Sony Pictures Classics announced on Wednesday that it will release Nathan Silver’s acclaimed comedy Between the Temples, starring Jason Schwartzman (Asteroid City) and Carol Kane (The Dead Don’t Die), in theaters nationwide on August 23.
The film will open against Zoë Kravitz’s debut feature Blink Twice (Amazon MGM Studios), the animated pic 200% Wolf (Viva Pictures), the remake of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgärd (Lionsgate), and the drama The Forge from Affirm Films.
Slated to make its New York debut at Tribeca in June, after playing both Sundance and Berlin to great reviews, Between the Temples follows Ben (Schwartzman), a forty-something cantor losing his voice and possibly his faith. Struggling to meet the expectations of his rabbi, congregation, and not one but two Jewish mothers (Caroline Aaron and Dolly de Leon), Ben finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film will open against Zoë Kravitz’s debut feature Blink Twice (Amazon MGM Studios), the animated pic 200% Wolf (Viva Pictures), the remake of The Crow starring Bill Skarsgärd (Lionsgate), and the drama The Forge from Affirm Films.
Slated to make its New York debut at Tribeca in June, after playing both Sundance and Berlin to great reviews, Between the Temples follows Ben (Schwartzman), a forty-something cantor losing his voice and possibly his faith. Struggling to meet the expectations of his rabbi, congregation, and not one but two Jewish mothers (Caroline Aaron and Dolly de Leon), Ben finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
- 4/24/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights worldwide to Between The Temples, the Sundance comedy that is set to make its international debut in the Panorama section of next week’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 16-24).
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
- 2/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights worldwide to Between The Temples, the Sundance comedy that is set to make its international debut in the Panorama section of next week’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 16-24).
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
- 2/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all rights worldwide to Between The Temples, the Sundance comedy that is set to make its international debut in the Panorama section of next week’s Berlin International Film Festival (February 16-24).
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
Directed by Nathan Silver and written by Silver and C Mason Wells, the film stars Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane in the story of a forty-something cantor whose world is disrupted when his school music teacher re-enters his life as an adult bat mitzvah student.
The film is produced by Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page and Nate Kamiya for Ley Line Entertainment, Adam Kersh...
- 2/9/2024
- ScreenDaily
Sony Pictures Classics has picked up the world distribution rights to Nathan Silver’s offbeat Jewish comedy Between the Temples, which bowed at Sundance.
The film sees Jason Schwartzman play Ben Gottlieb, a cantor in crisis after losing his voice and who falls for Carla Kessler, an adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane). However the student just happens to be his former grade school music teacher.
Ben and Carla become an odd couple in a comedy that explores the complexities of belief, connection, and what it means to be a real mensch, according to the film’s synopsis. Between the Temples is directed by Silver, who co-wrote the script with C. Mason Wells.
Sony Pictures Classics in a statement said of its pick-up: “With his distinctive and unique characters, Nathan has created a story laced with acerbic wit and humor in Between the Temples, while remaining tender throughout. Audiences everywhere...
The film sees Jason Schwartzman play Ben Gottlieb, a cantor in crisis after losing his voice and who falls for Carla Kessler, an adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane). However the student just happens to be his former grade school music teacher.
Ben and Carla become an odd couple in a comedy that explores the complexities of belief, connection, and what it means to be a real mensch, according to the film’s synopsis. Between the Temples is directed by Silver, who co-wrote the script with C. Mason Wells.
Sony Pictures Classics in a statement said of its pick-up: “With his distinctive and unique characters, Nathan has created a story laced with acerbic wit and humor in Between the Temples, while remaining tender throughout. Audiences everywhere...
- 2/9/2024
- by Etan Vlessing
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Trauma in all its facets -- experience, understanding, reconciliation -- and indie dramas are practically synonymous at this point. That, however, doesn’t make trauma or its natural consequence, mourning, or how it’s explored through film, any less relevant or meaningful. Add to that a culturally specific spin like writer-director Nathan Silver and his co-writer, C. Mason Wells, do via Between the Temples, and the experience on the audience’s side of the screen crosses over into the magically mystical and fantastically wondrous. Between the Temples centers on one Benjamin “Ben” Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman), a cantor for a reasonably well-attended Jewish synagogue in wintry upstate New York (Binghamton to be exact). Facing the...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 2/5/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Updated throughout with new buys. Despite some initial trepidation, big sales were not in short supply at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, with Netflix spending big on everything from “It’s What’s Inside” to “Skywalkers: A Love Story,” Searchlight Pictures going for “A Real Pain,” Amazon MGM getting in on the “My Old Ass” action, Neon wisely snapping up “Presence,” and Sony Pictures Classics getting down with “Kneecap”, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of superior films still looking for homes.
Of the still-for-sale titles that premiered at this year’s festival, there’s plenty to intrigue all sorts of buyers, from those looking for films with excellent performances that could inspire major awards pushes (like Saoirse Ronan in “The Outrun”), those in search of the next big director, or documentary lovers looking for films with incredible real world impact and fascinating true stories.
And while it’s still early days,...
Of the still-for-sale titles that premiered at this year’s festival, there’s plenty to intrigue all sorts of buyers, from those looking for films with excellent performances that could inspire major awards pushes (like Saoirse Ronan in “The Outrun”), those in search of the next big director, or documentary lovers looking for films with incredible real world impact and fascinating true stories.
And while it’s still early days,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Kate Erbland, David Ehrlich and Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
The Sundance Film Festival has wrapped in snowy Park City, and Deadline was on the ground to watch all of the key films. Here is a compilation of our reviews from the fest, which include festival award winners like Daughters, the documentary that took the Festival Favorite Award, and A Real Pain, which won the Waldo Salt Screenwriter Award for its writer-director-star Jesse Eisenberg.
Other pics include several that were scooped up by distributors, led by Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence selling to Neon, A Real Pain going to Searchlight, Ghostlight to IFC Films, and Netflix’s smash $17 million deal for It’s What’s Inside.
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (L-r) Justice Smith and David Alan Grier in ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Kobi Libii
Cast: Justice Smith,...
Other pics include several that were scooped up by distributors, led by Steven Soderbergh’s ghost story Presence selling to Neon, A Real Pain going to Searchlight, Ghostlight to IFC Films, and Netflix’s smash $17 million deal for It’s What’s Inside.
