Mubi has partnered with New York's Film Society of Lincoln center to bring online audiences part of their February series, "Friends with Benefits: An Anthology of Four New American Filmmakers," programmed by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan. In less than a decade of activity, the four friends and polymorphously promiscuous collaborators Gabriel Abrantes, Alexander Carver, Benjamin Crotty, and Daniel Schmidt have made some of the most ravishing and least classifiable films in recent memory—and established themselves as a school of filmmaking unlike any other. These uncompromising young visionaries share a penchant for provocation, a taste for transgression, and a host of strategies and obsessions all their own. At once lyrical and perverse, by turns hilarious and delirious, their films obliterate distinctions—between high- and low-brow, between sensual and cerebral, between art cinema and the avant-garde—while remaining sharply attuned to the byproducts of globalization and the fluctuations of post-internet pop culture.
- 2/18/2016
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Taprobana“These poets are so intelligent,” notes King Philip II of Spain toward the end of Gabriel Abrantes’ Taprobana (2014). “They put a sex scene in the end, and I forget I didn’t understand the rest. Such sophisticated engineering.” He’s talking about the Portuguese national epic Os Lusíadas, but he could as well be describing Abrantes’ eclectic body of work. The Lisbon-based filmmaker's steady output of avant-garde shorts holds together a chain of idiosyncratic filmmakers currently being feted by the Film Society of Lincoln Center's "Friends with Benefits" series. Since 2007, Abrantes has matched an affinity for abstruse, looping narrative with a bawdy sense of humor. Although his work frequently draws on sources like Manet or Aristophanes, it’s never hindered by the dictates of good taste. Ribald slapstick abounds, for example, in the Shakespeare-derived frolic Fratelli (2011), which he co-directed with Alexandre Melo. The characters are earthy, their jokes puerile,...
- 2/11/2016
- by Alice Stoehr
- MUBI
Below you will find our total coverage of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, including a round up on experimental short films, reviews, and the festival-spanning dialog between our two main critics at Tiff. More interviews will be added to the index as they are published.
Correspondences
Between Fernando F. Croce and Daniel Kasman
#1
Fernando F. Croce on Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Lisandro Alonso's Jauja, and Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria
#2
Daniel Kasman on Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Peter Ho-Sun Chan's Dearest, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Takashi Miike's Over Your Dead Body, and Sono Sion's Tokyo Tribe
#3
Fernando F. Croce on Sono Sion's Tokyo Tribe, Jessica Hausner's Amour Fou, Johnnie To's Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2, and Abel Ferrara's Pasolini
#4
Daniel Kasman on Alexandre Larose's brouillard passage #14, Friedl vom Gröller's...
Correspondences
Between Fernando F. Croce and Daniel Kasman
#1
Fernando F. Croce on Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Lisandro Alonso's Jauja, and Olivier Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria
#2
Daniel Kasman on Pedro Costa's Horse Money, Peter Ho-Sun Chan's Dearest, Roy Andersson's A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence, Takashi Miike's Over Your Dead Body, and Sono Sion's Tokyo Tribe
#3
Fernando F. Croce on Sono Sion's Tokyo Tribe, Jessica Hausner's Amour Fou, Johnnie To's Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2, and Abel Ferrara's Pasolini
#4
Daniel Kasman on Alexandre Larose's brouillard passage #14, Friedl vom Gröller's...
- 9/16/2014
- by Notebook
- MUBI
Letters to Max
Dear Fern,
Ah, Tsukamoto's Fires of the Plain! I liked this film very much, the director-actor-editor-cinematographer's baby-faced soldier hysterically pushing through an unforgiving jungle, unforgiving war, unforgiving humanity, slushy digital shades of the surrealism in Herzog's under-appreciated Rescue Dawn and Buñuel's Death in the Garden.
I have still more to tell of the shorts in the experimental Wavelengths sections, so please excuse my continued digressions away from the features you are seeing (and I too, but am leaving to your choice words!). Two of the best features I've seen, Christian Petzold's tremendous post-war German theoretical thriller Phoenix and Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Hann's rich, generous Episode of the Sea, I'll save for another time.
Something a bit more documentary than avant-garde closed the third Wavelengths shorts program, Rebecca Baron's Detour de force. This found footage film pulled from the University of...
Dear Fern,
Ah, Tsukamoto's Fires of the Plain! I liked this film very much, the director-actor-editor-cinematographer's baby-faced soldier hysterically pushing through an unforgiving jungle, unforgiving war, unforgiving humanity, slushy digital shades of the surrealism in Herzog's under-appreciated Rescue Dawn and Buñuel's Death in the Garden.
I have still more to tell of the shorts in the experimental Wavelengths sections, so please excuse my continued digressions away from the features you are seeing (and I too, but am leaving to your choice words!). Two of the best features I've seen, Christian Petzold's tremendous post-war German theoretical thriller Phoenix and Lonnie van Brummelen and Siebren de Hann's rich, generous Episode of the Sea, I'll save for another time.
