Never Coming to a Cinema Near You - Arthouse Cinema 2015

"So Indian and Japanese film festivals we spoke about are ok but those seasons at the Tate aren't?"

no idea how you deduced this btw

and yes, Q&As afford the chance to say what i want, but the fact is if you have curators and people delivering seminars, you kinda expect them to cover some of the ground for the audience.

I don't think its placing it in a 'purely art context'. Over the last few years there is less and less space for these kinds of films to be shown in the cinema or TV and galleries/museums are taking that on. So I think you get people who like cinema more in galleries (I watch far more films than exhibitions/follow more erm static visual arts).

I don't think Kodwo or anybody's intro to any films at the Tate will be swallowed uncritically by the audience (you are questioning it) and I doubt Kodwo is one to go 'my reading of this is THE reading of it'.

plax(ico) - first you are saying "tate never shows films though it is v irritating why do they even have a screening room" then you are confused by la rebellion thing. You do know most of these screenings and seasons at most arthouse cinemas are funded by national cultural institutions - some of which may or may not be 'evil'?!

― xyzzzz__, Wednesday, 15 April 2015 13:11 (6 hours ago) Permalink

I mean I know probably way more than I would like to about the relationships between cultural institutions and distribution companies and art spaces and etc. but it is still baffling to me that a swiss cultural institute is showing a UCLA archive curated batch of American independent films in London. of course its true that in London everything has some official cultural capital from like the French cultural institute or Austrian film bureau or something. (although this is simply not the case in smaller cities and this has explicitly to do with how hyper commercial London or other large metropolitan centres are). I honestly could not care less about seeing these films in art or cinema contexts and whether or not kodwo eshun talks beforehand, so long as there's an opportunity to see good films and they are not as prohibitively expensive as the BFI. there's a lot on this month, much more than I can go to and a lot of it clashes but sometimes I do struggle to find interesting things on although the Goethe has been particularly good lately esp the farocki/straub-huillet screenings last month.

I do wish that film intros could be kept much shorter than they usually are. the only exception is when I saw Chantal Ackermann do a Q&A last year at the ICA which was very funny and very interesting.

Just come back from Goethe - what an incredible filmmaker Petzhold is. I thought he was good but not THIS good.

I was at that one and yes Akerman was great - it did have an unplanned and chaotic feel and she is no wannabe theorist so that made it for something quite special.

But actually the Akerman screening w/an intro by Olaf Möller was possibly better - there was engagement, warmth, humour and snatches of criticism and structure, which kept it to a reasonable length.

I know they are of varying quality.

Just come back from Goethe - what an incredible filmmaker Petzhold is. I thought he was good but not THIS good.

Yep! Gespenster's my favorite. :)

For those of us who missed the Chytilova:

http://london.czechcentres.cz/programme/travel-events/the-traveling-retrospective-show-vera-chytilova/

...season at the BFI.

Typical, not making it to the Glasgow Film Theatre. They probably have to show It's A Wonderful Fucking Life another 300 times.

IaWLife is worth seeing but not worth seeing more than once every two decades; kinda weird how this generally angry death fantasy became a holiday family favorite

covering up anger and desperation, that universal holiday feelin'

Yeah I'm going to the chytilová season for sure, can't wait

Saw the Chytilova screenings a few weeks back, indeed great. Waiting to bump into xyzzzz at one of these viewings. His next chance is in half an hour, at Freak Scene. Dare he?

Denys Irving's 'Exit' is...fuck

saw the first ever screening of this film, presumed lost - a psychotic, anti-philosophical cry for help, an affirmation of the abyss, a murderous and intense headlong dive into the cultural revolution, finding only sadness, high speed and contempt

utterly singular & perhaps brilliant. made me feel truly frightened.

makes pejoratives like 'amoral' or 'pretentious' fairly moot - it is not concerned with how we feel

Rewatched Amour Fou today. Got even more out of it, so many layers, and so wonderfully constructed. It will get distribution in Denmark in june, can't wait to see it again.

A screening and discussion with Jeff Krulik, director of "Heavy Metal Parking Lot"

Date: Tuesday, April 28th
Time: 8pm

Location: Morbid Anatomy Museum, 424 Third Avenue, 11215 Brooklyn

In 2003, The Travel Channel commissioned a one hour documentary on circus sideshows that was rarely screened after completion. Tonight, join filmmaker Jeff Krulik--director of the legendary "Heavy Metal Parking Lot"--as he introduces and presents outtakes and unseen footage from the endless hours he recorded for the documentary, entitled "Traveling Sideshow: Shocked and Amazed," which was based on James Taylor's "Shocked and Amazed! On & Off The Midway."

