Unlike Cannes’ industry-catered competition section, the festival’s independent sidebar Directors’ Fortnight defines itself around audience outreach.
Headquartered halfway down the Croisette, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals, where the official selection screens for an industry-only crowd, Fortnight embraces the sprawl. The 56th edition programs 21 features and another eight shorts from May 15-25 (starting with Sophie Fillières’ posthumous “This Life of Mine”) while bringing select titles to many theaters far from the main drag.
That same selection will also offer the easiest point of access for so many locals, for whom Fortnight is often synonymous with Cannes, and who can always count on a 30-minute Q&a after each screening. Further afield, however, that clarity of identity begins to fade.
For one thing, the showcase doesn’t have a recognizable pitchman. In the time since Thierry Frémaux took over the official selection in 2004, Directors’ Fortnight has seen four artistic directors come and go,...
Headquartered halfway down the Croisette, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals, where the official selection screens for an industry-only crowd, Fortnight embraces the sprawl. The 56th edition programs 21 features and another eight shorts from May 15-25 (starting with Sophie Fillières’ posthumous “This Life of Mine”) while bringing select titles to many theaters far from the main drag.
That same selection will also offer the easiest point of access for so many locals, for whom Fortnight is often synonymous with Cannes, and who can always count on a 30-minute Q&a after each screening. Further afield, however, that clarity of identity begins to fade.
For one thing, the showcase doesn’t have a recognizable pitchman. In the time since Thierry Frémaux took over the official selection in 2004, Directors’ Fortnight has seen four artistic directors come and go,...
- 5/15/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
By the time you’ve inched toward the halfway point of the first episode of Shōgun, the epic new limited series that revisits James Clavell’s 1975 doorstopper of a historical novel about early 1600s Japan, you’ve already seen an eyeful: massive schooners, flashing swords, military processions, political power plays, a father and his infant son sentenced to death, a half-dozen English prisoners awaiting their fate in a pit. And then, out of nowhere, a character rides in on horseback. He’s shot from behind, but there’s something about the way he holds himself,...
- 4/27/2024
- by David Fear
- Rollingstone.com
Despite the efforts of festivals around the world, releasing and distribution companies, and streaming channels, which have gotten rather more intense during the last few years, the majority of titles produced in Japan, S. Korea and Hong Kong, which number hundreds every year remain unknown, particularly to the Western audience. As such, we decided to focus on this type of films exactly for our April-May tribute. And to be totally sincere, not all will be great just definitely worth watching. Here is the first batch
1. Three Resurrected Drunkards (1969) by Nagisa Oshima (Japan)
“Three Resurrected Drunkards” is an excellent sample of the cinematic tendencies of both Oshima and a whole group that tried to renovate cinema during the end of the 60s and the 70s, by combining new cinematic approaches with pointed sociopolitical commentary. The result definitely demands some knowledge of the climate of the era and the overall mentality of the Japanese towards foreigners,...
1. Three Resurrected Drunkards (1969) by Nagisa Oshima (Japan)
“Three Resurrected Drunkards” is an excellent sample of the cinematic tendencies of both Oshima and a whole group that tried to renovate cinema during the end of the 60s and the 70s, by combining new cinematic approaches with pointed sociopolitical commentary. The result definitely demands some knowledge of the climate of the era and the overall mentality of the Japanese towards foreigners,...
- 4/19/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
By the late 60s and the beginning of 70s, a number of independent filmmakers frequently mixed fiction with non-fiction while appropriating journalistic materials of well-known media events. Nagisa Oshima and Koji Wakamatsu were two of the most prominent directors in that regard, with “Season of Terror”, which was released just two months after “Go, Go, Second Time Virgin” , being a prominent sample.
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In that fashion, the movie begins by presenting a series of press photographs and newspaper headlines, mostly focusing on the student riots and their clashes with the police, along with the military training of what appears to be a rightist group. As soon as the rather impressive montage is finished, we are introduced to the first protagonist of the movie, a former radical leader who has been out of sight for quite some time. Next, we get to meet the other two,...
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In that fashion, the movie begins by presenting a series of press photographs and newspaper headlines, mostly focusing on the student riots and their clashes with the police, along with the military training of what appears to be a rightist group. As soon as the rather impressive montage is finished, we are introduced to the first protagonist of the movie, a former radical leader who has been out of sight for quite some time. Next, we get to meet the other two,...
- 4/16/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
As I mentioned before, the Kim Hiro incident and particularly the way it was covered by the media, inspired a number of filmmakers to explore new cinematic methods that would examine the concepts of timeliness and actuality in cinema and the connection between documentary and fiction. Toshio Matsumoto, in a precursor to his feature debut, “Funeral Parade of Roses” came up with a 15-minute short which was presented through three projectors running different images at different speeds simultaneously, in an effort to mimic the visual layout of the newspaper, in a frame split in two that features completely different images.
Among the many images presented in frantic speed here, we have various of Kim Hiro, as the one with his portrait on the left side and newspapers on the right, which is held by an individual taking part in a street performance. Continuing this segment of the film, in which...
Among the many images presented in frantic speed here, we have various of Kim Hiro, as the one with his portrait on the left side and newspapers on the right, which is held by an individual taking part in a street performance. Continuing this segment of the film, in which...
- 4/16/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The issue of the Zainichi Koreans was one that interested Nagisa Oshima significantly, with him having shot the TV documentary “Forgotten Soldiers” in 1963 and the experimental short “Diary of Yunbogi” in 1965. Two events revolving around the problems of Koreans in Japan, the Kim Hiro and the Komatsugawa Incident, were also roots of inspiration for him, resulting in two films, “Death by Hanging” and “Three Resurrected Drunkards” both of which use irony, theatricality and intense avant-garde elements to portray his take on the subject.
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The overall directorial approach here becomes apparent from the beginning, as it shows three Japanese students at the beach, reenacting one of the most famous pictures of the Vietnam war, before they decide to strip to their underwear and go for a swim. While they are swimming, a hand emerges from the sand and steals their clothes,...
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The overall directorial approach here becomes apparent from the beginning, as it shows three Japanese students at the beach, reenacting one of the most famous pictures of the Vietnam war, before they decide to strip to their underwear and go for a swim. While they are swimming, a hand emerges from the sand and steals their clothes,...
- 4/13/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Veteran Japanese character actor Tadanobu Asano is having a very overdue breakthrough moment. The chameleonic film star has been a mainstay of Japanese cinema for nearly three decades, while also regularly appearing in prominent supporting parts in big Hollywood productions. But his irresistible performance in FX’s period series Shōgun is giving him an all-new level of global recognition.
Asano co-stars in Shōgun as Kashigi Yabushige, the scheming lord of Izu, a rugged region of feudal Japan where much of the series takes place. Playing the character with lived-in swagger and a fatalistic sense of humor, Asano has become one of the show’s clear fan favorites, with Reddit and Twitter threads popping up to revel in his character’s antics. Asano announced himself early in Shōgun‘s run: As many have marveled, Yabushige makes his entrance to the show by boiling a man alive but then wins the audience...
Asano co-stars in Shōgun as Kashigi Yabushige, the scheming lord of Izu, a rugged region of feudal Japan where much of the series takes place. Playing the character with lived-in swagger and a fatalistic sense of humor, Asano has become one of the show’s clear fan favorites, with Reddit and Twitter threads popping up to revel in his character’s antics. Asano announced himself early in Shōgun‘s run: As many have marveled, Yabushige makes his entrance to the show by boiling a man alive but then wins the audience...
- 4/10/2024
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Allow me to start with a very personal note. I think that the 60s and early 70s was the most interesting period in the history of Japanese cinema, with the avant-garde approach that emerged at the time resulting in some of the most unique films ever to see the light of day. At the same time, and considering that the majority of works about Japanese cinema history we get our hands in the West are written by Western writers, it is always interesting to see how much more light locals can shed on the subject. Lastly, and in the same path, considering that the “Aesthetics of Shadow” by Daisuke Miyao was truly masterful, I was really eager to read “Cinema of Actuality”.
