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Much has been said of the overwhelming ingenuity of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films, but less so about just how well the director knew how to work around budgetary limitations. Alphaville, a dystopian sci-fi noir set in an Orwellian world of omnipresent surveillance run by a malevolent artificial intelligence, sounds at first blush like a large-scale work filled with the sort of macro world-building one typically sees in blockbusters. But Godard, working with next to no resources, captures the oppressiveness of totalitarian government through the claustrophobic conditions of repressed citizens. Ordinary Parisian streets and buildings are captured as they are, though in inky shadow, so that a certain kind of present-day dilapidation comes to suggest futuristic social decay.
Godard takes private detective Lemmy Caution and illustrates Alphaville’s themes of social tension and incipient fascism by demolishing the man’s image. Godard secured Eddie Constantine, who had already played Caution...
Godard takes private detective Lemmy Caution and illustrates Alphaville’s themes of social tension and incipient fascism by demolishing the man’s image. Godard secured Eddie Constantine, who had already played Caution...
- 8/4/2024
- by Jake Cole
- Slant Magazine
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First look notwithstanding, details have been few and far between on Richard Linklater’s Nouvelle Vague, largely understood to concern the production of Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless, making notable a new set report from Les Inrockuptibles. It should’ve been obvious from the jump that America’s premier hangout filmmaker would resurrect cinema’s most-influential group as, well, a group, with Linklater describing his film as (in a somewhat contradictory manner) “the story of a personal revolution in cinema led by one man, and all the people around him,” with the implication of actors playing Jacques Rivette, Éric Rohmer, Jacques Demy, Agnès Varda, Alain Resnais, and Jean Cocteau.
Fittingly, Nouvelle Vague will not start with Zoey Deutch’s Jean Seberg (admittedly odd combination of words) filming on the Champs-Élysées, but at least stretches back to the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where, upon The 400 Blows‘ triumphant debut, Godard “succeeded in convincing producer...
Fittingly, Nouvelle Vague will not start with Zoey Deutch’s Jean Seberg (admittedly odd combination of words) filming on the Champs-Élysées, but at least stretches back to the 1959 Cannes Film Festival, where, upon The 400 Blows‘ triumphant debut, Godard “succeeded in convincing producer...
- 5/14/2024
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
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It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year! As Christmas fast approaches, and the holiday craze begins to set in, you still have a few weeks to square away gifts for everyone on your list this year — no stress necessary.
Plus, companies are making it easier than ever to make your way through your shopping list this year, thanks to bountiful Black Friday deals (which are already kicking online), and fun new gadgets across a wide array of categories that will excite everyone on your list.
From this Breville Espresso Machine to this Mandalorian Razor Crest Lego set to these unrivaled Bowers and Wilkins over-ear headphones, here are the absolute best gifts for every person on your list.
For the Criterion Collector Pierrot le Fou (The Criterion...
It’s (almost) the most wonderful time of the year! As Christmas fast approaches, and the holiday craze begins to set in, you still have a few weeks to square away gifts for everyone on your list this year — no stress necessary.
Plus, companies are making it easier than ever to make your way through your shopping list this year, thanks to bountiful Black Friday deals (which are already kicking online), and fun new gadgets across a wide array of categories that will excite everyone on your list.
From this Breville Espresso Machine to this Mandalorian Razor Crest Lego set to these unrivaled Bowers and Wilkins over-ear headphones, here are the absolute best gifts for every person on your list.
For the Criterion Collector Pierrot le Fou (The Criterion...
- 12/1/2023
- by Anna Tingley
- Variety Film + TV
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzQzZDgwODgtMzg5OC00YTllLWE2N2YtYjk3MTBmYTU3MmI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BYzQzZDgwODgtMzg5OC00YTllLWE2N2YtYjk3MTBmYTU3MmI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,140_.jpg)
François Truffaut’s ode to Hitchcock and Cornell Woolrich is an ice-cold femme revenge tale. Jeanne Moreau exacts retribution from five men who made her a widow on her wedding day. Truffaut winds it as tightly as a mousetrap, leaving Ms. Moreau’s psychology a mystery — feminists can debate whether the film is misogynistic. Raoul Coutard’s color cinematography is deceptively warm and inviting; the film’s biggest boost comes from Bernard Herrmann’s powerful music score.
The Bride Wore Black
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1968 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / La mariée était en noir / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Claude Brialy, Charles Denner, Claude Rich, Michael Lonsdale, Daniel Boulanger, Alexandra Stewart, Sylvine Delannoy, Luce Fabiole, Michèle Montfort.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy
Film Editor: Claudine Bouché
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard from the novel by William Irish...
The Bride Wore Black
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1968 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 107 min. / Street Date February 14, 2023 / La mariée était en noir / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95
Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Michel Bouquet, Jean-Claude Brialy, Charles Denner, Claude Rich, Michael Lonsdale, Daniel Boulanger, Alexandra Stewart, Sylvine Delannoy, Luce Fabiole, Michèle Montfort.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy
Film Editor: Claudine Bouché
Original Music: Bernard Herrmann
Written by François Truffaut, Jean-Louis Richard from the novel by William Irish...
- 2/4/2023
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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Jean Luc-Godard, who died Tuesday at the age of 91, was widely known as the King of the French New Wave. Since coming onto the scene in the 1960s, his seminal films such as “Breathless,” “Masculin, Feminin” and “Pierrot Le Fou,” introduced avante-garde techniques that have been since been replicated by innumerable filmmakers in the following decades.
In addition to a scathing intellectualism and stubborn stance against “the establishment”, the Franco-Swiss director was best known for changing the rules of cinema — his use of long-takes, jump-cuts and actor asides are just a few of the innovative practices he employed in his films that are still used to this day.
Thankfully, Godard left behind dozens of unforgettable films, many of which have been restored on Criterion. Below, check out some of Godard’s best films to celebrate the late director:
‘Pierrot le fou’ Courtesy of Amazon
Godard perfects the Pop Art color...
In addition to a scathing intellectualism and stubborn stance against “the establishment”, the Franco-Swiss director was best known for changing the rules of cinema — his use of long-takes, jump-cuts and actor asides are just a few of the innovative practices he employed in his films that are still used to this day.
Thankfully, Godard left behind dozens of unforgettable films, many of which have been restored on Criterion. Below, check out some of Godard’s best films to celebrate the late director:
‘Pierrot le fou’ Courtesy of Amazon
Godard perfects the Pop Art color...
- 9/14/2022
- by Anna Tingley
- Variety Film + TV
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Jean-Luc Godard spent his career reshaping the everyday language of cinema. From Oscar darlings to the latest entry into the MCU, it’s hard to find a film or television series untouched by the influence and innovations of Godard, who died this week at the age of 91. Just consider the narrative and technical choices he made in his very first film, “Breathless”: Jump cuts, natural lighting, long takes, freeze frames, on-location shooting. All unorthodox at the time, yet now the type of thing you could clock across any given night of programming on HBO or FX.
In 2022, who can’t recognize the jittery look of a handheld camera? Who would be alarmed to see an onscreen character directly addressing the camera? Who’s never seen a movie directed by either Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee? Whether or not Godard was actually the first person to pay homage to an...
In 2022, who can’t recognize the jittery look of a handheld camera? Who would be alarmed to see an onscreen character directly addressing the camera? Who’s never seen a movie directed by either Quentin Tarantino or Spike Lee? Whether or not Godard was actually the first person to pay homage to an...
