It is meaningful to me to be back here, compiling a list of ten for Dn, following a year off last year. Coming back I feel my list is different to what it may have been without the break, where my film watching, cinema-going and general cinephilia took new forms that are still revealing themselves. Some notes:
There is no inclusion of Enys Men or One Fine Morning, which for me are 2022 films and though released cinematically this year I wish to leave that year well and truly behind me. I’ve only included films where there is a trailer link so there’s no room for Nariman Massoumi’s poetic short doc Pouring Water on Troubled Oil, currently screening at festivals though criminally getting overlooked at many that should show it, John Akomfrah’s stunning installation Arcadia, at The Box in Plymouth until June 2024, or finally, Mark Jenkin’s...
There is no inclusion of Enys Men or One Fine Morning, which for me are 2022 films and though released cinematically this year I wish to leave that year well and truly behind me. I’ve only included films where there is a trailer link so there’s no room for Nariman Massoumi’s poetic short doc Pouring Water on Troubled Oil, currently screening at festivals though criminally getting overlooked at many that should show it, John Akomfrah’s stunning installation Arcadia, at The Box in Plymouth until June 2024, or finally, Mark Jenkin’s...
- 12/29/2023
- by Neil Fox
- Directors Notes
In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50 director Toby Amies with music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on a pause with Robert Fripp: “I want the whole film to feel as much as possible as if it’s happening in the moment.”
In the second instalment with Toby Amies, the director of the perceptive and imaginative In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50 (dedicated to his mother Elisabeth and Bill Rieflin), music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us on Zoom to share a memory of Robert Fripp from the April 28, 1973 King Crimson concert (with Redbone and The Flying Burrito Brothers), seeing the world premiere of his brilliant Frippertronics, the New York music scene (White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It), Liquid Liquid, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel; Esg, Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, Konk), and the challenges of remaining independent.
In the second instalment with Toby Amies, the director of the perceptive and imaginative In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50 (dedicated to his mother Elisabeth and Bill Rieflin), music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us on Zoom to share a memory of Robert Fripp from the April 28, 1973 King Crimson concert (with Redbone and The Flying Burrito Brothers), seeing the world premiere of his brilliant Frippertronics, the New York music scene (White Lines (Don’t Don’t Do It), Liquid Liquid, Grandmaster Flash and Melle Mel; Esg, Glenn Branca, Bush Tetras, Konk), and the challenges of remaining independent.
- 11/6/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Toby Amies on Robert Fripp and In the Court of the Crimson King: King Crimson at 50: “It’s an interrogation into what I find around me and the circumstances in which I find myself and especially the relationships that I observe and I’m involved in.” Photo: Toby Amies
Toby Amies’s perceptive and imaginative In the Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50, captures the essence of the individual current and former members of King Crimson through candid and forthcoming on-camera interviews, sound checks, and the cost of being on the road. The director pulls the curtain back with precision to give us a distinctive look into Robert Fripp the master himself, the groups leader and disciplinarian.
Toby Amies with Anne-Katrin Titze on In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50: “I was in a very interesting position making this film because on the...
Toby Amies’s perceptive and imaginative In the Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50, captures the essence of the individual current and former members of King Crimson through candid and forthcoming on-camera interviews, sound checks, and the cost of being on the road. The director pulls the curtain back with precision to give us a distinctive look into Robert Fripp the master himself, the groups leader and disciplinarian.
Toby Amies with Anne-Katrin Titze on In The Court Of The Crimson King: King Crimson At 50: “I was in a very interesting position making this film because on the...
- 10/20/2022
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
This unflinching portrait of the prog rock band is like an episode of The Office but with huge drum kits, grizzled roadies and rapturous fans
King Crimson are a band usually described as prog rock, although metal, industrial, jazz, experimental and, my favourite, math rock have all been accurate-enough labels over their 50-plus-year career. They are also a bit of an acquired taste, and many of those who’ve acquired it are incredibly, zealously, maybe sometimes even a little dysfunctionally passionate, to the point where, say, Grateful Dead fans might counsel them to chill out. But the great thing about this thoughtful, intimate portrait of them is that one doesn’t even need to like their music all that much to find this film by director Toby Amies utterly enthralling. Somehow it ends up being about a lot more than just King Crimson.
