Kiss Wagon, by director Midhun Murali is an epic, 3 hour shadow play animation, that is at the same time both minimalist and maximalist. It is also, somehow, undercooked and overbaked, too convoluted and holding the viewers hand too much; and saying too much and too little. It is the "most film" that was shown at the IFFR, for better or worse, meaning that it takes the art of cinema to its extreme. While I might sound initially quite damning, it is worth it seeking out for the more adventurous viewer. Shades of Lotte Reiniger exist in this story about a chaotic world and a perilous journey to deliver a package. Kiss Wagon is a scifi adventure, all animated in monochrome except for a few...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/8/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Spanish director Alberto Vazquez’s anthropomorphic animals call to mind fairy-tale illustrations and animation classics — except Vazquez’s animated unicorns and teddy bears engage in gruesome acts that reveal the worst of human nature.
“I like to inhabit this intermediate space where you don’t know if it’s for children or if it’s actually for adults—but it’s also not for all adults,” said Vazquez on a recent video call.
Vazquez’s sophomore feature, the Goya Award-winning “Unicorn Wars,” hits U.S. theaters March 10. He defines this latest brainchild as an amalgamation between “Apocalypse Now,” Disney’s “Bambi,’ and the Bible.
Read More: The 41 Best Animated Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked
The dark fantasy maps a holy war between bears and unicorns over the control of a sacred forest. At the center of the larger conflict are bear brothers Bluey and Tubby (Azulín and Gordi in...
“I like to inhabit this intermediate space where you don’t know if it’s for children or if it’s actually for adults—but it’s also not for all adults,” said Vazquez on a recent video call.
Vazquez’s sophomore feature, the Goya Award-winning “Unicorn Wars,” hits U.S. theaters March 10. He defines this latest brainchild as an amalgamation between “Apocalypse Now,” Disney’s “Bambi,’ and the Bible.
Read More: The 41 Best Animated Movies of the 21st Century, Ranked
The dark fantasy maps a holy war between bears and unicorns over the control of a sacred forest. At the center of the larger conflict are bear brothers Bluey and Tubby (Azulín and Gordi in...
- 3/10/2023
- by Carlos Aguilar
- Indiewire
Tom Luddy, the understated co-founder and artistic director of the Telluride Film Festival who championed world cinema, spotlighted overlooked gems and saluted legends during his near half-century run with the event, has died. He was 79.
Luddy died peacefully Monday in Berkeley, California, after a long illness, Telluride senior vp public relations Shannon Mitchell told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The world has lost a rare ingredient that we’ll all be searching for, for some time,” Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger said in a statement. “I would sometimes find myself feeling sad for those who didn’t get to know Tom Luddy properly. He had a sphinx-like quality that took a little time to get around, for some.
“But once you knew him, you were welcomed into a kingdom of art, history, intelligence, humor and joie de vivre that you knew you couldn’t be without. He made life richer. Magical. He...
Luddy died peacefully Monday in Berkeley, California, after a long illness, Telluride senior vp public relations Shannon Mitchell told The Hollywood Reporter.
“The world has lost a rare ingredient that we’ll all be searching for, for some time,” Telluride executive director Julie Huntsinger said in a statement. “I would sometimes find myself feeling sad for those who didn’t get to know Tom Luddy properly. He had a sphinx-like quality that took a little time to get around, for some.
“But once you knew him, you were welcomed into a kingdom of art, history, intelligence, humor and joie de vivre that you knew you couldn’t be without. He made life richer. Magical. He...
- 2/14/2023
- by Mike Barnes
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Germany has given the world some of its finest filmmakers, Lotte Reiniger, Ernst Lubitsch, Douglas Sirk, Wim Wenders, and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, to name but a few, as well as groundbreaking movements like German Expressionism and New German Cinema. The country has also produced some of the best horror movies in history, from terrifying silent classics about the supernatural to gripping crime thrillers and nerve-shredding cyberpunk tales.
While it's impossible to cover the depth and breadth of German horror movies in a short list, we can touch on some of the greats. Listed below are the 12 best German horror movies. All of these films prove that horror has always been political, mining the fears and anxieties of the times in which they were created to make a point about the world around us and that the genre has always been — and always will be — a vital part of movie history.
While it's impossible to cover the depth and breadth of German horror movies in a short list, we can touch on some of the greats. Listed below are the 12 best German horror movies. All of these films prove that horror has always been political, mining the fears and anxieties of the times in which they were created to make a point about the world around us and that the genre has always been — and always will be — a vital part of movie history.
- 1/15/2023
- by Jessica Scott
- Slash Film
A few decades after the first experiments with the new technology of film, cinema in the 1920s was beginning to come of age. Filmmakers mastered the essentials and embarked on ambitious storytelling projects with increased flair and sophistication, turning movies from novelty to art in just a few short years. The film industry began operating at full capacity in the 1920s, churning out feature-length productions on a scale and frequency that would have been unthinkable a decade earlier.
Filmmakers of the 1920s start to diversify, some becoming experts in the large-scale epics that were the earliest versions of blockbusters, while others honed a unique style as auteurs that would define the period as part of a larger artistic movement. Our first movie stars come from this era, both silent comedians whose death-defying pratfalls rival any stunts performed today as well as romantic matinee idols who had audiences eating out of the palm of their hands.
Filmmakers of the 1920s start to diversify, some becoming experts in the large-scale epics that were the earliest versions of blockbusters, while others honed a unique style as auteurs that would define the period as part of a larger artistic movement. Our first movie stars come from this era, both silent comedians whose death-defying pratfalls rival any stunts performed today as well as romantic matinee idols who had audiences eating out of the palm of their hands.
- 11/8/2022
- by Audrey Fox
- Slash Film
Animation fans are truly being treated in 2022. Pixar released one of their best ever films, "Turning Red," while DreamWorks dropped an underrated caper in the form of "The Bad Guys." Richard Linklater turned to rotoscope for "Apollo 10 ½" and "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" became an unexpected box office hit in North America. To top it off, we're getting not one but two stop-motion animated features: Guillermo del Toro's take on the classic story of "Pinocchio," and Henry Selick's return to the medium with the horror-comedy "Wendell and Wild."
