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Noah Baumbach’s Jay Kelly has debuted at the Venice International Film Festival, and the reviews have started to pour in. The film stars George Clooney as the titular character, a famous movie star who embarks on a whirlwind and unexpectedly profound journey through Europe with his devoted manager Ron (Adam Sandler). Along the way, both men are forced to confront the choices they’ve made, the relationships with their loved ones, and the legacies they’ll leave behind. So, what do the critics think?

THR‘s David Rooney had plenty of praise for George Clooney, who is “playing a deeply flawed character who has considerable overlap with his own public persona,...

Through its wildly comic, furiously creative, and intensely moving facade, Terry Gilliam’s 1985 film Brazil ponders a future made to sustain a draconian past molded by inequality. In this dystopia, the rich, having long knelt at the altar of radical capitalistic tyranny, spend their days having their flesh stretched, sliced, and injected with ultraviolet potions, while the working class types, files, signs, and stamps its way through pointless paperwork.

Overrun by communicative ducts, coated wires, cement and metals, and magnified, miniature computer screens, the future conjured up here averts the familiar prophecy of an anaesthetized, plastic world overrun by rampantly advancing technology. Indeed, men—who see such technology as an affront to their fiscal station and take the pecuniary gain of the morbid, perverse 1% as their modus operandi—unmistakably run the future of Gilliam’s film. New technology is expensive, and paper is cheap.

Sam Lowry (Jonathan Pryce) is in the thick of it,...

This past weekend saw the unusual coincidence of two major classics being re-released theatrically at the same time. Akira Kurosawa's final masterpiece, Ran, was re-issued in 15 locations in honor of its 40th anniversary, while the Italian maestro Federico Fellini's semi-autobiographical classic 8½ was re-released in just one location. That's all it needed to deliver the third-best per-theater average of any movie currently in release. Remember, we're talking about the lucrative Memorial Day weekend, which witnessed total business hit the $330 million mark.

Thousands of theaters were booked out for Disney's Lilo & Stitch remake and Paramount's Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning. While Lilo & Stitch delivered a Memorial Day record $180 million-plus in its first four days of release, The Final Reckoning earned a franchise-record $79 million in the same frame. Both movies also claimed the top two spots on the weekend box office charts, in terms of revenue and per-theater average.

"Do you even have a script? A few pages, an idea?" Janus Films has unveiled a brand new trailer for the all-timer classic Federico Fellini's 8 1/2, originally released in 1963. Considered by many as one of the greatest films ever made, and one of the most spectacular looks at the life of filmmakers, this Italian classic has been re-released many times before. It was already re-released on Criterion Collection Blu-ray in 2006, and also on 4K Br last year. Marcello Mastroianni plays Guido Anselmi, a director whose new project is falling apart, along with his entire life. One of the greatest films about film ever made, Federico Fellini's 8½ (aka Otto e mezzo) turns one man's artistic crisis into a grand epic of the cinema. An early working title was The Beautiful Confusion, and Fellini's masterpiece is exactly that: a shimmering dream, a circus, and a magic act. Also featured is Fellini's...

In an unprecedented move, Gaumont, the Paris-based TV & Film production house behind such global hits as “Narcos” and “Lupin,” has forged a co-production deal with Brazilian media powerhouse, Globo.

The new pact was announced as Miami confab Content Americas wrapped on Thursday. First out the gate is a still-untitled project that will “explore the universe of haute couture.” The project will be produced by leading Brazilian indie production company Conspiração, producer of the 2025 Oscar-nominated Walter Salles film “I’m Still Here,” and developed by Ventre Studios (“Godless John”).

‘We are celebrating Globo’s 100th anniversary while Gaumont turns 130 in 2025, which highlights the strength and tradition of both companies on the international sphere,” said Manuel Belmar, Globo chief financial officer and head of digital products, who expressed his delight at the alliance “which will bring premium content not only to Brazilians, but also to audiences in other countries.”

The agreement underscores the...

Over the years we have had so many metacinema outings that defined and redefined glorious ages of film-making across industries. Be it Federico Fellini’s “81/2,” Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s “Khamosh,” Zoya Akhtar’s “Luck By Chance,” K.G. George’s “Lekhayude Maranam Oru Flashback,” or even Rosshan Andrrews’ “Udayananu Tharam” – movies that go meta has always commemorated the legacy of cinema as we know it. The tropes of a ‘Film-within-a-film’, often termed meta cinema brims with nostalgia and more often than not stand as everlasting love letters to bygone cinema’s glory. The latest entry to this list is Jofin T. Chacko’s sophomore directorial, “Rekhachithram” (2025).

Cinematically reminiscent of Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s 1985 thriller “Khamosh,” “Rekhachithram” is a mystery thriller that focuses on a junior artist’s murder on the sets of the 1985 Bharathan film “Kaathodu Kaathoram” starring Mammootty. But here’s the catch – the investigation takes place 40 years later...