Check out the reviews below, click on the titles to read them in full, and keep checking back as we add more.
The American Society of Magical Negroes (L-r) Justice Smith and David Alan Grier in ‘The American Society of Magical Negroes’
Section: Premieres
Director-screenwriter: Kobi Libii
Cast: Justice Smith,...
- 1/29/2024
- by Damon Wise, Valerie Complex and Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Comedies often depend on precision, with jokes popping off like synchronized gunfire, though in Between the Temples, Nathan Silver stretches moments out to revel in texture and give his actors room to breathe. The film, written by Silver and C. Mason Wells, is a marvel of lived-in shagginess, of clashing, cacophonous tones that reveal characters’ inner furies. Between the Temples is funny and even suspenseful in its unpredictability, as you never quite know when and where the punchlines will land. The film revels in the volatile human comedy of which John Cassavetes, an obsessive miner of neurotic minutiae, might approve.
Take a scene in which a grieving widower, Ben (Jason Schwartzman), goes to lunch with his childhood music teacher, Carla (Carol Kane). Silver captures them eating in close-up, as they talk about their wonderful burgers, for much longer than most filmmakers would dare. The scene’s punchline—that Ben, the cantor at his local synagogue,...
Take a scene in which a grieving widower, Ben (Jason Schwartzman), goes to lunch with his childhood music teacher, Carla (Carol Kane). Silver captures them eating in close-up, as they talk about their wonderful burgers, for much longer than most filmmakers would dare. The scene’s punchline—that Ben, the cantor at his local synagogue,...
- 1/28/2024
- by Chuck Bowen
- Slant Magazine
Between the Temples, co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver, follows a spiritually conflicted cantor (Jason Schwartzman) who finds his faith somewhat revitalized when his grade school music teacher (Carol Kane) enrolls as his latest adult bat mitzvah student. Editor John Magary discusses how he approached cutting Between the Temples, particularly when it came to navigating the film’s heavy use of improv. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired […]
The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/24/2024
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Between the Temples, co-written by C. Mason Wells and director Nathan Silver, follows a spiritually conflicted cantor (Jason Schwartzman) who finds his faith somewhat revitalized when his grade school music teacher (Carol Kane) enrolls as his latest adult bat mitzvah student. Editor John Magary discusses how he approached cutting Between the Temples, particularly when it came to navigating the film’s heavy use of improv. See all responses to our annual Sundance editor questionnaire here. Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the editor of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired […]
The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post “The Point Is to Struggle With What You’ve Been Given”: Editor John Magary on Between the Temples first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 1/24/2024
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
There’s a very young, very online contingent of Generation Z that propagates repeated cycles of so-called “age gap discourse”: heated, often condemnatory debate over the rights or wrongs of people dating, or merely socializing, outside their immediate age group. The discussion often takes quaintly prudish forms, permitting no adult age at which such differences cease to matter, but if it circulates most heatedly among the young, it’s been handed down to them via age-old social rules and biases — ones to which Nathan Silver’s delightful “Between the Temples” gives a cheerfully flippant middle finger. Collapsing divides between old age, middle age and adolescence into a universally relatable paean to doing whatever the hell feels right for you in your own weird situation, this scruffy shoestring indie won’t be seen by the internet’s most hawkish age-gap monitors, though it has much to gently teach them.
Premiering in the U.
Premiering in the U.
- 1/20/2024
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
“We think you should start seeing a doctor,” is one of the earliest lines uttered to the quiet, grieving Ben (Jason Schwartzman), and the hilarity of its layered and misunderstood meaning, “see” as in “date” and “doctor” as in “plastic surgeon,” reveal director Nathan Silver’s playfully claustrophobic exploration of family loved, lost, found, and tolerated in the Sundance feature “Between the Temples.”
“Between the Temples” stunningly couples its 16mm cinematography with tight close-ups, overlapping dialogue, and sharp comedic timing to present an intimately comical portrait of anguish amidst faith. Co-written with C. Mason Wells, cantor Ben reconnects with his former music teacher Carla (Carol Kane) as each one offers the other a chance at deeper relationships: Ben to humanity and Carol to spirituality.
In the ensemble, Ben’s mothers, Judith (Dolly De Leon) and Meria (Caroline Aaron), frequently concern themselves with his love life, introducing him to women alongside their Rabbi,...
“Between the Temples” stunningly couples its 16mm cinematography with tight close-ups, overlapping dialogue, and sharp comedic timing to present an intimately comical portrait of anguish amidst faith. Co-written with C. Mason Wells, cantor Ben reconnects with his former music teacher Carla (Carol Kane) as each one offers the other a chance at deeper relationships: Ben to humanity and Carol to spirituality.
In the ensemble, Ben’s mothers, Judith (Dolly De Leon) and Meria (Caroline Aaron), frequently concern themselves with his love life, introducing him to women alongside their Rabbi,...
- 1/20/2024
- by Ariana Martinez
- The Wrap
Between the Temples, directed by Nate Silver and written by Silver and C. Mason, is an exploration of grief, faith and self-discovery. Starring Carol Kane and Jason Schwartzman, it’s not just a story about overcoming grief but a testament to the power of self-belief, the importance of accepting support and the transformative potential of unexpected relationships.
Ben (Schwartzman) and his scratched-up pipes are just the beginning of his issues. He’s a man in mourning after suffering the tragic loss of his wife, who left him with a giant house full of memories. Instead of staying, he promptly shacked up with Mom and Stepmom in hopes of finding some peace. But his family, rabbi and whole community seem to be spectating his grief, just waiting for him to move on so life can go on its merry way. Too bad Ben’s not overly keen on appeasing their expectations anytime soon.
Ben (Schwartzman) and his scratched-up pipes are just the beginning of his issues. He’s a man in mourning after suffering the tragic loss of his wife, who left him with a giant house full of memories. Instead of staying, he promptly shacked up with Mom and Stepmom in hopes of finding some peace. But his family, rabbi and whole community seem to be spectating his grief, just waiting for him to move on so life can go on its merry way. Too bad Ben’s not overly keen on appeasing their expectations anytime soon.
