Jan Nemec and the Party Poopers

It's taken 41 years but Jan Nemec's landmark Czech New Wave film The Party and the Guests (O slavnosti a hostech) has finally got a DVD release courtesy of Second Run DVD.


Extremely controversial upon its release, Jan Němec's second feature, after Diamonds of the Night, was completed in 1966 and had a belated release during the short-lived Prague Spring in early 1968. The Party and the Guests was formally "banned forever" in 1973 and this ban remained (at least in Czechoslovakia) until the Velvet Revolution of 1989. It was widely considered at the time that the film was a direct attack on the Communist government and therefore too dangerous to screen. This opinion (or fear) was one that was shared by Antonín Novotný, the Czechoslovak President at the time.

However, this ban was only to enhance Nemec's (now legendary) status as a maverick and enfant terrible in a generation of Czechoslovak directors who were all making films that were on the periphery between acceptable or in breach of the Communist Party line. After living and working in exile from the end of the 1960's, Jan Nemec was to return to his homeland after the Velvet Revolution.

Click here for more on Jan Nemec and Czechoslovak New Wave Directors.

Saint Etienne at the South Bank Centre

In association with Agnès B, Saint Etienne present tomorrow an evening called Paris in the Spring, whose flyer alone makes the visit to the often un-spring-y South Bank worthwhile.




South Bank +

Call for papers

Film & History, the Historians Film Committee's journal of interdisciplinary analysis of film, is accepting submissions on the topic, 'The Documentary Tradition'.

"The first volume will focus on a spectrum of documentaries in chronological order ­of both international and US vintage. Classic documentaries will be examined and placed in their cultural contexts. Papers on films from Nanook and March of Time to The War Room and An Inconvenient Truth are welcomed", said the editor Dr. Loren PQ Baybrook.

She added: "The second volume will examine a variety of topics and issues for documentaries across cultures and borders. The possibilities here are broad, but we welcome papers that stress the role of the documentary in interpreting, reflecting, or attempting to change history. Race, class, policy, and the impact of media are likely topics."


Further info +

Curzon launches magazine

Curzon cinemas has launched a bimonthly magazine and issue one is available for free from Chelsea, Renoir, Richmond, Mayfair or Soho. The issue puts the focus on the German film The Lives of Others, soon to be reviewed on Kamera. You can listen to a podcast featuring an interview with the film's director, Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck +

A Rendez-vous with French Cinema

Our friends from A Rendez-vous with French Cinema, which started yesterday and goes until Sunday, 1 April, have rung in to say that they will take time on Friday March 30 (that will be today!) to celebrate up and coming acting talent with a special on stage presentation at the Curzon Mayfair prior to the 6.00 pm screening of Guillaume Canet’s Tell No One (Ne le dis à personne).

Actor/director Jean-Marc Barr and director/screenwriter Pascal Arnold will introduce the following actors on stage :

Amira Casar: a César nominee as Best Newcomer, her credits incluide Breilllat’s Anatomy of Hell and Thomas Gilou’s Would I Lie to You ?
Sara Forestier: has worked with Blier and Lelouch, having made her début in Abdellatif Kechiche’s much admired L’Esquive, winning a Best Newcomer César
Georges Babluani: best known for his work with his brother Géla Babluani in 13 Tzameti and Legacy

Emilie Dequenne: made her début in the Dardennes’ Rosetta, winning the 1999 Best Actress prize ex aequo in Cannes, and worked with Claude Berri in Une femme de ménage.

Louis Garrel: worked with Huppert in Ma Mère, was in Bertolucci’s The Dreamers, and won the Best Newcomer César for his part in his father Philippe’s Les amants réguliers
Joana Preiss: in Assayas’ section of Paris je t’aime and Clean, as well as Honoré’s Ma Mère

Tom Riley: English born star of the recently released I Want Candy, seen opposite Juliette Binoche in A Few Days in September.

Luke Treadaway: made his début in Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe’s Brothers of the Head.


In addition to screenings of the best of the new French films, A Rendez-vous with French Cinema will have diverse programme of masterclasses, meetings, and screenings of short films. This event is organised by Unifrance, the organisation dedicated to promoting French cinema abroad, in association with the French Embassy and the French Institute in London and the Curzon Mayfair cinema.

Rendez-vous with French Cinema +

Runa Islam

British film artist Runa Islam has told Frieze magazine which films have influenced her most. Carl Dreyer's Joan of Arc (1928) has a place of prominence in Islam's film catechism book.

Full article +

YouTube awards

The title says it all...


YOUTUBE AWARDS +

London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday

The 21st London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival, the UK's third largest film festival, starts this Wednesday, 21 March. Among the feature film highlights this year are Beyond Hatred, a documentary that charts the aftermath of a homophobic murder, the Danish drama A Soap, about the relationship between a beautiful girl and her transsexual neighbour, and the Argentinian production Glue (pictured), which won top jury and audience awards at the 2006 Buenos Aires Festival of Independent Film.



FESTIVAL SITE +

Brazilian video at the Tate

A short post to let you all know that I have curated a season of Brazilian video art for the Tate Modern in London and which will be shown at the Starr Auditorium between Friday 23 March and Sunday 25. The videos cover a period of 25 years (1981-2005). The event, called Video Links Brazil kicks off on Friday with a programme of videos from the 1980s, the decade when video art took root in the country. Saturday will focus on works produced from the 1990s onwards and brings together an ecclectic selection of videos by fine artists as well as by those working exclusively with video. Sunday is devoted to documentaries, including one video about Brazil's famous Serial Kisser and a film from the Video in the Villages project, which works with aboriginal peoples in Brazil to help them produce their own images and represent themselves.

Hope to see there.

(Image credit: Heróis 2, TVDO, 1987-2003)


VIDEO LINKS BRAZIL

New on Kamera

Edward Lamberti has written an in-depth review of Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima. We also have a news article about the cult cinema conference in London called Cine Exces, which will be attended by no one less than Roger Corman.

A tube ride will never be the same...

Watch this +

Woody Allen to make film in Barcelona

"For some cities and countries, having Woody Allen making a film there is like a papal visit," Adam Dawtrey, the European editor of Variety magazine, said.


Full article +

Time Out New York

Time Out New York has compiled a sequence of YouTube videos with "25 memorable moments in Gotham music". Although music-focused, the list also contains excerpts from films.
Fun.

Gotham music +

Charles Atlas at London's Optronica

Video pioneer and now VJ extraordinaire Charles Atlas brings his collaboration with musician/ electronic composer Christian Fennesz, to London, between 14 and 18 March, during the second biannual Optronica festival. Charles mixes video live using film footage, prepared clips and improvised collage. The recipient of the 2006 John Cage Award, Atlas is perhaps best known for his work with choreographers such as Michael Clark, Leigh Bowery, and Merce Cunningham, which have won him three Bessie (New York Dance and Performance) Awards. Optronica is a 'visual music' festival taking place at the British Film Institute's Southbank and Imax spaces, as well as the Institute for Contemporary Art. The line-up also includes the UK premiere of Peter Greenaway's Tulse Luper VJ performance, among many other attractions.