Admire the Criterion Collection, but can’t afford the thousands of dollars required to purchase all those DVDs? There’s a more elegant solution…just get a Max subscription. Warner Bros and HBO have announced a renewal of their deal with Criterion to keep decades of film classics in one streamable spot. “We are excited to continue to bring the Criterion Collection’s catalog of top-quality films to our audiences,” said Royce Battleman, Executive Vice President, Content Acquisitions, Warner Bros. Discovery. “Both the existing and new additions to the collection provide Max viewers with the opportunity to experience cinematic excellence as part of our offering.” Founded in 1984, the Criterion Collection is dedicated to the preservation, restoration and protection of the art of cinema. Their famous line of DVDs and Blu-Rays span a hundred years of moviemaking, publishing important classic and contemporary films from around the world. The list is too long to mention here,...

The 2009 film "Nine" — not to be confused with the 2009 film "9" — was an Oscar darling in the most frustrating possible way. It was nominated for four Oscars, including Best Supporting Actress (Penélope Cruz), Best Art Direction, Best Costumes, and Best Original Song. That was just enough nominations for mad Oscar completists to have to see "Nine," a movie that, many agreed, looked dull and baffling. The critics seemed to think so, anyway, as "Nine" only has a 39% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It's the lowest approval rating of any film to star Daniel Day-Lewis.

"Nine" requires some explanation. Firstly, the film was based on a Broadway musical that debuted in 1982. The original production starred Raul Julia, playing a character that was very similar to, but legally distinct from, real-life Italian master Federico Fellini. The character, named Guido Contini, found both his marriage and his creative spirit flagging in the face of a midlife crisis.

It is no secret that men dominate most industries, especially the film industry. But after a summer of Greta Gerwig 's record breaking 'Barbie', here are 24 female filmmakers that have broken the mold and succeeded in an industry of men. Lina Wertmüller Lina Wertmüller was born in Italy in 1928. She studied theater at the Faculty of Arts in Rome. At the very beginning of her career, she became close to the highly acclaimed filmmaker Federico Fellini and was his assistant on ‘8 ½’ (1963). ‘The Basilisks’ (1961) was her first feature and she made her mark with the clandestine love affair tale of ‘The Seduction of Mimi’ (1972). Not long after, her most acclaimed work, ‘Seven Beauties’ (1975), premiered. The film follows the life of a not very successful crook who essentially makes his living out of "protecting" his seven sisters, who is arrested for murder and ends up in the army...

Our weekly film quiz returns with 30 all-new movie-related questions – fair warning, it features Michael Keaton’s name three or more times…

We’re back, baby, and so is Beetlejuice in Tim Burton’s new sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. Accordingly, this week’s film quiz features questions about sequels, demons, and Michael Keaton movies. It’s quizness as usual for the next few weeks too, with subjects ranging from the silent era to this year in horror movies, every Friday till Christmas.

Once you’ve completed all three rounds, you’ll find a link to a separate post with the correct answers at the bottom of this post. As always, this is just for fun, but please let us know how you did in the comments (scores out of 30 this week!) and give us any other lovely feedback. Oh, and apologies if you were reading that first line aloud, that guy can...

It’s every movie lover’s dream to go into The Criterion Collection closet. And while the vast majority never will, we can at least celebrate its purpose: to engage cinephiles with famous film aficionados in a way they never could anyplace else. Well it’s about to get even more intimate, as The Criterion Collection is celebrating their 40th anniversary by releasing a massive box set that also serves as an ode to those who have entered the famed closet and shared their favorite movies for us to see. Sorry, no Criterion Channel exclusives!

As per The Criterion Collection: “This monumental forty-film box set celebrates forty years of the Criterion Collection by gathering an electrifying mix of classic and contemporary films, and presenting them with all their special features and essays in a deluxe clothbound, slipcased edition. CC40’s eclectic selection includes the releases most frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers,...

The iconic Criterion Collection has expanded into viral Closet trips, its streaming channel, and of course its staple 4k restorations on Blu-ray. Now, the Criterion Collection celebrates 40 years since its founding with a monumental 40-film box set including works from auteurs Agnès Varda, Spike Lee, Jean-Luc Godard, and Federico Fellini.

The box set, titled CC40, spans an eclectic selection of curated classic films that includes special features and essays. The collection encompasses the works “frequently chosen by the hundreds of filmmakers, actors, writers, and other movie-loving luminaries who have visited Criterion over the years, as documented in our popular Closet Picks video series,” per the official press release. “Neither a historical survey nor a top-40 compilation, this exciting, personal, unpredictable anthology reflects the cinematic joys and inspirations of the creative community that makes the Criterion Collection possible.”

The 40th anniversary Blu-ray box set includes films like “8½” (1963), “All That Jazz...

Anouk Aimée in The Best Years Of A Life with Jean-Louis Trintignant, reprising their characters 53 years on from A Man And A Woman. Director Claude Lelouch said: 'It was wonderful for us all to get together again. It was as though something had been left unfinished, and none of us wanted it to end.' Photo: UniFrance Jean-Louis Trintignant as Jean-Louis and Anouk Aimée is Anne in A Man And A Woman One of the most revered icons of French cinema, Anouk Aimée who starred opposite Jean-Louis Trintignant in one of the most successful French films of all time, A Man And A Woman, by Claude Lelouch, has died today at the age of 92. The news was revealed by her daughter Manuella Papatakis.

The poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert was so entranced with her that he gave her the name Anouk Aimée (she was born Françoise Sorya), and cast her...

Anouk Aimée, the French actress known for her elegance and cool sophistication in films including Claude Lelouch’s “A Man and a Woman” (1966), Fellini classics “La Dolce Vita” (1960) and “8½” (1963) and Jacques Demy’s “Lola” (1961), died on Tuesday. She was 92.

Aimée’s daughter, Manuela Papatakis, confirmed her death in a post on Instagram.

“With my daughter, Galaad, and my granddaughter, Mila, we have great sadness to announce the departure of my mother Anouk Aimée,” she wrote. “I was right by her side when she passed away this morning at her home in Paris.”

Fairly described in one encyclopedia as an “an aloof but alluring presence on the screen,” Aimée was frequently described as ““regal,” “intelligent” and “enigmatic,” giving the actress, according to journalist Sandy Flitterman-Lewis, “an aura of disturbing and mysterious beauty that has earned her the status of one of the hundred sexiest stars in film history (in a...

Brie Larson, Katie Holmes, Bo Derek, Harvey Keitel, Kate Beckinsale, John David Washington, Matt Bomer, and Colman Domingo are among the robust contingent of Hollywood stars set to disembark on the island of Sardinia for the upcoming seventh edition of the Filming Italy Sardegna Festival.

The event, which kicks off Italy’s summer moviegoing season and combines film and TV, unspools June 20-23 in the Forte Village resort near Cagliari, capital of Sardegna (Sardinia in English). This year, the festival has upped its game making “a major effort to attract talents,” notes Tiziana Rocca, the marketing guru and former Taormina Film Festival chief who launched the Sardinia event seven years ago.

More than 70 international and italian titles comprising feature films, TV series, docs and shorts in a wide range of genres will be screening at the fest. Local premiers include Netflix’s Japanese anime film “The Imaginary” which will drop...

Now a Cannes veteran, French filmmaker Christophe Honoré has returned to the Competition with the world premiere of Marcello Mio, his French-Italian comedy that stars longtime collaborator Chiara Mastroianni — who, in the film, adopts the persona and appearance of her late father, Marcello Mastroianni. The movie received applause that lasted a touch over eight minutes during its unveiling this evening.

Marcello Mio taps into the younger Mastroianni’s complex reality of being the daughter of cinema icons Marcello Mastroianni and Catherine Deneuve.

In a fantasy scenario, Chiara hits a crisis point and begins to dress, speak and breathe like her late father, the legendary star of such films as La Dolce Vita, 81/2 and Marriage Italian Style. Those around her, including Deneuve, Fabrice Luchini, Melvil Poupaud, Benjamin Biolay, Nicole Garica and Hugh Skinner, who also play part-real, part-fictionalized versions of themselves in Marcello Mio, begin to believe it and start to call her “Marcello.

Fellini's film 8 ½ expertly captures the feeling and intensity of nightmares, earning a perfect score from a dream expert. The dream sequence in 8 ½ creates a sense of claustrophobia, uncertainty, and fear, accurately depicting how nightmares affect us. Filmmakers like David Lynch and Martin Scorsese have been inspired by Fellini's ability to capture the dream-like quality of cinema.

A dream sequence from a legendary 1960s art film gets a perfect accuracy score from an expert. Famed Italian director Federico Fellini was suffering from a severe case of creative block after a run of acclaimed films, including the classics Nights of Cabiria, La Strada and La Dolce Vita. In a stroke of genius, Fellini decided to make a movie all about the block he was experiencing, and the result was one of his greatest masterpieces, a film that went on to be nominated for five Oscars, winning two.

A phantasmagoric comedy-drama...

One may resist celebrity culture, but most people have at least a few actors from pop culture history that mean something to them, whether they're from the silver screen or the flickering box. 

Actors know how to spark our emotions and suspend our disbelief. They embody our favorite stories and the visions of our favorite filmmakers. The stars of film and television have the privilege of immortalizing themselves in certain times and places. But it is not just themselves that they immortalize. In their best projects, they capture many complexities of emotion and culture that are relevant to millions. Steve McQueen and his Mustang in "Bullet," Warren Beatty and his freewheeling libido in "Shampoo," Anthony Hopkins and his empathetic presidential turn in "Nixon" -- for better or worse, actors color our memories of the past in both trivial and important ways.

It can be wistful, therefore, when an old favorite passes,...

Italian actor who brought an earthy vitality and rambunctiousness to her role in Federico Fellini’s 1963 masterpiece 8½

In 1962, Federico Fellini placed advertisements in Italian newspapers seeking a woman to play the lead character’s mistress in his next film, which would eventually be titled 8½ and released the following year. The successful candidate, he wrote, should be “somewhat old-fashioned … with a pink-and-white complexion and a small pea-hen’s head on a Rubens body, very soft, flowery, maternal and opulent”.

