Michael Guillén: In the Q&A after the program you spoke a bit about being fond of "boring" films; what are you referencing in particular?
Matt Losada: I meant "boring" in quotes, of course. It's a matter of expectations, like when you tell someone they just have to see a certain film, then sometimes afterward they avoid mentioning it, and if you ask about it they say it was slow or boring. If they're used to lots of camera movement, lots of cutting, dense narration, they'll find certain films boring. I think this is what Pedro Costa meant when he said how lots of commercial films need to create "energy" where sometimes there is none. So I suppose I might have been apologizing for my piece not being like that. But I think that "boring" films are often much richer films, so I was trying for that kind of richness in the piece.
The story told provided a good opportunity to use the frame as a immobile boundary between what you see and what you don't see. At the end you see my cousin's photos, which I tried to respond to in the form of the individual shots, and that called for a fixed frame and long takes. So I started out lots of the shots as empty spaces, abstracted because there are no people for scale, and then I didn't move the camera at all. So the frame forms a strong boundary between what's on screen and what's off, and you can play with that divide, especially with the sound. When you're not following the elements of the story around with the camera, or cutting to different shots to follow what's important to advance the narration, then the off-screen space becomes pure opportunity to use sound to create a world out there. Sound takes on a completely different dimension, one that's not there if you don't establish that code, that you're not going to move the camera, or cut to tell the viewer what he should be looking at. So the minimal story allowed this, and the photos provided a reason to fix the frame and use long takes, which results in the "boring" I was referring to.
I tried to play with this boredom too. [For example,] in the endless shot of him building the camera, the phone starts to ring and he doesn't answer it, and it keeps ringing and ringing. The interval between each ring gets a tiny bit longer each time. I was trying to create that feeling of relief when you think it has stopped …but then the thing rings again … and again, until he finally gets up and leaves, [which] probably most of the audience wanted to do by that point. His photos also allow chance to come into play. Some are from the camera with the three pinholes, and they make three images of the same thing appear, but each image is different, because the pinholes aren't exactly alike, and the light kind of scrapes through on the rough edges and bounces around, creating all kinds of effects on the images. This element of chance is also present in a different way in the video shots, which show simple things like my cousin waiting to cross the street, and the city provides the rest, like people passing into the frame, smoke, dogs, sounds, all these little events. With video you can shoots lots of takes and eventually something interesting will happen.
To get back to the question, specific directors that are "boring", but in a very good way: the first [who] comes to mind is Ozu. Maybe Kiarostami. My favorite of all is Bresson. There's a great Argentine film from the '60s I showed in my course called El dependiente [1969] by Leonardo Favio. And some experimental films … Chantal Akerman is great, her Jeanne Dielman [1975] is a wonderful use of long takes and repetition with variation. Michael Snow's Wavelength [1967] is another. These films take you mental places where more narrative cinema can't go. If you describe them to someone, they sound really horrendous, but hidden in that "boredom" is a wonderfully rich perceptive experience. There are lots of newer narrative films. One that uses a fixed frame and very long takes and narrates with just sound, but in a different way, playing with different temporalities, is Hamaca paraguaya [2006] by Paz Encina. It's a film about waiting, which motivates the form. I showed it to my students, they'd never seen anything at all like it … some of them loved it, felt really strongly about it. Another good one, in a different way, is Honor de cavalleria [2006] by Albert Serra. Don Quijote and Sancho Panza's down time, when they're hanging out between adventures. It sounds kind of boring, doesn't it?
