The has been announced for the Wisconsin Film Festival and it's an impressive line up. Notable selections are:
A Bong-Joon Ho retrospective consisting of 'Barking Dogs Never Bite,' 'Memories of Murder,' 'Host,' and his most recent film 'Mother,' all of which we have for rent at 4 Star and happen to be personal favorites of own.
'Police, Adjective' which also happens to be playing tonight March the 18th at 8 p.m. during the previously mentioned Romanian Film Festival located at MMOCA.
Retrospectives of African, Asian-American, Brazilian & South Asian cinema.
A 'Restoration & Revival' lineup which includes 'Duck, You Sucker,' 'The Magic Sword,' Quarry,' & 'Withnail & I' amongst others.
'Typeface,' the documentary about the wonderful Hamilton Wood Type Museum in Two Rivers, Wisconsin.
'OSS 117: Lost In Rio' which is the sequel to the immensely popular 'OSS 117: Cairo, Nest of Spies.'
As of the time this is being posted the website has not yet been updated with the complete lineup but we do have the printed Film Festival lists included in the Isthmus which is always on stock at 4 Star.
Tickets are $7 general admission, $4 with student ID. Buying in quantity receives a discounted price (more info the site). Starting March 20, tickets will be available on this web site and at the Festival Box Office inside the Memorial Union at 800 Langdon Street
we've spread the word to lots of people we know, but there's tons of people we DON'T know that might be into reading the news/reviews/whatever else film stuff that we're posting up here, and if you're reading this, then it's likely you know some people who might be down with the stuff we're spewing out and we'd love it if you'd tappity tap them on the shoulder and linkitey link em to us.
ALSO: you can follow us on facebook and dump us into a RSS reader and generally get your occasional fourstar info in any number of formats. jus sayin' if ya didn't know.
"Directors from the world over will make June a truly eclectic month at Criterion. Get on track with Jim Jarmusch’s and Carol Reed’s Mystery Train and Night Train to Munich, an ode to Memphis and a spy thriller, respectively. Along the way, check out the much-anticipated release of Antonioni’s Red Desert (right), Kiarostami’s amazing Iranian fiction-doc Close-up, and Everlasting Moments, the lyrical latest from Swedish master Jan Troell. All this and Visconti’s divine The Leopardon Blu-ray disc!"
Most exciting, to me, are both 'Mystery Train' & 'Night Train to Munich' though I'm very curious about 'Everlasting Moments,' it's high time 'Red Desert' finally got a domestic U.S. release and 'Close-up' was very powerful and provocative look into Iranian culture.
It is time for the Romanian Film Festival again and in this their fourth year they've managed to acquire one of the most highly regarded Romanian films all year in 'Police, Adjective' which is playing on opening night.
All showings are free and will be located in the Lecture Hall at MMOCA.
if your interest has been piqued, swing by and check out one of the thirteen andy warhol films we have in stock (most on VHS only, natch) or any of our most likely complete collection of david cronenberg films.
i spent a month and a half this winter stuck inside my house watching movies, and touch of evil was the best of the bunch that i saw. this is definitely the direction that i would LOVE to see the orpheum go in the future, so get out there and support this.
universal didn't like the cut originally submitted by welles in 1958 and recut the film into a terrible mess that led welles to write a 58- page memo upon seeing the studio's edit. it wasn;t until 1998 that the film was finally recut according to this detailed memo, and i can only assume that this is the version that we're gonna be seeing on the screen at the orpheum.
"Generally considered as the ultimate Film Noir (and the last film of the genre), TOUCH OF EVIL is certainly one of the most macabre, bizarre poignant films ever produced in Hollywood. The director Orson Welles is of course the man who made CITIZEN KANE, but many Welles aficionados such as Peter Bogdanovich actually consider TOUCH OF EVIL better than KANE; as a matter of fact, the best film Welles has ever directed."
you should wander round the corner to four star and pick up the complete mr. arkadin, another welles film tat has been available in a number of versions in varying degrees of completeness, or the two-disc touch of evil set we have that includes both the 1998 cut and the original universal cut.
For Ferreri film was very much used as a continuation, or perhaps an advancement, of the theater of the absurd. 'Dilliger is Dead' happens to be one of the most meritorious of all art-house films but was somehow rarely ever screened and could have been forgotten if Criterion hadn't come along to save it. In my opinion this is the most exciting dvd they've put out all year.
Broken Embraces- Pedro Almodovar:
My favorite Almodovar in years and perhaps his most entertaining one ever, it covers some familiar territory for him but he handles the subject matter perfectly this time around. As with most of his previous work this is a film buffs wet dream with references from Hitchcock to Michael Powell with some Almodovar himself in between. Plus Penelope Cruz stars in it and I firmly believe she is one of the best actresses alive.
Fernando Arrabal Collection
Sometimes the best new releases are the ones we don't even have on our release list. Often they are customer requests and sometimes they are requested by the employees themselves. For those who aren't in the know, Fernando Arrabal, is a Spanis director, poet, playwright & novelist. His cohort, Alejandro Jodorowsky, is more well known but they founded the Panic movement together along with Roland Topor. Arrabal's own play 'Fando y Lis' was actually adapted into Jodorowsky's first movie. We already had 'I Walk Like A Crazy Horse' & 'Viva Muerte' in the store but this collection rounds out what work of his is available on dvd, most notably 'Car Cemetery' which was based on his own play. Also included is 'The Emperor of Peru' starring Mickey Rooney and a collection of his short films featuring 'Borges, Life of a Poet,' 'Farewell Babylon,' & 'Arrabal Panik Cineast.'
