07 May 2013

Lina Wertmüller - I Basilischi (1963)


I Basilischi (also known as The Basilisks and The Lizards) is a 1963 Italian drama film. It is the directorial debut of Lina Wertmüller.
It was shown as part of a retrospective "Questi fantasmi: Cinema italiano ritrovato" at the 65th Venice International Film Festival.

01 May 2013

Shirley Clarke - The Cool World (1964)


The Cool World (1964) is a feature film about African-American life in the Royal Pythons, a youth gang in Harlem.
This film is an electrifying revelation of the American problem: the desperate meaning of segregation that will not easily be erased even if every civil rights battle is won for the next ten years…
–James Farmer,

THE COOL WORLD… is a hauntingly bitter, savagely realistic yet not unpoetic look at a world you don’t know. You won’t be entertained by the film but you will be rewarded — if you don’t scare easily. Director Shirley Clarke… has, in every sense, authored a work of art… judged as a documentary study of the world’s foremost metropolitan jungle… ‘THECOOL WORLD’ is an unqualified success.
–Mike McGrady, Newsday

THE COOL WORLD is a loud, long and powerful cry of outrage at the world society has created for Harlem youngsters and at the human condition in the slum ghetto…
–Judith Crist, The New York Herald Tribune

27 April 2013

Věra Chytilová - Daisies (1966)


Věra Chytilová has embodied a unique cinematographic language and style that does not rely on any literary or verbal conventions, but rather utilizes various forms of visual manipulations to create meaning within her films. Chytilová uses observations of everyday life in accordance with allegories and surreal contexts to create a personalized film style that is greatly influenced by the French New Wave, and Italian Neo-Realism. Chytilová actively uses a filmic style that is similar to cinema verite in order to allow the audience to gain an outside perspective of the film. Her use of cinema verite is best illustrated in her 1966 film Daises in which these techniques create a “philosophical documentary, of diverting the spectator from the involvement, destroying psychology and accentuates the humor”. Through these manipulations Chytilová has created a legacy of creating a disjunctive viewing experience for her audience forcing them to question the meaning of her films.
Věra Chytilová is cited as a militant feminist filmmaker. Josef Skvorecky states that Chytilová “In a true feminist tradition Vera combined intensive intellectual effort with a feminine feeling for beauty and form”. Daises is seen as a feminist film due to its attitude and active critique of male attitudes towards sex However Chytilová does not see herself as a feminist filmmaker, but rather believes in individualism, stating that if a person does not believe in a particular set of conventions or rules then it is up to that individual to break them.

23 April 2013

Samira Makhmalbaf - At Five in the Afternoon




At Five in the Afternoon is the first feature film to made in a post-Taliban environment. Samira talks about her film to BBC, "I wanted to show reality, not the cliches on television saying that the US went to Afghanistan and rescued the people from the Taliban, that the US did a Rambo," said Makhmalbaf."Though the Taliban have gone, their ideas are anchored in peoples' minds, in their traditions and culture, there is still a big difference between men and women in Afghanistan." 
In an interview with BBC she talks about the difficulties that women directors face in Iran. "Traditionally, it is in the minds of everybody that a woman cannot be a film maker. It is therefore very much harder for a woman. Also, when you live in this kind of situation there is a danger that you can start to develop a similar mind-set and so the thing is to challenge this situation, and then slowly the situation will change also in the minds of others. I very much hope that in the advent of freedom and democracy Iran can produce many more women directors.

18 April 2013

07 January 2013

Shirley Clarke - Bridges-Go-Round (1958)

Clarke's film Bridges Go-Round (1959) is a major example of abstract expressionism in film, with two alternative soundtracks, one with electronic music by Louis and Bebe Barron and the other consisting of jazz created by Teo Macero. She used the camera to create a sense of motion while filming inanimate structures.