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Sin Titulo
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5/06/2008 09:52:00 AM
By
HarryTuttle
At The Evening Class, Michael Guillen interviews a film student from Berkeley, Matt Losada, and about his non-conventional film, Sin Título (2007). They talk about so-called "boring" films:
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Yumurta dans Le Monde
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4/22/2008 09:58:00 PM
By
HarryTuttle
Jean-Luc Douin écrit dans Le Monde, aujourd'hui, 22 avril 2008, à propos du film contemplatif Yumurta de Semih Kaplanoglu.
extraits:
extraits:
Il y a d'abord ce plan d'une vieille femme qui marche dans une brume de campagne, sur fond sonore d'aboiements de chien, de chants d'oiseau. Elle sort du champ, définitivement. Et voilà maintenant Yusuf, libraire à Istanbul, poète. Voilà des informations distillées au fil d'images apparemment anodines, mais qui recèlent un sens caché : la voiture de Yusuf dans un long tunnel qui débouche sur la lumière, Yusuf assis près d'un corps recouvert d'un linceul, Yusuf devant une tombe et suivi comme son ombre par un petit garçon, Yusuf couché dans une forêt et réveillé par une nuée d'oiseaux.
Bel exposé, au lyrisme discret et aux visions psychanalytiques, de ce que vient de vivre le héros, la mort de sa mère, son enterrement dans le village natal de Yusuf, un défilé d'émotions, chaos de sensations, qui le ramènent à sa petite enfance, remontent le temps, mélangent vie et songes.
(...)
UN ÉTRANGE COMA
Humblement, comme dans un film d'Ozu ou de Satyajit Ray, Yumurta égrène de petits gestes anodins et isole des objets qui ont valeur de symbole. Une fleur plantée dans un pot un jour d'enterrement, un bol de lait, une brosse à dents, un pilier de bois en forme de crucifix, un puits envahi d'herbes, cet oeuf qui donne son titre au film et dont on guette l'apparition, signe du lien avec la mère, tardivement assumé.
La nuque d'Ayla brûlant des feuilles mortes, une couleur de tricot, une panne d'électricité, un chant du coq : Semih Kaplanoglu ne cesse d'égrener des symptômes, de faire parler l'inconscient par le déroulement des gestes quotidiens, le départ sans cesse différé de Yusuf, le taciturne. Le cinéaste compose des cadres amples, des plans rigoureux, un rythme lent et harmonieux, pour épier ce qu'il y a d'admirable chez un homme ou une femme : la dignité, la fidélité, la grandeur d'âme, le regard, la patience, le doute et le tourment aussi.
(...)
Semih Kaplanoglu maîtrise parfaitement son style élégiaque, limpide et poétique, ténébreux et radieux. Dans l'ombre de Nuri Bilge Ceylan, la Turquie vient de se découvrir un grand cinéaste.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
LINKS :: Aleksandr SOKUROV
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4/16/2008 04:19:00 PM
By
HarryTuttle
Aleksandr SOKUROV / СОКУРОВ Александр (born 14 June 1951/Russia) = 56 yold in 2008
Alexandra / Александра / Aleksandra (2007) - Cannes 2007
Please complete, correct info when needed, fix broken links. This is an ongoing resource page to be updated.
46 films / 20 screenplays (1st film: 1974/latest film: 2007)
INSPIRED BY : Andrei Tarkovsky, Grigori Kozintsev?
C.C.C. films : Alexandra (2007); The Sun (2004); Father and Son (2003); Elegy of a Voyage (2002); Moloch (1999); Confession (1998); A Humble Life (1997); Mother and Son (1996); Oriental Elegy (1996); Spiritual Voices (1995); Elegy from Russia (1992); Stone (1992); An Example of Intonation (1991); The Second Circle (1990); A Simple Elegy (1990); Mariya (1988)
INFLUENCE ON : ?
