News

What do Jonathan Glazer, Miguel Gomes, and now, Karyn Kusama all have in common? A shared appreciation for Spanish auteur Luis Buñuel.

During a visit to the Criterion Closet, “Jennifer’s Body” director Kusama cited how Buñuel played with power onscreen, especially in his satirical films focusing on the elite class. Kusama selected features that all dealt with the theme of power: who has it, who is seeking it, and who deploys it.

“Back to that notion of power, I feel like somebody who’s really always poked fun at it and done a great job of exploring it with humor and surrealism is Luis Buñuel,” Kusama said. “There’s a Buñuel set of three films: ‘Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,’ ‘The Phantom of Liberty,’ and ‘That Obscure Object of Desire,’ all in one set. I’m going to get that and have my mind blown again.”

Buñuel directed 35 movies between...

Above: Official poster by Yves Tinguely for the 12th New York Film Festival in 1974.The twelfth edition of the New York Film Festival, which took place 50 years ago this week, in September 1974, could have been convincingly called the New York European Film Festival. Out of the seventeen new feature films playing, all but two were European: seven French, three German, two Italian, two Swiss, and one British. Though festival director Richard Roud wrote in the program that “one of the most exciting developments in world cinema these past two years has been the re-emergence of the American film,” there was in fact only one American film in the main lineup (the world premiere of John Cassavetes’s A Woman Under the Influence) though there was also a program of four American shorts by Mirra Bank, Martha Coolidge, William Greaves, and an exciting upstart named Martin Scorsese. There was just one...

With the third installment of their Danza Macabra series, the fine, twisted folks at Severin Films shift focus from the boot of Italy to the Iberian peninsula. This collection spotlights four fascinating Spanish examples of the sort of moody gothic filmmaking that Italian directors like Mario Bava and Antonio Margheriti, not to mention Hammer Films in Britain, helped to popularize for international markets.

Rife with reptilian monsters, vampires, zombified Knights Templar, and even a cameo from Frankenstein and his misbegotten creation, these films vary considerably in tone and approach, ranging from rambling shaggy-dog tales to almost esoteric fables. They also differ in how far they’re willing to go with their respective lashings of sex and violence, growing bolder as the restrictions of the Franco regime lifted after the dictator’s passing in 1975.

Writer-director Miguel Madrid’s schizoid Necrophagous, from 1971, divides its time between two principal storylines that barely cohere in the end.

Med Hondo’s 1979 musical extravaganza West Indies: The Fugitive Slaves of Liberty is a satirical skewering of the legacy of French imperialism in the West Indies and beyond. From the outset, it defies categorization through its distinct sense of free association as it leaps from one colorful image to the next, often shunning context along the way. Throughout Hondo’s film, the xenophobic and racist rhetoric of haughty, predominately white French aristocrats, bureaucrats, and citizens is combatted, challenged, or lampooned by various African figures. Some are slaves, some are revolutionaries, while some are simply power hungry. The result is a deliriously iconoclastic anti-colonialist work that’s worthy of the finest films from roughly the same period by Ousmane Sembene and Dijbril Diop Mambéty.

Adapted by Hondo and Daniel Boukman from the latter’s novel Les Negriers, West Indies traces an epic history of colonial oppression and enslavement in the West Indies,...

Netflix is bringing 1974 back to theaters thanks to rare archival prints, restorations, and select 35mm screenings of the curated “Milestone Movies” streaming collection.

The streaming platform debuts a slew of classic films across its trio of theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. The rarely screened archival prints for Martin Scorsese’s “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” are among the selected titles, as well as the premiere of the Dcp restoration of iconic Blaxploitation film “Foxy Brown” starring Pam Grier.

The screening series marks the 50th anniversaries of the 1974 films, which were unveiled as part of Netflix’s inaugural (and Criterion Channel-esque) curation channel “Milestone Movies: The Anniversary Collection,” which was unveiled in January 2024. Fifteen films will screen at the Paris Theater in New York from March 22 through 28, as 12 films screen at the Egyptian Theatre in Los Angeles from March 11 through...

To cite Monica Vitti as an icon, following her death in Rome this week at 90, is somehow unsatisfying. She could never be summed up as something so inert — she was far too vividly alive. If her sensuality has been called “chilly,” it nonetheless animated every frame she stood in or fast-tapped through in high heels. If the landscapes her greatest creative partner Michelangelo Antonioni directed her across were at times sprawling or forbidding, she always held the eye, whether with a look or a highly kinetic outburst.