Speaking of Greenaway, the fallen angel of post-modern baroque cinema, has a Myspace page. His tagline is bafflingly amusing: "Cinema is not a playground for Sharon Stone." Poor Sharon, what has she done to him? Now, why is it that cinema can be a playground for Helen Mirren, but not for the France-loving Stone? He also says, with no hint of modesty: "Film is dead, I tried to save it, didn't work out...enjoy your psycho-dramatic linear narrative you bloody philistines. "

Optronica +

Peter Greenaway on Myspace +

It's not a colour but a quality issue

I was reading my favourite newspaper over the weekend, the International Herald Tribune (inspired, of course, by Godard's insertion of the title in À bout de souffle), when an article about international distribution of Hollywood films with black stars caught my attention. The gist of the article was that such films don't do well abroad and used the case of Dreamgirls (pictured left) which has grossed $100 million and has sold 'only' $28 million worth of tickets in foreign lands, as a case in point. One industry insider interviewed went as far as to name 'international' (as in 'international markets') 'the new South' because in the old days black films didn't travel down South within the US. The article does mention some success stories, such as Bad Boys (with Will Smith) and Déjà Vu (with Denzel Washington), but underlines flops like Hustle & Flow, Are We There Yet? and Last Holiday as examples of the failure cases where racism may have been the causal factor.

But this is clearly a case of crying wolf. The article in premised in the assumption, or America's utter conviction, that any national artifact is apt for global consumption, even in the case of films heavily coded with regional signs as the ones mentioned. Secondly, and most importantly, is the sheer awfulness of such films - doesn't it occur to them that some films don't do well abroad because they are not sound for consumption as a consequence of their excessive mediocrity? To me, the article seemed like a case of the empire playing the underdog card and such posturing doesn't strike convincing at all.

Read full article +

Kenneth Anger article

Tom Gunning has written an insightful article about Kenneth Anger for ArtForum magazine.

New on Kamera:

The latest updates on Kamera include a round-up of film festivals in March+* , some of the latest DVD releases + , an in-depth review of Until the End of the World + , by Wim Wenders and a review of A Guide to Recognising Your Saints +


* STOP PRESS! The organisers of A Rendez-vous with French Cinema have sent us an update on the programme of the event, which is now ready.

The Opening Gala on 29 March will feature Olivier Dahan’s biopic of iconic singer Edith Piaf’s dramatic life, LA VIE EN ROSE (La Môme, pictured), featuring a remarkable performance by Marion Cotillard alongside Sylvie Testud, Pascal Greggory, Emmanuelle Seigner, Jean-Paul Rouve and Gérard Depardieu (released in May/June by Icon Film Distribution). After opening the Berlin Film Festival, the film is enjoying phenomenal critical and box office success in France.

The other films to be featured are as follows:

Alanté Kavaité’s thriller ECOUTE LE TEMPS, starring Emilie Dequenne, Ludmila Mikaël and Mathieu Demy (released in Summer/Autumn by Dogwoof Pictures).


Guillaume Canet’s thriller TELL NO ONE (Ne le dis à personne), which won 4 Césars at the recent ceremony, and stars François Cluzet, Kristin Scott Thomas, André Dussollier and Marie-Josée Croze (released on 15 June by Revolver Entertainment).


Christophe Honoré’s drama DANS PARIS starring Romain Duris, Louis Garrel, Guy Marchand and Joanna Preis (released on 4 May by Artificial Eye).


Stéphane Brizé’s comedy/drama NOT HERE TO BE LOVED (Je ne suis pas là pour être aimé), starring Anne Consigny, Patrick Chesnais and Georges Wilson (released on 8 June by Artificial Eye).


The legendary Alain Resnais’ PRIVATE FEARS IN PUBLIC PLACES (Cœurs), starring Sabine Azéma, Lambert Wilson, André Dussollier and Isabelle Carré (released on July 20 2007 by Artificial Eye).


Santiago Amigorena’s thriller A FEW DAYS IN SEPTEMBER (Quelques jours en septembre), starring Juliette Binoche, Sara Forestier, Tom Riley, John Turturro and Nick Nolte (released in Summer/Autumn 2007 by Transmedia International Releasing).


Tony Gatlif’s drama TRANSYLVANIA, starring Asia Argento, Amira Casar and Birol Unel (released on 10 August by Peccadillo Pictures).


The Babluani brothers’ drama LEGACY (L’Héritage), starring Sylvie Testud, Stanislas Merhar, Pascal Bongard and Georges Babluani (released in July by Revolver Entertainment).


Bruno Dumont’s topical drama FLANDERS (Flandres), starring Adélaïde Leroux, Samuel Boidin and Henri Cretel (released on 6 July by Soda Pictures).


Xavier Giannoli’s comedy THE SINGER (Quand j’étais chanteur), starring Gérard Depardieu, Cécile de France, Mathieyu Amalric and Christine Citti (released on 17 August by Artificial Eye).

The Closing Night Gala will be Patrice Leconte’s comedy MY BEST FRIEND (Mon meilleur ami), starring Daniel Auteuil, Dany Boon and Julie Gayet (released on 11 May by Optimum Releasing).

NFT shows Alejandro Jodorowsky’s El Topo

There's a good excuse to make that inevitable trip to the National Film Theatre in London this April. El Topo (1970), Alejandro Jodorowsky’s uncut cult masterpiece will screen at the venue on April 6 and then at cinemas nationwide.

A bizarre, ultra-violent, allegorical Western, EL Topo is set in two halves that have been compared to the Old and New Testaments of the bible. In the first half, Jodorowsky plays a violent, black-clad gunfighter who, accompanied by his naked son, sets off on a murderous mission to challenge four zen masters of gunfighting, and learns from each of them a Great Lesson before they die. In the second half, El Topo sets out to find personal redemption, secluding himself in a subterranean community to learn the ways of peace, but unfortunately death is never far away.

El Topo paved the way for cult favourites such as Eraserhead, The Harder They Come and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. John Lennon and Yoko Ono were huge fans of the film and pushed Allen Klein (then Beatles manager) to buy it for distribution, and subsequently to finance Jodorowsky’s next film The Holy Mountain (1973) which will also screen at the NFT alongside Fando & Lis (1968). All three films have been digitally restored and remastered, under the close supervision of the director himself, who will give an onstage talk at the NFT on April 13.

