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Kids, there was a time when you could actually own the media you loved. Long before the rise of subscription models shackled art to the servers of multinational tech corporations, we all went out and bought movies and music, amassing treasured collections and cluttering our living rooms with unsightly plastic cases in the process.

But while everyone who grew up in the pre-streaming days piled up CDs, DVDs, and VHS tapes, there were plenty of physical formats that never quite took off. Take Laserdiscs, which had an undeniably cool name but were never all that popular — at least in the United States where they first hit the market in 1978. Physically, Laserdiscs looked like large CDs but were two-sided and could hold between 30 and 60 minutes of footage per side. A precursor to DVDs, these vinyl-sized optical discs were touted as superior to VHS tapes but for a variety of reasons — prohibitive...

This week’s episode of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosted by Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio, is a fun one. We start the episode off with a rundown review of all the firehose of awards nominees, events, winners, and distractions that came this week — from the Gotham Awards live in New York on Monday to nominations from the Film Independent Spirit Awards and National Board of Review and the winners out of the elite New York Film Critics Circle. Oh, there were also the Gotham Awards on Monday in New York, where “A Different Man” surprisingly won Best Feature over predicted pick “Anora.” Meanwhile, IndieWire hosted our own Honors event Thursday night in Los Angeles, but for context, we recorded this podcast before those were highlighted.

But as a more refreshing rejoinder to the awards talks we regularly hold on this podcast, Kino Lorber CEO and chairman Richard Lorber...

Physical media culture is alive and thriving thanks to the home video tastemakers hailing everywhere from The Criterion Collection to Kino Lorber and the Warner Archive Collection. Each month, IndieWire highlights the best recent and upcoming Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K releases for cinephiles to own now — and to bring ballast and permanence to your moviegoing at a time when streaming windows on classic movies close just as soon as they open.

Get started on putting together your very own Criterion Closet with these eight physical media recommendations each month, comprising recent releases as well as what’s coming in the given month. This month, we highlight Criterion restorations of films including Todd Solondz’s “Happiness” and Gregg Araki‘s “Teen Apocalypse Trilogy,” plus a new ultimate recut of the controversial debauched Roman epic “Caligula,” and Kino Lorber’s 4K Uhd of Alain Resnais’ masterpiece “Last Year at Marienbad,” whose Criterion...

The poster child of cinematic modernism, one of those early-‘60s event films that seemed to break every rule classical Hollywood ever codified, Alain Resnais’s Last Year at Marienbad left its initial audiences in equal measure ravished by Sacha Vierny’s sumptuous cinematography, capturing in rapturous detail every element of its chateau setting’s florid production design, and baffled by its deliberately disorienting puzzle-picture narrative, so willfully inscrutable that its three main characters don’t even have names. You have to trouble yourself to read Alain Robbe-Grillet’s screenplay in order to glean that they’re called A, X, and M, as if to emphasize that they’re variables in some erotic algorithm.

Unlike the testimonials to the politique des auteurs, all the rage with the Cahiers du Cinéma crowd, Last Year at Marienbad draws its power from a different engine, the disparate and ultimately divergent sensibilities of its director and screenwriter.

Oh, Canada debuting this week on the Croisette is high time to see lesser-seen Schrader on the Criterion Channel, who’ll debut an 11-title series including the likes of Touch, The Canyons, and Patty Hearst, while Old Boyfriends (written with his brother Leonard) and his own “Adventures in Moviegoing” are also programmed. Five films by Jean Grémillon, a rather underappreciated figure of French cinema, will be showing

Series-wise, there’s an appreciation of the synth soundtrack stretching all the way back to 1956’s Forbidden Planet while, naturally, finding its glut of titles in the ’70s and ’80s––Argento and Carpenter, obviously, but also Tarkovsky and Peter Weir. A Prince and restorations of films by Bob Odenkirk, Obayashi, John Greyson, and Jacques Rivette (whose Duelle is a masterpiece of the highest order) make streaming debuts. I Am Cuba, Girlfight, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Dazed and Confused are June’s Criterion Editions.

The makers of the “Saw” movies probably thought they were clever when they killed the villain off back in “Saw III.” But over time it’s become clear that, although Jigsaw’s many apprentices worked hard to keep his legacy alive, John Kramer — the raspy-voiced horror icon played by Tobin Bell — was the beating heart of this series, and that heart stopped.

Jigsaw is back in “Saw X,” but he’s also still dead. The film is one long prequel, taking place at an indeterminate time before most of the previous installments. It’s a little confusing to see Kramer drawing up plans for deathtraps that, as we learn later in the movie, he has already invented and used, but it’s a lot less confusing than the timelines of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh films, which employed a dizzying flashback/flashforward/flashsideways structure that perhaps rivaled only “Last Year at Marienbad...