- 9/14/2022
- by Sarah Shachat and Jim Hemphill
- Indiewire
![Image](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMDNkZGY3NDYtNjBhNS00OGE2LTkzNjEtNmU4NzQ2Y2M2ZGI1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTE0MzQwMjgz._V1_QL75_UY281_CR0,0,500,281_.jpg)
My favorite tracking shot in film history is not a tracking shot. It's a shot of a tracking shot.
The scene in question opens Jean Luc-Godard's "Contempt," and, visually, consists of little more than a movie camera gliding down a dolly track toward a stationary camera, which serves as the audience's Pov. As the camera moves closer into view, we see that it is shooting, at a 90-degree angle square to our perspective, a young woman (Giorgia Moll) scribbling notations in a book. Eventually, the camera rolls to a stop directly in front of our camera, which is now a low-angle shot of the film's cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, who pans his implement 90-degrees before pointing it downward at the audience. The effect is at once startling and amusing. We have, in essence, locked eyes with the filmmaker.
This may not sound terribly thrilling in writing, but factor in a...
The scene in question opens Jean Luc-Godard's "Contempt," and, visually, consists of little more than a movie camera gliding down a dolly track toward a stationary camera, which serves as the audience's Pov. As the camera moves closer into view, we see that it is shooting, at a 90-degree angle square to our perspective, a young woman (Giorgia Moll) scribbling notations in a book. Eventually, the camera rolls to a stop directly in front of our camera, which is now a low-angle shot of the film's cinematographer, Raoul Coutard, who pans his implement 90-degrees before pointing it downward at the audience. The effect is at once startling and amusing. We have, in essence, locked eyes with the filmmaker.
This may not sound terribly thrilling in writing, but factor in a...
- 9/14/2022
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
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This unheralded story of the French retreat in 1954 Vietnam is one of the best films ever about guerilla combat. The professional French soldiers do what they can to avoid capture, but the new Lieutenant won’t abandon their wounded. The Alsatian top sergeant fought with the Germans ten years before, yet is the best and fairest man in the unit. Director Pierre Schoendoerffer knows of what he films — he was captured by the Viet Minh at the fall of Dien Bien Phu. With the able camerawork of the legendary Raoul Coutard, the movie feels very realistic; we’re told that it was used to teach military cadets.
The 317th Platoon
DVD
Icarus Films
1965 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 95 min. / La 317ème section / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Icarus Films / 29.98
Starring: Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer, Pierre Fabre, Manuel Zarzo, Boramy Tioulong, Saksi Sbong.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Film Editor: Armand Psenny
Original Music:...
The 317th Platoon
DVD
Icarus Films
1965 / B&w / 1:66 widescreen / 95 min. / La 317ème section / Street Date June 29, 2021 / Available from Icarus Films / 29.98
Starring: Jacques Perrin, Bruno Cremer, Pierre Fabre, Manuel Zarzo, Boramy Tioulong, Saksi Sbong.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Film Editor: Armand Psenny
Original Music:...
- 6/22/2021
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
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Cinematographer and director Michael Chapman, known for his work on Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull” and “The Last Waltz,” died Sunday. He was 84.
His spouse, screenwriter and film director Amy Holden Jones’ Facebook page confirmed the news of his death, writing: “Michael Chapman ASC, love of my entire adult life, has passed. Until we meet again.”
He was nominated for two Oscars for best cinematography, for “Raging Bull” — with its distinctive black and white photography — and “The Fugitive.”
Chapman began his film career as a camera operator, working on projects such as Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord,” “The Godfather” and “Jaws.” He cited his mentor, Gordon Willis, the director of Ashby’s “The Last Detail,” French cinematographer Raoul Coutard and Scorsese, with whom he collaborated several times, as people who impacted him greatly.
His later films as director of photography or cinematographer included “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,...
His spouse, screenwriter and film director Amy Holden Jones’ Facebook page confirmed the news of his death, writing: “Michael Chapman ASC, love of my entire adult life, has passed. Until we meet again.”
He was nominated for two Oscars for best cinematography, for “Raging Bull” — with its distinctive black and white photography — and “The Fugitive.”
Chapman began his film career as a camera operator, working on projects such as Hal Ashby’s “The Landlord,” “The Godfather” and “Jaws.” He cited his mentor, Gordon Willis, the director of Ashby’s “The Last Detail,” French cinematographer Raoul Coutard and Scorsese, with whom he collaborated several times, as people who impacted him greatly.
His later films as director of photography or cinematographer included “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,...
- 9/22/2020
- by Natalie Oganesyan
- Variety Film + TV
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While Agnès Varda’s La Pointe Courte (made in 1955 and shown a few years later) may have been the film to launch the French New Wave, it exploded with Jean-Luc Godard’s 1960 Breathless, written by fellow New Wave auteur François Truffaut, stunningly shot by Raoul Coutard, and starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg. StudioCanal has now beautifully restored the original print in 4K resolution just in time for the 60th anniversary. In the U.K., the film will be released on a 4K Uhd Collector’s Edition with 12’’ Vinyl as well as DVD, Blu-ray, and digital on November 9th––and now we have a new trailer and poster.
In his riff on American film noir, Breathless film conveys the trajectory of small-time crook Michel Poiccard (Belmondo) who finds himself on the run after stealing a car and murdering a police officer in cold blood. Reuniting with his former girlfriend, American...
In his riff on American film noir, Breathless film conveys the trajectory of small-time crook Michel Poiccard (Belmondo) who finds himself on the run after stealing a car and murdering a police officer in cold blood. Reuniting with his former girlfriend, American...
- 8/13/2020
- by Margaret Rasberry
- The Film Stage
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Guillaume Nicloux's To the Ends of the World is showing January and February, 2020 in the series From France with Love.A man, center-frame, despondent and immobile, sits on a bench, his head hanging heavy on his chest. Behind him, a foggy background reveals lightly-dressed soldiers trodding the ground in a casual manner, their movement slowed down to strolling. When Robert Tassen (a gritty Gaspard Ulliel) finally aligns his gaze with the spectator, even framed in long shot, his eyes are piercing, brimming with rage. Guillaume Nicloux’s fourteenth feature, To the Ends of the World, is a febrile film set in the time preceding the First Indochina War and, at once, a meditation on grief and ire, the personal and social overlapping in genesis of a war trauma which turns out to be a festering, often crippling wound.
- 1/28/2020
- MUBI
My teenage introduction to art film culture was something of a science fiction auteur-detour (R2-D2?). I discovered Alphaville at a tiny art theater above the Fox Riverside, where Gone with the Wind had previewed in 1939. I bought the filmscript book to understand what the heck was going on… and slowly began to appreciate Jean-Luc Godard. Fifty-two years later I can’t claim a complete understanding, but I’m certain that the ‘étrange aventure’ of Lemmy Caution is as original a film, of any kind, that I’ve ever seen.
Alphaville
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 99 min. / Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution / Street Date July 9, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon, Michael Delahaye, Christa Lang, Jean-Pierre Leaud.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Film Editor: Agnès Guillemot
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Poems by Paul Éluard
Produced by André Michelin
Written...
Alphaville
Blu-ray
Kl Studio Classics
1965 / B&w / 1:37 flat Academy / 99 min. / Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution / Street Date July 9, 2019 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95
Starring: Eddie Constantine, Anna Karina, Akim Tamiroff, Howard Vernon, Michael Delahaye, Christa Lang, Jean-Pierre Leaud.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard
Film Editor: Agnès Guillemot
Original Music: Paul Misraki
Poems by Paul Éluard
Produced by André Michelin
Written...
