the Harvard-Gulbenkian collaboration makes clear the central ambition and idea of our program: a radical rethinking and recontextualization of Portuguese cinema within the broader realm of world cinema. Against the still lingering critique of Portuguese cinema as marginal, artisan and willfully eccentric, we offer a contrary vision of a restless cinema engaged in a dynamic and expansive dialogue with the most innovative and important trends in world cinema. At the core of the Harvard-Gulbenkian program are a select group of Portuguese artists who have together defined a cinema of ideas through visionary films distinguished by their philosophical depth, poetic form and radical reinvention of cinematic traditions. These adventurous films, these daring gambits, are not the products of insular national tradition, but are instead the evidence of a profound connection with the most important transnational currents in world cinema today.
Above: Trás-os-Montes
Our first program begins with...
Above: Trás-os-Montes
Our first program begins with...
- 3/4/2014
- by Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian
- MUBI
There is no need for you to leave the house. Stay at your table and listen. Don't even listen, just wait. Don't even wait, be completely quiet and alone. The world will offer itself to you to be unmasked; it can't do otherwise; in raptures it will writhe before you."
—Franz Kafka, "Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope, and the True Way."
Above: Director Vítor Gonçalves
Behold the Palace Square in Lisbon—or rather, Praça do Comércio, where the Royal Ribeira Palace stood for nearly two hundred years. In the 18th century, the palace was destroyed by the Great Lisbon Earthquake, never to be restored (instead was built a new one, though, not for the King to live) hence the new name—The Square of Commerce. Here, in the seat of Fascist power, tens of thousands people would gather to listen to Salazar's orations (see Brandos Costumes by Alberto Seixas Santos); then came the Carnation Revolution.
—Franz Kafka, "Reflections on Sin, Suffering, Hope, and the True Way."
Above: Director Vítor Gonçalves
Behold the Palace Square in Lisbon—or rather, Praça do Comércio, where the Royal Ribeira Palace stood for nearly two hundred years. In the 18th century, the palace was destroyed by the Great Lisbon Earthquake, never to be restored (instead was built a new one, though, not for the King to live) hence the new name—The Square of Commerce. Here, in the seat of Fascist power, tens of thousands people would gather to listen to Salazar's orations (see Brandos Costumes by Alberto Seixas Santos); then came the Carnation Revolution.
- 2/24/2014
- by Boris Nelepo
- MUBI
News.
The 66th issue of Senses of Cinema is now online, and features pieces on Chris Marker, David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock—among many others. The Mark Rappaport-Ray Carney saga continues (if this is new to you, see here) with Carney's first time on record about his controversial decision to hold onto creative materials once (and, according to the filmmaker, still) belonging to Rappaport. We won't editorialize here, so we'll let you read the rather gigantic essay from Carney, and make up your own mind. In our forum, both Rappaport and Jon Jost (who has been actively bringing this issue to the public eye) have chimed in and others are joining into the conversation.
News via the "Free John McTiernan" page on Facebook: the filmmaker is working on developing a script for a project titled Warbirds, in spite of the upcoming jail time he's facing. Not a lot of details on the film,...
The 66th issue of Senses of Cinema is now online, and features pieces on Chris Marker, David Lynch and Alfred Hitchcock—among many others. The Mark Rappaport-Ray Carney saga continues (if this is new to you, see here) with Carney's first time on record about his controversial decision to hold onto creative materials once (and, according to the filmmaker, still) belonging to Rappaport. We won't editorialize here, so we'll let you read the rather gigantic essay from Carney, and make up your own mind. In our forum, both Rappaport and Jon Jost (who has been actively bringing this issue to the public eye) have chimed in and others are joining into the conversation.
News via the "Free John McTiernan" page on Facebook: the filmmaker is working on developing a script for a project titled Warbirds, in spite of the upcoming jail time he's facing. Not a lot of details on the film,...