Jodorowsky at the NFT+

Harmony Korine's Mister Lonely

Kamera's newswire has been notified that Harmony Korine's new project (his third film), Mister Lonely, has gone into post-production - whether that means it will be hitting the screening theatres any time soon is another story, although we have also been notified that Tartan will be spreading the love in the UK, so the chances are good. So, all those rumours about a comune of impersonators in Scotland are true, as far as the story in the this film goes. Here's the description sent to us (plus picture):

"A Michael Jackson impersonator (DIEGO LUNA) lives alone in Paris and performs on the streets to make ends meet. At a performance in a retirement home, Michael falls for a beautiful Marilyn Monroe look-alike (SAMANTHA MORTON), who suggests he move to a commune of impersonators in the Scottish Highlands. At the seaside castle, Michael discovers everyone preparing for the commune's first-ever gala - Abe Lincoln, Little Red Riding Hood, the Three Stooges, the Queen, the Pope, Madonna, Buckwheat, Sammy Davis. And also Marilyn's daughter Shirley Temple and her possessive husband Charlie Chaplin (DENIS LAVANT)."

MISTER LONELY, we were also told, was filmed in Scotland, Panama and France. The cast is more stellar than you would expect: Diego Luna, Samantha Morton, James Fox, Denis Lavant all ring in to boost their indie credits. More fun members of the cast include Anita Pallenberg and Werner Herzog, who also appeared in Korine's previous effort, Julien Donkey Boy.

Oscars 2007

Here are the results of the Oscars 2007.
Yawn+

Screening: The Hermitage Dwellers

Our friends at the Goethe-Institut have informed Kamera's newsdesk about an upcoming screening next Tuesday at their London branch that caught our attention. So here's the info sent in:

TUE 27 FEB 2007 7PM

DELICATESSEN - GOETHE-INSTITUT DIGITAL CINEMA

THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS


Netherland 2006, colour, 72 mins. Directed by Aliona van der Horst.

With English subtitles.



"Not the art, but the people who work in the Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg are the focus of this documentary film. These Hermitage dwellers all have their own very personal reasons for considering the palace of Catharine the Great their "home." For them, it is a safe haven that quite literally has managed to keep the cruel Soviet history outside its walls. What starts out as a playful kaleidoscope of people and events in the museum gradually unfolds into a poignant account of how the dwellers’ pain is transformed by their intimate relationship with a piece of art.

We meet with several "Hermitage-niks"—including Olga Bogdanova, the head of museum maintenance, icon curator Alexandra Kostsova, museum attendant Valentina Barbashova, and art handler Vadim Kuptsov, among others—each of whom explains their own very personal reasons for considering the palace of Catherine the Great their "home."

For Russians the Hermitage is regarded as a place of pilgrimage. For these workers, however, the Hermitage has also been a safe haven from the tumultuous events of Russian history and the hardships of contemporary Russian life. Indeed, each of them explains how their personal traumas and difficulties have been transformed by having developed an intimate relationship with a favorite piece of art. For them, surrounded everyday by remarkable beauty, the Hermitage has become a place of emotional healing.

For Vadim, formerly in the military in Azerbaijan, where he saw things that no one back home would believe, his job is a tonic for his troubled soul. He likes to look at Rembrandt's Prodigal Son because "it's about forgiveness." Valentina was an atomic engineer who lost her job in the wake of Perestroika. She supplements her meager pension by working as an attendant at the museum and spends many days in the company of Sweert's Portrait of a Young Man, whose subject was as impoverished as she is. Juna Zek is a metalworks curator who admires the precious collection assembled by Catherine the Great and walks through the rooms where she once slept. Alexandra, aged 82, is an icon curator who has spent her entire life rescuing inestimable icons from destruction. Finally, seventy-six-year-old Olga is the unofficial czarina of the Hermitage who runs her department with a firm hand.

THE HERMITAGE DWELLERS also uses archival footage to reveal that while this revered institution has usually managed to keep twentieth-century history outside its walls-from the Revolution, the terror of Stalin, WWII, and the harsh post-Soviet years-these events have also left their indelible mark on the museum.

The film traverses throughout this vast complex, gliding up staircases and through grand exhibit halls, showing curators at work in storage rooms filled with rare art works, groups of tourists and schoolchildren gazing up in wide-eyed wonder, staff members dining and dancing at a Victory Day celebration, and, of course, many of the world-famous paintings and artifacts on display."


Goethe-Institut London+

Independent Spirit Awards

The winners of the Independent Spirit Awards will be announced today. Here's a link to the list of nominees +

New on Kamera - 21/02/07

Calum Waddel interviews upcoming horror movie star, Jillian Swanson. Full article
here +

Grindhouse

The blog Solace in Cinema has posted news about the Tarantino and Rodriguez double whammy, due out on April 6 in America, Grindhouse. The latest news is that the final poster seems to be ready and that The Weinstein Company will be splitting up the film into two pieces in foreign territories because of their lack of tradition in double bills. The distributors fear those non-English speaking audiences will not get the concept, or perhaps that they are not post-modern enough.

But there's a petition against the split.


Full article +

Will Write and Direct for Food

Kamera has teamed up with Southbank Publishing to offer its readers the opportunity to purchase for a reduced price Will Write and Direct for Food, by the celebrated director Alan Parker. Known for his acidic wit and uncompromising approach to film making, Parker has often resorted to humour in cartoons, to get his view across. Studio heads, actors and crew, all come under Parker's merciless pen. However, and often to Parker's surprise, the recipient enjoyed the message and framed it. Many of the director's doodles, drawings and sketches adorn the walls of actors, producers, directors and movie executives around the world, often taking pride of place, next to the all-smiling première or award-winning photographs.

This unique collection contains over 200 mini masterpieces from Sir Alan Parker who Will Write and Direct for Food...

"It was always a curiosity to see my vomited scribbles on some studio executive's wall, the very executives they were aimed at. Not that they stay up long. Studio personnel are an itinerant bunch: they come and they go, and I've made 14 films with 14 studio heads. They don't stay long in their jobs, and fade away faster than a Technicolour negative." - Alan Parker

Promotion Link +

Berlin's 2007 winners

Here's a link to this year's results in BERLIN +

Factory Girl's homophobic overtones

I haven't seen Factory Girl yet, but for me reason I have already taken such a dislike for it that I thought it worthwhile to link to an article in Slate Magazine, a publication that surely tell it like it is, making a scathing review of this film, due out in the UK on 16 March.

"Factory Girl isn't just a bad movie, it's a 90-minute insult to the culture it pretends to be capturing, and what I really want to say—as I would almost never say of anything I see or read or listen to—is that I hated it."
Jim Lewis

Full article +

New on Kamera - 15/02/07

Hot off the print, as it were, are a review of a book on the films of Luis Buñuel+ , written by Ian Haydn-Smith, and an article about the late film poet, Margaret Tait+ , written by myself.

