Never Coming to a Cinema Near You - Arthouse Cinema 2015

Ward, It was on the GFT for a few showings immediately prior to the GFF

really need to see amour fou

would love to hear what you thought of the eugene green, frederik; i liked it but remember leaving the theatre just overwhelmed by what digital had done to his style

& congrats on your programming, too. seeing as i was moving ahead in a theatre was really revelatory for me; are you pitching it as having a pronounced architectural bent? i can see it.

jed - thanks, then I definitely missed it - think I was annoyed that it wasn't a new print of Rivette's Amour Fou!

Missed it too :-(

This is a free screen of it @ the austrian cultural institute, might be my last chance to catch it in a screen that is bigger than a laptop.

http://www.acflondon.org/film/cineclub/amour-fou

Amour Fou is also running in LA... and opening in Miami, Seattle etc next month. Looks done in NY after tomorrow tho, which would be atrocious.

http://www.filmmovement.com/theatrical/index.asp?MerchandiseID=400

(Hausner's 2010 film Lourdes is also well worth seeing, but didn't prepare me for this.)

@schlump: If you're interested in all the premieres, it's Jauja, Amour Fou and La Sapienza. The short version of La Sapienza is that I had no idea who Green was, and was very positively surprised by the film, even though I thougth it was a bit old fashioned and that it's themes have bene pondered better other places recently. Of course, it being about architects discussing architecture, I am quite receptive to all that stuff after having worked at CAF a couple of years.

And thanks! We had a great weekend, though I only managed to see the films at the place I worked at. Jean Rouch' Petit a Petit is pretty great, and I need to see more Raymond Depardon. The Mekas belonged to a category on 'nostalgia' on how time and longing infects our surroundings - we also showed Colossal Youth in that category. I got to see half an hour of the film, and I need to see it, but it'll be on a screening link plugged into my tv. Sigh.

Also, so glad you liked Amour Fou, Morbs! I'm really looking forward to rewatching that at PIX next month, and rumours have it it will get distributed here sometime this summer. I could see it a lot of times. I love how so many of the images are ever so slightly off-kilter, as if the servants have made up the houses completely symmetrical, but then the inhabitants have moved all the chairs just a bit. There is just an amazing mood in that film.

also the Vermeerish color and lighting... there's a cut to a robin's egg-blue room at one point that looks animated for a couple of seconds. Def put me in mind of Rohmer too.

oh, wow, i'd forgotten hausner made lourdes. with elina lowensohn! i liked it.

& thanks for the la sapienza rundown. his very distinct mode comes across even more interestingly & surprisingly in the portuguese nun, i think.

http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en13760070v.htm

Really hope to see The State I am in. Goethe is the best value for money cinema in London. Three quid a pop.

The only Hausner I've seen is Hotel - wasn't that impressed, but this looks great. Helps that I've read some von Kleist back in December.

This film might inspire some HvK book burnings.

thanks for posting about those screenings

hotel wasn't that good, but lourdes was really powerful (and also oddly funny in places)

new curzon bloomsbury (ie the old renoir) is opening this week btw, lots of smaller screens with the aim of letting films play for longer apparently (ie more chance of catching something like amour fou), though im not that big a fan of tiny 40-50 people cinemas, they all seem to have little care spent on their design (eg the bfi studio which is quite a bad place to watch anything i find)

so has anyone seen Jauja? Looks like the last day in NYC...

This film might inspire some HvK book burnings.

Haha. But, no. His stories are still great.

Really hope to see The State I am in.

Ooh, don't miss Gespenster, if you haven't already seen it. That and Jerichow are both better than State.

I'm at CPH:PIX so I'm blogging about films again. Yesterday it was Hill of Freedom by Hong Sang-soo, Greenery Will Bloom Again by Ermanno Olmi and Da Sweet Blood of Jesus by Spike Lee. The new Hong was a slight dissapointment, while the other two were positive surprises. But, uhm, the Hong was still by far the best one... I'll mostly write in Danish this time, but every now and then I'll do English-language posts, if anyone's interested.

I want one of those jobs where you travel around to festivals and figure out what's best for the festival at home.

just loved the hong

Preferred Our Sunhi last year. But I'm def a fan.

http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en13760070v.htm

Really hope to see The State I am in. Goethe is the best value for money cinema in London. Three quid a pop.

― xyzzzz__, Tuesday, 24 March 2015 11:38 (3 weeks ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes actually, i've gotten on this lately and there is literally nowhere decent although the LA rebellion season at tate modern looks worth it, i've been wanting to see bush mama and the burnett films for quite a while and also £5 but honestly seeing films in london is really difficult and disheartening and the bfi rarely helps

heyo plax!

HALLO

the rio is great, if confined to the bigger arthouse releases out at the time - their double bills are usually fun/good

the la rebellion season is looking excellent, cant believe billy woodberry's movies have not been picked up by the bfi (though the sunday seminar event was a bit shabby); tate and ica prob best places for experimental stuff

tate never shows films though it is v irritating why do they even have a screening room

I know I'm not an impartial observer, but Danish film is kinda ridiculously strong at the moment - as in, some very good films by coincidence are premiering these few months. In Your Arms by Samanou Acheche Sahlstrøm won the big prize at Gothenburg. Bridgend by Jeppe Rønde has just premiered here in competition at PIX and will premiere in Britain soon and is dark and tough and beautiful. And best of all is Limbo by Anna Sofie Hartmann, also at PIX, who has been educated by the Berlin Filmschool, and whose film should be sought out by everyone who liked Strange Little Cat and Amour Fou.