i just stumbled onto the movie title stills collection, a site that exists to document (what else) movie title stills. for the life of me i can't stop scrolling through page after page of this thing. they've lovingly archived the title card from both the feature and the trailer, as well as the closing card from i don't know how many films from the 20s on up the present.
two of my personal favorite recent credit sequences both come from jason reitman films, thank you for smoking and up in the air. since the title sequence from up in the air isn't on the tubes yet (rent it from US as of TODAY!), you get the also very exceptional catch me if you can:
if you're gonna be renting this (and a lot of you are), then PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE also rent overnight, the documentary about the up and down life of director troy duffy and the making of the first boondock saints movie.
capitalism: a love story
like a lot of people, i have some complex feelings about michael moore, and have less and less patience with his showboating antics, but dang if he isn't able to dig up some excellent illustrative narratives and weave them into a well-paced, consistently engaging documentary.
pirate radio (aka the boat that rocked)
this one's worth it for the soundtrack alone, and that it will make you think back to philip seymore hoffman as lester bangs in almost famous.
precious
i haven't seen this, and personally have very little interest to see it, but i can bet that there are a ton of people who are gonna keep this from being readily available for at least a couple of weeks. i'd say pick it up if only to see mildly mustachioed mariah carey make amends for her role in glitter.
up in the air
this was a really great film (my personal pick of the week), and i'm really happy with the way that jason reitman (juno, thank you for smoking) is shaping up as a director. george clooney is excellent in this, as is the rest of the cast, including danny mcbride in a subtle turn as the pyramid scheming brother in law. just an out and out great little film.
"Many people believe that the famous incident, where this naked man ran through the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion past David Niven at the 46th annual Academy Awards, was staged. This theory of planned spontaneity receives most of its weight from the fact that Opel wasn't even arrested for trespassing on Hollywood's most exclusive event, but instead got dressed (with clothes provided for him by the Academy) and had security promptly escort him to "winner's row" where he held a press conference!"
for the full, and surprisingly interesting story (and, i must warn you, one semi-tasteful image of a real human penis) head over to the WFMU blog and read all about it.
this seems like one of the most sadly predictable oscars in recent memory. the odds are apparently heavily in favor of the following: sandra bullock is gonna win best actress, christoph waltz is gonna win best supporting actor, and monique is gonna win best supporting actress. but, everything else is, to make a terrible joke at the expense of a nominated film, up in the air (HAR!).
the real questions are whether or not avatar is gonna sweep best picture and best director (to say nothing of EVERY SINGLE TECHNICAL AWARD), or is it all gonna go the much more artistically deserving hurt locker? personally, i'm hoping for some kind of a split with avatar getting picture and bigelow getting the directing award, but that's just how i'm thinking things might go. we'll all have a nice tome tomorrow at the water cooler chatting about how it all went down.
don't get me wrong, i think avatar is a super-fun film and i had a BLAST watching it in the theater with those crazy glasses and everything, but best picture of the year? dream on. it's like the academy isn't even trying to hide the fact that the big awards are all given out according to politics.
in case you were wondering, up in the air and precious are gonna be available starting on monday night round the witching hour, and we got almost all the other best picture nominees here as well, including district 9, hurt locker, inglourious basterds (my personal pre-oscar viewing selection), a serious man, and up.
and lastly, i leave you with this: every time the camera cuts to jack nicholson, finish your drink. this is my plan for making the pain of an avatar win manageable.
ron howard turns 56 today! personally, i would applaud his career if he was only known for putting his sorta creepy looking little brother, clint, in all his movies, but in fact he's given us a bunch of movies that are all really great (and the dan brown flicks, too!).
celebrate the man by watching splash, parenthood, apollo 13, or frost/nixon tonight.
here's the trailer to grand theft auto, howard's first feature, produced by roger corman, who was a mentor to a surprising number of current holywood insiders.
excellent documentary about one of the most ingenious filmmakers, as made by said filmmaker. it's perfectly fitting since so much of agnes varda's work as been semi, if not outright, autobiographical. if, like many people, you enjoy the visual whimsy of directors like michel gondry or terry gilliam, this is highly recommended.
Ponyo on a Cliff by the Sea
this has quickly become one of my favorite miyazaki films. that phrase alone "miyazaki film" should have you ready to go on this thing, but if you need any more prodding, it's a crazy japanese riff on the little mermaid story, and is visually stunning as well as out and out weird. even weirder than spirited away in many ways.
Tell Them Anything You Want
i don't know what happened with this, but it should have been a bonus feature on a beefed up where the wild things are dvd, cause that disc is kinda weak extras wise. anyway, this is yet another great release from adam yauch's oscilloscope laboratories, which has been batting a thousand as far as i can see.
what you see is what you get here: spike jonze interviews maurice sendak over the course of making where the wild things are, talking about everything from sendak's childhood to his obsession with death stemming from an experience with the lindbergh baby. great little documentary that highlights the deep friendship that has developed between spike and maurice. be sure to check the extra with james gandolfini reading the night kitchen.
This Emotional Life
know right now that this three disc set is hefty, clocking in at 6 hours. it's truly engrossing though and absurdly informative, using some exceptional first person narratives and clinical studies (lots of them originating from UW, oddly enough) to illustrate its points. also, the bits of interviews with chevy chase will forever change how you see the man.
Where the Wild Things Are
this is the big one of the week (other than 2012 i guess). much has been said about how this movie nailed the childhood experience, but i think it's worth noting that it also, perhaps more notably, gets the ways that children perceive adult emotions right too. excellent film that, like it or not, is quite thought provoking.
all these, and more are available for rent after 12pm on monday night/tuesday morning. that midnight thing always trips me up.
