Authors — Vadim Rizov
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Watch: David Bowie on Making Movies, 1983
Short and sweet: in this brief clip from a 1983 CBC interview, David Bowie — who turns 68 today — talks about wanting to be an actor and his “pretensions” of wanting to direct. “The inherent problem of being a rock star who wants to be a legitimate act or legitimate anything else, I think, is that the parts are restricted from the beginning,” he said, noting he’d been confined to a run of “green-eyed, out of space, rock-playing freaks.” That year, Bowie had a hit record with Let’s Dance and a very different kind of role in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence; five years […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 8, 2015 -
Watch: David Fincher on Actors and His Movies
The emphasis in this edited series of highlights from David Fincher’s recent BFI talk is, refreshingly, more on the actors than on his much-dissected, formidable technical acumen. One key takeaway from this brisk trot through his career is Fincher’s take on his infamous penchant for endless takes. “My philosophy is, you spend $250,000 on a set,” he explains. “Put it on a soundstage, it costs you $5,000 a day. You’re gonna put $8,000 of lights and you’re gonna bring a $150,000 crew in. You’re gonna bring actors in from all over the world, you’re gonna put them up in hotels, […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 8, 2015 -
Trailer Watch: The Frankensteined Remains of David O. Russell’s Nailed
You may remember this one: six years ago, Nailed, David O. Russell’s proposed follow-up to I Heart Huckabees, had massive financing problems. The would-be political satire about a waitress (Jessica Biel) who gets a nail to the head was ultimately scrapped and lain aside. In the meantime, the once-galvanizing director embarked on his Huckabees‘ apology tour, going from the not-bad The Fighter to the increasingly dispiriting (but renumerative) The Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle. Now whatever footage was shot (it’s unclear, though the Internet says crucial plot parts were never filmed) has been cobbled into some kind of grotesque thing that walks the earth, with […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 6, 2015 -
“A Little Person Against the Government Machine”: Andrey Zvyagintsev on Leviathan
When Andrey Zvyagintsev brought Elena — his corrosively apocalyptic attack on the Russian oligarchy— to Cannes in 2011, he was alternately direct and evasive about its pessimistic national diagnosis. One interviewer was informed Zvyagintsev had considered calling the film Invasion of the Barbarians, but was another was told that focusing on class issues was missing the larger moral point. Much has changed in three years, and in interviews Zvyagintsev has been adamant that his fourth feature isn’t exactly what it appears to be — i.e., another head-on broadside against different segments of Russia’s ruling class. Leviathan can be unreductively considered a direct continuation/extension of Elena‘s line of argument, not least in again […]
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 25, 2014 -
“We Know How a Solar Panel is Made”: The Dardennes on Two Days, One Night
As a parable of solidarity, Two Days is programmatic and predictable in a way that’s new to the Dardenne brothers, and not in a good way; as a streamlined narrative, it’s impeccably crafted. The straight-up chase scene dropped into 2005’s L’enfant — a potential audition for a rote action film should they ever feel so inclined — indicated Jean-Luc and Pierre Dardenne’s handheld, ever-impassioned kineticism was reaching new levels of sheer technical proficiency. Two Days, One Night presents the dilemma of Sandra (Marion Cotillard) — fired from her solar panel factory job, ostensibly so the plant can remain competitive on a playing field leveled by Chinese labor. It’s clear […]
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 22, 2014 -
Watch: “Getting Stoned with Caveh,” with Guest Alex Karpovsky
You may recall that a decade ago, the ever-independent-minded Caveh Zahedi (A Little Stiff, I Am a Sex Addict) tried to launch a series, “Tripping with Caveh,” in which he and a guest would take hallucinogens and enjoy themselves. That didn’t pan out, for reasons Zahedi explains in this essay, so now he’s launched a lower-stakes version. You can get stoned with Caveh or not, and in this first installment Girls regular/Red Flag director Alex Karpovsky chooses to indulge. Not without a little prodding: “OK, so I’m gonna start getting stoned,” Zahedi says up top. “Maybe I’ll just wait a […]
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 22, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups
The trailer for Terrence Malick’s next film, Knight of Cups, is both what you’d expect at this point — musing voiceovers, aggressively prowling cameras in constant motion, people on the beach — and some new developments, like much more flesh on display, aggressively digital cinematography and seemingly way more time spent in urban centers than usual.
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 15, 2014 -
Trailer Watch: Mad Max: Fury Road
This new trailer for George Miller’s forthcoming fourth Mad Max movie can speak for itself. You know the drill: cars blow up, lots of desert, fierce men wearing improbable makeup, explosions for days. Bracing stuff.
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 10, 2014 -
Watch: A “Language Lesson” from Jim Finn’s North Korean Mockumentary The Juche Idea
The FBI can’t prove that North Korea is responsible for hacking into Sony, releasing thousands of documents and confidential company information. So it can’t be said with any certainty that the hack was launched as an official attack on James Franco and Seth Rogen’s forthcoming let’s-assassinate-Kim Jong-un comedy The Interview, although the outraged North Korean government has expressed their approval, stating that “hacking into Sony Pictures might be a righteous deed of the supporters and sympathizers with the DPRK.” Regardless of how it shakes out, what better time to revisit Jim Finn’s peerlessly odd, deadpan take on North Korean propaganda? 2008’s The Juche […]
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 9, 2014 -
Watch: Kathryn Bigelow’s Elephant Poaching Short Last Days
Written by Steven Soderbergh’s frequent collaborator Scott Z. Burns and directed by Kathryn Bigelow, Last Days is a grimly succinct argument against buying materials made out of ivory and other products from endangered species. Trafficking in endangered species is the fourth largest illegal business in the world, behind drugs, weapons and human trafficking, and the short links their sale directly to last year’s Al Shabaab attack on Nairobi’s Westgate Mall. There’s disturbing footage of the mass shooting included and bloody animation of elephant slaughter as well, so brace yourself. The short film’s official site is here.
by Vadim Rizov on Dec 8, 2014
