duminică, 28 aprilie 2024

Late Night with the Devil (2023)

Late Night with the Devil is an absolute cult classic !!!

and one of the best horror films (with an idea, an attitude & a twist) in years !

I heard about from Paul Schrader's post. And he's right.

Stephen King calls it “absolutely brilliant.”. This time I agree, most of the times, me and The King we don't ;)

luni, 22 aprilie 2024

Les Roumains: Nasty & Emi Pirvu @Cannes 77 !!!

 Cannes 77 completions/Les Complements

APRIL 22, 2024

As announced at the press conference on April 11, here are the films that complete the Official Selection 2024.

UN CERTAIN REGARD

WHEN THE LIGHT BREAKS
Rúnar Rúnarsson

NIKI
Céline Sallette
1st film

FLOW
Gints Zilbalodis

When the light breaks by Rúnar Rúnarsson will open the Certain Regard section on Wednesday May 15.

CANNES PREMIERE

VIVRE, MOURIR, RENAITRE
Gaël Morel

MARIA
Jessica Palud

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

SPECTATEURS
Arnaud Desplechin

NASTY
Tudor Giurgiu

LULA
Oliver Stone

AN UNFINISHED FILM
Lou Ye

OUT OF COMPETITION

LE COMTE DE MONTE-CRISTO
Alexandre De La Patellière et Matthieu Delaporte

COMPETITION

LA PLUS PRÉCIEUSE DES MARCHANDISES
Michel Hazanavicius

TREI KILOMETRI PANA LA CAPATUL LUMII
(Trois kilomètres jusqu’à la fin du monde)
Emanuel Parvu

THE SEED OF THE SACRED FIG
Mohammad Rasoulof

Luke Winslow King Band @Transilvania Blues Nights

 Luke Winslow King  Band @Transilvania Blues Nights, vineri 26 aprilie 2024 ora 20.00, @Rockstadt, Brasov. 

https://www.facebook.com/events/933426524994257/


Luke Winslow-King vine în premieră și exclusivitate în România la Brașov, la Rockstadt pe 26 aprilie 2024 în cadrul seriei de marca Transilvania Blues Nights!
Luke Winslow-King este originar din Cadillac, Michigan, chitarist, vocalist, compozitor, și a petrecut 15 ani la New Orleans. În 2008 a fost numit de Gambit Magazine cel mai bun artist de blues. Stilul său este Americana, îmbinat cu delta blues, gospel, jazz, cu versuri și sound original. Al optulea album al lui Luke Winslow-King, intitulat ”Flash-A-Magic” va iesi in luna septembrie 2024.
The Luke Winslow-King Band s-a formata acum peste 15 ani si a avut concerte în toată lumea. Secundul lui Luke Winslow este Roberto Luti, chitarist și cantautor extraordinar originar din Toscana dar cu 10 ani petrecuți in New Orleans, cunoscut mai ales prin aparițiile sale din proiectul ”Playing for Change”.
Un concert realizat cu sprijinul Institutului Italian de Cultură București.
Bilete: 100 lei pret pre-sale pana pe data de 22 februarie, 130 lei in ziua concertului.
Bilete pe rockstadt.ro!
Powered by Rock FM, Zile și Nopți.
🕒 Open door: 16:00
🕒 Concert: 20:00


And here's a treat, the whole concert on our youtube channel 



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZavuGZq5w4




La chimera (2023)

 now in cinemas -very limited !

La Chimera is a real treat, weird and one-of-a kind art-house cinema and for me, the best Alice Rohrbacher film 2 date, after Le Meraviglie (2014) and  Lazzaro Felice (2018).

in the official selection of Cannes film festival 2023 (#76 edition), and why it did not win any award it's beyond me :(

Josh O'Connor as Arthur (l'inglese) is a revelation, like a Nouvelle Vague Godard figure, or a Neo-Realism protagonist.

A grand performance by bi-lingual Isabella Rosellini 

TBC...



duminică, 21 aprilie 2024

Nasty (2024) & cronica audio

De vazut in cinema !!!

sure, o sa intre si pe HBO si HBO Max dar merita in sala de cinema !

La Brasov joi 25 aprilie featuring the man himself, Ilie Nastase aka Nasty ;) 

trailer aici.

and this just in (22.04.24), Nasty e in selectia festivalului de la Cannes, proiectie speciala !!!! 