To a young film buff crammed into a swaybacked seat at a Manhattan arthouse, beholding her for the first time was to risk a schoolboy crush. She’s been called “Impossibly lovely” on this site, and that’s true enough — impossible, and yet there she is onscreen. The sturdy lips forming a blossom of a mouth, the eyes that seem focused just a...

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Monica Vitti in Red Desert (1964). (Courtesy of Janus Films)One of the most captivating presences in Italian cinema, actress Monica Vitti has died at age 90. She started as a stage and television actor before becoming known for her roles in Michelangelo Antonioni's L'avventura (1960), La notte (1960), L'eclisse (1962) and Red Desert (1964). After the end of her professional and romantic relationship with Antonioni (the two would return for The Mystery of Oberwald in 1980), Vitti turned to lighter fare by international directors, including a small part in Luis Buñuel's surrealist comedy The Phantom of Liberty (1974). In the official announcement of Vitti's death, Italy’s culture minister Dario Franceschini wrote, “Goodbye to the queen of Italian cinema.”The groundbreaking artist James Bidgood, whose artistic output spanned from photography and music to films like Pink Narcissus (1971), has also died.

Monica Vitti, the Italian screen icon known for a string of 1960s classics, died Wednesday at 90, according to reports in Italy.

The news was conveyed by writer, director and politician Walter Veltroni on behalf of Vitti’s husband, Roberto Russo:

Roberto Russo, il suo compagno di tutti questi anni, mi chiede di comunicare che Monica Vitti non c’è più. Lo faccio con dolore, affetto, rimpianto.

— walter veltroni (@VeltroniWalter) February 2, 2022

The feted actress, best known for movies including L’Avventura (1960), Red Desert (1964), L’Eclisse (1962) and La Notte (1961), had been battling Alzheimer’s disease for two decades.

Born Maria Luisa Ceciarelli on November 3, 1931, in Rome, Vitti acted in amateur productions as a teenager then trained at Rome’s National Academy of Dramatic Arts.

The actress shot to global fame following spectacular collaborations with legendary director Michelangelo Antonioni in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Vitti starred in L’Avventura as a detached and...

Aleph director Iva Radivojević: “The idea is that each character leaves us off with a clue as to where we’re going next.”

On the afternoon of the 93rd Academy Awards, a reference to David Lynch and a scene in Mulholland Drive, Luis Buñuel’s The Phantom Of Liberty, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives and Luminous People (segment in State of the World), Likes And Dislikes by Roland Barthes, Andy Warhol, Alain Resnais, Aleph’s narrator Anne Waldman, and a short story by Jorge Luis Borges all came up in my conversation with Iva Radivojevic, the director/writer/editor/ of Aleph, a highlight of the 50th anniversary edition of New Directors/New Films.

Iva Radivojević on Jorge Luis Borges’ Aleph: “I used the story, the myth of this portal of Aleph as a starting point, the search for this portal. The whole film starts...

Jean-Claude Carrière, who died Monday at 89 at his home in Paris of natural causes, had a prolific, six-decade career. The French screenwriter and novelist penned dozens of scripts, including “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie.”

Among his more late-in-life projects was co-writing with Jonathan Glazer and Milo Addica the 2004 drama “Birth.” Glazer, who also directed the film, shared with IndieWire a remembrance of Carrière, in which he reflected on how the pair developed the idea:

Ten years after the sudden death of her husband, a woman gets a visit from a ten year old boy claiming to be his reincarnation. That’s pretty much all I had. My producer at the time sent it to Jean-Claude and he invited me to his house in Paris. I was very nervous. He said he liked the idea very much. Within a few minutes, I watched him...

Legendary screenwriter collaborated with scores of filmmakers including Jacques Tati, Luis Buñuel, Milos Foreman and Louis Malle.

French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière, whose 60-year career spanned more than 150 writer credits and collaborations with Jacques Tati, Luis Buñuel, Milos Foreman and Louis Malle, has died in Paris aged 89.

Born into a family of winegrowers in south-western France, Carrière moved to the outskirts of Paris at the age of 14 when his parents took over the running of a bar.

After obtaining a degree in history and literature, he embarked on a writing career, publishing debut novel Lezard in 1957. Set against the backdrop of a restaurant in the suburbs,...

Jean-Claude Carriere, the prolific French screenwriter and novelist who was Oscar-nominated for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being,” “That Obscure Object of Desire” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie,” died Monday at his home in Paris. He was 89.

