Like every other culture in this technology-dominated world, Brazilian culture shows the influence of cinema. Film arbitrates life-styles, activates the imagination with its fantasies, and shapes moral life. Yet it is impossible to speak of the cinema in its Brazilian context without referring to North American film, whose influence and aggressiveness distributes North American culture throughout the world so that audiences now expect from all films only those images they are accustomed to seeing in Hollywood cinema.

by Shelly Kraicer

In 1978, Chinese cinema was recovering, like much of the country, from a ten-year-long nightmare. Maoist Red Guards had plunged the country into turmoil and violent chaos, unleashed by Chairman Mao's renewed radicalism and sustained by the ultra-leftist faction of the Communist Party of China commonly identified with Jiang Qing and the so-called Gang of Four. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966-1976) extended into and disrupted every social and cultural aspect of Chinese society, including cinema,... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1883 Fri, 25 Jan 2008 23:21:45 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1868/t/the-Olaf-M-ller-thread.html High Five 2007 (with Christoph Huber; for Sight & Sound)


1. Profit Motive And The Whispering Wind (John Gianvito, USA)

The mother of all monumentdocuments: Gianvito retraced Howard Zinn's 'People's History of the United States' across his country and through the years with a Bolex, then arranged his shots of gravestones, inscriptions, memorials and historical markers of massacred Indians, killed unionists and many other dead defiant fighters for peace, justice, equality, freedom chronologically, yet in a stirring rhythm, punctuated by shots of nature in the wind (often rustling in the trees, as if this were the sound of the whisper of knowledge, of revolution and revelation spreading), brief, striking animation and a few trailing songs. In hardly an hour it encompasses an entire capitalist history of violence, but also another one of solidaric utopia, at the same... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1868 Tue, 22 Jan 2008 04:03:55 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1563/t/Alphaville-Exists-by-Chris-Darke.html Link (pdf)


ALPHAVILLE EXISTS by Chris Darke


'Jeremiah has never had much success in pretending he doesnt thoroughly enjoy his job.' New Maps of Hell, Kingsley Amis


Seven and a half miles from the heart of So Paulo there is a gated community which houses 30,000 of the citys richest and most security conscious residents, many of whom travel by helicopter to work among the 17 million other inhabitants of the worlds third largest city. According to the Washington Post, at night, on TV Alphaville, residents can view their maids going home for the evening, when all exiting employees are patted down and searched in front of a live video feed. In his account of... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1563 Thu, 17 Jan 2008 03:56:47 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1567/t/Rosenbaum-stirs-discussions-about-Bergman.html

Imdb CFB discussion:
www.imdb.com/board/bd0000...955833?p=1

Rosenbaum's page with dozens of comments (you can write your own if you like):
blogs.chicagoreader.com/f.../#comments

David Bordwell's piece (with many links in the text to previous discussions):
feeds@kickapps.com (A) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1567 Sat, 25 Aug 2007 15:23:09 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1569/t/A-very-British-cop-out-Alex-Cox.html The Guardian

The BBC and the Film Council can stop congratulating themselves on their Summer of British Film. It's nothing less than condescending propaganda, argues Alex Cox

Wednesday August 15, 2007


Notting Hill. Exterior. Day. Brilliant sunshine. From the multi-ethnic throngs of the carnival, Mike Myers, clad in psychedelic pearly king attire, steps forth. Says Myers (with a cockney accent): "Haustin Powers 'ere, guv'nor! H'oim your genial 'ost, 'ere to celebrate one 'undred years of British cinema - and that's one shagadelic bonk-a-thon, by blimey!"

Enter Mr Bean. He and Myers shake hands. Their trousers fall down. Dick Van Dyke, dressed as a chimney sweep, glides through on a product-placed Harley-Davidson. He is pursued by Hugh Grant, dressed as a Beefeater, and several striking coal-miners... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1569 Thu, 16 Aug 2007 18:15:33 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1568/t/New-Purchases.html
However I did find:
Easy Riders and Raging Bulls by Peter Biskind
Planet Hong Kong by David Bordwell
and the great almighty out of print Alternate Oscars by Danny Peary

God bless used book stores. ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (wpqx) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1568 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 01:01:29 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1566/t/Essential-Cinema-Jonathan-Rosenbaum.html feeds@kickapps.com (wpqx) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1566 Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:44:44 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1570/t/Picasso-Braque-and-Early-Film-in-Cubism.html PaceWildenstein

"Picasso, Braque, and Early Film in Cubism maintains that early film played a catalytic role in the development of Cubism, but as an added layer of reference that does not displace the canonical descriptions and analysis. There is biographical evidence that Picasso was an early cinephilePicasso first saw a film in 1896 in Barcelona. By 1907 movie-going was a weekly ritual for 'la Bande Picasso.' And by that date, Picasso was certainly borrowing and transcribing from the movies he had been watching for many years; by 1909 he and Braque had formed a fruitful alliance. Cubisms love affair with film... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1570 Sat, 16 Jun 2007 02:14:12 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1565/t/The-Village-Voice-Film-Guide.html
Now getting a chance to read some of these reviews, and some of these now legendary film critics is a treat. However going through the book, you start to look at all the film selected and somehow wind up bored and detached with all the film cannons out there. Sure we all like to make our own little lists (Christ knows I'm as guilty as anyone) but they're always so similar. Sure Vertigo, Rules of the Game, and Citizen Kane will get a mention, but @#%$ who cares? Is it worth saying these films are great? My favorite review actually came in Andrew Sarris' original take on 2001, where he openly... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (wpqx) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1565 Fri, 29 Dec 2006 05:53:09 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1571/t/Film-Comment.html FILM COMMENTS END-OF-YEAR CRITICS POLL.