He did it His Way !!!


cronica mea radio la HitFM. 
***
(din Culturama )
Evenimentul lunii aprilie 2024 În cinematografe este un documentar autohton despre un personaj iubit dar și controversat (I'd call it The Joker of Tennis ;, the Globe Trotter Lover ;)- Nasty -un film depre Ilie Nastase, super tennis man, primul număr 1 din istoria clasamentului ATP, proiect de suflet pentru Tudor Giurgiu (v. Libertate), Cristian Pascariu și Tudor D. Popescu. Filmat și în SUA, cu participarea legendarilor tennismani John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, Rafael Nadal, Björn Borg, Boris Becker. 

sâmbătă, 20 aprilie 2024

Cannes 77-le poster

 from Akira Kurosawa's Rhapsody in August 


All the poetic beauty, hypnotic magic and apparent simplicity of the cinema emerge in this scene from Rhapsody in August, authored by the great Japanese master Akira Kurosawa, 81 at the time. In this film, presented Out of Competition in Cannes in 1991, a grandmother who was a victim of the Nagasaki bombing on August 9, 1945, passes on her faith in love and integrity as a bulwark against war to her grandchildren and her American nephew, with tenderness and contemplation. The next-to-last film by the director of Sanshiro SugataRashomonSeven SamuraiDersu Uzala and Dodes’ka-den reminds us of the importance of coming together, and seeking harmony in all things.

Mirroring the movie theater, this poster celebrates the Seventh Art, with naivety and wonder. Because it gives everyone a voice, it enables emancipation. Because it remembers wounds, it combats oblivion. Because it bears witness to perils, it calls for union. Because it soothes trauma, it helps repair the living. 

In a fragile world that constantly questions otherness, the Festival de Cannes reaffirms a conviction: cinema is a universal sanctuary for expression and sharing. A place where our humanity is written as much as our freedom.

vineri, 12 aprilie 2024

Les Trois Mousquetaires de Cannes 77

Coppola, Schrader & Lucas back on la Croisette !

Francis Ford Coppola is back with Megalopolis in the official competition.

Paul Schrader is back with Oh, Canada in the same section.

George Lucas will get the Honorary Palm of the Festival. 

Photo posted by Paul Scharder on his FB account, someone asks -but could you please make peace with De Palma xo  

and Scharder's answer is: Re: BDP. Not my call.



joi, 11 aprilie 2024

Cannes 77 - La Selection Officielle

 Happening Now / maintenent 

Iris Knobloch, President of the Festival de Cannes, and Thierry Frémaux, General Delegate, present the Official Selection of the 77th Festival de Cannes on April 11 2024 at 11:00 am. The Festival de Cannes will be held from May 14 to May 25, 2024.


In English here. 

