Noah Baumbach
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Funny Girl: Noah Baumback and Greta Gerwig on Frances Ha
In 2008, Noah Baumbach surprised many people by teaming up with Joe Swanberg, first on a couple of Saturday Night Live Digital Shorts (which Baumbach directed and Swanberg shot), and then on Alexander the Last, Swanberg’s fourth feature, which Baumbach produced. The director of The Squid and the Whale and Margot at the Wedding seemed to have little in common with the most prolific of the mumblecore directors, but the association was indicative of a desire on Baumbach’s part to reinvent himself and find new ways of working. For his 2010 comedy drama Greenberg, Baumbach recruited Swanberg’s former muse (and […]
by Nick Dawson on Apr 23, 2013 -
The Toenail of the Curve: Remembering Harris Savides
In what is easily the most informative internet message board thread I’ve ever come across, “birth – Harris Savides,” which was started on Cinematography.com by a young man you may have heard of named Jody Lipes on November 1, 2004, the conversation turns around midway through to the aggressive underexposure used by Savides on Birth (pictured above). One of the forum’s members, who claimed to have worked on Birth, explained that Savides underexposed the film two stops, and then pulled it two additional stops, netting a total underexposure of four stops – which seems to have sent the head of […]
by Zachary Wigon on Oct 12, 2012 -
A Trans-Generational Triple Feature at NYFF 50
It was not until the very close of Michael Haneke’s laurel-laden Amour that I came to a pleasantly odd realization. Without any foresight, I had managed to stumble upon the perfect trans-generational triple feature—perhaps not just at the New York Film Festival, but in the grander scheme as well. At first blush, the Tokyo-set Like Someone in Love, New York-based Frances Ha, and the claustrophobic Parisian quarters of Amour have as much in common as, well, an Eastern social order, a misguided American woman, and a shackled octogenarian couple could. But a closer look reveals a glaringly common thread. […]
by Sarah Salovaara on Oct 11, 2012 -
“BLOW OUT”
The ending of Brian De Palma’s Blow Out hits you in the chest like a hammer. It’s not supposed to be this way; American studio movies don’t end like that. But of course it’s the heartbreaking denouement that has partially helped to make the film endure in the 30 intervening years since its commercially disastrous release, though one can certainly fathom how it alienated audiences at the time (for the record, some critics were passionate defenders; it’s just that most viewers don’t savor being implicated in the spectacle of violence as it is quickly transformed into tragedy). As De Palma […]
by Travis Crawford on Apr 26, 2011 -
“FANTASTIC MR. FOX”
Not often does a director with an indie pedigree seamlessly segue into subject matter like… children’s literature. But in many ways Wes Anderson has been training for the moment to use his hyper-stylized, extremely detailed storytelling to make a film like Fantastic Mr. Fox. Based on the Roald Dohl classic, Anderson (and co-writer, Noah Baumbach) use the book’s premise of a sly fox who outwits his farmer neighbors to steal their food to create a film that dazzles children and adults alike with it’s Andersonesque storytelling and stop-motion animation. When we meet Fox — voiced by George Clooney with motormouth […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 23, 2010 -
IFP ANNOUNCES SCRIPT TO SCREEN LINEUP
On March 20 & 21, IFP, with The Writer’s Guild of America, East, will present its annual Script to Screen Conference in New York City. This year’s conference opens with The Daily Show’s Steve Bodow and closes with Catherine Hardwicke (Thirteen, Twilight) and Brian Koppelman (Rounders, Ocean’s Thirteen). Other guests include Peter Hedges (About a Boy), Debra Granik (2010 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner Winter’s Bone) Sophie Barthes (Cold Souls), Ry Russo-Young (You Wont Miss Me) and recent Filmmaker “25 New Face” Lena Dunham (Delusional Downtown Divas) to name a few. The guests will discuss new challenges and opportunities taking […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 3, 2010 -
Noah Baumbach, Margot At The Wedding
NICOLE KIDMAN IN DIRECTOR NOAH BAUMBACH’S MARGOT AT THE WEDDING. COURTESY PARAMOUNT VANTAGE. If you believe what you read, Noah Baumbach’s films — sharp, witty, poignant and sometimes devastating — are drawn directly from his life. The son of Village Voice film critic Georgia Brown and novelist and film critic Jonathan Baumbach, Baumbach debuted as a writer-director in 1995 with his acclaimed Kicking and Screaming, the first of a number of films made during his twenties about New Yorkers in their twenties. After his second film, Mr Jealousy (1997), Baumbach admits that he got “derailed” and ended up making Highball […]
by Nick Dawson on Nov 16, 2007 -
NYFF.45 #3
In Jamie Stuart’s third installment of his shorts series from the New York Film Festival Todd Haynes explains his filmmaking methods and the motivations behind his latest film, I’m Not There. Approximate running time: 4:33. Download the short here by right clicking and choosing Save Target or Save Link. (58M) Please visit Jamie’s site at www.mutinycompany.com.
by Jason Guerrasio on Oct 10, 2007 -
THOUGHTS ON SUNDANCE: THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
A friend and I were talking about how, for those whose parents remained married, Noam Baumbach’s new film plays as a charming coming-of-age comedy. But for children of divorced parents, The Squid and the Whale seems to come off as a harrowing and painful relationship drama. I’m in the former camp, so I appreciated the excellent direction and acting (particularly by Jeff Daniels), the film’s balance between irony and affection, and its concise, purposeful pacing. It’s like an elegant novella extracted from a well-remembered life.
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 7, 2005
