I recommend Alicia Scherson’s Turistas (2008). It’s slight, but left me walking out of a Rotterdam cinema grinning, and scenes stayed with me after I’d left the festival.
Neil Young’s take here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/film-review-turistas-1003938243.story
Project: New Cinephilia is a cross-platform initiative of the Edinburgh International Film Festival co-published and powered by MUBI, who will host P:NC-related discussion in their Forums.
Following David Bordwell’s calls for a little more harmony between academics and critics, Chris Fujiwara suggests there is still misunderstanding from university film departments on what criticism is all about.
How do you view the relationship between film studies, theory and film criticism? Should the disciplines be closer? And what are their essential differences?
Project: New Cinephilia is a cross-platform initiative of the Edinburgh International Film Festival co-published and powered by MUBI, who will host P:NC-related discussion in their Forum.
In his essay Taken Up By Waves, Girish Shambu sets an optimistic tone on the pleasures of the 21st Century cinephilia and puts forward the idea of mediators acting in waves, moving ideas forward, encouraging new discoveries and expansions on how we engage with films.
He also calls for a balance between the sustained attention of long-form scholarship and criticism in books and essays and the fragmented attention we bring to modes of reading and writing in the age of social media.
How do you define your own cinephilia in relation to mediators, waves and the push and pull of sustained/fragmented attention?
On the previous Forum thread Greg X and others have called for a more collaborative style of criticism, with a plurality of voices. Whilst still adhering to the structure of invited guests, we hope the Online Roundtable format, where a conversation develops over a particular subject in public is a move in the right direction.
Today we start with Neil Young, and a few pertinent thoughts on cinephilia he throws our way. Bringing up the idea that there is a New Cinephile Canon, he wonders if it is essential to be familiar with the work of certain directors (and what’s more to have seen their work) to qualify as a cinephile?
Must people be aware of the work of a certain clutch of auteurs, eg. Albert Serra, Lisandro Alonso, Apichatpong Weerasethakul Claire Denis, Jia Zhang-Ke and James Benning?
How much of cinephilia is a desire to discover the unknown?
What impact does cinephilia have on our professional lives. Does getting to work in the area you love build or diminish your passion for cinema?
And finally is “cinephile” a term we claim for ourselves or something that is bestowed upon us by others?
We’d love to see the essay – do post the link when it’s up.
Regarding your thoughts on a post-Auteur driven framework, Adrian Martin offered an interesting take in his ‘Wild psychoanalysis’ piece for Filmkrant on Certified Copy, Black Swan, Enter The Void and Antichrist, proposing a new cinema located just at the back of the lead character’s head. The line at the end resonated with me for some time:
“…And this is a first for me, for example: I have managed to write an entire article without mentioning a single film director’s name.”
I spent a week after reading it trying to talk and write about cinema without mentioning the film’s director – i recommend it as a challenge!
Mike Everleth has put forward the case for fandom as an engine of cinephilia and togetherness, and speaks of the importance in reclaiming under-appreciated filmmakers of the Underground.
He also ponders is it possible to be a cinephile and never go to the cinema?
Meanwhile, French contributor, Mathieu Ravier is the first to reclaim Cinephile Pride(!) and goes further to suggest cinephilia as an urgent form of activism or resistance.
Is there a need for cinephilia as an active form of protest?
Blue K, this is an entirely valid point, and not one that’s passed us by.
We have spoken a lot since the project’s inception about how to ensure a variety of perspectives feeds in to the project, and within the timeframe of pulling it all together, we have for our initial phase focused on Anglophone voices.
With thought given to geographical spread, so far our contributors are based in Berlin, Sunderland, Tokyo, New York, London, Sydney and Manchester, with Mathieu Ravier our sole Francophone on the roundtable. The majority of speakers at the Edinburgh International Film Festival event will be UK-based, as this represents the majority of press that attend this event.
We have considered gender in our invitations, and are aware that at the moment our contributor list sits around 20% female mark, which is still lower than we’d like. We have also sought out variety in terms of voices from established print media and emerging online platforms, plus writers who are also programmers, filmmakers and distributors.
Our future plans, should the project extend beyond EIFF, include looking more to the non-Anglophone world, and focusing on works in translation. One resource we’ve come across is Screenville’s list of international blogs, and we would welcome further pointers in this direction.