“Mist” (Angae) or the Foggy Town is a South Korean film directed by the prolific filmmaker Kim Soo-Yong in 1967, inspired by the novel “Record of a Journey to Mujin” (무진기행) by novelist Kim Seung-ok. In 1968, “Mist” won the award for Best Director at the Asia Pacific Film Festival. This work undoubtedly stands as one of the most emblematic movies of Korean cinema's golden age (1955 to 1972). The historical backdrop in which this entire era of exploration is situated is essential for a comprehensive understanding of the works themselves.

Mist is screening at Film At Lincoln Center, as part of the Korean Cinema's Golden Decade: The 1960s program

The story follows Yun Gi-jun – portrayed by the legendary actor Shin Seong-il – a rich married businessman based in Seoul. Alienated and stressed by his job position, the protagonist decides to return to his hometown, Mujin, to visit the grave of his mother. There, he...

Whenever an older filmmaker makes the news for commenting on a new movie, it’s usually never positive: Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola don’t consider Marvel true cinema, Oliver Stone thinks John Wick is a disgusting video game and on and on. But every now and then, there’s praise. And that’s just what legendary writer/director Paul Schrader is offering Wes Anderson’s new film, Asteroid City.

In a Facebook post, the Oscar nominee said Asteroid City is the quintessential Anderson film. “The most Wes Anderson film Wes Anderson has made. And for that reason the best. He has distilled his design-driven anti-empathy film style to its essense. It’s hard to find a comparable film. The one that comes to mind is “Last Year at Marienbad””, he said, referring to Alain Resnais’ surreal and meticulously photographed film. He concluded, “I’m heartened that it opened so well.

Paul Schrader might not have seen the memes, but the Oscar winner is calling “Asteroid City” the most Wes Anderson film ever.

The “Master Gardener” director took to Facebook to praise Anderson’s “Asteroid City,” comparing it to Alain Resnais’ surreal 1961 French New Wave classic “Last Year at Marienbad.”

“The most Wes Anderson film Wes Anderson has made. And for that reason, the best,” Schrader wrote of “Asteroid City,” now in theaters. “He has distilled his design-driven anti-empathy film style to its essence. It’s hard to find a comparable film. The one that comes to mind is ‘Last Year at Marienbad.'”

Schrader added, “I’m heartened that it opened so well, though not quite sure why.”

Fellow auteur Guillermo del Toro similarly took to Twitter to express his admiration for Anderson’s vision.

“Unique signature – What started as an Ashby-esque rhythm and a Demy-esque image design mix, has evolved,...

Kohn’s Corner is a weekly column about the challenges and opportunities of sustaining American film culture.

Chances are that if you care about international cinema, you care about the French New Wave. A loose collective of young directors who came to define their country’s cinema as the 1950s gave way to the ’60s, the French New Wave gave cinema permission to be audacious and uncompromising while bolstering its style and personality. It was cool with purpose.

Jacques Rozier, the last living member of the Nouvelle Vague, died this week at 96. Rozier was a blind spot for me, but the French New Wave was my guide to grasping what the movies could be.

As a teenager, Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless” got me excited about the possibilities of the movies like nothing that came before. Francois Truffaut’s “The 400 Blows” was a formative encounter with the expansive possibilities of the coming-of-age story.

Christophe Honoré selected Catherine Breillat’s 36 Fillette: “Her work is very important for French cinema.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Jacques Demy’s Lola (starring Anouk Aimée with Marc Michel), Wim Wenders’ Paris, Texas, Zhangke Jia and composer Yoshihiro Hanno, Yves Robert’s La Guerre des Boutons, Alain Resnais’ Providence and L'Année Dernière à Marienbad, Kenneth Lonergan’s Manchester By The Sea, Sophie's Misfortunes, and Catherine Breillat’s 36 Fillette all came up in our discussion.

Christophe Honoré with Anne-Katrin Titze on why Alain Resnais is a king: “I’m interested in narrative play and people who have a ludic relationship to storytelling.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Christophe Honoré was in New York to present Winter Boy, starring Paul Kircher, Vincent Lacoste, Juliette Binoche, and Erwan Kepoa Falé, shot by Rémy Chevrin (Guermantes, [film]On...

Director/Tfh Guru Allan Arkush discusses his favorite year in film, 1975, with Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Rules of the Game (1939)

Le Boucher (1970)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982)

Topaz (1969)

Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022)

Hollywood Boulevard (1976) – Jon Davison’s trailer commentary

The Innocents (1961) – Joe Dante’s trailer commentary

The Earrings of Madame De… (1953)

Rope (1948) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

Make Way For Tomorrow (1937)

The Awful Truth (1937) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Duck Soup (1933) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Going My Way (1944)

Nashville (1975) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Dan Perri’s trailer commentary

M*A*S*H (1970)

Shampoo (1975) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Bonnie And Clyde (1967) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Nada Gang (1975)

Get Crazy (1983) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Night Moves (1975) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) – Katt Shea’s trailer...

