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Must See Unconventional Dog Movies: Researchers would list out a lot of benefits of dog ownership/companionship. I mean sometimes one’s profound sadness can vaporize when looking at the strangely appealing eyes and long drooping ears of a dog. The way your canine pal scurries away when you are angry, or the way it dashes around in little circles vying for your attention, or the look it gives you when its forelegs are on the ground and head resting between them, dogs are the picture of unconditional love and adoration. The limited lifespan of a pet dog also teaches us a thing or two about death and grief.

Stories of dog ownership in cinema tend to mostly lurch toward the cute and cuddly. Of course, we need movies like “Old Yeller” (1957) or “Marley & Me” (2008) where our furry friends are at the center of ceaseless heart-warming entertainment. But the...

From statues that weep blood to dancing suns that lead to sudden darkness in the middle of the day, the Catholic faith overflows with accounts of miracles. But in order for a miracle to be deemed as such, it must go through a series of rigorous examinations during which the vast majority of occurences are debunked. The pious Rita López (Mónica Villa), the protagonist of Tomás Gómez Bustillo’s Chronicles of a Wandering Saint, spends her days seeking to be of service in her local church, but realizes nothing will pave her path to heaven faster than coming up with her own miracle––hence she enlists her husband Norberto (Horacio Marassi) in the restoration of a statue that might have mystical powers.

In his feature-length debut, Gómez Bustillo creates a world in which the mundane and divine are partners in a waltz that goes from sublime to absurd. With loving irreverence,...

A self-portrait and cinematic essay, Leos Carax’s “It’s Not Me” is perhaps the most accurate impression of a late-era Jean-Luc Godard experiment anyone has ever attempted. From Carax’s raspy voiceover to his jaggedly assembled combination of archival footage and absurd original snippets, the 41-minute short probes a variety of personal and political subjects, but it never quite beats with the furious heart and provocative spirit of Godard’s twilight era.

The project was conceived as part of a museum exhibition on Carax for Paris’ Centre Pompidou, but the prompt posed to him in the form of a question — “Where are you at, Leos Carax?” — appears to have led the enigmatic filmmaker on a confounding quest of self-discovery. The exhibit would never come to fruition, but Carax’s inquiry into his work, his lifelong influences and cinema at-large has yielded an occasionally fascinating collage. The film not only ponders Carax’s past,...

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival has announced its all-star lineup of jurors to decide this year’s Palme d’Or.

As previously announced, “Barbie” director Greta Gerwig will serve as jury president. Fellow recent Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone is part of the jury, as well as writer/director J.A. Bayona, Eva Green, Omar Sy, Pierfrancisco Favino, director Kore-eda Hirokazu, screenwriter Nadine Labaki, and screenwriter and photographer Ebru Ceylan.

The 2024 Cannes Film Festival will take place May 14-25. The jury will have the honor of awarding the Palme d’Or to one of the 22 films in competition, with contenders including Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Sean Baker’s “Anora,” David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds,” Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness,” and Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada.”

New films from Paolo Sorrentino (“Parthenope”), Mohammad Rasoulof (“The Seed of the Sacred Fig”), Karim Aïnouz (“Motel Destino”), and Andrea Arnold (“Bird”) are also debuting in competition.

Canadian actor and filmmaker Xavier Dolan will be joined on this year’s Un Certain Regard Jury by French-Senegalese filmmaker Maïmouna Doucouré, Moroccan director Asmae El Moudir, German-Luxembourg actress Vicky Krieps, and American film critic and writer Todd McCarthy.

The jury will be in charge of awarding prizes for the Un Certain Regard sidebar. This year, 18 films have been selected, including eight first features. The 2023 Un Certain Regard top prize went to director Molly Manning Walker’s debut feature How to Have Sex. When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Un Certain Regard section on May 15.

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards. He followed up that film with the 2010 romantic drama Heartbeats, which brought him into the Un Certain Regard section...

Chicago – Objects are about to leap from the screen starting Friday, April 5th, and running through Thursday, April 11th, 2024. Chicago’s historic Music Box Theatre will be the setting for “Triple Threat! A 3-D Series,” a showcase of old and contemporary 3-D films presented in a new digital 3-D system that has to be experienced to be believed. If you’re a fan of 3-D, this is the new frontier. For details, showtimes and ticket information, click 3Rd Dimension.

The Music Box Theatre just installed a brand-new Digital 3D system and are launching this week-long series showcasing the magic of 3D cinema, from contemporary animation (Toy Story 3), auteur cinema, Hollywood classics, horror and sci-fi, and the unclassifiable (Jackass 3D). We even threw some Three Stooges in the mix.