Enjoy them.

New on Kamera

We have news on the UK Regional Critics award + , reviews of Babel + , Blood Diamond + and Notes on a Scandal+ plus an in-depth review of the DVD release of Derek Jarman's
Wittgenstein + .

Coming up: Fast Food Nation

Richard Linklater's much-anticipated fictionalised rendition of Eric Schlosser's book Fast Food Nation is coming to the UK soon and, having caught a preview last night, I'm happy to recommend it. The film opened to mixed reviews in America last November, but in my view it has been criticised for the wrong reasons, such as narrative strands that lead to no conclusion. It is a bleak film that, despite its specific take on the fast food industry, touches on several topics pertinent to globalised capitalism, making it holistic and transnational in relevance. Full review around the time of its 23 March release. Meanwhile catch some video excerpts of the production:

Fast Food Nation's official site +

Europa Cinemas at the Berlin festival

Further supporting its ongoing campaign to promote European films, Europa Cinemas will return once again to this years Berlin Film Festival, awarding its Label prize to the best European film in the Panorama section (February 8-18). This marks the third year that the Europa Cinemas Label will be awarded at Berlin, and complements the Labels awarded at the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes, the Venice Days section of the Mostra del Cinema, and Karlovy Vary.

A jury of four Europa Cinemas exhibitors will award the Label at Berlin, with the winning film receiving the support of extended theatrical exposure and additional promotion from the Europa Cinemas network. The Panorama jury will consist of Stas Ravter (Slovenia), Exhibitor at the Kinodvor cinema and General Manager of the Slovenian Cinematheque (Llubljana); Georgette Ranucci (Italy), Exhibitor at the Alcazar cinema in Rome; Michal Drobny (Czech Republic), Manager of the distribution/exhibition company Continental Film in Bratislava and Christian Schmalz (Germany), exbitor at the Off Broadway Kino in Cologne.

Founded in 1992, the Europa Cinemas network now consists of 1,689 screens in 690 cinemas in 403 cities in 55 countries. Europa Cinemas’ aim is to support the programming and visibility of European films outside their country of origin, and to foster initiatives aimed at encouraging younger audiences to develop their interest in European films and cultural diversity.


Europa Cinemas +

Rotterdam festival

The Rotterdam International Film Festival has announced that its 36th edition will include 38 world, 21 international and 23 European feature premieres, focusing on ´independent and innovative filmmaking´. The full programme will be announced online next Thursday 18th January, and contains a mixture of brand new films, underestimated gems and highlights of the year.

Rotterdam Film Festival +

Andrzej Munk at London's Riverside 3-17 January 2006

A recent interest in Andrzej Munk’s work started with the distribution company Second Run's DVD release of his film The Passenger late last year. Following on from that, the Polish Cultural Institute in association with the Riverside in London are paying their own tribute to the director who died from a car crash at the tragically early age of 39.


The Passenger plays next week (17th Jan) and, though fictionalised, is one of the most harrowing accounts of Auschwitz you will see, emulating even Alain Resnais's Night and Fog. However, Munk also saw humour in the tragedy of life and tonight's (10th Jan) double-bill at the Riverside starts with his Bad Luck from 1960, about a Polish everyman who always finds himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. It's followed by its Andrzej Kotkowski directed sequel Citizen Piszczyk, made 29 years later and starring Jerzy Stuhr.

The film critic and historian Phiip Kemp will introduce the screenings on 17th Jan that, along with The Passenger, include Munk shorts and The Last Pictures, Andrzej Brzozowski's documentary on the great director from 2001. Brzozowski was Munk's assistant on The Passenger and here he takes us through the film and how he completed it to what he believed were Munk's intentions, also adding phtographs and a voice-over narration.

More information on the Andrzej Munk season at the Riverside can be found on this page

The Online Film Critics choose United 93 as Best Picture...

...with Helen Mirren (The Queen) and Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland) taking Best Acting honours and Martin Scorcese winning Best Director. But the most interesting mentions on their list are in the smaller categories: the critics of the Online Film Critics Society (of which I am a member) choose Richard Linklater's A Scanner Darkly as Best Animated Film, Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain for Best Score, and the screenplays of El laberinto del fauno (Pan's Labyrinth) and Children of Men as Best Original Screenplay and Best Adapted Screenplays respectively, which is interesting since both were written (at least partly) by Mexicans, with El laberinto written in a foreign language (the Spanish-Mexican co-production also won Best Foreign Film). Children of Men also won the Best Cinematography category for its Mexican cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, with United 93 also winning the Best Editing category. Jackie Earle Haley won the Best Supporting Actor mention for his creepy character in Todd Field's Little Children, with the young Abigail Breslin taking home the Best Supporting Actress prize for the indie hit comedy Little Miss Sunshine. The full list of winners is available here.

Factory Girl trailer

Don't hold your breath for yet another film exploiting that whole Andy Warhol/Factory mythology, which has become something of a sub-genre, and a catastrophic one at that. Factory Girl focuses on the short life of It girl Edie Sedgwick, who was Warhol's muse for a while. In a truly astouding example os miscasting, they hired the mediocre Sienna Miller for the part. What about Guy Pearce as Warhol? If this trailer is anything to go by, Factory Girl looks, quite simply, ridiculous.

Factory Girl trailer +

And here's the trailer of Ciao Manhattan (1972), a film which the real Edie starred in:

Jonas Mekas 365 project kicks off

Jonas Mekas (pictured), that infatigable doyen of independent cinema, yesterday started posting short films on his site as part of his 365 project. The films can be downloaded for free on the day they are posted.

Jonas Mekas +

Shepperton Studios book offer

To celebrate the end of the year in style, Kamera has teamed up with Southbank Publishing to offer readers the opportunity to buy Shepperton Studios: A Visual Celebration, by producer and broadcaster Morris Bright, at a special price of £79.95 (normal price £125).

In 2006 Shepperton Studios completed 75 years of cinematic activity. It was here that past classics such as The Third Man, The African Queen, Oliver!, The Omen, Alien, Gladiator and 2001: A Space Odyssey, as well as recent blockbusters like Bridget Jones's Diary, Bend It Like Beckham and Troy were made since it was inaugurated in the winter of 1931.

The Limited Edition of 750 copies is presented in a box with unique cushion cover and includes an exclusive facsimile copy of an original Flicker Book (the success of which helped Norman Loudon create Shepperton Studios) and a facsimile copy of the film campaign brochure for The Wicker Man.

This elegant volume also includes exclusive contributions from directors, actors and producers and including over 300 stunning images and a DVD with trailers, besides much more. The book represents the first comprehensive illustrated account of Shepperton Studios. Here's a taster:

Kamera wishes all its readers a great Christmas and a truly amazing 2007.

