Locarno Film Festival
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Watch: Edward Norton Introduces Fight Club
In this brief introduction to a screening of Fight Club at Locarno, Edward Norton recalls that the film premiered to boos at the Venice Film Festival in 1999, a far cry from its assured cult status at this point. He then goes on to compare the film’s initially poor reception to what it must’ve been like to watch Rossellini’s Rome, Open City one year after the end of World War II, as something too raw and recent to process. The comparison’s probably ill-advised, but there you go.
by Filmmaker Staff on Aug 18, 2015 -
Watch: “A Conversation. With Walter Murch”
This year, the legendary Walter Murch received a “Vision Award — Nescens” from the just-completed Locarno Film Festival, and this neat short film was presumably made to accompany the presentation. Director Niccolò Castelli places Murch in a warehouse very much like Harry Caul’s setup in The Conversation. Murch plays with previously recorded analogue tape of him talking about how we’re introduced to the concept of music while in the womb, then talks about the process and history of the manipulations he just executed on the Revox. It’s a typical combination of Murch’s trademark bigger-picture thinking and acute technical knowledge.
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 17, 2015 -
Stray Links, 8/11-8/14: Film Preservation in China, Ferguson, and the Weight Watchers Recipes of 1974
Here’s this week’s round-up of reading, film-related and otherwise: • “Trying to make a film in Sub-Saharan Africa can be a financial and logistical feat, but getting it to audiences can be an even bigger task. A networking event at the Locarno Film Festival is a chance for African film-makers to make their project come to life.” Jo Fahy reports from Locarno on the Open Doors Lab, which brings 12 filmmakers from continental Africa to the festival to receive script mentoring, apply for Swiss funding and more. • Peter Greenaway has completed shooting one film about Sergei Eisenstein, which he’s […]
by Vadim Rizov on Aug 14, 2014 -
Letter from Locarno, Festival Wrap Up
The 66th edition of the Locarno Film Festival came to a close Saturday with the handing out of the Palmarès during an evening ceremony in the Piazza Grande, and thankfully this year’s awards were congruent with critical consensus. Lav Diaz, the Filopino master whose films regularly clock in at five and six hours, presided over this year’s jury, which, perhaps coincidentally, bestowed top prizes to the two competition films with the longest running times. The big winners of the Concorso Internazionale (International Competiton) were Catalan auteur Albert Serra, whose challenging but ultimately rewarding historical drama Historia de la meva mort […]
by Paul Dallas on Aug 19, 2013 -
Letter from Locarno, Week Two
The Locarno Film Festival is characterized by its relaxed atmosphere and by its expansive programming. One can meander easily from a George Cukor classic on 35mm (he’s receiving a complete retrospective here), to the latest Ben Rivers and Ben Russell experimental narrative (part of the “Signs of Life” series, named after the Herzog film), to Jeremy Saulnier’s Blue Ruin screening in the 8,000 seat Piazza Grande. And in between, you can take a dip in the lake. It’s the kind of festival where you never have to wait in line for a press screening. This exceptional experience is in part […]
by Paul Dallas on Aug 15, 2013 -
Letter from Locarno, Week One
The Locarno Film Festival opened Wednesday with a bang — or two, to be exact. There was the bombastic Opening Night selection in the Piazza Grande, which was the Mark Wahlberg/Denzel Washington vehicle 2 Guns — what one fellow critic called Lethal Weapon for 2013 (and seemingly a bizarre choice incongruous with the rest of the programming) — and there was the massive summer storm that stole the film’s thunder and literally dampened the affair. The Piazza, one of the largest outdoor screening venues in Europe, is where Locarno the town and Locarno the international festival literally come together — and […]
by Paul Dallas on Aug 10, 2013 -
Locarno Critic’s Notebook #3
Leviathan. You may have heard the title by now. By the time it screened to press, the film had already gained some momentous hype, and I’m pleased to report it does not disappoint. Often exhilarating, Véréna Peraval and Lucien Castaing-Taylor‘s creation is a unique viewing experience—loud, disorienting, frightening, exciting and visually awesome. The best film from the main competition, at the very least, Leviathan (above) offers the sort of sensory adventure that cinema can but rarely does offer. Using cheap GoPro digital cameras, the filmmakers show us images and perspectives we’ve never seen before. Apparently, Apichatpong Weerasethakul did not like […]
by Adam Cook on Aug 13, 2012 -
Five Questions with Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Two years after winning the Palme d’Or, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul returned to Cannes. It was a rare sort of visit, in which he didn’t go home with any awards, having won three major prizes with Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century and of course Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. He was there with his new film Mekong Hotel, too small and resistant to categorization to neatly fit within any of Cannes’ proper sections. Now, he’s at the 65th Locarno Film Festival with Mekong and his new short film Sakda, but as the president of the Concorso […]
by Adam Cook on Aug 9, 2012 -
LOCARNO CRITICS NOTEBOOK #1
The Locarno Film Festival has carved out a role for itself since Olivier Père took over three years ago, in which it offers the best of all festival worlds. Acting as perhaps the best cross-section of contemporary cinema—or something very close to it—available on the festival circuit, it has often been described as one of the true “cinephilic” fests. Additionally, in order to make this possible, Locarno still needs to be something of a hotspot, and the “glamor” that makes such a reputation possible is also a key component. However, Locarno manages to avoid being an industry-driven media frenzy like […]
by Adam Cook on Aug 6, 2012
