Filmmaker Videos
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Trailer Watch: When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism
Corneliu Porumboiu’s fifth film The Second Game just screened as part of Lincoln Center’s Art of the Real series, but his fourth, When Evening Falls on Bucharest or Metabolism, is still nearing theaters. While several of Porumboiu’s contemporaries of New Romanian Cinema train their eye on domestic disturbances — of both the absurdist and pragmatic variety — Metabolism pulls back the curtain on a filmmaker’s mid-shoot inner turmoil. Plagued by some sort of imaginary condition (the absurd), he falls into an affair with his lead actress (the pragmatic) and suffers a crisis of doubt. Meticulously crafted, each scene is comprised of a single long take. […]
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Trailer Watch: David Michôd’s The Rover
I was a big fan of David Michôd’s familial crime drama Animal Kingdom, and not just because I saw it on an airplane. If his follow-up The Rover looks to try on a rather generic premise — a hero on the hunt for what’s rightfully his — that’s hopefully not much cause for concern: Animal Kingdom found its strength not in plot, but in its characterization and pacing. Reteaming with the always reliable Guy Pierce, Michôd trades in the rest of his local ensemble for the dubious star wattage of Robert Pattinson, performing an indiscernible accent as a discarded gang member. Premiering in […]
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Trailer Watch: Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida
Recent Grand Jury Prize recipient at the Sarasota Film Festival and a FIPRESCI winner in Toronto, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida tells the story of a would-be nun who haphazardly uncovers her Jewish background. Set in 1960s Poland, the discovery leads the eponymous Ida through a tear in her family’s history, stretching as far back as the Nazi occupation. Music Box Films releases the formally and emotionally stunning Ida on May 2.
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Trailer Watch: Obvious Child
Ahead of its June 6 release, A24 has released the trailer to yet another potential hitmaker in their arsenal: Gillian Robespierre’s Obvious Child. I interviewed Robespierre about the film for our upcoming Spring issue, which upends the traditional romantic comedy route of boy meets girl by wedging an abortion into the mix. Jenny Slate stars as Donna Stern, a comedian whose pathological on-stage oversharing is momentarily stunted when she finds herself pregnant by a one night stand. Surrounded by a winsome ensemble — including Gaby Hoffman and Gabe Liedman — Donna juggles her misstep and budding relationship with Max (Jake Lacy) […]
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“This is a Generic Brand Video”: Satire or How-To?
At McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, writer Kendra Eash published a poem, “This is a Generic Brand Video,” satirizing (or maybe just noticing?) the pleasant, fuzzy, vaguely neoliberal language of brand videos. Language like this: In today’s high speed environment, Stop motion footage of a city at night With cars turning quickly Makes you think about doing things efficiently And time passing. Lest you think we’re a faceless entity, Look at all these attractive people. Here’s some of them talking and laughing And close-ups of hands passing canned goods to each other In a setting that evokes community service. Now, the folks […]
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Trailer Watch: Laundry Day
In my “How to Find a Producer” article in our Fall, 2013 edition, I interviewed New Orleans filmmaker Randy Mack about his efforts to develop local producers, a challenge that arose when he embarked on his third feature, Laundry Day. More recently, Mack speculated here on the perfect independent film discovery app. Now there’s a trailer for Laundry Day, posted above. From the film’s website: A fight in a 24-hour bar-laundromat among four New Orleans barflies —a musician, a bartender, a street performer, & a drug dealer — is revisited from each perspective, revealing an intricate web of service industry […]
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Trailer Watch: A Most Wanted Man
A few weeks back, we ran a trailer for The Drop, James Gandolfini’s final film. Philip Seymour Hoffman had a handful projects in the can at the time of his passing in early February, two of which premiered barely a week before at Sundance. There’s John Slattery’s directorial debut, God’s Pocket, and Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, the latter of which released its first trailer today. Corbijn caught my eye with the somehow still underseen Joy Division biopic Control, and has since been swept up into Hollywood’s political drama camp, first with The American and now with A Most Wanted Man, which centers on post 9/11 German-American intelligentsia. […]
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Trailer Watch: Regarding Susan Sontag
Premiering at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival is Regarding Sontag, Nancy Kates’ documentary about one of the 20th century’s most compelling and important critics and public intellectuals. From the website: REGARDING SUSAN SONTAG is an intimate and nuanced investigation into the life of one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the 20th century. Passionate and gracefully outspoken throughout her career, Susan Sontag became one of the most important literary, political and feminist icons of her generation. The documentary explores Sontag’s life through evocative experimental images, archival materials, accounts from friends, family, colleagues, and lovers, as well as her […]
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Catering to an International Audience: The Case of Oppressed Majority
The New York Times recently ran a story on the newfound viral status of a 2010 French short called Majorité Oprimée (Oppressed Majority). The film depicts a day in the life of a schlub who goes about his duties in a parallel Parisian society where women reign supreme. While the daddies run day care, their wives run topless. The protagonist eventually shoulders his fair share of sexual harassment and abuse in an exercise that begins with a touch more subtlety. The majority of the article discusses arguments over the role of gender in France’s workplace, but also of note to filmmakers is the fact […]
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Tilda Swinton’s Best Interview Ever
Last fall Jamie Stuart was conducting interviews for his NYFF51. He ran into the publicist handling Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive and asked if he could get a sit down with Tilda Swinton. The answer: yes, but time was tight. The result is the following short interview in which Stuart asked Swinton to just… well, you’ll see. At the end, she did indeed say it was her best interview ever. Cage by way of Glazer? Only Lovers Left Alive opens this Friday from Sony Pictures Classics. Camera: Blackmagic Design Cinema Camera, 2.5k RAW, ProRes 422 post conversion Lens: Canon […]
