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Election season is in the air and Turner Classic Movies is here to celebrate. Starting on September 6 and continuing every Friday up until this year’s general election, TCM will be running a nine-week limited series entitled “Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time.” This cinematic showcase is inspired by The New Republic rankings released in June 2023 and includes selections such as “All the King’s Men,” “Germany, Year Zero,” and “High and Low.”

To introduce the upcoming series, TCM host Ben Mankiewicz took to Washington D.C. for a trailer highlighting some of the films featured, as well as special guests like Stacey Abrams, Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, and John Turturro.

“I grew up here in Washington D.C.,” Mankiewicz said, the Capitol Building behind him. “My father’s life was politics — capital P politics. Though I went in a different direction, I understood at an early age,...

In the run-up to Election Day, TCM is going after the movie lovers’ popular vote by showing 50 films over nine successive Fridays under the banner Making Change: The Most Significant Political Films of All Time.

The series runs Sept. 6 to Nov. 1 — four days before America votes for its next president — and features TCM host Ben Mankiewicz in conversation with the likes of Steven Spielberg, Spike Lee, Lee Grant, Sally Field, Andy Garcia, Melissa Etheridge, John Turturro, Bill Maher, Alexander Payne, Diane Lane, Josh Mankiewicz, Barry Levinson, Maureen Dowd, Stacey Abrams and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.

Watch the trailer here.

Making Change showcases half of the movies unveiled by The New Republic in the rankings it released in June 2023. The films on TCM span the years 1915 to 2016 (from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation to Raoul Peck’s I Am Not Your Negro); the whole thing kicks off with the No.

Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 neorealist drama is unsparing in its depiction of the heavy price of both resistance and collaboration with the Nazi occupation

Roberto Rossellini’s 1945 film is a blazingly urgent and painful bulletin from the frontline of Italy’s historical agony: the Axis power that had belatedly turned against the Mussolini fascists only to be humiliatingly occupied by Nazi Germany on whose orders the dictator was reinstalled in the northern Salò puppet state, resplendent in contemptible impotence and pathos, with Rome at its defeated and compromised centre. It was a film that used the so-recently-devastated real streets and people of Rome on location for a project on which Rossellini started script work well before the end of the war, building on ideas by screenwriter Sergio Amidei with dialogue contribution by the young Federico Fellini.

Rome, Open City is revived as part of the BFI Southbank’s Chasing the Real season of Italian neorealism,...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

Avatar: The Way of Water (James Cameron)

James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel finally arrived. If not to just wax poetic on the photo-realistic Na’vi and the water they inhabit, one has to admire the megalomaniac yet compassionate director’s knack for a satisfying narrative. Culminating in a perfectly constructed final act which shifts from about four different kinds of action sequence, constantly escalating the stakes and managing to conclude with a lovely, Miyazaki-like grace note… well, you can’t help but admire a blockbuster that has the whole package. – Ethan V.

Where to Stream: VOD

Creed III (Michael B. Jordan)

Just to get it out of the way: the first Creed is the best Rocky film. They share the same formula,...

High-profile filmmakers including Lucrecia Martel and Lav Diaz have contributed to a retrospective program for the Locarno Film Festival (August 5-15), selecting 20 titles from the event’s 74-year history that will have online and physical screenings next month.

Due to ongoing pandemic disruption Locarno shifted the majority of its festival online this year, though ten of the below list of titles will still have physical screenings in Switzerland. The entire program will be shown online for free in Switzerland by the fest, while it is partnering with streamer Mubi to stream the films outside of the country.

Ranging from 1948 (Locarno’s third edition) to 2018 (its 71st), the titles offer a broad insight into the fest’s history and are directed by filmmakers such as Roberto Rossellini, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Jim Jarmusch, Michael Haneke, and Whit Stillman. The selectees are all participating in Locarno’s ‘The Films After Tomorrow’ initiative this year,...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’re highlighting the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Jupiter’s Moon (Kornél Mundruczó)

The juxtaposition of supernatural thriller tropes and urgent socio-political issues in Kornél Mundruczó’s latest movie — an original take on the superhero origin story set to the backdrop of the refugee crisis — might prove a delicate one for some viewers to take. Those unperturbed, however, should find much to relish in Jupiter’s Moon, a film that somewhat lightly plays with themes of religion and immigration as it rumbles, crashes, and ultimately soars through the streets of the Hungarian capital. It’s a tricky balance and Mundruczó (who had a break-out with his canine revolt film White God in 2014) strikes it with style and confidence.

For the first 20-odd minutes, “Fistful of Dirt” is a fascinating neorealist exercise, the story of a young boy set against the backdrop of Hurricane Maria’s aftermath in Puerto Rico in 2017. Then it becomes a mermaid movie, taking an ambitious leap that’s impressive even if it doesn’t always gel. As Sebastian Silva wrestles with several different kinds of movies, the child’s perspective fuses them together, and the movie becomes a startling representation of a society collapsing into chaos. Appropriately shot by “The Florida Project” cinematographer Alexis Zabe, “Fistful of Dirt” captures a modern apocalypse through innocent eyes.