At Chicago’s Music Box Theatre

Photo credit: MusicBoxTheater.com

Manufactured by XpanD, the 3-D system now at the Music Box...

Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan is officially the 2024 Cannes Film Festival Un Certain Regard jury president. Dolan, who is a self-taught writer/director, made his feature debut at age 19 with “I Killed My Mother” based on his original short story. The film was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

His work has repeatedly been featured at Cannes ever since Dolan’s 2010 sophomore feature “Heartbeats” marked his first entrance in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard program.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” Dolan said in a statement. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the...

Xavier Dolan, the Canadian filmmaker who rose through the ranks at Cannes with films like the Jury Prize winner Mommy, has been named President of the Un Certain Regard Jury, celebrating emerging talent, for the 77th edition of the festival, taking place this summer.

“I am humbled and delighted to return to Cannes as President of the Un Certain Regard Jury,” said Dolan. “Even more than making films myself, discovering the work of talented filmmakers has always been at the very heart of both my personal and professional journeys. I see, in this responsibility I’m assigned, the opportunity to focus with the members of the Un Certain Regard Jury on an essential aspect of the art of film : stories told truthfully.”

A self-taught filmmaker, Dolan made his feature directorial debut at 19 with I Killed My Mother, an adaptation of his own short story, which was chosen to represent Canada at the Academy Awards.

When thinking of the best French movies of the 21st century, there are some titles that leap to mind immediately, even if the past 23 years haven’t appeared to be as creatively fecund as the heady heights of the New Wave period. Celine Sciamma, François Ozon, Bruno Dumont, and Julia Ducournau have all produced stunning, instantly canonical works. But what’s interesting is to consider how expansive the idea of “Frenchness” in cinema has been this century: on the list below, Austrian Michael Haneke, Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, and American Julian Schnabel appear, with the main criterion for inclusion being simply the use of the French language.

Their inclusion does call into question a bit the idea of national cinemas. And yet, even in this highly interconnected, global 21st century, France singularly remains one of the medium’s most essential guiding lights. From the pioneer era of the Lumiere brothers to...

Kino Lorber has bought all North American distribution rights to Jean-Luc Godard’s final short film “Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars.” The 20-minute short played at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and will next screen at Toronto and New York film festivals.

Kino Lorber is planning a theatrical roll out for the title this fall, followed by a run at New York’s Film Forum in December, alongside Cyril Leuthy’s documentary “Godard Cinema.”

“Trailer of a Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars” was meant to be a feature film project but Godard died a year ago, at the age of 93, before finishing it. Godard had envisioned a complex mixed-media collage of history, politics and cinema through ideas, references and visuals.

Kino Lorber’s library already boasts several iconic films by Godard, including New Wave classics “A Married Woman,” “Alphaville,” and “La Chinoise,...

The Cannes Film Festival will pay tribute to iconic late director Jean-Luc Godard, following his death last September, with a trio of works in its Cannes Classic cinema heritage line-up.

A highlight of the homage to Godard, who died last year at 91, will be the world premiere of the 20-minute trailer he created for a film that will never get made: ‘Drôles de Guerres (Phoney Wars).

The 20-minute work is billed as A Saint Laurent by Anthony Vaccarello and Vixens production, in coproduction with L’Atelier.

“Jean-Luc Godard often transformed his synopses into aesthetic programs. Phoney Wars follows in this tradition and will remain as the ultimate gesture of cinema,” said the festival.

It quoted the text that accompanies the short work to give an indication of the director’s intention. It reads: “To no longer trust the billions of diktats of the alphabet to give back freedom to the incessant...

Nearly a decade after its debut in competition at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where it premiered alongside the likes of Goodbye to Language, Winter Sleep, Clouds of Sils Maria, Maps to the Stars, and Two Days, One Night, Naomi Kawase’s drama Still the Water is getting a North American home courtesy of Film Movement. Ahead of a March 3 digital release, we’re exclusively debuting the new trailer for the film starring Nijirô Murakami, Junko Abe, Miyuki Matsuda, Tetta Sugimoto, and Makiko Watanabe.

On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, traditions about nature remain eternal. Following a typhoon and during the full-moon night of traditional dances in August, 16-year-old Kaito (Nijirô Murakami) discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend, Kyoko (Junko Abe), will attempt to help him understand this mysterious discovery. Together, Kaito and Kyoko will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life,...

