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Review: 'Sabbatical' Is A Long Breath Of Fresh Air In The Indie Movie Scene
2 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Anyone can make a movie and anyone will. The digital revolution has democratized cinema and, with it, came thousands of micro-indies. Sex was had, stars were born, dialogue was somewhat discernible. It’d be fraudulent to claim that all of these films focused on the post-college malaise of twenty-somethings, but many of the successful ones do. And while that’s fine — it’s certainly a topic that resonates with many — “Sabbatical” is a long breath of fresh air in that crowded room of independent film. A highly sophisticated, lean picture, the sophomore effort from Brandon Colvin centers on middle-aged scholar Ben (Robert Longstreet) as he returns to his childhood home to care for his ailing mother. What should be a rather quiet holiday — near perfect conditions for him to write a new book, he hopes — devolves into something more unsettling. Ben finds himself playing backyard drinking games with a highschool friend, »
- Christopher Bell
Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow Will Return For ‘Captain America: Civil War,’ Colossus Will Appear In ‘Deadpool’
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
There's convergence of comic book news this afternoon, so let’s be a little bit quick about it. You’re probably already assuming that Black Widow, played by Scarlett Johansson, will be back for “Captain America: Civil War” given how integral her character was to ‘The Winter Soldier,’ but in case you had doubts, it’s now confirmed. Speaking to Chinese press, directors Joe and Anthony Russo said Johansson will indeed reprise the role. "I had done my research, and the Black Widow character resonated with me. She is dark and has faced death so many times that she has a deep perspective on the value of life," Johannson recently teased about the character. As you probably assumed, also returning is Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier. The news begs the question though: will ‘Civil War’ be overcrowded with characters? Beyond Black Widow, Captain America, and the Winter Soldier, we »
- Edward Davis
Shooting Romance in NYC with the iPhone 6
3 hours ago | Filmmaker Magazine - Blog | See recent Filmmaker Magazine news »
Here’s a nifty behind-the-scenes featurette on the iPhone 6 shooting of Tristan Pope‘s short film, Romance in NYC. The film is shot entirely from the first-person perspective, like Lady in the Lake and Enter the Void, and the mobility of the iPhone enabled the director/camera operator to play the role of the first-person protagonist. As you’ll see in the video, Pope lets his own hands and arms enter and exit frame, aided by variety of gear — including a Gorillapod — as well as well-choreographed production assistants. »
- Scott Macaulay
Watch: Trailer For Björk’s New Moma Sound & Video Installation ‘Black Lake’
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
“She creates a circle around her which is her universe, and before each circle closes itself she jumps outside to create a new circle,” Michel Gondry said of the perennially changing musician and visual artist Björk this weekend in the New York Times magazine. “So each album goes into a new direction regardless of the success of the previous one.” Or as she puts it herself, “When people expect something of me it’s the only thing I can’t do.” So yes, Björk has moved beyond the album format and taken her art to another level. For her latest trick, the visually daring, musically idiosyncratic artist has created "Black Lake," a new sound and video installation commissioned by The Museum of Modern Art on the occasion of the retrospective exhibition Björk, which runs March 8–June 7, 2015. The song "Black Lake" appears on Björk’s new album, Vulnicura, so it only »
- Edward Davis
Criterion Bringing Films By Charlie Chaplin, Costa-Gavras & Rainer Werner Fassbinder In May
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Just as the summer blockbuster movie season will be in full swing, the folks at The Criterion Collection will be catering to the cinephiles who prefer dramatic queries versus CGI enhanced explosions. And the auteur's take command for their May lineup. Costa-Gavras, perhaps best known for "Z" and "Missing," has two movies hitting the boutique label: "State Of Siege" and "The Confession." The former is a 1972 film starring Yves Montand about a CIA official kidnapped by a guerrilla group in South America. The features are spare, but it will come packaged with NBC news excerpts about the kidnapping of Dan Mitrione in 1970, which inspired the movie. The latter picture also stars Montand and follows an influential Czechoslovak dignitary who is abducted, imprisoned, and interrogated by fellow members of his country’s Communist ruling party. It too is based on a true story and comes loaded with extras, including documentaries, interviews, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Berlin Review: Jem Cohen's Globetrotting, Chris Marker-Inspired Essay Doc 'Counting'
3 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Six cities; fifteen chapters; a hundred signposts; cats; shops; windows; car parks; and multiple shots taken through the perspex windows of airplanes looking out at the wing, the sky and the clouds below — Jem Cohen's non-narrative documentary/picaresque travelogue, "Counting," is a fragmentary collection of impressions even less coherently linked than his last eccentric essay, "Museum Hours." Where that film had Renaissance art, Vienna, and the act of looking as its elusive throughlines, "Counting," despite its chapter headings, is willfully anti-structural, organized according to principles that are all but impossible to discern. If that sounds like a frustrating watch, actually it's the opposite — there's a kind of helpless humility to the presentation of these urban impressions, almost a kind of democracy, that allows you to engage as much or as little as you like with them. Wade in up to your waist, roll up your sleeves, and »
- Jessica Kiang
Berlinale 2015 Mubi Coverage Roundup
3 hours ago | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »
Below you will find our total coverage of the 2015 Berlin International Film Festival. New interviews will be added to the index as they are published.