The Chilean writer-director excels at subverting genre expectations, often melding dark comedy and suspense in surprising ways in movies ranging from “Nasty Baby” (an irreverent hipster farce that turns into a creepy thriller in the last act) to “Tyrel” (a race relations comedy until it becomes a creepy suspense...

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 platforms. 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, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan)

In the hours since viewing Dunkirk – the newest film from surprisingly divisive blockbuster director Christopher Nolan – one sensory recollection has stuck out above all others. Every time that British spitfire pilot Farrier (Tom Hardy) accelerates or banks his plane, the soundtrack fills with the noise of metallic rattling, an uncomfortable chorus of knocks and pings that lets you know exactly how much stress and force are...

By Jacob Oller

Understanding wartime maturity was never so poignant. oberto Rossellini’s scathingly-scripted war trilogy – encompassing Paisan; Rome, Open City; and Germany Year Zero, which has also been called his neorealist trilogy – came after his well-received three films on fascism. The neorealist elements in these later films enabled his scripts to include things like regional dialects […]

The article Innocence Lost: The Children of Roberto Rossellini’s War Trilogy appeared first on Film School Rejects.

Every week, IndieWire asks a select handful of film 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: In honor of “The Florida Project,” which has just started its platform release across the country, what is the greatest child performance in a film?

Jordan Hoffman (@JHoffman), The Guardian, Vanity Fair

I can agonize over this question or I can go at this Malcolm Gladwell “Blink”-style. My answer is Tatum O’Neal in “Paper Moon.” She’s just so funny and tough, which of course makes the performance all the more heartbreaking. She won the freaking Oscar at age 10 for this and I’d really love to give a more deep cut response, but why screw around? Paper Moon is a perfect film and she is the lynchpin.

Earlier this month The Criterion Collection rereleased Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy on Blu-ray and it is one of the year's essential sets. The three included films, Rome Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany Year Zero (1948), are not only landmarks of world cinema, they are also incredibly brave and eye-opening works of art even all these years later. I'm not going to pretend that I have a lot to add to the mountains of critical and sociological analysis that already exists out there, I can definitely share why these films are so special to me. First, though, a basic rundown. Rome Open City is the story of the Italian resistance in Nazi-occupied Italy. The film was shot in 1945, shortly after the Nazis had...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero: Filmed mostly on the streets in newly-liberated territory, Roberto Rossellini’s gripping war-related shows are blessed with new restorations but still reflect their rough origins. The second picture, the greater masterpiece, looks as if it were improvised out of sheer artistic will.

Roberto Rosselini’s War Trilogy

Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 500 (497, 498, 499)

1945-1948 / B&W / 1:37 & 1:33 flat full frame / 302 minutes / Street Date July 11, 2017 / available from the Criterion Collection 79.96

Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani; Dots Johnson, Harriet White Medin; Edmund Moeschke, Franz-Otto Krüger.

Cinematography: Ubaldo Arata; Otello Martelli; Robert Julliard.

Film Editor: Eraldo Da Roma

Original Music: Renzo Rossellini

Written by Sergio Amidei, Alberto Consiglio, Federico Fellini; Klaus Mann, Marcello Pagliero, Alfred Hayes, Vasco Pratolini; Max Kolpé, Carlo Lizzani.

Directed by Roberto Rossellini

Criterion released an identical-for-content DVD set of this trilogy in 2010; the new Blu-ray...

The Criterion Collection's slate for July 2017 sells itself, to be honest. Albert Brook's Lost in America is one of my personal, all-time favorites. Others may prefer Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker, Roberto Rossellini's War Trilogy, or Robert Bresson's final film L'argent. Or all of them, as your preference and budgetary needs dictate. Read onward for all the details; verbiage provided by Criterion. Roberto Rossellini'S War Trilogy Roberto Rossellini is one of the most influential filmmakers of all time. And it was with his trilogy of films made during and after World War II - Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero - that he left his first transformative mark on cinema. With their stripped-down aesthetic, largely nonprofessional casts, and unorthodox approaches to storytelling, these intensely...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Criterion Collection will venture to the Zone this July, and much more, as they’ve announced their new titles for the month. Andrei Tarkovsky‘s long-rumored sci-fi masterpiece Stalker will arrive with a new 2K restoration. The release will also include a new interview with author Geoff Dyer and newly translated English subtitles. Also arriving in July is Albert Brooks‘ satirical comedy Lost in America, featuring a new conversation with the director and Robert Weide, as well as interviews with the cast and crew.

