While each year brings a few films here and there to make one long for Hollywood’s return to an era of producing quality mid-budget movies not strictly for a four-quadrant demographic, it seemed the last gasp of such a time came when Peter Weir stepped away from filmmaking. The Master and Commander, The Truman Show, and Dead Poets Society director last released a film in 2010 with The Way Back and now has confirmed rumors he’s retired from filmmaking
“Why did I stop directing? Because, quite simply, I have no more energy,” the 79-year-old Australian director told the audience as part of a recent Paris retrospective at Festival de la Cinémathèque. “I’ve stopped filmmaking in 2020. It was time for me. I felt I want to leave the gambling table, so I no longer direct,” he added, although also touched on some potential reunions that were in discussions. “But before that,...
“Why did I stop directing? Because, quite simply, I have no more energy,” the 79-year-old Australian director told the audience as part of a recent Paris retrospective at Festival de la Cinémathèque. “I’ve stopped filmmaking in 2020. It was time for me. I felt I want to leave the gambling table, so I no longer direct,” he added, although also touched on some potential reunions that were in discussions. “But before that,...
- 3/18/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
In 1929, the Academy Awards were established by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to celebrate global excellence in the film industry. While it had its fair share of detractors over the years, the Academy has managed to navigate through the mire of controversies, especially the touchy topic of racial and cultural representation (case in point: #OscarsSoWhite movement), to stay relevant throughout its illustrious history.
Asian Films have been honoured starting with the 19th edition of the Awards when they were first given as a special honorary prize for the Best Foreign Film released in the USA. Nine years later, the prize became a competitive one and a winner was chosen from within a pool of predominantly non-English nominees.
Seven illustrious motion pictures from within Asia have clinched this top honour but many others, some of which are amongst the most iconic of Asian cinema, have been nominated and acknowledged as well.
Asian Films have been honoured starting with the 19th edition of the Awards when they were first given as a special honorary prize for the Best Foreign Film released in the USA. Nine years later, the prize became a competitive one and a winner was chosen from within a pool of predominantly non-English nominees.
Seven illustrious motion pictures from within Asia have clinched this top honour but many others, some of which are amongst the most iconic of Asian cinema, have been nominated and acknowledged as well.
- 2/27/2024
- by AMP Group
- AsianMoviePulse
Writer-director Barnaby Clay, a longtime maker of documentaries and music videos, takes an artistic left turn into horror terrain with his feature narrative debut, The Seeding. The film finds Wyndham Stone (Scott Haze), after hiking through the desert and becoming lost, stumbling upon a house at the bottom of a large canyon hole occupied by the mysterious Alina (Kate Lyn Sheil). Naturally, things don’t go well for Wyndham once it’s clear that he’s trapped in the canyon and becomes the target of the desert inhabitants’ sadistic tricks and the nebulous motives of Alina herself, who keeps a strange relationship with the locals.
The film’s basic setup immediately recalls Woman in the Dunes, but Clay’s homages don’t end with the Teshigahara Hiroshi classic. With Wyndham being terrorized by malevolent hillbillies (shades of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and these tormenters’ vaguely Satanic rituals over a...
The film’s basic setup immediately recalls Woman in the Dunes, but Clay’s homages don’t end with the Teshigahara Hiroshi classic. With Wyndham being terrorized by malevolent hillbillies (shades of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre) and these tormenters’ vaguely Satanic rituals over a...
- 1/20/2024
- by Wes Greene
- Slant Magazine
Each winter, we invite Notebook contributors to take part in our unique twist on the year-end poll. Rather than tally their favorite new releases from the year, they’re asked to creatively pair a new release with an older film they watched for the first time that year: a “fantasy double feature.” We’re delighted by the range of responses this year; this year’s doubles offer up inspired combinations of moving-image art that might otherwise slip through the cracks.We invite you to plunge into this collective viewing scrapbook, which captures our writers at their most imaginative, adventurous, and thoughtful—maybe it'll motivate you to test some of these out (or come up with your own) over the holidays.We hope you enjoy the read, and find our sixteenth year appropriately sweet!{{notebook_form}}Paul AttardNEW: Skinamarink + Old: Room Film 1973Homebound horror films shrouded in darkness, ones that transform...
- 12/23/2023
- MUBI
Happinet Phantom Studios to launch the project at the Cannes market.
Japan’s Happinet Phantom Studios is to launch sales at the Cannes market on an adaptation of The Box Man, directed by influential filmmaker Gakuryu Ishii and starring Masatoshi Nagase.
The 1973 novel was written by Kobo Abe and follows a nameless man who gives up his identity to live with a large cardboard box over his head, encountering a range of characters as he wanders the streets of Tokyo
Filming will begin this summer in Japan with a cast that includes Nagase, whose credits include Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes 2016 Competition title Paterson,...
Japan’s Happinet Phantom Studios is to launch sales at the Cannes market on an adaptation of The Box Man, directed by influential filmmaker Gakuryu Ishii and starring Masatoshi Nagase.
The 1973 novel was written by Kobo Abe and follows a nameless man who gives up his identity to live with a large cardboard box over his head, encountering a range of characters as he wanders the streets of Tokyo
Filming will begin this summer in Japan with a cast that includes Nagase, whose credits include Jim Jarmusch’s Cannes 2016 Competition title Paterson,...
- 5/17/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
Japan boasts one of the most robust and oldest film industries in the world, with historian Yomota Inuhiko dating its origins as far back as 1896. With visionary filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa and Hayao Miyazaki among the industry's most recognizable names, Japan has produced some truly extraordinary films. Beyond sweeping historical epics and fantasy fare sharing the country's extensive folklore, Japan has produced a growing number of dramas that have stood the test of time.
From slice-of-life portraits across Japanese history to biting commentaries on society, Japanese dramas widely feature precision in storytelling and deliberate pacing to meditate on its themes. For decades, cinema has become a place for Japanese artists to question and subvert cultural norms directly while exploring and pondering existential themes. With that all in mind, here are the 15 best Japanese drama movies, from avant-garde pieces to animated films that delve into more humanist subject matter, showcasing different...
From slice-of-life portraits across Japanese history to biting commentaries on society, Japanese dramas widely feature precision in storytelling and deliberate pacing to meditate on its themes. For decades, cinema has become a place for Japanese artists to question and subvert cultural norms directly while exploring and pondering existential themes. With that all in mind, here are the 15 best Japanese drama movies, from avant-garde pieces to animated films that delve into more humanist subject matter, showcasing different...
- 1/27/2023
- by Samuel Stone
- Slash Film
NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.
Bam
“Working Class Musicals” examines the most lavish expressions from a ground level, featuring Cherbourg, Chantal Akerman, West Side Story x2, and more.
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of Johnny Guitar, Jennifer’s Body, and Woman in the Dunes.
Film Forum
“Loving Highsmith” begins with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; Alain Resnias’ The War Is Over continues and Carnal Knowledge, restored, begins a run.
Japan Society
Kihachi Okamoto’s Kill! plays on 35mm this Friday.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the Three Colors: Red restoration continues, The Wiz has a free outdoor screening this Friday on Governor’s Island.
Paris Theater
Kurosawa’s Ran plays exclusively through the weekend.
Museum of the Moving Image
Streets of Fire, Licorice Pizza, Tron and Sleeping Beauty play on 70mm this weekend, while a series of zombie films screen.