Correspondences
Between Adam Cook and Daniel Kasman
#1
Introduction by Daniel Kasman
#2
Adam Cook continues the festival introduction
#3
Daniel Kasman on Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#4
Adam Cook on Jem Cohen's Counting, Guy Maddin and Evan Johnson's The Forbidden Room, Jafar Panahi's Taxi
#5
Daniel Kasman on Berlin Critics' Week, Nathalie Nambot and Maki Berchache's Brûle la mer, Kevin B. Lee's Transformers: The Premake, Alex Ross Perry's Queen of Earth
#6
Adam Cook on Pablo Larraín's The Club, Kidlat Tahimik's Balikbayan #1 Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III, Andrew Haigh's 45 Years, Wim Wenders' Everything Will Be Fine
#7
Daniel Kasman on Werner Herzog's Queen of the Desert, Patricio Guzmán's The Pearl »
- Notebook
Surfing on Incidents: A Conversation with Peter Zeitlinger
3 hours ago | MUBI | See recent MUBI news »
“When I was a kid, I used to draw directly on the film frames and do animations, so I could use the expensive film much less, and be busy longer with it. The first thing I learned about filmmaking is that when you shoot in real time, all the film is gone so quickly, and you have to buy more...,” cinematographer Peter Zeitlinger told me during an informal chat we had in the lobby of his hotel, a couple of days before his “Measuring the Space” masterclass in the Berlinale Talents program during the Berlin International Film Festival.
Many years have passed since Zeitlinger's first, no-budget experiments with the medium of cinema: now he is one of the most sought-after cinematographers in the film business, and Werner Herzog's right-hand man since his TV documentary Gesualdo: Death for Five Voices (1995).
Using the Berlinale Competition entry Queen of the Desert (2015) as a case study, »
- Michael Guarneri
Watch: 'Birdman' Composer Antonio Sanchez Drums Up Live Performance
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
"Birdman," the awards season juggernaut with nine Academy Awards nominations, has an easily recognizable and entrancing drum score. Imagine hearing that score live during a screening of the film. That's what composer Antonio Sanchez does at the Ace Theater in Los Angeles. The idea fits the style of the film, which is near-complete one shot the entire duration. Hearing the score live only adds to that unique experience. Hear from Sanchez and star Michael Keaton about this technique in the video below. Read More: Indiewire's Final Oscar Predictions in Every Single Category (aka How to Win Your Oscar Pool) »
- Travis Clark
Why 'Boyhood' Is Like Binge-Viewing a Life
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Until maybe an hour or two before arriving at the theater this summer, I had no idea that "Boyhood" was almost three hours long. I knew the details of its production -- instead of one massive gulp of filming, tiny sips of production over the course of 12 years documented star Ellar Coltrane's youth and adolescence even while, officially, the story was pure fiction. But despite the fact that it had been over a decade in the making, I'd assumed that "Boyhood" would come in at a running time not equivalent to "Lawrence of Arabia." And that proved to be a bit ironic, because the night before, I'd actually gone to see "Lawrence of Arabia" for the first time (I'd held out for the opportunity to see it in 70mm, which was very worth it). Two epics in 24 hours is pretty intense -- I left "Boyhood" a bit tired, overstimulated, »
- Liz Shannon Miller
Watch: Video Homage To Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu Puts His Films Into Focus
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Up until last year’s “Birdman,” Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu was mostly known for making gritty, dour dramas with sprawling ensembles. Though the Best Picture nominee does have its own introspective moments, most of the runtime is filled with a dizzying madcap energy that makes the Inarritu of “Amores Perros” seem lightyears away from the Oscar frontrunner of today. With this year’s Academy Awards only days away, it’s time to take a look back at the filmography of the Oscar nominee. Thanks to our pals over at Press Play, there’s a short video essay from Steven Thomas being floated around that tracks the Mexican director from his debut feature-length film 15 years ago to last year’s triumphant (CG-assisted) one-take wonder. Watch Thomas’ “Focus” below and pick up “Birdman” on DVD or Blu-ray starting today. »
- Cain Rodriguez
Daily | Interviews | Ballhaus, Coppola, Dante