- 1/20/2024
- by Valerie Complex
- Deadline Film + TV
In a state of arrested development after his wife unexpectedly died from a freak accident, Ben Gottlieb (Jason Schwartzman) is suicidal, pleading to a truck to just run him over and begging that he be fired from his job as cantor at the local Jewish temple in upstate New York. While this set-up may not scream comedy, Between the Temples is in fact hilarious, packed with endless jokes and adoration for physical gags while we witness Ben find new meaning in life through an unexpected acquaintance. Above all, Nathan Silver’s feature, from a script he co-wrote with C. Mason Wells, is a thrillingly alive, nimble piece of filmmaking: shot on 16mm by Sean Price Williams with faces of its ensemble guiding every movement, and edited by John Magary with a frenetic yet defined rhythm, Between the Temples is a witty, biting portrait of finding one’s footing in both faith and friendship.
- 1/20/2024
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Writer-director Nathan Silver is harnessing a crisis of faith for his irreverent comedy “Between the Temples,” debuting at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival.
Silver, who has written and directed nine feature films and has had projects premiere at NYFF, Venice, Tribeca, AFI, Locarno, and Rotterdam, is making his Sundance debut with the feature. Silver was previously rejected by Sundance many times before “Between the Temples” landed in the U.S. Dramatic Competition programming lineup, his first time competing at the festival. “Between the Temples” is also among IndieWire’s must-see films at this year’s festival.
In “Between the Temples,” a cantor (Jason Schwartzman) in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane).
Robert Smigel, Annie Hamilton, Madeline Weinstein, and “Triangle of Sadness” alum Dolly de Leon also star.
“Between the Temples...
Silver, who has written and directed nine feature films and has had projects premiere at NYFF, Venice, Tribeca, AFI, Locarno, and Rotterdam, is making his Sundance debut with the feature. Silver was previously rejected by Sundance many times before “Between the Temples” landed in the U.S. Dramatic Competition programming lineup, his first time competing at the festival. “Between the Temples” is also among IndieWire’s must-see films at this year’s festival.
In “Between the Temples,” a cantor (Jason Schwartzman) in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student (Carol Kane).
Robert Smigel, Annie Hamilton, Madeline Weinstein, and “Triangle of Sadness” alum Dolly de Leon also star.
“Between the Temples...
- 1/16/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
Kieran Culkin and Jesse Eisenberg in ‘A Real Pain’ (Courtesy of Sundance Institute)
82 films have been selected to screen during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. In addition, eight episodic titles and a New Frontier interactive experience have made the cut and will be included in the upcoming festival.
17,435 projects were submitted for 2024 inclusion, setting a new festival record.
“From the first edition in 1985, Sundance Film Festival has aimed to provide a space to gather, celebrate, and engage with risk-taking artists that are committed to bringing their independent visions to audiences — the Festival remains true to that goal to this day,” stated Robert Redford, Sundance Institute Founder and President. “It continues to evolve, but its legacy of showcasing bold work that starts necessary conversations continues with the 2024 program.”
The 40th Sundance Film Festival will take place January 18 – 28, 2024, in Park City and Salt Lake City. Ticket packages and passes are currently on sale.
82 films have been selected to screen during the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. In addition, eight episodic titles and a New Frontier interactive experience have made the cut and will be included in the upcoming festival.
17,435 projects were submitted for 2024 inclusion, setting a new festival record.
“From the first edition in 1985, Sundance Film Festival has aimed to provide a space to gather, celebrate, and engage with risk-taking artists that are committed to bringing their independent visions to audiences — the Festival remains true to that goal to this day,” stated Robert Redford, Sundance Institute Founder and President. “It continues to evolve, but its legacy of showcasing bold work that starts necessary conversations continues with the 2024 program.”
The 40th Sundance Film Festival will take place January 18 – 28, 2024, in Park City and Salt Lake City. Ticket packages and passes are currently on sale.
- 12/6/2023
- by Rebecca Murray
- Showbiz Junkies
It’s almost time again for me to pack my bags and head to Park City, Utah, for the 2024 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. The last few years have been challenging for the fest, with the 2021 and 2022 editions only being online due to the pandemic. The 2023 edition was a hybrid version that sported a few high-profile debuts, including A24’s horror hit Talk to Me, but overall was a bit of a modest year in terms of stuff that broke out. However, 2024 seems to be a high-end year for the fest, with tons of big stars on the way to the festival, including Pedro Pascal, Kristen Stewart (there with two movies), Sebastian Stan, Woody Harrelson and many more.
It’s always interesting to note the trend in storytelling at this famous indie fest. In recent years, the pandemic weighed highly on the fest, with many films acknowledging the toll it took,...
It’s always interesting to note the trend in storytelling at this famous indie fest. In recent years, the pandemic weighed highly on the fest, with many films acknowledging the toll it took,...
- 12/6/2023
- by Chris Bumbray
- JoBlo.com
Providing our first glimpse at the next year in cinema, the 2024 Sundance Film Festival has unveiled its lineup of 82 films, eight episodic titles, and New Frontier interactive experiences. Taking place January 18–28, 2024, in person in Park City and Salt Lake City, with a selection of titles available online nationwide from January 25–28, 2024, the festival celebrates its 40th anniversary this year.
Notable highlights in this year’s edition includes Steven Soderbergh’s new Lucy Liu-led feature Presence, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding starring Kristen Stewart, Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Freaky Tales starring Pedro Pascal, the Zellners’ Sasquatch Sunset, Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, Handling the Undead starring Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, the Saoirse Ronan-led The Outrun, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples starring Jason Schwartzman, Brett Story and Stephan Maing’s Amazon Labor Union documentary Union,...
Notable highlights in this year’s edition includes Steven Soderbergh’s new Lucy Liu-led feature Presence, Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding starring Kristen Stewart, Jane Schoenbrun’s I Saw the TV Glow, Ryan Fleck and Anna Boden’s Freaky Tales starring Pedro Pascal, the Zellners’ Sasquatch Sunset, Aaron Schimberg’s A Different Man, Handling the Undead starring Renate Reinsve and Anders Danielsen Lie, the Saoirse Ronan-led The Outrun, Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain, Nathan Silver’s Between the Temples starring Jason Schwartzman, Brett Story and Stephan Maing’s Amazon Labor Union documentary Union,...