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After a prologue, which is, as usual in academic works, the most complicated part in the whole book,...
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After a prologue, which is, as usual in academic works, the most complicated part in the whole book,...
- 3/30/2024
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
Since the beginning of his career, Hirokazu Koreeda became recognized for his films representing the family cinema genre—intrinsically linked with the favorite of Western critics among Japanese filmmakers: Yasujiro Ozu. This was already the case with Koreeda's 1995 debut film, “Maboroshi no hikari”, a visual meditation on loss and the passing of time, told through the eyes of a single mother who has just lost her beloved husband. Since the early 1960s and the death of Yasujiro Ozu, Western critics seemed to be engaged in an excruciating quest to find a new ancestor to Ozu's poetics of cinema—and finally, there was one; Koreeda became the new Ozu.
The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...
The similarity is there—a contemplative approach towards the mundane which translates to something more transcendental; a patient gaze onto the bonds of the family set against the backdrop of a modernizing world and changing traditions; or a talent to put...
- 3/27/2024
- by Lukasz Mankowski
- AsianMoviePulse
Revolution+1.On July 8, 2022, Shinzo Abe, who had been the longest-serving prime minister of Japan in its postwar years, was shot and killed in broad daylight in a country with barely any civilian access to firearms. The suspect was immediately arrested, and commentators from all over the world began to speculate about the killer’s motive. After a few days, the police revealed that the 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami, who had built his own gun and tracked Abe’s movements, had not originally planned to kill Abe. In fact, the most high-profile political assassination in decades was carried out by a man who cared little for politics. Legendary Japanese filmmaker Masao Adachi, sensing a story sure to be misconstrued by the press, immediately began production on a biopic—not of Abe, but of Yamagami. At the North American premiere of the film, Revolution+1 (2023), last July, he said that this quick turnaround was not intended to garner controversy,...
- 3/11/2024
- MUBI
A female voice is asking if the person recording her knew the song “Pronce Mai”. She explains that it's a Korean classic that she named her daughter after, and she starts singing it with a joyful force. With the first lyrics come the first images: those of a stylish young mother with her child in various locations, and finally of an island in the distance. This is the introduction to a family of two filmmakers who joined their forces to restore some fifty hours, or 100.000 feet of material on 16mm, additionally challenged with sound recordings on tape that no one has heard over thirty years.
Voices Of The Silenced is screening at Berlin International Film Festival
The narration of the movie switches between the mother and the daughter who are telling different parts of the story surrounding Park Soo-nam's decades' long effort in documenting the history of the Zainichi Korean in Japan.
Voices Of The Silenced is screening at Berlin International Film Festival
The narration of the movie switches between the mother and the daughter who are telling different parts of the story surrounding Park Soo-nam's decades' long effort in documenting the history of the Zainichi Korean in Japan.
- 2/29/2024
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
It’s been almost a decade now that French-Canadian director Philippe Lesage’s intense, intricate dramas have been premiering in top festivals and receiving rave reviews from critics. And yet he unfortunately remains more or less unknown to general arthouse audiences.
Lesage began his career shooting documentaries, including the 2010 hospital chronicle The Heart That Beats, then made his first fictional feature, The Demons, in 2015, following it up in 2018 with Genesis. Both movies were coming-of-age stories — or more like cruel stories of youth, to cite the Nagisa Oshima film — helmed with laser-sharp precision and backed by formidable turns from a young cast. Fine-tuned and freewheeling at the same time, his narratives keep bubbling up until they boil over, in explosive sequences where the characters let it all out or start bellowing pop songs at will.
He’s a gifted and original filmmaker who should be getting more attention — which is why...
Lesage began his career shooting documentaries, including the 2010 hospital chronicle The Heart That Beats, then made his first fictional feature, The Demons, in 2015, following it up in 2018 with Genesis. Both movies were coming-of-age stories — or more like cruel stories of youth, to cite the Nagisa Oshima film — helmed with laser-sharp precision and backed by formidable turns from a young cast. Fine-tuned and freewheeling at the same time, his narratives keep bubbling up until they boil over, in explosive sequences where the characters let it all out or start bellowing pop songs at will.
He’s a gifted and original filmmaker who should be getting more attention — which is why...
- 2/27/2024
- by Jordan Mintzer
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
We recently learned that five years after Dragged Across Concrete, S. Craig Zahler will soon announce his next feature. In the meantime, the director has unveiled his favorite music, books, and––most pertinent to this site––films he watched in the past year.
The 21-movie list includes not only his ten favorites of the year but revival screenings as well, including Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies, Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri, Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible, Nagisa Ôshima’s The Pleasures of the Flesh, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.
When it comes to new releases, amongst the favorites of the Bone Tomahawk director were Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw, Skinamarink, Godzilla Minus One, the Indian action-thriller Jawan, films by Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Glazer, and the latest in the Saw franchise.
Check out the list below.
Godzilla Minus One...
The 21-movie list includes not only his ten favorites of the year but revival screenings as well, including Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s Werckmeister Harmonies, Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy and Lucy, Masaki Kobayashi’s Harakiri, Gaspar Noé’s Irreversible, Nagisa Ôshima’s The Pleasures of the Flesh, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, and William Friedkin’s The Exorcist.
When it comes to new releases, amongst the favorites of the Bone Tomahawk director were Sean Durkin’s The Iron Claw, Skinamarink, Godzilla Minus One, the Indian action-thriller Jawan, films by Martin Scorsese and Jonathan Glazer, and the latest in the Saw franchise.
Check out the list below.
Godzilla Minus One...
- 1/15/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Ryuhei Matsuda was born on the 9th of May, 1983, in Tokyo, to actress and producer Miyuki Matsuda and actor Yûsaku Matsuda, and only six years later he loses his father to cancer at the premature age of 40. At only 15, Ryuhei is approached by Nagisa Oshima with the life changing offer of a prominent role in his film Gohatto. Since then, Matsuda's magnetic charisma and remarkable versatility have allowed him to portray a wide range of characters, from brooding antiheroes to quirky and endearing figures, captivating audiences both in Japan and internationally.
With a unique ability to immerse himself in diverse roles, he has left an indelible mark on Japanese cinema and continues to be a beloved and influential figure in the world of acting. However, Matsuda's congenital air of disdain for the whole world, his glacial aloofness mixed with his innate handsomeness make him the prototype of effortless coolness,...
With a unique ability to immerse himself in diverse roles, he has left an indelible mark on Japanese cinema and continues to be a beloved and influential figure in the world of acting. However, Matsuda's congenital air of disdain for the whole world, his glacial aloofness mixed with his innate handsomeness make him the prototype of effortless coolness,...
- 11/9/2023
- by Adriana Rosati
- AsianMoviePulse
To celebrate the release of Mark Cousins’ new documentary The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, a portrait of the Oscar-winning producer responsible for bringing to life films by David Cronenberg, Jonathan Glazer, Jim Jarmusch, Bernardo Bertolucci, Nagisa Ôshima, Jerzy Skolimowski, and many more, NYC’s Quad Cinema is fittingly paying tribute to his career with a fantastic retrospective.
“Jeremy Thomas Presents” kicks off today and runs through September 28 at Quad Cinema, with The Storms of Jeremy Thomas opening this Friday, September 22. As the retrospective commences, we’re pleased to exclusively share the trailer along with comments directly from Thomas looking back at the making of these iconic films.
Sexy Beast
I was sent a script with a Jonathan Glazer attached, called “Sexy Beast”. It was on a Friday night, and I read it over the weekend. The screenplay was brilliant, and on the Monday I bought it before anyone else could.
