Balsom joined me to talk about the book (out now from Fireflies Press) and the many-sided approach she took to writing about one of the most deceptively simple—and beautiful—films in Benning’s fantastically varied body of work. We also discussed where Ten Skies fits into his filmography, the ways in which Benning plays with his own identity, how ten static shots of clouds can be a powerful political statement, and much more....
For our fourth (and final!) podcast dispatch from Toronto, Film Comment Co-Deputy Editor Devika Girish is joined by critics Lovia Gyarkye (The Hollywood Reporter) and Alex Barasch (The New Yorker) to talk about Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario, Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour, Ellen Kuras’s Lee, Cord Jefferson’s American Fiction, and many more. Find all of our TIFF 2023 coverage here.
Shen Kong (Chen Guan, 2021) Someone following Venice 2021 reviews and tweets from afar could be forgiven for thinking the festival consists of only the main competition, plus a couple of non-competing cineplex titles, and that all of it is gold. Press coverage indistinguishable from PR is endemic in major film festivals, but it has always been particularly grievous in Venice, reaching hysterical heights during this edition. (Cf. the Twitter flood of parodic Dune hot takes emulating the runaway hyperbole of festivalspeak....
David speaks in the slow, soft tones of someone very important, but Rafelson soon shows us that he is a legend only in his own mind. The first clue is the red flashing of the telephone that illuminates half of David’s face while he is still on the air; his monologue is not so important that the engineer in the adjacent room won’t interrupt it when an urgent call is coming in....
If Blake Edwards’s expertly made but jejune 1962 thriller is any indication, times were simpler in early-Sixties San Francisco. When criminal Ross Martin involves prim teller Lee Remick in his plan to rob the bank where she works, Remick turns to friendly neighborhood G-man Glenn Ford. Taking down her name with pencil and pad, as if preparing a grocery list, Ford doesn’t initially inspire confidence, but there’s something comforting in his earnest simplicity—upon learning that someone is romantically involved with Martin, he asks, “How could she protect a man like that?...
Told entirely in a cappella verse, Season of the Devil walks a tight rope between artifice and realism. The songs, written by Diaz himself, are hypnotically simple and frighteningly infectious creations, all dire incantations and wordless repetitions; advancing the narrative while reinforcing the oppressive nature of a fascist philosophy, the melodies accumulate a metaphoric heft through each successive iteration. Combining history and folklore, Diaz draws a direct and powerful line from the Marcos dictatorship to the Philippines of today, led with freshly unscrupulous and amoral tactics by Rodrigo Duterte....
The Young Ones Last Monday, word went around that Rik Mayall, the English comedian, had died at the age of 56. He was buried yesterday. And while I’m not a great believer in the RIP industry and the chasing of hearses for content, once a week I fill this space with whatever is on my mind, and in this particular case, that something happens to be Rik Mayall. Mayall was born in 1958 in Harlow, Essex, but raised in the West Midlands, an identification which would leave a deep impression on his comedy....
We laughed till we cried, the “we” being the diverse, usually combative press corps, which almost unanimously embraced Maren Ade’s Toni Erdmann as the first great film of the 2016 festival, in part because it accomplished what few films do in these polarized times: it made us aware of our common humanity. An unlikely screwball comedy, Toni Erdmann focuses on a father/daughter relationship. Winfried (Peter Simonischek) is a sixtysomething, divorced, former piano teacher, living alone in a small German town....
Competition Asghar Farhadi, Todos lo saben (Everybody Knows) Opening Night Film Trailer Stéphane Brizé, At War Matteo Garrone, Dogman Jean-Luc Godard, Le livre d’image Trailer Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Netemo Sametemo (Asako I & II) Christophe Honoré, Sorry Angel Eva Husson, Girls of the Sun Jia Zhang-ke, Ash Is Purest White Hirokazu Kore-eda, Shoplifters Nadine Labaki, Capernaum Lee Chang-dong, Buh-ning (Burning) Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman David Robert Mitchell, Under the Silver Lake Jafar Panahi, 3 Faces...
Check back for updates to this page as more information becomes available. Pedro Almodóvar, Pain and Glory Cast: Penélope Cruz, Antonio Banderas, Asier Etxeandia Marco Bellocchio, The Traitor (Il traditore) Cast: Pierfrancesco Favino, Luigi Lo Cascio Yinan Diao, The Wild Goose Lake Cast: Liao Fan, Kwai Lun-Mei Bong Joon-ho, Parasite Cast: Kang-ho Song, Sun-kyun Lee Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, Young Ahmed (Le jeune Ahmed) Cast: Idir Ben Addi, Olivier Bonnaud, Myriem Akheddiou Mati Diop, Atlantiques Arnaud Desplechin, Oh Mercy!...
Over the Brooklyn Bridge It is a typically glitzy PR luncheon at a dark New York night club—the glowing red sauce on the chicken breasts could light up a Vegas runway for Charo. Upstaging the fruit cup, Menahem Golan rises to address his audience on the subject of inspiration. “I am reading this script when all of a sudden the plane starts dropping like a stone,” he declares. “Everybody is panicking....
Letter from Siberia “It’s pretty rare to be able to take a walk in an image of childhood.” These words from Chris Marker’s 1958 film-essay Letter from Siberia are echoed, later, in La Jetée, a film about “a man marked by an image from his childhood.” Both of these “images of childhood” are reprised and subtly modulated at the beginning of Sans soleil in the film’s opening “image of happiness”: three children on a road in Iceland....
Hot Rods to Hell In 1967, there was no such thing as “summer movie season.” Films were released throughout the year, on a Friday or Tuesday or Monday, in scattershot patterns across the country; Bonnie and Clyde opened in two Manhattan theaters on a Sunday 50 years ago this week and didn’t start making most of its money for many months. But even back then, there were movies that felt destined for the dog days before Labor Day weekend, fill-ins that theaters programmed while they waited for the next piece of (presumably) top-tier studio product....
Gemini begins with a topsy-turvy image of palm trees. They dangle in a purple noir sky, canopies down, like jokey, fuzzy earrings hanging from the lobes of unseen giants. Then the camera shifts to reveal that we’re simply in Los Angeles. That nifty yet shallow visual introduction suits this L.A. murder mystery. It starts suggestively and enigmatically, then straightens—and flattens—everything out, including the emotional and moral landscape of its characters....
John Boorman’s Queen and Country, his sequel to Hope and Glory (87), is bracingly sane about war, peace, and young adulthood. In this engrossing autobiographical saga of life in Britain’s National Service at the time of the Korean War, Boorman’s surrogate in the comedy-drama, 19-year-old Bill Rohan (Callum Turner), exudes a smart, buoyant wariness. He registers the lunacy of rigid officers like Sergeant Major Bradley (David Thewlis) and out-of-control army rebels like his fellow Sergeant Instructor and close pal, Percy Hapgood (Caleb Landry Jones)....