Selick has long been one of the stalwarts of stop-motion in American animation thanks to iconic spooky season films like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline," while del Toro turned to the medium for his decade-long passion project and has received some of the best reviews of his starry career for his troubles. It's hard not to be...
Selick has long been one of the stalwarts of stop-motion in American animation thanks to iconic spooky season films like "The Nightmare Before Christmas" and "Coraline," while del Toro turned to the medium for his decade-long passion project and has received some of the best reviews of his starry career for his troubles. It's hard not to be...
- 10/20/2022
- by Kayleigh Donaldson
- Slash Film
Broadening a multi-front action initiative, Sitges is pushing women in genre.
WomanInFan, one of the major platforms at this year’s Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which runs Oct. 6-16, looks set to provide a full development program for female genre filmmaking.
On this year’s agenda is a contest to obtain financing for a short-teaser, which Sitges Foundation Manager, Mònica Garcia Massagué said will provide “a future filmmaker the opportunity to have a market tool.”
A book of essays titled “WomanInFan” and sub-titled as a “Topography of Fantastic Genre Films Directed by Women,” will be presented withambitions to give a past, present and future take on women in genre cinema.
Sitges will stage a panel with Booker-shortlisted author Mariana Enríquez, Carlota Pereda, director of Austin Fantastic Fest winner “Piggy,” film programmer and writer Heidi Honeycutt, and author-director-producer Kier-La Janisse.
The festival will also offer grants for initiatives...
WomanInFan, one of the major platforms at this year’s Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, which runs Oct. 6-16, looks set to provide a full development program for female genre filmmaking.
On this year’s agenda is a contest to obtain financing for a short-teaser, which Sitges Foundation Manager, Mònica Garcia Massagué said will provide “a future filmmaker the opportunity to have a market tool.”
A book of essays titled “WomanInFan” and sub-titled as a “Topography of Fantastic Genre Films Directed by Women,” will be presented withambitions to give a past, present and future take on women in genre cinema.
Sitges will stage a panel with Booker-shortlisted author Mariana Enríquez, Carlota Pereda, director of Austin Fantastic Fest winner “Piggy,” film programmer and writer Heidi Honeycutt, and author-director-producer Kier-La Janisse.
The festival will also offer grants for initiatives...
- 10/4/2022
- by Callum McLennan
- Variety Film + TV
Persian art and music provide the inspiration for this tale of lost love, rendered in detailed cutout animation and shadow puppetry by Iranian director Reza Riahi that could easily sit alongside the similarly accomplished work of Michel Ocelot and Lotte Reiniger. The film has been recently listed as one of the ten on the Oscar shortlist, from which five will be chosen for the final vote.
Though it is dialogue-free, memories whisper through the story like the wind we see rustling a weeping willow at key moments. The year is 1279, six decades after the Mongol invasion of Persia and a Mongol emperor is enjoying a feast day. Among those in attendance is a blind musician, whose stringed kamancheh provides a melancholy soundtrack for the action, scored with emotion by . Iranian musician Saba Alizadeh. Dangling from the instrument is an earring, which holds a second tale - from years ago,...
Though it is dialogue-free, memories whisper through the story like the wind we see rustling a weeping willow at key moments. The year is 1279, six decades after the Mongol invasion of Persia and a Mongol emperor is enjoying a feast day. Among those in attendance is a blind musician, whose stringed kamancheh provides a melancholy soundtrack for the action, scored with emotion by . Iranian musician Saba Alizadeh. Dangling from the instrument is an earring, which holds a second tale - from years ago,...
- 12/24/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Inés Toharia on the Wim Wenders Foundation clips of The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick and Alice in the Cities chosen: “We picked the pieces that we used, but I would have loved to talk to him personally, too.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment with Inés Toharia on Film, The Living Record Of Our Memory (a highlight of the 12th edition of Doc NYC), we discuss Wim Wenders’ participation through his foundation, finding Lon Chaney’s The Unknown, the Mostly Lost Film Festival, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures Of Prince Achmed, Disney and Pixar preserving their films on film, Questlove’s Summer Of Soul, the USC Shoah Foundation, and a wide representation of film archives and locations around the world.
Inés Toharia on Ken Loach getting coding tape from Pixar: “It was so funny, the correspondence between them. I loved also what he said about light.”
From Spain,...
In the second instalment with Inés Toharia on Film, The Living Record Of Our Memory (a highlight of the 12th edition of Doc NYC), we discuss Wim Wenders’ participation through his foundation, finding Lon Chaney’s The Unknown, the Mostly Lost Film Festival, Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures Of Prince Achmed, Disney and Pixar preserving their films on film, Questlove’s Summer Of Soul, the USC Shoah Foundation, and a wide representation of film archives and locations around the world.
Inés Toharia on Ken Loach getting coding tape from Pixar: “It was so funny, the correspondence between them. I loved also what he said about light.”
From Spain,...
- 12/15/2021
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Despite the proliferation of streaming services, it’s becoming increasingly clear that any cinephile only needs subscriptions to a few to survive. Among the top of our list are The Criterion Channel and Mubi and now they’ve each unveiled their stellar April line-ups.
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
Over at The Criterion Channel, highlights include spotlights on Ennio Morricone, the Marx Brothers, Isabel Sandoval, and Ramin Bahrani, plus Luchino Visconti’s The Leopard, Frank Borzage’s Moonrise, the brand-new restoration of Joyce Chopra’s Smooth Talk, and one of last year’s best films, David Osit’s Mayor.
At Mubi (where we’re offering a 30-day trial), they’ll have the exclusive streaming premiere of two of the finest festival films from last year’s circuit, Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s Labyrinth of Cinema, plus Philippe Garrel’s latest The Salt of Tears, along with films from Terry Gilliam, George A. Romero,...
- 3/26/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
From the early days of animation with films such as Lotte Reiniger’s “The Adventures of Prince Achmed” and Walt Disney’s “Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs” fairy tales, legends and fables have inspired many of the stories and films we love. And this has not changed much in recent years with films such as Tomm Moore’s Irish Folklore trilogy, Hayao Miyazaki’s “Ponyo” and even Pixar’s “Brave” having at least their roots in folklore and old stories. For his A Viddsee Original Production “Fantastic Fables: The Southern Seas” director Chong Wu Koh also took inspiration from well-know tales from Singapore’s history and gave them in a modern update.