- 3/20/2013
- by Adam Cook
- MUBI
Portuguese maestro Pedro Costa came to the UK at the beginning of October, 2012. He initially arrived in Cambridge University for a screening of the sublime In Vanda's Room, then he traveled down to the capital to take part in a pair of Q&As following presentations of the newly remastered Second Run DVD release of Casa De Lava and a 35mm print of Ne change rien. As Ne change rien played, I sat and waited with Costa in the bar of London's Ica cinema and, with a tape rolling on the table, we started to talk.
David Jenkins: How does the projection look?
Pedro Costa: It's great. It must be the projectionist. The sound and the image are perfectly balanced. The other day I got hold of the first Dcp of Historic Centre and the girl who screened our test was the popcorn girl. Which is okay, but.
David Jenkins: How does the projection look?
Pedro Costa: It's great. It must be the projectionist. The sound and the image are perfectly balanced. The other day I got hold of the first Dcp of Historic Centre and the girl who screened our test was the popcorn girl. Which is okay, but.
- 3/11/2013
- by David Jenkins
- MUBI
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Above: David Lynch photographed by Richard Dumas, via everyday_i_show's gallery including Claire Denis, Haruki Murakami, Jim Jarmusch and more.
News.
Joaquin Phoenix is poised to take cinema by storm with roles in the latest works from Paul Thomas Anderson and James Gray. Via The Playlist, pictured above is Phoenix on the set of Spike Jonze's next, as of yet untitled, feature. We lost two great performers in the past few days: Ernest Borgnine and Isuzu Yamada, both of whom passed away at the age of 95. David Hudson has rounded up some words on both over at Keyframe Daily.
The 2012 Locarno Film Festival has announced its lineup. Included are new films by Soi Cheang, Quentin Dupieux, João Pedro Rodrigues, Jean-Claude Brisseau, Bertrand Bonello, Heinz Emigholz, Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Jean-Marie Straub, and the aforementioned Leviathan. Also incredibly exciting is the retrospective on Otto Preminger, presenting the director's entire filmography.
Finds.
News.
Joaquin Phoenix is poised to take cinema by storm with roles in the latest works from Paul Thomas Anderson and James Gray. Via The Playlist, pictured above is Phoenix on the set of Spike Jonze's next, as of yet untitled, feature. We lost two great performers in the past few days: Ernest Borgnine and Isuzu Yamada, both of whom passed away at the age of 95. David Hudson has rounded up some words on both over at Keyframe Daily.
The 2012 Locarno Film Festival has announced its lineup. Included are new films by Soi Cheang, Quentin Dupieux, João Pedro Rodrigues, Jean-Claude Brisseau, Bertrand Bonello, Heinz Emigholz, Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Jean-Marie Straub, and the aforementioned Leviathan. Also incredibly exciting is the retrospective on Otto Preminger, presenting the director's entire filmography.
Finds.
- 7/12/2012
- MUBI
"To anyone who was immersed in the fervent cinématheque culture of the immediate post-Salazar era in Portugal, the four films that António Reis, a poet, painter, sculptor, and filmmaker, made with his wife, Margarida Cordeiro, are the stuff of legend," writes Gabe Klinger for Moving Image Source. "Just ask Manoel de Oliveira, Pedro Costa, or Jean-Marie Straub. For those lucky enough to be in attendance, this year's Jeonju International Film Festival in South Korea has imported three of the films in gorgeous 35mm from the Cinemateca Portuguesa: Jaime, Trás-os-Montes, and Ana. Born to peasants in rural Portugal and growing up in humble, near-destitute surroundings before migrating to cities (Porto in Reis's scase, Lisbon in Cordeiro's), both adopted a profoundly moral position in their work that the critic Luis Miguel Oliveira sums up with the following equation: film that space, understand those people."
Ken Jacobs and his wife, Flo, will present...
Ken Jacobs and his wife, Flo, will present...
- 5/6/2011
- MUBI
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