Jake Sully (voiced by Sam Worthington) riding the Great Leonopteryx Toruk in James Cameron’s Avatar Photo: Twentieth Century Fox It’s somehow become a meme in the popular consciousness that Avatar, the highest-grossing movie of all time worldwide, is remembered by nobody, had no lasting impact on pop culture,...

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.

Aniara (Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja)

The title shares its name with a city-size spacecraft ferrying humans from Earth to Mars in barely three weeks. It’s a routine trip that’s never run into problems with many passengers already having family on the red planet to greet them upon arrival. But there’s a first time for everything as a small field of debris forces Captain Chefone (Arvin Kananian) off course. Unfortunately a screw breaches their hull anyway, pushing their nuclear fuel supply to critical mass. Expelling it may save them for the moment, but without it they cannot steer. So despite having enough self-sustaining electricity and algae (for air and food), there’s no way to return onto their necessary trajectory.

TributeThe filmmaker, often credited with revolutionising cinema, passed away by assisted death in Switzerland on September 13.CrisJean-Luc Godard / Courtesy - IFFKNo one had expected 90-year-old Jean-Luc Godard to show up on stage in Thiruvananthapuram, when Kerala’s most cherished film festival – International Film Festival of Kerala – was belatedly held in February last year. Godard, a pioneer of the new wave French cinema in the 60s, was declared the winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the fest, held two months too late because of Covid-19. But when the big screen at the Nishagandhi Auditorium lit up to show his face, a Cuban cigar in his hands, the crowd sat bewildered. They broke into laughter and applause at his first line: “Ok I will speak with the tongue of the dominators, I will speak in English.” Godard, a beloved of the festival crowd of Kerala, accepted the award, mocked the language...

Media coverage of Jean-Luc Godard’s death will fall short of what he merits. He was a game-changing creator on the level of Sergei Eisenstein, Charlie Chaplin, D.W. Griffith, and others who changed the grammar of film forever, but his best-known films are from a half-century ago. And there’s this: Under the standards by which successful directors are judged today — box office and awards — Godard was strictly a minor-league player.

His lifelong regard as a master is a tribute to his films above all, but it also speaks to a cinephile culture that elevated and supported him for decades despite the general public’s disinterest.

In the U.S., Godard’s films initially received erratic distribution with short-run showings at a few big-city theaters; even his best-known titles like “Breathless” and “Week-end” received marginal releases. They appeared erratically, out of order, and sometimes not until two or three years after their public debuts.

Jean-Luc Godard, the French-Swiss director who was one of the most revolutionary filmmakers of the 20th century, died in Rolle, Switzerland at the age of 91. His family said that he died peacefully in an assisted suicide procedure surrounded by his loved ones.

In Memoriam 2022: 100 Great Celebrities Who Died This Year!

The family did not specify what conditions Godard had been suffering from, and he has indicated his interest in assisted suicide in previous interviews. He was an influential film critic for the Cahiers du Cinéma through the 1950s while also shooting short films, and established himself as an exciting new film director with the 1960 film Breathless.

Jean-Luc Godard was born on December 3, 1930, in Paris, France to a wealthy family and quickly moved to Switzerland at the age of four after the outbreak of the Second World War. He was educated at a young age in Nyon, Switzerland and returned...

French New Wave icon Jean-Luc Godard died in Switzerland this week at the age of 91. One of his last films was 2014’s “Goodbye to Language,” the 3D portrait of a relationship that starred actors Kamel Abdelli and Héloïse Godet. Here, Godet shares her memories from the set with IndieWire, along with some exclusive photos from her personal collection.

I remember, while we were shooting some scenes of “Goodbye to Language” in Jean-Luc Godard’s own house, the protocol had us enter through the backdoor, which they called the “entrance of the artists.” There, we discovered a cellar converted into an editing room, where his assistant and camera technician Fabrice Aragno worked every day, before and after shooting. He had to synchronize the footage captured by all five cameras.

When we heard Godard enter his house through the main door, with a big wrought-iron key, we joined him in his small living room.

Jean-Luc Godard passed away on September 13, 2022 at the age of 91. In a vast and prolific career that spanned seven decades Godard never once shied away from confrontation. Godard was a film brat of the highest order, who used his early New Wave films as a playful, somewhat bitter commentary on the insidious infiltration of cinematic images into our minds. His most celebrated film, "Breathless" (1960), takes place in a world where characters have internalized an ineffable sense of "cool" they learned directly from American movies; in one scene, Jean-Paul Belmondo, sporting a fedora and cigarette, spends a moment to look at a headshot of Humphrey Bogart, a photo he seems to regard like a mirror. 

Much hay has been made by talented and insightful essayists over the impact Godard has had on modern filmmaking. He made movies about people who lived in movies. He was of a generation of French filmmakers...

