Posts Tagged ‘Film’

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NYFF: Day 9 – Humpday

HENRI GEORGES CLOUZOT’S INFERNO

A behind-the-scenes picture from H.G. Clouzots lost film LEnfer.

A behind-the-scenes picture from H.G. Clouzot's lost film "L'Enfer".

The biggest potential pitfall for any documentary and its filmmakers is the failure to spark an interest in the audience regarding the subject of the film. Though the director may find every nook and cranny of the focus of his documentary to be as fascinating as the meaning of life, his job, as a documentarian, is to not only engage an audience but also to convince them their subject deserves a 90 minute exploration. (more…)

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Steven Strauss

October 4, 2009

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NYFF: Day 8 – All You Need is Love…

ANTICHRIST

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe in the prologue to Antichrist.

Charlotte Gainsbourg and Willem Dafoe in the prologue to Antichrist.

First off, yes, all of the buzz and hyperboles surrounding Lars Von Trier’s “Antichrist” are absolutely true. That now much talked about third act actually does draw yelps, screams, eye covering, squirming, and mass exodus’ to the door. Yet these reactions to the more envelope-demolishing aspects of the film are overshadowing what could potentially be one of most brilliant and thought-provoking films of the decade.

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Steven Strauss

October 4, 2009

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NYFF: Day 6 – Transvestites and Trash Humpers…’nuff said.

TO DIE LIKE A MAN

Tonia, the focus of To Die Like a Man.

Tonia, the focus of "To Die Like a Man."

“This movie is hard to classify under one genre,” proclaimed one of the directors of the New York Film Festival in his introduction to Joao Pedro Rodrigues’ “To Die Like a Man.” While it’s true the film doesn’t conform to one genre, one word can define the film as a whole– train-wreck.

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Steven Strauss

October 2, 2009

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NYFF: Day 5 – What Is It Good For?

LEBANON

Joining the overflowing mass of recent war films, “Lebanon”, like most of its predecessors, brings nothing new to a genre that desperately needs either a rest or a potentially impossible new perspective.

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Steven Strauss

October 1, 2009

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NYFF: Day 4 – In the Name of the Will

THE ART OF THE STEAL

Dr. Albert Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation.

Dr. Albert Barnes, founder of the Barnes Foundation.

The automobile industry in Flint. A former US Secretary of Defense. The National Spelling Bee. A man who lives with Grizzly bears. A collection of paintings? Though they may not sound like much, each are the synopses of some of the most fascinating documentaries produced in the last 25 years. The last of which, referring to the controversial displacement of Dr. Albert Barnes’ historic collection of Post-Impressionist paintings from his country home at the private Barnes Foundation – where his will stipulates the collection was always to stay – to a public museum in Philadelphia, is a bare-bones summary of Don Argott’s ingenious documentary “The Art of the Steal”. (more…)

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Steven Strauss

September 29, 2009

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NYFF: Day 2 – Karl Marx Meets…Crabs?

KANIKOSEN

A story about a crab-fishing boat laced with a Marxist agenda sounds almost too odd to be true, in the best way possible. Sadly, “Kanikosen”, adapted by Sabu (real name – Hiroyuki Tanaka) from a Manga comic based on a recently popularized 1920’s Proletarian novel, the title of which translates to “The Crab Canning Ship”, never lives up to its premise. In fact, the very otherworldly nature of said premise leads to the film’s fatal flaw – a nearly incoherent tone.

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Steven Strauss

September 27, 2009

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