Quick scroll : BIBLIOGRAPHY ONLINE ARTICLES INTERVIEW SOKUROV TEXTS WEBSITES DOCUMENTARY
Alexandra / Александра / Aleksandra (2007) - Cannes 2007
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- Cinema Guild (official distributor website)
- "Sokourov à la frontière" By: Eugenio Renzi (Fév 2007, Cahiers du cinéma #620) [FRENCH]
- Cannes 2007 press kit PDF
- "Approche de Sokourov" By: Eugenio Renzi (May 2007, Cahiers du cinéma #623) [FRENCH]
- Review By: Jay Weissberg (May 24, 2007, Variety)
- "Approche de Sokourov, Alexandra" By: Eugenio Renzi (Mai 2007, Cahiers du cinéma #623) [FRENCH]
- Links By: David Hudson (May 24, 2007, GreenCine)
- Bottom Line: Stark but moving snapshot of men on the front line of a nation's nightmare By: Ray Bennett (May 25, 2007, The Hollywood Reporter)
- Sokurov's Chechenya By: Nancy Condee (Oct 2, 2007, KinoKultura)
- Review By: Kevin Lee (Oct 5, 2007, Slant Magazine)
- Mother Russia By: Erica Abeel (Oct 6, 2007, Filmmaker)
- Review By: Leo Goldsmith (Oct 8, 2007, Not coming to a Theatre Near You)
- Review By: acquarello (Oct 9, 2007, Strictly Film School)
- Links By: David Hudson (Oct 14, 2007, GreenCine)
- War's female face By: Tom Birchenough (Nov 23, 2007, The Moscow Times)
- Review By: Michael Sicinski (Feb 2008, The Academic Hack)
- Sokurov's Alexandra: Army of One By: J. Hoberman (March 25, 2008, The Village Voice)
- A Widow Roaming the Chechen Front, With Curiosity and History in Tow By: Manohla Dargis (March 26, 2008, NYT)
- Far From the Front, A Voice of Reason By: Nicolas Rapold (March 26, 2008, The New York Sun)
- Review By: Daniel Kasman (March 26, 2008, The Auteurs' Notebook)
- Links By: David Hudson (March 26, 2008, GreenCine)
- A thorny indie spring-ucopia! By: Andrew O'Hehir (March 27, 2008, Salon.com)
- Spiritual Voice, Material World: The Trouble With Sokurov’s Alexandra By: Michael Sicinski (cinemascope #33)
- TIFF 2007: Places of Rest By: Andrew Tracy (cinemascope #33)
- Elegy to the Chechen republic By: James Quandt (Artforum, March 2008)
- "Grandmother's Russia" By: Ian Christie (Sight & Sound, Vol 18, Issue 10, Oct 2008)
- "Conflict Resolutions" By: James Norton (Vertigo 4.1, Autumn/Winter 2008)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- Press kit (kinoglaz) [FRENCH] PDF
- Aesthetic choices: Aleksandr Sokurov’s The Sun By: Stefan Steinberg (March 11, 2005, WSWS)
- Review By: Daniel Kasman (Oct 4, 2005, d+kaz)
- Review By: Waggish (Oct 12, 2005, Waggish)
- Review By: Leo Goldsmith (Oct 25, 2005, Not Coming to a Theatre Near You)
- Edinburg 2005 By: Geoffrey Macnab (Sept 2005, Sight & Sound)
- Solar Power By: Andrew Tracy (Autumn 2005, Reverse Shot)
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- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- "De vigueur" By: Clélia Cohen (June 2003, Cahiers du cinéma #580, p. 43) [FRENCH]
- "Le sourire de mon père" By: Hélène Frappat (Jan 2004, Cahiers du cinéma #586, pp. 49-50) [FRENCH]
- "L'élégie de Sokourov" By: Giorgio Agamben (Jan 2004, Cahiers du cinéma #586, p. 49) [FRENCH]
- Father Figures By: Matthew Plouffe (Autumn 2004, Reverse Shot)
- Tracking Shots By: J. Hoberman (June 8, 2004, The Village Voice)
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- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- The infinite journey By: Andrew James Horton (Kinoeye)
