Coinciding with a 2000 retrospective of Alain Resnais’ work organized by both the American Cinematheque and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, producer Florence Dauman gave Filmmaker these quotes from her father, Anatole Dauman, about working with the great director. Through his company, Argos Films, Dauman produced or co-produced many of the masterworks of postwar European cinema – including Resnais’s Night and Fog; Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; and Muriel. On the occasion of Resnais’ death yesterday at 91, we are reprinting them here. Night and Fog (1956) “It was our first short film together. Would he accept […]
One of cinema’s greats, the French director Alain Resnais, died yesterday, March 1, at the age of 91. The director of such landmark films as Last Year at Marienbad, Hiroshima, Mon Amour, and Night and Fog, he premiered his latest film, Life of Riley, just one month ago at the Berlin Film Festival. In 2000, coinciding with a retrospective organized by both the American Cinematheque and the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Peter Bowen wrote the following short essay, and we collected appreciations from three independent directors — Christopher Munch, Keith Gordon and Radley Metzger. It is reprinted below. Perhaps […]
Once upon a time, every article I wrote for Filmmaker had to cross the virtual desk (email) of Managing Editor Nick Dawson. That day has since passed, which is how I am now able to write the following without Nick protesting in embarrassment or deleting my draft. That’s not to say Nick is ever one to tell someone what they can and can’t write. When an eager IFP intern (me) emailed to ask if she could contribute to Filmmaker — too shy to do so in person — Nick’s first response was “Sure,” his second, “Tell me what interests you.” […]
Four films that played at the Berlin Film Festival highlighted how directors are using modern technology to completely change the way in which productions are being put together and scheduled. Both 52 Tuesdays and Boyhood were shot intermittently over a long period of time. The Turning had 17 different shoots running concurrently throughout Australia, while the Bollywood film Highway decided where to travel to next and shoot scenes on a day-by-day basis. What marks these productions out from any number of other low-budget independent films is that their directors believed a non-traditional production schedule would result in a better end-product. Rather […]
The tragic death of Sarah Jones, a second assistant camerawoman who was struck by a train while shooting the Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider last Thursday, has sparked a necessary conversation over the issue of on-set safety. On the first day of production in Jessup, Georgia, the company was shooting a dream sequence with a hospital bed placed over the active train tracks. According to Variety, star William Hurt and director Randall Miller tried but were unable to remove the bed from the tracks as a train approached. Jones was then struck by a piece of flying debris and knocked into the […]
Fyodor Bondarchuk’s father Sergei made the 1967 War And Peace, a famously profligate Soviet production with thousands of army soldiers as extras and the biggest budget in the USSR’s history. His son came up through music videos and advertisements, making a splash with 2005’s Afghan War drama The 9th Company. The lavish Stalingrad was shot in two parts, as much as possible in 3D; if nothing else, it’ll go down in a sub-section of film history as Russia’s first IMAX film. It’s a tremendously odd film, the kind of overtly nationalistic take on the WWII battle you’d expect from an […]
Award-winning producer/directors Josh and Jason Diamond, aka The Diamond Brothers, reviewed the Blackmagic Production Camera 4K yesterday at an event hosted by Adorama Rental Company in downtown Manhattan. The co-directors of 2012 documentary Bring on the Mountain and executive producers of features including Light and the Sufferer, starring Paul Dano, and Exploding Girl, starring Zoe Kazan, talked about some of the pros and cons of using the Production Camera 4K, which is available now for preorder for the reduced price of $2,995. Josh and Jason, who recently completed a 13-part series for FILA and a launch spot for Sony’s PS4, […]
An IFP lab film from a couple years back, Go Down Death is having a rather busy week. The near-apocalyptic tale of a crumbling village, haunted by illnesses and the supernatural, was announced as the first (and only?) theatrical run at Williamsburg’s repertory Spectacle Theater, and, as of today, is yet another prime addition to Factory 25’s slate. I’ll have more on the film’s unique distribution path from writer-director Aaron Schimberg and Spectacle programmer Jon Dieringer when the time comes, but till then, the rest of the country can expect a July VOD and iTunes release, with a theatrical rollout to follow.
In an age when everything has already been done, it’s a rare feat to devise a way to make a film that no one has ever tried before. But that’s what the team behind Loving Vincent did when they decided to make their film about the last days of Vincent Van Gogh’s life by animating with actual oil paintings, each one executed by a professional artist on a full-sized canvas — in the style of Van Gogh himself, of course. As anyone who remembers the Van Gogh sequence in Akira Kurosawa’s Dreams knows, the effect of the master’s artwork on […]
The phasing out of film prints by the Hollywood studio system is more than just a nightmare for the cinephile who disdains DCPs: it’s a living hell for the arthouse theater whose projection materials are suddenly obsolete, and its doors, in danger of closing. The Brooklyn Heights Cinema is one of those pleasurable, old timey theaters that still has a matinee ticket price, charm to spare, and just so happens to be dangerously close to becoming past-tense. Owner Kenn Lowy has started an Indiegogo campaign to raise the funds needed to convert his cinema to the digital age. Their prizes […]