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“… A Person Deprived of a Legal Status is Further Denied a Voice and an Image”: Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger on their Berlinale-Debuting Europe
World-premiering in the Forum section (February 13) at this year’s Berlinale, Philip Scheffner’s Europe is a work at once as simple and complex as its title might imply. “Europe” is the name of a bus stop in Europe (specifically in the small French town of Chatellerault) where the main character Zohra, an Algerian citizen, catches a ride from her housing block flat to her job sorting secondhand clothes at an NGO-run warehouse and also to various doctor and physical therapy appointments – her reason for coming to France in the first place. Fortunately, the numerous surgeries and treatments for her debilitating scoliosis […]
by Lauren Wissot on Feb 14, 2022 -
Stage Fright, Escape from L.A. and Marc Allégret Films on OVID: Jim Hemphill’s Home Video Recommendations
From its opening shot of a curtain rising on a London cityscape to its climactic revelation that an earlier flashback sequence was a lie, Stage Fright (1950) is one of director Alfred Hitchcock’s most intriguing and playful investigations into the cinema’s power to deceive and manipulate. After Stage Fright received mixed reviews and collected lackluster returns at the box office, Hitchcock regretted tricking the audience with the unreliable narrator of the film’s controversial flashback, but I think the bold audacity of that device is actually one of the greatest strengths of a movie that has many, from the cleverly designed […]
by Jim Hemphill on Feb 12, 2022 -
“I Believe that School Defines Who We Become as Adults”: Director Laura Wandel on Her Astonishing School Bullying Drama, Playground
Opening today at New York’s Film Forum before, next week, rolling out to additional theaters across the country, is Laura Wandel’s Playground, an astonishingly immersive and nuanced drama that plunges the viewer into the complex childhood dynamics of school bullying. It’s Wandel’s debut following well-received shorts, and the film’s seeming simplicity belies a pre-production that had to be handled with incredible sensitivity. (As we discuss below, Wandel worked extensively with her young lead, using devices such as finger puppets to walk her through the emotional arc of her character as well make clear to her the “make believe” element of […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 11, 2022 -
Review: Steven Soderbergh’s Bright-Hued Techno Thriller Kimi, Starring Zoe Kravitz
Want 87 minutes of something bright and beautiful with a cool kind of “hotness?” Try Kimi, a minimalist thriller in which Steven Soderbergh’s camera and an electric-blue-haired Zoe Kravitz move in sync like two rare birds in flight. Kravitz plays Angela Childs, a data stream analyst for a company behind “KIMI”, a more responsive version of the ALEXA smart audio device, that’s about to go public. The movie opens with a sleazy-looking guy doing a Zoom presser from his kitchen (COVID remote rules, a sketchy company or both?) explaining that KIMI is better than other devices because its communication skills are […]
by Amy Taubin on Feb 9, 2022 -
“We Joke About it, But I Get Very Anxious When Guys Get Hurt”: Set Medic Eloy Lara on Jackass Forever
By the time of the new Jackass Forever, some of the series’s performers have neared or surpassed age 50. Their bodies remain sturdy, if marked by 20 years of unnatural trials. To extend their infamous game of indecent brinkmanship, the crew has endured a brand-new omnibus of freak obstacles and some reimaginings of past favorites. Beekeepers use a queen bee to attract a hive to Steve-O’s (47) phallus; Danger Ehren (45) sustains countless blows to the groin in an exhaustive series of “Cup tests”; Johnny Knoxville (50) re-contends with a particularly mean bull in a ring; series newcomers (“Poopies,” “Jasper,” […]
by A.E. Hunt on Feb 9, 2022 -
Fundraiser: Restoring the Work of Pink Narcissus Director James Bidgood
James Bidgood, the initially anonymous director of underground classic Pink Narcissus, died January 31 at the age of 88, and his estate’s executor, Kelly McKaig, is organizing a fundraiser to go towards both a memorial service as well as the collection and preservation of his various work. From the GoFundMe page: As an artist, Jim’s dreamy, candy-colored world of beautiful boys—so far from the hard-muscled, butch fantasies of Tom of Finland—was a revelation. While much of his work, like his landmark film Pink Narcissus, was created over 50 years ago, Jim remains an inspiration. Jim’s influence can be seen in […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 9, 2022 -
True/False Film Fest Announces 2022 Lineup
After last year’s largely virtual film festival, True/False Film Fest returns for its 19th edition. This year’s festival— scheduled to take place on the ground in Columbia, Missouri from March 3 to 6—boasts four world premieres in its lineup (After Sherman, It Runs in the Family, Gods of Mexico and Let the Little Light Shine). The full lineup of features and short films is below; click here to read the full press release, including full demographic breakdowns of this year’s directors. 2nd Chance | Dir. Ramin Bahrani; 2022; 89 min. Director Ramin Bahrani tackles the bizarre life of body-armor inventor Richard […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Feb 9, 2022 -
“Often We are Communicating Without Words”: DP Daniele Massaccesi on The Matrix Resurrections
After more than 25 years of making movies alongside her sister, Lana Wachowski’s first solo feature revisits the siblings’ most famed creation with a new installment of The Matrix, The Matrix Resurrections. Daniele Massaccesi knows something about making movies with family. The Matrix Resurrections co-cinematographer grew up on the sets of his father, Aristide Massaccesi, a cult figure in the 1970s and 1980s Italian exploitation era who often worked under the pseudonym Joe D’Amato. Daniele Massaccesi eventually graduated from lugging batteries and lens cases on his dad’s Italian Mad Max and Conan the Barbarian variations to become a sought-after Steadicam […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Feb 8, 2022 -
Back to One, Episode 189: Joey King
She has been acting professionally for the better part of two decades, so Joey King has a bit more experience than the average 22-year-old Hollywood actor. And after the gigantic surprise success of The Kissing Booth, and its subsequent sequels, she knows what it’s like to have a global hit on her hands. Add an Emmy nomination for her phenomenal work in The Act to her resume, and you have a well-respected actor/producer with a constant pile of scripts on her desk and first-look deals at Hulu and Netflix. In this episode, she explains how it only seems like it’s […]
by Peter Rinaldi on Feb 8, 2022 -
“120 Years of the Male Gaze On Our Backs”: Nina Menkes on Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power
“Perception is not whimsical, but fatal.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson Movies turn viewers into willing participants looking to break through the screen—the “fourth wall”—and temporarily adopt the POV of the camera and taking on its surveying gaze. Your own emotional response may vary—excitement, titillation, utter boredom—but the camera’s eye is your own, if only for the duration of the film. In her landmark essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” written in the 1970s, scholar and filmmaker Laura Mulvey introduced the concept of the “male gaze,” arguing that the camera’s eye was inherently male and could often be misogynistic in its depiction […]
by Erik Luers on Feb 4, 2022