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[The following story contains spoilers from the sixth episode of Surface‘s first season, “The Myth of California.”]

From the beginning of Apple TV+’s psychological thriller Surface, Oliver Jackson-Cohen’s James has viewed his wife’s near-death experience as a chance for the two of them to get a second chance at their relationship and move beyond their past mistakes.

But with Sophie’s (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) realization at the end of episode five that she was the one James was covering for with the missing money he was trying to recover and that she could be the bad guy, Sophie and James’ fresh start is over.

“That kind of opens the floodgates for James to realize there’s no more hiding behind an idealized version,” showrunner Veronica West tells The Hollywood Reporter. “There’s no second chance — that’s a fairytale.”

With that discovery, episode six breaks open what viewers think they...

The following appeared in Filmmaker‘s Spring, 2000 edition accompanying All Tomorrow’s Yesterdays, an article in which four filmmakers reflect on the work of Alain Resnais. — Editor Anatole Dauman, through his company Argos Films, produced or co-produced many of the masterworks of postwar European cinema – including Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog; Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; and Muriel.Following his death in 1998, his daughter, Florence Dauman (herself a producer of A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Cinema), assumed control of the company, which today houses the greatest collection of independent cinema in France. Ms. Dauman […]

The post “What Would Resnais Bring Back from Japan? I Had Not a Clue”: Producer Anatole Dauman on Alain Resnais, Night and Fog and Hiroshima Mon Amour first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

The following appeared in Filmmaker‘s Spring, 2000 edition accompanying All Tomorrow’s Yesterdays, an article in which four filmmakers reflect on the work of Alain Resnais. — Editor Anatole Dauman, through his company Argos Films, produced or co-produced many of the masterworks of postwar European cinema – including Alain Resnais’s Night and Fog; Hiroshima, Mon Amour; Last Year at Marienbad; and Muriel.Following his death in 1998, his daughter, Florence Dauman (herself a producer of A Personal Journey with Martin Scorsese Through American Cinema), assumed control of the company, which today houses the greatest collection of independent cinema in France. Ms. Dauman […]

The post “What Would Resnais Bring Back from Japan? I Had Not a Clue”: Producer Anatole Dauman on Alain Resnais, Night and Fog and Hiroshima Mon Amour first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Right off the bat, Peter Greenaway wants to make clear that he’s never really taken himself seriously as a filmmaker — although like so many of the paradoxes that comprise Greenaway’s identity, it’s not wise to take such a claim too seriously.

“This is a terrible confession to speak to you,” he says via Skype from a tiny house on the Atlantic coast where he goes on weekends. “There’s always that sense of being removed from the activity, of taking a step back and trying to look at it with not a sarcastic or derivative attitude, but certainly a considerable irony.”

Such cheekiness is plenty apparent in Greenaway’s filmography, which spans 16 features, ranging from the Terry Gilliam-esque irreverence of “The Falls” (1980), a three-hour catalog of eccentric survivors of an imaginary cataclysm, to the obsessive brain-dump that is “The Tulse Luper Suitcases” (2003-04), a tricksy trio...

Joachim Trier, writer/director of the multi-Oscar nominated film The Worst Person in the World, discusses his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

A History of Violence (2005)

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s retrospective links

Innerspace (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Worst Person In The World (2021)

Back To The Future (1985)

Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959)

Hour of the Wolf (1968)

2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Dennis Cozzalio’s review

Mirror (1975)

Stalker (1979) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Soylent Green (1973)

Dr. Strangelove (1964) – Michael Lehmann’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

The Hunt (1959)

Remonstrance (1972)

Don’t Look Now (1973) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

Bad Timing (1980) – Bernard Rose’s trailer commentary

Walkabout (1971) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary

Performance (1970) – Mark Goldblatt’s trailer commentary

Drive My Car (2021)

491 (1964)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

Persona (1966)

The Wild Strawberries...

The former head of the ACLU discusses some of the movies – and sports legends – that made him.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mighty Ira (2020)

The Jackie Robinson Story (1950)

42 (2013)

Shane (1953)

Panic In The Streets (1950)

Last Year At Marienbad (1962)

The Seventh Seal (1957)

La Strada (1954)

Wild Strawberries (1957) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

The Virgin Spring (1960) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

The Last House On The Left (1972) – Darren Bousman’s trailer commentary

A Walk In The Sun (1945) – Glenn Erickson’s review

Paths Of Glory (1957) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, John Landis’s trailer commentary

All Quiet On The Western Front (1930) – Ed Neumeier’s trailer commentary

Lonely Are The Brave (1962)

Casablanca (1942) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

On The Waterfront (1954) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

12 Angry Men (1957)

Inherit The Wind (1960)

Judgment At Nuremberg (1961)

Witness For The Prosecution (1957)

Anatomy of a Murder (1959)

The Verdict (1982)

Twelve Angry Men teleplay (1954)

The Front (1976)

Judgment At Nuremberg teleplay...