- 7/20/2019
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
![Director Bernardo Bertolucci celebrates his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 19, 2013 in Hollywood, California.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc2OTY0NjAyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjY5MDY2MDE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR7,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Director Bernardo Bertolucci celebrates his Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on November 19, 2013 in Hollywood, California.](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BMTc2OTY0NjAyN15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjY5MDY2MDE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR7,0,140,207_.jpg)
At the beginning of Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers,” his 2003 tribute to the French New Wave, Matthew, the naïve American studying in Paris, refers to true lovers of cinema as “the insatiables.” James Franco, with his 150 acting credits, 39 directing credits, 25 writing credits, and single credit as “boom operator,” is one of the industry’s most insatiable insatiables. So it’s fitting that his peripatetic career has led him to direct “Pretenders,” essentially a remake of “The Dreamers,” that combines Bertolucci’s decadent appreciation of New Wave cool with the love triangle from François Truffaut’s 1962 touchstone, “Jules and Jim.”
Moving the action to 1980s New York adds an urban-contemporary feel and an identifiable environment for events to unfold. But while the film’s sense of experimentation carries a fair amount of intrigue, it traps its central threesome in an Easter egg-filled intellectual exercise punctuated by melodramatic strokes. It’s skillful...
Moving the action to 1980s New York adds an urban-contemporary feel and an identifiable environment for events to unfold. But while the film’s sense of experimentation carries a fair amount of intrigue, it traps its central threesome in an Easter egg-filled intellectual exercise punctuated by melodramatic strokes. It’s skillful...
- 6/27/2019
- by Mark Keizer
- Variety Film + TV
The most visceral experiences force you to bury your head in those two sullen hands at the end of those weakening arms; covered by fingers, you force a peep through the gaps because curiosity is a menace to your sanity. New Wave cinema has also manipulated its audience in this way, since, no matter when or where yet, with its brazen attitude, hip demeanour, and stylish cinematography, you are obliged to soak it in as a whole. When it comes to the handling of taboo subject matter, only the best pioneering auteurs succeed in whisking its audience in a whirlwind and smashing previously socially-acceptable boundaries with a ten-ton hammer. Koreyoshi Kurahara was one such auteur and his maniacal 1960 film ‘The Warped Ones’ is as glamorous and cool as it is vicious and brutal.
“The Warped Ones” is screening at Japan Society:
A frenzied foray into the nihilistic madness of post-war youth,...
“The Warped Ones” is screening at Japan Society:
A frenzied foray into the nihilistic madness of post-war youth,...
- 4/1/2019
- by Jamie Cansdale
- AsianMoviePulse
Cinema St. Louis presents the 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place March 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24, 2019. The location this year is Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards.
The 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works: Pierre Schoendoerffer “The 317th Platoon,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” Olivier Assayas’ “Cold Water,” Jacques Becker’s “The Hole,” Jacques Rivette’s “The Nun,” Agnés Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” and Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda.” The schedule is rounded out by Robert Bresson’s final film, “L’argent,” and two 1969 films celebrating...
The 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works: Pierre Schoendoerffer “The 317th Platoon,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” Olivier Assayas’ “Cold Water,” Jacques Becker’s “The Hole,” Jacques Rivette’s “The Nun,” Agnés Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” and Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda.” The schedule is rounded out by Robert Bresson’s final film, “L’argent,” and two 1969 films celebrating...
- 3/4/2019
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
In celebration of its 100th anniversary, the American Society of Cinematographers has released a list of the 100 best shot films of the 20th century.
This list was released to "showcase the best of cinematography as selected by professional cinematographers.” Here's how the list was put together:
The process of cultivating the 100 films began with Asc members each submitting 10 to 25 titles that were personally inspirational or perhaps changed the way they approached their craft. “I asked them — as cinematographers, members of the Asc, artists, filmmakers and people who love film and whose lives were shaped by films — to list the films that were most influential,” Fierberg explains. A master list was then complied, and members voted on what they considered to be the most essential 100 titles.
Here's a little sizzle reel that was cut together showcasing some of the films on the list:
It's hard to argue with the Top 10 films,...
This list was released to "showcase the best of cinematography as selected by professional cinematographers.” Here's how the list was put together:
The process of cultivating the 100 films began with Asc members each submitting 10 to 25 titles that were personally inspirational or perhaps changed the way they approached their craft. “I asked them — as cinematographers, members of the Asc, artists, filmmakers and people who love film and whose lives were shaped by films — to list the films that were most influential,” Fierberg explains. A master list was then complied, and members voted on what they considered to be the most essential 100 titles.
Here's a little sizzle reel that was cut together showcasing some of the films on the list:
It's hard to argue with the Top 10 films,...
- 1/9/2019
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Jean-Luc Godard's The Image Book (2018) is having its exclusive online premiere in the United Kingdom from December 3 – January 1, 2019.The first thing we see in Jean-Luc Godard’s new film, The Image Book, is the pointing hand of Leonardo da Vinci’s St. John The Baptist, believed by many to be his final work in oils—a masterpiece of sfumato, though Godard’s image is contrasty black-and-white like a Xerox some generations removed from the original. Next, two hands, maybe the director’s, pinning together lengths of film at a Steenbeck editing table, and one of those esoteric quotations for which Godard is famous: “Man’s true condition: to think with hands,” from the Swiss writer Denis de Rougemont, previously featured in Godard’s magnum opus, Histoire(s) du cinéma. Then, a montage from Histoire(s): hands (including Giacometti’s The Hand) and part of a favorite quotation from St.
- 12/18/2018
- MUBI
![Jerzy Kosinski](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2I2M2NlODItYjBmZS00ZjcyLTliNGYtYmE2NjlmNTE0Yjg3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTc4MzI2NQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR6,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Jerzy Kosinski](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2I2M2NlODItYjBmZS00ZjcyLTliNGYtYmE2NjlmNTE0Yjg3XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTc4MzI2NQ@@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR6,0,140,207_.jpg)
Czech indie producer director Vaclav Marhoul says he knew from the moment he got his hands on Jerzy Kosinski’s Holocaust novel “The Painted Bird” that he had to adapt it for the screen.
Finding the book at all in Central Europe was not easy even a decade ago, when Marhoul took up the challenge of creating the mythic, war-torn land of the tragi-comic story by the author of “Being There”; it had long been banned during the communist era and copies were still rare, Marhoul says.
He credits below-the-line colleagues in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic for much of the feat. To conjure the book’s dark and haunting world, the director brought in cinematographer Vladimir Smutny and production designer Jan Vlasak, two of the nation’s top creatives in their fields.
“The Painted Bird” spins a netherworld of Slavic wartime horrors intermixed, Marhoul says, with just the right measure of hope.
Finding the book at all in Central Europe was not easy even a decade ago, when Marhoul took up the challenge of creating the mythic, war-torn land of the tragi-comic story by the author of “Being There”; it had long been banned during the communist era and copies were still rare, Marhoul says.
He credits below-the-line colleagues in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic for much of the feat. To conjure the book’s dark and haunting world, the director brought in cinematographer Vladimir Smutny and production designer Jan Vlasak, two of the nation’s top creatives in their fields.
“The Painted Bird” spins a netherworld of Slavic wartime horrors intermixed, Marhoul says, with just the right measure of hope.
- 12/10/2018
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
Perhaps Jean-Luc Godard’s most accessible feature, Contempt is nearly (but not quite) conventional in the way it tells its tale of the disintegration of the marriage between a bored trophy wife (Brigitte Bardot) and her ineffectual husband. Michel Piccoli plays the well-meaning screenwriter who is about to lose his beautiful playmate to an arrogant bully-boy producer played by Jack Palance. Godard’s cool-as-a-cucumber approach, offset by Raoul Coutard’s ravishing cinematography and Georges Delerue’s achingly beautiful score, makes Contempt a moving yet defiantly unsentimental experience. Martin Scorsese tipped his hat to Godard’s classic in 1995’s Casino (where Delerue’s music underscored De Niro and Stone’s doomed relationship).