Internationally renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said that French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard changed the grammar of filmmaking and created his own path in making films. He was reacting to the passing away of the Franco-Swiss filmmaker on Tuesday, September 13, at the age of 91.

Adoor said Godard’s intellectual abilities were seen in his first movie ‘Breathless’. He questioned the traditional mode of filmmaking and created his own path. He has used a unique style of the character directly speaking to the audience. The acclaimed filmmaker said Godard had even developed a new methodology to make digital movies.

National Award-winning editor and artistic director of International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), Bina Paul, said: “The Intellectual commitment of Godard was exemplary and he was fully devoted to movies. His movies themselves are a treat to watch and have revolutionised filmmaking.”

Last year, Godard was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 25th edition of the Iffk.

Click here to read the full article.

Hollywood and other movie industry representatives are paying tribute to Jean-Luc Godard on social media following the news on Tuesday that the Franco-Swiss legend had died.

A former film critic who wrote for the legendary Cahiers du Cinéma during its heyday of the 1950s, Godard burst onto the scene in 1960 with his debut Breathless, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. The Paris-set crime caper, starring Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, heralded the arrival of cinematic modernism. Using jump cuts, nods to the camera and other meta-fictional devices, it commented on the story as it was unfolding.

Goddard’s career would go on to span half a century, with the filmmaker directing upwards of 70 projects including features, documentaries, shorts and TV. His work was known at various times throughout his long career for everything from its pop-art homages and historical...

Thiruvananthapuram, Sep 13 (Ians) Internationally renowned filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan said that French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard changed the grammar of filmmaking and created his own path in making films.

He was reacting to the passing away of the Franco-Swiss filmmaker on Tuesday, September 13, at the age of 91.

Adoor said Godard’s intellectual abilities were seen in his first movie “Breathless”. He questioned the traditional mode of filmmaking and created his own path. He has used a unique style of the character directly speaking to the audience. The acclaimed filmmaker said Godard had even developed a new methodology to make digital movies.

National Award-winning editor and artistic director of International Film Festival of Kerala (Iffk), Bina Paul, told Ians: “The Intellectual commitment of Godard was exemplary and he was fully devoted to movies. His movies themselves a treat to watch and had revolutionised filmmaking.”

Shyamaprasad, a National Award-winning director, said: “This is a great loss to world cinema.

The end of a cinematic era is here. Jean-Luc Godard, the powerhouse of modern French cinema and pioneer of the French New Wave, has died at age 91. According to the Hollywood Reporter, French newspaper Liberation was the first to report the news, but no cause of death has been confirmed as of this writing.

Later, Godard's family put out a statement. "There will not be any official ceremony," the filmmaker's family confirmed. "Jean-Luc Godard died peacefully in his home surrounded with his close ones. He will be incinerated."

Critic To Filmmaker

Godard was an inspiration to many, and to me personally, because of how he got his start. The filmmaker originated on the film scene as a critic, having written for Cahiers du Cinema many times in the 1950s before transitioning into filmmaking with a bang in 1960. He premiered his first film, "Breathless," that year at the Berlin Film Festival,...

The French-Swiss director Jean-Luc Godard, a key figure in the Nouvelle Vague film movement, has died aged 91. Godard was celebrated for his daring and almost improvised filming style. His first feature, Breathless, in 1960, established him as one of France's most experimental and exciting new talents. His streak of films continued throughout the decade during which he also released The Little Soldier, A Woman is a Woman and Alphaville. 

His 2001 film In Praise of Love demonstrated his remarkable longevity and was selected for the Cannes film festival. He also received an honorary Oscar in 2011, which he did not collect in person. His 2014 release Goodbye to Language won him the the jury prize at Cannes. In total, Godard made more than 100 films. President Emmanuel Macron said 'we have lost a national treasure, a man who had the vision of a genius.'

Jean-Luc Godard, giant of the French new wave, dies at...

Tributes to Jean-Luc Godard, a pioneering and iconic leader of French cinema, began to flood in immediately after it was reported that the director died today, aged 91, with figures from the world of cinema, politics and beyond remembering the filmmaker for his powerful, singular work.

French President Emmanuel Macron was among the first to pay tribute to Godard with a short message on social media, saying France has lost a “national treasure” and calling the director the most “iconoclastic of New Wave filmmakers.”

Best known for his radical and politically driven work, Godard was among the most acclaimed directors of his generation with classic films such as Breathless (A bout de souffle), which catapulted him onto the world scene in 1960.

