News

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Brooklyn Center for Theatre Research

My screening series Amnesiascope hosts the La Clef Revival Collective for a screening of Bye Bye Tiberias this Sunday.

Spectacle

Meanwhile, La Clef presents Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche’s Dernier Maquis on Saturday.

Anthology Film Archives

A Volker Spengler retrospective brings three films by Fassbinder while a Matías Piñeiro-curated series offers Antonioni and Straub-Huillet.

Nitehawk Cinema

A secret Hong Kong film plays on 35mm Sunday afternoon.

Museum of the Moving Image

Snubbed Forever concludes with The Lady from Shanghai and Vertigo.

IFC Center

Hideaki Anno’s Love & Pop plays in a new restoration; eXistenZ, Mulholland Dr., Paprika, Dogra Magra, and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas show late.

Roxy Cinema

Blue Velvet and Wild at Heart screen.

Film Forum

Play It As It Lays begins a week-long run; Godard’s A Woman Is a Woman continues...

Turns out you don’t have to be Irish to be lucky come March. That’s right, repertory cinemas from coast to coast will be raining down four-leaf clovers in the form of cinematic gems like “Matewan,” “The Watermelon Woman,” “The Cable Guy,” and many more. And we know what you’re thinking…you just got through slamming back Oscar film after Oscar film, maybe it’s time to take a little break from the movies. After all, spring’s around the corner — it might be nice to step outside for a bit, breathe in the fresh air.

Well, you’re wrong.

Fresh air is for people who can’t appreciate a random assortment of food scents and possibly carbon dioxide from a leaking soda machine tank. You’re of a different breed and as such, we know there’s no better place for you than the comfy cozy darkness of your local cinema.

Tom Tykwer’s “Das Licht” (The Light) opened Berlinale 2025 with the kind of divisiveness rarely seen in festival history. Echoes of boos resonated through the press screening, but one could almost sense an undercurrent of guilty applause. Perhaps this was fitting for a film so deeply entangled in the complexities of performative guilt, social justice satire, and white savior tropes. But “Das Licht” is no straightforward commentary. It’s an extravagant, muddled spectacle that walks a fine line between satire and sincerity, never quite deciding which path to follow.

Right from the opening sequence, the camera flying over Berlin, gives a scent of “Wings Of Desire.” But Tykwer’s ambition is different: a propulsive, ever-present score propels us through a rain-soaked Berlin, where the downpour is less a noirish atmosphere and more a visual metaphor for perpetual societal discontent. It is an unmistakably stylish film, brimming with visual flair and...

When Wim Wenders was readying to present a 4K restoration of his classic 1987 fantasy film Wings of Desire in November 2018 in New York City, Scott Derrickson had to be there.

The German auteur is not only “a filmmaking mentor and one of my closest friends,” but he’s also godfather to both of Derrickson’s sons, Atticus and Dashiel. When the former was born, Wenders was the first guest to visit the family in the hospital. It made sense that Atticus, 14 at the time, would join his director dad in leaving their home in Los Angeles’ Thousand Oaks neighborhood to board a plane bound for the East Coast to attend the presentation at New York’s Quad Cinema.

“Wim always had trouble with the color of the black-and-white balance — both on the VHS, certainly the DVD but also with the prints — and getting the proper tone for the footage, which was running a little sepia.

Remakes tend to make fans nervous more often than not, and James Gunn understands this very well. The director was responsible for helming the script of the Dawn of the Dead remake, which was directed by Zack Snyder. Owing to this, the Guardians of the Galaxy director opened up about how remakes make fans of the original cynical, and why he understands this sentiment pretty well.

James Gunn | image: Erik Drost, licensed under Cc By 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

While helming Dawn of the Dead, James Gunn talked about how a particular remake had him incredibly miffed, causing him to react exactly how a disgruntled fan would. This film was Nicolas Cage’s City of Angels, which was the remake of Wings of Desire.

James Gunn was still not over the Wings of Desire remake at the time of the interview Wings of Desire (dir. Wim Winders) || Argos Films

James Gunn...

Sites such as film discovery platform Letterboxd promote a new way of film-viewing, eschewing sneering gatekeepers for a more open-minded and eclectic experience

Amid all the dire news to come out of the movie business this year – a box office slump, a slowdown of production, growing unemployment in Hollywood, the closure of a dozen cinemas in the UK – good news seems to have come from the unlikeliest of places: cinephilia, pronounced “dead” by Susan Sontag in 1996, is alive and well and sporting a Mubi tote bag among the very demographic, 18- to 25-year-olds, whose gif-shortened attention spans are usually held up as spelling the death of the medium.