One of the most notable releases of the month is Robert Bresson‘s masterful final film L’argent, which tracks a counterfeit bill through Paris, and the people it touches. Lastly, Roberto Rossellini‘s powerful War Trilogy is getting a much-deserved Blu-ray upgrade with new versions of Rome Open City, Paisan, and Germany Year Zero. Check out the high-resolution cover art below and full release details.

Summer 2017 is shaping up to be quite the exciting season for The Criterion Collection. In May, the library will welcome cult favorite “Ghost World” and recent Palme d’or winner “Dheepan,” while June finds Kenji Mizoguchi’s “Ugetsu,” Hitchcock’s silent classic “The Lodger” and Sam Peckinpah’s controversial “Straw Dogs” joining the club. Criterion has now added its July 2017 additions to their summer slate, and they include movies from auteurs like Tarkovsky, Rossellini and Bresson. Below is the complete list of July additions, with descriptions provided by Criterion.

Read More: The Criterion Collection Announces June Titles: ‘The Marseille Trilogy, ‘They Live by Night,’ ‘The Lodger’ and More

“Stalker” (1979) – Available July 18

Andrei Tarkovsky’s final Soviet feature is a metaphysical journey through an enigmatic postapocalyptic landscape, and a rarefied cinematic experience like no other. A hired guide—the Stalker—leads a writer and a scientist into the heart of the Zone,...

Close-Up is a column that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Mubi is playing General Della Rovere (1959) in the United States September 1 - 30, 2016.For a time, it seemed Roberto Rossellini was ready to leave behind the devastation of World War II, a milieu he as much as anyone helped to indelibly commit to cinematic memory with his Neorealist masterworks. While a traumatized psyche remained in films that followed his trilogy of Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany Year Zero (1948), it was revealed via a more subtle manifestation of conflict related angst. Rossellini had moved beyond explicit depictions of the war and its aftermath, even while lingering psychological effects still abound (see his collaborations with Ingrid Bergman). This would change in 1959, with the release of General Della Rovere, Rossellini's first full-fledged wartime film in more than 10 years. While not of the caliber of these earlier titles (not really even in...

Mubi is exclusively showing Billy Wilder and Alexander Esway's Mauvaise Graine a.k.a. Bad Seed (1934) in the United States and most countries around the world from August 18 - September 16, 2016.In light of his illustrious Hollywood career to follow, Billy Wilder’s obscure directorial debut, Mauvaise Graine (1934), may seem like a mere curiosity. Making the film as he was passing through France by way of Germany en route to America, Wilder regarded the work with little adoration. For him, the experience was one rife with difficulty; it wasn’t fun, there was tremendous pressure, and he simply wasn’t accustomed to have such sweeping control over a production. But the writing was on the wall by 1933, and Wilder, like so many others, was keen to get out of Berlin while the getting was good. Arriving first in Paris, he met other film professionals seeking refuge from the burgeoning Nazi party,...

What's contemporary Europe got that we ain't got? Powerful, serious filmmaking like that by Christian Petzold, starring the impressive Nina Hoss. Their sixth collaboration is a loaded narrative that takes some pretty wild narrative themes -- plastic surgery, hidden identities -- and spins them in a suspenseful new direction. Phoenix Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 809 2014 / Color / 2:39 widescreen (Super 35) / 98 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date April 26, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Nina Hoss, Ronald Zehrfeld, Nina Kunzendorf, Imogen Kogge. Cinematography Hans Fromm Film Editor Bettina Böhler Original Music Stefan Will Written by Christian Petzold, Haroun Farocki from ideas in the book Le retour des cendres by Hubert Monteilhet Produced by Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber Directed by Christian Petzold

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

I had seen only one Christian Petzold feature before this one. 2012's Barbara is an excellent Deutsche-Millennial thriller starring Barbara Hoss as an East German doctor trying to do...

For anyone interested in foreign films, one of the most interesting periods of German filmmaking was the post war period between 1946 to the mid 1960’s. In effect, only two types of films were being made: pure escapist film such as musicals and comedies that were designed to make the audience completely forget the ugly events of the recent past. And then there were films like "The Lost One," "Germany Year Zero," and "Murderers Among Us" which explicitly dealt with the aftermath of the horrors of World War II and Germany’s guilt and repercussions. But of all the films, one of the most fascinating, and worthy of rediscovery, is the 1952 film...

