Unspoken Cinema

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010/Weerasethakul/Thailand) Jean-Luc Douin ( Le Monde , 31 août 2010): "C'est un cinéma mystérieux, hallucinatoire, d'une lenteur cérémonielle, faisant appel à la mystique et à des émotions sensuelles déroutantes pour certains, qu'a couronné cette année le Festival de Cannes en décernant sa Palme d'or à ce film.[..] La séquence inaugurale, celle d'un buffle égaré dans la brume, donne le ton : on la reçoit d'abord pour ce qu'elle est, l'image belle, majestueuse et intrigante, d'un animal traqué. On comprendra au fil des strophes de cet hymne à la vie éternelle que cette bête gémissante symbolise la disparition d'un monde. Et la revoyant à l'heure du trépas de son personnage principal, Oncle Boonmee, on acceptera volontiers qu'elle figure cet homme dont Weerasethakul nous invite à suivre le passage d'un monde à l'autre. [..] Un oeil dans l'au-delà des rêves et des incarnations ...

IMAGE-TEMPS Ten Minutes Older / Par desmit minutem vecaks (1978/Herz Frank/Soviet Union) Goodbye, Dragon Inn (2003/Tsai Ming-liang/Malaysia) Prologue (2004/Tarr Béla/Hungary) segment from Vision d'Europe Fantasma (2006/Lisandro Alonso/Argentina) 63' Where is my Romeo? (2007/Abbas Kiarostami/France) segment from Chacun son cinéma (Cannes 2007) Shirin (2008/Abbas Kiarostami/Iran) excerpt Fondation Groupama Gan pour le cinéma (2008/Pierre-Henri Gibert/France) Advertising mashup IMAGE-ACTION [REC] (2007/Jaume Balagueró/Paco Plaza/Spain) teaser Paranormal Activity (2009/Oren Peli/USA) teaser

It’s been long since Abbas Kiarostami started trying to eliminate the role of the director in making films. His works bear witness to the fact that, with him, the function of a director is closer to that of a concept artist than a logistic manager. His latest, Shirin (2008), is the next logical step in this process of progressive non-intervention of director. An extrapolation of his segment Where is My Romeo? (which seems like a experimental doodle in comparison) in To Each His Own Cinema (2007), Shirin presents us an audience in a movie theatre, made up mostly of women, played wonderfully by over a hundred professional actresses, watching a period melodrama based on the love triangle between king Khosrow, princess Shirin of Armenia and Farhad, the ace mathematician and sculptor. No, we do not get to watch one frame of the film that is playing in the theatre. Instead, what we get is a film whose imagery is constructed entirely using close-ups of the audience’s reaction to the movie th...

Spot the differences : Meditation "A spectacular colorful sunset with all natural sound from the Virgin Islands: Virgin Gorda, BVI and the world famous 'THE BATHS' beach. This shot is taken from our 'Caribbean Daydreams with 6 loopable scenes' DVD" Contemplation Abbas Kiarostami on the making of Five dedicated to Ozu (2003): "[..]The second method is simpler, but also more complex. This is very different from the cinematic approach, which involves the cooperation of several technicians and different people with different skills. This is a writing job and does not need a crew. One or two companions are enough. For this way of working, you need the earth, wind and water to cooperate. You need a tail wind. You need a good wave. As backgammon players say: 'It's how the dice fall that counts.' [..] I cannot deny the role of this hidden pattern - the role of accident - the occurence or the power of destiny, neighter in my personal life, nor in my w...

Slow century Aidil Rusli, The Malaysian Insider . August 14, 2010 AUG 14 — The history of film is now more than 100 years old. That sounds like a big number but compared to other art forms like painting and music, movies are still very young indeed. It’s been absolutely miraculous to witness the many forms and styles of image-making that have been in existence so far. My personal favourite genre has always been the Hollywood screwball comedies from the 1940s. Particularly great are the astonishing eight films in four years made by Preston Sturges at Paramount and various other gems like “ The Awful Truth ” by Leo McCarey and “ It Happened One Night ” by Frank Capra. The highly polished and subtle film-making style of Ernst Lubitsch and Powell & Pressburger is also another personal favourite of mine. And judging by these personal choices it’s fairly obvious that I highly value storytelling skills, and visuals that support the storytelling instead of just being there to show off one...

Vlog de Michel Reilhac > Béla Tarr - Le cheval de Turin - Budapest from ARTE FRANCE on Vimeo . Michel Reilhac (Arte producer-distributor, not of this film though) went to Budapest on August 18th to watch the final cut of Tarr's latest (last?) film : The Turin Horse (A Torinói ló) . It clocks at 2h30'. Can't wait. Not selected for Venice?