Along with Jenni Olson's hourlong The Royal Road (Junipero Serra, manifest destiny, El Camino Real, Vertigo, the pining of a butch dyke), I saw two newish Mark Rappaport video essays on cinema and its signifiers, Becoming Anita Ekberg and The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk, mentioned below. He has a still newer one. I, Dalio, on the great French actor. (All three available on Fandor.)

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/image-and-voice-the-audiovisual-essays-of-mark-rappaport

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/how-the-video-essays-of-mark-rappaport-break-through-movies

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/sundance-2015-the-storied-path-to-the-royal-road

https://vimeo.com/116711175

Found Amour Fou hard going myself, even if enjoying some of the almost painterly compositions.

(Caught the Austrain Cultural Institute free showing this evening)

I found the chairs hard going.

Was also there (hi ledge!)...yes its a funny place to have a screening. A bit cramped, if people get up they can block the projector.

Loved Amour Fou a lot though. And it was a great place to enjoy the German granny telling von Kleist that his story was nonsense and that she "loved Goethe more". Got the loudest laughs!

Was that the 'best joke' referred to by Dr Morbius above, I wonder.

Morbs - please confirm.

royal road is such a pile of ass, saw it at the london lgbt film festival, preferred the bob mizer dvd they showed

tell us how u really feel, plax.

no, i was thinking of that aristo woman's line to vK about "life is meaningless but don't take it so seriously"

i'd go to the straub/huillet if i didn't already have matinee theatre tickets that day but a tip off to those that hadn't spotted this

http://am-london.tumblr.com/events

Thanks plax(ico) I'll try and make that.

http://www.regentstreetcinema.com/

this is basically the new riverside (same programmer). definitely going to go just to see what the actual place is like now.

From the dbl bills (Diary of a Chambermaid/Duke of Burgundy!) this looks interesting.

riverside always did good doubles... nice to see a place like this in central london too.

These are more interesting, usually dbl bills at Riverside were two films by the same director. This one is aiming at making connections. 15 quid per dbl bill isn't bad either.

not really. its about the same mix of director and thematic doubles from the looks of things.

I don't recall seeing anything but [x auteur] dbl bill @ Riverside, and always old films.

ok Frederik... anything on this Argentine guy Rejtman?

http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/sounds-like-music-the-films-of-martin-rejtman

Oh, that's probably why Filmcomment had this article: http://www.filmcomment.com/article/martin-rejtman-two-shots-fired-dos-disparos

I knew nothing about him before I read that article. Actually, I knew nothing about Argentine cinema before 2001. I was thinking of starting a new thread, because I find it so weird. Nothing, no film at all, that I'd heard about before 01, and all of a sudden it's a major hotbed of cinema. That's weird. Iran or Romania, there's a couple old films I've heard about. Nothing in Argentina. Tell me if they're good, especially Rapado!

Also, anyone up for a thread on Argentine cinema? They're having a good year. The new Pineiro is good, and two films called Parabellum and Dog Lady was some of the best surprises at the latest PIX. There's a few films of a guy called Mauro Andrizzi up for stream at DAfilm: http://dafilms.com/event/208-mauro_andrizzi/ Seems kinda interesting. Anybody have some good articles/books on what happened that made Argentina great all of a sudden?

I found Two Shots very droll, but also frustratingly mysterious. (It's probably the most Madness of Mobile Phones-centric film I've yet seen; they ring throughout, and pretty much nothing gets communicated.) Rejtman did a Q&A, emphasizing how slowly he writes and works.

roundup:

https://www.fandor.com/keyframe/daily-sounds-like-music-the-films-of-martin-rejtman

This is the only pre-2001 Argentinian movie that comes to mind:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Official_Story

well Rejtman's debut Rapado was '92, apparently got some attention.

Halfway point poll. Multiplex wins decisively:

http://www.indiewire.com/survey/the-best-films-of-2015-so-far/best-film/

aside from Duke of Burgundy, feel like i haven't missed anything.

