AMBITIOUS SLACKER (Free subscription) | 17 hours ago
40. DOGVILLE This played theaters at the same time as THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST: just imagine a world where millions lined up to see Lars von Trier's perceptive, droll study of self-awareness, cruelty and revenge over Mel Gibson's crucifixion porn. 39. BEST IN SHOW Christy Cummings: "The heart and the soul, which was what my mom did, that was her role, she was there for the unconditional love...
Shooting Down Pictures (Free subscription) | 04/02/2010
Part of THE COLLOQUIUM FOR UNPOPULAR CULTURE: THE SPEED OF YOUR HAIR (A series on love) “You eat,” Luke said, “at the speed of your hair.” “What does that mean'” said Nicole. It took an effort of will not to say, “It means I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want to be with [...]
Torontoist (Free subscription) | 03/02/2010
Still from Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg courtesy of Cinematheque. Last month we reported that the first few weeks of the Best of the Decade programme currently unfolding at the TIFF Cinematheque (née Cinematheque Ontario) are jam-packed with arty noodle-scratchers and slow-moving snoozers. Well, as January begets February and the temperature drops even lower, things seem to be warming over at the...
Fin de Cinema (Free subscription) | 03/02/2010
As it dawned on me that the season premiere of Lost was tonight an hour too late, I decided to avoid the social networking sites and put together a DVD Release Update; speaking of Lost , the final season (as well as a series box set) will become available on DVD and Blu-ray on 24 August. For the first time in 2010, there are a bunch of exciting Blu-rays lined up, which includes some of the best ( The...
The Life and Times of a Problem Child (Free subscription) | 01/02/2010
“J’ai voulu un mélange d’ultra-sophistication et d’ultra-brut.’’- Josephus Thimister Comme d'habitude, le matin started with another fight avec ma mère. This rather makes me nostalgic yet again about the sentiment raised by Elfriede Jelinek in her roman La Pianiste wherein...
Nostalgia Kinky (Free subscription) | 28/01/2010
I couldn't let the week slip by without mentioning that Wim Wender's astounding 1984 film Paris, Texas has just been released as part of the prestigious Criterion Collection. This set has been greatly anticipated by a lot of folks, myself included, who consider Wender's film among the best ever made and I am thrilled that it is finally out. The two-disc set contains everything from a great commentary...
Moon in the Gutter (Free subscription) | 28/01/2010
I couldn't let the week slip by without mentioning that Wim Wender's astounding 1984 film Paris, Texas has just been released as part of the prestigious Criterion Collection. This set has been greatly anticipated by a lot of folks, myself included, who consider Wender's film among the best ever made and I am thrilled that it is finally out. The two-disc set contains everything from a great commentary...
East Bay View (mostly a food blog) (Free subscription) | 27/01/2010
It's obligatory to mention that the career of Denis is difficult to extricate from that of Agnès Godard, her regular cinematographer for two decades (though Godard has worked with other directors); indeed, Beau travail might have the most incisive shots of male bodies ever, and there seems no point in dividing credit between the two of them. But too little attention has been paid to Denis's...
Talking Pictures (Free subscription) | 22/01/2010
Alex Descas in "35 Shots of Rum," set in multicultural, endlessly enticing Paris. A lovely, searching film, co-writer and director Claire Denis’ Paris-set family story says a great deal about transience, the fluidity of borders and murmurs of the heart...
The Life and Times of a Problem Child (Free subscription) | 22/01/2010
J.M. Coetzee was love at first read (if there ever is such a thing). I instantly fell in love with his astute literary criticisms but that was his non-fiction by means of Stranger Shores. En tout cas, my likeliness to...
Dallas Observer | Complete Issue (Free subscription) | 21/01/2010
Recent American films about families, like last year's Rachel Getting Married and Revolutionary Road, all too often pierce eardrums with unrelenting shrieks of dysfunction and misery. Amid the din, French filmmaker Claire Denis' sublime 35 Shots of Rum stands out all t...
The One-Line Review (Free subscription) | 18/01/2010
France/Germany Feature Film Original Title: 35 rhums Director: Claire Denis Writers: Claire Denis, Jean-Pol Fargeau Cinematographer: Agnès Godard Composers: Tindersticks Cast: Alex Descas, Mati Diop, Nicole Dogué, Grégoire Colin, Jean-Christophe Folly, Djédjé Apali, Eriq Ebouaney, Ingrid Caven Claire Denis’s beautifully observed, sensually shot, and poetically...
Fin de Cinema (Free subscription) | 13/01/2010
In addition to my own proceedings, I participated on two other sites' '00s round-up, both of which were posted today. Firstly, over at The Auteurs Notebook, a collection of writers submitted a single image from a single film from the past ten years and then defended that with a single sentence . The image I selected came from Claire Denis' L'intrus . Over at Out 1 Film Journal , I was asked to contribute...
Out 1 (Free subscription) | 12/01/2010
As is the custom at the end of every year, we take a final look back at the year of movies in 2009. Of course, many of the best movies "made" in 2009 actually premiered at various places in 2008, which puts the time they were "made" somewhere around 2007. Semantics are always a part of these lists for what qualifies and what doesn't. Do festival screenings count? Does it need a...
Film Experience Blog (Free subscription) | 10/01/2010
previously... #100-76 and #75-51 and #50-31 fav films of the aughts. Awards for 2009 begin on Wednesday, January 13th or thereabouts. For this next group installment of the countdown we start in beautiful France and have a lot of trouble leaving it! It even pulls us back in the end. 30 Beau Travail dir. Claire Denis (1999, released in 2000) It's okay that I haven't seen it in so long that it feels...
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