The post Contempt appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
The post Contempt appeared first on Trailers From Hell.
- 11/28/2018
- by TFH Team
- Trailers from Hell
Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jean-Luc Godard's Contempt (1963) is showing December 24, 2017 - January 23, 2018 in the United States as part of the retrospective For Ever Godard.One thing most commonly and justly admired in Contempt (1963) by the many who revere the film is its singular place on the dividing line in cinema between classicism and modernism. The 1960s, and most intensely in mid-decade, was a transitional time for these phases, one that of course should never be simplified because of the many instances in which classical directors looked ahead with modernist impulses or modern directors (like the New Wave coterie of which Jean-Luc Godard was a part) looked back with longing to what had gone before. Among so many movies that affirm this point, it’s enough to cite Voyage to Italy (Roberto Rossellini, 1954), a touchstone for modern cinema, which it anticipated (though without...
- 12/24/2017
- MUBI
Mubi's retrospective For Ever Godard is showing from November 12, 2017 - January 16, 2018 in the United States.Jean-Luc Godard is a difficult filmmaker to pin down because while his thematic concerns as an artist have remained more or less consistent over the last seven decades, his form is ever-shifting. His filmography is impossible to view in a vacuum, as his work strives to reflect on the constantly evolving cinema culture that surrounds it: Godard always works with the newest filmmaking technologies available, and his films have become increasingly abstracted and opaque as the wider culture of moving images has become increasingly fragmented. Rather than working to maintain an illusion of diegetic truth, Godard’s work as always foreground its status as a manufactured product—of technology, of an industry, of on-set conditions and of an individual’s imagination. Mubi’S Godard retrospective exemplifies the depth and range of Godard’s career as...
- 11/19/2017
- MUBI
The use of “I” statements when attempting to review a piece of art is often times the sign of a weak or lazy critic. However, in the case of viewing the newly-released Kino Lorber Blu-ray of Jean-Luc Godard’s La Chinoise (which comes hand in hand with a release of the iconic filmmaker’s equally revolutionary Le Gai Savior), it’s all but impossible not to give personal context.
One of Godard’s most esoteric and polarizing works, La Chinoise is a simply constructed story of a group of students, led by Jean-Pierre Leaud’s Guillaume, who form a Maoist revolutionary collective that ultimately sees extreme action as the only thing that can spark any actual change in the modern world. Leaud is opposite the brilliant Anne Wiazemsky who takes on the role of Veronique, effectively the co-leader of the small group, a group that draws inspiration from the students...
One of Godard’s most esoteric and polarizing works, La Chinoise is a simply constructed story of a group of students, led by Jean-Pierre Leaud’s Guillaume, who form a Maoist revolutionary collective that ultimately sees extreme action as the only thing that can spark any actual change in the modern world. Leaud is opposite the brilliant Anne Wiazemsky who takes on the role of Veronique, effectively the co-leader of the small group, a group that draws inspiration from the students...
- 10/20/2017
- by Joshua Brunsting
- CriterionCast
Photo by Darren HughesThe Unknown Girl opens with a handheld close up of Dr. Jenny (Adèle Haenel) examining a patient. “Listen,” she says, handing her stethoscope to Julien (Olivier Bonnaud), a medical student who is interning at her clinic. Never ones to shy away from a glaring metaphor, Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne announce in that brief exchange their film’s driving thematic and formal concerns. When Jenny later learns that her decision to not allow a late-night visitor into the clinic might have contributed to the young woman’s death, she puts her skills and training to new purpose: listening for clues that might help solve the murder.The Unknown Girl differs from the Dardennes’ previous fiction films only in its more obviously generic plotting. This seems to have contributed to the uncharacteristically mixed reviews that greeted the film at its 2016 Cannes premiere, where it was faulted for failing to...
- 8/29/2017
- MUBI
A breezy five-episode compilation movie about swindles plays out in five film capitals, under the eye of five different directors including Claude Chabrol and Jean-Luc Godard. But Roman Polanski’s Amsterdam segment couldn’t be included, which is a shame. It’s in B&W ‘scope, and everybody gets to bring their favorite cameraman and composer along.
The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1964 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 95 108, 124 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / Les plus belles escroqueries du monde / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Mie Hama, Ken Mitsuda, Nicole Karen, Gabriella Giorgelli, Jan Teulings, Arnold Gelderman, Guido Giuseppone, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Catherine Deneuve, Francis Blanche, Sacha Briquet, Jean-Louis Maury, Philomène Toulouse, Charles Denner, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Seberg, László Szabó.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard, Tonino Delli Colli, Jerzy Lipman, Asakazu Nakai, Jean Rabier
Film Editor:
Original Music: Serge Gainsbourg, Pierre Jansen, Krzysztof Komeda, Michel Legrand, Keitaro Miho, Piero Umiliani...
The World’s Most Beautiful Swindlers
Blu-ray
Olive Films
1964 / B&W / 2:35 widescreen / 95 108, 124 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 / Les plus belles escroqueries du monde / available through the Olive Films website / 29.98
Starring: Mie Hama, Ken Mitsuda, Nicole Karen, Gabriella Giorgelli, Jan Teulings, Arnold Gelderman, Guido Giuseppone, Giuseppe Mannajuolo, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Catherine Deneuve, Francis Blanche, Sacha Briquet, Jean-Louis Maury, Philomène Toulouse, Charles Denner, Jean-Luc Godard, Jean Seberg, László Szabó.
Cinematography: Raoul Coutard, Tonino Delli Colli, Jerzy Lipman, Asakazu Nakai, Jean Rabier
Film Editor:
Original Music: Serge Gainsbourg, Pierre Jansen, Krzysztof Komeda, Michel Legrand, Keitaro Miho, Piero Umiliani...
- 5/16/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
![Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Michael Rooker, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Elizabeth Debicki in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjM0NTc0NzItM2FlYS00YzEwLWE0YmUtNTA2ZWIzODc2OTgxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTgwNzIyNzg@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Chris Pratt, Michael Rooker, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, and Elizabeth Debicki in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNjM0NTc0NzItM2FlYS00YzEwLWE0YmUtNTA2ZWIzODc2OTgxXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTgwNzIyNzg@._V1_QL75_UX140_CR0,0,140,207_.jpg)
Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film and TV critics two questions and publishes the results on Monday. (The answer to the second, “What is the best film in theaters right now?”, can be found at the end of this post.)
This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.
This week’s question: Inspired by Baby Groot’s “Mr. Blue Sky” dance sequence at the beginning of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2,” what movie has the best opening credits sequence?
April Wolfe (@awolfeful), La Weekly
Hands down, it’s R.W. Fassbinder’s “The Marriage of Maria Braun.” I watch the opening sequence at least three times a year and show it to every filmmaker I can. I love any film that begins with a bang, and this one does quite literally: We open up on an explosion that rips out a hunk of brick wall, exposing a German couple in the middle of a rushed marriage ceremony.