His family confirmed his death, of natural causes, to Afp.

Carriere was a frequent collaborator with Luis Bunuel, writing the screenplays for “Diary of a Chambermaid,” in which he also played the village priest, ” “Belle de Jour,” “The Milky Way” and “The Phantom of Liberty” as well as the international arthouse hits and Oscar nominees “That Obscure Object of Desire” and “The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeousie.”

In an interview for “The Storytellers,” Carriere talked about how close his relationship became with Bunuel, “It was a very close relationship. We were always alone in some remote place, often in Mexico or Spain, talking French and Spanish, without friends, without women, without wives.

All hail the cinematic delights of Luis Buñuel, a world-class directing genius whose work ranges from insightfully impish to point-blank outrageous. Driven from Spain by Fascists and from New York by commie hunters, he found a cinematic haven in Mexico, adapting his surreal mindset to popular film forms. These final three French features embrace the surrealist ethos, where a coherent narrative is optional. We definitely recognize our ‘rational’ world; Buñuel’s high art simply tells the truth.

Three Films by Luis Buñuel

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, That Obscure Object of Desire

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 102. 290, 143

1972-1977 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date January 5, 2021 / 99.95

Cinematography: Edmond Richard

Production Designer: Pierre Guffroy

Film Editor: Hélène Plemiannikov

Written by Luis Buñuel, Jean-Claude Carrière

Produced by Serge Silberman

Directed by Luis Buñuel

Tracking down the films of Luis Buñuel has been an ongoing effort.

The Criterion Collection will be heralding in 2021 with a mix of new and old. First up, Bing Liu’s stellar documentary Minding the Gap will be joining the collection, as will another documentary, Martin Scorsese’s playful Rolling Thunder Revue. Also arriving is a three-film Luis Buñuel box set focusing on his late career, featuring The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie, The Phantom of Liberty, and That Obscure Object of Desire. Larisa Shepitko’s final, harrowing feature The Ascent will also be getting a release.

Check out the cover art and special features below, and see more on Criterion’s website.

New high-definition digital master, approved by director Bing Liu, with 5.1 surround DTS-hd Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-rayNew audio commentary featuring Liu and documentary subjects Keire Johnson and Zack MulliganNew follow-up conversation between Liu and documentary subject Nina BowgrenNew programs featuring interviews with professional skateboarder Tony Hawk and with Liu,...

Luis Buñuel (left) and Jean-Claude Carrière (right).“The screenplay is not the last stage of a literary journey. It is the first stage of a film.” —Jean-Claude Carrière, The Secret Language of FilmThe screenwriting career of Jean-Claude Carrière begins with a gag. Or, it at least seems like a gag that one of the most prolific and distinguished of French screenwriters should have gotten his start by doing the very opposite of what he became known for—that is, by writing novelizations of two films. Having just published his first novel Lizard in 1957, the 25-year-old Carrière was approached by his publisher Robert Laffont to enter a curious writing contest. The prize? A commission to turn Jacques Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday (1953) and Mon Oncle (1958)—the latter still in production at the time—into written works. Recalling the incident later on, Carrière writes: “I agreed, and won—thus deciding, although...

Cinema St. Louis presents the 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival which takes place March 8-10, 15-17, and 22-24, 2019. The location this year is Washington University’s Brown Hall Auditorium, Forsyth & Skinker boulevards.

The 11th Annual Robert Classic French Film Festival — presented by TV5MONDE and produced by Cinema St. Louis — celebrates St. Louis’ Gallic heritage and France’s cinematic legacy. The featured films span the decades from the 1930s through the 1990s, offering a revealing overview of French cinema. The fest annually includes significant restorations, and this year features seven such works: Pierre Schoendoerffer “The 317th Platoon,” Marcel Pagnol’s “The Baker’s Wife,” Olivier Assayas’ “Cold Water,” Jacques Becker’s “The Hole,” Jacques Rivette’s “The Nun,” Agnés Varda’s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” and Diane Kurys’ “Peppermint Soda.” The schedule is rounded out by Robert Bresson’s final film, “L’argent,” and two 1969 films celebrating...

A version of this story about “Donbass” first appeared in the Foreign Language Issue of TheWrap’s Oscar magazine.

The war in eastern Ukraine between the government and the Russian-backed Donetsk People’s Republic is the subject of Sergei Loznitsa’s acidic and episodic film “Donbass,” part black comedy and part tragedy.