All the best,

Antonio Pasolini
editor

SlamDance short film programme

Out of a staggering 2,150 short films from 20 countries that were submitted to the 2007 Slamdance Film Festival, 73 have been selected to screen, each of which is now

Read more +

New Hollywood?

The art newsletter artnews.com is currently carrying an article about contemporary film projects carried out by artists. The article tries to create an idea of movement, a trend, but I think that's pushing the envelope too far. There's always an artist working on a feature film project and most of them vanish without a trace - has anyone seen Tracey Emin's Top Spot? Besides, the artists mentioned are not really working in Hollywood, maybe Julian Schnabel gets close to that, but still, Hollywood is not interested in art, has never been and never will be. Even in the period of the so-called New Hollywood, when they drafted in European directors to make films (like Visconti's disastrous experience with Death in Venice (1969), Hollywood wanted people like Visconti because he was good box office in Europe and they thought that, at a time of a shortage of ideas in Tinseltown like the late 60s were, perhaps European auteurs could work their magic in the United States as well. Big mistake. But the article does provide a good round-up of who's doing what and here it is.

European Film Awards

The European Film Awards were announced yesterday. Among the many winners -and some surprising results there - Pedro Almodovar's Volver was all over the place with three awards: Best Director, BestActress for Penelope Cruz and the People's Choice Award.
European Film Awards +

2007 Independent Spirit Awards

The 2007 Independent Spirit Awards nominees have been announced. David Lynch and Laura Dern are listed for a Special Distinction Award, the late Robert Altman for Best Director and Michael Arndt for Best First Screenplay Award, an undeserving entry in my opinion.

Independent Spirit Awards +

Kamera's editor tonight at the Brixton Ritzy

If anyone is around in Brixton, London, this evening, I'll be at Ritzy at 6:30 presenting a selection of short films from Brazil for the Discovering Latin America film festival, which ends on Sunday. More information here. Come and say hello.

Les Amants Reguliers wins Prix Fipresci 2006

Philippe Garrel won the Prix Fipresci 2006 for his beautiful homage to the Novelle Vague and the May 1968 generation, Les Amants Reguliers (whose recent UK DVD release was reviewed on Kamera). The president of Fipresci, Andrei Plakhov, said, "Philippe Garrel made his first film when he was 16, and by 20 had earned the reputation of the Nouvelle Vague's Wunderkind and 'younger brother of Godard'. His sophisticated cinematographic style, with long concentrated frames, is unique. His films are like fake detective stories, where mystery lies, not in the plot but in the style.”

Fipresci +

Omar Sharif at the Cairo Film Festival

For those of you wondering about Omar Sharif's (pictured) whereabouts, fret no more. Today he's in Cairo (well, he's lived in Egypt all his life), for the opening of the Cairo Film Festival, which started 30 years ago. Sharif is the honorary president of the festival. The event goes on until 8 December and will be dedicated to the Late Nobel Prize Laureate Naguib Mahfouz, who died earlier this year. Films based on his novels will be screened.

The festival will feature Arab and international movie stars such as the American actor Dany Glover and the British actress Jacqueline Bisset besides Jeremy Irons and Julia Ormond who will attend the festival's different sections. These include "The Official Contest", "Guest of Honor", "Arab Films Competition", "Arabs in International Movies", "Panorama of Lebanese Movies" and "Panorama of the Egyptian Cinema".

Cairo Film Festival +

RIP Robert Altman

The legends seem to keep dropping this year, don't they? RIP big man - for the last five minutes of The Player alone you were totally CLASSIC!!

Sighting of the month: Matt Dillon in the Amazon

We spotted Matt Dillon visiting an environmental project in the Amazon during his attendance at the Manaus (the capital of the Amazon) film festival. Shall we rename him 'Mata Dillon' in reference to the Portuguese word for jungle? Or am I paying too much attention to the antics involved in headline writing on British tabloids?

Mata Dilllon +

Round up: Latin American and German cinema in London

In the run-up to the Christmas season (definitely a bad cinema season), there are quite a few options around London for those who want to get a proper film fix before heading off to the Christmas break to watch The Sound of Music for the umpteenth time.

The charity Discovering Latin America, whose main goal is to publicise Latin American culture abroad and raise funds for social projects it chooses to champion, arrives at the

5th edition of its annual film festival on Thursday, 23/11, running until 03/12. The festival will take place at the Odeon Covent Garden and Panton Street in the West End, Tate Modern in the South Bank, The Ritzy Cinema in Brixton and Everyman Cinema in Hampstead. Yours truly will be presenting a section of Brazilian short films at the Ritzy Cinema on 01/12 at 6:30pm, so please come and say hello. The Tate Modern will be showing Luis Bunuel's Viridiana and the rest of the programme is a mixture of films from all over the Latin American continent. Further information from the DLAFF site.


Also starting on 23/11 and running until the 26th is the 9th Festival of German Films promising 'a strong line-up of impressively crafted and compelling new features and documentaries from some of the most exciting German filmmakers working today'. The event also features a section called Critical Cinema of East Germany, presented by the London Goethe-Institut plus the regular Next Generation strand which showcases live-action and animated shorts from German film school graduates. More info here.


(Still from Dog Pound, DLAFF, screening on 3/12)

David Lynch's cow stunt

David Lynch is back after a five-year hiatus with a new feature film, Inland Empire, which reunites the top American surrealist with the ever lovely Laura Dern (Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart). Reviews have been good , but so far there's no UK release date scheduled. However, Lynch has been busy promoting his film, due out in the U.S. next month (15/12) and even took to the streets of Los Angeles to promote it. Don't you just love this man?

See it: Stella Polare

Anyone attending the Leeds International Film Festival should check out the striking Stella Polare (pictured left), by British filmmakers Anthea Kennedy and Ian Wilbin, which screens today at 1:45pm and tomorrow at 2:15 at the Carriageworks. Stella Polare is everything that British films quite often are not: meditative, mysterious and oblivious of the strictures of conventional narrative. I saw this film at the Osnabruck Media Art festival in May this year and absolutely loved it. An inspiration for indepedent filmmakers working with video technology; it shows how much can be achieved.

Stella Polare +

Festival alert: Kassel and Leeds

The 23rd edition of the Kassel Film and Video Festival starts today and runs until the 12th. 214 current films and videos from 21 countries will be screened within the next six days, one third of which are premieres. About 100 directors and artists are expected to attend the festival for the presentation and discussion of their works. The exhibition MONITORING presents 16 media installations from five countries. The opening is going to take place on November 8 at 7 pm. The interdisciplinary conference interfiction as well as the Live Visuals in the DokfestLounge will close the festival. Altogether 68 contributions out of the program will compete for the three prizes of €10,000 in total and the A38-Artist-in-Residence Grant Kassel-Halle.