Speaking on France Info radio shortly after the news broke, Jack Lang, former Culture Minister of France, said Godard was “Unique, absolutely unique… He wasn’t just cinema, he was philosophy,...

Jean-Luc Godard broke with the established conventions of French cinema Photo: UniFrance The acclaimed pioneer of the French New Wave, Jean-Luc Godard, who made more than 50 films, has died at the age of 91.

Godard's Breathless, with Jean-Paul Belmondo and Jean Seberg, broke with the established conventions of French cinema in 1960 and helped kickstart a new way of filmmaking, complete with handheld camera work, jump cuts and existential dialogue.

The director participated in one of the Cannes Film Festival’s most dramatic moments during the 1968 student up-risings and workers’ protests throughout France. A sit-in at the main theatre building by protesters including fellow directors Louis Malle and Francois Truffaut resulted in the festival being cancelled.

He continued to experiment in later years using digital technologies with such films as Film Socialisme and Goodbye To Language, a 3D film, involving a married woman and a single man and a dog that weaves...

A pioneering, revolutionary titan of the cinematic form, Jean-Luc Godard has passed away at the age of 91, as reported by French newspaper Liberation. The paper also reported he died by assisted suicide in Switzerland, where it is authorized and supervised. “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted,” noted a relative of the family. “So he had made the decision to end it. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.”

Born on December 3, 1930, Godard would go on to become a film critic for Cahiers du Cinéma before changing the very language of the cinematic medium with his French New Wave contributions, including Breathless, Vivre Sa Vie, Contempt, Band of Outsiders, Alphaville, Pierrot le Fou, and many more. Going through an evolution virtually every decade, the director recently delivered the most radical usage of 3D in a film yet with Goodbye to Language in 2014 and his last feature,...

Jean-Luc Godard, the revered filmmaker regarded as a giant of the French New Wave movement, has died at the age of 91.

He was known for directing a run of radical, medium-changing films throughout the 1960s, including Breathless and Alphaville.

News of Godard’s death was reported by the French newspaper Liberation.

Along with contemporaries such as Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, and François Truffaut, the Paris-born Godard was a central figure in the Nouvelle Vague, an experimental film movement that emerged in France in the late 1950s.

Several of his films are frequently cited among the best movies ever made.

Godard’s first feature was Breathless, released in 1960, an experimental tribute to American film noir. Starring Jean-Paul Belmondo as a hoodlum named Michel, and Jean Seberg as his American girlfriend, the film caused a stir with its unusual visual style and editing techniques, immediately announcing Godard as one of cinema’s great innovators.

Click here to read the full article.

Jean-Luc Godard, the brilliant and polemical Franco-Swiss filmmaker whose work revolutionized cinema, has died. He was 91.

Godard’s death was reported by French newspaper Liberation, which didn’t immediately detail a cause of death.

A former film critic who wrote for the legendary Cahiers du Cinéma during its heyday of the 1950s, Godard emerged onto the scene in 1960 with his seminal debut feature, Breathless, which won the Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival.

The Paris-set crime caper, which starred Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo, forever changed the course of movies and heralded the arrival of cinematic modernism. Using jump cuts, nods to the camera and other meta-fictional devices, Breathless constantly interrupted and commented on the story as it was happening.

Indeed, Godard’s major contribution to cinema was his idea that a movie was both the story it was telling and the...

The radical director of Breathless and Alphaville, and who was a key figure in the French Nouvelle Vague, has died

Peter Bradshaw on Godard: a genius who tore up rule book without troubling to read it

Jean-Luc Godard, the French-Swiss director who was a key figure in the Nouvelle Vague, the film-making movement that revolutionised cinema in the late 1950s and 60s, has died aged 91. French news agency Afp reported that he died “peacefully at home” in Switzerland with his wife Anne-Marie Mieville at his side. Liberation, quoting an unnamed family member, reported that Godard’s death was assisted, which is legal in Switzerland. “He was not sick, he was simply exhausted. So he had made the decision to end it. It was his decision and it was important for him that it be known.” Godard’s lawyer Patrick Jeanneret told Afp Godard’s death followed “multiple disabling pathologies”.

Best known for his iconoclastic,...

A version of this review first ran during the 2021 Cannes Film Festival.

When you saw Joaquin Phoenix dancing down those outdoor steps toward the end of “Joker,” you probably didn’t think about Princess Elsa belting out “Let It Go” in the 2013 animated film “Frozen.” But Mark Cousins did –- and that’s the difference between him and you and me and the rest of the people who see Cousins make that juxtaposition in his documentary “The Story of Film: A New Generation.”