“Jeremy Thomas Presents” kicks off today and runs through September 28 at Quad Cinema, with The Storms of Jeremy Thomas opening this Friday, September 22. As the retrospective commences, we’re pleased to exclusively share the trailer along with comments directly from Thomas looking back at the making of these iconic films.
Sexy Beast
I was sent a script with a Jonathan Glazer attached, called “Sexy Beast”. It was on a Friday night, and I read it over the weekend. The screenplay was brilliant, and on the Monday I bought it before anyone else could.
- 9/18/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
While our massive, 60-film fall movie preview gives a hint at what to expect this season, it’s time to dive deeper into September. With films from Ethan Coen, Yorgos Lanthimos, and Luca Guadagnino being ripped off the month’s release calendar because studios don’t want to pay actors and writers fairly, it means the fall’s first offerings are a bit lighter––thankfully giving some truly independent productions further room to shine.
12. The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (Mark Cousins; Sept. 22 in theaters)
What do films like David Cronenberg’s Crash, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and (many) more have in common? They were produced by Oscar winner Jeremy Thomas. A new documentary by cinephile Mark Cousins, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, explores the making of his most notable films.
12. The Storms of Jeremy Thomas (Mark Cousins; Sept. 22 in theaters)
What do films like David Cronenberg’s Crash, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and (many) more have in common? They were produced by Oscar winner Jeremy Thomas. A new documentary by cinephile Mark Cousins, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, explores the making of his most notable films.
- 8/31/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Among the many films produced and distributed by Art Theatre Guild, the body of work of director Kazuo Kuroki remains one of the most interesting. While it never reached the same kind of attention than the features of his peers such as Nagisa Oshima and Akio Jissoji, his projects dealing with the psychological landscape of Japan after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are some of the best the company ever produced. Similar to the aforementioned directors, his time of Atg was also defined by stories which involved a critical view on Japanese society, especially the relation of people and authority, of crime and police, which is quite evident in his 1970 feature “Evil Spirits of Japan”.
Follow our coverage of Atg by clicking on the link below
The story revolves around two men: a yakuza named Murase and a policeman by the name of Ochiai (both played by Kei Sato...
Follow our coverage of Atg by clicking on the link below
The story revolves around two men: a yakuza named Murase and a policeman by the name of Ochiai (both played by Kei Sato...
- 8/31/2023
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
What do films like David Cronenberg’s Crash, Jonathan Glazer’s Sexy Beast, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Sexy Beast, Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo, Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor, Nagisa Ôshima’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and more have in common? They were produced by Oscar winner Jeremy Thomas. A new documentary by cinephile Mark Cousins, The Storms of Jeremy Thomas, now explores the making of many of his most notable films. Ahead of a release on September 22 the first trailer has now landed.
Here’s the synopsis: “Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of films like Eo and The Last Emperor, is joined by documentarian Mark Cousins on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival, to give an intimate glimpse into the life of the legendary icon behind some of the most acclaimed and controversial films of all time. Featuring insights into a life lived just off-frame,...
Here’s the synopsis: “Jeremy Thomas, the Oscar-winning producer of films like Eo and The Last Emperor, is joined by documentarian Mark Cousins on his annual pilgrimage to the Cannes Film Festival, to give an intimate glimpse into the life of the legendary icon behind some of the most acclaimed and controversial films of all time. Featuring insights into a life lived just off-frame,...
- 8/29/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Signaling the 10th anniversary since the introduction of Art Theatre Guild, “The Ceremony” is one of the best works of Nagisa Oshima and one of those films that highlights how multilayered, both audiovisuallly and contextually, cinema can be. The movie won multiple awards in 1972, both from Kinema Junpo and Mainichi Concours.
Follow our coverage of Atg by clicking on the link below
The story begins with Masuo Sakurada, a young man, receiving a shocking telegram from his cousin Terumichi. Not sure if it is true or not, he embarks on a trip towards his cousin's cabin, along with his cousin Ritsuko, in order to discover the truth. As the fact that, for him, Ritsuko is more than a relative, the terrible story of the Sakuradas also comes to the fore, as the trip proves to be also one down a terrible memory lane.
In that fashion, the movie unfolds in three axes.
Follow our coverage of Atg by clicking on the link below
The story begins with Masuo Sakurada, a young man, receiving a shocking telegram from his cousin Terumichi. Not sure if it is true or not, he embarks on a trip towards his cousin's cabin, along with his cousin Ritsuko, in order to discover the truth. As the fact that, for him, Ritsuko is more than a relative, the terrible story of the Sakuradas also comes to the fore, as the trip proves to be also one down a terrible memory lane.
In that fashion, the movie unfolds in three axes.
- 8/21/2023
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The passing of Ryuichi Sakamoto in March 2023 marked a sad and significant loss for the world of music. Debuting with his experimental solo EP Thousand Knives (1978) at the age of twenty-six, Sakamoto would go on to have a 45-year-long career as a musician, producing countless solo albums and film scores, as well as music with the Japanese electropop band Yellow Magic Orchestra. Tracing his blossoming career in the mid-1980s was French photographer Elizabeth Lennard, who directed the made-for-tv documentary “Tokyo Melody: un film sur Ryuichi Sakamoto” (1985). The film presents an economically prosperous Tokyo, along with an intimate portrait of Sakamoto as he works on his then-upcoming solo album, Ongaku Zukan (1984).
Tokyo Melody is screening at Japan Cuts
As far as documentaries go, “Tokyo Melody” is distinctly hands-off. We're introduced to Sakamoto as he fiddles with what is presumably a new piece of recording equipment in the park, although the...
Tokyo Melody is screening at Japan Cuts
As far as documentaries go, “Tokyo Melody” is distinctly hands-off. We're introduced to Sakamoto as he fiddles with what is presumably a new piece of recording equipment in the park, although the...
- 8/1/2023
- by Tom Wilmot
- AsianMoviePulse
"It's not the same as coming in and being inspired." They got Nolan! Wow! Dive into movie geek heaven in this latest offering of the "Vidéo Club" series made by Konbini exploring an old video store in Paris with famous filmmakers. We've posted videos of Brad Pitt and Terry Gilliam and M. Night Shyamalan and Wes Anderson already in this classic video store. This time they got to bring in director Christopher Nolan to visit with his lead actor Cillian Murphy from Oppenheimer while they were in Paris on their promo tour (before the strike a few weeks ago). Nolan makes me want to watch Hitchcock's Foreign Correspondent (aka Correspondent 17 in French), The Hill starring Sean Connery, and Nagisa Ôshima's Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, and he also chats about how Fritz Lang's Dr. Mabuse had a big influence on his Joker. Murphy talks about working with Ken Loach,...
- 7/24/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Olivier Assayas, Jacques Rivette, Park Chan-wook, and Bong Joon-ho screen on 35mm as part of “Views from the Vault.”
IFC Center
A series on sex scenes brings Crash, Cruising, Don’t Look Now, Persona and more; Twilight and A Nightmare on Elm Street have late showings, while The Wicker Man plays in a new restoration.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Nagisa Ōshima, including the David Bowie-led Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, are subject of a retrospective that has its final weekend.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Jackass Number Two, Go, and Tokyo Drift screen, while the restoration of Raging Bull and Juliet Berto’s Neige plays.
Film at Lincoln Center
The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration.
Film Forum
A massive Billy Wilder retrospective is underway; Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Olivier Assayas, Jacques Rivette, Park Chan-wook, and Bong Joon-ho screen on 35mm as part of “Views from the Vault.”
IFC Center
A series on sex scenes brings Crash, Cruising, Don’t Look Now, Persona and more; Twilight and A Nightmare on Elm Street have late showings, while The Wicker Man plays in a new restoration.
Anthology Film Archives
Films by Nagisa Ōshima, including the David Bowie-led Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, are subject of a retrospective that has its final weekend.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Jackass Number Two, Go, and Tokyo Drift screen, while the restoration of Raging Bull and Juliet Berto’s Neige plays.
