Authors — Vadim Rizov
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Discovering the Spiritus Loci: Simone Rapisarda Casanova on The Creation of Meaning
The primary subject of The Creation of Meaning — the second feature by the delightfully named Simone Rapisarda Casanova — is the equally delightfully named Pacifico Pieruccioni, who lives in a village at the very top of the Tuscan Alps. He makes a living by selling his goats’ milk, walking briskly from his home down to a tiny locker built into the woods so customers don’t have to walk all the way up the mountain to him. In the dark forest, it seems as if the liquid is glowing, as if the light bulb Hitchcock put in a glass of milk in Suspicion had been employed here. […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 25, 2015 -
NYFF Announces Spotlight on Documentary Lineup
The latest slate announcement from the Film Society of Lincoln Center for this year’s New York Film Festival covers the documentary sidebar. There are several world premieres, including new work from Laura Poitras and New Yorkers’ first chance to see In Jackson Heights, Frederick Wiseman’s portrait of the Queens neighborhood. Here’s the lineup, with descriptions from the press release. Everything Is Copy Jacob Bernstein, 2015, USA, DCP, 89m Jacob Bernstein’s extremely entertaining film is a tribute to his mother Nora Ephron: Hollywood-raised daughter of screenwriters who grew up to be an ace reporter turned piercingly funny essayist turned novelist/screenwriter/playwright/director. Ephron comes […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 24, 2015 -
Watch: “A Conversation. With Walter Murch”
This year, the legendary Walter Murch received a “Vision Award — Nescens” from the just-completed Locarno Film Festival, and this neat short film was presumably made to accompany the presentation. Director Niccolò Castelli places Murch in a warehouse very much like Harry Caul’s setup in The Conversation. Murch plays with previously recorded analogue tape of him talking about how we’re introduced to the concept of music while in the womb, then talks about the process and history of the manipulations he just executed on the Revox. It’s a typical combination of Murch’s trademark bigger-picture thinking and acute technical knowledge.
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 17, 2015 -
Trailer Watch and Poster: Jafar Panahi’s Taxi
Here’s the US trailer and poster for Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, the third film the Iranian director has made despite an official 20-year-ban on him making movies. Behind the wheel, Panahi criss-crosses Tehran, picking up passengers whose interactions with him again blur the line between fact and fiction. The film will be playing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival before in opening in New York on October 2, with limited national release to follow. A current list of scheduled playdates and more information from distributor Kino Lorber can be found here. You can also check out two scenes from the film we posted […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 17, 2015 -
New York Film Festival 2015 Announces Its Main Slate
Straight from the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s admirably thorough press release, here’s the main slate of this year’s New York Film Festival — 26 films strong, heavy on Cannes titles, and with Steven Spielberg’s second ever appearance in the fest (following the work-in-progress surprise screening of Lincoln in 2012). Opening Night The Walk Robert Zemeckis, USA, 2015, 3-D DCP, 100m Robert Zemeckis’s magical and enthralling new film, the story of Philippe Petit (winningly played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his walk between the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers, plays like a heist movie in the grand tradition of Rififi and Bob le flambeur. Zemeckis […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 12, 2015 -
Pay Tribute to Bankrupt Columbia House with The Target Shoots First
Given the news that Columbia House — the mail-order CD club that famously promised eight CDs for a penny — is filing for bankruptcy, there’s no better time to (re)watch Chris Wilcha’s The Target Shoots First, his 2000 documentary about his time working there in the ’90s. What once played as a blackly funny portrait of trying to stay sane while working in a cynical corporate culture is now oddly nostalgic, given the relatively relaxed working environment. For more context, it’s well worth reading this AV Club piece by Annie Zaleski, in which she interviews four former Columbia House employees (including Wilcha) about […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 11, 2015 -
TIFF 2015 Announces Documentaries, Vanguard, Midnight Madness, Masters of Cinema and Classics Lineups
Following the announcement of this year’s TIFF Gala and Special Presentations lineups, we now have titles from many more slates. All information taken from TIFF’s press releases, and keep an eye out for Lucile Hadžihalilović’s long-overdue sophomore feature Evolution, which comes no less than 11 years after her fascinating 2004 debut Innocence. TIFF Docs Amazing Grace Sydney Pollack, USA International Premiere Sydney Pollack’s film of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Amazing Grace.’ Filmed during church services in Los Angeles on January 13 and 14, 1972, the footage was never seen until now. Featuring Reverend James Cleveland, the Southern California Community Choir and the Atlantic Records rhythm […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 11, 2015 -
Going Mobile: The Alpha1 Mobile Film Lab
In 1932, the Russian filmmaker Alexander Medvedkin convinced Soviet authorities to give him three decommissioned train carriages to turn into a mobile film studio. The “film-train” would travel across the USSR’s expanse, bringing with it 32 spots to sleep, six editing tables, a projection room and a film-processing lab. Equipped to handle all aspects of production and projection from beginning to end, the film train would record local issues and expose problems that the people would need to solve: in Medvedkin’s words, the portable facility would act as “a kind of special fire brigade to put out problem fires.” These […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jul 23, 2015 -
A Worthy Kickstarter to Show the Shuttered Beijing Independent Film Festival’s Selections in the US
With 20 days to go, the Kickstarter launched by producer/distributor Karin Chien, critic/curator Shelly Kraicer, and filmmaker/anthropologist J.P. Sniadecki has already hit its initial target goal for the purpose of organizing a series showcasing some of the best films shown at the Beijing Independent Film Festival. These works — including People’s Park, a personal favorite film of the last few years co-directed by Sniadecki and Libbie Cohn — were all once screened at the Festival, which was shut down completely last year by Chinese authorities. (You can read more about that here.) The initial funding goals focused on bringing over […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jul 16, 2015 -
Film Writing on the Spam Internet: A Hasty Categorization
We were deep in production on our summer issue last week, so I didn’t have much time to think about the extremely sudden shuttering of The Dissolve, the three-days-shy-of-two-years site that attempted to fill a surprising hole on the internet by primarily/substantially dedicating itself to writing moderate-to-lengthy reviews for just about every film released. This is a service still performed by the trades, The New York Times and other periodicals, but decisions inevitably must be made about which films to relegate to 200 terse words or less, or to ignore entirely. Ignoring this hierarchy, The Dissolve made sure all reviews […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jul 14, 2015