Cousins ties Joker and Elsa together because of the defiance at the heart of his dance and her song, and he does so at the start of “The Story of Film: A New Generation.” The documentary was an extraordinarily apt film to screen on the opening afternoon of the 2021 Cannes Film Festival, which came 14 months after the pandemic had forced the festival to cancel its 2020 edition. The...

Notebook is covering the Cannes Film Festival with an ongoing correspondence between critics Leonardo Goi and Lawrence Garcia, and editor Daniel Kasman.Pacifiction.Dear Leo and Danny,In my first correspondence, I wrote that the Competition got off to a slow start, and, well, maybe it never really did find its footing. Most critics, myself included, seemed to agree that the festival was on the whole an unmemorable one, especially in comparison to the strong 2021 edition, which no doubt benefited from a spate of pre-pandemic holdovers. There are of course exceptions. Jerzy Skolimowski’s Eo was a genuine UFO, delivering images and sensations that I’d never quite seen or experienced, while Véréna Paravel and Lucien Castiang-Taylor’s De Humani Corporis Fabrica (The Fabric of the Human Body) played something like a journey to inner space to match the Discovery’s journey to outer space in 2001: Space Odyssey, even...

When thinking of the best French movies of the 21st century, there are some titles that leap to mind immediately, even if the past 22 years haven’t appeared to be as creatively fecund as the heady heights of the New Wave period. Celine Sciamma, Francois Ozon, Bruno Dumont, and Julia Ducournau have all produced stunning, instantly canonical works. But what’s interesting is to consider how expansive the idea of “Frenchness” in cinema has been this century: on the list below, Austrian Michael Haneke, Iranian Abbas Kiarostami, and American Julian Schnabel appear, with the main criterion for inclusion being simply the use of the French language.

Their inclusion does call into question a bit the idea of national cinemas. And yet, even in this highly interconnected, global 21st century, France singularly remains one of the medium’s most essential guiding lights. From the pioneer era of the Lumiere brothers, to...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Monica Vitti in Red Desert (1964). (Courtesy of Janus Films)One of the most captivating presences in Italian cinema, actress Monica Vitti has died at age 90. She started as a stage and television actor before becoming known for her roles in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), La notte (1960), L'eclisse (1962) and Red Desert (1964). After the end of her professional and romantic relationship with Antonioni (the two would return for The Mystery of Oberwald in 1980), Vitti turned to lighter fare by international directors, including a small part in Luis Buñuel's surrealist comedy The Phantom of Liberty (1974). In the official announcement of Vitti's death, Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini wrote, “Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema.”The groundbreaking artist James Bidgood, whose artistic output spanned from photography and music to films like Pink Narcissus (1971), has also died.

The end of the filmmaking road is drawing near for Jean-Luc Godard, the French New Wave icon behind “Breathless,” “Contempt,” “Pierrot le Fou,” “Masculin Féminin,” and more. During a recent 85-minute conversation with the virtual International Film Festival of Kerala (via The Film Stage), Godard confirms his plan to retire from directing after his next two projects. The filmmaker currently has two scripts in various stages of development, one he announced is being made with European public service channel Arte and the other which is titled “Funny Wars.”

“I’m finishing my movie life—yes, my moviemaker’s life—by doing two scripts,” the 90-year-old Godard added about his plan to retire in the near future. “After, I will say, ‘Goodbye, cinema.’”

Godard will forever be associated with the French New Wave, a movement he pioneered with 1960 directorial debut “Breathless.” At that point in his career, Godard had been making...

Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” has been named the best film of 2020 by the National Society of Film Critics, which conducted its annual voting in a virtual meeting on Saturday.

The film starring Frances McDormand as a woman who takes the road after falling on hard economic times won a narrow victory over Kelly Reichardt’s “First Cow,” scoring 52 points to 50 for the runner-up. Zhao also won the Best Director award in a wide margin over Steve McQueen (“Small Axe”) and Reichardt, while McDormand won the best-actress award and cinematographer Joshua James Richards won in his category as well.

The best-actor award went to Delroy Lindo for “Da 5 Bloods” in a narrow victory over Chadwick Boseman for “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.” McDormand’s runner-up was Viola Davis, also from “Ma Rainey.”

In the supporting categories, the Nsfc went with more unexpected winners in Maria Bakalova for “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” and...

Bong Joon Ho‘s “Parasite” won Best Picture from the National Society of Film Critics, which met at the Film Society of Lincoln Center in New York City on Saturday to choose its winners for the 54th time. The South Korean drama also won Best Screenplay from the group.