And all those three are debut features! That is very very unique for Danish film, that three such great debut features will premiere in such a short span of time. Feels good!

well, haven't even read about em here.

whoa awesome that the la rebellion series is touring internationally! some amazing stuff there

i saw 'jauja' last year, was sort of on the fence about it tbh

I did see Jauja the other night, 6/10

i'm slightly confused about why the la rebellion thing is at the tate, its being funded by some evil sounding swiss cultural institute

i dunno but one issue i have with programmes like LA rebellion and when they had the anand pathwardhan season last year is that it becomes stuck into this art film context when actually, these films (and anands) are far, far more than just art films - they are bigger than that, but you wouldnt know from the way they are contextualised, discussed and presented (at least to my eyes). the discussions between those putting them on and the filmmakers are interesting but also kind of lame, like theres something obvious not really being spoken about.

but hey, at least i get to see them.

well, haven't even read about em here.

― the increasing costive borborygmi (Dr Morbius), 15. april 2015 03:33 (10 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Right, and you'll probably have to wait for a long time, if they ever come to the states... It's not just that they're small Danish productions, but also that nothing in the Danish system seems prepared for a film like Limbo. It's produced by the Berlin Film School, made with amateur volunteers, and while critics seem to like that it's different, they also seem kinda confused - if they choose to review it at all. It might never get anywhere. But it's really exciting for me to see Denmark portrayed in this way, hopefully it's the beginning of something more.

Really hope to see The State I am in.

Ooh, don't miss Gespenster, if you haven't already seen it. That and Jerichow are both better than State.

― Cherish, Thursday, April 9, 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

State I am in was great! I am seeing Gespenster tonight and Yella on Friday.

Unfortunately can't see Jerichow as I already have other plans. Hmm...maybe my friend can be persuaded.

I am checking out The Austrian Cultural Institute and hopefully the Japanese Embassy - free screenings in both. (I need to check on the Korean institute actually.)

ICA 6 quid on a Tuesday. BFI still a reasonable tenner.

Curzon is dead although Blooms has that doc slot for 8 quid.

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'?!

Sorry for the multiple posts I'm just catching up:

i dunno but one issue i have with programmes like LA rebellion and when they had the anand pathwardhan season last year is that it becomes stuck into this art film context when actually, these films (and anands) are far, far more than just art films - they are bigger than that, but you wouldnt know from the way they are contextualised, discussed and presented (at least to my eyes). the discussions between those putting them on and the filmmakers are interesting but also kind of lame, like theres something obvious not really being spoken about.

but hey, at least i get to see them.

― StillAdvance, Wednesday, April 15, 2015 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

So Indian and Japanese film festivals we spoke about are ok but those seasons at the Tate aren't? Seriously what do you think is "not being spoken about"? The film selections are jut as interesting as BFI and actually they show ppl like Costa (which BFI don't seem to want to fuck with), they have discussion to contextualise, with Q&A if you want to ask and challenge. The sad thing is Pathwardhan iirc used to show his films/docs on C4 in the 80s early 90s and now he cannot, so there is a marginalization. At least Tate are helping out, so "getting to see them" isn't this thing to leave in the margins.

http://londonkoreanlinks.net/2015/04/06/korean-novels-on-screen/

Could be good.

calm down. i never said i didnt want them to show them, im very happy that they do, but that i dont much like placing it in a purely art context is all. its something anand said himself (as well as wondering whether the tate was reaching the audience he wanted to) - i mean, kodwo eshun is a brilliant thinker, but he prefers to think of things in theoretical terms by and large (often very imaginatively) but i dont think films like burnett or woodberrys - while there is a lot to dissect - should really be viewed purely in that way. its interesting in a sense, as now these films dont have to carry the burden of racial/identity politics EXCLUSIVELY and can be viewed as the work of artists, which i definitely like, im just not that keen on making it one or the other. i suppose its not so much the branding or marketing that i am talking about but its in the Q&As after that it seems that way.

"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

Sissako's Timbuktu is certainly worth seiing, but i don't find the filmmaking as forceful as it should be at times. The violence only does upsets once or twice.

― touch of a love-starved cobra (Dr Morbius), Monday, March 16, 2015 1:57

Finally saw this and also saw it on some year-end top lists (Bob Mondello, NPR & others). Worth seeing but main characters still didn't seem fleshed out enough.

that gunshot in the marsh though

terrible and heartbreaking even if one saw it coming. People buried in sand and stoned was pretty upsetting too.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-35220419

The US National Society of Film Critics has named Spotlight the best film of 2015.

Timbuktu, by Mauritanian director Abderrahmane Sissako, won best foreign language film.

I've never seen Sissako's earlier effort: "Bamako", mentioned below--

http://www.alternet.org/culture/2015-years-best-movies-classic-screen-romance-ghosts-auschwitz-delusional-tv-stardom

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon

Yes, African director Abderrahmane Sissako’s wry, rich, tragic and spectacular tale of life under the rule of Islamic militants in northern Mali’s legendary “library city” was nominated for the foreign-language Oscar last year. (It didn’t win, but I don’t begrudge “Ida” the prize.) That’s because the academy’s rules make no sense; “Timbuktu” did not play anywhere in the United States until late January of 2015. I have previously argued that a confluence of talent and circumstance have rendered Sissako — who was born in Mauritania, raised in Mali, educated in Russia and now lives in France — a figure of unique cultural importance. Far more to the point, he’s a great artist: Watch “Timbuktu” and then “Bamako,” his outrageous Brechtian assault against the Western banks and financial powers, and find out how his films speak to the mind, the heart and the spirit all at once.

I saw Tale of Tales yesterday and it's pretty amazing. So many beautiful shots. And it has a nice light touch when it comes to any interconnections between the different stories.