Film at Lincoln Center
The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration.
Film Forum
A massive Billy Wilder retrospective is underway; Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
- 7/21/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Jacques Rivette, Jane Campion, Harmony Korine, and John Waters screen in “Views from the Vault.”
Film Forum
A massive Billy Wilder retrospective is underway; Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Donnie Darko, Manhattan, and Preminger’s Laura screen.
Anthology Film Archives
Eight films by Nagisa Ōshima, one of the greatest Japanese directors, are subject of a retrospective while Sunrise plays in Essential Cinema.
Museum of the Moving Image
A summer movie series includes Purple Rain and Do the Right Thing, while a print of The Royal Tenenbaums screens on Saturday.
Film at Lincoln Center
As The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration.
IFC Center
The David Lynch and Studio Ghibli retrospectives continue while Scary Movie, Raising Arizona, and A Nightmare on Elm Street have late showings.
Museum of Modern Art
Films by Jacques Rivette, Jane Campion, Harmony Korine, and John Waters screen in “Views from the Vault.”
Film Forum
A massive Billy Wilder retrospective is underway; Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Donnie Darko, Manhattan, and Preminger’s Laura screen.
Anthology Film Archives
Eight films by Nagisa Ōshima, one of the greatest Japanese directors, are subject of a retrospective while Sunrise plays in Essential Cinema.
Museum of the Moving Image
A summer movie series includes Purple Rain and Do the Right Thing, while a print of The Royal Tenenbaums screens on Saturday.
Film at Lincoln Center
As The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration.
IFC Center
The David Lynch and Studio Ghibli retrospectives continue while Scary Movie, Raising Arizona, and A Nightmare on Elm Street have late showings.
- 7/14/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Anthology Film Archives
Eight films by Nagisa Ōshima, one of the greatest Japanese directors, are subject of a retrospective.
Film at Lincoln Center
As The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration, the full Jean Eustache retrospective gets underway; Out of Sight plays for free this Friday night on Governors Island.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Casino and Visconti’s The Damned screen, while Party Girl and Brick and Mirror show in 4K restorations.
Metrograph
Documentary filmmaker Tom Palazzolo is subject of a rare retrospective.
Film Forum
Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
Museum of the Moving Image
The original Star Wars trilogy, Roger Rabbit, and An American Werewolf in London play in a summer movie series, while a print of The Royal Tenenbaums screens on Saturday and Sunday; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms also shows.
Anthology Film Archives
Eight films by Nagisa Ōshima, one of the greatest Japanese directors, are subject of a retrospective.
Film at Lincoln Center
As The Mother and the Whore continues in a 4K restoration, the full Jean Eustache retrospective gets underway; Out of Sight plays for free this Friday night on Governors Island.
Roxy Cinema
35mm prints of Casino and Visconti’s The Damned screen, while Party Girl and Brick and Mirror show in 4K restorations.
Metrograph
Documentary filmmaker Tom Palazzolo is subject of a rare retrospective.
Film Forum
Godard’s Contempt and Midnight Cowboy play in 4K restorations.
Museum of the Moving Image
The original Star Wars trilogy, Roger Rabbit, and An American Werewolf in London play in a summer movie series, while a print of The Royal Tenenbaums screens on Saturday and Sunday; The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms also shows.
- 7/6/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Japan’s Hiroshi Teshigahara, who seemed on track for greatness after winning two Oscar nominations for “Woman in the Sands,” will be the subject of a San Sebastian Festival retrospective.
Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.
Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara...
Nominated for best foreign-language film in 1964, and winning Teshigahara a best director Academy Award nomination a year later, “Woman in the Sands” was just Teshigahara’s second feature, a social and erotic allegory which yoked the political convictions of Teshigahara and screenwriter Kobo Abe, both members of Japan’s communist party in their youth, with Abe’s penchant for the darkly surreal.
Turning on an entomologist from Tokyo who discovers a young widow living at the bottom of an enormous sandpit on a deserted beach, it also won a Cannes Special Jury prize. Hailed as a masterpiece, and building on 1961’s “The Pitfall,” a political allegory which won Teshigahara fans, with Abe adapting his TV play, it looked like Teshigahara...
- 6/29/2023
- by John Hopewell
- Variety Film + TV
Arrow Video has announced the July 2023 lineup of their subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
Here’s everything you need to know…
July 7 starts the month in sun and fun with the “Permanent Vacation” Collection (UK/Ire/US/CA). In desperate need of a vacay? Well, be careful who you book with, because the flicks trips in Permanent Vacation are dream holidays that you’ll never return from.
Featuring murderous mini-breaks and sun, sea, sand and psychos, these gory getaways feature everything from island paradises full of monsters and mutants to nature breaks from the rat race that will be the death of you. So, pack your sunglasses and flip-flops, but don’t bother buying a return ticket, because you’re going on a Permanent Vacation.
Titles Include: Horrors of Malformed Men, Lake Michigan Monster, The Wind.
Also on July 7, subscribers are...
Here’s everything you need to know…
July 7 starts the month in sun and fun with the “Permanent Vacation” Collection (UK/Ire/US/CA). In desperate need of a vacay? Well, be careful who you book with, because the flicks trips in Permanent Vacation are dream holidays that you’ll never return from.
Featuring murderous mini-breaks and sun, sea, sand and psychos, these gory getaways feature everything from island paradises full of monsters and mutants to nature breaks from the rat race that will be the death of you. So, pack your sunglasses and flip-flops, but don’t bother buying a return ticket, because you’re going on a Permanent Vacation.
Titles Include: Horrors of Malformed Men, Lake Michigan Monster, The Wind.
Also on July 7, subscribers are...
- 6/27/2023
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Arrow Offers Classic and Cutting Edge Cult Cinema - July 2023 Lineup Includes Spaghetti Westerns, a Trip Through History, the Inspiration of Josh Ruben and More!: "London, UK - Arrow Video is excited to announce the July 2023 lineup of their subscription-based Arrow platform, available to subscribers in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland.
July 7 starts the month in sun and fun with Permanent Vacation (UK/Ire/US/CA).
In desperate need of a vacay? Well, be careful who you book with, because the flicks trips in Permanent Vacation are dream holidays that you’ll never return from.
Featuring murderous mini-breaks and sun, sea, sand and psychos, these gory getaways feature everything from island paradises full of monsters and mutants to nature breaks from the rat race that will be the death of you. So, pack your sunglasses and flip-flops, but don’t bother buying a return ticket, because you...
July 7 starts the month in sun and fun with Permanent Vacation (UK/Ire/US/CA).
In desperate need of a vacay? Well, be careful who you book with, because the flicks trips in Permanent Vacation are dream holidays that you’ll never return from.
Featuring murderous mini-breaks and sun, sea, sand and psychos, these gory getaways feature everything from island paradises full of monsters and mutants to nature breaks from the rat race that will be the death of you. So, pack your sunglasses and flip-flops, but don’t bother buying a return ticket, because you...
- 6/22/2023
- by Jonathan James
- DailyDead
by Palomo Lin-Linares
How does one categorize the films of Nagisa Oshima? Even among his brethren new wave directors, he stands as an auteur independent of any particular movement. “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide,” in all its absurdism, provocation, and politically charged imagery, is a perfect example of Oshima's non-conformist method of expression.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film opens with a series of left hook vignettes, connected by cultural imagery which serve as an introduction to the film's language and style. Nejiko, a young sexually obsessed woman (Keiko Sakurai) meets Otoko, a man obsessed with death (Kei Sato). This pseudo romance is interrupted when the couple are taken prisoner by mysterious gangsters and placed in a hideaway. Here they meet the rest of the movie's characters that are composed of equally obsessed oddballs: a television loving fascist, a trigger happy kid, an anarchist,...
