“By filming the daily life of a child in a nursury, I wish attempt to give rise to the cinema with a less than three years actor. I wish to try to create a story without words about the time of the small childhood. Just try to film what happens when we ar
From the winners of IndieLisboa’11 comes another film sung. This time we listen to the dialog between a billionaire who doesn’t know if he wants to invest in art and an artist without money who tries to convince him. The big questions for what and for whom is art” are addressed, but the filmmakers explode the process by questioning their lack of control on their film. Now what? (MV)
A father lives alone with his teenage daughter in a rural area of Quebec. His protective attitude reaches the point of isolating her and not letting her go to school. Their relationship is fragile, in the background of a harsh winter. Côté signs his 5th f
Film made of small fragmented and inventive frames with trains, great landscapes, windows and mirrors. This is the room that we call heaven, a proposal from Basque filmmaker Laida Lertxundi, whose filmic compositions develop through the emotional resonance of sounds and music with everyday landscapes. (M. V.)
There is an anthropological side in all the works by Rivers. Like in a book divided by chapters, we discover in this film three mythological stories of Vanuatu, an island in Southern Pacific. Nature gives in return what it exposes. (M. V.)
In conurbations where hundreds of thousands live alongside one another, in the era of a highly technological society, in which communication has never played such a significant role man has become lonely. Disappointed by his fellow human beings, he turns to animals. Dogs and other domestic animals serve him as companions, life partners, cuddly objects and bedfellows. We witness testimonies that serve as separators of a supposed narrative, where the characters look directly into the camera.
Opening scene: the Balloons Man sees himself facing an impossible mission ‚ he must take care of a group of children whose parents didn’t show up. He starts a route through New York and the balloons fly. Next scene: The Black Balloon has its own life and wants to interact with the people of New York. How will he take care of so many people? He has a plan. A strong return of the Safdie brothers. (M. V.)
“Get your shit together”, says a friend of Frances at one point. If there was a phrase that summed up the entry into adulthood – as late as possible, by the way – this would be it. The moment when growing up means having control over our lives, deciding things, making things happen. Frances still lives in this limbo as she hops through the streets of New York (a city so palpable, so adored by Baumbach and Gerwig, the screenwriters) and takes an entire film on her back without ever getting (us) exhausted. Lovely is a word invented to describe the sweet Frances, a girl who is heartbroken when her best friend moves out. There is a whole path to walk, finding a way to forgive, getting a real job, paying for a real flat, building a real life. There is an end that is a beginning, as in any cycle, and avenges the comforting idea that all things will be in place at the right time. (M. M.) walk, finding a way to forgive, getting a real job.
The woman of Caxinas is a model of modern Portuguese women. This statement contradicts the traditional image of a fishwife bereaved in northern Portugal. But that’s what we discovered during the research for this film. And that’s what enchanted us. The romantic and vital force of these women, able to love and fight for life ‚ theirs and their husbands’ ‚ made me dedicate them a film. And this film is about two women who have two very different ways to respond to the trust given to and asked of them. Because beyond the portrayal of the women of Caxinas, this is a film about a friendship that is born between two very different women: master Sónia and actress Anabela. Sonia is the master chosen to star in the film, Anabela is the actress who infiltrates in her universe to discover a character of Caxinas. (João Canijo)
Although he is against the death penalty, Werner Herzog is not on this side of the glass for complacency nor looking to be used as an instrument, he clarifies from the very beginning. His honesty doesn’t preclude that, from the other side, the condemned tell him the reasons why they are there, without hope of ever getting out alive from the prison they inhabit, in the states of Texas and Florida. The mini-series in four parts ‚ James Barnes, Linda Carty, Joseph Garcia and George Rivas, and Hank Skinner ‚, which was born from the previous project Into the Abyss, is an observation of the American death penalty system and of human nature, cruel in its reflection. Through interviews with the convicted, their families, lawyers involved in the cases, witnesses of the crimes and the victims’ families, Herzog offers a complete overview of each story, without judgment. A simple presentation of the facts and the narration of the stories with a scary naturalism gives rise to an inevitable and profound analysis of human behavior. (M. M.)
Before the assault, feel the weight of the body. (Sandro Aguilar)
A man walks with his shade, while his mind wanders. This thinking man according to Rousseau needs the movement of his legs, needs energy to think, energy to create. Schwizgebel shows us, once again, through his lively painting, why he is one of the best animation filmmakers around the world. (M. V.)
Dad’s Stick presents three very used objects that my father showed me shortly before his death. Two of them are so rich in stories that have lost their original form and their functions are completely obscured. The third object seems to be recognized immediately but eventually became something completely different. (John Smith)
Three beats. Three movements. Three moments of passion as overwhelming as fleeting. Three heartily laughs. Three corners for an eternity. Reality is ephemeral, as well as the surrounding landscape. And Lisbon has never been so beautiful. In his first directing experience, Bonenfant says it loud and clear. (M. V.)
Can a film with a static shot be an action film? Yes, if the director has the mastery of Kevin Jerome Everson, an inventive and multifaceted filmmaker. Century is a precious object with an unusual analytical skill. A car is crushed until it disappears. Is this possible? It is. Before our restless gaze, the machine continues its work of destruction. (M. V.)
15 years ago, in an interview with David Letterman, Korine said, about Gummo and his filmmaking, that what he liked to see in films was “pictures coming from all sides.” A tradition to which he remained faithful and which explodes in the foreground of Spring Breakers, a bath of skin and color as electrifying as the music by Skrillex. And that’s not the only reason why Harmony Korine is the master of unlikely combinations. In the hands of this director, all teenagers are strange beings with a strong attraction to the abyss. What is further puzzling here is that Korine has grabbed three pop stars of the juvenile television universe and turned them into mercenarys at James Franco’s will, in a brilliant cliché of the hyper-seductive drug dealer. When going for a spring break, may it be epic. (M. M.)
And if the biggest dream were to become the worst nightmare? A man talks to a woman in a chatroom. They get along with one another. They make an appointment at a cafe. She shows up, but she is accompanied. She is Angela Merkel. He doesn’t know what to say. She is displeased. She has no patience. The know animatior Jochen Kuhn gives us another admirable Sunday. (M. V.)
There are moments in time, like the one Paul Clipson gives us: The city at night provides saturated palettes of color (…) All of these found objects cluster and converge within the duration of a series of overlapping shots, becoming new compositions, and resembling an alternative view of the everyday. (MV)