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‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ premiered today, and while most viewers will have to wait until Friday to see the movie if they missed the early screening, you’ll have a different challenge: avoiding spoilers.

The social media embargo on early reviews has been lifted, and both fans and critics are flocking to X to share their thoughts on the film.

The general consensus is that the movie is outstanding, with no negative or mediocre reviews among the initial reactions. Critics and audiences are praising everything from the story and humor to the emotional impact and cinematography. It appears that Disney may have secured the biggest R-rated box office hit of the year.

The film is being compared to ‘Endgame’ and ‘No Way Home,’ signaling a return to the fun and stylish era of the MCU.

#DeadpoolandWolverine is No Way Home on Steroids. It takes elements from Boss Baby and Come and See...

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ premiered today, and while the majority of the viewers will have to wait for Friday to actually watch the movie if you hadn’t managed to score a ticket for the early premiere, you have a different fun activity ahead of you, dodging the spoilers.

The social media embargo has been lifted today when it comes to the early reviews and fans and pros alike are flocking to X to share their opinions of the movie.

The general consensus is that the movie is excellent as I’ve failed to find a single bad or lukewarm review among the first reactions. Everything is being praised from the story to the vulgarity of the movie, to the overall emotional impact and camera work, it looks like Disney truly does have the biggest R-rated box office success this year.

The movie is being compared to ‘Endgame’ ‘No Way Home...

One of the hottest tickets in the Great Lakes region this fall might be for the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point men’s basketball team. Not only will fans get to see the Pointers compete in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference, but they may also get a chance to meet forward Josiah Gillie, a.k.a. J.P., the rising Milwaukee rapper known for his hit “Bad Bitty,” who released his mixtape, Coming Out Party, on Friday. The gregarious nature he displayed throughout his time in our Manhattan office earlier this...

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

Film Forum

Films by David Lynch, Tony Scott, David Cronenberg, and Jim Jarmusch play in “Out of the 80s,“ which includes Do the Right Thing on 35mm this Sunday; The Neverending Story plays on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

Rumble in the Bronx and The Straight Story play on 35mm as part of “See It Big at the ’90s Multiplex” which also includes Boomerang and Trainspotting; an Agnieszka Holland retrospective begins; Mothra screens on Saturday.

Roxy Cinema

Altered States plays on 35mm this Friday; Saturday brings Knight of Cups; George Cukor’s It Should Happen to You plays on 16mm this Sunday.

Paris Theater

Seven, Old Joy, Come and See, and The Conformist all screen on a despair-inducing Sunday.

Metrograph

Films by Gus Van Sant and Alain Resnais play in an mk2 retrospective; retrospectives of Obayashi and Dieudo Hamadi...

For the past three years, the American Cinematheque has presented “Bleak Week,” an annual festival devoted to the greatest films ever made about the darkest side of humanity. This year, the festival will not only be unspooling in Los Angeles June 1 – 7 — with special guests including Al Pacino, Lynne Ramsay, Charlie Kaufman, and Karyn Kusama — but will travel to New York for the first time with a week of screenings at the historic Paris Theater starting June 9.

“We are honored to co-present ‘Bleak Week: New York’ in partnership with one of the most beautiful movie palaces in the world,” Cinematheque artistic director Grant Moninger told IndieWire. “This year, over 10,000 people will attend ‘Bleak Week: Year 3’ in Los Angeles, proving that audiences are hungry for such powerful and confrontational cinema. Many people thought they were alone in their desire to explore films with uncomfortable truths, but the truth is that they are part of a large community,...

Introducing The Damned at its world premiere, Roberto Minervini stated that the film began from a desire to “deconstruct the precepts in war cinema,” e.g. good versus evil, “hyper-masculinity” and heroism. In the press kit interview, Minervini goes further, stating that there’s never been a war movie “that I would call humane […] Even films that depict tragedy and self-destruction emphasize martyrdom and sacrifice.” Has there really never been a true anti-war film? The existence of Come and See seems to contradict that, and noting that “good versus evil” isn’t real isn’t a breakthrough either, which may be why The […]

The post Cannes 2024: The Damned, The Invasion first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Introducing The Damned at its world premiere, Roberto Minervini stated that the film began from a desire to “deconstruct the precepts in war cinema,” e.g. good versus evil, “hyper-masculinity” and heroism. In the press kit interview, Minervini goes further, stating that there’s never been a war movie “that I would call humane […] Even films that depict tragedy and self-destruction emphasize martyrdom and sacrifice.” Has there really never been a true anti-war film? The existence of Come and See seems to contradict that, and noting that “good versus evil” isn’t real isn’t a breakthrough either, which may be why The […]

The post Cannes 2024: The Damned, The Invasion first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Following Raw and Titane, Julia Ducournau has set her third feature with Alpha. Though no plot details have been unveiled this far, Golshifteh Farahani and Tahar Rahim (A Prophet) will lead the film, Deadline reports. “Alpha is Julia’s most personal, profound work yet, and we are looking forward to a global audience discovering the story with as much excitement as we did,” said Filmnation and Charades, while the producers added, “Alpha is a new page in Julia Ducournau’s corpus that is both very consistent with the previous ones and entirely new in its tone.”