How does one categorize the films of Nagisa Oshima? Even among his brethren new wave directors, he stands as an auteur independent of any particular movement. “Japanese Summer: Double Suicide,” in all its absurdism, provocation, and politically charged imagery, is a perfect example of Oshima's non-conformist method of expression.
on Amazon by clicking on the image below
The film opens with a series of left hook vignettes, connected by cultural imagery which serve as an introduction to the film's language and style. Nejiko, a young sexually obsessed woman (Keiko Sakurai) meets Otoko, a man obsessed with death (Kei Sato). This pseudo romance is interrupted when the couple are taken prisoner by mysterious gangsters and placed in a hideaway. Here they meet the rest of the movie's characters that are composed of equally obsessed oddballs: a television loving fascist, a trigger happy kid, an anarchist,...
- 5/21/2023
- by Guest Writer
- AsianMoviePulse
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Film Forum
A retrospective on New York movies is underway, featuring Polanski, Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Hitchcock; Fellini’s early masterwork I Vitelloni continues screening; The Muppets Take Manhattan plays this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
“The World of Apichatpong Weerasethakul” brings films directed and curated by the Thai master (who we talked to about the retrospective), among them work from Oshima, Kiarostami, Cassavetes and more.
Museum of Modern Art
A Rialto Pictures retrospective offers a smorgasbord of classic films, including Grand Illusion, Army of Shadows, and The Conversation on 35mm.
Museum of the Moving Image
Steven Spielberg’s greatest film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, plays on 35mm this Friday and Saturday while a series on summer movies continues with The Omen.
Japan Society
One of Japan’s greatest directors, Shinji Somai, is subject of a retrospective that continues with...
Film Forum
A retrospective on New York movies is underway, featuring Polanski, Scorsese, Spike Lee, and Hitchcock; Fellini’s early masterwork I Vitelloni continues screening; The Muppets Take Manhattan plays this Sunday.
Film at Lincoln Center
“The World of Apichatpong Weerasethakul” brings films directed and curated by the Thai master (who we talked to about the retrospective), among them work from Oshima, Kiarostami, Cassavetes and more.
Museum of Modern Art
A Rialto Pictures retrospective offers a smorgasbord of classic films, including Grand Illusion, Army of Shadows, and The Conversation on 35mm.
Museum of the Moving Image
Steven Spielberg’s greatest film, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, plays on 35mm this Friday and Saturday while a series on summer movies continues with The Omen.
Japan Society
One of Japan’s greatest directors, Shinji Somai, is subject of a retrospective that continues with...
- 5/12/2023
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our weekly email newsletter by clicking here.REMEMBRANCERyuichi Sakamoto: Coda.Ryuichi Sakamoto died last week at the age of 71. He was the keyboardist for Yellow Magic Orchestra, who revolutionized techno in the early ’80s, and later became a pioneering composer for film—notably Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), in which he stars. It is impossible to sum up his impact in a bullet point, but we offer up a few finds: below, a clip from the 1985 film Tokyo Melody, in which Sakamoto shows us how to compose on the then-state-of-the-art Fairlight Cmi. Here, a 2018 New York Times piece about his quest to create the ideal background playlist for a beloved restaurant. “If I was an architect, I would be a bad one,...
- 5/3/2023
- MUBI
The world mourns the loss of a man behind some of the most beautiful, mesmerizing, and transcendent music ever composed. On March 23rd, 2023, renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto passed away at 71. The cause of death was cancer, something he had battled for quite some time. Since his early days as a member and founder of the “Yellow Magic Orchestra,” Sakamoto demonstrated range as a composer and would be an influential figure covering a wide range of genres from electronic to classical. His work has often been fittingly described as atmospheric, emotional, hypnotic, beautiful, and majestic. He was also open about being an environmentalist, studying world culture, and advocating for peace. Journalists Gigova and Orie, in an article on CNN's website, detail his activism stating, “Outside music, Sakamoto was known for activism — and in particular for his anti-nuclear views, which saw him demonstrating against nuclear power plants and co-organizing a “No Nukes...
- 4/22/2023
- by Sean Barry
- AsianMoviePulse
Oscar-winning Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, who created the original scores for Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Last Emperor" and Alejandro G. Iñárritu's "The Revenant," has died at the age of 71. Sakamoto had been undergoing treatment for stage 4 cancer since June 2020, and his death on March 28, 2023, was announced via his official Twitter account and that of the record label he founded, Commmons.
The statement from Commmons notes that Sakamoto "continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow. He lived with music until the very end." It concludes by sharing one of Sakamoto's favorite sayings: "Ars longa, vita brevis."
"The Last Emperor" swept the Oscars in 1988, winning in every category including Best Original Score, for which Sakamoto was nominated alongside collaborators David Byrne and Cong Su. "The Revenant" also led the pack at the 2016 Academy Awards, nominated in twelve categories and winning three. However, Sakamoto's score was...
The statement from Commmons notes that Sakamoto "continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow. He lived with music until the very end." It concludes by sharing one of Sakamoto's favorite sayings: "Ars longa, vita brevis."
"The Last Emperor" swept the Oscars in 1988, winning in every category including Best Original Score, for which Sakamoto was nominated alongside collaborators David Byrne and Cong Su. "The Revenant" also led the pack at the 2016 Academy Awards, nominated in twelve categories and winning three. However, Sakamoto's score was...
- 4/2/2023
- by Hannah Shaw-Williams
- Slash Film
Ryuichi Sakamoto, the Oscar-winning composer, musician, actor, singer, producer, writer and activist from Japan, has died. He was 71.
Sakamoto died on March 28 of cancer, recording company Avex said in a statement posted to Twitter Sunday that thanks his medical teams in Japan and the U.S. and asks for fans to respect the privacy of his family at this time.
“While undergoing treatment for cancer discovered in June 2020, Sakamoto continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow him to. He lived with music until the very end,” the statement says, noting a private funeral among close family has already taken place.
During a career that saw him scoring more than 40 films, including The Last Emperor (1987), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Revenant (2015), Sakamoto also received two Golden Globes, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA.
Born in Tokyo in 1952 to a clothes designer mother and literary editor father,...
Sakamoto died on March 28 of cancer, recording company Avex said in a statement posted to Twitter Sunday that thanks his medical teams in Japan and the U.S. and asks for fans to respect the privacy of his family at this time.
“While undergoing treatment for cancer discovered in June 2020, Sakamoto continued to create works in his home studio whenever his health would allow him to. He lived with music until the very end,” the statement says, noting a private funeral among close family has already taken place.
During a career that saw him scoring more than 40 films, including The Last Emperor (1987), Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) and The Revenant (2015), Sakamoto also received two Golden Globes, a Grammy Award and a BAFTA.
Born in Tokyo in 1952 to a clothes designer mother and literary editor father,...
- 4/2/2023
- by Gavin J Blair
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Graduating as Ozu’s assistant with his debut feature-length at Shochiku in 1960, Masahiro Shinoda (b. 1931) saw the dawn of the Japanese New Wave and rose to prominence alongside the likes of Nagisa Oshima, Yasuzo Masumura, Koreyoshi Kurahara, and Shohei Imamura among a whole host of others. Though he would spend most of his career reinterpreting and reimagining whole genres including the yakuza film and jidaigeki, the films across his four-decade-long career would predominantly be united by a re-examination of Japanese historical, societal, and national identity, complete with a focus on alienation, mythologies, and religious and moral turmoil. Frequently coupled with composer Toru Takemitsu, cinematographers Masao Kosugi and Tatsuo Suzuki, and actress Shima Iwashita (whom he would go on to marry), Shinoda’s films grapple with man’s perturbing darkness and its effect on the personal and national conscience. Like most of his Nūberu Bāgu compatriots, Shinoda frequently negated cinematic and narrative traditions,...