- 12/6/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The big surprise for the U.S. Dramatic Competition this year is they shaved off two titles making a dozen into a ten piece. We find several first-time filmmakers we’ve been keeping tabs on in Sean Wang, Titus Kaphar, India Donaldson and the highly anticipated secretive project by Love Me by Sam and Andy Zuchero featuring Kristen Stewart and Steven Yeun. Here are the ten selections:
Between the Temples / U.S.A. — A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student.…...
Between the Temples / U.S.A. — A cantor in a crisis of faith finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher reenters his life as his new adult bat mitzvah student.…...
- 12/6/2023
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
The Sundance Film Festival has announced its line-up for its 40th incarnation.
The 2024 fest will see new entries from fest regulars like Steven Soderbergh, Lana Wilson and Richard Linklater, while also debuting titles from new directors with 40 percent of the features program coming from first time feature filmmakers. A-list talent like Kirsten Stewart, Pedro Pascal, Lucy Liu, Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson star in fest films, while onscreen talents like Jesse Eisenberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor continue their forays into directing.
This year’s fest marks the first with Eugene Hernandez at the helm as festival director. “This will be my 30th time attending the festival,” Hernandez tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Now, to have this different vantage point, I was able to witness exactly what goes into [the festival] I have loved and cared about for so long.”
The festival had over 17,000 submission, with programmers noting this is the most in the history of the festival.
The 2024 fest will see new entries from fest regulars like Steven Soderbergh, Lana Wilson and Richard Linklater, while also debuting titles from new directors with 40 percent of the features program coming from first time feature filmmakers. A-list talent like Kirsten Stewart, Pedro Pascal, Lucy Liu, Laura Linney and Woody Harrelson star in fest films, while onscreen talents like Jesse Eisenberg and Chiwetel Ejiofor continue their forays into directing.
This year’s fest marks the first with Eugene Hernandez at the helm as festival director. “This will be my 30th time attending the festival,” Hernandez tells The Hollywood Reporter. “Now, to have this different vantage point, I was able to witness exactly what goes into [the festival] I have loved and cared about for so long.”
The festival had over 17,000 submission, with programmers noting this is the most in the history of the festival.
- 12/6/2023
- by Mia Galuppo
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane are starring in “Between the Temples,” a new film from writer and director Nathan Silver that’s being described as “an anxious comedy.” It’s the story of a cantor who is locked in a crisis of faith and finds his world turned upside down when his grade school music teacher re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student.
The supporting cast for this humorous exercise in neurosis boasts Dolly De Leon, who was just nominated for her scene-stealing work in “Triangle of Sadness.” Other ensemble members include Screen Actors Guild award-winner Caroline Aaron (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), longtime funnyman Robert Smigel (SNL’s “TV Funhouse”), stage and screen actress Madeline Weinstein (“Beach Rats”) and indie film regular Matthew Shear (“Mistress America”).
Principal photography wrapped in Kingston, N.Y., on the film. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic sales.
“Between the Temples” was...
The supporting cast for this humorous exercise in neurosis boasts Dolly De Leon, who was just nominated for her scene-stealing work in “Triangle of Sadness.” Other ensemble members include Screen Actors Guild award-winner Caroline Aaron (“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”), longtime funnyman Robert Smigel (SNL’s “TV Funhouse”), stage and screen actress Madeline Weinstein (“Beach Rats”) and indie film regular Matthew Shear (“Mistress America”).
Principal photography wrapped in Kingston, N.Y., on the film. CAA Media Finance is handling domestic sales.
“Between the Temples” was...
- 5/10/2023
- by Brent Lang
- Variety Film + TV
Toni Collette (Knives Out) and Odessa Young (the more recent mini-series based on Stephen King’s The Stand) have signed on to star in the “twisted and darkly funny” revenge thriller The Prima Donna, which is set to start filming in Rome, Italy in the summer. Directed by Nathan Silver (Uncertain Terms), who also wrote the screenplay with C. Mason Wells, The Prima Donna will tell the story of two feuding opera singers and the lengths they’ll go for the limelight.
According to Variety, the film will be set in Rome and center on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette), who prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab. An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia for the chance to be her understudy. But when she’s...
According to Variety, the film will be set in Rome and center on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette), who prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab. An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia for the chance to be her understudy. But when she’s...
- 2/7/2023
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
With his long-in-development passion project Pinocchio now out in the world, director Guillermo del Toro has set his next stop-motion animation: an adaptation of Kazuo Ishiguro’s 2015 novel The Buried Giant. Currently in the process of co-writing the script with Dennis Kelly (Matilda: The Musical), the director tells The Telegraph that they’ll begin the design process in two months for the story of an elderly couple who live in a world with no long-term memories. When they faintly recall they may have had a son many years earlier, they go on an adventure to seek him out.
“Animation has given us so many indelible images over the years, but in many ways the industry wants to keep it at the children’s table. So I want to keep pushing the medium into areas that demonstrate its capacity” said del Toro. First up, he’ll helm a yet-to-be-announced live-action feature,...
“Animation has given us so many indelible images over the years, but in many ways the industry wants to keep it at the children’s table. So I want to keep pushing the medium into areas that demonstrate its capacity” said del Toro. First up, he’ll helm a yet-to-be-announced live-action feature,...
- 2/6/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Toni Collette is set to star alongside Odessa Young in The Prima Donna from writer/director Nathan Silver (Thirst Street, Uncertain Terms), a feature that is billed as a “delightfully twisted and darkly funny revenge thriller about dysfunctional family dynamics, the dangers of ambition, and the lengths we will go to make our mark on the world.”
The film will reunite Collette and Young who previously worked together on the HBO series The Staircase. Cornerstone is handling international sales and distribution and will commence sales at the European Film Market. CAA Media Finance and Anonymous Content are repping North America.
The Prima Donna sees Collette playing legendary opera diva Livia Angelli as she prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia...
The film will reunite Collette and Young who previously worked together on the HBO series The Staircase. Cornerstone is handling international sales and distribution and will commence sales at the European Film Market. CAA Media Finance and Anonymous Content are repping North America.
The Prima Donna sees Collette playing legendary opera diva Livia Angelli as she prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia...