Kassel film and video festival +

Elsewhere, the Leeds International Film Festival is now well under way. The organisers remind us that although the Fanomenon Horror Weekend has now ended, there's a chance to catch some of the films at their repeat screenings - Silver Méliès winner Isolation (Tue 7 Nov), Resonnances, The Woods (Thu 9 Nov), Gruesome and Dark Remains (Fri 10 Nov). Still to come in the Film Festival are American Hardcore, a film about the American Punk Explosion (Wed 8 Nov), presented by director Paul Rachman and writer Steven Blush. Beach Party at the Threshold of Hell and Monks: The Transatlantic Feedback can be seen again later this week: the former plays on Sat 11 Nov (Hyde Park Picture House, 9:00pm) while the latter will be showing on Mon 6 Nov (The Carriageworks, 3:15pm).

Leeds film festival +

Danish Silent Classics on DVD

A delicious and not to mention important selection of Danish silent film classics has been restored and is now available for purchase online on the website of the Danish Film Institute. The selection includes films by internationally renowned director Carl Theodor Dreyer; the charismatic actor-director Benjamin Christensen and films starring Denmark's most prominent thespians of the silent period: actor Valdemar Psilander and actress Asta Nielsen.

A total of nine DVDs are available at present, while two more will be ready for sale in the coming months. These include films by Holger-Madsen (Himmelskibet, from 1918), August Blom (Verdens undergang/The End of the World, from 1916) and Carl Theodor Dreyer (Blade af Satan's Bog/Leaves from Satan's Book from 1921, Der var engang/Once Upon A Time, 1922).

The launch of this DVD collection (with English intertitles) is the conclusion of an ambitious project of the DFI Film Archive, which began in 2003, when the Danish Ministry of Culture allocated 1 million DKK (about £90,000) to a project for the digitization of national film classics from the silent period. The title list and more information can be found on the site of the Danish Film Institute.

Pixies at the ICA tomorrow 1/11

The documentary loudQUIETloud, which charts the musical path created by cult band Pixies, is being launched tomorrow at London's ICA. The influential band, which was broken up in 1992 when their chief songwriter and vocalist Black Francis announced his intention to quit the band via a blunt facsimile, reunited in 2004 and announced a series of shows that would become some of the fastest selling in music history.

The film will be screened in the ICA theatre to allow the full impact of the film's live performances to be felt. Director Steven Cantor will be present to answer questions from the audience.

Trailer +

ICA +

Vampire blog-a-thon

Tireless film and popculture critic Nathaniel R of The Film Experience has organised a huge vampire blog-a-thon on the occasion of Halloween, with over 50 blogs chiming in with a post, an article and/or a more profound cinematic analysis of their favourite film vampires, bloodsuckers and undead.

Yours truly has also contributed with a review of the Swedish vampire horror comedy Frostbiten (Frostbite) on the website european-films.net. For an overview of all the participating blogs and hours of reading/commenting/discussing pleasure, check out the complete list of participating blogs over at the filmexperience blog.

Cinema tickets in London the most expensive in Europe

We all suspected that, but now it's official...

Read article +

YouTube intermission of the day: The Battle of the Album Covers

Fun!

London Film Festival's latest

Today is a good day at the LFF. The programme includes a screening of Lukas Moodysson's 'surreally dark' Container and Nanni Moretti's The Caiman, a political satire of Berlusconi's premiership. To top it all up, there will be the Film on the Square Gala of Shortbus, a film that I personally can't wait to see.

Also the press office of the festival has rung in to tell Kamera that the winner of the annual Grierson Award, given to the best feature-length documentary at the Festival, was Lauren Greenfield's Thin, which is about a Florida eating disorder treatment centre. The award will be presented at Thursday's screening.

LFF site +

Final Cut Pro free course

Apple in London is offering a free seminar that includes training in the Final Cut Studio software suite. So, independent filmmakers who use the package to edit films and would like to brush up their skills, take note. The event will be on 17 November and it goes without saying that it is likely to book up fast.

Book place +

Reading tip

I found this page in the Media Art website with some inspiring texts on film and art. 'Artists, Auteurs, and Star. On the Human Factor in the Culture Industry' was one of the texts that lept to my attention because it touches on the concept of authorship, one which is being increasingly questioned in this age when the notion of copyrights and originality is highly debatable.

Read more +

Opening Shots Project

On "Scanners", the blog of American film critic (and editor of rogerebert.com) Jim Emerson there are some surprisingly insightful discussions going on about the opening shots of famous -- and sometimes less famous -- films. The collection of entries is called the "Opening Shots Project" and is a fantastic work in progess on how to open a movie. Stills are included in each post for reference and readers are invited to contribute their own favourite opening shots and/or comment on those already in the archives, so rush over to the Scanners Opening Shots Project and join in the conversation!

Cameron Mitchell's masterclass

John Cameron Mitchell, whose sexually explicit upcoming film, Shortbus, is bound to generate a hell of a lot of column inches (no pun intended) for the polysexually-inclined American indie director (he directed Hedwig and the Angry Inch - that word again - produced Tarnation and directed the video clip for the Scissor Sister's song Filthy Gorgeous). He will be giving a masterclass on 26/10 called 'Putting the Sex in Screen Stories'. So go find out how he does it.

Mitchell's masterclass +

London Film festival opens

Here's the Guardian report. And here are the newspaper's festival recommendations.

Kamera on Myspace

Kamera has joined Myspace's community. I have created a page for the site with the name kamerafilmsalon, as Kamera alone had been taken by a "19-year-old female in Texas" with an apparent interest in photography. These kids are too fast for us folks from the old media, but we're getting there! If anyone is proficient with Myspace design, please do let me know as any help and suggestions are very welcome.

Kamerafilmsalon

Press conference with Pedro Almodovar and Penelope Cruz

Pedro Almodovar graced the 44th New York Film Festival (Penelope Cruz in tow) in connection with the screening of his film Volver. Here's a video clip of their joint interview.

19th Panorama of European Cinema

The 19th Panorama of European Cinema, organised by Eleftherotypia, and with the co-operation of the Greek ministry of Culture, began last night (12th of October). At the official opening of the Festival, the screening was of Niko Panagiotopoulos's Dying in Athens.

The festival runs until 22nd of October and screenings take place in the centre of Athens at the Apollo cinema and the Asty cinema. The festival, as its name suggests, covers a Panorama of European Cinema and is more like a best of recent festivals with a few premieres. This year they managed to secure the European Premiere of Woody Allen's new film Scoop, quite an appropriate title for a film screening at the festival's closing gala.

What makes the Panorama particularly different is that it also focuses more on film history - national cinemas and genres take precedent. It also focuses on a particular director, actor or playwright. This year they celebrate the works of Sam Peckinpah, Robert Rossellini and particularly Harold Pinter.