Bam
“Working Class Musicals” examines the most lavish expressions from a ground level, featuring Cherbourg, Chantal Akerman, West Side Story x2, and more.
Roxy Cinema
The series “Woman as Witch” offers 35mm prints of Johnny Guitar, Jennifer’s Body, and Woman in the Dunes.
Film Forum
“Loving Highsmith” begins with Purple Noon, Strangers on a Train, and The American Friend; Alain Resnias’ The War Is Over continues and Carnal Knowledge, restored, begins a run.
Japan Society
Kihachi Okamoto’s Kill! plays on 35mm this Friday.
Film at Lincoln Center
As the Three Colors: Red restoration continues, The Wiz has a free outdoor screening this Friday on Governor’s Island.
Paris Theater
Kurosawa’s Ran plays exclusively through the weekend.
Museum of the Moving Image
Streets of Fire, Licorice Pizza, Tron and Sleeping Beauty play on 70mm this weekend, while a series of zombie films screen.
- 9/1/2022
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAnne Heche in Psycho.Anne Heche has died at the age of 53, one week after sustaining critical injuries in a car accident. At Vulture, Matt Zoller Seitz offers a tribute to her "elastic," unclassifiable talent over 35 years of screen roles.Best known for Half of a Yellow Sun, an adaptation of the Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel, Nigerian director and novelist Biyi Bandele died aged 54 last week. His second feature, Elesin Oba, The King’s Horseman, is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.In New York, the Downtown Community Television Center (Dctv) will open a documentary cinema in lower Manhattan's Chinatown district, screening first-run debuts and curated programs starting on September 22.Mid-century Italian screen icon Gina Lollobrigida has said she will run for the Sovereign and Popular Italy party (ISP...
- 8/16/2022
- MUBI
In Woo Ming Jing’s latest feature film “Stone Turtle” which world-premiered in Locarno’s International Competition, an immigrant woman takes revenge in her own hands after her tormentor from the past appears to challenge her. It is a feminist tale in which folklore, dance and genre tropes play a significant role in layering the non-linear plot. Parts of the events are getting re-told, re-plotted or even re-dreamt to steer the narrative in other directions. Woo makes no secret of his biggest influence – Harold Ramis’ “Groundhog Day” (1993), and even the Netflix series “Russian Doll” which is given in the repetitiveness of certain events that get altered by Zahara when she wants to influence the now by changing the past.
“Stone Turtle” screened in Locarno Film Festival
Regarding other filmic influences, they mainly come from Japanese sources, and this is not just the case with the animated part drawn by Paul Williams,...
“Stone Turtle” screened in Locarno Film Festival
Regarding other filmic influences, they mainly come from Japanese sources, and this is not just the case with the animated part drawn by Paul Williams,...
- 8/11/2022
- by Marina D. Richter
- AsianMoviePulse
In 1966, Japanese filmmaker Hiroshi Teshigahara broke new ground as the first Asian Best Director Oscar contender with his bid for “Woman in the Dunes.” He was also the 10th Japanese male nominee in any category, the first of whom was production designer Eddie Imazu. Twenty years later, his countryman Akira Kurosawa’s “Ran” brought him his first and only directing notice after four decades in the business. Now, Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”) has been added to this all too short list of Japanese directing nominees and could become the first one to pull off a win.
See 2022 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories
Hamaguchi is the only first-timer in this year’s directing lineup, which also includes Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”). Spielberg has already competed here seven times and...
See 2022 Oscar nominations: Full list of nominees in all 23 categories
Hamaguchi is the only first-timer in this year’s directing lineup, which also includes Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”) and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”). Spielberg has already competed here seven times and...
- 3/26/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
The 2022 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Paul Thomas Anderson (“Licorice Pizza”), Kenneth Branagh (“Belfast”), Jane Campion (“The Power of the Dog”), Ryusuke Hamaguchi (“Drive My Car”), and Steven Spielberg (“West Side Story”). Our odds currently show that Campion (3/1) is most likely to win, followed in order by Branagh (4/1), Spielberg (9/2), Anderson (9/2), and Hamaguchi (9/2).
All but Hamaguchi are previous directing nominees. Spielberg has already collected a pair of trophies for helming “Schindler’s List” (1994) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1999). His five other bids came for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Munich” (2006), and “Lincoln” (2013). His initial victory was against Campion on her first outing for “The Piano.” Branagh was recognized here in 1990 for “Henry V,” while Anderson has two past directing bids to his name for “There Will Be Blood” (2008) and “Phantom Thread” (2018).
All five of these contenders are nominated in at least one other category this year.
All but Hamaguchi are previous directing nominees. Spielberg has already collected a pair of trophies for helming “Schindler’s List” (1994) and “Saving Private Ryan” (1999). His five other bids came for “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” (1978), “Raiders of the Lost Ark” (1982), “E. T. the Extra-Terrestrial” (1983), “Munich” (2006), and “Lincoln” (2013). His initial victory was against Campion on her first outing for “The Piano.” Branagh was recognized here in 1990 for “Henry V,” while Anderson has two past directing bids to his name for “There Will Be Blood” (2008) and “Phantom Thread” (2018).
All five of these contenders are nominated in at least one other category this year.
- 3/25/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Though the diversity of this year’s Oscar nominee list didn’t reach last year’s record heights, the highlights include four Black actors being recognized along with LGBTQ and deaf actors, as well as female and Asian filmmakers in the Best Director race.
In the Best Actor race, Will Smith is considered a major contender to become only the fifth Black actor to win the award for his performance as Serena and Venus Williams’ father Richard in the inspirational sports film “King Richard.” If he wins, he would join a list that includes the late Sidney Poitier, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Denzel Washington, the latter of whom also earned his ninth acting Oscar nomination this year for “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
The Best Supporting Actress race also sees Smith’s “King Richard” co-star Aunjanue Ellis among the list of contenders, along with Afrolatina star Ariana DeBose for her...
In the Best Actor race, Will Smith is considered a major contender to become only the fifth Black actor to win the award for his performance as Serena and Venus Williams’ father Richard in the inspirational sports film “King Richard.” If he wins, he would join a list that includes the late Sidney Poitier, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, and Denzel Washington, the latter of whom also earned his ninth acting Oscar nomination this year for “The Tragedy of Macbeth.”
The Best Supporting Actress race also sees Smith’s “King Richard” co-star Aunjanue Ellis among the list of contenders, along with Afrolatina star Ariana DeBose for her...
- 2/8/2022
- by Jeremy Fuster
- The Wrap
For the first time, there are two Asian Americans in Oscar’s director race: Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”). That’s notable, but it’s even more extraordinary considering only four Asians were ever nominated as director before this.
The four predecessors were spread over the decades: Hiroshi Teshigahara; Akira Kurosawa; M. Knight Shyamalan; and Ang Lee. Lee has chalked up three noms for directing, with wins for 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” and 2012’s “The Life of Pi”; he also scored two other noms as a producer.
Following the four key wins last year for Bong Joon Ho and “Parasite,” it seems that Oscar is on a roll. If so, it’s about time.
On Oct 29, 1976, Variety ran a full-page ad under the headline “We are not all alike.” In an open letter, Asian Americans were seeking more diversity in roles, tired of being relegated to “sinister villains,...