- 2/3/2023
- by Alex Ritman
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Revenge thriller to be written and directed by Nathan Silver.
Toni Collette and Odessa Young are to star in Nathan Silver’s revenge thriller The Prima Donna, which Cornerstone Films will launch to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM).
The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the HBO series The Staircase, with shooting due to take place this summer in Rome.
The story, written by Silver with C. Mason Wells, centres on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette) who is preparing to step into the role of a lifetime just as her estranged...
Toni Collette and Odessa Young are to star in Nathan Silver’s revenge thriller The Prima Donna, which Cornerstone Films will launch to buyers at the upcoming European Film Market (EFM).
The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the HBO series The Staircase, with shooting due to take place this summer in Rome.
The story, written by Silver with C. Mason Wells, centres on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette) who is preparing to step into the role of a lifetime just as her estranged...
- 2/3/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Mafia Mamma and Knives Out star Toni Collette and Odessa Young have signed to co-star in writer and director Nathan Silver’s twisted revenge thriller The Prima Donna.
Collette and Young previously worked together on HBO’s award-winning series The Staircase.
The drama revolves around dysfunctional family dynamics, the dangers of ambition, and the lengths we will go to make our mark on the world.
Set in contemporary Rome, Collette will play a legendary opera diva who is about to step into the role of a lifetime just as her estranged daughter (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, the daughter summons up the courage to ask to be her mother’s understudy. When her mother callously dismisses the suggestion, she snaps and starts mulling the ultimate revenge, igniting a cut-throat battle of wills.
Silver, whose previous credits include Thirst Street,...
Collette and Young previously worked together on HBO’s award-winning series The Staircase.
The drama revolves around dysfunctional family dynamics, the dangers of ambition, and the lengths we will go to make our mark on the world.
Set in contemporary Rome, Collette will play a legendary opera diva who is about to step into the role of a lifetime just as her estranged daughter (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, the daughter summons up the courage to ask to be her mother’s understudy. When her mother callously dismisses the suggestion, she snaps and starts mulling the ultimate revenge, igniting a cut-throat battle of wills.
Silver, whose previous credits include Thirst Street,...
- 2/3/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Toni Collette and Odessa Young have joined writer and director Nathan Silver’s “The Prima Donna,” a twisted and darkly funny revenge thriller about two feuding opera singers and the lengths they’ll go for the limelight.
The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the acclaimed HBO series “The Staircase.” Cornerstone is handling international sales and distribution and will launch the project at this month’s European Film Market, which takes place alongside the Berlin Film Festival. CAA Media Finance and Anonymous Content are repping North America.
Set in Rome, the film is centered on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette), who prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia for the chance to be her understudy.
The film will reunite Collette and Young, who previously worked together on the acclaimed HBO series “The Staircase.” Cornerstone is handling international sales and distribution and will launch the project at this month’s European Film Market, which takes place alongside the Berlin Film Festival. CAA Media Finance and Anonymous Content are repping North America.
Set in Rome, the film is centered on legendary opera diva Livia Angelli (Collette), who prepares to step into the role of a lifetime, just as her estranged daughter Mimi (Young) shows up at her doorstep, right out of rehab.
An aspiring opera singer herself, Mimi summons the courage to ask Livia for the chance to be her understudy.
- 2/3/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
Three tweets that made us giggle...
Less Dune Part Two talk, more 2 Barb 2 Star talk.
— Chris Feil (@chrisvfeil) October 27, 2021
If a movie has to be watched then it isn’t a good movie
— C. Mason Wells (@cmasonwells) October 26, 2021
Let's stop making movies until we've seen all the old ones.
— Dave Kehr (@dave_kehr) October 26, 2021
More after the jump including Derek Cianfrance, Paul Verhoeven, and lots of Dune and Dune Part Two jokes...
Less Dune Part Two talk, more 2 Barb 2 Star talk.
— Chris Feil (@chrisvfeil) October 27, 2021
If a movie has to be watched then it isn’t a good movie
— C. Mason Wells (@cmasonwells) October 26, 2021
Let's stop making movies until we've seen all the old ones.
— Dave Kehr (@dave_kehr) October 26, 2021
More after the jump including Derek Cianfrance, Paul Verhoeven, and lots of Dune and Dune Part Two jokes...
- 10/30/2021
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
"So what do you think is going on with her?" Grasshopper Film has released an official trailer for an indie drama that has been picking up rave reviews at festivals for a while. Fourteen is the latest film made by American indie filmmaker Dan Sallitt, and it premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year before playing all over the world. Tallie Medel and Norma Kuhling star as two friends struggling with the realities of adult life. The film takes place over a decade, showing us only a few disparate scenes between them when they reconnect and converse. The cast includes Lorelei Romani, C. Mason Wells, Dylan McCormick, and Kolyn Brown. The film will be released "virtually" this month through a watch-at-home service from Grasshopper directly. Here's the full-length trailer (+ final poster) for Dan Sallitt's Fourteen, from Grasshopper's YouTube: Over the course of a decade, a woman named Jo...
- 5/6/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
"Did he seem nervous when you asked him to dinner?" This small indie film playing on the festival circuit is a worthwhile discovery and still needs a distributor. Fourteen is the latest film made by American indie filmmaker Dan Sallitt, and it first premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last year before playing all over the world. Tallie Medel and Norma Kuhling star as two friends struggling with the realities of adult life. The film takes place over a decade, showing us only a few disparate scenes between them when they reconnect and converse. The cast also includes Lorelei Romani, C. Mason Wells, Dylan McCormick, and Kolyn Brown. This earned some rave reviews from critics at festivals; it's a unique, low-key drama that will connect more with some than others. These teasers were released during its festival run; we're still waiting to see a full-length trailer. Here's the first two...
- 1/15/2020
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Exclusive: Another Toronto Film Festival title has found distribution. Cinema Guild acquired U.S. distribution rights for the Kazik Radwanski-directed Anne at 13,000 ft. The film received an honorable mention from the Platform Prize jury at Toronto in September.
The picture will continue to play festivals before Cinema Guild releases it next year.