We would not claim the project is currently representative of global voices (and there are also several non-Anglophone invitees who were not able to contribute due to time commitments), but hopefully within the ethos of the project we have suggested that we are up for discussion and open to suggestion. Do let us know who you would like to see represented, and do point us in the direction of voices you feel need to be heard.
In his roundtable contribution Andrew Grant wonders if part of the joy of cinephilia is the waiting and the searching – the time inherent in pursuit of knowledge.
Two good discussion points form Frances Morgan. One is a matter of increased understanding in the tools and decision making of production. How important is it for lovers of film to foster a greater awareness of the process of making; (especially as) a reiteration of the fact that a film is a thing made by people.
Also one for the cinemaphiles – Frances suggests that the cinema, aside from the big screen is the best place to hear a film and experience the soundtrack. How much do we privilege image over sound when discussing film?
Mike Everleth reiterates this first thought, when expanding on why he believes underground culture is enhanced by fostering relationships with filmmakers. How important is it for critics and cinephiles to be part of a community?
In his latest contribution Mathieu Ravier puts forward the position that amongst the noise of digital comment, the dedicated will always seek out and discover the good stuff – films worth seeing, critical voices that illuminate – and that the fact that so many of these voices exist outside of sponsorship and corporate interest can be of huge benefit.
But he also puts forward an urgency in the role of cinephiles in championing under-represented cinema, making the case for audience desire in a market where traditional arthouse cinema access is dwindling. Is it important to have a public reclamation of cinephilia to keep the flame alive and support a community that includes filmmakers?
Andrew Grant also points to the real world action of cinephiles, citing a key element of healthy film culture as institutions opening up to adventurous programming and encouraging open discussion from audiences. He suggests that in Berlin this culture is partly possible due to government subsidy. Should arthouse cinema be supported by public funding?
He also wonders about the culture of being first to review something – citing race to publish the first review of Tree of Life. Is this the primary model for online publications now – to be first?
I like Nayman’s suggestion of Kubrick as the ultimate “gateway” director;
“young film enthusiasts tend to find him early and then use him as a portal to other wings of cinema history”
Finding these access points that got us into cinema in the first place and then led us to seeking out new experiences and finding common ground, this is an important place of enquiry to encourage new audiences.
“The question was: which other filmmakers combined the requisite artistic bona fides with the sort of “brand-name recognition” that could entice both my regular students and new recruits in equal measure?”
We can probably all name filmmakers or films that sparked our imaginations and sent us on the path to deeper engagement with film culture, but what is also interesting in Nayman’s reflection is its focus on the path itself (in this case informal education) and what it offers for both students and teacher.
There’s some interesting stuff in the Olivier Assayas Masterclass at the London Film Festival, where he talks about the experience of being a critic at Cahiers du Cinema, and the influence criticism held once he’d decided to discover cinema through writing about it.
She then suggests two key elements; the role of advocacy for films (without patronising readers) is an essential facet of her experience of cinema, and that maintaining a sense of anticipation toward the adventure of film watching is vital in resisting cynicism.
What are the things that keep your light of cinema burning in the “rough patches” Koresky mentions? And is cinephilia an essentially hopeful state?
Daniel Cockburn compares cataloguing and list-making to the need to freeze-dry a film before we can move on, and calls for more criticism to cover the effect of films on individuals, rather than simply the reading of text.
He wonders if there may be more that critics can do to engage filmmakers, and to provoke a dialogue where the films are created in conversation with the discourse around them. What might this look like?
In the latest addition to the online roundtable Genevieve Yue states that cinema, at heart, is an activity. Sometimes social, sometimes it’s entirely private and sometimes it’s meant to drive people into the streets.
“Going to a movie, watching a movie, making sense of a movie, is an activity, and it’s a risky one at that—but, and I hope I don’t sound too romantic here, doesn’t love, or at least desire, always plunge us into the unknown depths of the other?”
Following the idea that cinema has it’s biggest impact when it catches us off-guard or chafes against our beliefs or expectations in some way, which cinematic experiences have confronted you in this way? What cinema has provoked love from an unlikely source?