Following All of Us Strangers, Andrew Haigh is stepping up to a major studio project with a Leonardo da Vinci film set up at Universal Pictures. The film is based on Walter Isaacson‘s 2017 biography, which showed “how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity,...

Mads Mikkelsen’s name is synonymous to the greatest movie villains of all time. The Danish actor is notorious for his captivating and terrifying portrayals of unhinged yet sophisticated characters that stop at nothing to achieve their goals. Mikkelsen indulges in heavy topics and hard-to-watch films, but sometimes, a picture can be too much even for him — that’s how he knows it’s brilliant.

Mads Mikkelsen’s Unlikely Movie of Choice

People are always curious what their favorite movie stars’ favorite movies are, and Mads Mikkelsen shared his Top 5 with A.frame. Most of the Hannibal actor’s selections are well-familiar to the American audience: Taxi Driver (1976), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Dekalog (1989), and Apocalypse Now (1979). Okay, Dekalog is also quite niche, but you get the picture.

Yet Mads Mikkelsen’s fifth all-time favorite picture is a criminally overlooked war movie coming straight from the Soviet Union. This 1985 film is...

Is Alex Garland’s new film “apolitical”, or does it just take politics seriously? We take a look at the debate surrounding Civil War.

“Some are already calling it the greatest victory in the history of military campaigns”.

According to the actor that plays him, the unnamed President who opens Alex Garland’s Civil War with a TV address isn’t based on anyone in particular.

“Honestly, [the Trump comparison] didn’t even come up”, Nick Offerman somewhat implausibly told the Hollywood Reporter on a red carpet this month.

“It would be so easy to make this movie and lay in some easter eggs… but you would lose half your audience one way or another”.

Throughout Civil War’s press tour, Garland and the cast have been keen to stress the film’s bipartisan credentials. This, as you might imagine, hasn’t been easy. With a President seeking an unconstitutional third term, disbanding...

Reviews are out for “Civil War,” the controversial thriller from Oscar-nominated writer-director Alex Garland. Critics who saw the film’s premiere at South by Southwest are mostly impressed by the politically charged A24 film. It has an 81% “Fresh” score on Rotten Tomatoes and a “generally favorable” score of 72 on Metacritic. While the trailer drew some derision for U.K. native Garland’s apparent misunderstanding of American politics for suggesting a separatist alliance between California and Texas, critics say that the film itself is much more “politically astute and plausible” than reactions for the trailer gave it credit for. And they emphasize that the film, which follows four journalists as they travel across America during a rapidly escalating civil war in the near future, is something very different than what it appears to be on the surface.

In a rave review, Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com calls “Civil War” “a...

Making a top ten list of your favourite movies can be difficult, but is it any easier when you narrow that list down to a single decade? IndieWire asked dozens of filmmakers to put together a list of their favourite 80s movies, and the results are as widely varied as the decade itself. Which 80s movies does Bill Hader hold dear to his heart? What are some of Nia DaCosta’s favourites? Can Edgar Wright actually contain himself to just ten movies? What horror movies of the 80s top Eli Roth’s list?

Bill Hader’s (Barry) Favourite 80s Movies:

Thin Blue Line Road Warrior Blood Simple Evil Dead 1&2 Raging Bull Naked Gun The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On The Hit Raising Arizona Crimes and Misdemeanors Blue Velvet Where is the Friends House Pee Wees Big Adventure Midnight Run Come and See Do the Right Thing My Neighbor Totoro Die Hard Paris,...

There was no escaping “Red Rooms” at Fantasia.

Awarded the Cheval Noir Award for best feature at the 27th edition of the fest, Pascal Plante’s film also took honors for screenplay and Dominique Plante’s haunting score, as well as an outstanding performance award for Juliette Gariépy.

“The ultimate effect a film can achieve is to implant a significant and lasting emotional memory. ‘Red Rooms’ masterfully accomplished that goal,” said jurors David Hewlett, Brenda Lieberman, Jourdain Searles, Virginie Sélavy and Gary Sherman.