- "Vague à l’âme: l’animation mélancolique dans Élégie de la traversée d’Alexandre Sokurov" By: Diane Arnaud 338 in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, pp 338-353 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
- "Une ombre lunaire: à propos d’Élégie de la traversée d’Alexandre Sokurov" By: Carole Wrona in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, pp 354-361 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
- "Une ombre au tableau: les voies silencieuses de l’incarnation dans Élégie de la traversée d’Alexandre Sokurov" By: Sylvie Rollet in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, pp 362-367 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
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- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- "Sur le tournage de Moloch aux studios Lenfilm" By: Antoine Cattin (1998, Hors-champ #1) [FRENCH]
- Review By: Stéphane Bouquet (June 1999, Cahiers du cinéma, #536, pp. 32-33) [FRENCH]
- 1999 International Festival of New Cinema, New Media By: Donato Totaro (Nov 19, 1999, Offscreen)
- The Elusive Hitler, a dialogue on Sokurov's Moloch By: Benjamin Halligan, Andrew J. Horton & Donato Totaro (Jan 24, 2000, Kinoeye)
- "Monochromies de l’altérité ou le meurtre de soi" By: Myriam Villan (Spring 2004, Hors-champ #9)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- Alexandre le grand By: Stephane Aicardi (Jan 1, 1999, Cronic'Art) [FRENCH]
- Staring into the Soul, Aleksandr Sokurov's Povinnost' By: Donato Totaro (Jan 24, 2000, Kinoeye)
- Confession/ Povinnost (Russia, Aleksandr Sokurov, 1998): A homoerotic film of cult potential By: Dina Iordanova (25 November 2008, Dina View)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- "L'oeuvre de mort" By: Stéphane Bouquet (Feb 1998, Cahiers du Cinéma #521, pp. 26-29) [FRENCH]
- "Celle qui s'en va, analyse d'une séquence" By: Antoine de Baecque (Feb 1998, Cahiers du cinéma #521, pp. 30-31) [FRENCH]
- "Sokourov, d'alpha en oméga" By: Frédéric Strauss (Feb 1998, Cahiers du cinéma #521, pp. 32-33) [FRENCH]
- "Voir bouger les nuages" By: Anne-Marie Garat (March 1998, Cahiers du cinéma #522, pp. 62-63) [FRENCH]
- I wept and wept, from start to finish By: Nick Cave (March 29, 1998, Independent on Sunday)
- Mother and Son By: Donato Totaro (Sept 23, 1998, OffScreen)
- Even the cinematic frame isn't safe from Sokurov's grim sleight-of-hand By: Gary Morris (Dec 1998, Bright Lights Film Journal)
- Review By: acquarello (2000, Strictly Film School)
- Fractal Images of Memory in Mother and Son By: David Neo (Nov 30, 2001, OffScreen)
- A Sight for Sore Eyes By: Matthew Plouffe (Spring 2004, Reverse Shot)
- Russian Arks, Aleksandr Sokurov's cinema is one of absolute attention By: Graeme Hobbs (Autumn 2007, Vertigo Magazine, Vol. 3, N°7)
- Review & DVD By: J.L.L. (Feb 9, 2008, Ciné-club de Caens)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- Full transcript in English of the dialogues of the 5 episodes By: Julian Richards (July 21, 2007, Almost not there)
- The Museum of Doubt By: Julian Richards (July 25, 2007, Almost not there)