The film focuses on 27-year-old daycare worker Anne (Deragh Campbell) who has an epiphany while skydiving for her best friend Sara’s bachelorette party. Back on the ground, the pressures of her daily life threaten to overwhelm her. Her coworkers at the daycare center are constantly questioning the way she connects with the children. At Sara’s wedding, she meets a nice guy ((Matt Johnson) but she can’t help bringing him into ever-more-awkward social situations. As the stressful circumstances mount, Anne prepares for another jump.
“With Anne , Kazik Radwanski has given us an unforgettable film,” said Cinema Guild President Peter
Kelly.
The picture will continue to play festivals before Cinema Guild releases it next year.
The film focuses on 27-year-old daycare worker Anne (Deragh Campbell) who has an epiphany while skydiving for her best friend Sara’s bachelorette party. Back on the ground, the pressures of her daily life threaten to overwhelm her. Her coworkers at the daycare center are constantly questioning the way she connects with the children. At Sara’s wedding, she meets a nice guy ((Matt Johnson) but she can’t help bringing him into ever-more-awkward social situations. As the stressful circumstances mount, Anne prepares for another jump.
“With Anne , Kazik Radwanski has given us an unforgettable film,” said Cinema Guild President Peter
Kelly.
- 10/23/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
2015 Tiff Rising Star Deragh Campbell plays lead.
On the eve of Toronto, sales company Cercamon has added Platform world premiere Anne At 13,000 Ft to its Toronto roster.
New York-based Film Maudit represents Us and Canadian sales on Kazik Radwanski’s drama about a volatile young woman, which receives its world premiere on Monday (9).
2015 Tiff Rising Star Deragh Campbell stars as a single daycare worker in Toronto who undergoes a life-changing experience when she goes skydiving for her best friend’s bachelorette party, and finds herself pushing the limits of what is socially acceptable. Matt Johnson, Dorothea Paas, and Lawrene Denkers also star.
On the eve of Toronto, sales company Cercamon has added Platform world premiere Anne At 13,000 Ft to its Toronto roster.
New York-based Film Maudit represents Us and Canadian sales on Kazik Radwanski’s drama about a volatile young woman, which receives its world premiere on Monday (9).
2015 Tiff Rising Star Deragh Campbell stars as a single daycare worker in Toronto who undergoes a life-changing experience when she goes skydiving for her best friend’s bachelorette party, and finds herself pushing the limits of what is socially acceptable. Matt Johnson, Dorothea Paas, and Lawrene Denkers also star.
- 9/4/2019
- ScreenDaily
After a robust three-year run as the director of programming at New York City’s Quad Cinema, C. Mason Wells surprised the indie film world by announcing his departure earlier this week. Now we know why he’s leaving: Wells is joining Kino Lorber as director of theatrical sales, starting Monday April 8. He’ll be reporting directly to Wendy Lidell, Svp of theatrical, non-theatrical distribution and acquisitions.
When the Quad Cinema relaunched in 2016, it distinguished itself almost immediately with its extraordinary repertory lineups, including retrospectives of Alain Delon, Bob Fosse, and films that were rated X. Almost instantly, the Quad was as essential a part of the New York City film landscape as the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam Cinematek (for all three of which Wells had previously programmed lineups), as well as Film Forum and the Metrograph.
“I am delighted that Chris Wells will be joining our team,...
When the Quad Cinema relaunched in 2016, it distinguished itself almost immediately with its extraordinary repertory lineups, including retrospectives of Alain Delon, Bob Fosse, and films that were rated X. Almost instantly, the Quad was as essential a part of the New York City film landscape as the IFC Center, Anthology Film Archives, and Bam Cinematek (for all three of which Wells had previously programmed lineups), as well as Film Forum and the Metrograph.
“I am delighted that Chris Wells will be joining our team,...
- 4/4/2019
- by Christian Blauvelt
- Indiewire
Call it the Ryderssance. Winona Ryder, beloved It Girl of the ’80s and ’90s, has spent the past three years churning out some of her best work yet, including small screen offerings like “Show Me a Hero” and the Netflix breakout “Stranger Things.” Soon, she’ll return to the big screen with her frequent co-star Keanu Reeves, thanks to the upcoming rom-com “Destination Wedding.” But before that, Ryder will be the subject of a decades-spanning career retrospective at New York’s Quad Cinema, featuring over a dozen of her films, with more to be announced in the coming weeks.
When it comes to putting together his retrospectives, Quad Cinema programmer C. Mason Wells told IndieWire that he tends to look for “someone who hasn’t been highlighted before in this way, and also someone who doesn’t conventionally get that sort of feting. Unfortunately, those type of people who fall...
When it comes to putting together his retrospectives, Quad Cinema programmer C. Mason Wells told IndieWire that he tends to look for “someone who hasn’t been highlighted before in this way, and also someone who doesn’t conventionally get that sort of feting. Unfortunately, those type of people who fall...
- 7/25/2018
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Charlie Rose’s alleged history with sexual harassment was exposed in a report from The Washington Post in which eight women came forward and accused the talk show host and journalist of making unwanted sexual advances toward them. Surprisingly, a brief moment from Wes Anderson’s 2001 comedy-drama “The Royal Tenenbaums” is going viral in the wake of the allegations made against Rose.
Read More:Charlie Rose Accused of Sexual Harassment By Eight Women, Apologizes for Acting ‘Insensitively’
C. Mason Wells, who serves as the Director of Repertory Programming at the Quad Cinema in New York City, shared the following screenshot on Twitter just moments after the publication of The Washington Post article. The image shows a moment from “The Royal Tenenbaums” in which a Charlie Rose-lookalike named Peter Bradley (played by regular Anderson collaborator Larry Pine) is seen groping Margot Tenenbaum’s breast. The character, played by Gwyneth Paltrow,...
Read More:Charlie Rose Accused of Sexual Harassment By Eight Women, Apologizes for Acting ‘Insensitively’
C. Mason Wells, who serves as the Director of Repertory Programming at the Quad Cinema in New York City, shared the following screenshot on Twitter just moments after the publication of The Washington Post article. The image shows a moment from “The Royal Tenenbaums” in which a Charlie Rose-lookalike named Peter Bradley (played by regular Anderson collaborator Larry Pine) is seen groping Margot Tenenbaum’s breast. The character, played by Gwyneth Paltrow,...