“With incredible skill and artistry, without resorting to gore or violence, this film delivers not only an extremely disturbing and frightening experience but introduces you to characters and situations you may never forget.”

Produced by Nemesis Films, it takes on the trial of a man accused of murdering teenage girls and selling videos of his crimes online. But Plante wanted to focus on women who follow him.

Canada’s Fantasia International Film Festival has announced the opening film of its 27th edition: Pascal Plante’s “Red Rooms,” about a high-profile case of a serial killer and the woman (Juliette Gariépy) obsessed with him.

“It’s a film of enormous emotional force, unbelievably controlled and smart, with a staggering performance from Gariépy. Pascal is one of the greatest talents of his generation in Quebec cinema and among the strongest filmmakers in the country right now,” says festival’s artistic director Mitch Davis.

“In a sense, it’s an unconventionally grim note to open a festival on. It’s a profoundly disturbing film. But I know the audience is going to be left completely breathless by it.”

“As a Montrealer, I have been a regular festival goer of Fantasia for years now, but it’s the first time one of my features will be screened in their lineup. I...

The 27th edition of the Fantasia International Film Festival is set to run from from July 20th through August 9th at the Concordia Hall Cinema in Montreal, with additional screens at the Cinémathèque québécoise and Cinéma du Musée – and today the festival announced the first wave of titles that will be screening there this year! The festival runners promise this edition of the show will deliver “a whiplashing program of screenings, workshops, and launch events”, with a spotlight on South Korean cinema, a Canadian trailblazer Award being presented to Larry Kent, and World Premiere screenings of new films from the likes of Larry Fessenden, Xavier Gens, Jenn Wexler, The Adams Family, and Victor Ginzburg. They’ll also be hosting the International Premieres of Tsutomu Hanabusa’s blockbusters Tokyo Revengers 2 – Part 1 & 2.

2023 marks 60 years of diplomatic relations between Canada and the Republic of Korea, so Fantasia is teaming up with the Korean...

Bleak Week just got a whole lot bleaker.

The American Cinematheque in Los Angeles has set the second edition of its “Bleak Week: Cinema of Despair” series, and this year’s guest of honor will be none other than Béla Tarr, Hungarian master of plumbing the nadirs of the human experience from his last feature “The Turin Horse” to his beloved epic “Sátántangó,” about a farming village in crisis. IndieWire can announce that Tarr will make a rare appearance in the U.S. beginning June 6 at the Aero Theatre for a series of Q&As.

“Hi LA! It will be nice to see you again, after a very long time. I am curious how you are now and what is going on in the town! I hope we will have a good meeting and we will spend a good time together. See you there!” said the filmmaker in a statement shared with IndieWire.

Filmmakers had called for a boycott over the rule change.

The organisers behind Thailand’s Suphannahong National Film Awards have dropped a rule that would effectively disqualify independent features from nomination following a major backlash.

A recent rule change by the National Federation of Motion Pictures and Contents Associations (Mpc) stated that theatrical releases in five regions of Thailand and a minimum of 50,000 cinema admissions were required for a film to be considered for nomination. These regions include Bangkok, Chiangmai (the north), Chonburi (the east), Nakhon Ratchasima (the northeast) and Nakhon Si Thammarat (the south).

It meant that, earlier this week,...

War is a living nightmare, wreaking its destruction on innocent lives and civilizations. It casts deep wounds that shape our history, present circumstances, and potential prospects for the future.

War has been a central theme in all of human history since its inception. It inspires both captivation and terror, with stories of bravery, resilience, and courage, as well as violence and death. It is the peak of danger – where any semblance of safety or security ceases to exist for those who fight. All that remains are humanity’s yearning for survival against insurmountable odds.

Hollywood has no shortage of war films meant to both awe and educate. Some promote the best humanity can offer as people come together for a common cause. Others reveal the horrific truth behind conflict’s brutality and man’s capacity for harm on an unimaginable scale.

Here is the ultimate fan selection of the top...

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

Film Forum

The Conformist screens in a new 4K restoration; Fly Away Home plays on 35mm this Sunday.

Film at Lincoln Center

Jordan Peele has curated a rather robust series of movies that inspired Nope, including King Kong tonight, The Wizard of Oz tomorrow, and Sunday’s psychosis-inducing offer of The Wiz, Come and See, and Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter.

Museum of Modern Art

A Guillermo del Toro retrospective brings 35mm prints of his features, as well as a rare presentation of Hermosillo’s Donna Herlinda and Her Son, starring his mother Guadalupe del Toro.

Roxy Cinema

Saturday and Sunday offer Spielberg’s rarely screened Amistad on 35mm, as well as The Draughtsman’s Contract.

