The latest trailer-but-not-really for the much-anticipated return of Twin Peaks has David Lynch “in character” as FBI agent Gordon Cole eating a donut.
“Do we understand…” How many times have the filmmakers in our audience read those words within the body of studio notes? Do we understand his or her motivation? Do we understand the stakes? Do we understand the backstory? Because moments of information-dispensing rarely provide cinema’s most thrilling, mysterious, poetic moments, they are often realized by filmmakers in the most prosaic of ways. Dialogue in a scene covered with a pretty basic sequence of shots. Let’s just get through this, you can feel the directors — and screenwriters — saying. But, as this video essay by Writing with the Camera shows, […]
With Silence out soon, it’s Martin Scorsese season. This video essay by Cole Smith looks at Elia Kazan’s approach to staging interior and urban spaces in films such as A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, then moves on to consider his influence on Scorsese’s The Departed. New Yorkers: the film shows on 35mm this Saturday at the Museum of the Moving Image.
Brian De Palma has been accused by detractors of being nothing more than a shameless Hitchcock imitator. Peet Gelderblom’s video essay puts that to the test, using De Palma’s beloved split screen to compare and contrast shots from both director’s films. Hitchcock is on the left, De Palma on the right.
This video from Blank on Blank animates excerpts from a fairly heavy interview with Francis Ford Coppola that touches on death, loneliness and solitude. It was conducted in 1996 while Coppola was promoting, of all things, Jack. He also discusses changing reception of his films over time, with an emphasis on Apocalypse Now.
David Ehrlich’s justly popular annual supercut of his personal choices for the 25 best films of the year is here. From Weiner at #25 to Moonlight at #1, it’s a solid list, but the meat, as always, is in the editing, which finds many points of association between these disparate films.
Isabelle Huppert is unquestionably one of the world’s great actresses. She is also, to put it mildly, not known for the warmth or jollity of her roles — she’s played many tough, complicated women utterly unconcerned with being “likable,” and her complex part in Paul Verhoeven’s Elle is no exception. It’s delightful, and completely out of literal character, to see her smiling and laughing in genuine surprise as she accepted the best actress award at last night’s Gothams for the film. “I didn’t expect that to happen, I promise,” she explains. “They all told me, “It’s a very American award, very New […]
Criterion has debuted a new video series, “Under the Influence,” in which, you guessed, directors talk the filmmakers who influence and inspire them. Opening the series is Moonlight director Barry Jenkins on the cinema of Wong Kar-wai. Specifically talking about Chungking Express and In the Mood for Love, Jenkins hails Wong’s ability to do something “they tell you not to do in film school,” which is to “translate interiority for the screen.” Anyone seeing Jenkins’ Moonlight, winner of the last night’s Gotham Award for Best Picture, will recognize the influence of Wong on Jenkins’ own expressive depiction of internal emotions […]
“Holy shit, man” — Barry Jenkins kicked off his Best Feature acceptance speech with a few words of thanks to the IFP and the Gothams, then enthused from the heart. “It’s so humbling to be nominated in a category with people like Kelly Reichardt,” he said. “I’ve seen Meek’s Cutoff at least 7,000 damn times.” He thanked the cast, his producers, his third grade teacher (the first person who told him his story was worth telling), his “friend and confidante on this tour” Mike Mills (director of the forthcoming 20th Century Women). Then he alluded to the unignorable reality of this political moment: “The […]
No stranger to branded content, Wes Anderson’s latest effort in this area is a four-minute short for H&M, whose logo bookends the film. It’s appropriately seasonally themed and features some very cool lighting effects.