In the early 1970s, while in the midst of making his Trilogy of Life, Pier Paolo Pasolini publicly remarked that a kind of “cultural genocide” had overtaken his home country of Italy. Essentially, he pointed his finger at the overwhelming dominance of consumerism that he believed had begun to erase the positive values instilled by the nation’s history of peasantry.
Even decades removed, many will still find this statement heavily contentious, as it seems representational of a debate that’s raged in film culture — that, of course, over “aestheticizing poverty,” or, in some cases, romanticizing it. Among the many figures in contemporary world cinema who can be branded with this label, Pasolini’s countryman of a different generation, Roberto Minervini, certainly embraces the act while still complicating it.
His first three films forming a “Texas trilogy” showcase a deeply religious and increasingly abandoned milieu far from, say, the conservative...
Even decades removed, many will still find this statement heavily contentious, as it seems representational of a debate that’s raged in film culture — that, of course, over “aestheticizing poverty,” or, in some cases, romanticizing it. Among the many figures in contemporary world cinema who can be branded with this label, Pasolini’s countryman of a different generation, Roberto Minervini, certainly embraces the act while still complicating it.
His first three films forming a “Texas trilogy” showcase a deeply religious and increasingly abandoned milieu far from, say, the conservative...
- 6/10/2016
- by Ethan Vestby
- The Film Stage
With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit the interwebs. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Instant Video, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here.
Embrace of the Serpent (Ciro Guerra)
With its focus on the effects of exploration by white men on foreign lands, Ciro Guerra’s Oscar-nominated Embrace of the Serpent will inevitably be compared to Werner Herzog’s stories of savage nature, and while Guerra is investigating some of Herzog’s most well trodden themes, the chaos of man exists in the background, while the unspoiled sit front and center here.
- 5/20/2016
- by TFS Staff
- The Film Stage
“So one thing from another rises ever; and in fee-simple life is given to none, but unto all mere usufruct.” – Lucretius, On the Nature of Things, Book III
The above quote was once used by great Italian documentarian Franco Piavoli to open his masterful 1982 film, The Blue Planet. In that instance, it is deftly applied to the fragility of mother nature; her various granting and reclaiming of life, but can just as easily be applied to the figures followed by Roberto Minervini, an Italian based in the United States whose acclaimed Texas Trilogy – The Passage, Low Tide and Stop the Pounding Heart – was followed up at Cannes this year by The Other Side, which shifts the director’s gaze slightly eastward to the state of Louisiana. One must assume that Minervini, despite blazing his own trail that has led him through the Philippines and Spain en route to America’s Southern states,...
The above quote was once used by great Italian documentarian Franco Piavoli to open his masterful 1982 film, The Blue Planet. In that instance, it is deftly applied to the fragility of mother nature; her various granting and reclaiming of life, but can just as easily be applied to the figures followed by Roberto Minervini, an Italian based in the United States whose acclaimed Texas Trilogy – The Passage, Low Tide and Stop the Pounding Heart – was followed up at Cannes this year by The Other Side, which shifts the director’s gaze slightly eastward to the state of Louisiana. One must assume that Minervini, despite blazing his own trail that has led him through the Philippines and Spain en route to America’s Southern states,...
- 6/8/2015
- by Nicholas Page
- SoundOnSight
The Heart She Holler: Minervini Caps Texas Trilogy With Christian Corset
A hybrid of documentary aesthetic and subdued narrative happenings, the third film in a Texas set trilogy from Robert Minervini, Stop the Pounding Heart, most certainly is not for all tastes. Already referred to as Bressonian in its articulation of daily rituals in an isolated Christian community, the film follows The Passage (2011) and Low Tide (2012). But while some may claim it echoes the deliberate aesthetic of a Robert Bresson, its objectivity often feels like a grim purveyor of ignorance, and cynical audiences won’t be able to disguise their smirks towards such archaic rituals, nearly aligning it with earlier works by Harmony Korine.