“Love is stronger than death… even than life.”

Limited Collector’s Edition of Daughters Of Darkness includes 4K Uhd Blu-ray, Blu-ray, Soundtrack CD, collectable booklet, reversible sleeve, and 3D lenticular slipcover (First Pressing). Blu-ray features 1080p HD Resolution and DTS-hd Master Audio Uhd features 2160p Ultra HD Resolution and Dolby Vision Hdr, with Dolby Atmos and DTS-hd Master Audio. Check out this trailer for the restoration:

International screen icon Delphine Seyrig (Last Year At Marienbad) stars as Elizabeth Bathory, an ageless Countess with a beautiful young ‘companion’ (Goth goddess Andrea Rau) and a legendary legacy of perversion. But when the two women seduce a troubled newlywed couple (Canadian beauty Danielle Ouimet and John Karlen of Dark Shadows and Cagney & Lacey), they unleash a frenzy of sudden violence and depraved desire that shocked both art house audiences and grindhouse crowds worldwide.

Co-written and directed by Harry Kümel, Daughters Of Darkness remains...

Orson Welles doesn’t waste time searching for the truth. Moments into “Hopper/Welles,” he declares, “Fuck the audience!” Meanwhile, a bemused Dennis Hopper allows for a dutiful grin. Such are the joys of this glorified behind-the-scenes feature, cobbled together from footage produced for Welles’ long-delayed swan song, “The Other Side of the Wind.” Assembled by producer Filip Jan Rymsza and editor Bob Murawski one year after they conjured “Wind” from Welles’ archives, this two-hour conversation from 1970 . It’s a long, drunken party conversation that allows you a seat at the table.

With Welles sitting just off-screen, cameraman Gary Graver sticks with Hopper’s bearded face for the duration, and the pair just go at it. The gorgeous black-and-white conversation was one of the many fragments produced for the “Wind” production, much of which takes place over the course of a long party hosted by the Wellesian protagonist and fictional...

For almost 40 years, the 100 hours of surviving footage that Orson Welles shot in the early 1970s for the movie “The Other Side of the Wind” remained largely unseen. First the director struggled in vain to finish the film, then its rights were tied up after his death. But that four decades of frustration has turned into a flurry of activity: In the last two years, that footage has been used not only in the completed version of “The Other Side of the Wind” that finally premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2018, but in two different documentaries about the film, Morgan Neville’s “They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead” and Ryan Suffern’s short doc “A Final Cut for Orson.”

And now it’s serving as the basis for yet another side of “The Other Side of the Wind,” and another posthumous film on which Welles is credited as director.

In addition to their 4K Ultra HD releases of movies such as Lucio Fulci's Zombie and William Lustig's Maniac, Blue Underground has announced that they're bringing Harry Kümel's 1971 vampire film Daughters of Darkness to 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray this year as well.

Special features and a specific release date have yet to be announced for the 4K Ultra HD release of Daughters of Darkness, but according to Blue Underground's Twitter account and Blu-ray.com, it is slated for a fall release.

You can view the official cover art (via Twitter) and synopsis (via Blu-ray.com) below, and stay tuned to Daily Dead for more updates.

Synopsis: " International screen icon Delphine Seyrig (Last Year at Marienbad) stars as Elizabeth Bathory, an ageless Countess with a beautiful young "companion" (Goth goddess Andrea Rau) and a legendary legacy of perversion. But when the two women seduce a troubled newlywed couple...

Arguably the most eclectic director of the “Toronto New Wave,” Bruce McDonald returns with his most ambitious and perhaps most frustrating film yet, Dreamland. A mashup of cinematic and pulp influences set in Luxembourg (a country that’s a few hundred square miles smaller than Rhode Island), McDonald continues to play with language and cultural tension as he reimagines Pizzagate through the lens of Alphaville, Last Year at Marienbad, Taxi Driver, John Wick, and countless other films and moments to dizzying and nearly incoherent effect. There’s also hitmen, vampires, a countess, and a wedding party where colonialism takes center stage. Lost yet? It’s a feature, not a bug.

Frequent collaborator Stephen McHattie stars as Johnny Deadeyes, a trumpet player moonlighting as a hitman (or perhaps it’s the other way around?) on one heroin-infused trip. He arrives in Luxembourg wandering the streets and night clubs killing time before his next mission.

Movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Dana Gould, Daniel Waters, Scott Alexander, and Allison Anders.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Destroy All Monsters (1969)

Planet Of The Apes (1968)

Beneath The Planet of the Apes (1970)

Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)

Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes (1972)

Battle For The Planet Of The Apes (1973)

Suparpie

The Wizard Of Oz (1939)

Hello Down There (1969)

Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Thirteen Days (2000)

Stalker (1979)

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

No Exit (1962)

The Exterminating Angel (1962)

Sleeper (1973)

The Tenant (1976)

Final Cut: Ladies And Gentlemen (2012)

The Adventures of Ford Fairlane (1990)

La classe américaine (1993)

The Sex Adventures of a Single Man a.k.a. The 24 Hour Lover (1968)

The Omega Man (1971)

Soylent Green (1973)

Knives Out (2019)

The Hunt (2020)

Banana Split (2020)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

Animal Crackers (1930)

Monkey Business (1931)

Horse Feathers (1932)

Duck Soup (1933)

A Night At The Opera (1935)

The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant (1971)

Susan Slade (1961)

My Blood Runs Cold...

Torun, Poland – Adam Bajerski, the award-winning cinematographer behind Marcin Krzysztalowicz’s 1950s Warsaw drama “Pan T.” (“Mister T.”), is re-teaming with longtime collaborator Andrzej Jakimowski for his next project.

The film, “Goat Mountain,” is likely to shoot next year on the Spanish island of Lanzarote. It follows a Polish photographer who moves to the Canary island after inheriting property there.

Bajerski began his career with Jakimowski and has shot all of the director’s feature films, including his 2002 feature debut “Squint Your Eyes,” 2012’s “Imagine” and 2017’s “Once Upon a Time in November.” The two were part of the group of filmmakers that in 2002 founded the Warsaw-based film production company ZAiR (a Polish acronym that stands for Associated Artists and Artisans).

While he’s hoping to shoot “Goat Mountain” on 35mm film, Bajerski shot his latest feature, “Mister T.,” digitally. Set in 1953 Poland, the black-and-white film follows a renowned writer...

Exclusive: U.S. art house distributor Kino Lorber is launching film and TV VOD streaming platform Kino Now, we can reveal. The service, which includes options to rent and buy, currently hosts 600 titles from the company’s catalog and includes early access to new releases. The number of titles is set to double by the end of the year.

Kino Lorber, which will unveil the platform at a stateside event this evening, tells us the service will be annually refreshed with more than 50 new theatrical releases from Kino Lorber’s first-run and repertory divisions and more than 500 yearly additional titles as “festival direct” exclusives and indie art house digital premieres.

Movies will be generally available around 30-90 days after their theatrical release but some will also get day-and-date releases. Most titles will be $9.99 or less. New releases and certain films that are considered premium will be $14.99 or $19.99 if they are day-and-date releases.

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Bam

“On Memory” offers The Tree of Life, The Mirror, Uncle Boonmee, Last Year at Marienbad and more.

Wim Wenders’ Alice in the Cities screens with Wadjda in a two-for-one double feature.

Film at Lincoln Center

The J. Hoberman-curated “Make My Day: American Movies in the Age of Reagan” kicks off with RoboCop, The Last Temptation of Christ,...

Alain Resnais’ Melo (1986) will be available on Blu-ray April 9th From Arrow Academy

Master director Alain Resnais (Last Year At Marienbad) blurs the line between cinematic technique and theatrical artifice in his acclaimed Mélo, adapted from Henri Bernstein s classic play about a doomed love triangle in 1920s Paris.

Pierre and Marcel are both celebrated concert violinists and lifelong friends, in spite of their differing temperaments. Pierre is modest, sensitive and content with his lot; Marcel is hungry, driven, and pursues a solo career that takes him to the four corners of the world. After years apart, the two friends reunite when Pierre invites Marcel to his home for dinner. It is then that Marcel first meets Pierre s wife Romaine, sparking a passionate affair that can only end in tragedy before the curtain falls.

As thrillingly intimate on film as it was on the stage, Mélo s César award-winning...

The American Society of Cinematographers, in celebration of the organization’s 100th anniversary, has revealed its list of 100 milestone films in the art and craft of cinematography from the 20th century. The list culminates with a top 10, topped by Freddie Young’s lensing of David Lean’s Oscar-winning 1962 epic “Lawrence of Arabia.”

Jordan Cronenweth’s work on Ridley Scott’s 1982 sci-fi standard “Blade Runner” came in at number two. Celebrated cinematographer Roger Deakins finally won an Oscar last year for the film’s sequel, “Blade Runner 2049.”

Vittorio Storaro rounded out the top three for Francis Ford Coppola’s 1979 Vietnam odyssey “Apocalypse Now.” He, Conrad Hall and Gordon Willis each appeared on the overall list five times, leading the pack. John Alcott, Caleb Deschanel and Haskell Wexler each lensed four.

Organized by Steven Fierberg, Asc (“The Affair”) and voted on by Asc members, the milestones list is the first of...

Stan Lee has shuffled off this mortal coil, but his legacy lives on. Although he’s best known for Marvel Comics and the ever-expanding cinematic universe based on them, the superhero legend had his fair share of unrealized projects as well. Among them was “The Monster Maker,” a sci-fi screenplay he worked on with “Hiroshima Mon Amour” and “Last Year at Marienbad” auteur Alain Resnais.