4 hours ago | Keyframe | See recent Keyframe news »
Cinematographer Michael Ballhaus talks about working with Rainer Werner Fassbinder in a generous excerpt from mono.kultur #19. More interviews in today's roundup: Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin on audiovisual essays, plus Francis Ford Coppola, Spike Lee, Joe Dante, Ava DuVernay (Selma), Boyhood editor Sandra Adair, C.S. Leigh, Molly Ringwald, Approaching the Elephant director Amanda Rose Wilder, Life Itself director Steve James, Rian Johnson's recent conversation with Christopher Nolan, a special section on Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel and more. » - David Hudson »
XLrator Media Acquires Action-Thriller 'Close Range' for U.S. Distribution
4 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
After securing deals for release in Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe, "Close Range" has been picked up for U.S. distribution by XLrator Media ("Jimi: All Is By My Side"). "Close Range" stars Scott Adkins ("The Bourne Ultimatum") as a rogue soldier turned outlaw who is thrust into a relentless fight with a corrupt sheriff, his obedient deputies and a dangerous drug cartel in order to protect his sister and her young daughter. The thriller is directed by Isaac Florentine, best known for directing the second and third installments of the "Undisputed" theatrical series. "Scott Adkins and Isaac Florentine have together made some of the best action movies in recent memory, including the famed Undisputed series which many consider among the best martial-arts action films of all time. They are an awesome actor-director tag-team. Action fans around the world are looking forward to 'Close Range' and another dose of epic, »
- David Canfield
Watch: Krzysztof Kieslowski's 10-Hour 'The Decalogue' Before NBC Remakes It Plus Roger Ebert's Great Review
4 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
In a career of masterful works, Krzysztof Kieslowski's "The Decalogue" might even outshine the "Three Colors" trilogy and "The Double Life Of Veronique." Released in 1989, picking up a slate of awards, massive critical accolades, and more, it was only on home video that the series of ten one-hour films — each based on the Ten Commandments and set around an apartment complex — found their way to cinephiles. To say it made an impact is an understatement, and to try and capture the power of the entire project in a few mere sentences is an even more impossible task. But if you haven't seen it, here's your chance. We've dug up all ten episodes of the series with English subtitles for you to check out below, along with Roger Ebert's terrific review from "Ebert & Roeper" circa the film's DVD release. As for the remake, Deadline reveals it will be an NBC event series, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Corinth Films Acquires Tale of German Tragedy 'Home From Home'
5 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Corinth Films will distribute Edgar Reitz's "Home From Home," the struggle of 19th century German villagers trying to escape the hardships of home by emigrating to South America. Jan Dieter Schneider stars as Jakob, who longs for a new life for himself and troubled family in Brazil and whose dreams may be shattered by his devious brother, Gustav, played by Maximilian Scheidt. But Jakob refuses to let his hard work and studies go to waste and rebels against the tired labor system. After being thrown in prison and brought to near death, Jakob must reunite with his family and love, Henriette. "Home From Home" is planned for a limited theatrical release in July. Read More: Review: Nadav Lapid's 'Policeman' Is Not Your Typical Tale of Israeli-Palestinian Conflict »
- Travis Clark
Michelle Williams And Kelly Reichardt Reteam For Third Film
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
While not possessing the uber-coolness of the Ryan Gosling/Nicolas Winding Refn bromance, Michelle Williams and Kelly Reichardt have carved out their own acclaimed corner of the indie movie world. The two first joined forces for the very well received "Wendy & Lucy," and followed that with the spare, gruelling "Meek's Cutoff." Now they're cooking up another project. Variety reports the duo will make a third film together this spring. The title and plot details are being kept under wraps for the moment, but we presume it won't be the most commercial offering in the world. Meanwhile, the shoot for Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester-By-The-Sea," which involves Williams and Casey Affleck, has been pushed back again to an unspecified "later in the year" date. So when will we see Williams and Reichardt's finished product? If it sticks to the lo-fi output of their previous ventures, a debut at one of the fall festivals seems possible, »