- 5/8/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
Babette Mangolte. © Fleur van Muiswinkel If the name Babette Mangolte doesn’t ring with the same familiarity as such storied French cinematographers as Raoul Coutard and William Lubtchansky, it’s not for lack of innovation or accomplishment. Born in Montmorot in 1941, Mangolte moved to New York in 1970 following a number of years as an assistant cinematographer and apprentice to director Marcel Hanoun. There she quickly integrated herself into the city’s burgeoning experimental cinema scene, befriending luminaries such as Jonas Mekas and Stan Brakhage, and soon after met a 20-year-old Chantal Akerman whom she proceeded to collaborate with on a series of groundbreaking works throughout the mid-70s. Influenced as much by structuralism as the films of the French New Wave, Mangolte and Akerman deftly utilized time and space as cinematic conduits to visually articulate themes of dislocation, alienation, and female autonomy. Their most celebrated work, the landmark feminist dispositif Jeanne Dielman,...
- 3/30/2017
- MUBI
Plus: Netflix gets some new talent, a post roundup and five perfect shots.
It’s been three years since director Jennifer Kent released The Babadook, and in all that time I still haven’t gotten a good night sleep, either because I was terrified said titular entity might be lurking in the shadows, or because I was wondering when and what Kent’s next project would be. A year or so ago she started dropping some hints, but as of a press release issued yesterday, we now have all the gory and glorious details.
The film is called The Nightingale — I’ve already got chills — and it sounds like we’re in for another dark thriller, albeit a little more grounded in reality. Dig the synopsis:
Set in Tasmania in 1825, The Nightingale follows a beautiful 21-year-old Irish female convict who witnesses the brutal murder of her husband and baby by her soldier master and his cronies. Unable...
It’s been three years since director Jennifer Kent released The Babadook, and in all that time I still haven’t gotten a good night sleep, either because I was terrified said titular entity might be lurking in the shadows, or because I was wondering when and what Kent’s next project would be. A year or so ago she started dropping some hints, but as of a press release issued yesterday, we now have all the gory and glorious details.
The film is called The Nightingale — I’ve already got chills — and it sounds like we’re in for another dark thriller, albeit a little more grounded in reality. Dig the synopsis:
Set in Tasmania in 1825, The Nightingale follows a beautiful 21-year-old Irish female convict who witnesses the brutal murder of her husband and baby by her soldier master and his cronies. Unable...
- 3/16/2017
- by H. Perry Horton
- FilmSchoolRejects.com
Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Jean-Luc Godard's La gai savoir (1969) is showing from January 18 - February 17, 2017 in many countries around the world as part of the retrospective For Ever Godard.Le gai savoir (Joy of Learning, 1969) is a film by Jean-Luc Godard which, unlike classics such as Breathless (1960) or Contempt (1963) is hardly a household name. Godard’s Weekend (1967) gives us an inkling of what is to come in its postscript production credit: What translates to mean “End of story” and then “End of cinema” flashes in blue lettering on a black backdrop; a moment later, we see that this word game has been created using a statement of the film’s visa control number. Of course, Godard had already been engaging in this kind of word play for years in his credits and intertitles. Although these statements could also be taken as being typical,...
- 2/6/2017
- MUBI
December 28, 2016. R.I.P. Debbie Reynolds, actress and singer. Age 84.There is a nice moment in the documentary Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds where Carrie’s brother Todd is showing the filmmakers a wall in his living room that tells the story of his mother’s life through movie posters. When Debbie Reynolds passed away on December 28—the day after her daughter Carrie in what was certifiably the last straw of 2016— I tried to find a great poster to commemorate her, but I couldn’t find anything really worthy of her (she was rarely the star of her own posters for one thing). I had forgotten, however, about this lovely Italian poster for Singing’ in the Rain which captures her as the burst of sunshine she always was.More often than I would have liked last year I found myself using my Movie Poster of the Day Tumblr as a memorial,...
- 1/14/2017
- MUBI
NEWSRaoul Coutard shooting BreathlessThe great cinematographer Raoul Coutard, legendary for his work shooting Jean-Luc Godard's Breathless, and also a collaborator of Philippe Garrel, Nagisa Oshima, Costa-Gavras and François Truffaut, has died at the age of 92.Keep film alive! The New York non-profit film organization Mono No Aware has launched a Kickstarter to fund "the nation's first ever non-profit motion picture lab." An ambitious and worthy goal!Two film projects in the works we're very excited about: Claire Denis' High Life, starring Robert Pattinson and Patricia Arquette and co-written by Zadie Smith, and Leos Carax's Annette, a musical to star Adam Driver (everywhere these days!) and Rooney Mara.The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the first part of its retrospective devoted to exiled Chilean fabulist Raúl Ruiz, which will include new digital restorations of Bérénice (1983) and The Golden Boat (1990), as well as 35mm prints of such...
- 11/29/2016
- MUBI
His filmography and background should make obvious that cinema suffered a great loss when Raoul Coutard passed away earlier this month, though the matter of not working for fifteen years may, for some, have a way of mitigating the event. (His death falling on election day didn’t exactly help, minus the opportunity to look at some pretty images during a grim time.) There also exists the ongoing, not-likely-to-ever-end debate about what a cinematographer does, and it’s particularly pronounced when his collaborations were with some of cinema’s greatest innovators. Where do genius and collaboration stand apart, and how might they be happy bedfellows?
A new, rather informative video essay by wolfcrow thus marks something of a gift for the curious mind, which is no doubt applicable to just about anybody who even bothered to click this link. Mixing critical analysis, historical insight — e.g. detailing the strategies that...
A new, rather informative video essay by wolfcrow thus marks something of a gift for the curious mind, which is no doubt applicable to just about anybody who even bothered to click this link. Mixing critical analysis, historical insight — e.g. detailing the strategies that...
- 11/28/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
![Raoul Coutard in Breathless (1960)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTcxNzYwNDU4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODExNDU5MTE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR9,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Raoul Coutard in Breathless (1960)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTcxNzYwNDU4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODExNDU5MTE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR9,0,140,207_.jpg)
Raoul Coutard passed away at 92 earlier this week. Several of the legendary cinematographer’s films can be seen on FilmStruck, the new streaming service launched by TCM and the Criterion Collection.
Related storiesRaoul Coutard, Legendary French New Wave Cinematographer, Dies at 92That Movie About Jean-Luc Godard's Second Marriage is MisguidedJean-Luc Godard's Second Marriage Will Be Dramatized For 'Redoubtable,' From 'The Artist' Director Michel Hazanavicius...
Related storiesRaoul Coutard, Legendary French New Wave Cinematographer, Dies at 92That Movie About Jean-Luc Godard's Second Marriage is MisguidedJean-Luc Godard's Second Marriage Will Be Dramatized For 'Redoubtable,' From 'The Artist' Director Michel Hazanavicius...
- 11/10/2016
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
Raoul Coutard, the French director of photography who revolutionized the field of cinematography with his unorthodox camerawork and lighting, has died. Closely associated with the French New Wave, the largely self-taught Coutard collaborated with Jean-Luc Godard in the 1960s, shooting almost all of the Franco-Swiss director’s classics of ageless cool, including Breathless, Band Of Outsiders, Pierrot Le Fou, and Contempt; in the process, he innovated and popularized the use of handheld camerawork and other techniques. Coutard was 92.
A veteran of the French Indochina War, Coutard lived in what is now Vietnam for 11 years, working as a freelance combat and editorial photographer for such magazines as Life and Paris Match. His first credit as a cinematographer is the stuff of film legend. After agreeing to “photograph” Pierre Schoendoerffer and Jacques Dupont’s documentary The Devil’s Pass, Coutard showed up on set believing he had been hired as ...
