Prompted by the @sightsoundmag.bsky.social newsletter today re 50 years of Nashville to check when it actually opened here. 18th Sept 75 according to this very 70s ad, so unlike @geoff-andrew.bsky.social I didn’t have to bunk off my studies to see it.
Very glad to see Jafar Panahi getting the Palme, the right decision.
Not involved in this one, but we have been privileged to support him 5 times over the last 25 years.
And a great pity Hengameh (who supported him even longer) was not still here to see this moment.
Rewatched Rosetta from our old DVD, which has a little Cannes extra with a very young Émilie Dequenne getting up for the actress prize. Luc Dardenne behind her.
Could well be 4K UK premiere. Was in rights hell for years, then a 2018 London screening which was, if I remember correctly, a resurrected 35mm print from our original release.
Saddened to hear of the death of Souleymane Cissé. We were privileged to release Yeelen many years ago, and in subsequent meetings always enjoyed his waspish conversation.
One thing I never thought to see in my lifetime was Gen Z people feuding about Rivette vs Rohmer. It’s possible to like them both, we certainly did.
Top investigative journalism. But I think the recipients of the Aziz Foundation’s donations publicised on its website are not institutions, but the students it helps to study within those institutions. Making it difficult to attack without the students becoming the unwitting victims.
Not sure who this is interviewing Charlotte Rampling for, I assume, French TV, but she certainly believed in dressing for the occasion.
As the Chantal Akerman season starts, reminded of some decades’ old shame - being so put off by the 1976 Edinburgh FF blurb that I didn’t watch it.
I see that Criterion Capital, the owner of the cinema’s landlord, is intimately connected to the Aziz Foundation, that lists the National Film & Television School as a preferred partner. The NFTS might want to think about that.
I have signed, but what the cinema really needs is a smart property law firm to take on the landlord’s one. Don’t come cheap. The tactic of asking a silly rent to spin things out until the lease expires is an old one, but needs a good lawyer to combat it. Landlord impervious to its public image.
Maybe because few people outside a small circle seemed to know what it was early on. I went to a BAFTA screening at the end of October that had an audience of about 25.
Will partly be a nostalgia trip for me, since we released nearly everything from La Belle Noiseuse onwards.
During the course of a very good looking 35mm print of Ludwig in the BFI Visconti season today, I realised I had never seen the full version before, and it’s a revelation.
2/2
The Inheritance - Kobayashi
Mist - Kim Soo-yong
The Lonely Voice of Man - Sokurov
The Convent - de Oliveira
Could have chosen several more Naruse, but kept to one each.
Dozen best first views of 2024, date order:
Ornamental Hairpin - Shimizu
The Clock - Minnelli
Phoenix - Kinoshita
Clothes of Deception - Yoshimura
Lightning - Naruse
Night Train - Kawalerowicz
A Simple Story - Hanoun
The Cloud-Capped Star - Ghatak
1/2
Reminded by going to parts 3&4 of Histoire(s) du cinéma today, and you can’t help but play spot the film/picture/music, of the Japanese DVD edition made by the late great Hayao Shibata, where everything is cross-referenced. Though he told us, laughing, that Godard just got cross.
Only seen half of these, so will check rest out. The world will have to wait for mine, as one of my tops from last year I only saw on New Year’s Eve. (Twenty-Four Eyes).
Trekked across London to see Hale County This Morning, This Evening, which until today has been impossible to see for some time, and sat with 2 other people. To be fair to the missing audience, I think it wasn’t exactly publicised.
Of the 22 film season, Kwon in 11, Cho in 7, Ki in 10, Seo in 9. Newcomer to Hong, Lee Hye-young only 4, but an outsize contribution.
Final Hong Sangsoo in the ICA season was today, so a shout-out to his rep company (besides Kim Min-hee). Pictured Kwon Hae-hyo, with Lee Hye-young in In Front of Your Face, Cho Yun-hee in The Day After, Ki Joo-bong in In Our Time, Seo Young-hwa (left) in The Woman Who Ran.
Just bringing attention to this excellent article/interview with Payal Kapadia in the latest Sight & Sound by @isstevens.bsky.social
Enterprising Erice fans in the cinema used at the end of Close Your Eyes, the Lecrín in Dúrcal, a bus ride away from Granada.
filmgranada.com/turistas-jap...
Had I been in New York for the 2012 season I would have known about Kinoshita ages ago, but only discovered him this year and still catching up. Apostasy and Phoenix (pictured) seen this week.
No way to see most of them legitimately in the U.K. but watch out for wrong ratio rips with an oval logo.
By pure coincidence last night I found our old Art Eye DVD that had been hiding. Not seen again since 2006.
It didn’t have a real sales agent, so it passed by most people, including me. Will ask for a link.
Will start a New Wave account tomorrow, but in the meantime some news: www.screendaily.com/news/alain-g...
Just noticed this Lucrecia Martel season starts in Paris Nov 14:
www.centrepompidou.fr/fr/programme...