- "Fires Were Started" By: Jerry White (Vertigo 3.8, Winter/Spring 2008)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- "Berlin 1991 : La bande des quatre" By: Frederic Strauss (April 1991, Cahiers du cinéma #442, p. 12) [FRENCH]
- Review By: acquarello (2002, Strictly Film School)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- The Island of Sokurov (official website)
- (add link here)
- "URSS, voyage dans un cinéma en mutation" By: F. Albera (May 1987, Cahiers du Cinéma #394) [FRENCH]
- "Work and inspiration" By: S. Nevsky (July 1987, Soviet Film, #7)
- Giovanni Buttafava, "Leningradocinema, materiali sulla Lenfil'm e la scuola di Leningrado, 1978-1988" Ed. Di Giacomo, 1988, 94 p. [ITALIAN]
- "Alexander Sokurov: avant-garde triptych" By: Aleksandr Kiselev (Feb 1989, Soviet Film, #2)
- "Sokurov's 'lonely voice'' By: Amos Vogel (May-June 1989, Film Comment, vol. 25, #3)
- "La contemplation ironique: Alexandre Sokourov" By: François Niney (Jan 1990, Cahiers du cinéma #427, pp. 72-73 [FRENCH] on Day of the Eclipse & Moscow Elegy
- "Body and soul. Truth in the flesh. Sokurov's lessons" By: Plakhov; M. Iampolski; C. Zervudacki (Aug 1990, Soviet Film, #8)
- (Nov 1990, Revue du Cinéma/Image et Son #465) [FRENCH]
- Horton A and Brashinsky M, The Zero Hour: Glasnost and Soviet Cinema in Transition, Princeton, New Jersey, 1992, pp 121-123
- Jameson F, "On Soviet Magic Realism" in The Geopolitical Aesthetic: Cinema and Space in the World System, Bloomington, 1992, pp 87-113
- "Trauern und Beweinen" By: Hans Werner Dannowski (April 1993, EPD Film, vol. 10, #4) [GERMAN]
- Brashinsky M and Horton A (eds), "Russian Critics on the Cinema of Glasnost" Cambridge, 1994, pp 109-22
- "Sokurov" By: Liubov Arkus (1994, Ed. Seans Press, St.-Pétersbourg)
- "Le cinéma n'est pas un art, c'est tout au plus un phénomène culturel" By: Sandrine Fillipetti (Winter-Spring 1995, Ciné-Bulles, vol. 14, #1) [FRENCH]
- Egerova T, Soviet Film Music: An historical survey, Amsterdam, 1997, pp 281-284
- "Atelier : Simple élégie" By: Elena Hill (1998, Hors-champ #1) [FRENCH]
- "L’apprentissage de la mort" By: Mikael Iampolski (1998, Hors-champ #1) [FRENCH]
- "Vers une archéologie expérimentale" By: Elena Hill (1998, Hors-champ #1) [FRENCH]
- "L’acteur chez Sokourov : une profession pour amateur" By: Antoine Cattin, Elena Hill (1998, Hors-champ #1) [FRENCH]
- "Returning to Zero" By: Christie Ian (1998, Sight and Sound, #8, 1998, Vol. 4, pp 14-17)
- "Alexandre Sokourov, la force du condamné" By: Olivier Joyard (Nov 1998, Cahiers du cinéma #529, pp. 4-5) [FRENCH]
- "L'acteur chez Sokourov : une profession pour amateur" By: Antoine Cattin, Elena Hill (Nov 1998, Hors-Champ, #1) [FRENCH] PDF
- "Vers une archéologie expérimentale" By: Elena Hill (Nov 1998, Hors-Champ, #1) [FRENCH]
- "L'apprentissage de la mort" By: M. Iampolski (Nov 1998, Hors-Champ, #1) [FRENCH]
- "Dossier: Aleksandr Sokurov, The Russian Idea" By: Christie Ian (ed) (April 1999, Film Studies #1, pp 63-77)
- "Truth in the flesh" By: M. Iampolski (April 1999, Film Studies, #1)
- "Le anime morte di Alexandr Sokurov" By: Lorenzo Esposito (April 1999, Filmcritica, vol. 49, #494) [ITALIAN]
- "Film come quadri oltre la realtà" By: Carlo Chatrian (June 1999, Cineforum, vol. 39, #385) [ITALIAN]
- Birgit Beumers, "Russia on reels, The russian idea in post-soviet cinema" Ed. I.B. Tauris, 1999, 219 p.