A recent Wim Wenders retrospective including Wings of Desire and The American Friend took £225,700 at the box office – more than double its distributor, Curzon, expected. A North American rerelease of Chen Kaige’s 1993 Palme d’Or winner Farewell My Concubine grossed $350,000. Even...

1922, 1979, and now 2024. The movie that was a legally distinct, non-copyright infringing version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has had an impact for over 100 years now. The 1922 version is the one that most people think of not only when the name Nosferatu is said, but when people discuss silent horror films in general. At the other end of the spectrum, we have one of the year’s most hotly anticipated horror films with Robert Eggers releasing only his 4th film on Christmas day that will be his own very unique take on the property. Lost in that shuffle is the 1979 version from famed German director Werner Herzog with his best friend/muse/psychopath actor Klaus Kinski. It isn’t talked about nearly as much and is unique and different enough from the first film that it deserves its own revisit.

The whole reason that 1922’s Nosferatu is the way that it is,...

Letterboxd is the perfect place for people passionate about cinema, including aspiring film reviewers and celebrities. One of the stars of the recently released series Fallout has just joined the Letterboxd community, and there are many other movie stars and filmmakers worth checking out on the platform. Known as the best place to find and recommend new movies, Letterboxd has become an integral element of the film community and the definitive social media for movie enthusiasts

Just like IMDb was in the late 2000s, Letterboxd's movie ratings have become a huge referential for unbiased consensus since the website comprises ratings regardless of whether the user is a wannabe critic or the lead editor of a major media platform. Letterboxd lets users follow and interact with each other through their reviews, create lists, sort their watchlists, and, most notoriously, share their findings, ratings, and opinions about movies from all over the world.

Andrea Arnold’s Bird (2024), a Mubi release, is now playing in theaters.Bird.I have good news for those seeking a posthuman perspective on the class system. Andrea Arnold’s Bird (2024) combines a story of economic hardship with one of delicate animal life and sublime metamorphosis. If that sounds silly or trite, it isn’t remotely. The film centers on Bailey (Nykiya Adams), an adolescent living in a poor part of Kent, on the south coast of England, and one of millions of British children forced to endure the worst repercussions of conservative austerity since 2010. Like the characters of Arnold’s other films, such as Mia (Katie Jarvis) in Fish Tank (2009) and Star (Sasha Lane) in American Honey (2016), Bailey is poor, lacking in parental guidance, and as such, both bold and self-destructive. On the face of it, Bailey’s life is one of little hope, but an encounter with the...

The European Film Academy is honoring German filmmaker Wim Wenders with the European Lifetime Achievement Award.

Wenders, who has been nominated for three Oscars and a Grammy, is known for works such as the Road Movie trilogy (1974-1976), Paris, Texas (1984), and Wings of Desire (1987).

“With this award, we celebrate Wim Wenders’ outstanding body of work which keeps exploring and experimenting with a curious eye and an open mind,” said Matthijs Wouter Knol, CEO and director of the European Film Academy. “As one of the founding members of the European Film Academy, its Chairman from 1990 until 1995 and President until 2020, Wim Wenders has a strong connection to the European Film Academy and we’re additionally happy to also celebrate his outstanding commitment and say thank you.”

Wenders began his career as a film critic for various German publications, and was later a founding member of film distributor Filmverlag der Autoren.

In 1975, he...

German director Wim Wenders is to receive the European Film Academy’s lifetime achievement award at this year’s European Film Awards.

A founding member and president of the European Film Academy from 1996 to 2020, Wender’s films have received multiple awards including a Palme d’Or and Bafta for 1984’s Paris, Texas and a Golden Lion for 1982’s The State of Things.

He has won a European Film Award three times for 1988’s Wings of Desire, 1999’s Buena Vista Social Club and 2011’s Pina. His 2000 film Million Dollar Hotel won a Berlinale Silver Bear.

Three of his documentaries - Buena Vista Social Club,...

Rtl Deutschland Lands “Huge” Zdf Streaming Package

German broadcaster Rtl Deutschland has secured a “huge” package of series to stream from compatriot Zdf Studios. The deal comprises nearly 1,000 episodes, giving Rtl+ a bump to its offer from September 15. Zdf shows such as Wilsberg, Der Bergdoktor and Das Traumschiff are included. “As a leading German private broadcaster and streaming service, we want to be the first port of call for all partners in Germany,” said Rtl Deutschland COO Andreas Fischer. “That’s why we are very pleased that we have now been able to agree a new licensing deal with Zdf Studios.” Unscripted series such as Wilsberg and Nord Nord Mord will launch mid-September before dramas such as Der Bergdoktor, Die Bergretter and Bettys Diagnose will follow a month later on October 15. Family-friendly fare including Das Traumschiff, Ich Heirate eine Familiey and Die Schwarzwald-Klinik round off the package on November 15. “We...

