In 1976 Werner Herzog hypnotized his cast of actors and directed one of the strangest narrative films in the history of cinema, Heart of Glass. Alan Greenberg, then a young writer, aspiring filmmaker, and Herzog disciple, was on the set, and thirty-odd years later he, and Herzog, would like to tell you all about it. Hence, Every Night the Trees Disappear: Werner Herzog and the Making of “Heart of Glass” (Chicago Review Press). Greenberg had fallen under Herzog’s spell the year before, when he was sent by a film journal to interview the director. Neither cared for that process, but […]
“A “distributed film festival” is what BLDGBLOG’s Geoff Manaugh is calling “Breaking Out & Breaking In,” a series of screenings and discussions centering around cinematic prison breaks and bank heists. Or, more accurately, the festival is about space — the architectures of these films’ settings, and the varying space between you and other viewers as you watch at home, discuss online at BLDGBLOG, and then venture to Studio-X in New York City for a panel discussion on April 24. “Breaking Out & Breaking In” is sponsored by BLDGBLOG, Filmmaker and Studio-X NYC, and it begins tomorrow, Friday, January 27, with […]
American independent films of the narrative variety are rarely hard art films. But in the case of Alastair Banks Griffin’s Two Gates of Sleep, which bowed at last year’s Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes before finding its way to AFI Fest last Fall, one should be ready to enter a long-take heavy, unspeakably gorgeous dirge that is sure of its influences and even more sure that it has something deeply resonant to express to you. It’s the type of movie that, as the cliche goes, requires the audience to “do some work,” that isn’t going to bend over backwards to entertain […]
Celebrating the 35th anniversary of Martin Scorsese‘s seminal film Taxi Driver, Sony Pictures and The Film Foundation, Scorsese’s film preservation non-profit, held a premiere screening of their 4k restoration of the film at the DGA in New York City last night, which also included a conversation with Scorsese and Taxi Driver screenwriter Paul Schrader moderated by critic Kent Jones. The restoration, which will be available on Blu-ray on April 5 and screening theatrically at AMC theaters beginning March 19 (NYC’s Film Forum will show a new 35mm print starting the 18th), took most of 2010 for Sony to accomplish. According […]
This week we hear from the Micro-Budget Filmmaker Blake Eckard. After I had put my first feature up on the web for free downloading, Blake contacted me and we began a three-year conversation on the highs and lows of micro-budget filmmaking. I think Blake’s take on the subject is one of importance and it needs to be shared. “Orson Welles, by his own admission, didn’t believe in artists so much as “works.” He also hated (or liked people to believe he hated) talking about himself and his films. Although it may be fashionable to say it, I don’t think there’s […]
A curious celebration of cinema and the mix of craft, history and ideology that goes into its making, Angela Ismailos’ Great Directors provides a chance to travel into the minds of ten of the world’s most celebrated film directors. In conversations with Bernardo Bertolucci, David Lynch, Stephen Frears, Agnes Varda, Ken Loach, Liliana Cavani, Todd Haynes, Catherine Breillat, Richard Linklater and John Sayles, Ismailos probes these directors for the secrets of their success while recounting much of the history of post-War world cinema via archival footage, occasionally ponderous black-and-white B-roll of the filmmakers, and mostly insightful voice over commentary. Detailed and […]
As he did in making his debut feature Ballast, Lance Hammer ignored all the conventional rules when he released the film last year. Originally slated to be opened by IFC Films, Hammer — known best for his work in the visual effects department of Hollywood pictures like the Batman films of the Joel Schumacher era — rethought his decision and came to the conclusion that it would be better to self distribute the film. Though the attention of his dramatic move led to more ink about the self-distribution/DIY model than any other time in recent memory, it’s still hard to […]
The following essay by Ray Carney on Aaron Katz’s Quiet City accompanies a 2-disc DVD release from Benten Films out this week of Quiet City and Katz’s first film, Dance Party, USA. Mainstream film is so much an art of the maximum – the biggest, the flashiest, the fastest, the most exaggerated – that it is easy to forget that the great films all go in the opposite direction. They are, almost without exception, triumphs of minimalism. They rely on subtlety, understatement, indirection, and simplification. In Stranger than Paradise, Down by Law, and Mystery Train, Jim Jarmusch sets long sections […]
You can’t always get what you want, especially shooting a movie. I’d have loved 10 percent more of every resource — what director would say no to that? But since we shot entirely on location in and around Barcelona, I discovered unknown 10 percents along the way. I learned the standard shooting day in Spain is 10 percent shorter than what I knew and that six-day weeks are rare. (I also learned some new things about moving fast while looking good from my superb Spanish crew.) I wish I had at least 10 percent more facility with language since nearly […]
Today Anthony Kaufman revives memories of Cannes past with the below clip of Robert Bresson and Andrei Tarkovsky being presented with prizes by Orson Welles: … which gives me an excuse to post an amazing Tarkovsky shot from The Mirror. And then this brilliant sequence from Bresson’s Pickpocket.