In a newly commissioned essay for Project: New Cinephilia, archivist and curator Leah Churner puts forward an urgent argument regarding the physicality of film, and pulls out three pervasive clichés in particular:
1. 35mm theatrical projection is the only proper, shame-free way to watch movies.
2. The proliferation of digital delivery systems means people are no longer concerned with proper presentation and format.
3. That all of film history is available at our fingertips thanks to DVDs and the Internet.
Taking on each of these conceits in turn, she suggests “today’s cinephile, like yesterday’s, has to go out and dig.” How much do we subscribe to, or take these three terms as given?
In his illustrated post, Edward Ross looks at the difference between time and space in films and their depiction in comics, and the process of crystallising iconography.
please tell me list of film festivals where i can send my short films ? over 2 years ago
There is a good Directory of International Film and Video Festivals at www.britfilms.com/festivals
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What's your favorite chilean film? over 2 years ago
I recommend Alicia Scherson’s Turistas (2008). It’s slight, but left me walking out of a Rotterdam cinema grinning, and scenes stayed with me after I’d left the festival.
Neil Young’s take here:
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/film-reviews/film-review-turistas-1003938243.story
Go to Comment
Secret Cinema over 2 years ago
Articles on the renegade cinema in the caves beneath Paris
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/08/filmnews.france
And the groups who organise them
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2004/sep/11/film.france
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DO CINEPHILES AND ACADEMICS UNDERSTAND EACH OTHER? about 1 year ago
Project: New Cinephilia is a cross-platform initiative of the Edinburgh International Film Festival co-published and powered by MUBI, who will host P:NC-related discussion in their Forums.
Following David Bordwell’s calls for a little more harmony between academics and critics, Chris Fujiwara suggests there is still misunderstanding from university film departments on what criticism is all about.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/23/criticism-and-film-studies-a-response-to-david-bordwell/
How do you view the relationship between film studies, theory and film criticism? Should the disciplines be closer? And what are their essential differences?
Go to Comment
TAKEN UP BY WAVES? about 1 year ago
Project: New Cinephilia is a cross-platform initiative of the Edinburgh International Film Festival co-published and powered by MUBI, who will host P:NC-related discussion in their Forum.
In his essay Taken Up By Waves, Girish Shambu sets an optimistic tone on the pleasures of the 21st Century cinephilia and puts forward the idea of mediators acting in waves, moving ideas forward, encouraging new discoveries and expansions on how we engage with films.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/23/taken-up-by-waves-the-experience-of-new-cinephilia/
He also calls for a balance between the sustained attention of long-form scholarship and criticism in books and essays and the fragmented attention we bring to modes of reading and writing in the age of social media.
How do you define your own cinephilia in relation to mediators, waves and the push and pull of sustained/fragmented attention?
Go to Comment
Online Roundtable Day One about 1 year ago
On the previous Forum thread Greg X and others have called for a more collaborative style of criticism, with a plurality of voices. Whilst still adhering to the structure of invited guests, we hope the Online Roundtable format, where a conversation develops over a particular subject in public is a move in the right direction.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/25/ceci-nest-pas-un-cinephile/
Today we start with Neil Young, and a few pertinent thoughts on cinephilia he throws our way. Bringing up the idea that there is a New Cinephile Canon, he wonders if it is essential to be familiar with the work of certain directors (and what’s more to have seen their work) to qualify as a cinephile?
Must people be aware of the work of a certain clutch of auteurs, eg. Albert Serra, Lisandro Alonso, Apichatpong Weerasethakul Claire Denis, Jia Zhang-Ke and James Benning?
How much of cinephilia is a desire to discover the unknown?
What impact does cinephilia have on our professional lives. Does getting to work in the area you love build or diminish your passion for cinema?
And finally is “cinephile” a term we claim for ourselves or something that is bestowed upon us by others?
Go to Comment
Online Roundtable Day One about 1 year ago
@Neil Fox
We’d love to see the essay – do post the link when it’s up.
Regarding your thoughts on a post-Auteur driven framework, Adrian Martin offered an interesting take in his ‘Wild psychoanalysis’ piece for Filmkrant on Certified Copy, Black Swan, Enter The Void and Antichrist, proposing a new cinema located just at the back of the lead character’s head. The line at the end resonated with me for some time:
“…And this is a first for me, for example: I have managed to write an entire article without mentioning a single film director’s name.”