After directing two features last year with Perfect Days and Anselm, there’s no better time to revisit Wim Wenders’ crowning achievement. His serene 1984 Palme d’Or winner Paris, Texas has been restored in 4K for its 40th anniversary and will now open in theaters beginning August 30 at NYC’s IFC Center, courtesy of Janus Films. Written by Sam Shepard, shot by Robby Müller, and starring Harry Dean Stanton, Nastassja Kinski, and Dean Stockwell, the new trailer and poster has now arrived ahead of the theatrical rerelease.

Here’s the synopsis: “New German Cinema pioneer Wim Wenders (Wings of Desire) brings his keen eye for landscape to the American Southwest in Paris, Texas, a profoundly moving character study written by Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright Sam Shepard. Paris, Texas follows the mysterious, nearly mute drifter Travis as he tries to reconnect with his young son, living with his brother (Dean Stockwell) in Los Angeles,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks to filmmaker Gabriel Foster Prior about his sci-fi comedy The Bystanders starring Seann Walsh and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life,” which includes:

London To Brighton (2006) Wings Of Desire (1987) Waking Life (2001)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

The Bystanders is out now and available to stream and download on the major platforms

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Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days suggests a kind of spring cleaning for the German filmmaker. The elaborate concepts and charged iconographies of The American Friend, Paris, Texas, and Wings of Desire are nowhere to be seen here. Wenders aims for simplicity with Perfect Days, following a middle-aged man, Hirayama (Yakusho Kôji), as he goes about his day cleaning Tokyo’s toilets, taking pictures of trees, listening to classic rock and pop, reading classic literature, and savoring the humble sources of day-to-day affirmation that we tend to take for granted.

Hirayama’s humility is the gauntlet that Wenders has thrown down for himself. Perfect Days wants to be an invitingly human movie that homes in intensely on the little moments of a man’s life so as to unearth universal truths. There’s a bit of Vittorio de Sica’s micro-texture-minded sensibility swimming around in it, and the impression that Wenders...

One conversation around “Hit Man,” our movie contender to watch this week, is mostly about how it should have gotten a legitimate theatrical release and not been a streamer play for Netflix, where its impact will likely be lessened. It’s supposed to be a star turn for Glen Powell, and the type of charisma-driven indie-ish romantic comedy/thriller that people say they wish there were more of in theaters.

But what about the movie itself? Well, it’s a darkly funny based-on-a-true-story charmer, with Powell playing a mild-mannered man who has a gig posing as a hitman to entrap people in murder-for-hire plots for the police. But things get complicated when he falls in love with a “client” (Adria Arjona) who hires him to off her abusive husband. Powell is a long-shot contender for Best Actor and Best Adapted Screenplay (with director Richard Linklater), but even if this ends...

Wim Wenders is the quirky German filmmaker responsible for gems like The American Friend, Paris, Texas, and Wings of Desire. He's a genuine auteur who is also adept at photography and documentary-making. Wenders got his start in the late '60s and made his feature film debut in 1970; nowadays, he is still at it, releasing his most recent movie, the drama Perfect Days, just last year.

Two for One returns to TCM with a brand new episode on Saturday June 8, featuring David Byrne presenting two films: A Matter of Life and Death (1946) and Wings of Desire (1987). In this episode, David Byrne, the iconic musician and creative force behind Talking Heads, steps into the spotlight as a film curator. […]

Two for One: David Byrne – A Matter of Life and Death (1946) & Wings of Desire (1987)...

If you’re quirk-averse, you might be immediately put off by a cursory description of Daina Oniunas-Pusić’s debut feature, Tuesday, in which Julia Louis-Dreyfus confronts death in the form of a shape-shifting, talking macaw. But from the distressing and immersive opening scenes, it’s clear Tuesday is an unsettling and bold vision that rewards a viewer willing to sit through some flaws (and some cringe).

In the opening sequence (reminiscent of both Enter the Void and Wings of Desire) the Macaw (voiced and performed on set by Arinze Kene) appears to a handful of poor souls on the edge of death after hearing their pleas over an oppressive din. He ends their lives with the wave of a mangey, heavy wing. The Macaw’s eyes are clouded, and he moves from a parking lot to a living room to an alley with a weary inexorability that is, frankly, frightening.

German Films celebrated its 70th anniversary at Cannes on Sunday, with its guests looking back but also looking forward.

“It has gotten much better,” Managing Director Simone Baumann told Variety at the event.