A veteran of the French Indochina War, Coutard lived in what is now Vietnam for 11 years, working as a freelance combat and editorial photographer for such magazines as Life and Paris Match. His first credit as a cinematographer is the stuff of film legend. After agreeing to “photograph” Pierre Schoendoerffer and Jacques Dupont’s documentary The Devil’s Pass, Coutard showed up on set believing he had been hired as ...
- 11/10/2016
- by Ignatiy Vishnevetsky
- avclub.com
Dailies is a round-up of essential film writing, news bits, videos, and other highlights from across the Internet. If you’d like to submit a piece for consideration, get in touch with us in the comments below or on Twitter at @TheFilmStage.
Michael Mann‘s Ali will finally get a Blu-ray release on January 17, 2017, Sony announced today, although which cuts aren’t specified yet.
Watch Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac rehearse for Jacques Demy‘s The Young Girls of Rochefort:
Remember the late Raoul Coutard with his interview at The Guardian about the making of Breathless:
Jean-Luc fed them their lines as we were shooting and they repeated them after him. That’s why their delivery is a little jerky – there’s a slight time-lapse all the way through the film. We rehearsed the actors’ moves without their knowing what they were going to say. He wanted everything to be very fresh,...
Michael Mann‘s Ali will finally get a Blu-ray release on January 17, 2017, Sony announced today, although which cuts aren’t specified yet.
Watch Catherine Deneuve and Françoise Dorléac rehearse for Jacques Demy‘s The Young Girls of Rochefort:
Remember the late Raoul Coutard with his interview at The Guardian about the making of Breathless:
Jean-Luc fed them their lines as we were shooting and they repeated them after him. That’s why their delivery is a little jerky – there’s a slight time-lapse all the way through the film. We rehearsed the actors’ moves without their knowing what they were going to say. He wanted everything to be very fresh,...
- 11/9/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
![Jean-Luc Godard](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BOTQ5NjYwODg1MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMTA2NzI2MDE@._V1_QL75_UX500_CR0,26,500,281_.jpg)
Former army documentary cameraman worked on Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless [pictured].
Legendary French cinematographer Raoul Coutard who worked with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Pierre Schoendorffer, Jacques Demy and Costa-Gavras has died aged 92.
Coutard worked on more than 80 features in a career spanning from 1958 to 2001 but is best known for his work with New Wave pioneers Godard and Truffaut.
He got his big break working with Jean-Luc Godard on 1960 classic Breathless, which was credited with reinventing cinema at the time for its stripped-down, fast-paced aesthetic.
Godard — who wanted to shoot the film as much as possible with a handheld camera and natural lighting — had partly hired Coutard for his background as a documentary cameraman for the French army.
Coutard spent five years working with the army’s press service, mainly in French Indochina (today Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) in the late 1940s and early 50s.
Prior to that, he worked in a Paris photography lab, having dropped...
Legendary French cinematographer Raoul Coutard who worked with Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Pierre Schoendorffer, Jacques Demy and Costa-Gavras has died aged 92.
Coutard worked on more than 80 features in a career spanning from 1958 to 2001 but is best known for his work with New Wave pioneers Godard and Truffaut.
He got his big break working with Jean-Luc Godard on 1960 classic Breathless, which was credited with reinventing cinema at the time for its stripped-down, fast-paced aesthetic.
Godard — who wanted to shoot the film as much as possible with a handheld camera and natural lighting — had partly hired Coutard for his background as a documentary cameraman for the French army.
Coutard spent five years working with the army’s press service, mainly in French Indochina (today Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia) in the late 1940s and early 50s.
Prior to that, he worked in a Paris photography lab, having dropped...
- 11/9/2016
- ScreenDaily
French cinematographer whose unorthodox, yet highly inventive, photography became a pure expression of New Wave values
Raoul Coutard, who has died aged 92, was one of the great modern cinematographers and the principal lighting cameraman of the French New Wave. In that era of portable cameras and fast film stock, his simplified approach to filming and imaginative use of natural light broke with traditional aesthetics, in particular the polished images of the 1950s cinéma de qualité in France. He was identified most with the director Jean-Luc Godard, and Coutard’s direct and unorthodox, yet highly inventive, photography became a pure expression of New Wave values.
Related: French cinematographer Raoul Coutard – a life in pictures
Continue reading...
Raoul Coutard, who has died aged 92, was one of the great modern cinematographers and the principal lighting cameraman of the French New Wave. In that era of portable cameras and fast film stock, his simplified approach to filming and imaginative use of natural light broke with traditional aesthetics, in particular the polished images of the 1950s cinéma de qualité in France. He was identified most with the director Jean-Luc Godard, and Coutard’s direct and unorthodox, yet highly inventive, photography became a pure expression of New Wave values.
Related: French cinematographer Raoul Coutard – a life in pictures
Continue reading...
- 11/9/2016
- by James S Williams
- The Guardian - Film News
![Raoul Coutard in Breathless (1960)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTcxNzYwNDU4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODExNDU5MTE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR9,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Raoul Coutard in Breathless (1960)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BNTcxNzYwNDU4MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODExNDU5MTE@._V1_QL75_UY207_CR9,0,140,207_.jpg)
Raoul Coutard, a prominent figure in French cinema, has died after suffering from a long illness. He was 92.
The cinematographer passed away on Tuesday night, near Bayonne, France. The news was confirmed by the French newspaper Le Figaro who was notified by his family. The specific cause of death is yet unknown.
Coutard was born on September 16, 1924 in Paris. He is most associated with the New Wave period and shooting most of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films (“Breathless,” “Contempt,” “My Life to Live”) along with his collaborations with Francois Truffaut (“Shoot the Piano Player,” “Jules and Jim”). He also was the director of photography on Costa Gavras’ “Z.”
His career lasted nearly half a century and included over 80 features. He made his directorial debut in 1970 with the film “Haoa Binh,” which was nominated for...
The cinematographer passed away on Tuesday night, near Bayonne, France. The news was confirmed by the French newspaper Le Figaro who was notified by his family. The specific cause of death is yet unknown.
Coutard was born on September 16, 1924 in Paris. He is most associated with the New Wave period and shooting most of Jean-Luc Godard’s early films (“Breathless,” “Contempt,” “My Life to Live”) along with his collaborations with Francois Truffaut (“Shoot the Piano Player,” “Jules and Jim”). He also was the director of photography on Costa Gavras’ “Z.”
His career lasted nearly half a century and included over 80 features. He made his directorial debut in 1970 with the film “Haoa Binh,” which was nominated for...
- 11/8/2016
- by Liz Calvario
- Indiewire
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.
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (Michael Bay)
For better or worse, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is the purest distillation of Michael Bay’s cinematic voice. Bay’s favorite themes recur here from his brand of cheerleading GI Joe patriotism to righteous bloodlust to endlessly off-color non-sequiturs. And years of carpet bombing criticism targeted at his continued lack of political correctness and subtlety have...
13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (Michael Bay)
For better or worse, 13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi is the purest distillation of Michael Bay’s cinematic voice. Bay’s favorite themes recur here from his brand of cheerleading GI Joe patriotism to righteous bloodlust to endlessly off-color non-sequiturs. And years of carpet bombing criticism targeted at his continued lack of political correctness and subtlety have...
- 5/27/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
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.
A Married Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
A Married Woman is an often overlooked masterwork from Godard’s most productive period. The plot appears to be simple: Charlotte (Macha Méril) is a young married woman having an affair with an actor. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she must decide which man is the father and which man she will stay with. In Godard’s hands, however, the film, described as a film about a woman’s beauty and the ugliness of her world,...