I spent a week after reading it trying to talk and write about cinema without mentioning the film’s director – i recommend it as a challenge!
http://www.filmkrant.nl/TS_februari_2011/5617
Go to Comment
Fandom, Activism and the Underground about 1 year ago
A recap on Online Roundtable Day Two:
Mike Everleth has put forward the case for fandom as an engine of cinephilia and togetherness, and speaks of the importance in reclaiming under-appreciated filmmakers of the Underground.
He also ponders is it possible to be a cinephile and never go to the cinema?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/26/the-zine-from-here/
Meanwhile, French contributor, Mathieu Ravier is the first to reclaim Cinephile Pride(!) and goes further to suggest cinephilia as an urgent form of activism or resistance.
Is there a need for cinephilia as an active form of protest?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/26/cinephilia-as-activism/
Go to Comment
Online Roundtable Day One about 1 year ago
Blue K, this is an entirely valid point, and not one that’s passed us by.
We have spoken a lot since the project’s inception about how to ensure a variety of perspectives feeds in to the project, and within the timeframe of pulling it all together, we have for our initial phase focused on Anglophone voices.
With thought given to geographical spread, so far our contributors are based in Berlin, Sunderland, Tokyo, New York, London, Sydney and Manchester, with Mathieu Ravier our sole Francophone on the roundtable. The majority of speakers at the Edinburgh International Film Festival event will be UK-based, as this represents the majority of press that attend this event.
We have considered gender in our invitations, and are aware that at the moment our contributor list sits around 20% female mark, which is still lower than we’d like. We have also sought out variety in terms of voices from established print media and emerging online platforms, plus writers who are also programmers, filmmakers and distributors.
Our future plans, should the project extend beyond EIFF, include looking more to the non-Anglophone world, and focusing on works in translation. One resource we’ve come across is Screenville’s list of international blogs, and we would welcome further pointers in this direction.
http://screenville.blogspot.com/2009/07/world-artfilm-blogs-united.html
We would not claim the project is currently representative of global voices (and there are also several non-Anglophone invitees who were not able to contribute due to time commitments), but hopefully within the ethos of the project we have suggested that we are up for discussion and open to suggestion. Do let us know who you would like to see represented, and do point us in the direction of voices you feel need to be heard.
Go to Comment
Speed and Access, gift or curse? about 1 year ago
In his roundtable contribution Andrew Grant wonders if part of the joy of cinephilia is the waiting and the searching – the time inherent in pursuit of knowledge.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/26/its-about-time/
Is having instant access to digital formats of films changing our ability to assess them?
Does the speed of consumption, and over-saturation of material dull our critical senses?
Go to Comment
Sound, Production and Community about 1 year ago
Two good discussion points form Frances Morgan. One is a matter of increased understanding in the tools and decision making of production. How important is it for lovers of film to foster a greater awareness of the process of making; (especially as) a reiteration of the fact that a film is a thing made by people.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/28/sound-vision-action/#more-584
Also one for the cinemaphiles – Frances suggests that the cinema, aside from the big screen is the best place to hear a film and experience the soundtrack. How much do we privilege image over sound when discussing film?
Mike Everleth reiterates this first thought, when expanding on why he believes underground culture is enhanced by fostering relationships with filmmakers. How important is it for critics and cinephiles to be part of a community?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/28/slow-cinephiles-writing/
Go to Comment
Cinephile pride, public funding and the rush to review Tree of Life about 1 year ago
In his latest contribution Mathieu Ravier puts forward the position that amongst the noise of digital comment, the dedicated will always seek out and discover the good stuff – films worth seeing, critical voices that illuminate – and that the fact that so many of these voices exist outside of sponsorship and corporate interest can be of huge benefit.
But he also puts forward an urgency in the role of cinephiles in championing under-represented cinema, making the case for audience desire in a market where traditional arthouse cinema access is dwindling. Is it important to have a public reclamation of cinephilia to keep the flame alive and support a community that includes filmmakers?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/29/reclaim-the-screens/
Andrew Grant also points to the real world action of cinephiles, citing a key element of healthy film culture as institutions opening up to adventurous programming and encouraging open discussion from audiences. He suggests that in Berlin this culture is partly possible due to government subsidy. Should arthouse cinema be supported by public funding?