The film, which looks at the violence and corruption at every level of society, is Ukraine’s submission in this year’s Oscar foreign-language race. This interview with the prolific director, who has released three movies this year, is part of a series of conversations TheWrap had with the directors of contending films.

Also Read: 'Donbass' Review: Jarring War Film Reminds Us That No One Is Safe

I understand the film was inspired by YouTube videos.

Sergei Loznitsa: For the script, I did use some YouTube videos which I have seen. Or propaganda videos on the news.

Four late films by Luis Buñuel are showing from February 22 - March 28, 2018 in the United States in the retrospective Buñuel.“Chance governs all things.”—Luis Buñuel, My Last SighStriving for the surprising has always been a prevailing part of Luis Buñuel’s aesthetic practice. At first, this endeavor manifest itself in overtly incongruous visual terms, with the succession of shocking and often inexplicable images that dominate his earliest efforts, namely Un chien andalou (1929) and L'âge d'or (1930). After these two surrealist masterworks, though, both of which Buñuel made in collaboration with the movement’s eminent enforcer, Salvador Dalí, the director’s output went in a decidedly more systematic direction. The films Buñuel made in Mexico, twenty of them from the late 1940s into the early 1960s, could at times be just as provocative as anything else filling his filmography, but their formal and tonal constitution was comparatively tame and, dare one say it regarding Buñuel,...

The BBFC's reaction to The Human Centipede 2 suggests that sexual sadism no longer bothers us, but defecation does

The BBFC's outright rejection of The Human Centipede 2 (Full Sequence) in June surprised some. The film's predecessor, The Human Centipede (First Sequence), was passed uncut last year. It too featured human beings sewn together mouth-to-anus so they shared a common alimentary system, but unlike its successor it was disturbingly realistic. Expert advice ensured that the experiment it depicted would actually have worked. Any filmgoers in danger of being depraved and corrupted into emulating what they'd seen were thus presented with a workable blueprint.

The new film, on the other hand, is outright farce. Its protagonist isn't a distinguished surgeon but a dim-witted car-park attendant. He makes no attempt to provide his victims with the nutritional supplements they would require, or even with water. He anaesthetises them with a tyre iron and attaches...

Le Point and L'Express are among the French news outlets reporting that Marie-France Pisier has died at her home in Saint Cyr sur Mer at the age of 66. First mention is generally going to her work with François Truffaut; her debut, after all, was in his Antoine and Colette, a short film that was part of the 1962 anthology Love at Twenty and she would reprise the role in Stolen Kisses (1968) and Love on the Run (1979). The film many will be thinking of today, though, is Jacques Rivette's Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974). In 1981, Julia Lesage described her role in the film's development: "Script credit is given to Juliet Berto, Dominique Labourier, Bulle Ogier, Marie-France Pisier, and Jacques Rivette…. According to Berto, she and Labourier imagined creating a combination of Persona and What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? in a film with two female protagonists. Berto said, 'Each...

French actor, novelist and director who starred in films by Truffaut and Buñuel

Those who followed the adventures of Antoine Doinel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud) in a series of lyrical and semi-autobiographical films directed by François Truffaut – incorporating adolescence, marriage, fatherhood and divorce – will know that Doinel's first and (perhaps) last love, Colette Tazzi, was played by the stunningly beautiful Marie-France Pisier, who has been found dead aged 66 in the swimming pool of her house near Toulon, in southern France.

Doinel and audiences first caught sight of Pisier in Antoine et Colette, Truffaut's enchanting 32-minute contribution to the omnibus film L'Amour à Vingt Ans (Love at Twenty, 1962), during a concert at the Salle Pleyel in Paris of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. She is conscious of Antoine's stares, and pulls down her skirt. We soon realise that Colette is going to break Antoine's heart.

Léaud and Pisier were born in...

Director: Karel Žalud Writer: Karel Žalud The Phantom of Liberty (Le fantôme de la liberté) was a surrealist masterpiece directed by Luis Bunuel, released in 1974. Phantom of Liberty II – directed by Karel Žalud – is only related to Bunuel’s film in name and its surrealist kinship. Otherwise, the two films are completely different – for one, Phantom of Liberty II is a documentary of sorts. It begins with a lightening storm. The camera finds its way to a cross which is burning over a tombstone. The tombstone has the inscription “You who are lost, keep you spirits up for hope is near.” From a close-up of the burning cross, we are transported to a close-up of a cremation furnace. Once we zoom out, we are inside a crematorium. We are the camera as we wander around the space. It seems a man is conducting an interview, and that man might be part of our filmmaking team.