- "El universo Sokurov" By: Quintin (July 1999, Amante Cine #88) [SPANISH]
- "Il silenzio del tempo" By: Giuseppe Gariazzo (March 2000, Filmcritica, vol. 50, #503) [ITALIAN]
- "Whispering images" By: Tony Pipolo (Sep 2002, Film Comment, vol. 38, #5)
- "And the Ship Sails On" By: J. Hoberman (Sep-Oct 2002, Film Comment, vol. 38, #5)
- "Reconfiguring the past: the return of history in recent Russian film" By: David Gillespie (2002, New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film, vol. 1, #1)
- "L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable" (Chapt. VI: Doublure d'invisible ou les ombres au travail chez Alexandre Sokourov, pp 321-398) Dir. Murielle Gagnebin, 412 p. (Jan 2003, Coll. L'Or d'Atalante, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH] preview
- "Sokurov ou la quête de l’envers de l’image" By: Georges Nivat in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, Chap. VI, pp 321-337 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) & (Spring 2004, Hors-champ #9) [FRENCH]
- "L’ombre de l’auteur" By: Gérard Leblanc in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, Chap. VI, pp 368-371 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
- "À l’ombre d’Éden" By: Jean Breschand in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, Chap. VI, pp 372-377 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
- "Le Voyageur et son ombre: Élégie de la traversée d’Alexandre Sokurov" By: Jean-Louis Leutrat in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, Chap. VI, pp 378-381 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) [FRENCH]
- "Aleksandr Sokurov: eclissi di cinema" By: Stefano Francia ; Enrico Ghezzi ; Alexei Jankowski (2003, Ed. Torino: Associazione Cinema Giovani, Torino film festival) [ITALIAN]
- "The Civilizing Russian" By: Ian Christie (April 2003, Sight and Sound, vol. 13, #4)
- "Die Einsamkeit des Grenzgängers./ Ein Kraftakt" By: Hans-Joachim Schlegel (April 2003, Film-dienst, vol. 56, #9) [GERMAN]
- "Dieu n'a pas besoin du cinéma" By: Hélène Frappat (Jan 2004, Cahiers du cinéma #586, pp. 50-51) [FRENCH]
- "Alexander Sokurov and the Russian soul" By: David Gillespie (2004, Studies in European Cinema, vol. 1, #1)
- "Disgelo russo - L'opera completa di Aleksandr Sokurov al Torino Film Festival" By: Luca Bandirati (March 2004, Segnocinema, vol. 14, #9) [ITALIAN]
- "Elegia della caduta: Aleksandr Sokurov oltre la 'finzione'" By: Rinaldo Censi (June 2004, Cineforum, vol. 44, #435) [ITALIAN]
- "After 'after': the Arkive fever of Alexander Sokurov" By: Dragan Kujundzic (Jul-Sep 2004, Quarterly Review of Film and Video, vol. 21, #3)
- "Father Russia" By: Julian Graffy (Sep 2004, Sight and Sound, vol. 14, #9)
- Bruno Dietsch, "Alexandre Sokourov" Ed. L'Age d'homme, 2005, 97 p. [FRENCH]
- Diane Arnaud, "Le cinéma de Sokourov, figures d'enfermement" Ed. L'Harmattan, 2005, 200 p. (kinoglaz.fr) [FRENCH]
- "Le cycle élégiaque d'Alexandre Sokourov: rêveries d'un guide solitaire" By: Charles-Stéphane Roy (Jul-Aug 2005, Séquences, #238) [FRENCH]
- "Rétrospective Alexandre Sokourov: du grotesque au sublime" By: François Albera (Autumn 2005, 24 Images #124) [FRENCH]
- "History and Elegy in Sokurov" By: Frederic Jameson (Autumn 2006, Critical Inquiry, vol. 33)
- Thorsten Botz-Bornstein, "Films and Dreams: Tarkovsky, Bergman, Sokurov, Kubrick, and Wong Kar-wai" Ed. Lexington Books, 2007, 176 p.
