Noticias

Even by Kelly Reichardt’s disciplined standards, Certain Women brings the rigor. Opening credits are laid over a overhead static shot of a train making its way from the frame’s upper right corner to the bottom left; not quite James Benning’s Rr, but that gives some idea of Reichardt’s patience. The “certain women” of Montana have their stories told in three basically discrete segments (there are overlapping characters between each, but no greater cohesion as far as I could tell at first pass). Lawyer Laura (Laura Dern) represents an injured construction worker; unable to get the settlement he deserves, he takes a hostage for leverage. Laura’s sleeping with Ryan Lewis […]...

Even by Kelly Reichardt’s disciplined standards, Certain Women brings the rigor. Opening credits are laid over a overhead static shot of a train making its way from the frame’s upper right corner to the bottom left; not quite James Benning’s Rr, but that gives some idea of Reichardt’s patience. The “certain women” of Montana have their stories told in three basically discrete segments (there are overlapping characters between each, but no greater cohesion as far as I could tell at first pass). Lawyer Laura (Laura Dern) represents an injured construction worker; unable to get the settlement he deserves, he takes a hostage for leverage. Laura’s sleeping with Ryan Lewis […]...

"Charlie Brackett summed it up beautifully, I think, when he said that in Europe you could open a picture with clouds, dissolve slowly to clouds, and dissolve again to more clouds. In America, though, he said, you open with clouds, you then dissolve to an airplane, and in the next shot the airplane's gotta explode." —John Sturges

“The black sky was underpinned with long silver streaks that looked like scaffolding and depth on depth behind it were thousands of stars that all seemed to be moving very slowly as if they were about some vast construction work that involved the whole universe and would take all time to complete. No one was paying attention to the sky.” —Flannery O'Connor, Wise Blood

Who'd be a haruspex? In ancient Rome, members of this holy profession pored over the entrails of freshly slaughtered animals, seeking portents among blood and guts. Divination as a...

During a tightly packed press conference earlier this week, Ryan Reynolds (looking dapper and slightly bored) and Jeff Bridges (appearing relaxed and ever curious) delighted a crowd of journalists who were all probably a little more into the actors themselves than the movie they happened to be promoting - but that’s usually the case.

The proceedings were light-hearted with a few laughs as both actors seemed genuinely happy to be around each other again.

DC: Ryan, you’ve done a number comic book films now with Green Lantern, Blade: Trinity, X-Men: Origins, this one, hopefully Deadpool … Is there something about the genre that appeals to you? Do you find it more fun to act in films that aren’t necessarily grounded in reality? And Jeff, these are films that we don’t usually see you in. You’ve done Iron Man but comic films you really haven’t been a part of,...

To the extent that there can be a household name in contemporary avant-garde cinema, James Benning would be that guy right now. On paper, his work can sound harrowingly vapid; the worst case scenario for anyone who’s ever accused art house cinema of being ‘slow’ and ‘boring’. The thing is, they’re not. At all. In the same way that spending an hour at the beach, visiting the Grand Canyon, or having a meditation session could never be anything close to a ‘tedious’ experience, Benning’s films present patient viewers with all the grandeur, sublimity, and exhilaration of a first-hand encounter with the natural and material world. They also happen to be extremely complex and intelligent with regards to phenomenology, cinema history, and American ethnography.

In Edition Filmmuseum’s new 2-disc set – the second of a thorough project that will see the release of many of Benning’s key...

We have a report or two from the International Film Festival Rotterdam on the way, so this'll be something of a supplementary roundup, collecting reviews, impressions and so on from the festival that runs through Sunday. The first main event would have to be the world premiere of the film Takashi Miike is now calling Ace Attorney. The Iffr has posted a video record of Gawie Keyser's "Big Talk" with Miike that took place on Saturday. The introduction's in Dutch, and it's followed by a trailer with English subtitles (much longer, too, than the first trailer) and the conversation itself is a mingling of questions in English and answers in Japanese with Dutch subtitles. Miike obsessives, though, will be able to sort out what's being said.

"The Iffr and Miike have been friendly towards each other ever since Audition had a few legendary screenings over here back in 2000, and it...

"The guard is down and the mask is off, even more than in lone bedrooms where there's a mirror. People's faces are in naked repose down in the subway." —Walker Evans

"So, have you ever smoked?" I laughed when James Benning asked me this question at the end of our conversation. "Honestly, I've probably smoked about twenty cigarettes," I told him. "I'm a child of the 70s and 80s. Nancy Reagan told me to say ‘no.'" That was almost the full extent of our discussion of smoking, despite the fact that Benning's feature-length video, Twenty Cigarettes, is constructed solely of portraits of smokers. The duration of each of the twenty shots is determined by the length of time it takes each subject to light, smoke, and discard a cigarette. Benning composed each shot, staged the person in front of a flat backdrop, and then walked away from the camera.

Above: filmmaker Sharon Lockhart at Parker Pass in shot #11 of James Benning's Twenty Cigarettes.

James Benning largely eschews music in his films, but if there's one track which should have been used to accompany the latest work by the USA's leading avant-garde director—Twenty Cigarettes, comprising twenty shots of solo individuals each smoking a single cigarette—then (passing over The Platters' too-obvious Smoke Gets In Your Eyes) it's perhaps The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Take Five.