- 11/21/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
The stalker genre gets a wryly funny indie treatment in Thirst Street, an experience of sustained worms-under-your-skin horror (with some dark laughs). Sometime after her boyfriend’s suicide, flight attendant Gina (Lindsay Burdge) apparently takes a Tarot reading way too seriously and decides that Jerome (Damien Bonnard, who also plays the boyfriend), a one-night stand during a layover in Paris, is her new soulmate. She quits her job, moves into the apartment building across the street from Jerome’s, and starts waitressing at the sleazy nightclub where he tends bar. This is not a scenario which improves for anyone as it progresses.
Writer/director Nathan Silver and co-writer C. Mason Wells aren’t content to merely wring cringes out of Gina’s increasing unhingedness. Many of the most disquieting (and funniest) bits are the small moments of weirdness and/or confusion between characters, as well as more universal details of expat blues.
Writer/director Nathan Silver and co-writer C. Mason Wells aren’t content to merely wring cringes out of Gina’s increasing unhingedness. Many of the most disquieting (and funniest) bits are the small moments of weirdness and/or confusion between characters, as well as more universal details of expat blues.
- 9/20/2017
- by Daniel Schindel
- The Film Stage
Keep up with the wild and wooly world of indie film acquisitions with our weekly Rundown of everything that’s been picked up around the globe. Check out last week’s Rundown here.
– Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “The Little Stranger,” excluding the U.K., France and Switzerland, where it will be distributed by Pathé. Academy Award nominee Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”) will direct the film, a chilling ghost story, which will begin production in the U.K. this summer for release in 2018. “The Little Stranger” will star Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson and Will Poulter. Lucinda Coxon, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Focus’ “The Danish Girl,” has adapted “The Little Stranger” from Sarah Waters’ acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name.
In a remote English village after the close of World War II, a local practitioner, Dr. Faraday (Gleeson), is called to the...
– Focus Features has acquired the worldwide rights to “The Little Stranger,” excluding the U.K., France and Switzerland, where it will be distributed by Pathé. Academy Award nominee Lenny Abrahamson (“Room”) will direct the film, a chilling ghost story, which will begin production in the U.K. this summer for release in 2018. “The Little Stranger” will star Academy Award nominee Charlotte Rampling, Domhnall Gleeson, Ruth Wilson and Will Poulter. Lucinda Coxon, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of Focus’ “The Danish Girl,” has adapted “The Little Stranger” from Sarah Waters’ acclaimed 2009 novel of the same name.
In a remote English village after the close of World War II, a local practitioner, Dr. Faraday (Gleeson), is called to the...
- 5/26/2017
- by Graham Winfrey
- Indiewire
Samuel Goldwyn Films has acquired the North American distribution rights to Nathan Silver’s Tribeca film Thirst Street, starring Lindsay Burdge, Damien Bonnard, and narrated by Oscar-winner Anjelica Huston. The company is planning to release the pic sometime this year. Co-written by Silver and C. Mason Wells, the film follows grief-stricken American flight attendant Gina (Burdge) on a layover in Paris, where she hooks up with nightclub bartender Jerome (Bonnard). As Gina…...
- 5/19/2017
- Deadline
For AhkeemEstablished in 2002, the Tribeca Film Festival has had a bit of trouble defining itself during the course of its 15-year run. It lacks the grit and quirk of SXSW or the finesse of Sundance, but like the latter, it serves a springboard with its own lab for first time directors. Tribeca's ambitious programming has evolved to encompass much more than movies. A Virtual Reality sidebar is innovative and conveniently forward-looking, the television slate, chock full of hotly anticipated premieres, is opportunely adaptive, and the Talks section is fascinating in its pairings, both expected (Noah Baumbach and Dustin Hoffman, whose work together will be showcased at Cannes) and funkily improbable (Barbra Streisand and Robert Rodriguez). There's even a curation of interactive media in the Games section.While the festival is often unfairly maligned, there are many decent offerings, including spillover from the international film festival circuit and a premieres of some more well-known titles,...
- 5/4/2017
- MUBI
New York is undergoing a renaissance for independent movie theaters, with newcomers like Metrograph and the Alamo Drafthouse joining stalwarts like Film Forum, Bam and the Film Society of Lincoln Center in making New York one of the preeminent American cities for cinephiles. Now the scene is about to accommodate one more newcomer — although in some ways, this one’s been around for a while.
Strictly speaking, the Quad Cinema won’t be the newest multi-screen theater on the block when it opens its doors April 14. In fact, it’ll be the oldest. The first multiplex in the city when it opened in 1972, the Quad catered to passionate audiences for decades before slowly declining in recent years due to disrepair and a decline in programming quality linked to an increased number of four-walled screenings.
So Charles S. Cohen, the real-estate mogul and owner and founder of Cohen Media Group who...
Strictly speaking, the Quad Cinema won’t be the newest multi-screen theater on the block when it opens its doors April 14. In fact, it’ll be the oldest. The first multiplex in the city when it opened in 1972, the Quad catered to passionate audiences for decades before slowly declining in recent years due to disrepair and a decline in programming quality linked to an increased number of four-walled screenings.
So Charles S. Cohen, the real-estate mogul and owner and founder of Cohen Media Group who...
- 4/12/2017
- by Andrew Lapin
- Indiewire
Anjelica Huston has come aboard as the voice-over narrator for Thirst Street, the Nathan Silver-directed pic that will have its world premiere next month at the Tribeca Film Festival. The retro-style psychodrama, written by Silver and C. Mason Wells, centers on a flight attendant (Lindsay Burdge) grieving over a lover's suicide who loses her grip on reality after falling for a suave Parisian bartender. Damien Bonnard, Esther Garrel, Lola Bessis, Jacques Nolot and…...
- 3/9/2017
- Deadline
This time on the podcast, Scott is joined by David Blakeslee and Ryan Gallagher to discuss Kenji Mizoguchi’s The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum.
This heartrending masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi about the give-and-take between life and art marked the first full realization of the hypnotic long takes and eloquent camera movements that would come to define the director’s films. Kikunosuke (Shotaro Hanayagi), the adopted son of a legendary kabuki actor who is striving to achieve stardom by mastering female roles, turns to his infant brother’s wet nurse for support and affection—and she soon gives up everything for her beloved’s creative glory. Offering a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of kabuki theater in the late nineteenth century, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum provides a critique of the oppression of women and the sacrifices required of them, and represents the pinnacle of Mizoguchi’s early career.