In one way, for instance, this is a workplace comedy,...
King Crimson are a band usually described as prog rock, although metal, industrial, jazz, experimental and, my favourite, math rock have all been accurate-enough labels over their 50-plus-year career. They are also a bit of an acquired taste, and many of those who’ve acquired it are incredibly, zealously, maybe sometimes even a little dysfunctionally passionate, to the point where, say, Grateful Dead fans might counsel them to chill out. But the great thing about this thoughtful, intimate portrait of them is that one doesn’t even need to like their music all that much to find this film by director Toby Amies utterly enthralling. Somehow it ends up being about a lot more than just King Crimson.
In one way, for instance, this is a workplace comedy,...
- 10/19/2022
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
At one point during In the Court of the Crimson King, a new doc about mighty prog institution King Crimson, former drummer Bill Bruford zeroes in on the core philosophy of the band and its founder, guitarist Robert Fripp. “Change is essential,” says Bruford, who now resembles a pithy, distinguished university professor. “Otherwise, you turn into the Moody Blues, for heaven’s sake.”
Starting in 1969, no one ever confused King Crimson with the far more radio-friendly Moodies. In 2019, the latest incarnation of Crimso, still fronted by Fripp, embarked on a 50th-anniversary tour,...
Starting in 1969, no one ever confused King Crimson with the far more radio-friendly Moodies. In 2019, the latest incarnation of Crimso, still fronted by Fripp, embarked on a 50th-anniversary tour,...
- 3/18/2022
- by David Browne
- Rollingstone.com
When Toby Amies emails me the Vimeo press link to his SXSW-premiering documentary on the band King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King, he appends a list of influences. There’s a documentarian (Ross McElwee), a pseudo-documentarian (Christopher Guest), a narrative filmmaker who is a real King Crimson fan (Vincent Gallo) and then a couple of directors whose impact remained a bit puzzling both before and after seeing the film: Ernst Lubitsch and Sam Peckinpah. But perhaps the cinephile (and King Crimson fan) in me was looking too closely, because after watching In the Court of the Crimson King […]
The post “King Crimson Being a Way of Doing Things as Opposed to a Set Organism”: Director Toby Amies on His SXSW Doc, In the Court of the Crimson King first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “King Crimson Being a Way of Doing Things as Opposed to a Set Organism”: Director Toby Amies on His SXSW Doc, In the Court of the Crimson King first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/16/2022
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
When Toby Amies emails me the Vimeo press link to his SXSW-premiering documentary on the band King Crimson, In the Court of the Crimson King, he appends a list of influences. There’s a documentarian (Ross McElwee), a pseudo-documentarian (Christopher Guest), a narrative filmmaker who is a real King Crimson fan (Vincent Gallo) and then a couple of directors whose impact remained a bit puzzling both before and after seeing the film: Ernst Lubitsch and Sam Peckinpah. But perhaps the cinephile (and King Crimson fan) in me was looking too closely, because after watching In the Court of the Crimson King […]
The post “King Crimson Being a Way of Doing Things as Opposed to a Set Organism”: Director Toby Amies on His SXSW Doc, In the Court of the Crimson King first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “King Crimson Being a Way of Doing Things as Opposed to a Set Organism”: Director Toby Amies on His SXSW Doc, In the Court of the Crimson King first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 3/16/2022
- by Scott Macaulay
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Can a band that seems to operate under rigidly precise conditions that can appear joyless from the outside still produce music that sparks spontaneous ecstasy in listeners? That’s the sort of question that might not seem unusual if it were a classical ensemble we were talking about, or the ballet. But in a new documentary about the group King Crimson, it’s legendary guitar player Robert Fripp, as tough a taskmaster as anyone in the so-called finer arts, who’s keeping the musicians in his hire perpetually on pointe.