The society recognized two indies for the top acting prizes: Mary Kay Place for “Diane” and Antonio Banderas for Pedro Almodóvar’s “Pain and Glory.” The supporting acting honors went to Brad Pitt for “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” and Laura Dern for her work in both “Marriage Story” and “Little Women.”

The National Society of Film Critics was established in 1966, with its co-founders including Pauline Kael, Joe Morgenstern and Richard Schickel. The group currently has 60 active members. Members who have not seen most or all of the contending films can disqualify themselves from voting.

Also Read: New York Film...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday listed the best films of the last decade, led by Lucrecia Martel's Zama, a 2017 adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's existential novel.

Naming in all 19 films that stood out during the 2010s, Tiff programmers chose Maren Ade's 2017 tragicomedy Toni Erdmann as their second-best, followed by Jean-Luc Godard's 2014 drama Goodbye to Language in third place.

Barry Jenkins' 2017 Oscar best picture winner Moonlight and Cristi Puiu's 2016 drama Sieranevada round out the top five.

The best-of-the-decade also includes Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and Jordan Peele's Get Out among ...

The Toronto Film Festival on Wednesday listed the best films of the last decade, led by Lucrecia Martel's Zama, a 2017 adaptation of Antonio Di Benedetto's existential novel.

Naming in all 19 films that stood out during the 2010s, Tiff programmers chose Maren Ade's 2017 tragicomedy Toni Erdmann as their second-best, followed by Jean-Luc Godard's 2014 drama Goodbye to Language in third place.

Barry Jenkins' 2017 Oscar best picture winner Moonlight and Cristi Puiu's 2016 drama Sieranevada round out the top five.

The best-of-the-decade also includes Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master and Jordan Peele's Get Out among ...

Kino Lorber has acquired the U.S. rights to “Young Ahmed,” the latest film from Belgian auteurs Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, the distributor announced Wednesday.

The film made its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where the Dardenne Brothers won the Best Director prize, and it will play at the upcoming New York Film Festival following a North American premiere at the Colcoa French Film Festival in LA. This acquisition gives Kino Lorber five films playing in Nyff’s main slate, including Kantemir Balagov’s “Beanpole,” Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’s “Bacurau,” Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden” and Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms.”

The film will be rolled out in theaters in early 2020, followed by VOD and home video release.

“Young Ahmed” is a portrait of a 13-year-old, Belgian-Arab Muslim teenager named Ahmed (played...

“Young Ahmed,” which won the best director prize at Cannes for Belgian brothers Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne, has been acquired for the U.S. by Kino Lorber. The film will have its North American premiere at Colcoa and will go on to play at New York Film Festival.

Set in a small town, “Young Ahmed” follows a Belgian Muslim teenager named Ahmed (played by newcomer Idir Ben Addi) who lives with his secular single mother and siblings, and falls under the influence of a magnetic extremist imam. Ahmed is radicalized and becomes fixated on killing his female teacher in the name of his religious convictions.

“We are proud to present to U.S. audiences the latest masterwork from Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne,” said Kino Lorber senior vice president Wendy Lidell, who negotiated the deal with Eva Diederix, head of international sales of Wild Bunch and CAA Media Finance. “Like all their great films,...

Many filmmakers have taught me how to look at the world, but Agnès Varda is teaching me how to age. She died this week at the age of 90, leaving behind an example we should all strive to meet as we get on in years.

One of the legendary filmmakers who made up the Nouvelle Vague, France’s influential cinematic New Wave of the 1960s, she continually embraced life and a changing world, even after losing her beloved husband and fellow New Wave icon, Jacques Demy, in 1990. In the years when one might have expected her to grow more home-bound, perhaps venturing forth to publish a memoir or pick up the occasional award, she instead continued to plunge into the ever-changing technology of cinema.

As a filmmaker, she constantly experimented with digital cameras and editing, never afraid to step into the arena of the young and always open to completely upending...

Fifty years ago, Jean-Luc Godard was a cinematic revolutionary. Now, the reclusive 87-year-old legend is on another plane entirely, with his magisterially opaque and maddeningly elusive films as much criticisms and dismantlings of cinema as they are examples of it.

Then again, words like opaque and elusive sell Godard short, because they imply that he’s interested in things like plot and character.

He’s not, except in the vaguest and most poetic sense. “The Image Book,” which premiered in competition in Cannes on Friday, is an essay in sound and image, a poem that uses some of the tools of cinema, maybe even an assault on the idea of a movie.

It’s a trip to Planet Godard, which at this point in time is a planet capable of sustaining and even inspiring human life, but only if they’re the right kind of humans.