"For Film Comments Seventh Annual Critics Poll we invited our contributors and colleagues to rank their top 20 films of the year, plus the 10 best unreleased films they discovered on any festival sorties. (In the latter category, 10 had their U.S. premieres at the 44th New York Film Festival and at least two more will be shown in our annual Film Comment Selects series.) In each ballot from the 80-plus critical chorus, a first-place choice was allotted 20 points, 19 for second, and so on."


BEST FILMS OF 2006
(Released theatrically in the U.S.)


1. The Departed (Martin Scorsese, U.S.) 779 points
2. The Death of Mr. Lazarescu (Cristi Puiu, Romania) 740
3. Army of Shadows (Jean-Pierre Melville, France/Italy)... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1571 Wed, 20 Dec 2006 21:53:49 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1572/t/Marie-Antoinette-Cannes-Press-Conference.html by Rob Nelson


Rarely has a festival press conference so enlivened a movie's context as in the case of Marie-Antoinette's post-screening fracas at Cannes, where French revolutionary film reporters joined an international coalition that seemed bent on collecting the head of Sofia Coppola. As the filmmaker's "historical" biopic uses downbeat Cure songs and other cool anachronisms to argue that the titular queen's removal from the throne by an angry mob was, like, a total bummer (the movie's final shot laments the uncouth trashing of a lovely boudoir), this enjoyably intense gathering of insurgents served as a kind of alternative ending, one authored not by Hollywood royalty, but by les miserables of the press. The revolution tastefully omitted from Coppola's costume drama would,... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1572 Sat, 04 Nov 2006 03:03:07 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1574/t/62nd-Venice-Film-Festival-and-Straub-Huiilet.html
It can be also accessed at the MoC homepage.
_________________________________________________________

by Craig Keller (for MoC), September 2006.

The 63rd annual Venice International Film Festival ended this past weekend with welcome recognition for some of the most important figures currently working in cinema. The award for "Best Young Actor" was granted to the magnificent Isild Le Besco (a formidable filmmaker in her own right) for her performance in Benot Jacquot's picture L'Intouchable [The Untouchable]. The Best... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (A) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1574 Tue, 26 Sep 2006 13:08:57 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1575/t/Jean-Luc-Godard-Exhibition.html
www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/06/40/godard-travels-in-utopia.html ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (A) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1575 Fri, 22 Sep 2006 22:44:27 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1573/t/Vive-la-Resistance-A-New-Wave-from-Slovenia.html By Tom McSorley


Off the beaten, banal, accelerated track of globalization, somewhere in among the ruins of that seemingly anachronistic and unfashionable notion of national cinema, you will discover a small, tenacious surprise called Slovenia. As Hollywood spreads its distribution and production tentacles ever deeper into Europe, and as the European Union itself encourages co-productions between an ever-expanding number of member states (reaching 27 in 2007, with the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria) to produce bland, placeless Euro-pudding, thankfully there is resistance to these considerable forces of cultural and cinematic homogenization. Of course, this happens in all countries to some degree, but arguably nowhere so consistently, inventively, and disproportionately as in the tiny nation of Slovenia. Indeed, one of the most exciting developments in contemporary European cinema in the last decade is the very... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (arsaib4) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1573 Thu, 21 Sep 2006 02:55:58 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1576/t/If-you-ve-waited-4-long-years-.html
www.nytimes.com/2006/08/2...gewanted=1 ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (bamboomedia1) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1576 Sun, 03 Sep 2006 01:15:10 PST http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1577/t/Breaking-the-First-Rule-of-Fight-Club.html By Cammila Albertson

From Blue Velvet to Rushmore, well respected movies rarely end up as first-date material, and it's not hard to see why: they frequently tackle difficult subject matter, and that's seldom a pretty sight. As a movie geek, I have no problem with this. There are plenty of movies that I wouldn't dream of unleashing on the friends who say they "didn't get" Magnolia or thought sex, lies, and videotape was "over-hyped." I just assume that these are the movies I should save for obsessive cinephiles who throw David Lynch parties and dress up like Wes Anderson characters for Halloween. So when David Fincher's 1999 film Fight Club came up at a party recently, I was prepared for the non-movie-geeks to express a lack of enthusiasm: it's got loud sex, painful looking violence, and Meat Loaf with an uncomfortable looking pair of mammaries.

coverbuy What is surprising is that Fight Club doesn't earn... ]]> feeds@kickapps.com (wpqx) http://foreignfilms.yuku.com/topic/1577 Sat, 15 Jul 2006 10:04:35 PST