The director auditioned as many as 5,000 applicants. “An interminable procession of ladies who had deserted their worried husbands and children came forward,” reported the writer Angelo Solmi in 1967. It was rumoured that the whole endeavour was merely a publicity stunt and that all along the role had been earmarked for Sandra Milo.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSEvil Does Not Exist.We are saddened to learn that Issue 97 will be Cinema Scope’s last in its current form. To “do something valuable in this field,” editor and publisher Mark Peranson writes, “one needs creative freedom.” This is exactly what, for twenty-five years and just under 100 issues, Cinema Scope was able to provide, offering a space that allowed, per Peranson, “a certain kind of filmmaker’s work to be treated with the intellect and respect they deserve.” The print issue is on its way to subscribers now, and its entire contents—including interviews with Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Rodrigo Moreno, and Alex Ross Perry—can also be read online.Sandra Milo has died at the age of 90. She starred in Federico Fellini’s 8½ (1963) and Juliet of the Spirits...

Italian actress Sandra Milo, who was best known for her supporting roles in Federico Fellini’s Oscar winner 8 ½ and Golden Globe winner Juliet of the Spirits, has died at the age of 90.

Born in Tunisia to Italian parents in 1933, Milo grew up in Tuscany.

She got her first big screen break in 1955 opposite Alberto Sordi in Antonio Pietrangeli’s comedy The Bachelor.

Milo’s career quickly took off with roles in Roberto Rossellini’s General Della Rovere, Pietrangeli’s Hungry for Love, Edouard Molinaro’s Witness in the City and Claude Sautet’s The Big Risk over the course of the late 1950s.

It briefly hit the buffers in 1961 when her performance in Rosselini’s Stendhal adaptation Vanina Vanni was brutally panned by critics at the Venice Film Festival, but Milo returned to the set and went on to rack up more than 80 credits across her 70-year career.

Internationally, Milo...

Veteran Italian actress Sandra Milo, best known for her roles in Federico Fellini‘s 8½ and Juliet of the Spirits, has died. She was 90. According to Variety, Milo’s passing was confirmed on social media by her daughters, Debora and Azzura, and son Ciro, who revealed she died in her sleep on Monday (January 29) morning at her home in Rome. Born Salvatrice Elena Greco on March 11, 1933, in Tunis, French Tunisia, Milo made her on-screen film debut in 1955’s The Bachelor. From there, she landed her first major role in Roberto Rossellini‘s 1959 drama film General Della Rovere; she also starred in Rossellini’s 1961 drama Vanina Vanini. Milo briefly retired from acting after her first marriage but was convinced to return by Fellini to star opposite Marcello Mastroianni in his 1963 avant-garde classic 8½, which is available to stream on Prime Video and Apple TV. She also starred in Fellini’s 1965 comedy-drama Juliet of the Spirits.

Italian actor Sandra Milo, known for memorable roles in Federico Fellini’s “8½” and “Juliet of the Spirits” as well as her work with Roberto Rossellini, died on Monday at her Rome home. She was 90.

News of Milo’s death was announced on social media by her daughters, Debora and Azzurra, and son Ciro, who said Milo died in her sleep on Monday morning.

Italian deputy culture minister Lucia Borgonzoni mourned the passing of Milo as the loss of a “protagonist of Italian cinema … a great, talented artist with an overwhelming charisma” and “the muse of great directors such as Federico Fellini who won the hearts of millions of Italians.”

Milo, whose work spanned several genres, made her big screen debut in 1955 alongside popular comic actor Alberto Sordi in Antonio Pietrangeli’s “Lo Scapolo” (“The Bachelor”). Other comedies followed such as “Totò in the Moon” (“Totò Nella Luna”), one of...

Ali Kalthami’s satirical drama “Mandoob” (“Night Courier”) examines the class divide in the Saudi capital of Riyadh, telling the story of a hapless delivery man and the desperate avenues he takes to make money.

Comedic actor Mohammed Aldokhei plays Fahad, who finds himself in a precarious situation after he is fired from his day job at a call center. Trying to make ends meet, and help his ailing father get necessary medical treatment, Fahad embarks on an illicit scheme to sell stolen liquor while delivering food to wealthy customers.

The film, which unspooled in Toronto and at the Zurich Film Festival, is also a visual tour of Riyadh and its low-income and working-class neighborhoods, mostly by night and often in the rain. Kalthami was eager to capture the city and its glaring lights during the country’s short rainy season. The wide, multi-lane streets and heavy traffic also allowed...

“This was not planned. I think the way you know is I walked in here covered with my child’s seaweed snack all over my sweatshirt.”

Greta Lee is infectious and is so damn grateful this breakout moment is happening to her when she’s 40.

When she comes in for her sit-down interview with Variety, she’s laidback and so charismatic, like your old buddy at college you had one too many martinis with on a Thursday night party but still laughed about it til’ this day.

