I would love if we could have a lengthy, in-depth discussion of the work of Hong Sang-soo, but would he be too high profile for this?
We can only ask. I don’t see why not. Getting filmmakers to respond is all dependent on how seriously we take the discussions and how willing we are to get deep into the work.
Intense.
Alright, I’m in. And I put forth the suggestion of Apichatpong Weerasethakul.
I’d be interested in coordinating something on Claire Denis.
paging NEH to the garage.
I second Apichatpong Weerasethakul. It could be the sort of thing to get me more involved with the auteurs once again.
Since Adam Cook mentioned him in first place, it’s up to him to decide wether he prefers to coordinate Weerasethakul’s cinema alone or in a group. Those who select a filmmaker please keep in mind that him/her should not belong to the mainstream, and generally have films available to enable discussions. It would also be great iof those who select a director can prepare a Q & A with the filmmaker. We might dedicate about one week to each director, and the whole project is going to last a couple of months. I’m personally thinking about selecting Naomi Kawase, and would also coordinate in a group in case that anyone else is interested. Some other directors who haven’t been mentioned yet, but would also qualify for this project are:
Hong Sang-soo / Pedro Costa / Götz Spielmann / Hirokazu Kore-eda / Lee Chang Dong / Jia Zhang Ke / Tsai Ming-liang / Dardenne Brothers / Gaspar Noé / Nuri Bilge Ceylan / Lukas Moodysson / Jafar Panahi / Lucrecia Martel / Lisandro Alonso / Sharunas Bartas / Bruno Dumont / Carlos Reygadas / Kiyoshi Kurosawa / Angela Schanelec / Shiri Neshat
Additional suggestions are welcome!
This is great. I propose Jia Zhangke! Or perhaps Wang Bing…
I would also be ecstatic if someone who was familiar with Shirin Neshat’s work led a discussion on her. Her photography is also of note. Unfortunately so far I’ve only been able to see a few of her short films.
I have been preparing pieces on each of Haneke’s films, which I’m currently watching in chronological order. I would love to start a discussion on him if he qualifies.
Or Gaspar Noe.
Gaspar Noe J.R. because Haneke started in 1989 although we might as well let it go, hehe ;)
Myra would be perfect doing a project on Jia, i already told Marc i’m considering a Turkish film-maker, probably Ceylan but i’ll be weighing my options soon.
I’ve written so much about Irreversible already I can’t imagine digging back into it again so soon. Haneke is exciting me right now, so I’d like that, but I’ll go with the consensus of the group.
I’ll try to contribute to the discussions. I don’t think I can lead a discussion group though.
I’d say Haneke has clearly emerged in the last two decades. His first film was released in 1989, so I don’t really see it being an issue. But of course I’m not the one who gets to make the decisions. :)
if that’s the case, i’ll vote for doing Ildiko Enyedi, haha..she also started in 1989 :P
Knock your socks off. There hasn’t been enough Enyedi discussion around here lately. :)
I think that Haneke might indeed be a possible exception to the rule as long as we focus on his more recent work made in the 21st century (which would mean to start with “Code Unknown” and end with “The White Ribbon”). I haven´t seen any of Ildiko Enyedi´s films, but since “My Twentieth Century” (1989) is generally regarded as her masterpiece she may not qualify. I mentioned to T that it would be best to focus on those directors who made some of their most outstanding contributions to cinematic art in the 21st century.
Haneke was making films in the early 80s as well, his best work in fact.
Den—What are you talking about?
Well, he already began as a filmmaker in the 1970´s, and “Wer war Edgar Allan?” (1985) as well as “Die Rebellion” (1993) which I saw in German television some time ago are certainly great works. But I think that we nevertheless focus on his feature releases which would mean that he emerged in 1989 with “The Seventh Continent”.
much like mike leigh he made a number of fantastic movies and short programs for tv before features. Edgar Allan is by far better than the stuff he churns out now
Wer war Edgar Allan? (1985) (TV)
Variation (1983) (TV)
Lemminge, Teil 2 Verletzungen (1979) (TV)
Lemminge, Teil 1 Arkadien (1979) (TV)
Drei Wege zum See (1976) (TV)
… aka Three Paths to the Lake (International: English title)
Sperrmüll (1976) (TV)
After Liverpool (1974) (TV)
Hmm, I’d never heard of those early films. Thanks for bringing them up. I started with Seventh Continent.
