The title pretty much says it all: is Takashi Miike’s indelibly scarring Audition feminist, misogynistic exploitation or both? The answer in Jessica McGoff’s video essay is a mixture of the two, which isn’t too surprising. Caution: contains both graphic violence and also some brief nudity, either of which might be objectionable in your workplace.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 10, 2016The Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP), Filmmaker‘s parent organization, announced today the ten documentaries selected for the 2016 IFP Filmmaker Labs, IFP’s annual yearlong fellowship for first-time feature directors. The creative teams of the selected films are currently attending the first week’s sessions – The Time Warner Foundation Completion Labs – taking place May 11-15 in New York City. As of 2015, the 196 projects that have gone through the program include such critically acclaimed films as the recent documentaries (T)error by Lyric Cabral and David Felix Sutcliffe (Independent Lens), Nanfu Wang’s Hooligan Sparrow (POV), Sharon Shattuck’s From This Day Forward (POV), Leah […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 9, 2016Jacob T. Swinney’s latest video essay examines the many subjective POV shots of Taxi Driver. As Travis sees the world, we see it through him, and the result is a movie that locks us in his head more than most. A little more over here at Fandor.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 5, 2016After doing a masterful job of getting the entire internet’s attention by simply deleting their entire social media presence, Radiohead dropped an honest-to-goodness new single and music video this morning. Chris Hopewell, who previously directed “There There” for the band, is behind this stop-motion clip (which bears traces of what appear to be 16mm scratches). In keeping with the song name “Burn the Witch,” the video draws on imagery from The Wicker Man and other manifestations of the “old, weird Britain.”
by Filmmaker Staff on May 3, 2016Big news from our friends over at the Film Society of Lincoln Center with two new appointments. Having served as interim editor of Film Comment since Gavin Smith’s departure, Nicolas Rapold will assume the editorial mantle full-time. Michael Koresky — perhaps best-known as the co-founder of Reverse Shot, which he’ll continue to edit — will be joining him as Editorial Director, a position that’s new to the organization. This position calls for overseeing all manner of content both within the magazine and as part of FSLC’s overall strategy. First up on the docket: the launch of a Film Comment app. For slightly more, […]
by Filmmaker Staff on May 2, 2016One of the highlights of this year’s on-stage conversations at the Tribeca Film Festival was this sit-down between Francis Ford Coppola and his unlikely interrogator Jay McInerney. For years now, Coppola has been kicking around the concept of a “live cinema,” which is tricky to define, but he gets down to brass tacks in this conversation, which lasts just under an hour.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 27, 2016Zach Prewitt rounds up his 20 best sci-fi movies of the century so far in this video essay. For more context (or just to see the list), click here for his accompanying essay (which also includes an explanation of why seemingly obvious contenders Gravity and Interstellar were excluded). Needless to say, if you want to go into these films totally blind, perhaps this is one to avoid.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 27, 2016A piece of HD footage shot in 1993 as test footage for the Japanese market has resurfaced on the internet. The effect is a little head-spinning: a recognizably of-another-time New York City, captured with the HD clarity of the present.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 26, 2016“As many viewers of Maya Deren‘s Meshes of the Afternoon and David Lynch‘s Mulholland Drive have recognized, there are many similarities between these two filmmakers,” writes Joel Bocko over at Fandor Keyframe. “An ordinary key is charged with dangerous supernatural power; characters multiply, bending space and time; an Angeleno atmosphere in which daydream becomes nightmare — these are just a few of Meshes‘ and Lynch’s common touchstones.” This video finds the visual connections between Lynch’s work from Twin Peaks onwards and Deren’s best-known short.
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 26, 2016The Boost Released a year after the Partnership for a Drug-Free America’s “This Is Your Brain on Drugs” campaign frightened children into never eating their morning eggs, Harold Becker’s The Boost was this PSA’s cinematic equivalent for adults. An adaptation of political commentator and actor Ben Stein’s 1982 novel, Ludes: A Ballad of the Drug and the Dream, the film is a cautionary tale in which a real estate salesman and his wife grow addicted to wealth, entitlement and cocaine. In his review for The New York Times, filmmaker (and then freelance writer) Cameron Crowe noted that the book “winds up being largely about […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Apr 21, 2016