The four predecessors were spread over the decades: Hiroshi Teshigahara; Akira Kurosawa; M. Knight Shyamalan; and Ang Lee. Lee has chalked up three noms for directing, with wins for 2005’s “Brokeback Mountain” and 2012’s “The Life of Pi”; he also scored two other noms as a producer.
Following the four key wins last year for Bong Joon Ho and “Parasite,” it seems that Oscar is on a roll. If so, it’s about time.
On Oct 29, 1976, Variety ran a full-page ad under the headline “We are not all alike.” In an open letter, Asian Americans were seeking more diversity in roles, tired of being relegated to “sinister villains,...
- 4/19/2021
- by Tim Gray
- Variety Film + TV
The 2021 Oscar nominees for Best Director are Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”), Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”), David Fincher (“Mank”), Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”), and Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”). Our odds currently show that Zhao (31/10) will be the winner, followed in order by Chung (4/1), Fennell (9/2), Fincher (9/2), and Vinterberg (9/2).
Fincher previously earned bids for directing “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2009) and “The Social Network” (2011). The rest of this year’s contenders are first-time Oscar nominees. This is the first such occurrence since 2000, when Lasse Hallström (“The Cider House Rules”) stood out as the only previous nominee in his lineup. Chung, Fennell, and Zhao have all earned notices for writing their films’ screenplays, while the latter two are also up for Best Picture as producers. Zhao nabbed a fourth bid in the Best Film Editing category.
This year’s lineup is historic in that it is the first to ever include two female directors.
Fincher previously earned bids for directing “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (2009) and “The Social Network” (2011). The rest of this year’s contenders are first-time Oscar nominees. This is the first such occurrence since 2000, when Lasse Hallström (“The Cider House Rules”) stood out as the only previous nominee in his lineup. Chung, Fennell, and Zhao have all earned notices for writing their films’ screenplays, while the latter two are also up for Best Picture as producers. Zhao nabbed a fourth bid in the Best Film Editing category.
This year’s lineup is historic in that it is the first to ever include two female directors.
- 4/19/2021
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
The nominations for the 78th annual Golden Globe Awards left much to be desired when it came to representation and inclusion this morning, but there were some strides worth celebrating when it came to diverse nominees. One notable nod was for Nomadland filmmaker Chloé Zhao, who became the first director of Asian descent to receive a Golden Globe nomination.
Chloe “Magic Hour” Zhao’s Nomadland starring Frances McDormand (who was also nominated for her performance in the film) has already garnered critical praise since debuting simultaneously at the Toronto Film Festival (where it won the People’s Choice Award) and the Venice Film Festival (where it won the Golden Lion), making it the first film to get the top prize at both festivals. With that kind of fuel in its tank, it became an awards season front-runner and began...
Chloe “Magic Hour” Zhao’s Nomadland starring Frances McDormand (who was also nominated for her performance in the film) has already garnered critical praise since debuting simultaneously at the Toronto Film Festival (where it won the People’s Choice Award) and the Venice Film Festival (where it won the Golden Lion), making it the first film to get the top prize at both festivals. With that kind of fuel in its tank, it became an awards season front-runner and began...
- 2/3/2021
- by Dino-Ray Ramos
- Deadline Film + TV
There’s an abandoned bunker in John’s backyard. Most kids would probably see it as a place to play, the basis for a hideout or secret fort. Some might climb in and get trapped, and then we’d hear all about it on the news. Not John. John goes through life in kind of a daze, a skinny kid with slack shoulders and a blank, expressionless stare. John sometimes gets funny ideas. Not long after discovering the bunker, he drugs his family with his mom’s meds, drags them out to the bunker and lowers them in.
That is the story of “John and the Hole,” an unconventional thriller from Spanish-born, New York-based visual artist Pascual Sisto that would have drawn comparisons to Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos had it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Sisto’s noteworthy debut was selected to screen on the Croisette,...
That is the story of “John and the Hole,” an unconventional thriller from Spanish-born, New York-based visual artist Pascual Sisto that would have drawn comparisons to Michael Haneke and Yorgos Lanthimos had it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival last year. Sisto’s noteworthy debut was selected to screen on the Croisette,...
- 1/30/2021
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Hideo Sekigawa’s Hiroshima (1953) is currently available on Blu-ray From Arrow Academy.
Hiroshima (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world s first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima.
Adapted for the screen by independent director Hideo Sekigawa and screenwriter Yasutaro Yagi, Hiroshima combines a harrowing documentary realism with moving human drama, in a tale of the suffering, endurance and survival of a group of teachers, their students and their families. It boasts a rousing score composed by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla) and an all-star cast including Yumeji Tsukioka, Isuzu Yamada and Eiji Okada, appearing alongside an estimated 90,000 residents from the city as extras, including many survivors from that fateful day on 6th August 1945.
Hiroshima...
Hiroshima (1953) is a powerful evocation of the devastation wrought by the world s first deployment of the atomic bomb and its aftermath, based on the written eye-witness accounts of its child survivors compiled by Dr. Arata Osada for the 1951 book Children Of The A Bomb: Testament Of The Boys And Girls Of Hiroshima.
Adapted for the screen by independent director Hideo Sekigawa and screenwriter Yasutaro Yagi, Hiroshima combines a harrowing documentary realism with moving human drama, in a tale of the suffering, endurance and survival of a group of teachers, their students and their families. It boasts a rousing score composed by Akira Ifukube (Godzilla) and an all-star cast including Yumeji Tsukioka, Isuzu Yamada and Eiji Okada, appearing alongside an estimated 90,000 residents from the city as extras, including many survivors from that fateful day on 6th August 1945.
Hiroshima...
- 7/26/2020
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
As the world fights a pandemic, we’ve been reaching out to some of our favorite artists to get their takes on these unprecedented times. Here’s what Faith No More and Mr. Bungle singer Mike Patton — who just released Necroscape, an enveloping and unsettling avant-rock odyssey by tētēma, his collaborative venture with Australian composer Anthony Pateras — had to say in response to a few quarantine questions via email.
What are you doing with your unexpected time at home?
Writing. Writing. Writing. Working on several records at once, which isn’t abnormal for me,...
What are you doing with your unexpected time at home?
Writing. Writing. Writing. Working on several records at once, which isn’t abnormal for me,...
- 4/21/2020
- by Hank Shteamer
- Rollingstone.com
As part of their release slates for the months June and July 2020 Arrow Academy will release the classic Nagisa Oshima “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence” starring David Bowie and Hideo Sekigawa’s powerful documentary “Hiroshima”
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
Synopsis for “Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence”
David Bowie stars in Nagisa Oshima’s 1983 Palme d’Or-nominated portrait of resilience, pride, friendship and obsession among four very different men confined in the stifling jungle heat of a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Java during World War II.
In 1942, British officer Major Jack Celliers (Bowie) is captured by Japanese soldiers, and after a brutal trial sent, physically debilitated but indomitable in mind, to a Pow camp overseen by the zealous Captain Yonoi (Ryuichi Sakamoto). Celliers’ stubbornness sees him locked in a battle of wills with the camp’s new commandant, a man obsessed with discipline and the glory of Imperial Japan who becomes unnaturally preoccupied with the young Major,...