Metrograph

Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Millennium Mambo, newly restored in 4K is now playing, alongside more films from Taipei.

IFC Center

The second-greatest film of all-time,...

The 1970s were a special time in American cinema. After the box office woes of the 1960s, bewildered studio executives were unsure of how to connect with audiences, whose tastes and impulses were shifting in the hectic milieu of that decade. The change began at the tail end of the previous decade with "The Graduate," "Bonnie and Clyde," and "Midnight Cowboy," all of which pushed boundaries regarding sex, sexuality, and violence. It was Dennis Hopper's "Easy Rider" that would set the mold of "New Hollywood," a period in which studios afforded even the most difficult directors unprecedented creative freedom.

From the summer of 1969 until some time in the early 1980s (the exact timeframe is disputed), "New Hollywood" birthed scores of classics from a generation of new talent, the most famous of which included William Friedkin, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, and Steven Spielberg, to name just a few. Anyone...

Writer/producer/showrunner David Kajganich discusses a few of his favorite films with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960)

Badlands (1973)

Bones And All (2022)

A Bigger Splash (2015)

Suspiria (2018)

Deathdream (1974) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Porky’s (1981)

A Christmas Story (1983)

Black Christmas (1974) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Murder By Decree (1979) – Mick Garris’s trailer commentary

Children Shouldn’t Play With Dead Things (1972)

Black Vengeance a.k.a. Poor Pretty Eddie (1975)

The Poseidon Adventure (1972) – Robert Weide’s trailer commentary

Gremlins (1984) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review, Tfh’s Mogwai Madness

Picnic At Hanging Rock (1975)

The Last Wave (1977) – Brian Trenchard-Smith’s trailer commentary

Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World (2003)

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (1962) – Dan Ireland’s trailer commentary

Dressed To Kill (1980) – Dennis Cozzalio’s Criterion review

The Last Picture Show (1971) – Mark Pellington’s trailer...

Filmmaker Sally Potter discusses a few of her favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Orlando (1992)

Look At Me (2022)

The Roads Not Taken (2020)

Singin’ In The Rain (1952) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

On The Town (1949)

Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (1954) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Whisky Galore! (1949) – Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

Battleship Potemkin (1925)

8 ½ (1963) – Allan Arkush’s trailer commentary

Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953)

Jules and Jim (1962) – Michael Peyser’s trailer commentary

Au Hasard Balthazar (1966) – Charlie Largent’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Persona (1966)

On The Waterfront (1954) – John Badham’s trailer commentary

Sweet Smell Of Success (1957)

Citizen Kane (1941) – John Landis’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Third Man (1949) – George Hickenlooper’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Come And See (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

The Cranes Are...

In a year and festival where Steven Spielberg releases a reflective film on his own life and relationship to cinema, it’s understandable that we get a war film indebted to Saving Private Ryan—for better and for worse. A group of four young men slowly lose their innocence via the death and violence they encounter. The faces of these young men get caked with soot, blood, mud, and burnt remains of their brethren in the unforgiving battlefield. Their wide-eyed, patriotic valiance at the beginning of their campaign turn into horrors that mirror those of Florya, the immortally sour-faced boy in Come and See, though I’d say Elem Klimov’s film is much bleaker.

Though All Quiet on the Western Front aims to show the brute ugliness of war, it has the DNA of a Hollywood movie, and as such seeks to also valorize death and tragedy as a spiritual sacrifice.

Is reinvention overrated? For at least 45 minutes, Athena (named for the fictional area where the film is based as well as the goddess of wisdom and war) threatens to be Romain Gavras’ magnum opus, but the building blocks haven’t changed. Look at his earliest music video, released in 2002: high rises, young men, tracksuits, BMX tricks. Then look at his work on Justice’s Stress, released seven years after: high rises, young men, tracksuits, only this time with Molotov cocktails and a strain of nihilistic chaos. Even as his most acclaimed work took him to bigger budgets and distant places, Gavras has never strayed far from his core ideas; his career has been an ode to finessing and amping up.

Just wait for the opening sequence, where Gavras, in a single take, moves a tornado of action all the way from a police station to an apartment block that...

(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)

The Movie: "Come and See"

Where You Can Stream It: The Criterion Channel, YouTube

The Pitch: A naive teen joins up with the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Belarus, only to be cast loose amid the horrors of war in Elim Klimov's visceral 1985 nightmare odyssey.

Amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, a Soviet anti-war film described by its late director as "a plea for peace" seems like a relevant reminder of the suffering once caused by false liberators in the same region. Just recently, a Russian paratrooper became the first soldier in the country's military to flee to an undisclosed location and speak out against the invasion in the global press. In an interview with CNN, he said that he and...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Ari Folman’s Where Is Anne Frank is Mubi Go's Film of the Week in the United Kingdom and Ireland for August 12, 2022. Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Ari Folman: Surprising, unexpected, animation movie. A coming-of-age story during World War II.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater and why? Folman: My favorite movie theater is by far the Louis Lumière in Cannes. I think when I first screened a movie over there, in 2008 in competition with Waltz with Bashir, I was having an ecstasy of a religious experience. Notebook: What is the most memorable movie screening of your life, and why is it memorable?Folman: The most memorable screening was a screening of Waltz with Bashir in Sarajevo, Bosnia. It was an open-door screening...

Sterlin Harjo, co-creator of FX’s Reservation Dogs, discusses a few of his favorite movies with hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante.

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Mekko (2015)

Boy (2010)

Cool Hand Luke (1967) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Randy Fuller’s wine pairings

Being There (1979) – Alan Spencer’s trailer commentary, Charlie Largent’s Blu-ray review

The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) – Josh Olson’s trailer commentary

A Woman Under The Influence (1974)

Husbands (1970) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Stand By Me (1986)

Hamburger: The Motion Picture (1986)

This Is Spinal Tap (1984) – John Landis’s trailer commentary

The Princess Bride (1987) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Friday (1995)

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) – Adam Rifkin’s trailer commentary

Dead Man (1995)

Powwow Highway (1989)

Airplane! (1980) – Glenn Erickson’s Blu-ray review

Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai (1999)

Stalker (1979) – Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

Come And See (1985) – Larry Karaszewski’s trailer commentary, Glenn Erickson’s Criterion Blu-ray review

A Clockwork Orange...

War films are horror films, aren’t they? Both genres explore inevitable death intertwined with moral quandaries and are full of suspense. Come and See is often hailed as one of the scariest films and Son of Saul almost plays like a found footage in Auschwitz. There is a thin line between the two, but military […]

The post For Those About to Slash, We Salute You: 14 Military Horrors to Stream for Memorial Day appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.

For the festival poster for Jerzy Skolimowski's Eo, it is all focused on the 'melancholy eyes.' It's inspired by Robert Bresson's classic Au Hazard Balthazar, one of cinema's finest acts of pure empathy, rivaled only by Carl Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc, Elem Klimov's Come and See, and Takahata Isao's Grave of the Fireflies. The pure red field, and tiny typesetting and low-centre credit block, leave all the work to the donkey's face. And what a magnificently sad face it is. But consider the red a warning; that this will be a difficult film. I am intrigued by the choice of doing the title itself in a child's scribble. I am guessing, without having seen the film, that children are involved (see also...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

While the works of his colleague Hayao Miyazaki remain the most popular entities within Studio Ghibli’s output in the 1980s, it is perhaps the features by Isao Takahata that will leave the greatest impact on their viewer. One of the director’s most famous features during that time period is “Grave of the Fireflies”, a movie based on the short story by writer Akiyuki Nosaka, which deals with the trauma of Second World War, as experienced by a young man and his sister, who try to survive in these difficult times. Whereas a large portion of the audience perceived animation to be largely directed at a younger audience, Takahata managed to make a very adult film, about the bond between two siblings as well as the loss and protection of childhood and innocence.

In 1945, Seita, a teenage boy, lives with his younger sister Setsuko and their family in Kobe.

On this week’s new episode of the Casual Cinecast, Justin and Mike hold a Casually Criterion chat as they discuss war trauma with Come and See. It’s time for another Casually Criterion episode and this time around the crew is chatting about Elem Klimov’s Come and See (Spine #1035). On top of that, however, we […]

The post The Casual Cinecast Takes Air Force One to Come and See A Quiet Place Part II appeared first on Cinelinx | Movies. Games. Geek Culture..

Welcome back to Intermission, a spin-off podcast from The Film Stage Show. Led by yours truly, Michael Snydel, I invite a guest to discuss an arthouse, foreign, or experimental film of their choice.

Warning: The episode features discussions about suicide. If you feel you are in crisis or know someone who is struggling, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. It is a free, 24-hour hotline at 1.800.273.Talk (8255).

For the eleventh episode, I switched up the format of the show a little bit and talked to both Charlie Nash, a contributor at Edge Media and various other publications, and his close friend, William Willoughby, a veteran who was kind enough to speak about the film’s relationship with his own Ptsd, about Elem Klimov’s controversial and influential 1985 Russian anti-war film, Come and See––which is available on The Criterion Collection and to stream on The Criterion Channel. Klimov’s...