Gian Maria Volonté has a big part in this prime quality Italo crime thriller blessed with a great score by Ennio Morricone. But the movie belongs to Robert Hoffman as the real-life public enemy who earned the alias 'The Machine Gun Soloist.' Director Carlo Lizzani's realistic treatment glamorizes nothing and implicates the police in shady policies as well. Award-winning co-star Lisa Gastoni is the woman who loves Hoffman, and is tempted to betray him. Wake Up and Kill Blu-ray + DVD Arrow Video (UK) 1966 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 124 98 min / Svegliati e uccidi; Lutring; Wake Up and Die / Street Date November 24, 2015 / 29.95 Starring Robert Hoffmann, Lisa Gastoni, Gian Maria Volonté, Claudio Camaso, Renato Niccolai, Ottavio Fanfani, Pupo De Luca, Corrado Olmi. Cinematography Armando Nannuzzi Film Editing Franco Fraticelli Original Music Ennio Morricone Written by Ugo Pirro, Carlo Lizzani Produced by Jacques Bar, Joseph Fryd, Carlo Lizzani Directed by Carlo Lizzani  

Reviewed by...

Amat Escalante's Los bastardos is playing on Mubi in the Us through December 9.Having directed three Mexican feature films, Spanish-born director Amat Escalante, grows more and more ambitious with each film as he refines his sobering and rigorous long-take aesthetic. At the same time, these features form a cohesive unit in which narratives center on, in, and around houses. If Roman Polanski has his apartment trilogy, Amat Escalante has his house trilogy. For now.In the spare opening of Sangre (2005), a man lies flat on his back. Blood trickles down his forehead. As he slowly sits up, a woman briskly walks through the frame, from the upper right to the bottom left-hand corner. She ignores the man completely. What is this abstract image of? Ignorance? Humiliation? Defeat? Sangre unfolds the image like an accordion. The supine position mutates and varies all throughout the film, evoking resting, sex, defeat, and death.

If the impetus behind many feature debuts — great and terrible alike — is to proclaim a helmer’s talents for all who might bother listening, Theeb‘s greatest distinction lies in its reliance on the misunderstood. The impression left by Naji Abu Nowar, credited as a co-writer alongside Bassel Ghandour, is a greater interest in what we must presume and concede than what we can understand and apply, instead trusting that his collaborators will utilize their own strengths — strengths often secondary to the logic or understanding that might go into a single moment — for harmonizing a vision of dangerous lands.

With tonal and pacing sensibilities that are nestled somewhere between Jauja and Timbuktu on my personal “languid, vista-dominated films of 2015″ chart, it’s mostly built on intrigue — the “who” and “what” of its events coinciding with the “how” of a scenario’s possible outcomes. Its action is set circa 1916 in the...

(Roberto Rossellini, 1945-48; BFI, 15; Blu-ray)

The term neorealism was first widely used in the late 1940s to describe what became the most famous and influential film movement. It sprang up in Italy as a reaction against the artificiality of the so-called “white telephone” school of upper-class comedies and melodramas then popular under fascism, favouring instead naturalistic pictures shot on authentic locations using non-professional actors. Luchino Visconti’s gritty Ossessione (1943) is usually identified as the first genuine example. But the name that will always be associated with neorealism is Roberto Rossellini, and most especially his Rome, Open City (1945) and Paisà (1946), two rough, grainy movies set in Italy during the second world war. They helped change the face of world cinema and, with Germany Year Zero (1948), set in the ruins of postwar Berlin, came to be known as his War Trilogy.

Born in Rome, where his father’s construction firm put up...

Director David Ayer made his directorial debut with his original screenplay Harsh Times. The gritty drama, starring Christian Bale and Freddy Rodriguez, which was released in the fall of 2006. Ayer garnered widespread acclaim and accolades for his hyper-realistic portrayal of life behind the blue line in End of Watch (2012). He moved to Los Angeles as a teenager and the experiences of his upbringing shaped much of his artistic vision and his inside knowledge and affection for the culture surrounding law enforcement can be seen throughout his work.

Ayer joined the United States Navy, where he served as sonar man aboard a nuclear attack submarine during the Cold War. After an honorable discharge, Ayer began writing. He wrote and was a co-producer on his “calling card” spec script Training Day, which became a hit film and garnered Denzel Washington an Academy Award for Best Actor.

Ayer also co-wrote the submarine thriller U-571,...

For anyone interested in foreign films, one of the most interesting periods of German filmmaking was the post war period between 1946 to the mid 1960’s. In effect, only two types of films were being made: pure escapist film such as musicals and comedies that were designed to make the audience complete forget the ugly events of the recent past. But then there were films such as "The Lost One," "Germany Year Zero," and "Murderers Among Us" which explicitly dealt with the aftermath of the horrors of World War II and Germany’s guilt and its repercussions. But of all the films, one of the most fascinating, and worthy of rediscovery, is the 1952...

It only takes five minutes, plus or minus. To contribute to an omnibus film, a collection of shorts unified by some general theme, shown together as a feature, is to nearly insure a loss, something to be forgotten. Let us hope this is not true for actress and filmmaker Isild Le Besco, who directed a contribution to the surprisingly strong portmanteau The Bridges of Sarajevo, which also features stand-out work by Jean-Luc Godard, Cristi Puiu, Ursula Meier, and a few others. Le Besco, when will be her time to shine? Primarily known as an actress, each time she steps behind the camera she makes something special. Little Boy, her petit short in this Cannes Special Screenings selection, is indeed special.