Fantastic Fables: The Southern Seas is streaming at Viddsee
“Fantastic Fables: The Southern Seas” is a series of four short animated films, three of which are based on Singaporean folk tales and one is an original story...
Fantastic Fables: The Southern Seas is streaming at Viddsee
“Fantastic Fables: The Southern Seas” is a series of four short animated films, three of which are based on Singaporean folk tales and one is an original story...
- 3/4/2021
- by Nancy Fornoville
- AsianMoviePulse
Only less than three weeks into the new year and there’s a new flick opening today celebrating the centennial of a much-beloved character of children’s literature. Yes, the medical man who could “talk to the animals” arrived on the printed page, with words and pictures by Hugh Lofting, way back in 1920. It would seem that such a fantastical creation would get scooped up by the fledgling cinema arts. And in 1928 he was the star of a silent animated short by the legendary Lotte Reiniger. Aside from an early thirties NBC radio show he stayed on the shelves of bookstores for over 30 years until the execs at Twentieth Century Fox, encouraged by the “boffo” box office numbers generated by Mary Poppins and The Sound Of Music, produced an epic “mega-musical” event. And though it earned two Oscars (for Best Song and Best Visual Effects) Doctor Dolittle almost bankrupted the studio.
- 1/16/2020
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
The prodigious and prolific Raya Martin is an artist whose works seem to infinitely expand into new levels of breadth and depth. Writer Adrian Mendizabal has provided an immense overview of Martin's "baffling oeuvre and innovative style" as displayed in his feature-length films, particularly his deconstructivist approach to postcolonial realities in the Philippines. But his short films, a number of which I've compiled here, are not to be overlooked. The trio included here can be seen as loosely strung together as a trilogy of impressionist journeys pushed by tides of change. The 2007 short film Track Projections is constructed upon a central movement in which the camera-holder opens and closes the aperture, letting sunlight flow in and out of the lens like an eye that blinks. When the eye is opened once more, we are on a moving train that runs through daytime until it becomes sunset, freeway to forest, then back to the city.
- 5/31/2019
- MUBI
In honor of Women's History Month, this March, Syfy Fangrrls is launching a new limited podcast dedicated to women in genre films whose accomplishments have gone unrecognized or have been forgotten. In today's Highlights, we also have details on the California run of Evil Dead The Musical and Popcornflix's first wave of streaming movies with Terror Films.
Syfy Fangrrls Presents Limited Podcast Series Forgotten Women of Genre: "Syfy Wire Fangrrls present: Forgotten Women of Genre.
March is Women's History Month and while Syfy Fangrrls celebrates women's achievements throughout the year, they’re going above and beyond for the upcoming month with a limited podcast series called Forgotten Women of Genre.
Science fiction, fantasy, and all associated genres have finally evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream staple. But the women who have been instrumental in creating and shaping the nerdverse have largely gone unrecognized. Until today. Forgotten Women...
Syfy Fangrrls Presents Limited Podcast Series Forgotten Women of Genre: "Syfy Wire Fangrrls present: Forgotten Women of Genre.
March is Women's History Month and while Syfy Fangrrls celebrates women's achievements throughout the year, they’re going above and beyond for the upcoming month with a limited podcast series called Forgotten Women of Genre.
Science fiction, fantasy, and all associated genres have finally evolved from a niche interest into a mainstream staple. But the women who have been instrumental in creating and shaping the nerdverse have largely gone unrecognized. Until today. Forgotten Women...
- 3/18/2019
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
NEWSEnd of the year "tops" and "best ofs" are starting to appear online—well before many critics have seen many of the year's important films, we may add—and our favorite so far is Sight & Sound's poll for the best films of 2016. Maren Ade's Toni Erdmann deservedly tops the list, and aside from a few outliers (American Honey, Evolution), it looks pretty good from where we're sitting. Also just published are the the year's best movies as chosen by The New York Times: Manohla Dargis tops her list with Chantal Akerman's No Home Movie and A.O. Scott fetes Moonlight.The film world is just beginning to wrap 2016, and already we're looking at the next year: the Sundance Film Festival has begun announcing it selections, which we're gathering (and updating) here.Recommended VIEWINGWe may all have too much to watch (or so it seems), but here is something very...
- 12/7/2016
- MUBI
Gianfranco Rosi with Anne-Katrin Titze on Boatman at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: "I remember when Jim Jarmusch saw this film many years ago, he thought this film was shot in the Fifties ..." Photo: Emilie Spiegel
Gianfranco Rosi and I met for the first time at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2014 for a conversation on Sacro Gra and last month we had a post-screening discussion on the opening weekend for his latest film, Italy's Oscar submission, Fire At Sea (Fuocoammare), at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, now playing side-by-side with Michael Moore's Hillary Clinton plaidoyer, Michael Moore In Trumpland, two days before the Presidential election.
Gopal in Boatman: "So the film is this hypothetical day on the Ganges. As I say, it took forever."
This past week after the screening of Boatman during the BAMcinématek Presents Gianfranco Rosi retrospective featuring the director's early films Below Sea Level and El Sicario,...
Gianfranco Rosi and I met for the first time at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in 2014 for a conversation on Sacro Gra and last month we had a post-screening discussion on the opening weekend for his latest film, Italy's Oscar submission, Fire At Sea (Fuocoammare), at Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, now playing side-by-side with Michael Moore's Hillary Clinton plaidoyer, Michael Moore In Trumpland, two days before the Presidential election.
Gopal in Boatman: "So the film is this hypothetical day on the Ganges. As I say, it took forever."
This past week after the screening of Boatman during the BAMcinématek Presents Gianfranco Rosi retrospective featuring the director's early films Below Sea Level and El Sicario,...
- 11/6/2016
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
New York’s Anthology Film Archives has announced the lineup for its ambitious Woman With a Movie Camera: Female Film Directors Before 1950,” which runs September 15 — 28. Among the spotlighted filmmakers are Gene Gauntier, Lois Weber and Alice Guy-Blaché, though many more will be featured during the two-week series as well. Full lineup below.