He also wonders about the culture of being first to review something – citing race to publish the first review of Tree of Life. Is this the primary model for online publications now – to be first?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/05/30/programming-discussion-and-racing-to-the-tree/
Go to Comment
What's the Best Way to Teach Film to Nonspecialists? 12 months ago
I like Nayman’s suggestion of Kubrick as the ultimate “gateway” director;
“young film enthusiasts tend to find him early and then use him as a portal to other wings of cinema history”
Finding these access points that got us into cinema in the first place and then led us to seeking out new experiences and finding common ground, this is an important place of enquiry to encourage new audiences.
“The question was: which other filmmakers combined the requisite artistic bona fides with the sort of “brand-name recognition” that could entice both my regular students and new recruits in equal measure?”
We can probably all name filmmakers or films that sparked our imaginations and sent us on the path to deeper engagement with film culture, but what is also interesting in Nayman’s reflection is its focus on the path itself (in this case informal education) and what it offers for both students and teacher.
Go to Comment
Film Criticism vs. Film Studies, Part 2 12 months ago
There’s some interesting stuff in the Olivier Assayas Masterclass at the London Film Festival, where he talks about the experience of being a critic at Cahiers du Cinema, and the influence criticism held once he’d decided to discover cinema through writing about it.
http://www.bfi.org.uk/live/video/515
Go to Comment
Advocacy, hope and filmmakers who speak to critics 12 months ago
Considering Michael Koresky’s prompt on hunger Melissa Anderson posits gluttony as an initial stage of cinephilia, followed by a refinement of taste.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/06/07/on-advocacy-and-anticipation/
She then suggests two key elements; the role of advocacy for films (without patronising readers) is an essential facet of her experience of cinema, and that maintaining a sense of anticipation toward the adventure of film watching is vital in resisting cynicism.
What are the things that keep your light of cinema burning in the “rough patches” Koresky mentions? And is cinephilia an essentially hopeful state?
Daniel Cockburn compares cataloguing and list-making to the need to freeze-dry a film before we can move on, and calls for more criticism to cover the effect of films on individuals, rather than simply the reading of text.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/06/07/what-is-the-birdie/
He wonders if there may be more that critics can do to engage filmmakers, and to provoke a dialogue where the films are created in conversation with the discourse around them. What might this look like?
Go to Comment
Unstable ground 12 months ago
In the latest addition to the online roundtable Genevieve Yue states that cinema, at heart, is an activity. Sometimes social, sometimes it’s entirely private and sometimes it’s meant to drive people into the streets.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/06/08/cinephilia-love-and-being-caught-off-guard/
“Going to a movie, watching a movie, making sense of a movie, is an activity, and it’s a risky one at that—but, and I hope I don’t sound too romantic here, doesn’t love, or at least desire, always plunge us into the unknown depths of the other?”
Following the idea that cinema has it’s biggest impact when it catches us off-guard or chafes against our beliefs or expectations in some way, which cinematic experiences have confronted you in this way? What cinema has provoked love from an unlikely source?
Go to Comment
Film Preservation myths busted! 12 months ago
In a newly commissioned essay for Project: New Cinephilia, archivist and curator Leah Churner puts forward an urgent argument regarding the physicality of film, and pulls out three pervasive clichés in particular:
1. 35mm theatrical projection is the only proper, shame-free way to watch movies.
2. The proliferation of digital delivery systems means people are no longer concerned with proper presentation and format.
3. That all of film history is available at our fingertips thanks to DVDs and the Internet.
Taking on each of these conceits in turn, she suggests “today’s cinephile, like yesterday’s, has to go out and dig.” How much do we subscribe to, or take these three terms as given?
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/06/08/certified-copy-film-preservation-in-the-age-of-new-cinephilia/
Go to Comment
Cinephilia and Comics 12 months ago
In his illustrated post, Edward Ross looks at the difference between time and space in films and their depiction in comics, and the process of crystallising iconography.
http://projectcinephilia.mubi.com/2011/06/14/cinephilia-and-comics/
What pleasures and possibilities do comics as a form offer in the way we think about cinema? And how can this form illuminate theory?
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