I would like to propose Sion Sono, his work is greatly overlooked because of his label as an horror director, but I think he may perfectly fit in the description of the filmmakers for discussion.
i’m not sure that everyone accepts everything Reygadas or Dumont made so far as “masterpiece” but i’ll go with distribution’s sake Marc rather “fame” ;)
besides, i’m picky with rules, so in no way i’d choose Haneke or Enyedi due to 1989 (seriously now, hehe)
JR his early work is more vital, the same way Nolan and Mike Leigh work better on a small scale
Those films have only been shown in television, and some of these might be available as TV-Rips, though mostly without subtitles.
Are you also intending to coordinate the Sion Sono-related thread(s), Jaime? If so, you will be able to choose how much time you will need for the preparation, and hopefully we will be able to also get an interview with him.
I propose
Joel Hopkins
Asia Argento
or
Sophia Coppola
Sion Sono films are usually very hard to get, specially if we talk about his early work, so if we’re going to take a look at every piece from this director, it’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to be expensive, which is a problem because I don’t have that much money, if I want to be the Siono coordinator.
So, summing it all up I have a question: Must every film from the chosen filmmaker be discussed?
Nevertheless, I’d love to interview the man anyway, but looking at the difficulties I find it hard to do.
It´s not necessary for you to have seen every single film by the selected director, but should be able to start an introdution thread about his life and work, as well as contribute to the specific discussions of films you´ve seen and the possible Q & A interview with the director. During the discussion week dedicated to Sion Sono each user who has seen a specific film by him will also be able to start an additional thread on which people can discuss that film. Please let me know via PM which films of his you will be able to watch, and I might also be able to provide you with some additional links.
How does one garner an interview with the filmmaker in question?
It sounds like an exciting project and I’d love to contribute to it, but since recent years aren’t my strong suit I may have to go with Blue K and contribute to the discussions rather than take a lead since I’m not sure I have a strong enough grasp of many of the filmmakers careers you are looking at other than, perhaps, Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Maybe someone like Satoshi Kon would be a possiblity if he is of interest here, otherwise I’ll try to think of others.
Garage
Cinéma 21 (referring back to the TV-series Cinéma, de notre temps, which focused on the most relevant filmmakers from the 80’s) seems to us the right expression for an in-depth look at the cinematic and thematic characteristics in the work of 21 cutting edge proponents of cinematic art.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
What we are proposing is that a number of us in the Auteurs community elect to lead a discussion on a filmmaker, actor, composer, cinematographer or producer who has emerged in the last 2 decades.
After an initial thread (that introduces the individual on whose works we’re going to focus), discussion group leaders have two weeks to start individual threads in Garage on each separate film of that director, so that we can all discuss and share our audience experiences.
The user (or group of users) responsible for that director’s work will additionally create a thread in Garage that serves as an organization centre with general descriptions of the director’s life and work, and links to the film threads, interview pieces and conversation discussions with the filmmaker. These threads should contain no online links to the films in order to avoid any kind of piracy discussion, but in the case that some films are completely unavailable for the general audience people might discuss in private about where to find these particular films online.
In time, a Garage channel will open for this discussion project: over the weeks, we will gather interview pieces (audio, most probably via telephone conversation) with as many of the filmmakers / directors under discussion as exclusives. For the sake of simplicity, they will most likely be curated on the project channel
as a still image and audio, although we will push for video interviews as much as possible.
If you are interested, contact us here in the first instance: http://www.theauteurs.com/users/133502 and we’ll direct you to the project leaders for this. If you’d like to propose a filmmaker, actor, composer, cinematographer or producer for discussion, or put yourself forward as a discussion leader, you can also drop a comment below.