“The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Further Adventures of the Girl Spy” (Sidney Olcott)
“The Colleen Bawn” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Broadway Love” (Ida May Park)
“The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (Lotte Reiniger)
Read More: The Rock Named World’s Highest-Paid Actor, Earning Nearly $20 Million More Than Highest-Paid Actress, Jennifer Lawrence
“The Rosary” and “Suspense” (Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley)
“Shoes” (Lois Weber)
“The Holy Night” (Elvira Notari)
“Humankind” (Elvira Giallanella)
“The Drunken Mattress” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Strike” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The New Love and the Old” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Roads That Lead Home” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The...
“The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Further Adventures of the Girl Spy” (Sidney Olcott)
“The Colleen Bawn” (Sidney Olcott & Gene Gauntier)
“Broadway Love” (Ida May Park)
“The Adventures of Prince Achmed” (Lotte Reiniger)
Read More: The Rock Named World’s Highest-Paid Actor, Earning Nearly $20 Million More Than Highest-Paid Actress, Jennifer Lawrence
“The Rosary” and “Suspense” (Lois Weber & Phillips Smalley)
“Shoes” (Lois Weber)
“The Holy Night” (Elvira Notari)
“Humankind” (Elvira Giallanella)
“The Drunken Mattress” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Strike” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The New Love and the Old” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The Roads That Lead Home” (Alice Guy-Blaché)
“The...
- 8/25/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
From opening theme to closing credits, “The Answer” is eleven minutes—but as with most episodes of “Steven Universe,” its emotional reach seems infinite. Even the title card is immaculate, clothes on the line and leaves in the trees rustling under a midnight moon. In the Emmy-nominated Short Form Animated Series, the most ravishing approach to the art form currently on television, each frame, ant-like, carries many times its own weight, and together the images foster a kind of communal spirit. Down to the frogs and fireflies in an untouched forest, or the fusion of two characters into one, in “The Answer” “Steven Universe” reaffirms its faith in the additive power of cooperation, a children’s series with potent insights for adults.
Created by “Adventure Time” veteran Rebecca Sugar, “Steven Universe” (Cartoon Network), which began its fourth season earlier this month, features a complex feminist mythos: The fantastical Crystal Gems,...
Created by “Adventure Time” veteran Rebecca Sugar, “Steven Universe” (Cartoon Network), which began its fourth season earlier this month, features a complex feminist mythos: The fantastical Crystal Gems,...
- 8/24/2016
- by Matt Brennan
- Indiewire
The #OscarsSoWhite controversy may have dwindled momentarily, but it’s clear that there are major issues in the film industry that need to be mended when it comes to women and people of color. Even Google recognized film pioneer Lotte Reiniger recently with their interactive animation, so when the general public and massive companies like that are in the know, […]
The post Watch: The 50 Greatest Films By African American Filmmakers appeared first on The Playlist.
The post Watch: The 50 Greatest Films By African American Filmmakers appeared first on The Playlist.
- 6/11/2016
- by Samantha Vacca
- The Playlist
The story of the groundbreaking director behind today’s Google doodle and how her fairytale-inspired work made her one of the most important early women in the film industry
Lotte Reiniger, a pioneer in the world of animated film, and a standard-bearer for women in the industry, was born 117 years ago today in Berlin. Her hypnotic films, painstakingly crafted out of snippets of card and wire and animated by hand, have influenced generations of film-makers and artists. She also made one of the world’s first animated features, a whirlwind of a fantasy film called The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). The films, and their enduring charms, are phenomenal, but there are contradictions in the Reiniger story. While we think of Reiniger as a trail-blazer, her work was mostly inspired by antiquated traditions of performance and storytelling. You could also say that her story is also a cautionary one – she worked...
Lotte Reiniger, a pioneer in the world of animated film, and a standard-bearer for women in the industry, was born 117 years ago today in Berlin. Her hypnotic films, painstakingly crafted out of snippets of card and wire and animated by hand, have influenced generations of film-makers and artists. She also made one of the world’s first animated features, a whirlwind of a fantasy film called The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). The films, and their enduring charms, are phenomenal, but there are contradictions in the Reiniger story. While we think of Reiniger as a trail-blazer, her work was mostly inspired by antiquated traditions of performance and storytelling. You could also say that her story is also a cautionary one – she worked...
- 6/2/2016
- by Pamela Hutchinson
- The Guardian - Film News
This year’s student-run Milwaukee Underground Film Festival runs four days on April 30-May 3 at the Union Theater on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and at the Microlights Cinema.
The fest kicks off on April 30 with two films by one of this year’s jurors, Marika Borgeson: The Starry Messenger, which used the sun as it’s only developing agent; and the work-in-progress Excerpt From Arcanam Terra Lacrimarum; plus films by other artists selected by Borgeson.
On the following afternoon, May 1, there will be a presentation by this year’s other two jurors, Kelly Gallagher and Ben Balcom, which will include their own films, plus others selected from the Uwm Archives.
The rest of the festival features an explosion of terrific experimental films, including work by Lori Felker, Turn on the Hill; Zachary Epcar, Under the Heat Lamp an Opening; Mike Olenick, Beautiful Things; Josh Weissbach, Model Fifty-One Fifty-Six; Clint Enns,...
The fest kicks off on April 30 with two films by one of this year’s jurors, Marika Borgeson: The Starry Messenger, which used the sun as it’s only developing agent; and the work-in-progress Excerpt From Arcanam Terra Lacrimarum; plus films by other artists selected by Borgeson.
On the following afternoon, May 1, there will be a presentation by this year’s other two jurors, Kelly Gallagher and Ben Balcom, which will include their own films, plus others selected from the Uwm Archives.
The rest of the festival features an explosion of terrific experimental films, including work by Lori Felker, Turn on the Hill; Zachary Epcar, Under the Heat Lamp an Opening; Mike Olenick, Beautiful Things; Josh Weissbach, Model Fifty-One Fifty-Six; Clint Enns,...
- 4/30/2015
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Live dance with Strictly Ballroom screening and Paul Merton show among first events.
The 11th edition of the Glasgow Film Festival will include comedy and live dance shows and new space-takeovers.
The festival returns to venues Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a live dance show and Strictly Ballroom screening, and it will take over the Gothic surroundings of Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, as composer Irene Buckley premieres a new soundtrack to 1928 classic The Fall of the House of Usher on the Hall’s original Wurlitzer Cinema Organ.
Paul Merton and award-winning silent film pianist Neil Brand will team up and pay tribute to comedy legend Buster Keaton with a live show and Gff will also host the Scottish premiere of British Sea Power’s film/live score project From The Sea To The Land Beyond.
French bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons and his live band will create an East-West fusion score to Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animation The Adventures of Prince...
The 11th edition of the Glasgow Film Festival will include comedy and live dance shows and new space-takeovers.
The festival returns to venues Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery for a live dance show and Strictly Ballroom screening, and it will take over the Gothic surroundings of Pollokshaws Burgh Hall, as composer Irene Buckley premieres a new soundtrack to 1928 classic The Fall of the House of Usher on the Hall’s original Wurlitzer Cinema Organ.
Paul Merton and award-winning silent film pianist Neil Brand will team up and pay tribute to comedy legend Buster Keaton with a live show and Gff will also host the Scottish premiere of British Sea Power’s film/live score project From The Sea To The Land Beyond.
French bassist Renaud Garcia-Fons and his live band will create an East-West fusion score to Lotte Reiniger’s 1926 animation The Adventures of Prince...
- 12/9/2014
- ScreenDaily
It is hardly a novel concept to bring up realism when talking about animated films. From noting the “fingerprints” on the toy-based characters of The Lego Movie (2014) to remarking upon Pixar’s advancements in replicating hair and clothing, popular criticism of computer animated movies are as apt to discuss advancements in realistic CGI as they are plot or character development. Throughout the history of feature animation, be it hand drawn, stop-motion, or computer generated, there has been an ongoing endeavor to capture reality. The first animated feature by Walt Disney Studios is no exception. Released in 1937, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was a technical marvel as much as it was an artistic and financial success. But aside from merely taking steps to emulate reality, Snow White exhibits traits that mirrored emerging trends in realist live action filmmaking, including deep focus photography and simulated camera movement.
Even the plot structure...
Even the plot structure...
- 6/15/2014
- by Mallory Andrews
- SoundOnSight
Tim here, contributing to our ongoing celebration of Women’s History Month with a look at one of the truly pioneering artists in the history of animation. And Lotte Reiniger isn’t important simply because she was a woman in a medium that has done such a good job over the years at remaining a boys club. The work she did, silhouette animation based on the shadow puppet theater of East Asia, remains as unique in the 2010s as when she created it over 40-year career beginning in Germany in the 20s, and she created, largely by herself, the first entirely animated feature that still exists (at least two Argentinean films from the 1910s are now lost), eleven years before Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Puts a little bit of added context to that company’s half-proud attempt to declare themselves progressive because, in 2013, they finally hired...
- 3/14/2014
- by Tim Brayton
- FilmExperience
★★★☆☆ There are certain subjects and mediums which seem tailor-made for each other - one example being fairytales and animation. This union, which began with the release of Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed in 1926, is now continued with Manuel Sicilia's Justin and the Knights of Valour (2013). Though not derived from one of the common fairytale sources (such as the Grimms or Perrault), this new feature, starring the voice talents of Antonio Banderas, Freddie Highmore and Saoirse Ronan, has all the archetypal elements you'd expect including brave knights, fearsome dragons and damsels in distress.
Justin (voiced by Highmore) yearns to be a knight just like his late grandfather, Sir Roland. However, his father Reginald (Alfred Molina) has other plans and wants Justin to study and become a lawyer just like him. Determined to follow his heart, Justin sets off for the legendary Tower of Wisdom, which is watched...
Justin (voiced by Highmore) yearns to be a knight just like his late grandfather, Sir Roland. However, his father Reginald (Alfred Molina) has other plans and wants Justin to study and become a lawyer just like him. Determined to follow his heart, Justin sets off for the legendary Tower of Wisdom, which is watched...
- 9/11/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
★★★★★ Long considered cinema's oldest surviving feature-length animation, Lotte Reiniger's The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926) is finally released this week on a widely available format - something that, until recently, had been an impossible feat. Procurable, as is now customary with BFI home entertainment, in a Dual Format edition accompanied by a specially recorded narration (by actress Penelope McGhie) and Wolfgang Zeller's original score, Reiniger's enthralling, pioneering debut feature is thankfully being given the treatment it deserves by an institution fully aware of its forgotten cinematic status.
Painstakingly produced between 1923 to 1926, the film's original negative was destroyed in 1945 and thought to be lost forever until a nitrate copy was found in the BFI's archive and restored to its former glory. Now, for the first time viewers are able to experience Reiniger's innovative and influential craft in a rudimentary silhouette animation (which she herself called "shadows films") that boasts an intrinsically lifelike,...
Painstakingly produced between 1923 to 1926, the film's original negative was destroyed in 1945 and thought to be lost forever until a nitrate copy was found in the BFI's archive and restored to its former glory. Now, for the first time viewers are able to experience Reiniger's innovative and influential craft in a rudimentary silhouette animation (which she herself called "shadows films") that boasts an intrinsically lifelike,...
- 8/20/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Compliance | Bernie | The Adventures Of Prince Achmed | Oblivion | Top Of The Lake
Compliance
Compliance doesn't exactly make things easy for the audience. Drawn broadly from real-life events, it's a divisive, brazenly uncomfortable account of how people can be scarily (you guessed it) compliant, and puts the viewer in the middle of all the squirming and self-loathing. During a regular Friday at a small Ohio fast-food joint, the manager receives a phone call from a cop, one Officer Daniels, who requests she performs a search on one of her cashiers, who he claims has stolen money from a customer. He stays on the line and his orders become more invasive. Before long, a full strip search is performed, and Daniels claims that the whole degrading scenario is part of a larger investigation. But soon questions are being raised about whether Officer Daniels is a real cop at all. It's a situation...
Compliance
Compliance doesn't exactly make things easy for the audience. Drawn broadly from real-life events, it's a divisive, brazenly uncomfortable account of how people can be scarily (you guessed it) compliant, and puts the viewer in the middle of all the squirming and self-loathing. During a regular Friday at a small Ohio fast-food joint, the manager receives a phone call from a cop, one Officer Daniels, who requests she performs a search on one of her cashiers, who he claims has stolen money from a customer. He stays on the line and his orders become more invasive. Before long, a full strip search is performed, and Daniels claims that the whole degrading scenario is part of a larger investigation. But soon questions are being raised about whether Officer Daniels is a real cop at all. It's a situation...