“In the Court of the Crimson King” is really about as good as rock documentaries get, in capturing the essence of a group of musicians and how they relate to each other, the world and a muse whose demands result in literal and figurative calluses. That doesn’t mean that King Crimson is the kind of Everyman group whose struggles...
“In the Court of the Crimson King” is really about as good as rock documentaries get, in capturing the essence of a group of musicians and how they relate to each other, the world and a muse whose demands result in literal and figurative calluses. That doesn’t mean that King Crimson is the kind of Everyman group whose struggles...
- 3/15/2022
- by Chris Willman
- Variety Film + TV
An upcoming documentary will provide a rare look at the inner workings of King Crimson, one of rock’s most respected but also mysterious bands. Titled In the Court of the Crimson King, after the group’s legendary 1969 debut, the film will premiere at South by Southwest this March, and a new trailer is available to view now.
As seen in the trailer, the film follows the most recent incarnation of King Crimson, a three-drummer “double quartet,” on tour in 2018 and 2019. We see intimate, fly-on-wall footage of the band onstage,...
As seen in the trailer, the film follows the most recent incarnation of King Crimson, a three-drummer “double quartet,” on tour in 2018 and 2019. We see intimate, fly-on-wall footage of the band onstage,...
- 2/2/2022
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
At a press event in London on Saturday, King Crimson manager David Singleton announced that the band’s entire studio-album catalog will soon launch on Spotify. Describing the move as part of an “outreach year” for the band, Singleton said the albums are set to begin streaming in time for the avant-rock legends’ upcoming 50th anniversary tour.
Streaming holdouts for years, King Crimson began launching select titles on Spotify in 2017. In June of that year, they posted two live releases by their current three-drummer incarnation: multi-disc set Radical Action to...
Streaming holdouts for years, King Crimson began launching select titles on Spotify in 2017. In June of that year, they posted two live releases by their current three-drummer incarnation: multi-disc set Radical Action to...
- 4/7/2019
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
King Crimson will celebrate their 50th anniversary with a year full of special releases and events, including a 50-date tour spanning three continents. The prog-rock band confirmed three U.S. shows for September: the 3rd in Los Angeles, California; the 10th in Chicago, Illinois; and the 21st in New York, New York.
The group will release Cosmic F*Kc, a new documentary and accompanying soundtrack, out late 2019. Director Toby Amies was granted “unique access” to the current “Double Quartet” line-up for the doc, which also includes archival footage and interviews with former members.
The group will release Cosmic F*Kc, a new documentary and accompanying soundtrack, out late 2019. Director Toby Amies was granted “unique access” to the current “Double Quartet” line-up for the doc, which also includes archival footage and interviews with former members.
- 1/14/2019
- by Ryan Reed
- Rollingstone.com
Algorithms, the award-winning documentary about India’s young blind chess players, directed by Ian McDonald and produced by Geetha J, has now been nominated for a Grierson Award in the Best Newcomer Documentary category. The Grierson awards are the most prestigious documentary awards in the UK.
Algorithms will vie with The Joy of Logic by Catherine Gale, Last Chance School by Marc Williamson and The Man Whose Mind Exploded by Toby Amies. The documentary follows three boys and a champion player turned pioneer over three years and uncovers the fascinating but largely unknown world of Blind Chess in India.
Algorithms will have its Us premiere on 20 September at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York City in October.
The Grierson awards will be announced in London on 3 November.
Algorithms is produced under the banner AkamPuram from Kerala, India, and is...
Algorithms will vie with The Joy of Logic by Catherine Gale, Last Chance School by Marc Williamson and The Man Whose Mind Exploded by Toby Amies. The documentary follows three boys and a champion player turned pioneer over three years and uncovers the fascinating but largely unknown world of Blind Chess in India.
Algorithms will have its Us premiere on 20 September at the Chicago South Asian Film Festival, followed by a theatrical release in Los Angeles and New York City in October.
The Grierson awards will be announced in London on 3 November.
Algorithms is produced under the banner AkamPuram from Kerala, India, and is...