This heartrending masterpiece by Kenji Mizoguchi about the give-and-take between life and art marked the first full realization of the hypnotic long takes and eloquent camera movements that would come to define the director’s films. Kikunosuke (Shotaro Hanayagi), the adopted son of a legendary kabuki actor who is striving to achieve stardom by mastering female roles, turns to his infant brother’s wet nurse for support and affection—and she soon gives up everything for her beloved’s creative glory. Offering a fascinating glimpse behind the scenes of kabuki theater in the late nineteenth century, The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum provides a critique of the oppression of women and the sacrifices required of them, and represents the pinnacle of Mizoguchi’s early career.
- 10/15/2016
- by Scott Nye
- CriterionCast
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Ace Hotel has several amazing photos by Stefanie Zoche and Sabine Haubitz of movie theatres in India. It sure makes us wish our neighborhood multiplex gave a damn about conjuring excitement for going out to the movies.We love Hou Hsiao Hsien's The Assassin, but it undoubtedly a difficult film to market. Most trailers have tried to pass of this contemplative drama as an action movie, but the above trailer gets the closest, so far, to the tone of the entire film.Speaking of trailers, we don't know what to say or think about the one for Michael Bay's 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi, which seems to be combining the lean look of his great Pain & Gain with the "seriousness" of Pearl Harbor and his gross, overall...
- 8/5/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Rushes collects news, articles, images, videos and more for a weekly roundup of essential items from the world of film.Above: Rainer Werner Fassbinder would have turned 70 this week. Can you imagine how many films unfilmed he would have made between 1982, when he died, and now? At his Movie Poster of the Day Tumblr, Adrian Curry has found a fantastic poster for Fassbinder's 1981 film, Lola.fxguide has a terrific exploration of the computer effects used in George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road.Above: Anna Karina and Jean-Luc Godard. From our Tumblr.New York's essential BAMcinamFest, running June 17 - 28, has announced its 2015 lineup, which features such Notebook favorites as Queen of Earth, Stinking Heaven, and Counting, as well as several premieres including a new short film by our friend and contributor C. Mason Wells.Film Comment's Nicholas Rapold has interviewed with Apichatpong Weerasethakul about Cemetery of Splendour, the best film in Cannes this year.
- 6/3/2015
- by Notebook
- MUBI
The Brooklyn Academy of Music has collated an impressive, erudite collection of films of varying brow heights that, in some way, draw inspiration from "Vertigo." Put together by C. Mason Wells in collaboration with BAMcinematek's Nellie Killian and David Reilly, the series refracts Alfred Hitchcock's kaleidoscopic masterpiece through seven decades of world cinema, examining its vast influence. Since its lukewarm premiere in 1958, "Vertigo" has slowly and steadily climbed the pantheon of American cinema, finally usurping Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" and ascending to the top of Sight & Sound's list of the best movies of all time. Lists and rankings aside, few would argue that "Vertigo" is anything less than a feverish masterwork, the epitome of Hitchcock's formal prowess and his most emotionally fragile work. Pervaded by love and lust, betrayal and loss, the dark tale of an emasculated man (Jimmy Stewart) driven to chasing obsession on a...
- 4/16/2015
- by Greg Cwik
- Indiewire
“The finacialization of the capitalist economy implies a growing abstraction of work from its useful function, and of language from its bodily dimension. Desire is diverted from physical contact and invested in the abstract field of simulated seduction, in the infinite space of the image.”
—Franco “Bifo” Berardi in The Uprising, On Poetry and Finance
For those who came of age in the nondescript 2000s, an era characterised by securitarian paranoia and lack of future prospects, Joe Swanberg’s Lol (2006) might as well read as their very own (purposeless) existential manifesto. A generational pamphlet that, in tune with its times, neither affirms nor negates, let alone criticizes, its predicament, but simply registers the vacuum within which it occurs. It is the Western vacuum of the 21st century whose first decade was marked by a tangible curb in the forward surge of pop cultural history. Cinema, but also music and literature,...
—Franco “Bifo” Berardi in The Uprising, On Poetry and Finance
For those who came of age in the nondescript 2000s, an era characterised by securitarian paranoia and lack of future prospects, Joe Swanberg’s Lol (2006) might as well read as their very own (purposeless) existential manifesto. A generational pamphlet that, in tune with its times, neither affirms nor negates, let alone criticizes, its predicament, but simply registers the vacuum within which it occurs. It is the Western vacuum of the 21st century whose first decade was marked by a tangible curb in the forward surge of pop cultural history. Cinema, but also music and literature,...
- 1/21/2013
- by Celluloid Liberation Front
- MUBI
Looking back at 2012 on what films moved and impressed us, it is clear that watching old films is a crucial part of making new films meaningful. Thus, the annual tradition of our end of year poll, which calls upon our writers to pick both a new and an old film: they were challenged to choose a new film they saw in 2012—in theaters or at a festival—and creatively pair it with an old film they also saw in 2012 to create a unique double feature.
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
All the contributors were asked to write a paragraph explaining their 2012 fantasy double feature. What's more, each writer was given the option to list more pairings, with or without explanation, as further imaginative film programming we'd be lucky to catch in that perfect world we know doesn't exist but can keep dreaming of every time we go to the movies.
How would you program some...
- 1/9/2013
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
The Color Wheel is 83 minutes long. About 9 minutes and 40 seconds of those 83 minutes (i.e. roughly 1/9th) are taken up by a single shot, handheld, in which the cameraman (Sean Price Williams) only moves a few feet, but the characters of Colin (co-writer / editor / director Alex Ross Perry) and J.R. (co-writer Carlen Altman), seated on a couch, complete several transformations and a journey inward, piling on dialogue while stripping away their established personas. As a feat of form, performance and screenwriting, it's a fairly obvious showstopper—a great big narrative pirouette, grand jeté and cartwheel rolled into one, which betrays absolutely nothing that the film has (seemingly haphazardly, though actually carefully) established about the characters beforehand, and which accomplishes more in its 9 minutes and 40 seconds than most movies manage nowadays to do in their whole running times. That is: what's distinctive about the shot is not its duration, but...
- 6/19/2011
- MUBI
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