- 8/17/2013
- by Phelim O'Neill
- The Guardian - Film News
Ioncinema.com’s Ioncinephile of the Month feature focuses on an emerging filmmaker from the world of cinema. This April, we’ve got a first: two for the price of one. Husband and wife filmmaking team of Ron Eyal and Eleanor Burke premiered Stranger Things at such fests as Slamdance (Winner Grand Jury Prize Best Narrative Feature), Raindance (Winner Grand Jury Prize Best U.K. Feature), Woodstock, Karlovy Vary, and is now they’ve got a one week theatrical run (April 5 – 11) at the reRun Theater in Brooklyn. Here is our profile on the filmmaker team and worth checking out is our accompanying original/combined personal Top Ten films list.
Eric Lavallee: During your childhood…what films were important to you?
Eleanor Burke: I remember going to the cinema as a very young child. The ceremony of it all was impressive: the velvet curtains, the hush as the lights went down.
Eric Lavallee: During your childhood…what films were important to you?
Eleanor Burke: I remember going to the cinema as a very young child. The ceremony of it all was impressive: the velvet curtains, the hush as the lights went down.
- 4/8/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
This charming picture by Michel Ocelot, one of France's leading animators, tells five love stories featuring princesses, handsome commoners and wise old men in a variety of exotic settings. Stylistically Ocelot draws on the innovative silhouette films Lotte Reiniger made in Germany and then in her long British exile from the 1920s to the 1970s, as well as on oriental shadow puppetry. It should please sensitive, well-brought-up children and nostalgists. The 3D is well suited to the film's theatrical flatness in depth.
AnimationPhilip French
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AnimationPhilip French
guardian.co.uk © 2012 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds...
- 5/26/2012
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
BAMcinématek announced its schedule for the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest, running June 20 - July 1. In addition to the lineup that includes 22 features (among them "Beasts of the Southern Wild," "Sleepwalk with Me," "Francine," "The Comedy" and "Detropia") -- of which seven are NY premieres, one North American premiere and three world premieres -- the fest will host three shorts programs. The feature lineup is below. Here's more details and the complete lineup. Noah Baumbach’s directorial debut, "Kicking and Screaming" will screen with the director, writer and cast present, Roberto Rossellini's newly restored "The Machine That Kills Bad People" will have its North American debut (after screening last year at Cannes), and live performances from the likes of Simeon Coxe of the Silver Apples, Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt of The Sea and Cake will be featured. Lotte Reiniger's homage to...
- 5/18/2012
- by Sophia Savage
- Indiewire
Live performances by Simeon Coxe of the Silver Apples, Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt of The Sea and Cake, & More
So, what're you New Yorkers up to this June? BAMcinématek hopes you'll be spending the last two weeks with them: the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest runs June 20 - July 1 and has the strongest lineup yet, including some 2012 festival favorites and sweet surprises.
Cinephiles will be pleased to know that Roberto Rosellini's recently discovered "The Machine That Kills Bad People," which premiered at Cannes last year, will make its American landing in Brooklyn. A magical comedy from a director firmly grounded in neo-realist roots, 'Machine' focuses on a man whose camera murders anyone it manages to snap. Spooky! A biting satire which critiques the Americanization of Italy, the "Germany Year Zero" director's once-lost project has been newly restored and is definitely worth checking out.
A more recent film that's part of the...
So, what're you New Yorkers up to this June? BAMcinématek hopes you'll be spending the last two weeks with them: the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest runs June 20 - July 1 and has the strongest lineup yet, including some 2012 festival favorites and sweet surprises.
Cinephiles will be pleased to know that Roberto Rosellini's recently discovered "The Machine That Kills Bad People," which premiered at Cannes last year, will make its American landing in Brooklyn. A magical comedy from a director firmly grounded in neo-realist roots, 'Machine' focuses on a man whose camera murders anyone it manages to snap. Spooky! A biting satire which critiques the Americanization of Italy, the "Germany Year Zero" director's once-lost project has been newly restored and is definitely worth checking out.
A more recent film that's part of the...
- 5/18/2012
- by Christopher Bell
- The Playlist
As Kung Fu Panda 2 kicks off the children's film season – and with The Smurfs lurking at the other end – just try to remember the excitement of your first cinema trip
I doubt many people reading this will need reminding, but in mid-summer the average British cinema can be a uniquely loud and grotesquely sticky place. In the thick of the horror, however, something vital will be happening – the wonder of untold children having their first experience of the big screen. Remember this, should you be accompanying one to the movies in the weeks ahead, and hold it close to your psyche as you grind your teeth through Cars 2, Spy Kids 4 or, lurking at the end of the holidays like a dumpy blue Manson family, The Smurfs.
Although for the moment the schools remain in, the kids' film season has its de facto opening today with the release of Kung Fu Panda 2,...
I doubt many people reading this will need reminding, but in mid-summer the average British cinema can be a uniquely loud and grotesquely sticky place. In the thick of the horror, however, something vital will be happening – the wonder of untold children having their first experience of the big screen. Remember this, should you be accompanying one to the movies in the weeks ahead, and hold it close to your psyche as you grind your teeth through Cars 2, Spy Kids 4 or, lurking at the end of the holidays like a dumpy blue Manson family, The Smurfs.
Although for the moment the schools remain in, the kids' film season has its de facto opening today with the release of Kung Fu Panda 2,...
- 6/10/2011
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
The annual Bird’s Eye View Film Festival was held in London from 8th March to 17th. This year saw a major theme exploring women’s role in gothic and horror cinema with live accompaniments to silent classics, a screening of Kathryn Bigelow’s Near Dark and a specially commissioned score and live performance by Grammy award-winner Imogen Heap to Germaine Dulac’s The Seashell and the Clergyman (1928).
Bloody Women: From Gothic To Horror wasn’t the only thing going down with screenings, workshops, seminars and talks on the role women play in the medium we all know and love. In an art form still ruled largely by men it’s nice to see a film festival celebrate the female perspective, and not only that, deliver some downright brilliant films.
Below is a report on a collection of films and events we attended this great year.
Victor Sjostrom’s 1928 melodrama,...
Bloody Women: From Gothic To Horror wasn’t the only thing going down with screenings, workshops, seminars and talks on the role women play in the medium we all know and love. In an art form still ruled largely by men it’s nice to see a film festival celebrate the female perspective, and not only that, deliver some downright brilliant films.