An energy-burst micro diary film, documentary as fiction as city symphony, the titular boy introduces his Sarajevo—a city that "cannot be attacked as before," yet feels like hell, cloudy,...

The Criterion Collection has just released a new filmmaker top ten and this time it's Martin Scorsese getting the honors and he has quite a lot to say about each. The list includes obvious titles such as The Red Shoes, 8 1/2, The Leopard, Ashes and Diamonds and others as they were all on his list of Top 12 Films of All-Time from back in 2012. Nevertheless, it remains fascinating to read his words and reasoning. For example, I find it interesting to see him placing Roberto Rossellini's Paisan at #1. So often Rome Open City is the most talked about of Rossellini's fabulous War Trilogy (read my review) and so infrequently you hear about Paisan or Germany Year Zero, the latter of which is an absolute stunner. I've never sen Jean Renoir's The River or Francesco Rosi's Salvatore Giuliano, but the rest I've viewed. I'm not a huge fan of The Leopard,...

I started writing this piece a little over two years ago when, wondering if this was a debate whose terms I wanted to propagate, I thought twice. After the recent Godard retro in New York, however, thinking thrice, I've decided not to think about it again. With very special thanks to Sam Engel, Matthew Flanagan, Danny Kasman, Andy Rector, Gina Telaroli, who provided so much of the source code for this piece. There's no greater fount of wisdom in the world for a guy to plagiarize.

And so:

***

“Pauvres choses! Elles n’ont que le nom qu’on leur impose.”

“Poor things! They have nothing but the name imposed upon them.” — Film Socialisme

“You can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll.

Very sorry baby, doesn’t look like me at all.” — Leonard Cohen, “Tower of Song”

"Three Jewish characters, it's a lot for a single film. The fourth...

Italian neorealist film director and screenwriter who made Last Days of Mussolini, starring Rod Steiger

Carlo Lizzani, who has died aged 91, after falling from a balcony at his home, was a screenwriter and director of Italian neorealist cinema who made more than 40 feature films, as well as documentaries and television series.

His first professional experiences in the film world were as an actor, playing cameos in two powerful neorealist films: Il Sole Sorge Ancora (The Sun Still Rises, 1946), directed by Aldo Vergano; and Caccia Tragica (Tragic Hunt, 1947), Giuseppe De Santis's first feature film.

In 1947 Roberto Rossellini summoned Lizzani to Berlin where he was preparing to shoot Germania Anno Zero (Germany Year Zero). Lizzani did research with East German locals which Rossellini would find useful when the film was being made without a definitive shooting script. Lizzani said later: "Rossellini filmed the story of the boy [Edmund] as if growing up...

Italian writer-director Carlo Lizzani has died at the age of 91, after jumping to his death from the third-floor balcony of his apartment. Variety reports that Lizzani left behind a note indicating his death was a suicide. After an early career as a film critic, Lizzani entered the arena as co-writer and actor on Aldo Vergano’s 1946 film Outcry, an early example of postwar Italian neo-realism. Two years later, he worked on the script of the Germany Year Zero, the last in the “war trilogy” of one of the fathers of neo-realism, Roberto Rossellini. In 1950, he earned ...

Its wide range of contributors and influences make Lore something more than just another tale of post-Nazi Germany

Given its transnational provenance – its Anglo-German source novel adapted by a British-Bengali screenwriter, its Australian director and its bleak Nazi-era subject matter – I'm reluctant to dub Lore a straightforwardly German movie. This might seem counterintuitive given its story: a 14-year-old German daughter of prominent Nazis is left to trek northwards across a ruined Germany in the weeks after the Nazi collapse, her infant siblings and a displaced Jewish boy in tow, and her Nazi assumptions slowly unravelling.

That bald summary might induce one to categorise Lore in the long and honourable line of movies set against the death-seizures of Hitler's regime. That line stretched from Rossellini's Germany Year Zero, shot contemporaneously in 1947 in the actual smoking ruins, to 2008's Anonyma, in which sexual servitude is seen as one woman's only sane response...

Andrei Tarkovsky doesn't exactly have the largest filmography, but it's a well respected one that I am only beginning to explore. I've seen Solaris and his final film The Sacrifice, but haven't yet taken the time to explore such highly regarded films as Andrei Rublev and Stalker. With so few feature films to his credit, you'd think it would be easy to see them all, but considering the two I just mentioned clock in at over 160 minutes each (205 for Rublev) I want to be sure I watch them uninterrupted once I give them the chance. This brings me to Criterion's latest Blu-ray presentation of Tarkovsky's feature film debut, Ivan's Childhood, and while watching, three things came immediately to mind, 1.) Ingmar Bergman, 2.) Robert Rossellini's Germany Year Zero and 3.) the mixture of religious imagery and destruction as seen in Ashes and Diamonds. When it comes to Bergman, the visual comparisons are obvious,...