- "Russian Arks" By: Graeme Hobbs & Gareth Evans (Vertigo 3.7, Autumn/Winter 2007)
- "Alexander Sokourov" By: F. Abera & M. Estève (CinémAction, n°133, 2009)
- "Rétrospective Alexandre Sokourov au festival de la Rochelle" By: Marcel Martin (1993, festival-larochelle.com)
- On the Blurring of Lines: Some Thoughts About Alexander Sokurov By: Thorsten Botz-Bornstein (Sept 12, 2002, cine-text)
- Cinema of Damnation: Negative Capabilities in Contemporary Central and Eastern European Film (Tony McKibbin, Dec. 2004, Senses of Cinema)
- Eyeless in Turin, Sokurov Retrospective By: Geoffrey Macnab (Nov 19, 2003, The Guardian)
- The Mother and the Moth : searching for meaning in the cinema of Aleksandr Sokurov By: Michael J. Anderson (26 Apr 2010, Tativille)
- "Des pages cachées : Alexandre Sokourov" By: Danièle Hibon (Oct 2010, Galerie du Jeu de Paume) PDF
- "Cours de cinéma : 'L’Arche russe' d’Alexandre Sokourov" By: Diane Arnaud (22 Oct 2010, forum des images) [FRENCH] video 1h29' on Russian Ark
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- "La parole au scénario: Entretien avec Iouri Arabov" By: Serge Toubiana (Jan 1990, Cahiers du Cinéma #427) [FRENCH]
- "'The History of an Artist's Soul is a Very Sad History': Interview with Aleksandr Sokurov" By: Paul Schrader (Nov 1997, Film Comment, vol. 33, #6)
- "Nostalghia" interview By: Antoine de Baecque & Olivier Joyard, in Cahiers du cinéma #521, Fev 1998, pp. 34-39 [FRENCH] on Mother and Son
- "Ostrov Sokurova: L'Ile Sokourov" By: Antoine Cattin (Nov 1998, Hors-Champ, #1) [FRENCH] PDF
- "The solitary voice: an interview with Aleksandr Sokurov" By: Edwin Carels (April 1999, Film Studies #1)
- "The Foundations of Film Art: An Interview with Alexander Sokurov" By: Kirill Galetski (June 2001, Cinéaste, vol. 26, #3)
- "Plane songs" By: Lauren Sedofsky (Nov 2001, ArtForum)
- "La vie n’est pas la mort, c’est le temps" By: Georges Nivat in L'ombre de l'image, de la falsification à l'infigurable, pp 383-398 (Jan 2003, Ed. Champ Vallon) & (Spring 2004, Hors-champ #9) [FRENCH] excerpts
- Cannes 2003 interview By: Valeri Kitchine (Rossiskaïa gazeta, kinoglaz.fr) [FRENCH] on Father and Son
- Interview avec Alexandre Sokourov By: Olivier bombarda (March 2006, REAL video, 13'33", ARTE) on The Sun
- "Interview with Aleksandr Sokurov" By: Jeremi Szaniawski (Autumn 2006, Critical Inquiry, vol. 33)
- "La guerre est finie" interview on April 14, 2007 By: Jean-Michel Frodon in Cahiers du cinéma #623, Mai 2007, pp. 28-30 [FRENCH] on Alexandra
- « La politique ne m’intéresse pas » interview in Moscow By: Lorraine Millot (April 18, 2007, Libération) [FRENCH]
- "Entretien avec Alexandre Sokourov en cinq tableaux" made in Barcelona on June 3rd 2005, on DVD "Mère et Fils" (Jan 2008, Ed. Potemkine) on Mother and Son
- Interview avec Alexandre Sokourov By: Laure Adler (Hors Champ, France Culture, 26 Oct 2010) podcast 45' MP3
- (Add link here)
- "Nel Centro dell'Oceano" By: Aleksandr Sokurov (2011)
- (Add reference here)
- Остров Сокурова [RUSSIAN] [ENGLISH]
- Kinoeye Focus [ENGLISH]
- Russian Film [ENGLISH]
- (Add link here)
- Ostrova. Alexandr Sokurov (2003/Svetlana PRoskurina/Russia)
- In One Breath : Alexandr Sokurov's Russian Ark (2003/Knut Elstermann/Germany)
- Alexandre Sokourov, question de cinéma (2008/Anne Imbert/France) TV 60'
- (Add reference here)
Please complete, correct info when needed, fix broken links. This is an ongoing resource page to be updated.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Chiarini on neorealism
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4/08/2008 10:56:00 PM
By
HarryTuttle
In the 1993 book Teorie del cinema (1945-1990) (French translation, italicised passages are direct quotes from Chiarini), Fransesco Casetti relates the position of Italian critic Luigi Chiarini on neorealism :
Le spectacle est une aire composite où dominent la splendeur scénographique et la volonté de raconter, l'attrait du public et le jeu de la fiction. Nous sommes dans la tradition de la mise en scène théâtrale, à qui le cinéma offre de nouvelles et plus amples possibilités techniques. Choisir au contraire la voie du film pur signifie renoncer aux filtres traditionnnels, c'est-à-dire à la fiction, à la narration et à la mise en scène et instituer un rapport direct avec la réalité. C'est la voie du néoréalisme, qui récupère ainsi la leçon qui était à l'origine déjà de celle de Lumière. Toutefois rapport direct à la réalité ne signifie pas absence de médiations : au metteur en scène revient toujours le devoir de réélaboration créative des données de départ. Simplement, il ne doit pas trahir le fondement photographique du film, comme cela arrive quand à la prise de vue se superposent des schémas préétablis. Il faudra au contraire reconnaitre le rôle joué par la caméra, et lui demander de collaborer à l'exploration du monde; mieux il faudra consentir à la caméra de fixer elle-même les événements, jusqu'à "agir à son tour sur l'homme" et à indiquer à ce dernier comment représenter le monde qui l'entoure.