Below is a report on a collection of films and events we attended this great year.
Victor Sjostrom’s 1928 melodrama,...
- 3/21/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
In Cave of Forgotten Dreams Herzog couldn’t resist commenting on the cinematic dimensions he perceived in the 32,000 year old Chauvet cave paintings. He noted that some of the animals portrayed had 8 legs, suggesting that even at this early stage in human development, we wanted to represent movement: the cinematic impulse was there.
Michel Ocelot’s new animation, Les Contes de la nuit (Tales of the Night) contains similar self-reflexivity: its content points to cinema history, as it is set in an old movie theatre. There, at night, three imaginative colleagues gather to develop and act out fairytale narratives. The film reflects the animator’s own process of creation, as it shows the characters doing research to find facts and inspiration, coming up with their own ideas, and bringing these ideas to life with their drawings. Within the film’s story space, the two younger characters don costumes and physically act out the roles,...
Michel Ocelot’s new animation, Les Contes de la nuit (Tales of the Night) contains similar self-reflexivity: its content points to cinema history, as it is set in an old movie theatre. There, at night, three imaginative colleagues gather to develop and act out fairytale narratives. The film reflects the animator’s own process of creation, as it shows the characters doing research to find facts and inspiration, coming up with their own ideas, and bringing these ideas to life with their drawings. Within the film’s story space, the two younger characters don costumes and physically act out the roles,...
- 2/14/2011
- by Alison Frank
- The Moving Arts Journal
Given the recent furore over certain Sky Sports presenters being a bunch of sexist bastards, it seems a relevant time to celebrate the female contribution to cinema – which is still largely unappreciated with women directors still making up a small percentage of directors and other creatives. But they’re awesome and they’ve now got their own festival to show off their work.
We’ve been sent over the press release and festival line up. The Bird’s Eye View Film Festival takes place in London from March 8th – 17th. The programme includes new films, documentaries, retrospectives and panel discussions.
From the press release:
The hotly anticipated Birds Eye View Film Festival 2011 (Bev) programme has been announced by Rosamund Pike at a private launch event on 25 January. The Festival returns for its seventh annual celebration of women filmmakers from 8-17 March at BFI Southbank, the Ica the Southbank Centre, with...
We’ve been sent over the press release and festival line up. The Bird’s Eye View Film Festival takes place in London from March 8th – 17th. The programme includes new films, documentaries, retrospectives and panel discussions.
From the press release:
The hotly anticipated Birds Eye View Film Festival 2011 (Bev) programme has been announced by Rosamund Pike at a private launch event on 25 January. The Festival returns for its seventh annual celebration of women filmmakers from 8-17 March at BFI Southbank, the Ica the Southbank Centre, with...
- 1/26/2011
- by Martyn Conterio
- FilmShaft.com
In the fall of 1946, Frank Stauffacher mounted a major, and very influential, retrospective of avant-garde film in the U.S. at the San Francisco Museum of Art. The series was called “Art in Cinema” and it featured ten different programs from filmmakers in the U.S., France, Germany and Canada.
By the mid-’40s, the avant-garde hadn’t taken a strong hold in the U.S. yet, so the majority of the films screened came from Europe, or by Europeans who relocated to the U.S. However, by that time also, the European avant-garde had pretty much completely petered out. Still, Stauffacher wanted to show that there was a continuity to avant-garde film history that, up until that point, had yet to be fully considered.
In conjunction with the series, the San Francisco Museum of Art published a catalog, pretty much like one would find with any major art exhibit.
By the mid-’40s, the avant-garde hadn’t taken a strong hold in the U.S. yet, so the majority of the films screened came from Europe, or by Europeans who relocated to the U.S. However, by that time also, the European avant-garde had pretty much completely petered out. Still, Stauffacher wanted to show that there was a continuity to avant-garde film history that, up until that point, had yet to be fully considered.
In conjunction with the series, the San Francisco Museum of Art published a catalog, pretty much like one would find with any major art exhibit.
- 12/15/2010
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Wizards! Horcruxes! Spoilers! Louisa offers our spoiler-filled take on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1...
Warning! Lots of spoilers lie ahead for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1!
The past week hasn’t exactly seen a vacuum of opinion on the successes and failures of the new Harry Potter film. Reviewers have been wagging their fingers at saggy pacing, whilst oohing and aahing over a selection of stunning sequences. Cinemagoers have found the amputated plot both a frustration and a blessed relief. We must have heard every possible variation as to whether one, some, or none of its three young leads can actually act yet.
Add to this endless replays of a tedious debate about whether the act of splitting the book into two films stems from narrative necessity or outrageous commercial greed (final verdict? six of one, half a dozen of the other), and you could be...
Warning! Lots of spoilers lie ahead for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1!
The past week hasn’t exactly seen a vacuum of opinion on the successes and failures of the new Harry Potter film. Reviewers have been wagging their fingers at saggy pacing, whilst oohing and aahing over a selection of stunning sequences. Cinemagoers have found the amputated plot both a frustration and a blessed relief. We must have heard every possible variation as to whether one, some, or none of its three young leads can actually act yet.
Add to this endless replays of a tedious debate about whether the act of splitting the book into two films stems from narrative necessity or outrageous commercial greed (final verdict? six of one, half a dozen of the other), and you could be...
- 11/24/2010
- Den of Geek
Along with the oncoming tide of revisionist fairy tales comes Pan, a noir-tinged take on the often-adapted tale of Peter Pan. However, this dark drama will not center on the green tight-wearing wonderboy, but rather on Captain Hook, reconstructed as a former police detective in a tireless pursuit of a childlike kidnapper – Pan. The script by Ben Magrid was originally optioned by New Line in 2006 for an intended Guillermo del Toro project. However, that went nowhere and now Variety reports Social Capital Films in conjunction with Energy Entertainment are going ahead with Pan and have lined up Swiss director Ben Hibon to helm this alternate Pov take on Peter Pan.
If you’re one of the gajillion people who saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 this past weekend, then you have seen Hibon’s handiwork. For while David Yates returned to helm the live-action sequences of the latest in the Potter franchise,...
If you’re one of the gajillion people who saw Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 this past weekend, then you have seen Hibon’s handiwork. For while David Yates returned to helm the live-action sequences of the latest in the Potter franchise,...
