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A couple of weeks ago, I sat down with Blanchett to dig into those calibrations and the process behind some of the most interesting performances of her career. We discussed her iconic turns in Jim Jarmusch’s Coffee and Cigarettes, Todd Haynes’s I’m Not There, Taika Waititi’s Thor: Ragnarok, and some deeper cuts, like her early roles in the Australian miniseries Bordertown and Tom Tykwer’s Heaven (which was written by Krzysztof Kieślowski)....
Links & Things The Beatles: Get Back on Disney+ Geeta’s review of The Beatles: Get Back in 4Columns Ornette: Made in America on streaming The Velvet Underground on Apple TV+ Geeta’s review of The Velvet Underground in 4Columns Summer of Soul on Hulu Milford Graves Full Mantis on streaming
Though a likely lock for many end-of-year lists, TÁR has been fairly divisive among critics. So for today’s podcast, Film Comment editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute took inspiration from Mr. Brody’s tweet and invited two well-matched gladiators—the valiant Jessica Kiang on the pro-side and the courageous Nathan Lee on the con—to debate the relative merits and demerits of the movie. Two critics enter, one critic leaves… May the best critic win!...
And, in the second half of this episode, we expand upon the new issue’s major feature on French filmmakers Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet. For decades, the pair created an insightful body of work that delved deeply into history and art. Working closely together in all aspects of film production, they created personalized cinematic visions, frequently using the works of other artists—literature, painting, and film—as a jumping-off point to explore contemporary political issues....
Looking and listening: the late, great filmmaker Albert Maysles (1926-2015) is the subject of our May/June 2015 cover story. Chris Boeckmann pays tribute to the documentarian’s attuned filmmaking with close readings of his classic documentaries (Salesman, Gimme Shelter, Grey Gardens) and his lesser-known later portraits. Then, to ensure a healthy case of reader whiplash, we proudly present our latest special midsection, Korea Prospects II, a grand follow-up to our 2004 survey, showcasing that country’s continuingly vibrant cinema....
The Baby of Macon Two hours later, splashing into the Palais des festivals for a celluloid warm-up, I was still thinking about what he said. If Martian poetry is an odd way of going about art, how about—Lights! Costumes! Action! —the 46th Cannes Film Festival? This was the weirdest French movie spree in years. For Martians gazing with fresh eyes on Earth, read the Present emergency-landing on the Past. We who came to learn about 1993 were shoved instead into lecture-shuttles going to 1893, 1793, 1493, 993....
Silent Land (Aga Woszczyńska, 2021) After a downscaled, muted edition last year, the Toronto International Film Festival is back. Sort of. Half back. Weirdly, quietly back. Let’s say enough back: in the first days of TIFF 2021 I managed to see enough genuinely interesting films—in cinemas!—to evoke a hint of that old pre-pandemic sensorial ping-pong that comes with festival immersion. That all of these initial highlights are first features, and all but one helmed by women, makes for an encouraging prognosis for cinema’s future, even as the industry remains in bustling limbo....
This is an excerpt from Dennis Lim’s Tale of Cinema, the fourth release in the Decadent Editions series from Fireflies Press. The book is available for pre-order from the Fireflies Press website. As I worked on this book, I was also planning a Hong retrospective in New York, and in the course of doing so, wondering if there is an optimal way to encounter the films. If one were to watch Hong’s many movies in chronological order, would this reveal a meaningful progression?...
Is this Mumblecore’s answer to Chillwave? Almost certainly. Andrew Bujalski’s newest project, Computer Chess, sets out to tackle vintage––but still unanswered––philosophical questions of technophobia and technolust. Set in 1980, the story revolves around the nascent field of personal computing during a computer programming tournament. The Beeswax writer/director intends to cast non-professionals with backgrounds in technology and philosophy (in addition to traditional actors) to give an added air of authenticity to the performances....
La chimera (Alice Rohrwacher, 2023) La chimera opens in the harsh glare of the sun, a first for a film by Alice Rohrwacher. Light pierces a pane of glass; a woman squints at the camera and asks: “Can you see that the sun is following us?” She may be a dream: bathed in that pristine afternoon light is Josh O’Connor’s Arthur, his head resting against the window of a moving train, a shadow passing diagonally across his face....
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, 2023) At the premiere of a documentary about Jean-Luc Godard at this year’s Cannes, there was a moment that could have been scripted by Competition jury head (and two-time Palme d’Or–winner) Ruben Östlund. Florence Platarets’s Godard by Godard, a fairly rote chronicle of the late auteur’s life and career told through archival footage, showed a glimpse of the filmmaker’s oft-quoted protest at the 1968 edition of Cannes, calling for screenings to be canceled in solidarity with worker and student struggles....
Starring Carloto Cotta (To Die Like a Man, Arabian Nights) as the eponymous diamond-cut soccer star, Diamantino has topical range that is humorously vast, touching on everything from Brexit to the ongoing refugee crises to consumerism to genetic science and gender modification. But it’s the media and its debilitating effects on consumer and celebrity identity alike that receives the most thorough critique. Like a mentally stunted and emotionally vulnerable riff on Cristiano Ronaldo, Diamantino excels on the soccer field, where, instead of green pitch and aggressive opponents he sees giant fluffy puppies and waves of pink clouds....