Cet équilibre de réélaboration créative et de respect pour le fondement photographique du film constitue l'élément caractéristique du cinéma par rapport aux autres arts, son trait distinctif, sa "spécificité". S'opposant à l'idée que l'essence du film réside dans des facteurs tels que le montage, Chiarini rappelle que sa caractéristique fondamentale consiste au contraire "dans la possibilité d'élaborer artistiquement, sans médiations littéraires ou théatrales préalables, un matériel encore informe du point de vue esthétique" : en un mot, dans la capacité de surprendre le réel et de le mettre en forme sans en trahir ni l'esprit, ni la lettre.
(Luigi Chiarini, Discorso sul neorealismo, 1951 / Spettacolo e filmo, 1952)
Zavattini on neorealism
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4/08/2008 12:45:00 AM
By
HarryTuttle
Italian Critic, Cesare Zavattini defines the revolution of Italian neorealismo, which was taken to more radical ends by Contemporary Contemplative Cinema.
"Il faut que la distance entre la vie et le spectacle s'annule"
"la véritable tentative ne consiste pas à inventer une histoire qui ressemble à la réalité, mais à raconter la réalité comme si c'était une histoire"
"Il ne s'agit plus de faire devenir "réalité" (faire paraître vraies, réelles) les choses imaginées, mais de rendre les plus significatives possibles les choses telles qu'elles sont, celles-ci se racontant quasiement d'elles-mêmes"
"Chaque moment est infiniment riche. Le banal n'existe pas"
"[Dans la réalité] nous ne sommes ni bon, ni mauvais, ni des saints, ni des démons, nous sommes"
"Aucun autre moyen d'expression n'a comme le cinéma cette capacité originelle et congénitale de photographier les choses qui, selon nous méritent d'être montrées dans leur quotidienneté, c'est-à-dire dans leur durée la plus longue, la plus vraie... Aucun autre moyen d'expression n'a comme le cinéma la possibilitié de faire connaître quelque chose, et au plus grand nombre."
"Il ne doit y avoir de préétabli que ce que nous sommes; et voilà pourquoi le sujet sera substitué par l'homme dans sa totalité, prêt, et en même temps désarmé, devant les faits."
"Il ne faut plus de canons et de règles de style... ; la forme sera dictée par le fait, par la chose advenue et immédiatement exprimée."
Refuser la sacralisation de l'acteur et lui préférer l'homme vrai, avec son prénom et son nom de famille. En un mot, refuser toute voie qui n'est pas celle analytico-documentaire, et privilégier le reflet direct des choses, l'immédiateté, l'actualité, la durée.
"Le cinéma doit raconter ce qui se passe. La caméra est faite pour regarder devant elle."
"Le temps est venu de jeter les scénarios et de suivre les hommes pas à pas avec la caméra"
(Cesare Zavattini, in Neorealismo ecc. 1979)
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