The 19th Panorama of European Cinema programme is made up of the following sections: :
Competition Section with new European films not bought by Greek distributors,Avant-premieres of European films;
The International Scene – World cinema round-up;
Cinema : a suversive art - films by Jean Vigo, Bunuel, Franju, and others;
Sam Peckinpah: a subversive director;
Harold Pinter – a film tribute and photo exhibition dedicated to the acclaimed British writer’s career in theatre,
literature and film;
The Day After – What future? - science fiction films dealing with ecological, environmental and other problems;
Robert Rossellini Centenary;
New Italian Cinema.

For the 19th Panorama of European Cinema website click here

For an overview of last year's festival click here

Shortbus

So Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit, Woody Allen-ian Shortbus has opened in the U.S. to ecstatic reviews. It is due to get a UK release on 1/12 and surely enough it will revive the discussion about cinematic 'real sex' triggered off by Michael Winterbottom's 9 Songs.

Review of Shortbus +

A week of art films in London

Artprojx is presenting a selection of films at the Prince Charles Cinema in central London throughtout the week starting today, including works by Mark Wallinger, Jesper Just and Laurie Simmons. Anthony Reynolds Gallery is presenting Wallinger's new 35mm 'The End' (12 mins). Here's how the gallery describes it:

"The title of the work implies both termination and intent. Taking one of the most routine elements of any movie, the credits that wrap up the picture, Wallinger presents an ultimate cast of characters that, accompanied by a classic cinema soundtrack, gives us the complete experience, the greatest story ever told, the beginning and the end. With the simplest of means, a scrolling text, Wallinger evokes the grandest, most thrilling and awe-inspiring cinematic epic."

Anthony Reynolds Gallery +

Wallinger has also curated the films being shown today at the Prince Charles Cinema off Leicester Square in London and The End will be shown before each of them:

1pm KES (PG) Directed by Ken Loach, 1969
3.20pm COMME UNE IMAGE (12A) Directed by Agnes Jaoui, 2004
6pm EDUKATORS (15) Directed by Hans Weingartner, 2004
9pm ERASERHEAD (18) Directed by David Lynch, 1977


Tomorrow is the turn of Jesper Just's 'It Will All End In Tears', a 20 min 35mm film followed by a conversation with the artist:

"In Jesper Justs new film "It Will All End In Tears" Just, as often seen before in his works, present the problem of the relationship between generations ­ or ­ more precisely, the relationship between father and son, both in literal and metaphorical terms. Jesper Just is not simply concerned with a representational-critical reiteration of cinematic clichés; he also manages to pose questions of a more existential character, questions that touch on men¹s way of being and being together."

On Friday, photographer Laurie Simmos shows her debut film 'The Music of Regret' and it will be followed by a conversation with RoseLee Goldberg. The film is a three-act cinematic musical starring Meryl Streep, Adam Guettel's voice and members of the Alvin Ailey II dance company, plus a cast of vintage puppets and ventriloquist dummies. Shot by cinematographer Ed Lachman (Far From Heaven, The Virgin Suicides) with a bittersweet, Sondheim-flavoured score by Michael Rohatyn, the film "portrays the despair and longing that has coloured the post-9/11 era."

Prince Charles Cinema +

Artprojx +

No trouble finding oil...

Popular French film magazine Studio (pronounced "Stu-djo", of course) has listed the top 20 of gay films that are (at least according to film writer Michel Rebichon) the most indicative of the changing customs and habits of the times and accurately reflect social mores. Here is their full rundown, from oldest to most recent:

*Rope - Alfred Hitchcock, 1948, USA
*Satyricon - Federico Fellini, 1969, Italy
*Morte a Venezia (Death in Venice), Luchino Visconti, 1971, Italy
*La meilleure façon de marcher (The Best Way to Walk) - Claude Miller, 1976, France
*Sebastiane - Derek Jarman and Paul Humfress, 1976, UK
*Querelle - Rainer Werner Fassbinder, 1982, Germany
*L'homme blessé (The Wounded Man) - Patrice Chéreau, 1983, France
*La ley del deseo (The Law of Desire) - Pedro Almodóvar, 1986, Spain
*Maurice - James Ivory, 1987, UK
*Les nuits fauves (Savage Nights) - Cyril Coliard, 1992, France
*Philadelphia - Jonathan Demme, 1993, USA
*The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert - Stephan Elliot, 1994, Australia
*Fresa y chocolate (Strawberries and Chocolate) - Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, 1994, Cuba
*Les roseaux sauvages (Wild Reeds) - André Téchiné, 1994, France
*The Celluloid Closet - Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman, 1995, USA
*Beautiful Thing - Hettie MacDonald, 1996, UK
*Bound - Andy and Larry Wachowski, 1996, USA
*Bent - Sean Mathias, 1997, UK
*Far From Heaven - Todd Haynes, 2002, USA
*Brokeback Mountain - Ang Lee, 2005, USA

It is interesting to note that the list starts with a USA-made Hitchcock film that is all but open about its subject and that the US as a producing country then virtually disappears from the list until 1993, and then delivers the bulk of the new titles. Another interesting trend is that many of the films in the top 20 are not portraying contemporary society but societies in the past (including Satyricon, Sebastiane, Maurice, Wild Reeds, Bent, Far From Heaven and Brokeback Mountain).

Glaring omissions -- in my humble opinion -- include Richard Oswald's Anders als die Anderen (Different From The Others) from 1919 (!), Carl Theodor Dreyer's silent 1924 classic Mikaël, Rossellini's Germania Anno Zero from 1948, 1961's Victim with Dirk Bogarde, anything by Pasolini (probably Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma) and perhaps something like Stephen Daldry's 2002 film The Hours and Kimberly Peirce's Boys Don't Cry from 1999. And no mention of Gus Van Sant?

Films on the list that, again in my humble opinion, seem minor when compared to the others: Bound (which seems to have been included simply to demonstrate that the writer has not forgotten lesbianism as well, I would have chosen The Hours and/or Boys Don't Cry) and the Sirk-inspired hommage Far From Heaven, in which Dennis Quaid's character is homosexual only as a plot convience that obstacles Julianne Moore's character and her desire for a picture-perfect marriage. A much more interesting choice would have been Sirk's own Written on the Wind, in which Rock Hudson utters the famous line "I have trouble enough finding oil" in reply to the question why he has not married yet.

What do you think? Leave your comment!

Ten Top Movies in the Public Domain

Ann Savage in the public domain noir Detour.

Wired Magazine has posted an interesting top ten of films that are in the public domain and can thus be downloaded for free. Find out which films and where on the Wired site.