- 9/20/2014
- by NewsDesk
- DearCinema.com
★★★☆☆Descartes believed that nothing ever existed, that everything his mind told him was a lie, and cinema is of course a standing recourse for memory and the unresolved tensions that plague the unconscious. Film's representation of loss and the yearning chasm for its fulfilment trumps all other attempts at Socratic discourse within other art forms. Maybe it's the flickering layers of doubt and presence that enables us to concurrently exist in the here and now while mentally searching for our past within the confines of our memories. In Toby Amies' The Man Whose Mind Exploded (2012), we observe the growing friendship between seventysomething Drako Oho Zarhazar and his visual amanuensis.
- 6/20/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
An insightful documentary about a Brighton eccentric with no short-term memory
This surprisingly sweet and quietly insightful documentary about the so-called "seventh life" of Brighton eccentric Drako Zarhazar takes us into the home – and by extension, the mind – of its amnesiac subject, who appears to have found happiness living in the moment after brain damage robbed him of his short-term memory. Vacillating between documentarist and carer, Toby Amies traces Drako's strange history, rude fragments of which adorn every inch of his flat – plastered upon the walls, scattered across the floor, hanging on strings from the ceiling. In between breakdowns, accidents and attempted suicides, Drako worked with Salvador Dali, cut a mean figure on a motorbike, and developed a great fondness for penises (other people's) and nipples (his own). Tattooed on his forearm are the words "trust absolute unconditional", the mantra by which he opted to live when other certainties failed him.
This surprisingly sweet and quietly insightful documentary about the so-called "seventh life" of Brighton eccentric Drako Zarhazar takes us into the home – and by extension, the mind – of its amnesiac subject, who appears to have found happiness living in the moment after brain damage robbed him of his short-term memory. Vacillating between documentarist and carer, Toby Amies traces Drako's strange history, rude fragments of which adorn every inch of his flat – plastered upon the walls, scattered across the floor, hanging on strings from the ceiling. In between breakdowns, accidents and attempted suicides, Drako worked with Salvador Dali, cut a mean figure on a motorbike, and developed a great fondness for penises (other people's) and nipples (his own). Tattooed on his forearm are the words "trust absolute unconditional", the mantra by which he opted to live when other certainties failed him.
- 6/14/2014
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
The 11th Brighton Film Festival, Cinecity, will open Nov 14 with Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. The festival will close with Richard Ayoade’s The Double.The festival runs through Dec 1 at venues including the Duke Of York’s Picturehouse and Dukes@Komedia.Screenings will include festival hits like A Touch Of Sin, The Rocket, Ilo Ilo, Stranger By The Lake.British films will include Leviathan, Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition, and Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman. Brighton-based dire
The 11th Brighton Film Festival, Cinecity, will open Nov 14 with Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. The festival will close with Richard Ayoade’s The Double.
The festival runs through Dec 1 at venues including the Duke Of York’s Picturehouse and Dukes@Komedia.
Screenings will include festival hits like A Touch Of Sin, The Rocket, Ilo Ilo, Stranger By The Lake.
British films will include Leviathan, Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition, and Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman. Brighton-based directors...
The 11th Brighton Film Festival, Cinecity, will open Nov 14 with Alexander Payne’s Nebraska. The festival will close with Richard Ayoade’s The Double.
The festival runs through Dec 1 at venues including the Duke Of York’s Picturehouse and Dukes@Komedia.
Screenings will include festival hits like A Touch Of Sin, The Rocket, Ilo Ilo, Stranger By The Lake.
British films will include Leviathan, Joanna Hogg’s Exhibition, and Ralph Fiennes’ The Invisible Woman. Brighton-based directors...
- 10/4/2013
- by wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com (Wendy Mitchell)
- ScreenDaily
The Man Whose Mind Exploded
Directed by Toby Amies
Drako Oho Zahar Zahar is an enigma of sorts, having survived two comas, two nervous breakdowns and two suicide attempts, emerging on the other side with his life intact yet his mind forever shattered into uncollected fragments. This documentary’s ostensibly crude title, The Man Whose Mind Exploded, refers to the destructive effect Drako’s comas have had on his memory. Each day he awakens, vaguely aware of who he is, where he is, though uncertain of what may have come before. His small apartment has no bare walls, littered with photographs pasted atop of one another and dangling from the ceiling like postcards suspended in air; to him they are the stars of his inner universe, an external roadmap of the visual memories and synaptic connections no longer present inside his mind; to others, including long-suffering nephew Marc and director Toby Amies,...