In a short documentary produced by the Criterion Collection about the thwarted collaboration, Lee reveals that he became “very, very close friends” with Resnais after receiving a letter from the filmmaker. Resnais even stayed in Lee’s guest house while visiting America. “He actually talked me into writing a screenplay about pollution, the evils of it,” Lee said. Doing so took three weeks, with “The Monster Maker” being fashioned in the style of a Roger Corman movie: inexpensive and pulpy.

“Resnais was really a pleasure to work with,...

Darren Aronofsky's The Fountain (2006) is showing on Mubi from November 12 - December 12, 1017 in the United Kingdom.“Finish it.”The exhortation is an integral part of the texture of The Fountain as a work of art, but it also refers, obliquely, maybe unconsciously, to all the toil and trouble that surrounded its six-year path to the big screen and its controversial reception. Darren Aronofsky—a headstrong filmmaker if there ever was one—could have simply shelved the project indefinitely after his original lead, Brad Pitt, bailed out prior to the start of the production. But, like the words that Izzi says to Tom and that echo throughout the film’s three interconnected timelines, he didn’t. He had to “finish it.” So Aronofsky did, regrouping, downsizing, rethinking a film that was inspired by both the out-there genre twisting of The Matrix and his own experiences with death. What emerged was...

The folks at Mondo Tees have announced that they’re partnering with Black Dragon Press in the U.K. to handle the North American distribution of their prints.

From the press announcement:

We’re huge fans of their creative vision and curatorial direction and are excited for the opportunity to partner up. Moving forward, for Bdp releases we carry, North American collectors should order from Mondotees.com. Collectors from Europe and the rest of the world should continue to follow and purchase from BlackDragonPress.co.uk directly.

Tomorrow they’ll be releasing this gorgeous Last Year at Marienbad print by Nicolas Delort:

Black Dragon Press x Mondo #01: Last Year at Marienbad by Nicolas Delort 18″x36″ Screen Print, Edition of 130 (split between Us & UK) Printed by White Duck Editions (UK) Expected to ship in 2-3 weeks £50/$60

Delort was the illustrator behind the 2015 Criterion Collection release of The Black Stallion.

Delort...

The history of the Muriel Awards stretches aaaalllll the way back to 2006, which means that this coming season will be a special anniversary, marking 10 years of observing the annual quality and achievement of the year in film. (If you don’t know about the Muriels, you can check up on that history here.) The voting group, of which I am a proud member, having participated since Year One, has also made its personal nod to film history by always having incorporated 10, 25 and 50-year anniversary awards, saluting what is agreed upon by ballot to be the best films from those anniversaries during each annual voting process.

But more recently, in 2013, Muriels founders Paul Clark and Steven Carlson decided to expand the Muriels purview and further acknowledge the great achievements in international film by instituting The Muriels Hall of Fame. Each year a new group of films of varying number would be voted upon and,...

Class-act director John Boorman continues to mix genre grit with European-flavored art cinema, and the result is another winner. Toshiro Mifune and Lee Marvin fight a miniature two-man war when they’re marooned together on the same tiny island. Boorman’s strong direction and Conrad Hall’s knockout cinematography insure a maximum visual impact; it’s great filmmaking all around.

Hell in the Pacific

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1968 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 103 min. / Street Date June 27, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: Lee Marvin, Toshiro Mifune

Cinematography: Conrad Hall

Art Direction: Anthony Pratt, Masao Yamazaki

Film Editor: Thomas Stanford

Original Music: Lalo Schifrin

Written by Alexander Jacobs, Eric Bercovici story by Reuben Bercovitch

Produced by Reuben Bercovitch, Henry G. Saperstein, Selig J. Seligman

Directed by John Boorman

Former TV director and producer John Boorman barely survived a first feature with the Dave Clark Five, imitating Richard Lester’s success with the Beatles.

One of the best international thrillers ever has almost become an obscurity, for reasons unknown – this Blu-ray comes from Australia. Edward Fox’s wily assassin for hire goes up against the combined police and security establishments of three nations as he sets up the killing of a head of state – France’s president Charles de Gaulle. The terrific cast features Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig and Cyril Cusack; director Fred Zinnemann’s excellent direction reaches a high pitch of tension – even though the outcome is known from the start.

The Day of the Jackal

Region B+A Blu-ray

Shock Entertainment / Universal

1973 / Color / 1:78 widescreen / 143 min. / Street Date ? / Available from Amazon UK / Pounds 19.99

Starring: Edward Fox, Michel Lonsdale, Delphine Seyrig, Cyril Cusack, Eric Porter, Tony Britton, Alan Badel, Michel Auclair, Tony Britton, Maurice Denham, Vernon Dobtcheff, Olga Georges-Picot, Timothy West, Derek Jacobi, Jean Martin, Ronald Pickup, Jean Sorel, Philippe Léotard, Jean Champion,...