- Kevin Jagernauth
Wong Kar Wai Announces Next Project, Jim Jarmusch & ‘Zombieland’ Writers Land New Gigs
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
Does the venerable Hong Kong filmmaker Wong Kar-Wai have a new film in development? If Asian news outlets and translations can be trusted, the answer is yes. It was announced at one point that Kar-Wai would direct a project called "Ferryman,” but it turned out that he was only producing the film. So with a little caution, we note a new project for “The Grandmaster” filmmaker, evidently called “Blossoms.” It's an adaptation of short stories by Jin Yucheng and set in Shanghai. Here’s a synopsis: Depicting chores and trifles of urban life, such as grocery shopping and hosting a dinner party, Blossoms provides a vivid image of the daily life of ordinary Shanghai people. Focusing on a hundred characters, and several main ones, the whole story is carried out over two time-lines: from the 1960s to the mid-1970s, the end of the Cultural Revolution; and from the 1980s »
- Edward Davis
Watch: Julianne Moore Chases Fame in New 'Maps to the Stars' Red Band Trailer
5 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Julianne Moore is the front-runner in the Oscar race for "Still Alice" but she has another powerhouse performance on the way in the form of Havana, an aging actress who wants nothing more than to remake the movie that made her mother famous. Yahoo has a new red band trailer for "Maps to the Stars," and it's every bit as strange as you would expect from a David Cronenberg film. Along with Moore, the film stars Mia Wasikowska as Havana's mysterious personal assistant, John Cusak as a self-help specialist with a child star of a son and Robert Pattinson as an aspiring actor and limo driver. "Maps to the Stars" gets to the heart of how Hollywood swallows up these unsuspecting individuals. Check out the age-restricted trailer below. "Maps to the Stars" comes to theaters and VOD February 27. Read More: The 10 Indie Films You Must See This February »
- Travis Clark
Watch: Evan Peters and Juno Temple Fall in '70s Roadtrip Love in Exclusive 'Safelight' Trailer
5 hours ago | Indiewire | See recent Indiewire news »
Starring talented up-and-comers Evan Peters and Juno Temple, "Safelight" (formerly "Truck Stop") is a beautifully '70s-set road trip/coming of age tale, complete with a side of that first descent into love. It follows Charles and Vicki (Peters and Temple, respectively) as they make their way up the California coast in a cherry red convertible. Charles is on a quest to photograph every lighthouse in the state as a series he's putting together for a contest. He's a high school student with cerebral palsy and she's a mysterious and troubled runaway, so they have a certain sense of empathy for each other that makes their tentative relationship uncommon yet compelling. "Safelight" is the feature film debut of director/writer Tony Aloupis,who previously created the short film "Sugar." Check out the exclusive trailer below: Read More: Juno Temple on Coaching a Nervous Daniel Radcliffe Through a Sex Scene For »
- Rosie Narasaki
SXSW 2015: Ryan Gosling & Guillermo Del Toro Will Talk 'Lost River' And More
5 hours ago | The Playlist | See recent The Playlist news »
What happens when you put Ryan Gosling and Guillermo del Toro together for an hour? You'll find out at the SXSW Film Festival next month. Organizers have just announced the Conference Lineup, and easily the highlight is the aforementioned actor and director sitting down for a talk about Gosling's "Lost River." Even after the film's poor reception at Cannes last spring, it'll be interesting to hear Gosling's take, as well as del Toro's thoughts on the movie. Elsewhere, veteran producer Christine Vachon ("Still Alice," "Boys Don't Cry," numerous films with Todd Haynes) will deliver a keynote speech, pals Michael Shannon and Jeff Nichols will give a chat (and maybe show off some of "Midnight Special"?), and Amy Schumer will stop by with her "Trainwreck" set to debut at the fest. Check out all the details in the press release below. SXSW runs from March 13th to 21st. ---------- Austin, Texas – February 17, 2015 – The South. »
- Kevin Jagernauth
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