(Amour Fou and Gueros at the top for me)

Locarno Lineup:

Concorso Internazionale:

BELLA E PERDUTA by Pietro Marcello
BRAT DEJAN (Brother Dejan) by Bakur Bakuradze
CHEVALIER by Athina Rachel Tsangari
COSMOS by Andrzej Zulawski
ENTERTAINMENT by Rick Alverson
HAPPY HOUR by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
HEIMATLAND by Lisa Blatter, Gregor Frei, Jan Gassmann, Benny Jaberg, Carmen Jaquier, Michael Krummenacher, Jonas Meier, Tobias Nölle, Lionel Rupp, Mike Scheiwiller
JAMES WHITE by Josh Mond
JIGEUMEUN MATGO GEUTTAENEUN TEULLIDA (Right Now, Wrong Then) by HONG Sangsoo
MA DAR BEHESHT (Paradise) by Sina Ataeian Dena
NO HOME MOVIE by Chantal Akerman
O FUTEBOL by Sergio Oksman
SCHNEIDER VS. BAX by Alex van Warmerdam
SUITE ARMORICAINE by Pascale Breton
SULANGA GINI ARAN (Dark in the White Light) by Vimukthi Jayasund4ra
TE PROMETO ANARQUÍA by Julio Hernández Cordón
THE SKY TREMBLES AND THE EARTH IS AFRAID AND THE TWO EYES ARE NOT BROTHERS by Ben Rivers
TIKKUN by Avishai Sivan

Concorso Cineasti del presente:

DEAD SLOW AHEAD by Mauro Herce
DER NACHTMAHR by AKIZ
DOM JUAN by Vincent Macaigne
DREAM LAND by Steve Chen
EL MOVIMIENTO by Benjamín Naishtat
KEEPER by Guillaume Senez
LE GRAND JEU by Nicolas Pariser
LES ÊTRES CHERS by Anne Émond
LU BIAN YE CAN (Kaili Blues) by BI Gan
MOJ BRATE – MIO FRATELLO by Nazareno Manuel Nicoletti
OLMO & THE SEAGULL by Petra Costa, Lea Glob
SIEMBRA by Ángela Osorio Rojas, Santiago Lozano Álvarez
THE WAITING ROOM by Igor Drljaca
THITHI by Raam Reddy

Not as cool as last year, but new Akerman, Warmerdam, Rivers, Hong, Naishtat and Tsangari is cool. And Happy Hour by Hamaguchi is six-and-a-half hours long, so that's cool.

Stations of the Cross, anyone? Its austerity impressed Schrader.

http://www.littlewhitelies.co.uk/theatrical-reviews/stations-of-the-cross-28544

Alverson seems destined to make the same movie over and over but I am p into that movie

I saw it a couple weeks back. Loved it. Lead performance and the long shots are hard to deny.

Venice lineup:

Frenzy (Emin Alper, Turkey/France/Qatar)
Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson, US)
Blood of My Blood (Marco Bellocchio, Italy)
Looking for Grace (Sue Brooks, Australia)
Equals (Drake Doremus, US)
Remember (Atom Egoyan, Canada/Germany)
Beasts of No Nation (Cary Fukunaga, US)
Per amor vostro (Giuseppe M. Gaudino, Italy/France)
Marguerite (Xavier Giannoli, France/Czech Republic/Belgium)
Rabin, the Last Day (Amos Gitai, Israel/France)
A Bigger Splash (Luca Guadagnino, Italy/France)
The Endless River (Oliver Hermanus, South Africa/France)
The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, UK/US)
Anomalisa (Charlie Kaufman/Duke Johnson, US)
L'attesa (Piero Mesina, Italy)
11 Minutes (Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland)
Francofonia (Aleksandr Sokurov, France/Germany/Netherlands)
The Clan (Pablo Trapero, Argentina/Spain)
Desde alla (Lorenza Vigas, Venezuela/Mexico)
L'hermine (Christian Vincent, France)
Behemoth (Zhao Liang, China/France)

Docs from Wiseman, Loznitsa and Tsai out of competition is very exciting. And Danish filmmedia is excited that Tobias Lindholm's (A Hijacking) new film A War is in Horizons. Though six months ago they were complaining he wasn't in competition at Cannes, and now the side-competition at Venice is ever so prestigious. Danish filmmedia is weird.

Schrader and stations of the cross go together like a horse and carriage

cool, didn't know there was a new skolimowski

The Indian film Court (ludicrous trial of an elderly protest singer for abetting a suicide through music): understated, funny, angry, little speechifying (even by lawyers).

(Venice prizewinner last year, i think?)