You wouldn’t think she’s enjoying the clout of having played in two major features in 2023. One is her leading role as Nora, a New York City playwright who reconnects with her childhood love in A24’s “Past Lives” from debut director and writer Celine Song. The other is the voice of Lyla, the Spider-Society’s AI assistant in the animated blockbuster sequel,...

Furniture stores are strange places. The liminal feeling they give off is something like a life-size dollhouse or home you once lived in but can’t remember when. If you’ve ever been into an Ikea, chances are you thought about what it’d be like to spend the night in one of the staged rooms that has a sink with no running water.

A friend told me once that when she was younger, her parents would take her and her older sister to Bob’s Furniture for snacks and movies. While her parents would pretend to shop around for a pressboard dresser, she and her sister would raid the store’s self-serve cafe for popcorn, ice cream, candy, cookies and then sit down in the store’s small theater while something like “Finding Nemo” or “Shrek” played.

At its core, Swedish director Niclas Larsson’s debut feature “Mother, Couch,...

Following in the footsteps of Angelina Jolie, Greta Gerwig, and Regina King, actor Randall Park steps to the other side of the camera in his directorial debut, Shortcomings. After premiering at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, the searing meta-comedy hit theaters last August and will hopefully find a home on a streamer soon. As a stark contrast to the overproduced genre pictures populating multiplexes, Shortcomings offers us a bit of something new while reminding us of something old.

Based on a 2007 graphic novel of the same name with a script written by the same author, Adrian Tomine, Shortcomings chronicles the career struggles and relationship qualms of three Asian American professionals living in Berkeley, CA. We meet Ben (Justin H. Min) and his longtime girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) at the premiere of a Crazy Rich Asians spoof, where their dwindling relationship is exemplified by their differing opinions on Asian American representation in film.

Like writers penning their memoirs, making movies about making movies is a rite of passage for many a director. Fellini famously did it with 8 ½, Truffaut with Day for Night, Godard with Contempt and Fassbinder with Beware of a Holy Whore. More recently, Tarantino gave us Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spielberg The Fabelmans, Michel Hazavanicius made Final Cut and Damien Chazelle, Babylon.

Almost all behind-the-scenes movies share the same theme: Filmmaking is tough, high-stress work that weighs heavily on everyone involved, especially the directors themselves. That’s certainly one of the main takeaways from Cédric Kahn’s very French variation on the subject, Making Of, which premiered out of competition in Venice.

Kahn is both an actor (he played the douchey Gallic lover in Pawel Pawikowski’s Cold War) and talented director, with a series of strong features under his belt that include hard-hitting thrillers like L’Ennui,...

Nicholas Philibert, whose film On the Adamant won the Golden Bear at the 73rd Berlinale on Saturday, has made a lifetime commitment to observational documentary, moving between interviews and long, patient takes of his subjects pursuing what it is that they do. The best known of these is Etre et Avoir (2002), which followed a year in the life of a tiny rural school where the single teacher – kindly but exacting, in the French manner – taught several grades at once. Thanks to the magnetism of this committed teacher – and of his delightful enfants, of course – Etre et Avoir became an unlikely but enduring arthouse hit.

Related Story Berlin Film Festival Winners: French Documentary ‘On The Adamant’ By Nicolas Philibert Wins Golden Bear Related Story HBO Acquires Berlin Fest Buzz Title 'Reality;' Breakout For Its 'Euphoria' Star Sydney Sweeney As Leaker Reality Winner In Tina Satter-Helmed Docudrama Related Story Sundance...

Claudia Squitieri with Manuel Maria Perrone at the Italian Cultural Institute book launch for Claudia Cardinale. L’indomabile. The Indomitable (Cinecittà and Electa Editore) Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Luigi Comencini's La Ragazza Di Bube opened Cinecittà and the Museum of Modern Art’s retrospective celebrating Claudia Cardinale on Friday. Pietro Germi’s Un Maledetto Imbroglio; Mauro Bolognini’s Il Bell’Antonio, La Viaccia, and Senilità; Valerio Zurlini’s La Ragazza Con La Valigia; Luchino Visconti’s Rocco E I Suoi Fratelli, Il Gattopardo Sandra (1965); Federico Fellini’s Otto E Mezzo; Sergio Leone’s Once Upon A Time In The West (1968); Marco Bellocchio’s Enrico IV; Pasquale Squitieri’s Atto Di Dolore (1990), and Manoel de Oliveira’s O Gebo E A Sombra are some of the many highlights.

Claudia Squitieri with Anne-Katrin Titze on Claudia Cardinale shooting The Leopard and 81/2 at the same time: “Visconti wanted her hair very dark and not...

Nino Rota’s soundtrack for Federico Fellini’s 1976 film “Il Casanova,” which is getting a re-release via Italian record label Cam Sugar, has been a favorite of Alexandre Desplat’s ever since the Oscar-winning French composer first listened to it at 15 years old.

