Video of the day
Daniel KasmanA video essay on Fritz Lang's 1944 film, The Woman in the Window, by Girish Shambu, commissioned and posted by Kevin Lee of Shooting Down Pictures.
Daniel Kasman
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Berlinale 2008: "Be Kind Rewind" (Gondry, USA)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Jerry (Jack Black) and Mike (Mos Def) wrapping production of their sweded version of Ghostbusters. When two videostore workers in Be Kind Rewind accidentally erase their aging stock of VSH tapes
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Berlinale 2008: "Ballast" (Hammer, USA)
Daniel KasmanAbove: James (JimMyron Ross) goes for a sullen walk with his uncle Lawrence (Micheal J. Smith Sr.). Lance Hammer's feature film debut Ballast starts off impressive, sullenly mysterious, and certainly
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At the cinematheque: "Import/Export" (Seidl, Austria)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Ukrainian immigrant Olga (Ekateryna Rak) takes a break during her job as a janitor in an Austrian rest home. Ulrich Seidl’s Import/Export is all influences, no inspiration. A diptych wherein
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At the cinematheque: "Inside" (Bustillo/Maury, France)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Béatrice Dalle in her element. It’s about time someone crafted an ode to Béatrice Dalle, the gorgeous French actress who J. Hoberman called “a scarifying Cro-Magnon beauty” in Claire Denis’ Trouble
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At the cinematheque: "Wolfsbergen" (Leopold, Netherlands)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Haas (Merel van Houts) has an uneasy moment of earnest affection in her tumultuous family. Why is it so continually surprising when a film tells a story as old as time itself, but does so in
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Now in theaters: "Don't Touch the Axe" (Rivette, France)
Daniel KasmanAbove: As close as they'll ever get, Jeanne Balibar trying to keep Guillaume Depardieu at bay. So it has finally come to this, Jacques Rivette adapting a Balzac novel about the Thirteen, the mysterious
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Image of the day
Daniel KasmanFrom J'entends plus la guitare (1991); featuring Johanna ter Steege; directed by Philippe Garrel; cinematography by Caroline Champetier: In honor of a new 35mm print being distributed as the inaugural
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R.I.P.: Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008)
Daniel KasmanAbove: A Polish poster for Alain Resnais' Last Year in Marienbad, from a script by Alain Robbe-Grillet.
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Berlinale 2008: "Mauprat" (Epstein, France)
Daniel KasmanJean Epstein's 1926 silent film Mauprat is a wonderful discovery, thriving with unexpected, lovely impressionism to tell a seemingly old-fashioned story of brigands, unrequited love, wrongful accusation
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Berlinale 2008: "Revanche" (Spielmann, Austria)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Johannes Krisch (left) and Ursula Strauss (right). Revanche shows just how successfully one can transpose the plot and character based drama of Hollywood to the refined style of European art
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Berlinale 2008: "Sparrow" (To, China)
Daniel KasmanThe pleasures of Johnnie To begin on a purely formal level. Long lenses flattening the shot, a camera on tracks to elaborate tension and movement, those fabulous widescreen tableaux of To’s characters