“We’ve had Oscar-winning ‘All Quiet on the Western Front,’ Oscar-nominated ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ [for best international feature], films by Wim Wenders and with Sandra Hüller! Sure, Wim showed a Japanese movie and Sandra a French one [‘Perfect Days’ and ‘Anatomy of a Fall’], but it doesn’t matter: It’s more ‘mixed’ these days and I am proud of it, to be honest.”

At Cannes, 14 German productions and co-productions have been selected this year, including Match Factory’s main competition offerings “Motel Destino” by Karim Aïnouz – who also attended the bash – and Miguel Gomes’ “Grand Tour.” Run Way Pictures is behind Mohammad Rasoulof’s anticipated “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”

As festivals get “more competitive,” underlines Baumann, international collabs are here to stay.

This year’s Cannes competition began with a film set in a working-class environment where a young woman with a single mother dreamed of escaping it all through dance. It was Agathe Riedinger’s Wild Diamond, but squint the eyes and forget the sunny coastal scenery and you could have been watching Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank, a winner of the jury prize here fifteen years ago. Arnold now returns to the Croisette with Bird, remarkably just her third narrative film since and her closest to it, in many ways––up-and-coming stars next to non-professional actors, kitchen-sink realism, great music, sketchy dudes––although this time with Franz Rogowski playing a queer-coded Mary Poppins who might be a seagull.

Bird stars Nykiya Adams as Bailey, a young girl living with her father, Bug (a tattooed Barry Keoghan in a touching performance), in a free-spirited community house in a British coastal town.

Three features into his filmmaking career, it’s evident that director Tyler Taormina loves faces — though not in the way of Bergman or Cassavetes. Unlike those art house paragons, he doesn’t isolate his characters in order to peer intently into their souls. He collects faces by the dozen and dreams up crowded tableaus.

His debut film, Ham on Rye, presented a mysterious and unsettling teen ritual in which the faces never connected to conventional stories. Five years later, Taormina is still inspired by group dynamics, and he’s still experimenting with the fusion of aesthetics and storytelling, but this time on more familiar terrain. Veering at times into sensory overload as it reconfigures the holiday-gathering template, Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point can feel like a party that refuses to end, one that could have used some judicious streamlining. But it’s a memorably adventurous party, fueled by intense hopefulness,...

Angel Heart: Sauvaire Serves Savior Complex in Ems Thriller

“It’s easier with wings than without,” was the tagline for Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings of Desire, which could easily have been borrowed for Jean-Stéphane Sauvaire’s fourth feature, Asphalt City. Based on the 2008 novel by Shannon Burke, Ben Mac Brown and Ryan King, both making their screenwriting debut, make the rookie mistake of not trusting their audience well enough to discern its key themes and motifs. Filled with fascinating characters and a handful of intense altercations, it’s a pity to see such a promising character study of how good intentions often lead to dark consequences hobbled significantly by such discernible handholding.…...

Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.

After Blue (Bertrand Mandico)

In the post-apocalyptic nightmare of After Blue, humanity—or what’s left of it—roams a former paradise turned wasteland. The Armageddon that wrecked the Earth in some undetermined past left no machines behind, no screens, and, perhaps most conspicuously, no men. In the distant planet the human race fled to, and which writer-director Bertrand Mandico’s film is named after, “they were the first to die,” we’re warned early on: “their hairs grew inside them, and killed them.” As it was for its predecessor, The Wild Boys, After Blue is suffused in a feverish ecstasy, that wild excitement that comes from a watching one world crumble and another jutting into being from scratch, a vision of...

Finally, the end is in sight. The 96th Academy Awards are just around the corner on March 10 after six months of film festivals, critics’ honors and major awards. So, it’s the perfect time of offer up some fun Oscar facts and tidbits of awards long past as well as the present.

It’s hard to escape all the news reports and late-night pundits discussing the fact that the nominees for President this year are elderly. Joe Biden is 82; Donald Trump is 77 but will be 78 by the time of the election. Let’s face it, Washington, D.C. has become “No District for Old Men.”

But do you know which best director Oscar nominee is in his 80s? Martin Scorsese. He’s 81 and still on the top of his game earning his 10th nomination for best director for “Killers of the Flower Moon.” But instead of being a punchline on late night TV,...

In his latest podcast/interview, host and screenwriter Stuart Wright talks with film producer Christine Hartland about My Smash Media – the online resource that aims to turn new talent into market savvy content creators and make it easier for them to connect with decision-makers; and “3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life”, which include:

Angel Heart (1987) Betty Blue (1986) Wings Of Desire (1987)

“3 Films That Have Impacted Everything In Your Adult Life” is about those films that made you fall in love with film. The guest selects their trio of movies and we talk for 5 minutes, against the clock. When the alarm goes off for five minutes we move on to the next film.

Powered by RedCircle...