- 2/22/2023
- by JC Cansdale-Cook
- AsianMoviePulse
The Great Italian Films of the 1970sThere was a certain type of great art film which was being made from 1968 through the 1970s which can never be approximated. Active and engaged filmmakers were consciously wakening out of the post-war amnesia and taking a perversely erotically charged political stand against the hypocrisy of the previous generation.
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
Italy was the hotbed of this examination of fascism coming out of World War II. Luchino Visconti’s The Damned (1969), Bertolucci’s The Conformist (1970), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s infamous Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975). Even the American musical, via Bob Fosse’s adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’s Berlin Stories, Cabaret (1972) hinted at what the Italians went after with their full force of creative muscle.
Take Liliana Cavani’s The Night Porter (1974), set in Vienna in 1957, the film centers on the sadomasochistic relationship between a former Nazi concentration camp officer (Dirk Bogarde) and one of his inmates (Charlotte Rampling). Their sadomasochistic love is their only happiness and it paralyzes the former Nazis who have been reintegrated into polite society.
Universally reviled by U.S.’s top critics, Roger Ebert of The Chicago Sun-Times called it “as nasty as it is lubricious, a despicable attempt to titillate us by exploiting memories of persecution and suffering”. Vincent Canby, prominent critic for The New York Times, called it “romantic pornography” and “a piece of junk”. Pauline Kael wrote in The New Yorker, “Many of us can’t take more than a few hard-core porno movies, because the absence of any human esteem makes them depressing rather than sexy; The Night Porteroffers the same dehumanized view and is brazen enough to use the Second World War as an excuse.”
Susan Sontag’s essay Fascinating Facism for New York Review of Books (February 6, 1975) stated, “If the message of fascism has been neutralized by an aesthetic view of life, its trappings have been sexualized. This eroticization of fascism can be remarked in such enthralling and devout manifestations as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask and Sun and Steel, and in films like Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising and, more recently and far less interestingly, in Visconti’s The Damned and Cavani’s The Night Porter.”
However, its value was recognized by the executive producer Joseph E. Levine who quoted them on the posters of the U.S. theatrical release through his company Avco Embassy.
In a brilliant essay of the film by Kat Ellinger I quote:
Filmmakers were suddenly touching the untouchable, and it made certain people incredibly uncomfortable.”
Unlike Naziploitation, The Night Porter does nothing to cartoonise the Nazi officers that dominate the narrative. It isn’t a case of good versus evil, or that sadism is presented as a form of lasivious softcore pornography. Neither is the film a deliberate political treatise like the art films of Bertolucci, Visconti, or Pasolini. Its biggest transgression is that it humanises one of its main characters, Max (Dirk Bogarde), a former Nazi officer with a penchant for sadism, when he finds his ‘little girl’ again in the postwar period; a former concentration camp inmate Lucia (Charlotte Rampling) with whom he undertook a sadistic affair while she was incarcerated. On reuniting it is clear that their loved never died, so they continue, even though they know it will eventually contribute to their downfall and consequent death. Love in this realm is desperately profane, disgusting, something that should never be. And because of this it remains infinitely fascinating and uniquely humanistic.
Related in spirit was Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris (1972), using sex to express the death of love and male causality, its own furor when it hit American cinemas still continues to court controversy; and Luchino Visconti’s The Innocent (1976), based upon the novel by the decadent writer Gabriele D’Annunzio, expressing the same but in a totally antithetical environment of the aristocracy. Bertolluci’s The Conformist(1970) twisted the repressed homosexual of its title into a sadomasochistic fascist.
One could say, as did Gabriel Jenkinson, “the dynamics of conformity present in the modern consumerist capitalist system result in repression, which in turn manifests as violent sadomasochism — and …if one does not actively rebel against this system, one is complicit in its proliferation.”
Parenthetically on the other side of the earth, in Japan, In the Realm of the Senses (1976) by Nagisa Ôshima about a woman whose affair with her master leads to an obsessive and ultimately destructive sexual relationship also came out of Oshima’s early involvement with the student protest movement in Kyoto in ‘68 and out of his concern with the contradictions and tensions of postwar Japanese society in which he exposed contemporary Japanese materialism, while also examining what it means to be Japanese in the face of rapid industrialization and Westernization.
In 2020 Vincent Canby might have revisited The Night Porter and seen it in a different light. His 2020 review of Visconti’s last film, L’innocente (The Innocent), completed in 1976 shortly before his death was “among the most beautiful and severely disciplined films he has ever made.” It was also brazenly sadistic and sexy to a point that today would be labeled pornographic, and today could not be conceived of, much less made, diving, as it does, into sex, abortion, male domination and violence.
According to The World, public radio’s longest-running daily global news program, a co-production of Prx and Wgbh, in 2012:
British scientists have finally confirmed what women worldwide have been suspecting for centuries. It’s not religious principles that start wars. It’s not even civilization’s thirst for oil. Ladies and gentlemen, it’s the penis.
According to a study published this week in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society publication, the male sex drive is the cause of most conflicts in the world, from soccer hooliganism to religious wars, not to mention family disputes over the toilet seat being left up.
According to this story in The Telegraph, the scientists call it the “male warrior instinct” and claim men are programmed to be aggressive toward outsiders. It apparently used to be a handy instinct, back when you had to kill other suitors in order to gain more access to mates, but nowadays, this only works in some countries and a few US cities. For the rest of us, this unreformed sex drive only means ever-increasing defense budgets.
The magnitude of this discovery is so great, it’s difficult to estimate the potential ramifications.
At only eight inches on average (or that’s what we have been told), it’s smaller in size than most other controversial discoveries, yet — just like the atom — it has catastrophic consequences if in the hands of the wrong people.
And so these filmmakers show us the pathological drive of the unleashed male libido.
But times are different in the 21st century. These films could never be approximated by our Tik Tok generation where porn has created a quick witty and essentially violent vibrato of sexuality. These films of the late ‘60s and ‘70s took the libido at its rawest and showed its drive as an expression of political evil in very different types of stories.
And it might be worth noting that of all these films, the most reviled was written and directed by a woman and in most of the films, it is, in fact, a woman who proves the stronger of the two sexes and disarms the man. What remains viscerally true to this day is that that missile shaped 8 inch organ needs to be beaten into a plowshare.
SexFascismMoviesItalyInternational Film...
- 2/11/2023
- by Sydney
- Sydney's Buzz
The Berlin Film Festival has revealed a raft of titles across strands and also 33 film projects vying for coin at the coproduction market.
Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.
All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.
A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...
Selections for the topical Perspektive Deutsches Kino strand from emerging German talent include “Seven Winters in Tehran” by Steffi Niederzoll, “Elaha” by Milena Aboyan, “Ararat” by Engin Kundag, “The Kidnapping of the Bride” by Sophia Mocorrea, Fabian Stumm’s “Bones and Names,” “Long Long Kiss” by Lukas Röder, Tanja Egen’s “On Mothers and Daughters,” “Ash Wednesday,” by João Pedro Prado and Bárbara Santos, “Nuclear Nomads” by Kilian Armando Friedrich and Tizian Stromp Zargari and “Lonely Oaks” by Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl and Jens Mühlhoff.
All the selected films in the strand will compete for the Heiner Carow Prize and the Compass-Perspektive-Award, both of which are endowed with €5,000.
A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg’s “Naked Lunch” will open the Berlinale Classics section, which also includes Oliver Schmitz’ “Mapantsula,...
- 1/9/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Legendary Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto has signed on to write the music for Palme d’Or-winning director Hirokazu Kore-eda’s forthcoming feature film Monster (Kaibutsu), Tokyo-based production company Gaga Corporation revealed Thursday.
Sakamoto will provide newly written compositions as well as some of his pre-existing music for the film, producers say. A musical polymath, Sakamoto made his film debut with the iconic score for Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), starring David Bowie. He later won an Oscar with his music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and a Golden Globe nomination for his compositions for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015). The partnership with Kore-eda marks his first work on a high-profile Japanese title in some time.