Stars: Garance Marillier, Ella Rumpf, Rabah Nait Oufella, Laurent Lucas, Joana Preiss, Bouli Lanners, Marion Vernoux, Thomas Mustin, Marouan Iddoub, Jean-Louis Sbille | Written and Directed by Julia Ducournau

I’ve read the hype, I’ve heard of the faintings and walkouts. And I have no idea what film those “newsworthy” stories were based around. It’s certainly not the film that I saw… In fact I found the film to be somewhat timid compared to the online furore surrounding Julia Ducournau’s film. As a strange, ethereal coming-of-age tale, Raw is very, Very, effective. But as some kind of Martyrs-esque French fear-flick shocker? Less so. Much less so. Don’t buy into the hype and instead enjoy an pathos-filled tale of growing up. All wrapped up in the story of cannibal sisters attending veterinary school! Hey, I never said Raw wasn’t a strange film…

The film follows shy vegetarian...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series started last Friday and continues the next two weekends — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints.

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series started last Friday and continues the next two weekends — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints.

David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:

Mr. Freedom begins with a wail of sirens as Chicago cops swarm in to crack the skulls of rioters and looters. It ends with a catastrophic explosion that levels a city block in Paris and mutilates the body of the movie’s titular hero. In between all that, against a backdrop of Cold War intrigue and superpower paranoia run amok, we see scenes involving overt racist mockery, rape as a spectator sport, sacrilege, poisoning, prostitution, assassination, the sexist degradation of women and a pervasive attitude of unmitigated cynicism and ridicule toward the aspirations of the USA as a bulwark of liberty, democracy and decency against the forces of tyranny and oppression around the world. All the necessary ingredients for a robust satirical take-down of good old fashioned patriotism, American-style! The politics are radical, the humor is often guttural, and the...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series starts this Friday, March 10th. — The Classic French Film Festival celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

All films are screened at Webster University’s Moore Auditorium (470 East Lockwood).

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional,...

One week a month, Watch This offers movie recommendations inspired by new releases or premieres. This week: With the Academy Awards a few days away, we look back at some of the unlikeliest Oscar nominees, picking a different major category every day.

The Red Balloon (1956)

From the mid-1950s through the early 1970s, Hollywood often looked to Europe (especially France and Italy) as the cutting edge of movie style. It was during this period that the award for Best Original Screenplay became an unofficial arthouse category at the Oscars, earning nominations and even wins for all sorts of movies whose modern equivalents one couldn’t imagine getting nominated today, like Blow-Up or any of the three Alain Resnais films that received nods in the 1960s: Hiroshima Mon Amour, Last Year At Marienbad, and the less famous La Guerre Est Finie. (What, no love for Muriel?) Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman...

The Ninth Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — co-presented by Cinema St. Louis and the Webster University Film Series — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1920s through the mid-1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema.

The fest is annually highlighted by significant restorations, which this year includes films by two New Wave masters: Jacques Rivette’s first feature, “Paris Belongs to Us,” and François Truffaut’s cinephilic love letter, “Day for Night.” The fest also provides one of the few opportunities available in St. Louis to see films projected the old-school, time-honored way, with both Alain Resnais’ “Last Year at Marienbad” and Robert Bresson’s “Au hasard Balthazar” screening from 35mm prints. Even more traditional, we also offer a silent film with live music, and audiences are sure to delight in the Poor People of Paris...

‘Toni Erdmann’ (Courtesy: Tiff)

By: Carson Blackwelder

Managing Editor

It’s not too often that foreign-language films get recognized for anything at the Oscars beyond the best foreign-language film category — but it does happen. And, believe it or not, it happens more for best original screenplay and best adapted screenplay than many other categories. A prime example of that is Toni Erdmann, Germany’s submission this year that is proving to be a cross-category threat, which could score a nomination — or a win — for its writing.

The story of Toni Erdmann — which has a solid Rotten Tomatoes score of 91% — follows a father who is trying to reconnect with his adult daughter after the death of his dog. It sounds simple enough but, of course, the two couldn’t be more unalike. The film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and where it won the Fipresci Prize. Since then, it...

By his own admission, Matt Novak is “obsessed with cataloging and watching all the movies that every U.S. president has screened while in office.” That obsession extends, evidently, to their wives as well. Using the diary of a deceased White House projectionist, a document given to him by an unnamed source, Novak has compiled a list of all the films Jackie Kennedy screened during her time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue from 1961 to 1963. In a piece for Gizmodo, he explores what these films reveal about the former first lady and the era in which she lived. The Kennedys screened home movies on numerous occasions, but they also viewed numerous feature films in their private theater. These range from James Bond flicks and cartoons like Gay Purr-ee to foreign-made art films like La Dolce Vita and Last Year At Marienbad. JFK was not too thrilled with that last one ...