A Married Woman (Jean-Luc Godard)
A Married Woman is an often overlooked masterwork from Godard’s most productive period. The plot appears to be simple: Charlotte (Macha Méril) is a young married woman having an affair with an actor. When she discovers that she is pregnant, she must decide which man is the father and which man she will stay with. In Godard’s hands, however, the film, described as a film about a woman’s beauty and the ugliness of her world,...
- 5/24/2016
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Here's something special, a Godard movie about people as much as concepts, and the dialogue doesn't sound as if it belongs in cartoon bubbles. Jean-Luc Godard turns his intellect to the subject of relationships and reveals a lot about himself. It's a beautiful show too -- with the incredible Macha Méril visually cut up for study piece by piece. A Married Woman Blu-ray Entertainment One / Cohen Film Collection 1964 / B&W / 1:37 full frame / 95 min. / Un Femme Marieacute;e / Street Date May 24, 2016 / 39.98 Starring Bernard Noël, Macha Méril, Philippe Leroy, Roger Leenhardt. Cinematography Raoul Coutard Film Editor Andrée Choty, Françoise Collin, Agnès Guillemot, Gérard Pollicand. Written and Directed by Jean-Luc Godard
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Imagine that -- a Jean-Luc Godard film not primarily organized around destructing film language. By 1964 Godard had taken apart the conventions of film editing and structure. He'd plumbed new depths in genre autopsies and blended moving pictures...
Reviewed by Glenn Erickson
Imagine that -- a Jean-Luc Godard film not primarily organized around destructing film language. By 1964 Godard had taken apart the conventions of film editing and structure. He'd plumbed new depths in genre autopsies and blended moving pictures...
- 5/10/2016
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
April 14 the Official Selection will be announced at the Cannes Film Festival press conference. While waiting, keep up with all the Festival news online and onFacebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram!
The official poster for the 69th Festival de Cannes -- taking place from May 11 to 22 and presided over by Australian director George Mille -- was designed using stills from Jean-Luc Godard 's film "Contempt" by Hervé Chigioni and his graphic designer Gilles Frappier. The 2016 visual identity has been created by Philippe Savoir (Filifox).
The festival described the poster as follows:
"It's all there. The steps, the sea, the horizon: a man's ascent towards his dream, in a warm Mediterranean light that turns to gold. As an image it is reminiscent of a timeless quote used at the beginning of 'Contempt': 'Cinema replaces our gaze with a world in harmony with our desires'."
This year Michel Piccoli will open the Red Carpet for the 69th Festival de Cannes from the roof of the famous villa designed by the writer Curzio Malaparte, It's a symbolic choice, since this film about the making of a film - regarded by many as one of the finest ever made in CinemaScope (the Piccoli/ Bardot pairing along with Fritz Lang, Raoul Coutard's cinematography, Georges Delerue's music, and so on and so forth) - had such a considerable impact on the history of film and cinephilia.
On the eve of its 70th anniversary, by choosing to represent itself under the symbol of this simultaneously palimpsest and unambiguous film, the Festival is reiterating its founding commitment: To pay tribute to the history of film and to welcome new ways of creating and seeing. The steps represent a kind of ascension towards the infinite horizon of a cinema screen." ...
The official poster for the 69th Festival de Cannes -- taking place from May 11 to 22 and presided over by Australian director George Mille -- was designed using stills from Jean-Luc Godard 's film "Contempt" by Hervé Chigioni and his graphic designer Gilles Frappier. The 2016 visual identity has been created by Philippe Savoir (Filifox).
The festival described the poster as follows:
"It's all there. The steps, the sea, the horizon: a man's ascent towards his dream, in a warm Mediterranean light that turns to gold. As an image it is reminiscent of a timeless quote used at the beginning of 'Contempt': 'Cinema replaces our gaze with a world in harmony with our desires'."
This year Michel Piccoli will open the Red Carpet for the 69th Festival de Cannes from the roof of the famous villa designed by the writer Curzio Malaparte, It's a symbolic choice, since this film about the making of a film - regarded by many as one of the finest ever made in CinemaScope (the Piccoli/ Bardot pairing along with Fritz Lang, Raoul Coutard's cinematography, Georges Delerue's music, and so on and so forth) - had such a considerable impact on the history of film and cinephilia.
On the eve of its 70th anniversary, by choosing to represent itself under the symbol of this simultaneously palimpsest and unambiguous film, the Festival is reiterating its founding commitment: To pay tribute to the history of film and to welcome new ways of creating and seeing. The steps represent a kind of ascension towards the infinite horizon of a cinema screen." ...
- 3/26/2016
- by Sydney Levine
- Sydney's Buzz
In just about three weeks we’ll be getting the line-up for the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, but first, the official poster has landed. For the 69th Festival de Cannes, featuring a jury presided over by Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller, the yellow-tinted poster honors the Jean-Luc Godard classic Contempt. Check out the description below, along with a full version of the poster.
It’s all there. The steps, the sea, the horizon: a man’s ascent towards his dream, in a warm Mediterranean light that turns to gold. As an image it is reminiscent of a timeless quote by Michel Mourlet used at the beginning of Contempt: “Cinema replaces our gaze with a world in harmony with our desires”.
And so it is Michel Piccoli who in 2016, from the roof of the famous villa designed by the writer Curzio Malaparte, will open the red carpet for the 69th Festival de Cannes.
It’s all there. The steps, the sea, the horizon: a man’s ascent towards his dream, in a warm Mediterranean light that turns to gold. As an image it is reminiscent of a timeless quote by Michel Mourlet used at the beginning of Contempt: “Cinema replaces our gaze with a world in harmony with our desires”.
And so it is Michel Piccoli who in 2016, from the roof of the famous villa designed by the writer Curzio Malaparte, will open the red carpet for the 69th Festival de Cannes.
- 3/21/2016
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Let’s start with this obvious point: few cities need another repertory outlet less than New York City, which provides enough decent-to-outstanding options every week (or day) to fully occupy any caring customer. And so when a new theater, Metrograph, was announced this past August, the largely enthusiastic response — people taking note of a good location, a dedication to celluloid presentations and new independent releases, its strong selection of programmers, and other services (e.g. a restaurant and “cinema-dedicated bookshop”) — went hand-in-hand with some people’s skepticism, or at least a certain raising of the eyebrows. The question of necessity was premature, but such is the influx of available material that it should inevitably come up.
It’s safe to say their first selections silenced those skeptics. Metrograph’s slate is strong in a way that’s uncommon; one could say it’s exactly the sort that a cinephile with...
It’s safe to say their first selections silenced those skeptics. Metrograph’s slate is strong in a way that’s uncommon; one could say it’s exactly the sort that a cinephile with...
- 3/2/2016
- by Nick Newman
- The Film Stage
The Eighth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-produced by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the early 1990s, offering a comprehensive overview of French cinema.
The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, and we’re especially pleased to present Jacques Rivette’s long-unavailable epic Out 1: Spectre Additional restoration highlights include Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman and Max Ophüls’ too-little-seen From Mayerling To Sarajevo. Both Ophüls’ film and Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows – with a jazz score by St. Louis-area native Miles Davis — screen from 35mm prints. All films will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (47- E. Lockwood)
Music fans will further delight in the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra’s accompaniment and original score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s...
The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, and we’re especially pleased to present Jacques Rivette’s long-unavailable epic Out 1: Spectre Additional restoration highlights include Jean-Luc Godard’s A Married Woman and Max Ophüls’ too-little-seen From Mayerling To Sarajevo. Both Ophüls’ film and Louis Malle’s Elevator To The Gallows – with a jazz score by St. Louis-area native Miles Davis — screen from 35mm prints. All films will screen at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (47- E. Lockwood)
Music fans will further delight in the Rats & People Motion Picture Orchestra’s accompaniment and original score for Carl Th. Dreyer’s...