The magnificently staged film stars Donald Sutherland as the legendary 18th-century Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova, who sought wealthy patrons and sexual encounters as he traveled from Venice to Paris, London, Germany, Rome and Austria, where he makes love to a mechanical doll.

The 27 remastered tracks on Rota’s “Casanova” score are being re-released by Cam Sugar in collaboration with Decca Records on Feb. 10, both digitally and on vinyl. They feature compositions on the edge of classical and electronic music, making use of a wide range of instruments including harpsichord, vibraphone and electric piano.

Rota, who scored most of Fellini’s films, including “La Dolce Vita” and “8 1/2,...

The "showbiz satire" movie is almost as old as the cinematic medium itself. From "Sullivan's Travels" to "The Player" and most recently "Babylon," a look at the darker, goofier, unglamorous, seedier side of moviemaking has become a perennial for Hollywood in more ways than one.

Yet most of these films utilize an exaggerated effect to make their commentary on show business that much more biting, whether it's surrealism (as in Federico Fellini's "8 1/2"), a musical (like "Singin' in the Rain"), or horror (such as "Wes Craven's New Nightmare"). It's rare for such showbiz films to not be satirized in some fashion, yet David Cronenberg's "Maps to the Stars" is just such a movie.

Of course, that depends on who you ask. Most people would see the uncomfortable and darkly hilarious "Maps to the Stars" as unequivocal satire, seeing as how it brings together an ensemble of bizarrely...

Anyone requiring proof of veteran cinematographer Darius Khondji’s versatility need look no further than his work on two very different autobiographical projects this past year—James Gray’s subdued, ‘80s-set “Armageddon Time” and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s lush, ultra-modern “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” For the latter, Khondji placed second to Florian Hoffmeister (“TÁR”) at the 2022 EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival, winning the Silver Frog.

See Alejandro G. Iñárritu: ‘Bardo’ is an ‘intimate experience’ that contemplates the ‘labyrinthine way that our memory works’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Recent recipients of the cinematography-centric event’s runner-up prize to also compete at the Oscars include Bruno Delbonnel (“The Tragedy of Macbeth”), Łukasz Żal (“Cold War”) and Bradford Young (“Arrival”). Should Khondji join that list when Academy Award nominations are announced on January 24th (he’s eighth in our Best Cinematography odds), he’ll only be getting his second-ever nom—astonishing, considering a career that...

All the real cinephiles know that to find the best films in the world, one has to look beyond English-speaking cinema. "Parasite" brought some much-needed attention to non-English language cinema in America when it swept the Oscars in 2019, and the world has not stopped producing incredible films in the years since. Luckily for you, I watched dozens of the best films from around the world this year and picked out the cream of the crop so you didn't have to. I expanded my search beyond the festival circuit and found movies that excel in every genre, from action and adventure to slow-burning dramas, so there will be something in here for everyone.

The global cinema of 2022 is haunted by the pandemic. It is up close and personal and a little bit scatterbrained. It is actively commenting on the cinematic tropes of yesteryear and transforming them into a spectacle. It is...

Photo: ‘Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths’

Wonderful Experience I typically write reviews to help lift up films and the people who make them. I have always felt this is important for the industry. Even in mediocre films, you can always find an incredible aspect of the experience that either teaches you something or entertains you. I have read a few reviews on ‘Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths’ which is something I rarely do before I write my own opinions on a film. I do not just review films but critique them in ways that help every filmmaker make amazing Cinema. This film is a journey through Alejandro’s artistically profound brain. I say these things because this fits into what I am about to expel. ‘Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths’ is a visually stunning piece of art. It is vastly misunderstood...

This review originally ran September 1, 2022, for the film’s world premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Although seemingly fragmented in its structure, as dreams often play out in our subconscious, “Bardo (or False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths),” the new fable from Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu premiering at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, reveals itself a circular narrative where the surreptitiously personal and the vehemently political become entangled to seismic effect.

Throughout the film’s warranted nearly-three-hour runtime, Iñárritu writes the cinematic verses of an oneiric love poem to an ever-incongruous homeland while simultaneously investigating his own perceived hubris, insecurities and fractured identity. On the other side of everything with which he grapples rests a transcendent masterpiece lucidly woven from honest contradictions, painful self-awareness, and hard-hitting historical observations.

Much like “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón’s own artistic pilgrimage back to his estranged origins, Iñárritu’s “Bardo” is an attempt at...

With the release of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s “Bardo: False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths,” Netflix invited guests to experience the sights and sounds of the Academy Award-winning director’s most personal film.

Through a series of conversations, the audience learned more about the design and craft of the project and had the opportunity to view concept art, costumes, and pieces from the sets.

Daniel Giménez Cacho stars as Silverio Gama, a Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles. Silverio finds himself on a surreal journey into memories and dreams when he returns to Mexico after many years away.

“Bardo, False Chronicles of a Handful of Truths” will stream globally on Netflix beginning December 16.

Cinematographer Darius Khondji agreed to work on the film without reading the script

Darius Khondji has worked on films from “Seven” to “Uncut Gems,” earning an Academy Award nomination for “Evita” in 1996. Sitting...