Something a bit more documentary than avant-garde closed the third Wavelengths shorts program, Rebecca Baron's Detour de force. This found footage film pulled from the University of...
- 9/12/2014
- by Daniel Kasman
- MUBI
Yesterday, Tiff’s Wavelengths program unveiled a Locarno-heavy line-up of feature-length films that all aim to push the cinematic medium to its breaking point. Highlights include new films by Pedro Costa’s first “proper” feature in eight years, Horse Money (scarequotes because Ne change rien really is quite a singular, musky piece of work – see pic above); Eugène Green’s typically Baroque La Sapienza; 338 minutes of gruelling Filipino mastery from Lav Diaz in the form of From What is Before; Yoo Soon-mi’s essay film on the tensions between North and South Korea, Songs From the North; and The Princess of France, Matías Piñeiro’s follow-up to his breakout revisionist Shakespeare drama. Other features include Tsai Ming-liang’s sixth and longest entry in his Walker series, Journey to the West (complete with a Denis Lavant (Holy Motors) cameo); Cannes hits like Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan and Lisandro Alonso’s Jauja...
- 8/13/2014
- by Blake Williams
- IONCINEMA.com
The Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin zombie drama Maggie, Dustin Hoffman drama Boychoir, Kristen Wiig comedy Welcome To Me and Sophie Barthes’ Madame Bovary have landed world premieres, Tiff gala and special presentation slots.
Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.
Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelengths, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.
Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.
Galas
Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp
The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp
Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp
The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp
Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp
Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP
Ruth & Alex...
Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.
Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelengths, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.
Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.
Galas
Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp
The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp
Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp
The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp
Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp
Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP
Ruth & Alex...
- 8/12/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
The Arnold Schwarzenegger and Abigail Breslin zombie drama Maggie, Kristen Wiig comedy Welcome To Me and Sophie Barthes’ Madame Bovary have landed world premieres, Tiff gala and special presentation slots.
Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.
Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelength, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.
Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.
Galas
Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp
The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp
Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp
The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp
Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp
Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP
Ruth & Alex (Us), Richard Loncraine Wp
Special...
Also in line to screen for the first time anywhere at the Toronto International Film Festival (Sept 4-14) are crime thriller The Forger starring John Travolta, Christopher Plummer and Tye Sheridan, thriller Escobar: Paradise Lost starring Benicio Del Toro, Thomas McCarthy’s The Cobbler starring Adam Sandler, and Paul Bettany’s directorial debut Shelter.
Tiff top brass also unveiled the Wavelength, Future Projections, Tiff Cinematheque and shorts programmes.
Wp = World premiere / Nap = North American premiere / IP = International premiere / Cp = Canadian premiere.
Galas
Boychoir (Us), François Girard Wp
The Connection (La French) (France-Belgium), Cédric Jimenez Wp
Escobar: Paradise Lost (France), Andrea Di Stefano Wp
The Forger (Us), Philip Martin Wp
Infinitely Polar Bear (Us), Maya Forbes Cp
Laggies (Us), Lynn Shelton IP
Ruth & Alex (Us), Richard Loncraine Wp
Special...
- 8/12/2014
- by jeremykay67@gmail.com (Jeremy Kay)
- ScreenDaily
Other winners of the independent jury awards at the Berlin Film Festival include Stations of the Cross, At Home and documentary The Square.
Ahead of this evening’s glitzy Berlinale awards ceremony, when the winners of the coveted Golden and Silver Bears will be announced, the festival has revealed films chosen for additional prizes by the Independent Juries.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, which was shot over a 12-year period and topped Screen’s jury grid, picked up two awards: the Prize of the Guild Of German Art House Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award.
The Ecumenical Jury named Dietrich Brüggemann’s Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg) best Competition film; John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary best film in the Panorama strand; and Athanasios Karanikolas At Home (Sto spiti) best Forum film.
Jehane Noujaim’s documentary The Square (Al midan), about the ongoing uprising in Egypt, added to its growing haul of festival prizes with the Amnesty...
Ahead of this evening’s glitzy Berlinale awards ceremony, when the winners of the coveted Golden and Silver Bears will be announced, the festival has revealed films chosen for additional prizes by the Independent Juries.
Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, which was shot over a 12-year period and topped Screen’s jury grid, picked up two awards: the Prize of the Guild Of German Art House Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award.
The Ecumenical Jury named Dietrich Brüggemann’s Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg) best Competition film; John Michael McDonagh’s Calvary best film in the Panorama strand; and Athanasios Karanikolas At Home (Sto spiti) best Forum film.
Jehane Noujaim’s documentary The Square (Al midan), about the ongoing uprising in Egypt, added to its growing haul of festival prizes with the Amnesty...
- 2/15/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
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