For his sophomore feature, the Thai documentarian Nottapon Boonprakob changes his focus drastically. Whereas his debut “2,215” is an inspirational documentary focusing no the 55-day charity marathon run by one of Thailand’s most recognisable singers, Athiwara Khongmalai, “Come and See” is about the clash between the influential non-orthodox Theravada Buddhist temple Dhammakaya and the Thai military government helmed by Prayut Chan-o-cha. The movie was shot between 2016 and 2017 when the antagonism between the two sides was at its highest and peaked in a lockdown of the temple with many a devotee inside, resulting in two deaths.

“Come and See” is Screening as Part of Asian Pop-up Cinema Season 12

Though ostensibly about the trials of the government to persecute Dhammajayo, the abbot of the Dhammakaya temple on numerous charges, from the opening quote taken from the new Constitution of Thailand, we learn that the antagonising of the school is mostly on religious and political terms.

For his first narrative feature Natural Light, Hungarian filmmaker Dénes Nagy (who has worked in documentary since as far back as 2008) follows in the footsteps of a fellow countryman. In 2015, László Nemes debuted Son of Saul at the Cannes film festival. A deeply serious film, Saul sought to plunge viewers into the horrors of Auschwitz. Nagy’s film takes place a little earlier, and a good bit further to the East, following a squadron of Hungarian soldiers on the Eastern front. The men are there to serve on the side of the Nazis-––although hunger, mud, and sanity seem to be the more pressing concerns.

The nod to Nemes is less to do with having been born in the same part of the world, of course, as it is to do with subject and style––although the two are not necessarily unrelated. It’s also to do with a relatively...

Hungary’s most recent contribution to the implacable flow of war films pouring out of Eastern Europe is a far cry from the Russian tank operas and spectacular disaster films like Battle of Leningrad. Denes Nagy’s sensitive first feature Natural Light (Termeszetes feny), bowing in Berlin competition, is the opposite of these: a slow starter high on atmosphere but low on action, whose horrific main event takes place discreetly off-screen.

The story salutes Elem Klimov’s 1985 anti-war masterpiece Come and See (reissued in the U.S. last year in a 2K restoration) and its stark, unflinching gaze at the Nazi invasion of Byelorussian villages. Nagy’s ...

Hungary’s most recent contribution to the implacable flow of war films pouring out of Eastern Europe is a far cry from the Russian tank operas and spectacular disaster films like Battle of Leningrad. Denes Nagy’s sensitive first feature Natural Light (Termeszetes feny), bowing in Berlin competition, is the opposite of these: a slow starter high on atmosphere but low on action, whose horrific main event takes place discreetly off-screen.

The story salutes Elem Klimov’s 1985 anti-war masterpiece Come and See (reissued in the U.S. last year in a 2K restoration) and its stark, unflinching gaze at the Nazi invasion of Byelorussian villages. Nagy’s ...

It’s nearly perfect and utterly profound, a masterpiece — Larisa Shepitko made only four theatrical features yet this Soviet movie about the Great Patriotic War earns her a firm place in film history. Moral betrayals under stress, in the face of profound evil… it’s the human condition. Astonishing for a Mosfilm production of the time, the film equates nationalistic sacrifice with Christian martyrdom. Criterion’s extras tell the impressive story behind the making of this major Soviet production.

The Ascent

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 1063

1977 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 109 min. / Voskhozhdenie / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 26, 2021 / 39.95

Starring: Boris Plotnikov, Vladimir Gostyukhin, Sergey Yakovlev, Lyudmila Polyakova, Viktoriya Goldentul, Anatoliy Solonitsyn, Mariya Vinogradova, Nikolai Sektimenko, Sergei Kanishchev.

Cinematography: Vladimir Chukhnov, Pavel Lebeshev

Film Editor: Valeriya Belova

Original Music: A. Shnitke

Written by Yuri Klepikov, Larisa Shepitko from a novel by Vasiliy Bykov

Directed by Larisa Shepitko

A few months...

Ukrainan-born filmmaker Larisa Shepitko attended famed Russian cinematography school Vgik, where she was a protoge of Alexander Dovzhenko (Earth) and peer of Andrei Tarkovsky and Elem Klimov (Come And See), whom she married and collaborated with. Out this week from Criterion is Shepitko's last fully finished film, The Ascent. Long lauded by fellow filmmakers, critics, and fans, this 1977 black and white parable was infused with religious parallels, not just from the book from which it was adapted, but by Shepitko herself, who was impassioned to make the film. Completing any film requires an insane amount of fortitude, but if Shepitko were to be...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

While the global pandemic caused cinema theaters in France to close for the first time ever (“Even the war didn’t close down cinemas!” exclaimed Lumière Festival director Thierry Frémaux on opening night), it did mean people had more time to watch movies. Classics, in particular, enjoyed a come-back during lockdown.