Monster is also Kore-eda’s first Japanese film since he won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters. It follows the director’s French film The Truth, which opened...
Sakamoto will provide newly written compositions as well as some of his pre-existing music for the film, producers say. A musical polymath, Sakamoto made his film debut with the iconic score for Nagisa Oshima’s Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983), starring David Bowie. He later won an Oscar with his music for Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor (1987) and a Golden Globe nomination for his compositions for Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s The Revenant (2015). The partnership with Kore-eda marks his first work on a high-profile Japanese title in some time.
Monster is also Kore-eda’s first Japanese film since he won the Cannes Palme d’Or in 2018 with Shoplifters. It follows the director’s French film The Truth, which opened...
- 1/5/2023
- by Patrick Brzeski
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
As we know, the very first work of an artist not only marks the beginning of a hopefully great career, but also the start of someone dealing with themes, issues and observations which might define the rest of his/ her creative output. However, given a number of technical, budgetary and other constraints, these starts are often quite rough while they were being made and also for the viewer to look at. Ironically, making your very first feature during the punk-phase of the 1980s served as a disguise for these aspects, highlighting them instead as part of the cultural zeitgeist which was about rattling the cage of authority and social systems. Indeed, this may certainly be the case for “A Man’s Flower Road”, the first feature by director Sion Sono, who would be one of the major creative forces within the Japanese film industry in the years to come.
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- 12/18/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
In general, there is very little distinction between the author Yukio Mishima and many of the characters he has created in his works in his lifetime. In his 1958 play “Rokumeikan”, which was a huge success in his home country, the concept of true patriotism was one of the most important aspects. From then on, over a time period of almost a decade, Mishima dedicated himself to classical Japanese theatre as well as the medium of film, two passions he would combine in works such as the 1966 film “Patriotism” or “The Rite of Love and Death”.
” Yukoku” is screening at Across Asia Film Festival with live musical accompaniment by artist Daniele Ledda
The 28-minute-long-feature tells the story of a couple, Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama (Yukio Mishima) and his wife Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka). After a failed coupe d’état, which Takeyama helped planning but did not participate in actively because of his wife,...
” Yukoku” is screening at Across Asia Film Festival with live musical accompaniment by artist Daniele Ledda
The 28-minute-long-feature tells the story of a couple, Lieutenant Shinji Takeyama (Yukio Mishima) and his wife Reiko (Yoshiko Tsuruoka). After a failed coupe d’état, which Takeyama helped planning but did not participate in actively because of his wife,...
- 12/8/2022
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
Ishirō Honda's 1954 kaiju film "Godzilla" became a cult phenomenon that eventually birthed the ever-expanding "Godzilla" franchise, which is still a significant part of Japanese pop culture. Although Honda's original is very much a spectacle with a prehistoric monster at the center of the tale, the film is also intensely melancholic, as it reflects the socio-political situation in Japan at the time. As Japan was still recovering from the aftermath of the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the shots of a radioactive beast terrorizing the streets of Tokyo in "Godzilla" deeply resonated with audiences.
The fact that Honda's "Godzilla" spawned more than 30 sequels is a testament to its influence on popular culture, and one would assume that the film's cult hit status was a given at the time of release. This, however, was not the case. "Godzilla" was conceived during a time of great uncertainty in the film industry,...
The fact that Honda's "Godzilla" spawned more than 30 sequels is a testament to its influence on popular culture, and one would assume that the film's cult hit status was a given at the time of release. This, however, was not the case. "Godzilla" was conceived during a time of great uncertainty in the film industry,...
- 10/6/2022
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Click here to read the full article.
David Bowie, the subject of Brett Morgen’s new documentary Moonage Daydream (in theaters and on Imax screens Sept. 16), appeared in 12 scripted movies — everything from the high-minded (1983’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, from Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Ôshima) to the lowbrow (2001’s Zoolander, in which he judges a runway walk-off). But for many fans, his most successful big-screen outing was his first.
Based on the 1963 sci-fi novel by Walter Tevis (whose books The Hustler and The Queen’s Gambit were also adapted to great success), 1976’s The Man Who Fell to Earth tells the story of an extraterrestrial whose planet has been stricken by drought. Bowie was 28 and coasting on the success of his otherworldly Ziggy Stardust persona when he was selected by director Nicolas Roeg, who’d cast another rock star, Mick Jagger, in 1970’s Performance. Roeg had also considered casting Jurassic Park novelist Michael Crichton,...
David Bowie, the subject of Brett Morgen’s new documentary Moonage Daydream (in theaters and on Imax screens Sept. 16), appeared in 12 scripted movies — everything from the high-minded (1983’s Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence, from Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Ôshima) to the lowbrow (2001’s Zoolander, in which he judges a runway walk-off). But for many fans, his most successful big-screen outing was his first.
Based on the 1963 sci-fi novel by Walter Tevis (whose books The Hustler and The Queen’s Gambit were also adapted to great success), 1976’s The Man Who Fell to Earth tells the story of an extraterrestrial whose planet has been stricken by drought. Bowie was 28 and coasting on the success of his otherworldly Ziggy Stardust persona when he was selected by director Nicolas Roeg, who’d cast another rock star, Mick Jagger, in 1970’s Performance. Roeg had also considered casting Jurassic Park novelist Michael Crichton,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Seth Abramovitch
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group, which owns the Landmark Theatres chain of art-houses, has acquired HanWay Films, the U.K.-based international film sales giant founded by Jeremy Thomas and long run by his partner Peter Watson.
Terms of the deal, which the company announced Thursday, were not disclosed.
HanWay will continued to be function as an independent unit selling a broad range of theatrical titles to international distributors. Peter Watson will continue to serve as president, along with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Thomas’ Recorded Picture Company will maintain its close relationship to HanWay, which will continue to represent films from his upcoming slate; Watson will also keep his role as CEO of Recorded Picture Company.
Also Read:
Ted Mundorff Steps Down as Head of Landmark Theatres
Since its founding in 1998, HanWay Films has been one of the most prolific forces in indie cinema worldwide — accumulating a library...
Terms of the deal, which the company announced Thursday, were not disclosed.
HanWay will continued to be function as an independent unit selling a broad range of theatrical titles to international distributors. Peter Watson will continue to serve as president, along with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Thomas’ Recorded Picture Company will maintain its close relationship to HanWay, which will continue to represent films from his upcoming slate; Watson will also keep his role as CEO of Recorded Picture Company.
Also Read:
Ted Mundorff Steps Down as Head of Landmark Theatres
Since its founding in 1998, HanWay Films has been one of the most prolific forces in indie cinema worldwide — accumulating a library...
- 8/25/2022
- by Thom Geier
- The Wrap
HanWay will continue to be branded as an independent label.
Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group has acquired London-based international sales company HanWay Films, which was founded by producer Jeremy Thomas and was co-owned with his partner Peter Watson.
HanWay will continue to be branded as an independent label. Peter Watson will remain as president, with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Cohen Media Group also owns the US’s Landmark Theatres and the UK’s Curzon; Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull negotiated the deal on behalf of Cohen Media Group.
Recent HanWay sales titles include Cannes title Eo and The Card Counter starring Oscar Isaac.
Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group has acquired London-based international sales company HanWay Films, which was founded by producer Jeremy Thomas and was co-owned with his partner Peter Watson.
HanWay will continue to be branded as an independent label. Peter Watson will remain as president, with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Cohen Media Group also owns the US’s Landmark Theatres and the UK’s Curzon; Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull negotiated the deal on behalf of Cohen Media Group.
Recent HanWay sales titles include Cannes title Eo and The Card Counter starring Oscar Isaac.
- 8/25/2022
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
Click here to read the full article.
In a move that will turn heads across the industry, Charles Cohen’s Cohen Media Group has acquired international sales company HanWay Films, the banner founded by legendary producer Jeremy Thomas (and that was co-owned with his partner Peter Watson).