MoMA's 10th annual International Festival of Film Preservation will unveil the restored version of Roberto Rossellini's "Il Generale della Rovere," presented for the first time since the film's premiere in 1959 at the Venice Film Festival, where it won the Golden Lion in its original uncut glory. Talk about a once-in-a-half-century opportunity. "Il Generale" marked a return for Rossellini to World War II themes more than a decade after his Neorealist trilogy (including "Rome: Open City," "Paisa" and "Germany Year Zero") concluded in 1948, and was one of his most commercially and critically successful dramas. It stars his friend and fellow Neorealist filmmaker Vittorio De Sica as a conman compelled by the Nazis to impersonate a partisan hero. The version screening at MoMA is ten minutes longer than the original Italian theatrical cut, and will be showcased in a brand new 35mm print. New Yorkers have two...

After much media hoopla about "Vertigo" toppling "Citizen Kane" in its poll, Sight and Sound magazine have now released the full version of its once a decade 'Top 250 greatest films of all time' poll results via its website. The site also includes full on links showcasing Top Tens of the hundreds of film industry professionals who participated in the project.

For those who don't want to bother with the individual lists and to save you a bunch of clicking, below is a copy of the full 250 films that made the lists and how many votes they got to be considered for their positions:

1 - Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958) [191 votes]

2 - Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941) [157 votes]

3 - Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953) [107 votes]

4 - La Règle du jeu (Renoir, 1939) [100 votes]

5 - Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927) [93 votes]

6 - 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968) [90 votes]

7 - The Searchers (Ford, 1956) [78 votes]

8 - Man with a Movie Camera (Vertov, 1929) [68 votes]

9 - The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer,...

There was plenty of discussion across the movie blogosphere following last week's announcement that Vertigo had dethroned Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time according to Sight & Sound's decennial poll. In addition to revealing the top 50 as determined by critics, they also provided a top 10 based on a separate poll for directors only. In the print version of the magazine, they have taken it a step further by reprinting some of the individual top 10 lists from the filmmakers who participated, and we now have some of them here for your perusal. Among them, we have lists from legends like Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola and Quentin Tarantino, but there are also some unexpected newcomers who took part including Richard Ayoade (Submarine), Miranda July (Me and You and Everyone We Know) and Sean Durkin (Martha Marcy May Marlene). Some of these lists aren't all that surprising (both Quentin Tarantino...

For anyone interested in foreign films, one of the most interesting periods of German filmmaking was the post war period between 1946 to the mid 1960’s. In effect, only two types of films were being made: pure escapist film such as musicals and comedies that were designed to make the audience complete forget the ugly events of the recent past. But then there were films such as The Lost One, Germany Year Zero, and Murderers Among Us which explicitly dealt with the aftermath of the horrors of World War II and Germany’s guilt and its repercussions. But of all the films, one of the most fascinating, and worthy of rediscovery, is the 1952 film Toxi co-written and directed...

Live performances by Simeon Coxe of the Silver Apples, Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt of The Sea and Cake, & More

So, what're you New Yorkers up to this June? BAMcinématek hopes you'll be spending the last two weeks with them: the fourth annual BAMcinemaFest runs June 20 - July 1 and has the strongest lineup yet, including some 2012 festival favorites and sweet surprises.

Cinephiles will be pleased to know that Roberto Rosellini's recently discovered "The Machine That Kills Bad People," which premiered at Cannes last year, will make its American landing in Brooklyn. A magical comedy from a director firmly grounded in neo-realist roots, 'Machine' focuses on a man whose camera murders anyone it manages to snap. Spooky! A biting satire which critiques the Americanization of Italy, the "Germany Year Zero" director's once-lost project has been newly restored and is definitely worth checking out.

A more recent film that's part of the...

Even as I carry on updating the entry on Doc NYC, there's quite a lot besides going on in the field of nonfiction filmmaking. Last week, both the International Documentary Association and Cinema Eye Honors announced the nominations for their respective awards, and yesterday, Cinema Eye unveiled "a new, periodic award called the Hell Yeah Prize, to be given to filmmakers who have created works of incredible craft and artistry that also have significant, real-world impact. The inaugural Hell Yeah Prize will be presented to Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky for their HBO Documentary Films trilogy Paradise Lost, which played a critical role in securing the release from prison of the wrongly prosecuted and convicted West Memphis Three."

And the other day, when I pointed to Dennis Lim's review of Travis Wilkerson's An Injury to One (2002), "one of American independent cinema's great achievements of the past decade, just issued on DVD by Icarus Films,...