- 11/23/2010
- by Kristy Puchko
- The Film Stage
The seventh Harry Potter film is overlong and frequently baffling, says Philip French
The adjective "dark" has always suggested something sinister, often associated with the Prince of Darkness. But more recently in popular culture, and especially in the movies, it's come to mean deep, serious, mature, dangerous and altogether more truthful, more worthy of intelligent consideration than anything categorised as "light" and thus frivolous and deceptive.
Penumbrously lit by Portuguese-born French cinematographer Eduardo Serra, the latest and penultimate film in the Harry Potter cycle (in fact the first half of Jk Rowling's final book) begins with an ominous, Sergio Leone-style close-up of Bill Nighy telling us: "These are dark times." He sounds like any member of the coalition cabinet at the dispatch box, but he is, in fact, Rufus Scrimgeour, minister of magic.
Not long after, he's presenting the orphaned messiah Harry Potter and his two wizardly chums, the...
The adjective "dark" has always suggested something sinister, often associated with the Prince of Darkness. But more recently in popular culture, and especially in the movies, it's come to mean deep, serious, mature, dangerous and altogether more truthful, more worthy of intelligent consideration than anything categorised as "light" and thus frivolous and deceptive.
Penumbrously lit by Portuguese-born French cinematographer Eduardo Serra, the latest and penultimate film in the Harry Potter cycle (in fact the first half of Jk Rowling's final book) begins with an ominous, Sergio Leone-style close-up of Bill Nighy telling us: "These are dark times." He sounds like any member of the coalition cabinet at the dispatch box, but he is, in fact, Rufus Scrimgeour, minister of magic.
Not long after, he's presenting the orphaned messiah Harry Potter and his two wizardly chums, the...
- 11/21/2010
- by Philip French
- The Guardian - Film News
While planning a trip to a village in rural Iraq to show films to children who had never seen any before, Mark Cousins had to decide which films to show them. Here's what he chose
What are the best kids' films ever made? I had to answer this question about 18 months ago when I was planning a trip to a village in the Kurdish part of northern Iraq, to make a little tented outdoor cinema there. I wanted to entertain the kids in the village by showing them films, and I filmed them watching the movies for my new documentary, The First Film. None of them had ever been to the cinema before, and I had just three nights – so what would I show?
My first choice was easy. There's a Danish film called Palle Alone in the World, about a wee boy who wakes up one morning to find all the adults have disappeared.
What are the best kids' films ever made? I had to answer this question about 18 months ago when I was planning a trip to a village in the Kurdish part of northern Iraq, to make a little tented outdoor cinema there. I wanted to entertain the kids in the village by showing them films, and I filmed them watching the movies for my new documentary, The First Film. None of them had ever been to the cinema before, and I had just three nights – so what would I show?
My first choice was easy. There's a Danish film called Palle Alone in the World, about a wee boy who wakes up one morning to find all the adults have disappeared.
- 10/7/2010
- The Guardian - Film News
"Sound and Silents" is the title of a four-film series — part of the wider "Birds Eye View Film Festival" celebrating women filmmakers — to be held at London’s bfi Southbank and the Barbican from March 6-10. The four screening silent films are: King Vidor’s The Patsy (1928), starring Marion Davies; Sidney Franklin’s Her Sister from Paris (1925), starring Constance Talmadge and Ronald Colman (right); Cecil B. DeMille’s Chicago (1927), with Phyllis Haver and Victor Varconi; and Lotte Reiniger’s animated The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926). All four films will feature live musical accompaniment. The most enjoyable of the four is Sidney Franklin’s Lubitschesque Her Sister from Paris, which offers Constance Talmadge at her screwballish best — and this before screwball [...]...
- 2/14/2010
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
Allow me to take you on a little genre detour. A recent talk with a friend of mine reminded me about a gem of a film. There’s sorcery, black magic and witches but Lotte Reiniger’s The Adventures of Prince Achmed is more fantasy based than horror. Still I feel compelled to share with you a few videos of this beautiful 1926 Germanic tale of an Arabian Prince as told through shadow puppet animation. The oldest surviving animated feature film to be exact. The magical beings brought to life by Reiniger were constructed through her own invention which involved manipulated cutouts made [...]
Post from: Screamstress...
Post from: Screamstress...
- 1/10/2010
- by Alison
- Screamstress.com
With the best will in the world, is it ever possible for actors blessed with incomparable beauty to get under the skin of the homely characters they play?
I can really only go on supposition, but I do tend to assume that the life of the super-beautiful movie star contains less in the way of futility and failure as those of we shabby mortals. There is one thing the gilded screen god or goddess will never know, and that's what it's like to be ugly. In fact, scratch ugly – even the experience of being blandly average is intrinsically beyond them. Which, for even the most gifted actor, is going to be a hurdle in a biopic of someone demonstrably plain.
On this supposition is founded the misgivings I've always had about Howl, the study of poet Allen Ginsberg at the time of his obscenity trial in 1957 which will debut at next month's Sundance festival.
I can really only go on supposition, but I do tend to assume that the life of the super-beautiful movie star contains less in the way of futility and failure as those of we shabby mortals. There is one thing the gilded screen god or goddess will never know, and that's what it's like to be ugly. In fact, scratch ugly – even the experience of being blandly average is intrinsically beyond them. Which, for even the most gifted actor, is going to be a hurdle in a biopic of someone demonstrably plain.
On this supposition is founded the misgivings I've always had about Howl, the study of poet Allen Ginsberg at the time of his obscenity trial in 1957 which will debut at next month's Sundance festival.
- 12/11/2009
- by Danny Leigh
- The Guardian - Film News
Viewers used to the increasing fluidity and visual depth of Hollywood CGI may have trouble getting used to the films of French animator Michel Ocelot, whose features (Kirikou And The Sorceress, Kirikou And The Wild Beast, Princes And Princesses, et al.) operate largely on a two-dimensional plane, as if the characters were shadow puppets moving against a screen. It takes some time with his work to accept that his style is a choice, not a limitation; he’s channeling the early work of animation pioneer Lotte Reiniger, who used backlit paper cutouts to create gloriously detailed mobile silhouettes. And her ...
- 4/22/2009
- avclub.com
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