Quentin Tarantino easily takes the title of the ultimate movie lover's filmmaker. Bursting onto the scene with "Reservoir Dogs" at the Sundance Film Festival in 1992, one thing was certain when his follow-up, "Pulp Fiction," came out two years later: this guy was cool. Tarantino displayed a fearlessness that movie buffs found refreshing. After all, the previous decade was filled with overstuffed franchises in the wake of Hollywood's New Wave movement at the end of the 1970s.

Known for his trademark over-the-top violence, nonlinear storytelling, and killer soundtracks, the major thing that sets the "Jackie Brown" filmmaker apart from his contemporaries is the sheer volume of homages to auteurs before him. As any die-hard Quentinphile will tell you, the writer-director was once a store clerk at Video Archives in Manhattan Beach, California, and was respected for his encyclopedic knowledge of virtually any movie. Tarantino is the reason why I began diving...

Chantal Akerman’s ’Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles’ previously sat at number 36 on the poll

Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai Du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles has topped Sight & Sound magazine’s Greatest Film of All Time Critics’ poll 2022, becoming the first woman director to do so.

Akerman’s 1975 French-language film was previously 36th place when the poll was last conducted in 2012.

The number one spot at the time, Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo, has now fallen to second place with Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane - which was previously number one for 50 years - at number three.

Sight & Sound’s ’Greatest Film...

Another decade, another Sight & Sound poll. On Thursday, the British magazine unveiled the 2022 edition of its long-running critics’ poll on the greatest films of all time, with “Jeanne Dielman, 23 Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles” taking the top spot — the first film from a female director to achieve the honor since the poll began in 1952.

Directed by Belgian filmmaker Chantal Akerman and released in 1975, “Jeanne Dielman” is a three-hour, 20-minute film following the title character (Delphine Seyrig), a single mother and prostitute, as she carries out a monotonous daily routine that slowly breaks apart and collapses. Since its premiere, the film has been highly acclaimed as a landmark of feminist cinema. Previously, it ranked 36 on Sight & Sound’s 2012 edition of the poll, where it was one of only two films in the top 100 from a female filmmaker; the other, “Beau Travail” by Claire Denis, is now ranked at number seven.

In celebration...

Five Inspirations is a series in which we ask directors to share five things that shaped and informed their film. Lorenzo Vigas's The Box is now showing exclusively on Mubi in many countries—including the United States, United Kingdom, India, Turkey, Germany, Ireland, and Canada—starting November 11, 2022, in the series The New Auteurs.Inspiration #1Mouchette by Robert BressonRobert Bresson's work has influenced me because it goes against the established norm within the cinematographic narrative. Bresson moves away from the usual tools of manipulation and seeks to convey emotion through pure cinematic language. Actors should not convey emotion through their performances; rather, as a result of the cinematographic narrative, the viewer comes to feel the emotional movement of the actors. The individual shot should not convey beauty, but the sum of them together is what should achieve meaning. The work is the sum of all its elements and none of them should stand out.

Seven short films, shot on 35mm and directed by 7 of Hong Kong’s most acclaimed and significant directors, form a heartfelt symphony about Hong Kong. In the original plan, conceived by Johnnie To, this anthology was going to be an 8-director piece, called “Eight & a Half”, where each director was given the task to illustrate the zeitgeist of a decade of Hong Kong’s recent history, starting in the 50’s. Unfortunately, John Woo had to leave the project due to personal issues, and the omnibus’ title was changed into “Septet”. Firstly presented at Cannes Film Festival in 2020, “Septet: The Story of Hong Kong” is now finally released in cinemas in China, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the Handover.

Septet: The Story of Hong Kong is screening at Asian Pop Up Cinema

Sammo Hung’s “Exercise”

In the first of the seven, Sammo Hung tell...

You're never going to believe it, but Alejandro G. Iñárritu has made an elaborately-titled, darkly comedic drama exploring the messy personal and professional lives of an artist who, in one of the film's many surreal moments, flies around through the air in a flowing single take.

Titled "Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths," the film is the latest from the director of "The Revenant" and "Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)," and the first he's shot in his native Mexico since 2000's "Amores perros." Daniel Giménez Cacho stars as Silverio Gama, a revered Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker who decides to return to his homeland after being named the recipient of "a prestigious international award." If it's a Golden Globe then, well, I have bad news for you, buddy...

Upon returning to Mexico, Silverio is beset by his memories of the past and fears about his future,...

Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu is back with his first feature film in seven years in the new trailer for “Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths,” and it looks positively trippy.

Backed by The Beatles’ “I Am the Walrus,” the trailer is completely dialogue-free and instead offers up a bevy of images from the film, which by most accounts is a semi-autobiographical story from the “Birdman” and “The Revenant” director in the vein of “8 1/2.”

Described as an “epic, visually stunning and immersive experience” the story follows Silverio (Daniel Giménez Cacho), a renowned Mexican journalist and documentary filmmaker living in Los Angeles, who, after being named the recipient of a prestigious international award, is compelled to return to his native country, unaware that this simple trip will push him to an existential limit. The official synopsis continues: “The folly of his memories and fears have decided to pierce through to the present,...