Since any New York City cinephile has a nearly suffocating wealth of theatrical options, we figured it’d be best to compile some of the more worthwhile repertory showings into one handy list. Displayed below are a few of the city’s most reliable theaters and links to screenings of their weekend offerings — films you’re not likely to see in a theater again anytime soon, and many of which are, also, on 35mm. If you have a chance to attend any of these, we’re of the mind that it’s time extremely well-spent.

Metograph

Takeshi Kitano and Isabelle Huppert retrospectives begin

Film Forum

The great “3-D Auteurs” continues, with Hugo having a special Sunday screening.

Film Society of Lincoln Center

“Total Verhoeven” continues.

Anthology Film Archives

“Memorable Fantasies” continues with the likes of Last Year at Marienbad, Céline and Julie Go Boating, and Pandora’s Box.

Museum of...

Mubi is partnering with the New York Film Festival to present highlights from Projections, a festival program of film and video work that expands upon our notions of what the moving image can do and be. Nicolás Pereda's Minotaur (2015) is showing on Mubi nearly worldwide from October 6 - November 5, 2016.Minotaur has different origins. First I thought of it as a kind of continuation/extension of a short I made called The Palace that dealt with issues of hired domestic labor. In Minotaur, I wanted to make a film about my social class in Mexico, and our relation with their servants. I was interested in creating a surreal atmosphere, and not a melodrama about class relations. I made a film 9 years ago with the same cast (Luisa, Paco, Gabino) in what back then was Gabino's apartment—it's called Juntos (Together). With Minotaur, I wanted to make a very different film,...

David’s Quick Take for the tl;dr Media Consumer:

Stolen Kisses was Francois Truffaut’s third exploration of the character Antoine Doinel, to whom we were introduced when he was a child in The 400 Blows and was glimpsed a few years later in a short segment Antoine and Colette that was part of an omnibus film titled Love at 20. Here we see Antoine as a young man, as he stumbles into adulthood working a variety of unskilled entry-level jobs, impulsively falling in love and gliding from one scrape with authority into another as he seeks to find his way through the world. The tone of this film is lighter, more overtly a romantic comedy, and seemingly inconsequential in terms of enduring substance and social commentary when compared to The 400 Blows. It could have been easily plausible to make this same movie with a lead character of a different name,...

Most people like to see resolution in films but not every filmmaker gives us that. Sometimes, they just leave us wondering. While there are times this can be just a symptom of bad writing or editing, it can also be an excellent way to get people to leave the theater thinking. In the hands of a clever and talented filmmaker, this technique can make a good film even more interesting. Here are seven good movies that don’t give us the answers we expect.

Rashomon (1950) The Plot: In feudal Japan, a priest, a woodcutter and another man are taking refuge from a bad rainstorm in the ruins of an old army gatehouse called Rashômon. The priest and the woodcutter are discussing the trial of a bandit accused of the murder of a samurai whose body was found by the woodcutter in a forest grove. Both men have been called to testify.

Alain Resnais' deceptively conventional drama is really about interpersonal dynamics: lives lived in the here and now are really anchored in events and concerns from the past, that bleed into the present. Delphine Seyrig's antique dealer invites an old beau to visit, but instead of clarity and direction finds just more personal confusion. Muriel, ou Le temps d'un retour Blu-ray The Criterion Collection 824 1963 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 116 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date July 19, 2016 / 39.95 Starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre Kérien, Nita Klein, Jean-Baptiste Thiérrée, Claude Sainval, Laurence Badie, Jean Champion Cinematography Sacha Vierny Production Design Jacques Saulnier Film Editor Claudine Merlin, Kenout Peltier, Eric Pluet Original Music Paul Colline Written by Jean Cayrol Produced by Anatole Dauman Directed by Alain Resnais

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson

Back in film school we'd make pronouncements like, why do all movies have to have such structured plots, with organized conflicts and resolutions?...

NEWSFilm scholar V.F. Perkins, author of the essential book Film As Film (1972), has died at the age of 80.The BFI in London has announced Black Star, the UK's largest celebration of black screen actors, to run October 17 - December 31, 2016.Consummate Hollywood director Garry Marshall, best known for Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride and such television productions as Happy Days and Mork & Mindy, has died at 81.Filmmaker and Mubi team member Kurt Walker and filmmaker Isaac Goes are launching online film exhibition space Kinet, "catered to the dissemination of new and boundary pushing avant-garde cinema." Kinet's first program, which begins next week, includes Masha Tupitsyn's epic Love Sounds.Recommended VIEWINGThe feature debut of Canadian director Isiah Medina, 88:88, which received its global online premiere on Mubi last spring, is now streaming for free.An English-subtitled, behind-the-scenes documentary on the making of Johnnie To's excellent thriller, Three.The teaser trailer for...