Berlin has been the backdrop – and even the star – in movies from cold war spy thrillers to dramas about the collapse of East Germany. Andrew Pulver picks the top 10 films set in the city

• As featured in our Berlin city guide

People on Sunday (Menschen am Sonntag), Curt and Robert Siodmak, 1930

Silent cinema flourished in Germany during the Weimar years, and Berlin was immortalised in two particularly brilliant impressionist tributes: Walter Ruttmann's Berlin: Symphony of a Great City, and People on Sunday, which aimed to create a patchwork of ordinary Berliners' lives. This film, with its cast of non-professional actors and hidden camera, gets the pick – partly because of its extraordinary writing and directing credit roll. Virtually everyone – including Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann and Robert Siodmak – went on to make a name for themselves in Hollywood, after being forced out of Germany during the Nazi era.

• Bahnhof Zoo; Nikolassee

The Bourne Supremacy,...

The Cinema de la Plage where screenings of classic films are held at 9:30 each night; click for a larger look

Photo: Brad Brevet I already mentioned how Warner Home Video would be releasing a *new* Stanley Kubrick Blu-ray collection, this time including high definition versions of Lolita and Barry Lyndon with previously released HD versions of Spartacus, Dr. Strangelove, 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Shining, Full Metal Jacket, Eyes Wide Shut and a new 40th Anniversary Edition of A Clockwork Orange. That set hits Blu-ray on May 31, but Kubrick's now-40-year-old A Clockwork Orange will be hitting the Cannes Croisette a little bit earlier than that.

Another, late night look at the Cinema de la Plage; click for a larger look

Photo: Brad Brevet It had been previously announced, but yesterday the Cannes Film Festival made it official that A Clockwork Orange would be part of the...

The Cannes Film Festival's unveiled its Classics program today: "Fourteen films, five documentaries, surprises, a Masterclass (Malcolm McDowell), new or restored prints: The program is based on proposals from national archives, cinematheques, studios, producers and distributors. Rare classics to discover or re-discover, they will be presented in 35mm or high definition digital prints."

The Films

The first round of descriptions comes straight from the Festival.

A Trip to the Moon (Le Voyage dans la lune) by Georges Méliès (France, 1902, 16'). "The color version of Georges Méliès most famous film, A Trip to the Moon (1902) is visible again 109 years after its release: having been long considered lost, this version was found in 1993 in Barcelona. In 2010, a full restoration is initiated by Lobster Films, Gan Foundation for Cinema and Technicolor Foundation for Heritage Cinema. The digital tools of today allows them to re-assemble the fragments of 13 375 images from the film and restore them one by one.

Cannes Classics is a recent addition to the festival, and will enjoy its 8th instalment this year. Part of the line-up of this section of the fest is screened at Ceinema de la Plage, that’s right, on the beach. You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool – an open-aired screening of a classic film on the French Riviera, away from the exclusivity of the Palais, and able to be enjoyed by Panini-eating passers-by on the Croisette. There should be more of this at the festival, it’s good for the soul.

This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.

Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...

Cannes Classics is a recent addition to the festival, and will enjoy its 8th instalment this year. Part of the line-up of this section of the fest is screened at Ceinema de la Plage, that’s right, on the beach. You’ve got to admit that it’s pretty cool – an open-aired screening of a classic film on the French Riviera, away from the exclusivity of the Palais, and able to be enjoyed by Panini-eating passers-by on the Croisette. There should be more of this at the festival, it’s good for the soul.

This year’s line-up of films includes work by Stanley Kubrick, Bernardo Bertolucci, Euzhan Palcy (currently being honored by MoMA in New York) and Jerry Schatzberg, whose photograph of Faye Dunaway is embedded into this year’s festival poster above.

Robert DeNiro and Jane Rosenthal will present a screening of “A Bronx Tale” to celebrate ten...

The message running throughout Incendies is clear enough. It’s so clear, in fact, that those watching are in danger of injury, due to intense bludgeoning of said subject matter. The film, directed by Denis Villeneuve, delves into the moral fiber and traumatic tree rings of war more than most films have or most likely ever will, but without one clear vantage point or emotional anchor.

Olivier Assayas‘ Carlos, which similarly tackles military revolt and the collateral damage that comes with it, is focused and dense, never diverting from its narcissistic, passionate title character. Villeneuve’s central character, Nawal (Lubna Azabal), is a cipher. A survivor who does just that and not much more. She survives. She survives the bombing of her village, a bus ride that ends riddled in bullets, a never-ending stint in prison complete with every kind of torture and so much more, including separation from her first-born child.