Nine out of 10 people in France watch heritage films on a regular basis, according to data collected by the Cnc, the French agency responsible for the production and promotion of cinematic and audiovisual arts. After free TV, the second most popular source is videos, with more than 18,000 heritage titles on offer in France.

While video sales have suffered a decline over recent years, in line with global trends, heritage films represent a growing part of sales in France, jumping to 35% in 2019 compared to 27% 10 years ago. France’s niche market of video publishers specialized in classic films is a small but highly dynamic industry,...

Portuguese film distributor Midas Filmes has picked up a slew of new acquisitions, including Nanni Moretti’s upcoming “Three Floors,” Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s “Memoria” and Daniele Luchetti’s “The Ties,” which opened this year’s Venice Film Festival.

The Lisbon-based company, which is taking part in this year’s International Classic Film Market (Mifc) focus on Portugal in Lyon, France, has also recently picked up Belgian helmer Lucas Belvaux’s “Home Front,” starring Gérard Depardieu; “The Woman Who Ran,” by Hong Sang-Soo; and “Swimming Out Till the Sea Turns Blue,” Chinese director Jia Zhang-ke’s documentary about a local literature festival in Shanxi, China, which premiered at this year’s Berlinale.

Launched in 2006, Midas Filmes has released more than 60 films and boasts a DVD catalog of more than 200 films. Catalog titles and classics play major roles in the distributor’s repertoire, some 85% of which comprises international films, about 10% Portuguese titles and 5% U.

The story of a young Jewish boy’s odyssey through occupied Poland during the second world war is filled with almost unimaginable horror

Czech film-maker Václav Marhoul has created a monochrome epic of anguish set in wartime Poland: a gruelling odyssey of almost unimaginable horror, featuring – but not limited to – violence, disfigurement, bestiality and rape. This had audiences groping blindly for the exits at last year’s Venice film festival, and there can’t be many movies whose closing credits want to reassure you not only that no animals were harmed, but that adult body doubles were used for sex scenes involving children. It is surely intended to echo Elim Klimov’s harrowing war movie Come and See from 1985, whose star Alexei Kravechenko is given a cameo here as a fiercely partisan Red Army commander.

It is based on the 1965 novel and succès de scandale by the Polish-American author Jerzy Kosiński,...

Heroism, tragedy – and lots of tanks … the Russian obsession with the war is as strong as the west’s – but it conveys a very different message

The second world war ended – as we all know – 75 years ago. Many things have happened since then, yet the war retains an unending fascination for politicians and for makers of big-budget cinema. Since films aren’t made by accident, there’s a reason for the many, costly movies about events that happened long ago. War movies aren’t historical documents, but signs of our current times. Saving Private Ryan (1998) persuaded us that Americans fight wars justly, and with a moral conscience. The mega-budget Pearl Harbor (2001) suited the aspirations of the Project for the New American Century. Dunkirk (2017) celebrated Britain going it alone, gamely and successfully improvising her European exit.

In Russia, however, things are very different. In 1985, the director Elim Klimov made that rare thing,...

Evoking realism, hyperrealism, and the surreal, Elem Klimov’s nightmarish, technically marvelous 1985 movie “Come and See,” is a mesmerizing and legendary, if little-seen, WWII masterpiece that finally received its due earlier this summer thanks to the Criterion Collection.

Read More: The 25 Best War Movies Of All Time

Based upon the novel “I Am from the Fiery Village” by Ales Adamovich —Klimov’s haunting, horrors-of-war epic shatters the senses throughout and suggests an unholy alliance between the works of Stanley Kubrick’s bravura filmmaking and Terrence Malick’s artful poeticism, but in reality, preceded both “Full Metal Jacket” (1987) and “The Thin Red Line” (1998)— and Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” (1998) for that matter.

Continue reading ‘Come & See’: Elem Klimov’s Nightmarish WWII Movie Is An Unflinching Masterpiece Finally Available Via Criterion at The Playlist.

Much has been made of the extreme and unrelenting violence that penetrates almost every scene of Václav Marhoul’s 169-minute “The Painted Bird,” in the grand tradition of “Come and See,” “The Tin Drum,” and “The Wrong Missy.” Following a young boy as he silently bears witness to a series of unspeakable horrors while drifting through the Slavic world at the height of World War II, this steely adaptation of Jerzy Kosiński’s allegorical horror novel (née memoir) of the same name opens with a warning shot to anyone who hit the wrong button on their way to rent “Palm Springs.”