Wim Wenders’ “Perfect Days,” which is nominated for best international feature film at the Oscars, has smashed the all-time global box office record set by the German director’s previous films. While it has yet to be released in all territories, “Perfect Days” has amassed a worldwide box office total of $24.3 million as of Feb. 18, according to Comscore.

Among his previous films, “Paris, Texas” earned $2.26 million, “Wings of Desire” took $3.5 million, “Pina” took $18.7 million, and “Buena Vista Social Club” grossed $23.1 million, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

“Perfect Days” premiered in competition at Cannes Film Festival where Koji Yakusho, who plays a restroom cleaner in Tokyo, won the best actor prize. The Match Factory sold the film to all territories worldwide.

Neon released the film in the U.S. on Feb. 7, earning $497,787 after its second weekend. “Perfect Days” opened in Germany on Dec. 21 through Dcm with 3.6 million Euros ($3.87 million) so far.

The foundation of German director Wim Wenders has struck a deal with sales agent Salaud Morisset to handle theatrical, festival and non-commercial distribution rights for his catalog of 25 films for all unsold territories worldwide.

Wenders’ latest film, “Perfect Days,” is nominated for the international Oscar.

The deal with Wim Wenders Stiftung covers 17 feature films, four feature documentaries and seven short films, including “Kings of the Road” (1976), “The American Friend” (1977), “Paris, Texas” (1984), “Wings of Desire” (1987) and “Buena Vista Social Club” (1999).

Commercial rights to the Wenders catalog are handled by Hanway Films, a lifetime partner of Wenders and the foundation.

Salaud Morisset, which is led by François Morisset, will work with the director’s foundation to “ensure the sustained relevance and preservation of [his] body of work while reaching a global audience,” the company stated. “The company plans to approach each territory with a specific strategy, actively working on special screening series and retrospectives.

Noted Hollywood publicist Mickey Cottrell passed away on January 1, 2024, at the age of 79. He was known throughout the 1990s for his advocacy of independent film, his knowledge of queer history, and his wild blowout parties. He promoted films like Jonatha Couette's "Tarnation," Wim Wenders' "Wings of Desire," and Philip Noyce's "Dead Calm," as well as "Weekend," "Querelle," and "Earth Girls Are Easy." 

Cottrell was so well-liked in the industry, and such an outsize character, that he would occasionally appear in films. In fact, he has several dozen acting credits to his name, many of them in indie queer films. He played a corpse in John Cameron Mitchell's "Shortbus," a barfly in "The Fluffer," and a mincing French aristocrat in league with demons in "Hellraiser: Bloodline." He was also the one who got to say "Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!" in Tim Burton's "Ed Wood." His first acting...

You may know Kōji Yakusho as the oyster-slurping mystery man from the noodle-Western extraordinaire Tampopo (1985). Perhaps you remember him as the depressed suburbanite who ballroom dances his blues away in the international feel-good hit Shall We Dance? (1996). He’s the reformed felon in the Cannes-winning character study The Eel (1997), a former muse to filmmaker Kiyoshi Kurosawa in the late Nineties and early aughts, the familiar face who graced Hollywood fare like Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and Babel (2006), and — if you’ve followed his 40-plus years as a major figure in...

The big surprise on the runway of Yohji Yamamoto’s Fall Winter 2024 men’s collection in Paris was the appearance of Wim Wenders. The 78-year-old German filmmaker, currently enjoying box office success in Europe with Perfect Days, walked the runway wearing classic pieces in the fashion house’s style of layering and varying lengths.

Yamamoto’s connection to Wenders dates back to 1989, when the director of Wings of Desire made a documentary about the founder of the Japanese brand called Notebook on Cities and Clothes.

“We became close like brothers a long time ago. We share the same memory from when we were very young — the Tokyo and Berlin bombings,” the fashion designer stressed backstage at the event inside Yamamoto’s European headquarters on Rue Saint-Martin, in the heart of Les Halles.

The soundtrack featured famous songs such as Radiohead’s “Creep,” Dua Lipa’s “Levitating” and Johnny Cash’s “The Little Drummer Boy,...

We’re happy to report that after five days, all of our New Years Resolutions are still intact. Except for the one about doing 20 minutes of yoga in the morning. Impossible. And the one about not eating the entire bag of potato chips in one sitting. Yeah, nah. Oh! We also didn’t stop doomscrolling, smoking or clipping our toenails at the gym. But other than that? Perfectly on track. And while there are still two long months of awards season left to endure enjoy, the New Year has brought a bountiful crop of Don’t-Miss Indies.

