Browse by Tags

All Tags » Festivals (RSS)
Film Programming: A New Wilderness for Former Film Critics.
Wed, Nov 11 2009 5:35 PM
Only two days removed from the announcement that Newsweek's David Ansen would be taking over as the artistic director of the Los Angeles Film Festival, the L.A. Weekly's chief film critic Scott Foundas has taken the Associate Program Director gig at the Film Society of Lincoln Center, where he had previously served as part of the New York Film Festival's... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , , , , ,
TCM, now a film festival.
Thu, Nov 5 2009 2:36 PM
There are over 700 film festivals worldwide, but only a few are devoted entirely to showing old movies -- which is odd, considering that these days, it's just as hard to see most older films in a theater as it is to see any of the new festival darlings. Those that do exist tend towards the obscure and specialized. MoMA's annual "To Save and Project"... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
"Metropolis," as it was meant to be seen! (For real, this time.)
Fri, Oct 30 2009 6:42 AM
Few movies are as incomplete yet overwhelmingly influential as Fritz Lang's 1927 "Metropolis." Any movie you've seen with enormous, gigantic architecture set in an ominous future or a mythical past -- "Brazil," "The Hudsucker Proxy," "The Fifth Element," even this year's "The International" -- stole... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
The academics are running the asylum.
Wed, Oct 28 2009 11:12 AM
On her way out at Spout, Karina Longworth noted a few days ago that the film blogosphere can feel like "hundreds of traffic-chasers, who are essentially blaring the same thing, at the same time, all day long." She doesn't like it one bit. And such was the attitude Focus Features CEO/Ang Lee's screenwriter James Schamus brought to his keynote... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , ,
What's the matta with "Schmatta"?
Fri, Oct 16 2009 2:40 PM
Marc Levin is still finding pins under the floorboards of his loft in New York's Garment District. He ended up digging far deeper to find the hook for his latest doc about the economic crisis -- "Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags," a startlingly prescient history of the clothing industry from 7th Avenue to Bangladesh which airs on HBO on October... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
Pedro Almodóvar holds bilingual court.
Thu, Oct 8 2009 10:23 PM
The latest film from Pedro Almodóvar, "Broken Embraces," closes the New York Film Festival after coasting in on a wave of mediocre advance word. The most common complaint has been that Almodóvar is blatantly recycling himself, throwing around the same motifs as always (mothers and sons, melodrama, intimations of abuse) to lesser effect. But whatever... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , ,
Michael Haneke's abiding sadness.
Thu, Oct 8 2009 9:55 AM
Michael Haneke's fondness for scolding didacticism just don't work for some people, myself among them. But "The White Ribbon" is a whole other thing, a movie where anything dreadful that can happen will, just to prove that people are so terrible you can't even count on them not to turn into ***, or something like that. Set in a small German... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
One from the heart for Lee Daniels.
Thu, Oct 1 2009 9:35 PM
"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" is, in theory, the miserable story of the titular 300-pound teenage girl (Gabby Sidibe), who's raped into having two children by her dad and abused by her mother (Mo'Nique) until she meets an inspirational teacher (Paula Patton) who changes her life. In practice, the New York Film Festival's... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , , , , ,
Harmony Korine's found footage film.
Thu, Oct 1 2009 7:30 PM
Whatever you think of art film's designated provocateur, it's hard to imagine anyone less famous than Harmony Korine getting a movie into major festivals that was conceived of only four months before, shot in two weeks, and consists mainly of dudes in old-person masks fellating tree branches, drinking wine bottles and -- yes, indeed -- humping trash.... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , ,
Keeping the barbarians at bay.
Tue, Sep 29 2009 1:20 PM
Every year someone makes a fuss over how snobbish/exclusionary/whatever the New York Film Festival is; this year's money quote came from Jeffrey Wells, who complained that the festival committee had become "a gathering of Trappist monks who've been slurping too much goat's milk with their granola." (I keep meaning to bring mine to the screenings... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , ,
Alain Resnais on the death of cinema.
Mon, Sep 28 2009 11:00 AM
At age 87, Alain Resnais has produced one of his boldest films. "Wild Grass," which opened the New York Film Festival on Friday, is just wild, blending the audacity of "Punch Drunk Love" with the mindbinding qualities of Charlie Kaufman. The film's about a married man (André Dussollier) who finds a woman's (Sabine Azéma) stolen wallet... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
Fantastic Fest: Nothing But Butts at "RoboGeisha"
Sun, Sep 27 2009 10:30 AM
In Fantastic Fest's famous secret screenings, the identity of the movie being shown isn't revealed until it's about to begin. While it's a gamble, it's one that prompts devotees to line up for year-in-advance VIP badges -- past secret screenings have included the first-ever looks at "There Will Be Blood," "Apocalypto" and... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , , , ,
A small festival buzzkill.
Wed, Sep 9 2009 9:45 AM
According to a widely cited number from Film-Releases.com I can't actually find on their site, American distributors will release 40% fewer films this award season, compared to last year. (This figure presumably doesn't take into account the five-plus niche releases flooding New York and LA -- and nowhere else -- every week.) For those lucky enough to... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , ,
Celebrating Labor Day with Michael Moore.
Mon, Sep 7 2009 12:23 PM
Happy Labor Day! Here, let Michael Moore make you feel better about working. Most of us, now more than ever, would prefer not to lose our jobs; Moore, on the other hand, views permanently severing himself from his financiers as something to be desired. As Arifa Akbar reports from the Venice Film Festival in The Independent, Moore mocked Paramount for funding... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , , , ,
Sundance gets more annoying.
Wed, Sep 2 2009 2:53 PM
So Sundance woke up all sweaty and hungover a few days ago and apparently decided it was time to change its ways. The quirky Fox Searchlight acquisitions, the earnest Amerindie movies like "Sin Nombre" going nowhere slowly but self-righteously...something didn't feel right. Was this the same festival that gave us Steven Soderbergh and Quentin Tarantino... Read More...
by IFC.com - Indie Eye
Filed under: , , , , , , ,
More Posts Next page »