- 2/16/2016
- by Tom Stockman
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
This month on the Newsstand, Ryan is joined by Aaron West, Mark Hurne and David Blakeslee to discuss the April 2016 Criterion Collection line-up, update a few theories on the wacky New Year’s drawing, as well as discuss the latest in Criterion rumors, news, packaging, and more.
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Shownotes Topics Wacky New Year’s Drawing Follow-up The April 2016 Criterion Collection Line-up Teases: Kurosawa’s Dreams, Mike Leigh’s High Hopes, Antoine Doinel Phantom Pages: King Hu, some names related to Tampopo Chimes at Midnight poster Artificial Eye announces Tarkovsky titles. Maybe an end to the Andrei Rublev drum? Arrow splits up Fassbinder set, releasing The Marriage of Maria Braun. Janus Films’ new homepage Dragon Inn, A Touch of Zen, The Story of Last Chrysanthemums on Janus new page. Ettore Scola passes away at 84. Episode Links Help Send...
Subscribe to The Newsstand in iTunes or via RSS
Contact us with any feedback.
Shownotes Topics Wacky New Year’s Drawing Follow-up The April 2016 Criterion Collection Line-up Teases: Kurosawa’s Dreams, Mike Leigh’s High Hopes, Antoine Doinel Phantom Pages: King Hu, some names related to Tampopo Chimes at Midnight poster Artificial Eye announces Tarkovsky titles. Maybe an end to the Andrei Rublev drum? Arrow splits up Fassbinder set, releasing The Marriage of Maria Braun. Janus Films’ new homepage Dragon Inn, A Touch of Zen, The Story of Last Chrysanthemums on Janus new page. Ettore Scola passes away at 84. Episode Links Help Send...
- 1/21/2016
- by Ryan Gallagher
- CriterionCast
Danièle Delorme and Jean Gabin in 'Deadlier Than the Male.' Danièle Delorme movies (See previous post: “Danièle Delorme: 'Gigi' 1949 Actress Became Rare Woman Director's Muse.”) “Every actor would like to make a movie with Charles Chaplin or René Clair,” Danièle Delorme explains in the filmed interview (ca. 1960) embedded further below, adding that oftentimes it wasn't up to them to decide with whom they would get to work. Yet, although frequently beyond her control, Delorme managed to collaborate with a number of major (mostly French) filmmakers throughout her six-decade movie career. Aside from her Jacqueline Audry films discussed in the previous Danièle Delorme article, below are a few of her most notable efforts – usually playing naive-looking young women of modest means and deceptively inconspicuous sexuality, whose inner character may or may not match their external appearance. Ouvert pour cause d'inventaire (“Open for Inventory Causes,” 1946), an unreleased, no-budget comedy notable...
- 12/18/2015
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
There are few filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard, and even fewer films like “Contempt” (“Le Mépris”). It’s a crucial viewing for any cinephile, and for those living across the pond, the picture is headed back to the big screen where it deserves to be seen, and BFI has dropped a terrific a new trailer. Featuring Brigitte Bardot, Michel Piccoli, Jack Palance, and legendary director Fritz Lang (playing himself), the film tracks the making of a movie and dissolution of a marriage. But of course, in the hands of Godard, it’s so much more. Featuring terrific CinemaScope cinematography by Raoul Coutard, a score by Georges Delerue, and some truly forward-thinking editing, the picture is a feast for the eyes and mind. “Contempt” returns to the big screen in the U.K. on January 1, 2016. For those of you stateside, you’ll have to cross your fingers and hope it lands here...
- 12/15/2015
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Criterion adds two more early works of auteur Costa-Gavras to the collection, rounding out his early trilogy of political thrillers headlined by Yves Montand with 1970’s The Confession and 1972’s State of Siege. Having blazed into the cinematic scene of the late 60’s with the dramatic Z in 1969, his immediate follow-up was a more sobering treatment of historical bureaucratic wrongdoing. Wearying, to say the least, the film is based on the real life account of the Communist Party show trials in 1952 Czechoslovakia as accounted in Lise and Artur Lindon’s book. Intelligently rendered, Costa-Gavras highlights the sobering reality of a mind-numbingly Kafkaesque scenario, filmed in an era where these depictions caused significant unrest, with communist factions of the period banning the film’s release in several countries.
Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), also known as Gerard from his days in the French Resistance, is vice minister of Foreign Affairs in Czechoslovakia.
Anton Ludvik (Yves Montand), also known as Gerard from his days in the French Resistance, is vice minister of Foreign Affairs in Czechoslovakia.
- 6/2/2015
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
![Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina in Alphaville (1965)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2U1ZGZhYmItMDk4NS00OTU1LWE3YzctMzNiMWQ0YTA4MDMyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTc3MDU2MTAw._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
![Eddie Constantine and Anna Karina in Alphaville (1965)](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BM2U1ZGZhYmItMDk4NS00OTU1LWE3YzctMzNiMWQ0YTA4MDMyXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTc3MDU2MTAw._V1_QL75_UY207_CR8,0,140,207_.jpg)
‘’Reality is too complex. What it needs is fiction to make it real,” intones the computer at the film’s beginning. "Alphaville," released on May 5, 1965, exaggerates reality. Godard and cinematographer Raoul Coutard did not flood Paris with light. Instead they photographed at night on real Paris locations in order to make a film with the creepy feel of a nightmare. As a young critic in the 50s, Godard spent long days at the French Cinematheque sampling every possible genre. Like his colleagues at the Cahiers du Cinema, critics-turned-filmmakers Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette, Godard was able to look back on decades of Hollywood movies that hit his generation all at once. They discerned patterns and themes and started to organize and champion their faves. (They in turn influenced "American Cinema"'s indexer/critic historian Andrew Sarris.) Yes, like everyone else, the French New Wave adored Orson Welles and John Ford.
- 5/6/2015
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The Soft Skin
Written by François Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard
Directed by François Truffaut
France, 1964
Riding high on the critical reputation of the French New Wave (if not its consistent box office success), and with The 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano Player (1960), and Jules and Jim (1962) behind him, François Truffaut’s fourth feature is something rather different. There is still the same cinematic playfulness, a combination of genuine skill, pervasive influence, and a rampant passion for the medium itself, but with The Soft Skin (1964), Truffaut slows things down somewhat, takes a breath, matures. That’s not to say there weren’t adult themes in his earlier films (most certainly there were in Jules and Jim), but here, the entire tone of the film feels more aged, more serious, as if Truffaut was for the first time making a film explicitly for grown-ups, not just featuring them.
Nominated for the Palme...
Written by François Truffaut and Jean-Louis Richard
Directed by François Truffaut
France, 1964
Riding high on the critical reputation of the French New Wave (if not its consistent box office success), and with The 400 Blows (1959), Shoot the Piano Player (1960), and Jules and Jim (1962) behind him, François Truffaut’s fourth feature is something rather different. There is still the same cinematic playfulness, a combination of genuine skill, pervasive influence, and a rampant passion for the medium itself, but with The Soft Skin (1964), Truffaut slows things down somewhat, takes a breath, matures. That’s not to say there weren’t adult themes in his earlier films (most certainly there were in Jules and Jim), but here, the entire tone of the film feels more aged, more serious, as if Truffaut was for the first time making a film explicitly for grown-ups, not just featuring them.
Nominated for the Palme...
- 3/25/2015
- by Jeremy Carr
- SoundOnSight
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