- 4/18/2020
- by Rouven Linnarz
- AsianMoviePulse
A hypnotic homage serving as part-travelogue, part visionary curation of Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi’s (1852-1926) masterworks in Barcelona, Japanese auteur Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1984 documentary on the artist will reveal little about either its subject or its director beyond the latter’s loving penchant for the former’s achievements. Gaudi, a founder of Catalan Modernism and eventually what became known as the Modernista movement, is the creator of, among many idiosyncratic structures, Spain’s most visited touristic attraction, the unfinished church of the Sagrada Familia (a visual exploration of which is where Teshigahara’s film ends). A beautiful rendering of Barcelona’s exceptional landscapes, the trance-like documentary is enhanced by an exceptional, often moody score from Shinji Hori, Kuroda Mori and Toru Takemitsu (who scored Teshigahara’s 1964 masterpiece Woman in the Dunes (read review) as well as Kurosawa’s 1985 Ran and the Philip Kaufman feature Rising Sun, 1993).…
Continue reading.
Continue reading.
- 2/18/2020
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The world is a weird place. Miranda July knows that, but the rest of us sometimes forget. Or maybe we just don’t want to admit how bizarre it is that society more or less agrees that back rubs and hot tubs and flavored chips and McRibs are an appropriate reward for a bazillion years of human development. It’s not until you visit a foreign country, or watch a foreigner trying to make sense of your own, that it starts to register just how weird it all is. That’s what artists do: Like Martian anthropologists, they see things differently, and they reflect them back to us in such a way that we can too.
With “Kajillionaire,” July devises a fresh strategy to offer an outsider’s perspective, focusing on 26-years-young Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), the oddly named daughter in a family of scammers — a dysfunctional “scamily,” if ever there was one.
With “Kajillionaire,” July devises a fresh strategy to offer an outsider’s perspective, focusing on 26-years-young Old Dolio (Evan Rachel Wood), the oddly named daughter in a family of scammers — a dysfunctional “scamily,” if ever there was one.
- 1/26/2020
- by Peter Debruge
- Variety Film + TV
Lulu Wang (“The Farewell”) and Bong Joon Ho (“Parasite”) are both in the hunt for Best Director at the Oscars, and both of their candidacies would be historic. If they both make the cut, it would be the first time in history that two Asian filmmakers are nominated for the award at the same time.
As it stands there have only been three Oscar nominees for Best Director of Asian descent. Hiroshi Teshigahara was the first: the Japanese filmmaker was nominated for “Woman in the Dunes” (1965). He was followed by another Japanese director: Akira Kurosawa, arguably the most famous Asian filmmaker in cinema history, who earned his first and only Oscar nom in this category for “Ran” (1985). Kurosawa was given an Honorary Oscar soon thereafter (1990).
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Then came Oscar’s most successful Asian director. Taiwanese Ang Lee earned his first nomination for “Crouching Tiger,...
As it stands there have only been three Oscar nominees for Best Director of Asian descent. Hiroshi Teshigahara was the first: the Japanese filmmaker was nominated for “Woman in the Dunes” (1965). He was followed by another Japanese director: Akira Kurosawa, arguably the most famous Asian filmmaker in cinema history, who earned his first and only Oscar nom in this category for “Ran” (1985). Kurosawa was given an Honorary Oscar soon thereafter (1990).
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Then came Oscar’s most successful Asian director. Taiwanese Ang Lee earned his first nomination for “Crouching Tiger,...
- 11/7/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
There are a lot of Oscar firsts surrounding Alfonso Cuaron’s acclaimed Mexican drama, “Roma.” History will be made if it wins Best Picture and Best Foreign Language Film, as well as being the first movie in Spanish and Mixtec languages to take home the top Academy Award.
With history “Roma” on the cusp of rewriting the Oscar history book, let’s look back at some foreign language Oscar firsts.
The first foreign film to earn an Oscar nomination was Rene Clair’s delightful French satire “A Nous La Liberte” for Best Art Drection in the ceremony’s fifth year.
It was 80 years ago that the academy nominated a foreign-language film for the Best Picture Oscar when Jean Renoir’s anti-war masterpiece “Grand Illusion,” was one of 10 nominees for the top prize. Though the film lost to Frank Capra’s “You Can’t Take It With you,” the French drama...
With history “Roma” on the cusp of rewriting the Oscar history book, let’s look back at some foreign language Oscar firsts.
The first foreign film to earn an Oscar nomination was Rene Clair’s delightful French satire “A Nous La Liberte” for Best Art Drection in the ceremony’s fifth year.
It was 80 years ago that the academy nominated a foreign-language film for the Best Picture Oscar when Jean Renoir’s anti-war masterpiece “Grand Illusion,” was one of 10 nominees for the top prize. Though the film lost to Frank Capra’s “You Can’t Take It With you,” the French drama...
- 2/4/2019
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
BAMcinématek is hosting a 10-film series exploring Japanese art and folklore post World War II called Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror starting this Friday, October 26th through November 1st. Also in today's Highlights: Dermot Mulroney joins the cast of Trick and an interview with Ted Welch and Chris Blake from All Light Will End.
Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror Screening Details: "From Friday, October 26 through Thursday, November 1, BAMcinématek presents Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror, a series of 10 films showcasing two strands of Japanese horror films that developed after World War II: kaiju monster movies and beautifully stylized ghost stories from Japanese folklore.
The series includes three classic kaiju films by director Ishirô Honda, beginning with the granddaddy of all nuclear warfare anxiety films, the original Godzilla (1954—Oct 26). The kaiju creature features continue with Mothra (1961—Oct 27), a psychedelic tale of a gigantic prehistoric and long dormant moth larvae...
Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror Screening Details: "From Friday, October 26 through Thursday, November 1, BAMcinématek presents Ghosts and Monsters: Postwar Japanese Horror, a series of 10 films showcasing two strands of Japanese horror films that developed after World War II: kaiju monster movies and beautifully stylized ghost stories from Japanese folklore.
The series includes three classic kaiju films by director Ishirô Honda, beginning with the granddaddy of all nuclear warfare anxiety films, the original Godzilla (1954—Oct 26). The kaiju creature features continue with Mothra (1961—Oct 27), a psychedelic tale of a gigantic prehistoric and long dormant moth larvae...
- 10/23/2018
- by Tamika Jones
- DailyDead
by Nathaniel R
with Yalitza Aparicio on opening nightThe Film Experience's beloved annual trip to the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia got off to a late start. Flight delays and airport mix-ups and the like but a happy result: the Lyft driver was very chatty and wanted movie recommendations. I was happy to oblige since it wasn't just small talk but actual cinephilia! She wanted to know if I'd ever seen Woman in the Dunes and Hereditary. C'mon Double Feature!
By the time I arrived at the opening night film, Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, it was already halfway over. As you know we've already seen and loved, but I watched from the back of the house as it was a sold-out house. Who knows how many chances any of us will have to see those teeming incredible images on a gargantuan screen...
with Yalitza Aparicio on opening nightThe Film Experience's beloved annual trip to the Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia got off to a late start. Flight delays and airport mix-ups and the like but a happy result: the Lyft driver was very chatty and wanted movie recommendations. I was happy to oblige since it wasn't just small talk but actual cinephilia! She wanted to know if I'd ever seen Woman in the Dunes and Hereditary. C'mon Double Feature!