I have basically resigned myself to reviewing, watching and recommending Blu-rays whenever possible. I love the format and wish everyone could just magically adopt it so the prices would become more reasonable (a dream scenario I'm sure). I am always waiting and looking for deals when it comes to Blu-rays since most often the prices are simply too outrageous. As a matter of fact, while putting this piece together I only now bought myself copies of The African Queen and The Bridge on the River Kwai at Barnes and Noble as both were on sale and I had a 10% off coupon. The way I see it $39 isn't bad for the those two titles, especially when suggested retail is $75 before shipping.

So understand, I know when recommending this many titles at once I realize the possibility of you purchasing all of them is slim to none, but hopefully I may be...

Best Blu-Rays of 2010

After acquiring my Playstation 3 last summer, I’ve gone mad with Blu-Ray fever, and I spent most of 2010 attempting to make my Blu-Ray collection resemble the massive and unnecessary scale of my DVD stash. Though I do not have a multi-region player and thus this list will include only Regions A and 0 discs, I stand by my year-end picks of the most essential discs for a cinephile’s collection. Not all will give your home theater a workout, but most will, and they all demonstrate the capacity of the medium to not only give the best possible image but to retain film-like quality like never before. So, without further ado, here are the Blu-Rays, and a handful of DVDs, you need to own.

Best Blu-Rays of 2010

1. By Brakhage, Vols. I & II (Criterion)

A collection of a master’s work that displays its greatness as much by the...

Criterion's December release announcement is brief, but sweet. David Cronenberg's Videodrome is coming to Blu-Ray while Guillermo Del Toro's Cronos will be released on DVD and Blu-Ray. 

 

The Videodrome Blu-Ray seems to be sourced from same master as the 2004 Criterion DVD.  Extras are largely same. Cronos is newly restored and packed with extras, including a previously unreleased short film called Geometria. Check the links in the calendar for full specifications.

Finally, as mentioned in the last Criterion Column, the DVD release of the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story comes out on December 14th. The Blu-Ray will be released on November 23rd.

 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (January through December 2010, up-to-date as of September 16, 2010)

 

December 2010

 

David Cronenberg, Videodrome, Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

Guillermo del Toro, Cronos, 2-disc DVD & Bd, 12/7/2010, Us & Canada

 

November 2010

 

Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 2-dsc DVD & Bd, 11/16/10, Us & Canada

Charles Laughton, Night Of The Hunter, 2-disc DVD & 2-disc Bd,...

In November, The Criterion Collection is set to release an eclectic mix of American classics with a bit of European transgression thrown in. A newly restored version of Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times is planned for DVD and Blu-Ray. Charles Laughton's stunning black-and-white noir/horror tale Night of the Hunter (1955) is also on the schedule for DVD and Blu-Ray. Lars Von Trier's Antichrist will invade home video players everywhere.

Those are great releases, but highlight of the November list is the America Lost and Found: The Bbs Story box set, which features 6 films from Bob Rafelson and Bert Schneider's production company Bbs during the 60s-70s.  Titles include: Head, Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, Drive He Said, The Last Picture Show, and The King Of Marvin Gardens. Think about the scope of this release for a second. This is six films by Dennis Hopper, Henry Jaglom, Jack Nicholson Bob Rafelson,...

The October 2010 batch of Criterion titles brings a few surprises. Stanley Kubrick's Paths of Glory is hitting DVD and Blu-Ray as is Ingmar Bergman's film The Magician. Criterion continues its relationship with Wes Anderson by releasing The Darjeeling Limited on Blu-Ray and DVD. Ok.

Akira Kurosawa's The Seven Samurai is headed for Blu-Ray with a new restored high-def transfer. If the quality of Criterion's other Kurosawa Blu-Ray discs (e.g. Kagemusha, Sanjuro and Yojimbo) are any indication, it is time to ditch the DVDs. This one should look spectacular.

Finally, Nobuhiko Obayashi's House is making its way to Blu-Ray and DVD just in time for Halloween. There are a few things to note here. First, the fact that Criterion is releasing this on Blu-Ray with a restored transfer and uncompressed mono sound is kind of a surprise. This is a very good thing. The other curious thing is the extras.

The September releases of Breathless on Blu-Ray and The Thin Red Line on Blu-Ray and DVD aren't so much of a surprise. A high-def Breathless release was inevitable and the Malick title leaked out a while ago. Also, Charade is the sort of classic Hollywood auterist fare that Criterion often deals in. No, the big surprise here is Oshima's Happy Birthday Mr. Lawrence. Both this release and the recent Oshima DVD box indicate that Criterion is seriously intent to digging deeper into the director's filmography. Finally, it would be a mistake not to mention the Eclipse box set of Allan King films. The Canadian director's documentaries have never been readily available in the U.S. so this box should expose his work to an entirely new audience (including this writer). 

The Criterion Collection 2010 Release Calendar (Covers January through September 2010, up-to-date as of July 7, 2010)

September 2010

Jean-Luc Godard, Breathless, DVD & Bd, 9/14/10, Us...