Our unnamed protagonist is introduced as he clutches a small animal — a dog that could pass for a ferret — and sprints away from the group of children nipping at his heels. The kids catch up to him and set the animal on fire for their own amusement. This may...

Above: Alternative and official UK posters for Parasite. Designers: Andrew Bannister (left) and La Boca (right).It’s been far too long since I last did one of these round-ups: nine months to be exact. A lot has changed in the world over that time of course, the most pertinent to this column being that far fewer new posters have premiered recently, and that the distractions and stresses of our current situation have led to me posting less frequently than I usually do.But, as I’ve been doing for many years, I have tallied up the most popular posters featured on my Movie Poster of the Day Instagram (previously Tumblr) and by a long shot the most popular posts of the past nine months were for the two U.K. Parasite posters above. If it seems I’m giving these astonishing works short shrift by lumping them together here...

Stars: George MacKay, Dean Charles-Chapman, Colin Firth, Mark Strong, Andrew Scott, Richard Madden, Benedict Cumberbatch, Daniel Mays, Pip Carter, Andy Apollo, Billy Postlethwaite, Paul Tinto | Written by Sam Mendes, Krysty Wilson-Cairns | Directed by Sam Mendes

The first World War (WW1) has been a topic that has gone largely under explored in the world of cinema. I suspect this is to do the complicated nature of the war, the difficulty of spinning a narrative in this hugely complex picture and the lack of an obvious bad guy. The war was an awful, and largely pointless loss of life and treasure that reshaped the world and was the main cause World War 2. As far as “satisfying resolutions go” this is right up there with calling a game “Final Fantasy 11… we promise this is the “Final, Final Fantasy this time”. Much better to knock out another WW2 film, where the Nazis are so...

Close-Up is a feature that spotlights films now playing on Mubi. Alexander Zolotukhin's A Russian Youth, which is receiving an exclusive global online premiere on Mubi, is showing from April 30 - May 29, 2020 in Mubi's Debuts series.In the late 1910s, somewhere along the Eastern Front, a Russian teen joins the army to fight the Germans in World War I. A hundred years later, in St. Petersburg, an orchestra rehearses two works by Russian composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, his 1909 Piano Concerto No. 3 and the 1940 Symphonic Dances. Alexander Zolotukhin’s A Russian Youth unfolds along these two axes, weaving glimpses of the practice room all through the lad’s journey, so that the music doesn’t all too simply score the drama but shares with it a more singular relationship, a layering together of past and present. The boy’s name is Alexei (Vladimir Korolev), a blue-eyed kid whose cinematic ancestry stretches...

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues to dismantle civilization as we know it, many of the rituals that we once accepted as part of our social contract have already have been reconfigured. Movie theaters may not be a matter of life or death — at least not for those of us who weren’t employed by them — but at a time when most of us have little to do besides sit home and re-evaluate every aspect of our collective existence, film industry pundits have pounced on the idea that theatrical exhibition will soon be unmasked as one of those great American grifts; as an outmoded scam that people will no longer be willing to pay for if and when things ever go back to “normal.” As The Ankler columnist Richard Rushfield recently said in an interview with The Ringer: “It’s not like the average American is going to miss the...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles's Bacurau is streaming exclusively on Mubi in select territories March 19 – April 18, 2020Kleber MENDONÇA Filho: Where and what is your favorite cinema?Juliano Dornelles: In all of the travel with Bacurau, I’ve had the opportunity to be in many wonderful movie theaters around the world. But the one that stays in my heart is my movie theater—our movie theater—the Cinema São Luiz, in Recife. It’s where we watched a lot of wonderful films from the end of the 80s.MENDONÇA Filho: I have to say São Luiz also. It’s a 1952 movie palace, it’s very well-equipped and it has become a kind of Ground Zero for the local film scene. We could do a film with international guests and people from other cities in Brazil,...

The world may be crumbling, but at least a handful of stellar films are coming to The Criterion Collection this summer. They’ve announced their June slate which includes their first Neon release, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, with Parasite to come at a later date. Also among the slate is Elem Klimov’s anti-war masterpiece Come and See, which we recently explored in-depth here. Also including work from Buster Keaton, Kon Ichikawa, and Paul Mazursky, check out the full slate and special feature details below.

The Cameraman

Buster Keaton is at the peak of his slapstick powers in The Cameraman— the first film that the silent-screen legend made after signing with MGM, and his last great masterpiece. The final work over which he maintained creative control, this clever farce is the culmination of an extraordinary, decade-long run that produced some of the most innovative and enduring comedies of all time.