By the time I arrived at the opening night film, Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, it was already halfway over. As you know we've already seen and loved, but I watched from the back of the house as it was a sold-out house. Who knows how many chances any of us will have to see those teeming incredible images on a gargantuan screen...
- 10/19/2018
- by NATHANIEL R
- FilmExperience
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Anthology Film Archives
The best film playing in New York this weekend is (probably) Jean-Luc Godard’s long-underseen Grandeur and Decadence: The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company.
“Trans Film” continues.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
All 10 collaborations between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are playing now through Sunday–all on 35mm or 16mm.
Anthology Film Archives
The best film playing in New York this weekend is (probably) Jean-Luc Godard’s long-underseen Grandeur and Decadence: The Rise and Fall of a Small Film Company.
“Trans Film” continues.
Film Society of Lincoln Center
All 10 collaborations between Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers are playing now through Sunday–all on 35mm or 16mm.
- 7/13/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.
Quad Cinema
The wide-reaching “New York Woman” series, with something for everybody, is fully underway.
Museum of Modern Art
The legendary kung fu films of Lau Kar-leung are getting a retrospective.
Metrograph
A spotlight on Gus Van Sant continues, while Werckmeister Harmonies and Woman in the Dunes screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Hoping to understand Putin’s Russia?...
Quad Cinema
The wide-reaching “New York Woman” series, with something for everybody, is fully underway.
Museum of Modern Art
The legendary kung fu films of Lau Kar-leung are getting a retrospective.
Metrograph
A spotlight on Gus Van Sant continues, while Werckmeister Harmonies and Woman in the Dunes screen.
Museum of the Moving Image
Hoping to understand Putin’s Russia?...
- 7/5/2018
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
After asking a number of artists that appear in our reviews and interviews, both in Amp and Asian Film Vault, to list their favorite movies of their country, we inaugurate a new column in Asian Movie Pulse, where we are going to present their selections.
The first “guest” of the column is no other than Toshiaki Toyoda, director of “Pornostar“, “Blue Spring”, “Hanging Garden” and “9 Souls” among others.
Here are his top ten Japanese films, in random order.
1. The Man Who Stole the Sun
A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.
2. Knock Out
A Japanese boxer stages a dramatic and dangerous comeback after suffering brain damage in the ring.
3. Woman in the Dunes
An entomologist on vacation is trapped...
The first “guest” of the column is no other than Toshiaki Toyoda, director of “Pornostar“, “Blue Spring”, “Hanging Garden” and “9 Souls” among others.
Here are his top ten Japanese films, in random order.
1. The Man Who Stole the Sun
A high school science teacher builds an atomic bomb and uses it to extort the nation, but cannot decide what he wants. Meanwhile, a determined cop is catching up to him, as is radiation poisoning.
2. Knock Out
A Japanese boxer stages a dramatic and dangerous comeback after suffering brain damage in the ring.
3. Woman in the Dunes
An entomologist on vacation is trapped...
- 5/3/2018
- by Panos Kotzathanasis
- AsianMoviePulse
The Fly director will grant the Hr Giger ‘Narcisse’ award for best feature.
Writer-director David Cronenberg will be jury president at the 18th edition of Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff), which takes place in Switzerland from July 6-14.
Cronenberg, who started his career in the fantasy genre with titles such as Shivers, Scanners and Videodrome, will present the Hr Giger ‘Narcisse’ award to one of the 16 films in competition, at the closing ceremony on July 14.
Festival-goers will also be able to hear Cronenberg speak as part of a ‘New Worlds Of Fantasy’ literary forum, where there will be a...
Writer-director David Cronenberg will be jury president at the 18th edition of Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival (Nifff), which takes place in Switzerland from July 6-14.
Cronenberg, who started his career in the fantasy genre with titles such as Shivers, Scanners and Videodrome, will present the Hr Giger ‘Narcisse’ award to one of the 16 films in competition, at the closing ceremony on July 14.
Festival-goers will also be able to hear Cronenberg speak as part of a ‘New Worlds Of Fantasy’ literary forum, where there will be a...
- 4/18/2018
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Opening in theaters and arriving on VOD this Friday is Steven Shainberg’s sci-fi thriller, Rupture, which stars Noomi Rapace as a single mom abducted by a sinister organization that experiments on her while she desperately tries to escape their clutches. Daily Dead recently spoke to Shainberg in anticipation of Rupture’s release, and he discussed what inspired the project, how the aesthetics he established helped serve the story, and his experiences collaborating with Noomi.
You really put Noomi through her paces in this movie, and she’s really great. I'd love to hear about where this idea came from, because the story has some very unexpected twists that I really didn't see coming.
Steven Shainberg: This movie, for me, is rooted in a Japanese film by [Hiroshi] Teshigahara called Woman in the Dunes, which is a very beautiful, incredible movie about a guy who is held captive by a...
You really put Noomi through her paces in this movie, and she’s really great. I'd love to hear about where this idea came from, because the story has some very unexpected twists that I really didn't see coming.
Steven Shainberg: This movie, for me, is rooted in a Japanese film by [Hiroshi] Teshigahara called Woman in the Dunes, which is a very beautiful, incredible movie about a guy who is held captive by a...
- 4/27/2017
- by Heather Wixson
- DailyDead
The latest installment in the filmmaker's series of journal-films combining iPhone footage and sounds and images from movies. A diary penned with cinema.Journal (6.6.16 - 1.10.17)feat. additional footage from Masha Tupitsyn and Isiah MedinaMy journal-film series (of which this is the third installment) came to be as a means of resolving the points of convergence and departure amongst the environments I occupy and those which I encounter in cinema. I like to view these films as a method of managing the images that take up my thoughts and memories into a new continuity, one in which the distinction between images seen on-screen and those personally experienced is no longer absolute. In dissolving this partition, these films provide a vector for the animation conceptual concerns through cinema - montage fulfilling that which language can only formally describe and vice versa. The following essay outlines some of the concerns this film attempts...
- 3/20/2017
- MUBI
One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases or premieres. This week: With the Academy Awards a few days away, we look back at some of the unlikeliest Oscar nominees, picking a different major category every day.
Woman In The Dunes (1964)
Now that the Academy nominates between five and 10 movies for Best Picture every year, there are rarely any surprises in the adjacent Best Director roster; only once this decade has a filmmaker (Bennett Miller) scored a nomination despite his film (Foxcatcher) being left out of the Picture race. But back when only five movies competed for the top prize, complete overlap between the two categories wasn’t as inevitable. In its prouder moments, the directing branch of the Academy would smuggle some real auteurs into its lineup, from American mavericks like John Cassavetes, David Lynch, and Spike Jonze to the same class ...
Woman In The Dunes (1964)
Now that the Academy nominates between five and 10 movies for Best Picture every year, there are rarely any surprises in the adjacent Best Director roster; only once this decade has a filmmaker (Bennett Miller) scored a nomination despite his film (Foxcatcher) being left out of the Picture race. But back when only five movies competed for the top prize, complete overlap between the two categories wasn’t as inevitable. In its prouder moments, the directing branch of the Academy would smuggle some real auteurs into its lineup, from American mavericks like John Cassavetes, David Lynch, and Spike Jonze to the same class ...
