The Parrot and the Swan
“The film is an excuse for a more important thing.”—The Gold BugWatching the films of Alejo Moguillansky can often feel like playing a children's game—the rules are constantly being invented and reinvented on the fly, cinematic conventions are bent into whatever shape produces the most fun. Watching films like The Parrot and the Swan (2013) where the main character is also the film’s boom operator and the film’s soundtrack is tethered to how he moves across the frame, it’s easy to think of the overly playful 1960s work of Jean-Luc Godard wherein the discovery of cinema’s many possibilities becomes the driving reason for the film itself.And, like Godard, this unbridled pursuit of cinematic freedom also comes hand in hand with a sense of political curiosity—namely, in Moguillansky’s case, a Marxist exploration of artistic labor in a capitalist system.
“The film is an excuse for a more important thing.”—The Gold BugWatching the films of Alejo Moguillansky can often feel like playing a children's game—the rules are constantly being invented and reinvented on the fly, cinematic conventions are bent into whatever shape produces the most fun. Watching films like The Parrot and the Swan (2013) where the main character is also the film’s boom operator and the film’s soundtrack is tethered to how he moves across the frame, it’s easy to think of the overly playful 1960s work of Jean-Luc Godard wherein the discovery of cinema’s many possibilities becomes the driving reason for the film itself.And, like Godard, this unbridled pursuit of cinematic freedom also comes hand in hand with a sense of political curiosity—namely, in Moguillansky’s case, a Marxist exploration of artistic labor in a capitalist system.
- 11/4/2021
- MUBI
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Alejo Moguillansky's The Little Match Girl (2017) is showing December 17 – January 15, 2019 exclusively on Mubi.In theater anything is possible. There are no set rules, and just one perquisite: Genius. Perhaps that is why Chekhov had such immense tenderness for actors, knowing how easy it was to fall into the infinite gap between expectations and reality, ideal and circumstance. Chekhov, of course, wrote about the provinces, which furnished him a rich cast of secondary characters. Now Argentine filmmaker Alejo Moguillansky mines similar material in his latest feature, The Little Match Girl. Moguillansky’s film takes place in Buenos Aires, but do not be fooled. It is not the vainglorious megalopolis we associate with its 19th century splendor, but rather an increasingly battered, economically stretched, exhausted city that in its myriad deceptions shares an existential funk with the Chekhovian social landscape.
- 12/17/2018
- MUBI
AlanisThis year’s Neighboring Scenes, an annual showcase of Latin American cinema in New York, offers primarily a taste of the region’s narrative cinema, with a few showings of experimental film and video art. In the first category, a number of films stand out for either their carefully crafted characters and attention to social context or for their formal playfulness. In the opening night film Alanis, by Argentine filmmaker Anahí Berneri, a young woman (Sofía Gala) negotiates motherhood and making a living as a sex worker. Berneri’s narration is assertive and quick-footed, with the entire film built around the dilemma of Alanis having been busted by undercover cops and lost her apartment, without which she can’t get back to work. The main complication—and the film’s strike of genius—is to present Alanis as a fumbling, struggling, yet determined and caring young mother. Berneri dispenses with...
- 2/28/2018
- MUBI
The Night I SwamThe Vienna International Film Festival—or the Viennale, for short—has for many years been a kind of respite, perhaps even a bit of a beautiful secret outside of European cinephilia, for those looking to be invigorated by the ever-renewing promise of cinema. First under the direction of Alexander Horwath, who left the festival in 1997 and in 2002 took the lead of the illustrious Austrian Film Museum, and for the last 21 years under the guidance of Hans Hurch, the Viennale has cultivated that rare thing: A cultural institution that has a distinct and idiosyncratic sensibility of taste. It is a yearly event in which you can find the rare gems of the mainstream vividly mixed with expansive retrospectives, the latest films from major auteurs and exciting debutantes alike, with no fear of short or medium length works, a strong love for the avant-garde and an even more fierce...
- 11/8/2017
- MUBI
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