The film focuses on the Carlsons, a family of goat farmers that sell their dairy products at farmers’ markets. The parents, Leeanne (Leeanne Carlson) and Tim (Tim Carlson) have twelve children, all of whom they’ve...
A hybrid of documentary aesthetic and subdued narrative happenings, the third film in a Texas set trilogy from Robert Minervini, Stop the Pounding Heart, most certainly is not for all tastes. Already referred to as Bressonian in its articulation of daily rituals in an isolated Christian community, the film follows The Passage (2011) and Low Tide (2012). But while some may claim it echoes the deliberate aesthetic of a Robert Bresson, its objectivity often feels like a grim purveyor of ignorance, and cynical audiences won’t be able to disguise their smirks towards such archaic rituals, nearly aligning it with earlier works by Harmony Korine.
The film focuses on the Carlsons, a family of goat farmers that sell their dairy products at farmers’ markets. The parents, Leeanne (Leeanne Carlson) and Tim (Tim Carlson) have twelve children, all of whom they’ve...
- 9/19/2014
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Films from notables Nick Cave, Kevin Smith and Terry Gilliam, and another featuring Downton Abbey vet Dan Stevens are helping fill this weekend’s box office, despite studio blockbuster debuts for The Maze Runner and This Is Where I Leave You.
In all, 14 specialty films are debuting this weekend, at the front edge of awards season and the time of year when “serious” films hit the screens left and right. We have The Guest, with Stevens; The Zero Theorem by Gilliam; Smith’s Tusk; Tracks, the latest from the producers of The King’s Speech; and Cave’s doc 20,000 Days On Earth.
And, like a TV informercial, there’s more: the doc Pump, boundary-jumper Stop The Pounding Heart; and Swim Little Fish Swim. Just to fill out the marquees, we also have Tribeca-winning doc Keep On Keepin’ On; Flamenco, Flamenco; Hector And The Search For Happiness; Iceman; Hollidaysburg; and Not Cool.
In all, 14 specialty films are debuting this weekend, at the front edge of awards season and the time of year when “serious” films hit the screens left and right. We have The Guest, with Stevens; The Zero Theorem by Gilliam; Smith’s Tusk; Tracks, the latest from the producers of The King’s Speech; and Cave’s doc 20,000 Days On Earth.
And, like a TV informercial, there’s more: the doc Pump, boundary-jumper Stop The Pounding Heart; and Swim Little Fish Swim. Just to fill out the marquees, we also have Tribeca-winning doc Keep On Keepin’ On; Flamenco, Flamenco; Hector And The Search For Happiness; Iceman; Hollidaysburg; and Not Cool.
- 9/19/2014
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline
You keep waiting for catastrophe to strike in Roberto Minervini's taciturn Stop the Pounding Heart. The handheld camera drifts without judgment through scenes of home-schooled children in forced prayer, shirtless trailer-park boys riding a makeshift mechanical bull, those same boys mounting a dangerously unqualified elementary-school kid on the bull. But nothing wrenching happens, just unforgettable moments of piercing isolation and sadness. Stop the Pounding Heart is part of what Minervini calls his "Texas trilogy" (the two other films, The Passage and Low Tide, are not sequels but feature some of the same cast and themes; all three will run between September 19 and 25 at Lincoln Center). There's scant plot or dialogue, just glimpses of the...
- 9/17/2014
- Village Voice
The third and final chapter of a trilogy by Us-based Italian director Roberto Minervini entirely dedicated to the study of rural Texas, Stop the Pounding Heart tenuously walks the line between documentary and fiction. It follows the day-to-day life of 17-year-old Sara Carlson ("star" of Minervini's The Passage) and her goat-farming family as she goes through a crisis of faith and identity in the midst of an extremely religious - fundamentalist, even - family for which the Bible sets all rules for life, and forms a subtle bond with bull-riding Colby Trichell (also seen in Minervini's other film Low Tide). This strange and intimate portrait, shot on the Carlson home with the actual family, defies classification and snaps a privileged, rare depiction of these people's...
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- 11/15/2013
- Screen Anarchy
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