Nick Broomfield's documentary Ghosts moves San Sebastian

It is always nice to find out that one of the best documentarians around, Nick Broomfield, is back with a new film. Broomfield opened the San Sebastian festival with Ghosts, a documentary about the 23 undocumented Chinese workers who died in Northern England in 2004 while harvesting cockles at night. Broomfield used mostly non-actors in his film, with special focus on Ai Qin, a single mother from Fujian who go together $25,000 to come to England and ended up living with 15 other Chinese workers in a two-bedroom house.The International Herald Tribune describes her performance as 'heartbreaking'. In fact the publication ran a very insightful article about the festival and its focus on immigration.

And Tom DiCillo won a Silver Shell for best director with his new film, Delirious. As I had stated here before, I can't wait to see it and hopefully this validation from a major festival will spell a good distribution deal.


San Sebastian Film Festival

Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait

Does a footballer deserve a feature-length film dedicated to him? Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno have come up with a very ambitious project, and full marks for completion but....

Will Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait emulate the career of the great player or will it turn him into a 92 minute Psycho?

See the review of the film that's been released in selected cinemas today here.

French cinematographer Raoul Coutard's life story part of People's Archives

A scene from Jules et Jim. (C) Sédif Productions.

The life story of the legendary French cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, is now freely available from Peoples Archive, an online video on-demand archive that features some of the world’s greatest thinkers, creators and achievers of our time.

Speaking in French, and presented with or without English subtitles, Raoul Coutard talks for more than 8 hours about his life and work, the French New Wave and also gives us an insight on what it was like working with great filmmakers. His films include Godard's A bout de souffle (Breathless), Le mépris (Contempt) and La Chinoise, Truffaut's La peau douce (The Soft Skin) and Jules et Jim (Jules and Jim), Costa-Gavras' Z and L'aveu (The Confession) and, more recently, works from Philippe Garrel and Guillaume Nicloux.

Tamsin Newmark, director-producer of the Peoples Archive says: Raoul Coutard's life story is a welcome addition to our Film section and filming one of the most influential and emblematic French cinematographers was a wonderful opportunity. Not only does he give us the chance to better understand the world of cinematography but he also enables us to delve into the mind of a great achiever. Raoul Coutard's influence on Cinema and cinematography is undeniable and he remains one of the key figures of the New Wave. We are delighted to have the opportunity to share and preserve his incredible life story.

Raoul Coutard’s life story is available to view for free on the Peoples Archive website and will also be available to buy on DVD-ROM in the coming year. Downloads for iPods and other mobile devices will soon be offered on the site as well as through the Google Video Store. Peoples Archive currently contains 32 life stories, totalling over 200 hours of video, divided into 4501 segments. The Archive is grouped into five sections: Science, Film, Literature, Masters and Medicine, with two new sections, Art and Activists, being introduced in the coming months. Future plans include filming with the filmmakers Sydney Pollack and James Ivory, the architect Sir Norman Foster and the spy writer John Le Carré.

Online viewing: Rio Cine Festival

The organisers of the Rio de Janeiro film festival have teamed up with the popular Porta Curta streaming site to show 17 of the competing films from the festival's Première Brasil section. You can also vote for your favourites.

Fest Rio +

San Sebastian film festival: clips

Google Video already has a selection of clips with footage of the goings-on at the San Sebastian film festival. Speaking of which, Kamera's newswire received information from one of its PR friends that Tom DiCillo's new film, Delirious, is being screened at the Spanish festival. 'Delirious' sees DiCillo reunite with Steve Buscemi. While I haven't seen the film to vouch for it, the storyline sounds like DiCillo classic. Here's a description:

"Small time paparazzo Les (Steve Buscemi) has a big mouth and big dreams, but try as he might, he can’t quite talk himself into the right parties to get that one great exclusive photo. He meets Toby (Michael Pitt), a homeless kid who is drawn to the bright lights of New York City and “hires” him as his assistant.

But the two are drawn to each other and become friends. Although Toby enjoys the glamour and excitement of Les’ lifestyle he still retains a compelling innocence and naiveté that draws Les to him. Toby also has vague dreams of his own; to become an actor.

Luck intervenes for Toby when he accidentally meets K’Harma Leeds (Alison Lohman), a beautiful pop diva. As their unlikely love blossoms Toby finds himself torn between a chance to follow his dreams of becoming an actor and to fulfill his obligation to Les. When Toby leaves Les for a part on a Reality Show, partly by sleeping with the show’s casting director Dana (Gina Gershon), their blossoming friendship immediately falls apart.

As Toby’s fortunes continue to rise, Les tries to reach out, while also maintaining a bitter resentment toward his former protégé…"

Festival site

Google video

Agnès Varda's video installation

A tip for those passing through Paris until 08 October: the doyenne of the Novelle Vague (and the movement's only significant female presence behind the camera), Agnès Varda, has prepared a series of video installations called L'Ile et Elle as a result of a commission from the Fondation Cartier.

Update: Agnès Varda will be in London on 28/10 for a talk at the Cine Lumiere, where she will be presenting Cinévardaphoto. The programme includes three films chosen by director Varda, all dealing with photos and together forming a meditation on what photography and the artistic impulse mean to her. Ydessa, the Bears, and etc... is about an artist/curator who is obssessed with collecting pictures of people with teddy bears from the early years of the 20th century. Ulysse is an examination from 1982 of a photo Varda took in 1954. Salut les Cubains, the earliest of the three films, looks at the Cuban revolution via a photo exhibition mounted some 10 years after the event.


Further info +

London Film Festival

When the London Film Festival announced its programme a few days ago, I went straight to the experimental section to see what was on offer. I was pleasantly surprised to see two films on two American underground luminaries: Anger Me, about Kenneth Anger and Jack Smith and The Destruction of Atlantis about Jack Smith, both curated by the ever reliable Mark Webber.

Anger was a legendary pioneer of independent filmmaking who used to hang out with the Stones, made the homoerotic Scorpio Rising (1964) and wrote the infamous book Hollywood Babylon. Smith, on the other hand, worked in the pre-Warhol New York art scene and was heavily influenced by kitsch 1940s star Maria Montez, blending film with experimental theatre, fashion and photography. His most famous film, Flaming Creatures, is "an epic fantasy, featuring blonde vampires and bohemians cavorting amid a tangle of naked bodies". A baroque genius.

Excerpt from Anger's Lucifer Rising (1972)



Jack Smith's short Scotch Tape (1963)




Festival site

Filmosophy and Harmony Korine

Wallflower, the London-based publisher specialised in film theory, has rung in to tell us about an event connected to one of their upcoming titles, and soon to be reviewed on Kamera, Filmosophy, by Daniel Frampton, filmmaker and theorist, founding editor of the online salon Film Philosophy. The event will take place on Sunday 15 October 12noon and will include a screening of Julien Donkey-Boy, followed by a conversation between director Harmony Korine and Frampton. Very likely to sell fast, so book your ticket now on 020 7837 8402 (Renoir in London's Bloomsbury).