The Lady Bird Diaries

When You Can Watch: Now

Where You Can Watch: Hulu

Director: Dawn Porter

Why We’re Excited: Acclaimed documentarian Dawn Porter’s moving new documentary offers a singular vantage point on of the most important administrations in US history, based on 123 hours of former First Lady Claudia “Lady Bird” Johnson’s own audio diaries.

The American Cinematheque has programmed a retrospective to celebrate the work of three-time Oscar nominee Wim Wenders ahead of the Feb. 7 nationwide release of his latest film “Perfect Days,” Neon announced.

The retrospective screenings and in-person Q&As will begin on Jan. 11 at the Aero Theatre with a double feature of “Perfect Days” and “Tokyo-Ga” at 7:30 p.m. There will be a Q&a segment with the director in between the films. Tickets will go on sale on Thursday on the American Cinematheque website.

Shortlisted for best international film, “Perfect Days” is the Japanese submission for the 2024 Oscars. The film was awarded the prize of the ecumenial jury and the best actor award for Koji Yakusho at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. Yakusho also executive produces the film, with Koji Yanai, Wenders and co-writer Takuma Takasaki producing it. Prior to its nationwide release, the film was released in limited theaters on Nov.

Mickey Cottrell, a veteran publicist for independent films known as a champion of filmmakers and actors, died Monday at the Motion Picture Hospital in Woodland Hills, his sister Suzy Cottrell confirmed. He was 79.

Cottrell had returned to Los Angeles in 2019 after living with his sister in Arkansas while he recovered from a stroke he suffered in 2016.

His sister remembered him on Facebook, writing, “My adorable, fun, critical, foodie, particular, brilliant, loving brother passed on to the next life early on New Year’s Day. He was smiling when he died. Mickey Cottrell will be missed by many.”

A fixture at film festivals, he was remembered by friends on Facebook as a generous and sassy raconteur, a devoted mentor, the “life of the party” who threw star-studded Sundance parties in the 1990s and an expert on gay Hollywood history.

Cottrell also acted in numerous small roles over the years, including turns...

Brad Silberling's 1998 romance "City of Angels," a remake of Wim Wenders' indispensable 1987 film "Wings of Desire," stars Nicolas Cage as an immortal angel named Seth who gently breezes around Los Angeles, unseen by the people who live there. He appears to people only when they die, accompanying them to the afterworld. Observing humans as if they are an ineffable alien species, Seth becomes particularly enamored of an ambitious and compassionate young doctor named Maggie Rice. Seth finds that he might be experiencing love for the first time, and becomes visible to Dr. Rice, courting her and asking her deep questions about what it means to be human. Seth eventually chooses to transform into a human, sacrificing his immortality in order to be with his beloved. 

What both Wenders and Silberling communicate with aplomb is how inhuman angels are. They live among humans but only interact when the humans die.

A meditation on the work of German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, Wim Wenders’ concise, spare 3D documentary Anselm allows us to spend time in the presence of the artist and man. Both born in 1945, Wenders and Kiefer share much of the same DNA as creators who tackle the history of a divided country traumatized and silenced. For Wenders, a global filmmaker whose other new picture this year, the fantastic Perfect Days, was made in Japan, Anselm is a thoughtful, contemplative return to some of the themes explored in his seminal Wings of Desire.

Anselm gravitates between past and present, the result splitting the difference between the kind of experimental film one might find at TIFF Wavelengths––a slow meditation on landscape, surfaces, space, and performative moments––and a quick biographical sketch produced for an art museum retrospective. Shot by Franz Lustig in 6K 3D, the film deserves to be...

Neon has released the official trailer for Perfect Days, the latest film from acclaimed director Wim Wenders, featuring four interconnected short stories led by Kōji Yakusho. Perfect Days premiered at Cannes and received positive reviews, earning the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Best Actor Award for Kōji Yakusho. It is Japan's entry for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars. Wenders, known for his visually stunning films, directs Perfect Days, which will be released in German theaters in December, followed by a release in Japan and the US in early 2024.

Neon has unveiled the official trailer for Perfect Days, the latest feature from auteur Wim Wenders. The drama uses vignettes led by Kōji Yakusho, who stars as a public toilet cleaner named Hirayama, to tell a simple and beautiful story about life. The trailer, set to Lou Reed's "Perfect Day," follows Hirayama through what starts as a typical day.

Mick Harvey on The Boys Next Door with Tracy Pew, Phill Calvert, Rowland S Howard and Nick Cave, and the group name change before going to London: “We had some discussions and we came up with The Birthday Party.”

In the first instalment with Mick Harvey we started out discussing his appearance in Wim Wenders’ Wings Of Desire as a member of Bad Seeds and Crime and the City Solution; Wenders’ latest films, Anselm (Anselm - Das Rauschen der Zeit on Anselm Kiefer) and Perfect Days (Japan’s Oscar submission); Pj Harvey, and Mick’s take on translating and recording four albums of Serge Gainsbourg songs in English, and Jane Birkin (performing at the French Institute Alliance Française in New York).

