Quote of the day
Daniel Kasman...people who go to, say, one film every two weeks and tell themselves, "I will see the great films, but not the others, not the commercial movies," I think those people have no chance of really seeing
February 2008
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Link of the day
Daniel KasmanI remember going to the video store and seeing tacked to the wall a ridiculous little diagram that explained how much of the shark in Jaws and the T-Rex in Jurassic Park I was missing if I chose to rent
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Berlinale 2008: "Night and Day" (Hong, South Korea)
Daniel KasmanSeong-nam (Kim Yeong-ho) glances at one of his many obscure objects of affection while staying in Paris. For a filmmaker who supposedly makes the same (or similar) films each time around, Hong Sang
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At the cinematheque: "J'entends plus la guitare" (Garrel, 1991)
Daniel KasmanAbove: Johanna ter Steege (left) and a woman from her boyfriend's past, played by Mireille Perrier (right) I sense two things when Philippe Garrel turns his camera on. One is a person—not a character
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Berlinale 2008: "RR" (Benning, USA)
Daniel KasmanAs with Ten Skies and 13 Lakes before it, James Benning's new film RR forms great ideas and unexpectedly voluptuous beauty out of modest and strict means, content, and style. Composed entirely of 16mm
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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.
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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