While financial details weren’t disclosed splashy purchase sees real estate billionaire Cohen add to his growing indie empire, having already bought Landmark Theaters and U.K. cinema chain Curzon.
Under the deal, announced Thursday, London-based HanWay will continued to be branded as an independent label selling a broad range of theatrical titles to its distribution partners worldwide. Watson will continue to serve as president of the company, with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon, negotiated the transaction on behalf of Cohen Media Group.
“Twenty-five years in the sales agency business has given me enormous satisfaction,” said Thomas. “I am...
In a move that will turn heads across the industry, Charles Cohen’s Cohen Media Group has acquired international sales company HanWay Films, the banner founded by legendary producer Jeremy Thomas (and that was co-owned with his partner Peter Watson).
While financial details weren’t disclosed splashy purchase sees real estate billionaire Cohen add to his growing indie empire, having already bought Landmark Theaters and U.K. cinema chain Curzon.
Under the deal, announced Thursday, London-based HanWay will continued to be branded as an independent label selling a broad range of theatrical titles to its distribution partners worldwide. Watson will continue to serve as president of the company, with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO.
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon, negotiated the transaction on behalf of Cohen Media Group.
“Twenty-five years in the sales agency business has given me enormous satisfaction,” said Thomas. “I am...
- 8/25/2022
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Exclusive: In an eye-catching independent deal, Charles S. Cohen’s Cohen Media Group, owner of Landmark Theatres and UK cinema group Curzon, has added to his arthouse fleet with the acquisition of blue-chip international sales company HanWay Films, co-owned by stalwart Brit producer Jeremy Thomas and his partner Peter Watson.
HanWay will continue to be branded as an independent label selling independent features and Peter Watson will continue to serve as president of the company together with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO. All other staff will remain in tact, we’re told.
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon, negotiated the transaction on behalf of Cohen Media Group. Financial details weren’t disclosed.
Based in London, a sale of HanWay has been discussed for a number of years. HanWay execs said today the deal would allow growth and the ability to get involved in projects earlier. The company’s current slate comprises a...
HanWay will continue to be branded as an independent label selling independent features and Peter Watson will continue to serve as president of the company together with Gabrielle Stewart as CEO. All other staff will remain in tact, we’re told.
Philip Knatchbull, CEO of Curzon, negotiated the transaction on behalf of Cohen Media Group. Financial details weren’t disclosed.
Based in London, a sale of HanWay has been discussed for a number of years. HanWay execs said today the deal would allow growth and the ability to get involved in projects earlier. The company’s current slate comprises a...
- 8/25/2022
- by Andreas Wiseman
- Deadline Film + TV
Legendary filmmaker Akira Kurosawa opened "Seven Samurai" with a group of bandits approaching a small village on horseback. Between the opening credits and the first shot, Kurosawa established the themes of civil unrest and violence that would permeate the film; the bandit scene predicts the brutal savagery that is about to play out. However, this expectation is undercut when the bandits realize they've already looted the village and plan to return later. This change in plans heightens the anxiety surrounding the forthcoming attack, replayed to audiences via a villager overhearing the exchange and running home to warn the residents. Although this scene appears standard when compared to modern movies, Kurosawa had broken the mold of an established Japanese cinematic trend in a key way.
Kurosawa's contribution to Japanese cinema is multifaceted. The director imbued his films with themes that were unapologetically relevant for audiences, masterfully using camerawork and symbolism to...
Kurosawa's contribution to Japanese cinema is multifaceted. The director imbued his films with themes that were unapologetically relevant for audiences, masterfully using camerawork and symbolism to...
- 8/15/2022
- by Debopriyaa Dutta
- Slash Film
Some directors come with such huge back catalogues that it can be hard to know where to start. Enter our film critics, who suggest the best routes in to the works of some of our most prolific film-makers
Where once our movie choices were limited by physical availability, now we have apparently limitless uncurated digital content; the mind reels at its vastness. So sometimes we need a “gateway” film for directors, an entry point which might not necessarily be that film-maker’s most famous work – being, as it may be, unhelpfully commercial or atypical. For Nagisa Oshima, you might not want to start with the sexually explicit In the Realm of the Senses or the David Bowie vehicle Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence: it could be more fruitful to begin with his more indirectly disturbing Max Mon Amour. For Howard Hawks … where to begin? Red River is the classic western but...
Where once our movie choices were limited by physical availability, now we have apparently limitless uncurated digital content; the mind reels at its vastness. So sometimes we need a “gateway” film for directors, an entry point which might not necessarily be that film-maker’s most famous work – being, as it may be, unhelpfully commercial or atypical. For Nagisa Oshima, you might not want to start with the sexually explicit In the Realm of the Senses or the David Bowie vehicle Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence: it could be more fruitful to begin with his more indirectly disturbing Max Mon Amour. For Howard Hawks … where to begin? Red River is the classic western but...
- 7/9/2022
- by Peter Bradshaw, Simran Hans, Catherine Bray and Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
The late Glam rock legend David Bowie was no stranger to the silver screen, but even die-hard fans likely don't know that the award-winning musician nearly had another major role under his belt. Bowie starred in a number of films throughout his career, including Nicolas Roeg's "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976) and Nagisa Ōshima's "Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence" (1983). Bowie played a goblin king in Jim Henson's cult classic "Labyrinth" (1986), but he almost played another villain in a blockbuster action film — the James Bond movie "A View to Kill" (1985).
"A View to Kill" stars Roger Moore as James Bond, a secret...
The post In A Better World, We Would Have A David Bowie Bond Villain appeared first on /Film.
"A View to Kill" stars Roger Moore as James Bond, a secret...
The post In A Better World, We Would Have A David Bowie Bond Villain appeared first on /Film.
- 6/15/2022
- by Shae Sennett
- Slash Film
The first time you watch Ōshima Nagisa’s “In the Realm of the Senses,” it might seem like more of a horror movie than a love story. Even now, when American viewers coming to the film for the first time might be inclined to sympathize with a story about two people who self-quarantine to save themselves from their country’s suicidal ideology, it can be easy to miss the forest for the trees and mistake Ōshima’s transgressive 1976 masterpiece for something tawdry or even sinister.
This is, after all, a claustrophobic (and broadly true) saga of erotic obsession from the most hostile of Japanese auteurs; a mad and scandalous work of art that’s full of unsimulated sex, peppered with a massacre’s worth of little deaths, and topped off with a scene of genital amputation so unflinching that it feels like an answer to the eyeball cut in Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou.
This is, after all, a claustrophobic (and broadly true) saga of erotic obsession from the most hostile of Japanese auteurs; a mad and scandalous work of art that’s full of unsimulated sex, peppered with a massacre’s worth of little deaths, and topped off with a scene of genital amputation so unflinching that it feels like an answer to the eyeball cut in Buñuel’s “Un Chien Andalou.
- 7/24/2020
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Akio Jissoji: The Buddhist Trilogy will be available on Blu-ray August 20th from Arrow Academy
Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan s film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series Ultraman and 1998 s box-office success Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which This Transient Life, Mandara and Poem, forming The Buddhist Trilogy are collected here.
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild s most successful and most controversial productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who...
Akio Jissôji created a rich and diverse body of work during his five decades in Japan s film and television industries. For some, he is best-known for his science-fiction: the 1960s TV series Ultraman and 1998 s box-office success Tokyo: The Last Megalopolis. For others, it is his 1990s adaptations of horror and mystery novelist Edogawa Rampo, such as Watcher in the Attic and Murder on D Street. And then there are his New Wave films for the Art Theatre Guild, three of which This Transient Life, Mandara and Poem, forming The Buddhist Trilogy are collected here.
Winner of the Golden Leopard award at the 1970 Locarno Film Festival, This Transient Life is among the Art Theatre Guild s most successful and most controversial productions. The film concerns a brother and sister from a rich family who...
- 7/16/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
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