Mick Harvey with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze on William Friedkin’s The Birthday Party film (screenplay by Harold Pinter) and the name change: “We thought, yeah, that’s good.

This year’s AFI Fest is back in full glory, featuring a rich lineup of critical favorites plus a slate of five films curated by guest artistic director Greta Gerwig, whose latest film, “Barbie” has grossed $1.4 billion.

Returning to Hollywood’s Tcl Chinese Theatre and screening films from October 25-29, the event will feature Gerwig’s curated list of films: “All That Jazz,” “An American in Paris,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure” and “Wings of Desire.” AFI Fest will also screen the U.S. premiere of “Lee,” starring Academy Award-winner Kate Winslet, who is a producer on the project as well. The biopic follows the life of Lee Miller, a wartime photographer who documented the Dachau and Buchenwald concentration camps, London Blitz and liberation of Paris during WW II.

“I think AFI Fest and all film festivals are monuments to the inspirational power of film, the healing restorative power of film,...

Wim Wenders has had a very good year, earning strong reviews out of Cannes for “Perfect Days” before the film was selected as Japan’s official Oscar submission. But despite his recent success, the “Paris, Texas” and “Wings of Desire” director is deeply concerned about cinema’s future.

In a press conference at the Lumiere Film Festival (via Variety), Wenders expressed his support for the recently concluded Writers Guild of America strike and the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike. He explained that artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to art that can only be avoided by keeping humans involved in the creative process.

“Actors and screenwriters are afraid of becoming obsolete,” Wenders said. “With AI everything gets done very fast. You give three ideas and a few ideas and the next day you have a new script that many studio executives will want to use because that’s what they wanted. For...

US premiere of Kate Winslet starrer Lee added to selection.

AFI Fest guest artistic director Greta Gerwig has revealed her five selections ahead of the Hollywood event running October 25-29.

Gerwig, whose Barbie ranks as the highest global release of the year to date on $1.43bn, has curated All That Jazz, An American In Paris, A Matter Of Life And Death, Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure, and Wings Of Desire.

Separately the festival announced on Tuesday that it has set an October 28 US premiere for Ellen Kuras’ Lee starring Kate Winslet as Lee Miller, the model turned war correspondent whose images of the Blitz,...

In months leading up to her billion-dollar Mattel success “Barbie,” Greta Gerwig famously revealed some of the film influences behind her work. Now, the practice is set to continue in her role as guest artistic director for the 2023 AFI Fest, which takes place in Los Angeles Oct. 25–29.

The Oscar-nominated writer-director revealed Tuesday the five films that are going to be part of her specially curated festival sidebar: Tim Burton’s “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” Bob Fosse’s “All That Jazz,” Emeric Pressburger and Michael Powell’s “A Matter of Life and Death,” Vincente Minnelli’s “An American in Paris” and Wim Wenders’ “Wings of Desire.”

Gerwig will introduce select films herself, notably “Pee-wee’s Big Adventure,” which screens at the Tcl Chinese Theatre on Oct. 26 at 6 p.m., two months after the death of its star and cowriter Paul Reubens.

Additionally, AFI Fest has added a few new titles to the lineup,...

Writer-director Eddie Alcazar has undoubtedly infused Divinity with a distinctive look—so much so that the story’s attempt at an excoriation of spectacle and empty pleasure comes off as little more than a reluctant swipe. The style, dialed up from minute one, grows monotonous, all the more so since the film treats substance as an afterthought.

Divinity is a science-fiction tale of the cautionary, finger-wagging variety. In what seems like an alternate version of the 1990s, an aging, laughably naïve scientist (Scott Bakula) aspires to better the world and take the place of God by developing an immortality drug. But the man dies before he can begin testing on humans, and his son, Jaxxon (Stephen Dorff), takes over the family business. Displaying none of his father’s qualms when it comes to harvesting fetal tissue, Jaxxon puts the drug on the market. And as promised by a salvo of pornographic TV commercials,...

The Barbie phenomenon is spreading to AFI Fest.

Greta Gerwig, who directed and co-wrote the billion dollar blockbuster starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, has been tapped to serve as guest artistic director of the Los Angeles-based festival. In the role, Gerwig will curate a number of films to add to the festival lineup and will be on hand to present one or more of those films depending on her schedule. Filmmakers like Pedro Almodóvar, Bernardo Bertolucci, Ava DuVernay, David Lynch and Agnès Varda have held the role in previous festivals.