- 2/24/2017
- by A.A. Dowd
- avclub.com
Above: Czech poster for Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, Italy, 1968).As I’m sure I’ve said before, the world of Czech movie posters is never less than an embarrassment of riches. I keep discovering new artists that I was never aware of previously, all with an impressive body of work behind them. The other day, as I was looking through the new acquisitions of my favorite poster shop, Posteritati, I came across this striking poster for Once Upon a Time in the West: a fascinating combination of bold color, eccentric collage, pop art elements and unusual typography. I wasn’t aware of the name of Stanislav Vajce before that but a quick search on the store's website and elsewhere revealed a wild array of some of the most exciting and inventive Czech posters I have seen in a while. As with so many of...
- 2/17/2017
- MUBI
Want a nine-hour dose of the truth of existence so harrowing that it will make you feel grateful no matter how humble your situation? Masaki Kobayshi's epic of the real cost of war boggles the mind with its creeping revelations of cosmic bleakness. Yet all the way through you know you're experiencing a truth far beyond slogans and sentiments. The Human Condition Region B Blu-ray Arrow Academy (UK) 1959-61 / B&W / 2:35 anamorphic widescreen / 574 min. / Ningen no jôken / Street Date September 19, 2016 / Available from Amazon UK £ 39.99 Starring Tatsuya Nakadai, Michiyo Aratama, Chikage Awashima, Ineko Arima, Keiji Sada, So Yamamura, Kunie Tanaka, Kei Sato, Chishu Ryu, Taketoshi Naito. Cinematography Yoshio Miyajima Art Direction Kazue Hirataka <Film Editor Keiichi Uraoka Original Music Chuji Kinoshita Written by Zenzo Matsuyama, Masaki Kobayashi from the novel by Jumpei Gomikawa Produced by Shigeru Wakatsuki Directed by Masaki Kobayashi
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The first Blu-ray of perhaps...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
The first Blu-ray of perhaps...
- 9/27/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
In this episode of CriterionCast Chronicles, Ryan is joined by David Blakeslee, and Scott Nye to discuss the Criterion Collection releases for August 2016.
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Episode Links Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words on iTunes Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words: A Full Picture of a Life – From the Current Ingrid Bergman, Filmmaker – From the Current A Taste of Honey A Taste of Honey (1961) A Taste of Honey on iTunes A Taste of Honey: Northern Accents – From the Current Morrissey’s Taste for Shelagh Delaney – From the Current 10 Things I Learned: A Taste of Honey – From the Current Woman in the Dunes Woman in the Dunes (1964) Woman in the Dunes on iTunes Watch Woman in the Dunes | Hulu Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara The Spectral Landscape of Teshigahara, Abe, and...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Links Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words (2015) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words on iTunes Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words: A Full Picture of a Life – From the Current Ingrid Bergman, Filmmaker – From the Current A Taste of Honey A Taste of Honey (1961) A Taste of Honey on iTunes A Taste of Honey: Northern Accents – From the Current Morrissey’s Taste for Shelagh Delaney – From the Current 10 Things I Learned: A Taste of Honey – From the Current Woman in the Dunes Woman in the Dunes (1964) Woman in the Dunes on iTunes Watch Woman in the Dunes | Hulu Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara The Spectral Landscape of Teshigahara, Abe, and...
- 9/18/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
The Criterion Collection have just released 1964's Woman in the Dunes (Suna no onna), which was --- and is --- heralded as one of the art house films of the 1960s. As a result, Teshigahara earn an Academy Award nomination for best director. A ton has been written on this film by film scholars far more knowledgable than I, so I'll stick to the basics here. Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara, Woman in the Dunes stars Eiji Okada as a teacher and amateur entomologist from Tokyo who gets trapped at the bottom of sand dune. He's on the hunt to find and classify a rare beetle, but the last bus out leaves him stranded.The man finds a place to stay for the night, but unbeknown to...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 9/1/2016
- Screen Anarchy
In this episode of Off The Shelf, Ryan and Brian take a look at the new DVD and Blu-ray releases for the week of August 23rd, 2016.
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Notes & Links News The Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Upcoming Indicator Blu-ray Releases Indicator Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders Blu-ray Kino Lorber: Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise Prepped for Blu-ray Metropolis (2001) Blu-ray Death in the Garden Blu-ray Upcoming 88 Films Blu-ray Releases The DePatie-Freleng Blu-ray Collection Sony Announces First Waves of Mod (Manufacture on Demand) Blu-ray Releases. The Venture Bros: Season Six Blu-ray The Almodóvar Blu-ray Collection Detailed Links to Amazon 3 Bad Men American Dreamer The Bloodstained Butterfly City on Fire The Huntsman: Winter’s War Midnight Run Modesty Blaise Psycho IV: The Beginning Ratchet & Clank The Spiders The Strain Season 2 Sunset Song A Taste of Honey The Walking Dead, Season 6 Wiener-Dog Woman in the Dunes...
Subscribe in iTunes or RSS.
Episode Notes & Links News The Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Upcoming Indicator Blu-ray Releases Indicator Batman: Return of the Caped Crusaders Blu-ray Kino Lorber: Ridley Scott’s 1492: Conquest of Paradise Prepped for Blu-ray Metropolis (2001) Blu-ray Death in the Garden Blu-ray Upcoming 88 Films Blu-ray Releases The DePatie-Freleng Blu-ray Collection Sony Announces First Waves of Mod (Manufacture on Demand) Blu-ray Releases. The Venture Bros: Season Six Blu-ray The Almodóvar Blu-ray Collection Detailed Links to Amazon 3 Bad Men American Dreamer The Bloodstained Butterfly City on Fire The Huntsman: Winter’s War Midnight Run Modesty Blaise Psycho IV: The Beginning Ratchet & Clank The Spiders The Strain Season 2 Sunset Song A Taste of Honey The Walking Dead, Season 6 Wiener-Dog Woman in the Dunes...
- 8/24/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Every week we dive into the cream of the crop when it comes to home releases, including Blu-ray and DVDs, as well as recommended deals of the week. Check out our rundown below and return every Tuesday for the best (or most interesting) films one can take home. Note that if you’re looking to support the site, every purchase you make through the links below helps us and is greatly appreciated.
The Nice Guys (Shane Black)
It’s been over 40 years since Chinatown, and roughly the same amount of time separates the events of that film from those of The Nice Guys, another tale of a private detective in Los Angeles taking on an initially simple case which leads him to a vast, environmentally centered criminal conspiracy. The Nice Guys even carries on Chinatown’s heartbeat of individual helplessness when confronted with the casual body disposal of profit-hungry industrialists.
The Nice Guys (Shane Black)
It’s been over 40 years since Chinatown, and roughly the same amount of time separates the events of that film from those of The Nice Guys, another tale of a private detective in Los Angeles taking on an initially simple case which leads him to a vast, environmentally centered criminal conspiracy. The Nice Guys even carries on Chinatown’s heartbeat of individual helplessness when confronted with the casual body disposal of profit-hungry industrialists.
- 8/23/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
By Raymond Benson
“Sand In Your...”
By Raymond Benson
One of the hallmarks of 1960s art house cinema was Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes, adapted by Japanese author/playwright Kōbō Abe from his own 1962 novel. The picture won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1964 and was nominated that same year for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. The following year, Teshigahara was nominated for Best Director (but lost to Robert Wise for The Sound of Music).
This is avant-garde cinema at its finest—or perhaps its most tedious, depending on your taste.