Directed by Toby Amies
Drako Oho Zahar Zahar is an enigma of sorts, having survived two comas, two nervous breakdowns and two suicide attempts, emerging on the other side with his life intact yet his mind forever shattered into uncollected fragments. This documentary’s ostensibly crude title, The Man Whose Mind Exploded, refers to the destructive effect Drako’s comas have had on his memory. Each day he awakens, vaguely aware of who he is, where he is, though uncertain of what may have come before. His small apartment has no bare walls, littered with photographs pasted atop of one another and dangling from the ceiling like postcards suspended in air; to him they are the stars of his inner universe, an external roadmap of the visual memories and synaptic connections no longer present inside his mind; to others, including long-suffering nephew Marc and director Toby Amies,...
- 6/25/2013
- by Ed Doyle
- SoundOnSight
Even as the Edinburgh International Film Festival presses ahead up north, the nation’s capital is not – and never has been – content to sit complacent on the cinematic front. The East End Film Festival, founded in 2000 and expanding year on year ever since, returns from 25 June to July 10 and once again boasts a remarkably strong lineup. Awards to dish out include Best Film, Best Documentary, Best Short Film and the Eeff Short Film Audience Award, from an eclectic jury that features the likes of the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, Wu-Tang Clan head honcho RZA, and Armando Bo, winner of last year’s Best Film Award for his directorial debut El Ultimo Elvis.
Things kick off in celebratory fashion with the Opening Gala at the Art Deco Troxy in Limehouse on 25 June, where Mark Donne’s less-than-celebratory The UK Gold will have its world premiere. The documentary looks at recession-era Britain...
Things kick off in celebratory fashion with the Opening Gala at the Art Deco Troxy in Limehouse on 25 June, where Mark Donne’s less-than-celebratory The UK Gold will have its world premiere. The documentary looks at recession-era Britain...
- 6/24/2013
- by Ed Doyle
- SoundOnSight
While Sheffield Doc/Fest is known for its MeetMarket and great European (especially British) and American industry presence, the festival has also developed an exciting digital media program (which has made its way into the festival's tagline) and a capable main slate of films. Five films, four of them world premieres, one of them a new gallery installation currently on display in Sheffield, made quite the impression on this writer; here's the list of the five Sheffield discoveries: "The Man Whose Mind Exploded," Toby Amies Though Drako Zarhazar, the aging subject of Toby Amies' tender film, has lost his memory after two road accident-induced comas, his wit is sharp and his interest in young men with big cocks is still robust. "That's my favorite picture!" he often exclaims, pointing to a man naked from the waist down, dressed in a tux from the waist up. In one of the film's most tender moments,...
- 6/17/2013
- by Bryce J. Renninger
- Indiewire
Pussy Riot, Uri Geller: Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 line-up The United Kingdom’s Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 kicks off on June 12, featuring 27 World Premieres. Topics range from "psychic spy" Uri Geller (Uri Geller and Vikram Jayanti’s The Secret Life of Uri Geller — Psychic Spy) to shale mining (Lech Kowalski’s Drill Baby Drill), from the science behind Planet Earth’s fast-approaching climactic armageddon (David Sington and Simon Lamb’s Thin Ice: The Inside Story of Climate Science) to the life and times of international professional thieves (Havana Marking’s Smash & Grab: The Story of the Pink Panthers). Below are a few Sheffield Doc/Fest 2013 highlights. (Photo: Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer.) Mike Lerner and Maxim Pozdorovkin’s Pussy Riot — A Punk Prayer follows the Pussy Riot trial in which three of the band’s members stood accused of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” following a performance staged at Moscow...
- 5/29/2013
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.