On Oct. 10, AFI revealed the list of films Gerwig has selected. Those five films include Bob Fosse’s All That Jazz starring Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange and Ann Reinking, Vincente Minnelli’s An American in Paris starring Gene Kelly, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death, Tim Burton’s Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure starring the...

The 61st New York Film Festival kicks off Sept. 29 with Todd Haynes’ drama “May December” starring Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman. Sofia Coppola’s well-received Venice hit “Priscilla” about Priscilla Presley is the fest’s Centerpiece. Michael Mann’s biopic “Ferrari” with Adam Driver and Penelope Cruz the closing night feature while Bradley Cooper’s portrait of composer/conductor Leonard Bernstein “Maestro,” which had a seven-minute standing ovation in Venice, is the festival’s spotlight gala. Other films screening include Yorgos Lanthimos “Poor Things,” which won the Golden Lion and best actress for Emma Stone at Venice, as well as Andrew Haigh’s “All of us Strangers” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”

A director came into his own 50 years ago at the New York Film Festival: Martin Scorsese. He’s of cinema’s greatest directors, who has made such landmark films as ‘Taxi Driver,” “Raging Bull,” Goodfellas,...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSMe and You and Everyone We Know.The Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, and have voted to end the strike as of 12:01 a.m. Pt this morning. A summary of the agreement is available here. Before the details were released, the WGA negotiating committee had this to say in a statement: "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership." The WGA has also encouraged their members to support SAG-AFTRA's ongoing picket line.A new novel from Miranda July is due out in May of next year: All Fours follows an artist in the throes of a midlife crisis and a messy divorce. While driving...

It’s the year of color/black-and-white hybrid films, led by such Best Cinematography Oscar contenders shot on Kodak film as “Oppenheimer” (Universal), “Poor Things” (Searchlight), “Asteroid City” (Focus Features), and “Maestro” (Netflix). In addition, there are two other contenders of interest: “The Zone of Interest” (A24) contains a series of striking monochromatic moments, while the black-and-white “El Conde” (Netflix) offers a lone color sequence.

They are part of a great stylistic tradition of intermingling color and black-and-white to evoke heightened states of mind in such films as “The Wizard of Oz,” “A Matter of Life and Death,” “Bonjour Tristesse,” “Wings of Desire,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers,” and “Pleasantville.” It can be real or imaginary, but the aesthetic differences help drive the narratives.

By contrast, “A Haunting in Venice” (20th Century), shot by Kenneth Branaugh’s go-to cinematographer, Haris Zambarloukos, utilizes conventional black-and-white flashbacks to recap a mysterious murder. This...

Wim Wenders’s Perfect Days suggests a kind of cinematic spring cleaning for the filmmaker. Gone are the elaborate concepts and freighted iconography of The American Friend and Paris, Texas and Wings of Desire, not to mention of the vastly less impactful fictional films that he’s released in the intervening years. Wenders aims for simplicity here, following a middle-aged man, Hirayama (Yakusho Kôji), as he goes about his day cleaning Tokyo’s toilets, taking pictures of trees, listening to American rock, reading classic literature, and savoring the humble sources of day-to-day affirmation that we tend to take for granted.

Hirayama’s humility is the gauntlet that Wenders has thrown down for himself. Perfect Days wants to be an invitingly human movie that homes in intensely on the little moments of a man’s life so as to unearth universal truths. There’s a bit of Vittorio de Sica’s...

An early scene in the small-scale and adventurous Tuesday reveals that Zora, the single mom played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus, knows how to bargain. That’s good, because soon she’ll be bargaining with Death. And it’s especially good to see this gifted actor channel her brilliant knack for comic neurosis into dark, weird territory that’s steeped in grief and its seven stages.

Daina O. Pusić, a London-based writer-director who hails from Croatia, takes a courageous leap into allegory and performance-based animation with her first feature-length film. Tuesday, named for Zora’s dying teenage daughter (Lola Petticrew), is a straightforward, uncluttered fusion of mother-child drama and magic realism. In what is essentially a three-hander, Death is a world-weary macaw who can shrink and grow effortlessly, an outstanding VFX creation voiced with engaging seriousness and heart by Arinzé Kene (I’m Your Woman).

With a nod to the indelible modern classic Wings of Desire,...

Marks the first time Japan has submitted a film by a non-Japanese director.

Japan has submitted Perfect Days by German filmmaker Wim Wenders for the best international feature film category at the 96th Academy Awards.

It represents the first time that Japan has selected a non-Japanese director in more than 70 years of submissions to the Oscars.

The Motion Picture Producers Association of Japan chose the title from eight features, which is understood to have included strong contender The Boy And The Heron, likely the last feature of iconic animation filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, whose Spirited Away won best animated feature at...