The story is straight-forward. Niki (played by Eiji Okada, the male lead from Hiroshima mon amour), a schoolteacher and amateur entomologist (he studies bugs), has ventured to a desert-like area of Japan (does one exist?) near the sea to find specific species of insects. He is stranded and needs a place to stay overnight.
“Sand In Your...”
By Raymond Benson
One of the hallmarks of 1960s art house cinema was Hiroshi Teshigahara’s Woman in the Dunes, adapted by Japanese author/playwright Kōbō Abe from his own 1962 novel. The picture won the Special Jury Prize at Cannes in 1964 and was nominated that same year for Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. The following year, Teshigahara was nominated for Best Director (but lost to Robert Wise for The Sound of Music).
This is avant-garde cinema at its finest—or perhaps its most tedious, depending on your taste.
The story is straight-forward. Niki (played by Eiji Okada, the male lead from Hiroshima mon amour), a schoolteacher and amateur entomologist (he studies bugs), has ventured to a desert-like area of Japan (does one exist?) near the sea to find specific species of insects. He is stranded and needs a place to stay overnight.
- 8/10/2016
- by nospam@example.com (Cinema Retro)
- Cinemaretro.com
Japanese art filmmaking writ large by director Hiroshi Teshigahara: a strange allegorical fantasy about a man imprisoned in a sand pit, and compelled to make a primitive living with the woman who lives there. Perhaps it's about marriage... Woman in the Dunes Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 394 1964 / B&W / 1:33 full frame / 148 min. / Suna no onna / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Eiji Okada, Kyoko Kishida, Hiroko Ito Production Design Totetsu Hirakawa, Masao Yamazaki Produced by Tadashi Oono, Iichi Ichikawa Cinematography Hiroshi Segawa Film Editor Fuzako Shuzui Original Music Toru Takemitsu Written by Kobo Abe Directed by Hiroshi Teshigahara
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1960s the public interest in art cinema reached out beyond France and Italy, finally giving an opening for more exotic fare from Japan. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara earned his moment in the spotlight with 1964's Woman in the Dunes, an adaptation of a book by Kobo Abe.
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
In the 1960s the public interest in art cinema reached out beyond France and Italy, finally giving an opening for more exotic fare from Japan. Director Hiroshi Teshigahara earned his moment in the spotlight with 1964's Woman in the Dunes, an adaptation of a book by Kobo Abe.
- 8/9/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
North America’s largest festival of new Japanese cinema, and pound-for-pound one of the most consistently rewarding film festivals on the planet, Japan Cuts grows more vital with every passing year. In part, that’s because Manhattan’s Japan Society has done a stellar job of cultivating a local audience, pouring resources into the annual celebration, and programming their slates in a way that appeals equally to cinephiles, otaku, and people who just want to see a movie about a guy who falls in love with his goldfish.
Unfortunately, Japan Cuts also grows more vital with every passing year because the domestic market for foreign film is withering away at a terrible rate, lowering the odds that you’ll ever get a second chance at seeing any of these exhilarating dispatches from the Land of the Rising Sun on the big screen.
This year’s fest, which runs from July...
Unfortunately, Japan Cuts also grows more vital with every passing year because the domestic market for foreign film is withering away at a terrible rate, lowering the odds that you’ll ever get a second chance at seeing any of these exhilarating dispatches from the Land of the Rising Sun on the big screen.
This year’s fest, which runs from July...
- 7/14/2016
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
This time on the Newsstand, Ryan is joined by Scott Nye and Arik Devens to discuss a few pieces of Criterion Collection news.
Subscribe to The Newsstand in iTunes or via RSS
Contact us with any feedback.
Topics & Links The August 2016 Criterion Collection Line-up Cat People cover art Ugetsu restoration shows at Cannes, very favorable response Seattle listeners – Scarecrow Video is holding a 50% off sale on select titles through the 31st Cannes Film Fest – Sundance Selects picked up new Ken Loach movie, “I, Daniel Blake”; Amazon making a big mark McCabe & Mrs. Miller McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – The Criterion Collection McCabe & Mrs. Miller on iTunes McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – IMDb McCabe & Mrs. Miller – Wikipedia The making and unmaking of McCabe & Mrs. Miller The art of the deal in McCabe & Mrs. Miller AFI: 10 Top 10 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – Rotten Tomatoes Cover by Jon Contino (his first) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words Ingrid Bergman...
Subscribe to The Newsstand in iTunes or via RSS
Contact us with any feedback.
Topics & Links The August 2016 Criterion Collection Line-up Cat People cover art Ugetsu restoration shows at Cannes, very favorable response Seattle listeners – Scarecrow Video is holding a 50% off sale on select titles through the 31st Cannes Film Fest – Sundance Selects picked up new Ken Loach movie, “I, Daniel Blake”; Amazon making a big mark McCabe & Mrs. Miller McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – The Criterion Collection McCabe & Mrs. Miller on iTunes McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – IMDb McCabe & Mrs. Miller – Wikipedia The making and unmaking of McCabe & Mrs. Miller The art of the deal in McCabe & Mrs. Miller AFI: 10 Top 10 McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) – Rotten Tomatoes Cover by Jon Contino (his first) Ingrid Bergman: In Her Own Words Ingrid Bergman...
- 5/20/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
There are many names that come to mind when one looks back at the Japanese New Wave era: Nagisa Oshima, Koreyoshi Kurahara, Shohei Imamura, Masahiro Shinoda, and many, many more. The movement truly began with the adaptation of Shintaro Ishihara’s novel Crazed Fruit, released with the same name by director Ko Nakahira in his 1956 film. The film would kickoff a movement, a collective stream of films that juxtaposed a time in Japanese history where the traditional society of Japan clashed with the coming of a more contemporary way of living. The American occupation ended in 1952, bringing forth a difficult period for the Japanese individual and the struggle for the realization of purpose in a changing country.
One cannot discuss the Japanese New Wave without Hiroshi Teshigahara and his collaborations with Japanese writer Kobo Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara didn’t make many films during this period of extreme...
One cannot discuss the Japanese New Wave without Hiroshi Teshigahara and his collaborations with Japanese writer Kobo Abe and composer Toru Takemitsu. Teshigahara didn’t make many films during this period of extreme...
- 9/1/2015
- by Anthony Spataro
- SoundOnSight
Robert Mitchum ca. late 1940s. Robert Mitchum movies 'The Yakuza,' 'Ryan's Daughter' on TCM Today, Aug. 12, '15, Turner Classic Movies' “Summer Under the Stars” series is highlighting the career of Robert Mitchum. Two of the films being shown this evening are The Yakuza and Ryan's Daughter. The former is one of the disappointingly few TCM premieres this month. (See TCM's Robert Mitchum movie schedule further below.) Despite his film noir background, Robert Mitchum was a somewhat unusual choice to star in The Yakuza (1975), a crime thriller set in the Japanese underworld. Ryan's Daughter or no, Mitchum hadn't been a box office draw in quite some time; in the mid-'70s, one would have expected a Warner Bros. release directed by Sydney Pollack – who had recently handled the likes of Jane Fonda, Barbra Streisand, and Robert Redford – to star someone like Jack Nicholson or Al Pacino or Dustin Hoffman.