Thanks in part to a strong co-production drive, 13 Mexican-nationality movies play at San Sebastian this year, a major presence.

Perlak frames Alejandro G. Iñarritu Venice player “Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths.” Much of the heat, in industry terms at least, will come from the the premieres and sneak peeks.

In one highlight, Natalia Beristáin will world premiere “Noise” (“Ruido”), before its Netflix November bow. In possibly another, Mexico’s Laura Pancarte (“Non-Western”) unveils “Sueño Mexicano” as a pic-in-post.

Eyes will also be turned to Mexico’s latest generation of auteurs. One director is suddenly very well known: Longtime editor Natalia López Gallardo, a Berlin Jury Prize winner for “Robe of Gems.”

Others are bubbling under: Juan Pablo González whose “Dos Estaciones” impressed at Sundance, Rodrigo Ruiz Patterson, director of “Summer White,” another Sundance title, and Bruno Santamaría, a Gold Hugo best doc winner at the 2020 Chicago Festival...

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There are few filmmakers in the world more talented and exciting than Alejandro G. Iñárritu, whose prior features — Amores Perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010), Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015) — were each tremendously well-reviewed and, at the very least, Oscar-nominated. As you will probably recall, the Mexican filmmaker won the best director Oscar in back-to-back years, for Birdman and The Revenant, the former of which also won best picture and the latter of which probably came damn close, solidifying his place in cinema’s pantheon.

But the reality is that nobody who has ever directed films on a consistent basis — from Griffith to Hitchcock to Spielberg — has batted 1.000 in the eyes of critics or the Academy. It seems all but certain that Iñárritu’s latest film, Bardo — which had its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, its North American premiere at the Telluride Film...

Will “Bardo” be Alejandro González Iñárritu’s third best director Oscar in a row following “Birdman” and “The Revenant” wins? It’s a question many were asking heading into the Venice Film Festival, where the Netflix-backed “Bardo” world premiered in competition.

They had plenty of time to contemplate their answer as the three-hour-film wrapped at 12:15 a.m. Venice time, and earned a standing ovation of just over four minutes at the Sala Grande. A number of audience members began leaving before the movie ended given the extremely late hour, but the vast majority showed up for the helmer and stayed to applaud him right to the bitter end.

Iñárritu was visibly moved by the reception to his film, certainly one of his most personal efforts to date, and had tears in his eyes as he embraced his cast and producers. “Bardo” is his first feature film since 2015’s “The Revenant.

“Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths” is a movie longer than its title, and maybe even more pretentious. It’s the first film that Alejandro G. Iñárritu has made in his native Mexico in 22 years, and you feel, in every scene, the sweat and ardor of his ambition. He wants to make an epic statement — about life and death, fiction and reality, history and imagination. He wants to make a confessional autobiographical fantasia about the fears and dreams hidden behind his façade as a famous and celebrated film director. He also wants to complement and compete with his fellow filmmaker and transplanted countryman Alfonso Cuarón, who in 2018 returned to Mexico and drew on his own life to make “Roma,” the world’s artiest Oscar-bait movie, getting it bankrolled by the deep pockets of Netflix.

More than any of that, Iñárritu wants to create an onscreen hero who, for all his scruffy relatability,...

When I was in college, a professor of mine credited two films with birthing modern European arthouse cinema: Federico Fellini's "8 1/2" and Ingmar Bergman's "The Seventh Seal." Their black-and-white cinematography aside, the two movies couldn't be more different from one another. Where Fellini's meta-fictional comedy is a series of relentlessly moving images full of zest and zeal, Bergman's historical drama is a somber period piece, his camera typically static as it fixates on the faces of the film's weary travelers. "8 1/2" is a surreal celebration of life in all its disorder; "The Seventh Seal" is a dour meditation on the existential conundrum of religious faith.

Yes, I just quoted the Swedish Chef from "Muppets Most Wanted." I only steal from the best, after all.

"The Seventh Seal" came together at a turning point in Bergman's career. He had only just gotten his first real taste of...

A fire broke out at Rome’s historic Cinecittà Studios on Monday afternoon (Aug. 1) and was extinguished by three teams of firefighters.

The fire broke out in the area where a set depicting renaissance Florence was housed and which was being decommissioned, destroying parts of it. It also disrupted the shoot for Netflix’s sequel to Charlize Theron film “The Old Guard” and threatened the “Big Brother” house.

“The fire has been extinguished. There are no injuries, no poisoning, no serious material damage,” Cinecittà Studios spokesperson Marlon Pellegrini told Afp in a statement.

The cause of the fire is not immediately clear, though conditions are dry and potentially incendiary in Italy, which is undergoing a heatwave.

The studio has history with fire. In 2007, flames engulfed warehouses housing sets for HBO/BBC series “Rome” and 32,000 square feet of studio space were destroyed. And in 2012, some parts of Studio 5, where Federico Fellini...