Also Read: 'Alita: Battle Angel...

Chloé Zhao's The Rider has been named the best film of 2018 by the National Society of Film Critics, which met in New York City on Saturday to choose its winners for the 53rd time. Roma and Burning were the two next runners-up.

It’s not every day that cinephiles get treated to a new work by the inimitable Jean-Luc Godard. For his latest feat, the French master has crafted a lyrical cinematic essay on the nature of all things. If anyone can pull it off, it’s Godard.

Winner of the first Special Palme d’Or to be awarded in the history of the Cannes Film Festival, “The Image Book,” or “Le Livre d’image,” is a provocative kaleidoscope of film and world history that concludes in an apocalyptic climax. So grand is this finale that IndieWire chief critic Eric Kohn called it “one of the most authentic endings in the filmmaker’s nearly 60-year career.”

Placing “The Image Book” in the context of Godard’s more recent work, including 2014’s 3D experiment “Goodbye to Language” and the multi-part film history essay “Histoire(s) du cinéma,” Kohn continues: “The new project speeds through classic film clips,...

This year’s Cannes Film Festival may have come to an end, but the repercussions of the annual cinephile gathering are still yet to be felt on a big screen near you. Fortunately, some of the festival’s biggest winners have already locked down North American distribution and are already bound for wider releases that will allow plenty more movie fans to check them out. That includes the Palme d’Or winner, “Shoplifters,” and both runner-ups, including “Capernaum” and “BlacKkKlansman,” all of which have homes that guarantee them theatrical releases in the coming months.

A number of other Cannes contenders were also picked up for distribution during the festival, including Ciro Guerra and Cristina Gallego’s crime thriller “Birds of Passage,” which went to The Orchard and the Mads Mikkelsen-starring survival drama “Arctic,” which was bought early in the fest by Bleecker Street. The opening night film, Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,...

Spike Lee wins Cannes Grand Prix Photo: Festival de Cannes

Cate Blanchett’s 71st Cannes Film Festival jury tonight (19 May) has bestowed the top award, the Palme d’Or, on Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda for Shoplifters.

In a break with tradition, the jury also attributed a special Palme d’Or to Jean-Luc Godard for The Image Book and his work in defining and redefining the language of cinema.

Jean-Luc Godard loomed large over the ceremony - but not in person Photo: Festival de Cannes

Shoplifters is the story of a shoplifting father-and-son duo and the little girl they take in from the street. This is the filmmaker's fifth time in the Competition.

Godard’s The Image Book marks the veteran director’s return to Cannes four years after his previous feature Goodbye To Language won the jury prize. His latest project mixes fact and fiction to explore the contemporary Arab world.

The film scored an average of 3.0 out of 4 on Screen’s jury grid.

Following its world premiere in Competition at Cannes, Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book will screen in North America after Kino Lorber picked up all rights to the territory.

A deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber, Eva Diederix, head of international sales of Wild Bunch and CAA Media Finance.

The Image Book, which scored a 3.0 out of 4 on Screen’s Cannes jury grid, will play first in theatres in 2019, with a VOD and home video release to follow.

The film is a pastiche of film and TV clips,...

Kino Lorber has acquired North American rights to Jean-Luc Godard’s The Image Book (Le Livre D’Image), which just had its world premiere in competition at the Cannes Film Festival. The deal marks a reteam of the director and the indie distributor, which picked up his Goodbye to Language after it bowed in Cannes in 2014.

A 2019 theatrical release is in the works for The Image Book, which uses bold, visual imagery and film clips as Godard himself comments and reflects on cinema history and the current state of our troubled world. The film is in Arabic, English, French and Italian.

The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber, Wild Bunch’s Eva Diederix and CAA Media Finance.

Kino Lorber has picked up the North American rights to Jean-Luc Godard’s “The Image Book,” the distributor announced Monday.

The film had its world premiere on May 11 at the Cannes Film Festival. It marks Godard’s seventh film in competition at Cannes. In 2014, his film “Goodbye to Language” co-won the Grand Jury Prize and was also acquired out of the festival by Kino Lorber.

“The Image Book” is a film comprised of visual imagery and film clips that take audiences on a journey with the 87-year-old filmmaker.

Also Read: 'The Image Book' Film Review: Once Again, Jean-Luc Godard Messes With Viewers' Heads

The deal was negotiated by Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber, Eva Diederix, head of international sales of Wild Bunch and CAA Media Finance.

“After our unprecedented success with ‘Goodbye to Language’ we could not imagine a follow-up. But here’s the Godard apocalypse exploding on screen with new cinematic invention,...