- 8/13/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
The 26th annual Images Festival will be taking over Toronto on April 11-20 with an epic series of experimental film screenings, media installations, expanded cinema performances, workshops, artist talks and tons more. With so much going on, the Underground Film Journal is just listing all the screening events below. For everything Images has to offer, please visit their official website.
Before the screenings list, here are some of the highlights:
Opening Night: Accompanying the documentary imagery of prolific filmmaker Robert Todd will be live music performed by electronic music deconstructionist Tim Hecker. Plus, there will be a new audiovisual work by SlowPitch called Emoralis, which pairs images of snails with crackly and droning rhythms.
Closing Night: Corredor will be a live performance piece combining South American imagery by artist Alexandra Gelis, accompanied by live music by drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist David Mott.
Live Performances: Jodie Mack will provide live...
Before the screenings list, here are some of the highlights:
Opening Night: Accompanying the documentary imagery of prolific filmmaker Robert Todd will be live music performed by electronic music deconstructionist Tim Hecker. Plus, there will be a new audiovisual work by SlowPitch called Emoralis, which pairs images of snails with crackly and droning rhythms.
Closing Night: Corredor will be a live performance piece combining South American imagery by artist Alexandra Gelis, accompanied by live music by drummer Hamid Drake and saxophonist David Mott.
Live Performances: Jodie Mack will provide live...
- 4/11/2013
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
I've mentioned before how several years ago I created a list using Roger Ebert's Great Movies, Oscar Best Picture winners, IMDb's Top 250, etc. and began going through them doing my best to see as many of the films on these lists that I had not seen as I possibly could to up my film I.Q. Well, someone has gone through the exhaustive effort to take all of the films Roger Ebert wrote about in his three "Great Movies" books, all of which are compiled on his website and added them to a Letterbxd list and I've added that list below. I'm not positive every movie on his list is here, but by my count there are 363 different titles listed (more if you count the trilogies, the Up docs and Decalogue) and of those 363, I have personally seen 229 and have added an * next to those I've seen. Clearly I have some work to do,...
- 4/10/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
I've mentioned before how several years ago I created a list using Roger Ebert's Great Movies, Oscar Best Picture winners, IMDb's Top 250, etc. and began going through them doing my best to see as many of the films on these lists that I had not seen as I possibly could to up my film I.Q. Well, someone has gone through the exhaustive effort to take all of the films Roger Ebert wrote about in his three "Great Movies" books, all of which are compiled on his website and added them to a Letterbxd list and I've added that list below. I'm not positive every movie on his list is here, but by my count there are 362 different titles listed (more if you count the trilogies and Decalogue) and of those 362, I have personally seen 229 and have added an * next to those I've seen. Clearly I have some work to do,...
- 4/10/2013
- by Brad Brevet
- Rope of Silicon
Our daily January countdown continues with part 19 out of 30, in our list of the 300 Greatest Films Ever Made. These are numbers 120-111.
120) Schindler’S List (1993) Steven Spielberg USA
119) The Woman In The Dunes (1964) Hiroshi Teshigahara Japan
118) Strangers On A Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock USA
117) Stray Dog (1949) Akira Kurasawa Japan
116) Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Charles Barton USA
115) All The President’S Men (1976) Alan Pakula USA
114) Close Encounters of the 3Rd Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg USA
113) The Bicycle Thief (1947) Victorio Desica Italy
112) Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurasawa Japan
111) La Dolce Vita (1959) Federico Fellini Italy
Numbers 110-101 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
120) Schindler’S List (1993) Steven Spielberg USA
119) The Woman In The Dunes (1964) Hiroshi Teshigahara Japan
118) Strangers On A Train (1951) Alfred Hitchcock USA
117) Stray Dog (1949) Akira Kurasawa Japan
116) Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) Charles Barton USA
115) All The President’S Men (1976) Alan Pakula USA
114) Close Encounters of the 3Rd Kind (1977) Steven Spielberg USA
113) The Bicycle Thief (1947) Victorio Desica Italy
112) Ikiru (1952) Akira Kurasawa Japan
111) La Dolce Vita (1959) Federico Fellini Italy
Numbers 110-101 coming next.
film cultureClassicslist300...
- 1/20/2013
- by feeds@cinelinx.com (Rob Young)
- Cinelinx
The 6th annual Mono No Aware expanded cinema event is having a breakthrough year. For the first time, it is now officially taking place over two nights: Dec. 7-8 at LightSpace Studios in Brooklyn, NY. Each night is also completely free to attend.
Mono No Aware is always an absolutely unique event featuring live cinematic performances that are, for the most part, designed to take place one time only. If you don’t see these here, you won’t see them anywhere.
Each performance also features a celluloid element, either 16mm or Super 8mm, which is usually combined with some sort of live audio performance. However, there are also several film installation projects, such as Jodie Mack‘s ultra-cool zoetrope bike — a cinema that is entirely pedal-powered!
Filmmakers and performers from all over the country — and a few from overseas — will present their pieces for one night only, so make...
Mono No Aware is always an absolutely unique event featuring live cinematic performances that are, for the most part, designed to take place one time only. If you don’t see these here, you won’t see them anywhere.
Each performance also features a celluloid element, either 16mm or Super 8mm, which is usually combined with some sort of live audio performance. However, there are also several film installation projects, such as Jodie Mack‘s ultra-cool zoetrope bike — a cinema that is entirely pedal-powered!
Filmmakers and performers from all over the country — and a few from overseas — will present their pieces for one night only, so make...
- 12/7/2012
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
Halloween film specials
All Hallows' Eve isn't just boom time for fancy-dress merchants and pumpkin growers; more than ever, Halloween means horror and you're spoiled for choice this year. So what will it be? Trick, treat, or horrifically gory splatterfest? Surgical horror seems to be where it's at right now. Many of the seasonal horror festivals around the country feature previews of Excision (in which an unstable teen tests out her self-taught surgical skills) and American Mary (medical student finds gory sideline on the fetish circuit). Ben "Kill List" Wheatley's latest, Sightseers is also doing the rounds and is a very British psycho-camping trip.
Wales's well-stocked national horror festival, Abertoir (Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 6-11 Nov) has special guests Steven "Mum And Dad" Sheil, introducing his new Indonesia-set horror, and British giallo queen Catriona MacColl, with Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. Sheffield's Celluloid Screams (Showroom, Sat & Sun), meanwhile, introduces rising Brazilian gore merchant Dennison Ramalho.
All Hallows' Eve isn't just boom time for fancy-dress merchants and pumpkin growers; more than ever, Halloween means horror and you're spoiled for choice this year. So what will it be? Trick, treat, or horrifically gory splatterfest? Surgical horror seems to be where it's at right now. Many of the seasonal horror festivals around the country feature previews of Excision (in which an unstable teen tests out her self-taught surgical skills) and American Mary (medical student finds gory sideline on the fetish circuit). Ben "Kill List" Wheatley's latest, Sightseers is also doing the rounds and is a very British psycho-camping trip.
Wales's well-stocked national horror festival, Abertoir (Aberystwyth Arts Centre, 6-11 Nov) has special guests Steven "Mum And Dad" Sheil, introducing his new Indonesia-set horror, and British giallo queen Catriona MacColl, with Lucio Fulci's The Beyond. Sheffield's Celluloid Screams (Showroom, Sat & Sun), meanwhile, introduces rising Brazilian gore merchant Dennison Ramalho.
- 10/26/2012
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
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