OPENING FILM

LE DEUXIEME ACTE (THE SECOND ACT)
Quentin Dupieux
Out of Competition

COMPETITION

THE APPRENTICE
Ali Abbasi

MOTEL DESTINO 
Karim Aïnouz

BIRD
Andrea Arnold

EMILIA PEREZ
Jacques Audiard

ANORA 
Sean Baker

MEGALOPOLIS
Francis Ford Coppola

THE SHROUDS
David Cronenberg

THE SUBSTANCE 
Coralie Fargeat

GRAND TOUR
Miguel Gomes

MARCELLO MIO
Christophe Honoré

FENG LIU YI DAI (CAUGHT BY THE TIDES)
Jia Zhang-Ke

ALL WE IMAGINE AS LIGHT
Payal Kapadia

KINDS OF KINDNESS
Yórgos Lánthimos

L'AMOUR OUF 
Gilles Lellouche

WILD DIAMOND
Agathe Riedinger
1st film

OH CANADA
Paul Schrader

LIMONOV - THE BALLAD
Kirill Serebrennikov 

PARTHENOPE
Paolo Sorrentino

PIGEN MED NÅLEN (THE GIRL WITH THE NEEDLE)
Magnus von Horn

UN CERTAIN REGARD

NORAH
Tawfik Alzaidi

THE SHAMELESS 
Konstantin Bojanov

LE ROYAUME
Julien Colonna
1st film

VINGT DIEUX !
Louise Courvoisier
1st film

WHO LET THE DOG BITE? (LE PROCÈS DU CHIEN)
Laetitia Dosch
1st film

GOU ZHEN (BLACK DOG)
Guan Hu

THE VILLAGE NEXT TO PARADISE 
Mo Harawe
1st film

SEPTEMBER SAYS
Ariane Labed
1st film

L'HISTOIRE DE SOULEYMANE
Boris Lojkine

THE DAMNED
Roberto Minervini

ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL
Rungano Nyoni 

BOKU NO OHISAMA (MY SUNSHINE)
Hiroshi Okuyama

SANTOSH
Sandhya Suri

VIET AND NAM 
Truong Minh Quý      

ARMAND
Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel 
1st film

OUT OF COMPETITION

SHE'S GOT NO NAME
Chan Peter Ho-Sun 

HORIZON
Kevin Costner

RUMOURS
Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson & Guy Maddin 

FURIOSA : A MAD MAX SAGA 
George Miller

MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

TWILIGHT OF THE WARRIOR WALLED IN
Soi Cheang

THE SURFER
Lorcan Finnegan

THE BALCONETTES
Noémie Merlant

I, THE EXECUTIONER 
Ryoo Seung Wan

CANNES PREMIERE

EVERYBODY LOVES TOUDA
Nabil Ayouch

C’EST PAS MOI
Leos Carax

EN FANFARE (THE MATCHING BANG)
Emmanuel Courcol

MISÉRICORDE
Alain Guiraudie

LE ROMAN DE JIM
Arnaud Larrieu & Jean-Marie Larrieu

RENDEZ-VOUS AVEC POL POT
Rithy Panh

SPECIAL SCREENINGS

LE FIL
Daniel Auteuil

ERNEST COLE, LOST AND FOUND 
Raoul Peck

THE INVASION
Sergei Loznitsa

APPRENDRE
Claire Simon

LA BELLE DE GAZA
Yolande Zauberman

vineri, 5 aprilie 2024

Ripley (2024)

...after so many incarnations, starting with Plein Soleil/Purple Noon (1960), where Alain Delon was Tom Ripley, the Patricia Highsmith absolute spellbinding psycho-sociopath is back ! 

In black and white and extended duration ! Since y-day- 4.4.24- on Netflix  (they bought it from Showtime)!

Steven Zaillian, master screenwriter (from Schindler's List to The Irishman) and art-house director (Searching for Bobby Fisher), social activism ( A Civil  Action), unlucky remake (All the King's Men), great HBO mini-series (The Night Of, in my Top 2016), took the time (it feels and it looks) to write and direct RIPLEY, an ambitios, artsy adaptation of the NOVEL The Talented Mr. Ripley (published in 1955 and followed by 4 sequels!) set in Italy in 1960, in no less than 8 episodes, marked I to VIII (V Lucio, man, loved the pun! and the last shot, that was a genius finesse touch).  Another masterful touch and change from the novel can be found here.  Zaillian is slowly developing his painting on a vast canvas and takes his time to boil into the mind and psyche of Ripley, one of the most fascinating characters in literature and film history !  The novel has been also adapted in a highly successful film that I am not a big fan of (in 1999 by Anthony Minghella, with Matt Damon as Tom Ripley).

An older Ripley has been portrayed by Dennis Hopper in Der Amerikanishe Freund (Wim Wenders, 1977), John Malkovich in Ripley's Game (Liliana Cavani, 2002) and Barry Pepper in Ripley Under Ground (2005, Roger Spotiswoode).

Irishman Andrew Scott who did a brilliant mastermind villain in the BBC Sherlock series, namely Moriarty and recently a grand acting job in All of Us Strangers, kills (metaphorically and practically ;) as the best Tom Ripley 2 date.

And Brit Johnny Flynn (The Outfit) is a brilliant Dickie Greenleaf,  putting on both the spleen and the class. Dakota Fanning is Marge Sherwood, good part for her, but she does not shine. Well, also the      character does not in the story.  Maurizio Lombardi as Inspector Ravini is wonderful, the accent, the manierisms, a cross between Lee Van Cleef and Buster Keaton. We got also lady Margherita Buy, which I saw last in Nani Moretti's Il sol dell'avvenire . Playwright Kenneth Lonergan is Dickie's father, Herbert Greenleaf. And Eliot Sumner as Freddy Miles (Sumner is Sting's non-binary child, I learned a new word with this, (non-binary, ok, got it.)

Robert Elswit's cinematography is an homage to all greatness of black and white cinema. He and Zaillian take the time to shoot a lot of inserts and details, architectural symmetries or mathematical constructed shots. Loved the Caravaggio puns. Elswit is PTA's collaborator, he won an Oscar for There Will Be Blood and worked with Zaillian before in The Night Of. The set design, the locations, lavish production on a "no problemo" budget, period reconstruction, and great Italian casting. Jeff Russo (Fargo) does a great job with the tense music. Also a poignant sound design all over. 

Here's a Vanity Fair article on the cinematography of the project. 



and two more words: Reeves Minot ;) TBC ?

miercuri, 3 aprilie 2024

Joker: Folie à Deux (2024)

Joker: Folie à Deux

Trailer out on April 9th. 


great song on it (and it's featured in the film): What the World Needs Now Is Love, the Burt Bacharach & Hal David's 1965 song, here performed by Tom Jones 

Expected Release date: Oct. 4th 2024

My review of the JOKER (2019) here. (in Romanian;)

                                                 The world is a stage.
                                                        #JokerMovie