This is because the instrumental jazz classic—written by Paul Desmond in 1959 for the Quartet (whose magnificent drummer Joe Morello passed away March 11th)—gets its name partly from unusual 5/4 time-signature, and partly from the idea of "taking five" as in "taking a break." According to the Oxford English Dictionary, such usage dates back to 1929, and refers to "the approximate time it takes to smoke a cigarette.

The pace of modern life has...

James Benning will be on hand this evening for the Los Angeles premiere of his Rr (2007). "For the last 40 years Benning has been one of the great directors of American films," writes Phil Coldiron in the La Weekly, "and Rr is all the evidence anyone needs that as a chronicler of our country he deserves a place alongside Chaplin, Griffith, Ford and Wiseman. And the soundtrack, which includes everything from Dwight D Eisenhower to Woody Guthrie to 'Fuck tha Police' to Gregory Peck reading from the Book of Revelation, all on a lush bed of directly recorded ambient sound, is worth the price of admission."...

• Does Pixar stand a chance at receiving an Academy Award Best Picture nomination this year? Kudos go to the Los Angeles Critics Assn. for picking Wall-e as the best film of the year and for backing Zhang-Ke Jia's Still Life – a picture that received a limited release in January and is being honored as Best Foreign and Best Cinematography by the group. West coast folks also found plenty of things to like about Brit titles Slumdog Millionaire and Happy Go Lucky. Director: Danny Boyle, "Slumdog Millionaire"Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, "The Dark Knight” Actress: Sally Hawkins, "Happy-Go-Lucky"Runner-up: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River” Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk”Runner-up: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler” Screenplay: Mike Leigh, "Happy-Go-Lucky" Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, "Synecdoche, New York" Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" and "Elegy" Runner-up: Viola Davis, "Doubt" Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, "The Dark Knight" Runner-up: Eddie Marsan, "Happy-Go-Lucky" Foreign Language Film: "Still Life

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As Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) named the top achievements in 2008 on Tuesday, December 9, "Wall-e" comes out victorious, nailing the coveted title of the Best Picture of the Year. Winning over runner-up"The Dark Knight", the Andrew Stanton-directed film has become the first ever animation movie to be given the title by the association.

In the announcement made by Lael Loewenstein, President of the Lafca, it is also let out that Danny Boyle has been dubbed as Best Director for "Slumdog Millionaire", while Sean Penn has been hailed as Best Actor for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in "Milk". Moreover, other winners also include Best Actress Sally Hawkins, Best Supporting Actor Heath Ledger and Best Supporting Actress Penelope Cruz.

Though winners have been revealed, the 34th annual Los Angeles Film Critics Association awards itself will be presented on January 12 at the InterContinental hotel, Los Angeles. The ceremony are...

Photo: Walt Disney/Pixar The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (Lafca) announced their winners today and in a surprise turn the group voted to award Disney/Pixar's Wall-e as their Best Picture of 2008 and astonishingly have The Dark Knight as their runner-up. I say the decision is a surprise only because Wall-e had basically been counted out for no reason other than it was an animated feature, but the La crix have really bumped up against tradition and even including the "it will never be nominated because it's a comic book movie" as their runner-up. A great day if you ask me, it shows some serious growth, but the surprises don't stop there. For Best Actress Sally Hawkins took the prize for Happy-Go-Lucky and we haven't heard much of a peep about her since the film's early October release. Heath Ledger took Supporting Actor with Eddie Marsan, also of Happy-Go-Lucky,...

Per Movie City News:

Picture: “Wall-E” Runner-up: “The Dark Knight”

Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire” Runner-up: Christopher Nolan, “The Dark Knight”

Actor: Sean Penn, “Milk” Runner-up: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

Actress: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky” Runner-up: Melissa Leo, “Frozen River”

Supporting actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight” Runner-up: Eddie Marsan, “Happy-Go-Lucky”

Supporting actress: Penelope Cruz, “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and “Elegy” Runner-up: Viola Davis, “Doubt”

Screenplay: Mike Leigh, “Happy-Go-Lucky” Runner-up: Charlie Kaufman, “Synecdoche, New York”

Foreign-language film: “Still Life” Runner-up: “The Class”

Documentary: “Man on Wire” Runner-up: “Waltz With Bashir”

Animation: “Waltz With Bashir”

Cinematography: Yu Lik Wai, “Still Life” Runner-up: Anthony Dod Mantle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

Production design: Mark Friedberg, “Synecdoche, New York” Runner-up: Nathan Crowley, “The Dark Knight”

Music/score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire” Runner-up: Alexandre Desplat, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

New Generation: Steve McQueen, “Hunger”

Douglas E. Edwards independent/experimental film/video: James Benning, “RR” and “Casting a Glance”...

For the first time in its history, the Los Angeles Critics Assn. honored an animated film as the year's best picture when it chose Pixar's "WALL-E" in its annual voting Tuesday. Curiously, to spread the wealth, the group honored the Israeli "Waltz With Bashir" as its best animated film.

The group did a similar thing in 2000 when it honored the Chinese-language "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" as best picture while it selected the Taiwanese film "A One and a Two" as best foreign-language film.

The runner-up for best picture was Christopher Nolan's "The Dark Knight."

Otherwise, the awards were pretty much all over the place. The group selected Danny Boyle as best director for his Mumbai melody of drama, comedy and emotions, "Slumdog Millionaire." Runner-up was David Fincher for "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

Sally Hawkins won as best actress for her role as the irrepressible schoolteacher in "Happy-Go-Lucky.