Jasmine

Slow Cinema

"Filmmakers isolate time (as in the empty hallway shots in films by Yasujiro Ozu, images in which nothing appears to be happening); embody time (the “tirednesses and waitings” of Antonioni, as the philosopher Gilles Deleuze put it); make time stutter (the jump cuts in Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless); slow it down (the long takes of Bela Tarr); and deconstruct it (as the avant-garde filmmaker Ken Jacobs does). Without going too deeply down an academic rabbit hole let’s acknowledge that when we talk about ostensibly slow and boring films, the terms of debate extend beyond issues of entertainment.

Deleuze, for instance, distinguishes between pre-World War II cinema, in which time was subordinate to movement (the passage of time obscured through classical techniques like those of continuity editing), and postwar cinema, in which a direct vision of time emerges. In this new cinema — with its discontinuities, sense of interiority and seer-subjects — time appears “for itself,” becomes something movies confront even if their characters (and maybe we too) don’t know what it means. And so characters in L'Avventura wander around and forget that a woman has disappeared, and Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, stuck in her horror of a life turning tricks out of her dismal middle-class home, makes a meat loaf in real time we share. They are, as Deleuze puts it, “struck by something intolerable in the world, and confronted by something unthinkable in thought.” Sometimes a slow movie is just a slow movie, but sometimes it’s also a window onto the world." - M. DARGIS, 2011.

Marlan Rosa

Unfolded Gold

Access Granted

ACCESS GRANTED

Halfway through 2010, it has already been a really beautiful and unique year for music and film releases.
Here are the top 15 of each so far.






















TOP 15 DVD & BLU-RAY:

1. Red Desert - MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI
2. Close-Up - ABBAS KIAROSTAMI
3. Contempt - JEAN-LUC GODARD
4. Chantal Akerman In The Seventies - CHANTAL AKERMAN
5. 8 1/2 - FEDERICO FELLINI
6. Lola Montès - MAX OPHÜLS
7. Vivre Sa Vie - JEAN-LUC GODARD
8. Days Of Heaven - TERRENCE MALICK
9. Tetro - FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA
10. The Beaches Of Agnès - AGNÈS VARDA
11. Shadows Of Forgotten Ancestors - SERGEI PARADJANOV
12. Katalin Varga - PETER STRICKLAND
13. A Star Is Born - GEORGE CUKOR
14. Une Femme Mariée - JEAN-LUC GODARD
15. World On A Wire - RAINER WERNER FASSBINDER























TOP 15 MUSIC:

1. Nº 3 - JJ
2. Stridulum - ZOLA JESUS
3. Rhizomes - EFFI BRIEST
4. Thank Me Later - DRAKE
5. Have One On Me - JOANNA NEWSOM
6. Clinging To A Scheme - THE RADIO DEPT
7. Does It Look Like I'm Here? - EMERALDS
8. New Amerykah Part Two - ERYKAH BADU
9. Heligoland - MASSIVE ATTACK
10. Teen Dream - BEACH HOUSE
11. High Places Vs. Mankind - HIGH PLACES
12. Cosmogramma - FLYING LOTUS
13. Nothing Else - LORN
14. Things Fall Apart - MARK MCGUIRE
15. Love And Its Opposite - TRACEY THORN

The Auteurs

THE AUTEURS

Of the countless great directors this world has seen, these are quite simply the greatest. Without them, our world and my life would not be the same.























MICHELANGELO ANTONIONI






















JEAN-LUC GODARD

ABBAS KIAROSTAMI


















CARL TH. DREYER

















FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT

Once In A Lifetime

ONCE IN A LIFETIME

The other day I was catching up on Roger Ebert's always entertaining blog, when I came across something that I've been thinking about ever since. In the first of his Cannes updates, he wrote, "Fifty years ago, the Palme d'Or winner at Cannes was Fellini's La Dolce Vita. More every year I realize that it was the film of my lifetime."

There is something so haunting about these two sentences to me. But also something so dramatic, so stately, and so poetic. Aside from the way in which he said it, let's think for a minute about what he said. The film of my lifetime. This is what I have been thinking about off and on (a/k/a nonstop) ever since I read it.

What is the film of my lifetime? What is the film of yours?

I still don't have the answer. Maybe because there are many I haven't seen or because they haven't been made yet. Or maybe because I tend to change my mind so much about things like this (but who doesn't?). Or maybe because a lot of the films I would immediately want to list are not from my lifetime. I would want to say Last Year At Marienbad for its endless and inexplicable mysteries. Or A Time To Live And A Time To Die for being entirely flawless and showing us what life is really like. Or Fanny And Alexander because it is that one film that you want to jump straight through the screen and live inside of. Or One From The Heart (this blog's namesake), for its impossibly gigantic and unmatched neon sense of magic, romance, and big dreams. Or Red Desert for its sad factories, overt modernity, and industrial beauty. Or Ordet because there is nothing more pure in all of cinema.

But my lifetime?

There are certainly a handful of films that come to mind that excited me or changed me or made me forget about everything else. The more I think about it, I'm pretty sure Roger was not referring to his favorite film or even what he considers the greatest. I think what he means are those films that come along and leave their mark on you, that stay with you for hours, days, months.. even years after seeing them. Films on such a grand scale that do nothing short of take your breath away, make you forget who you are, or where you came from. Those that change everything: erasing the past, obscuring the present, and igniting the future. With that being said, here are ten that come to mind.. from my lifetime.

















ANTICHRIST, dir. Lars Von Trier, 2009
















สัตว์ประหลาด (TROPICAL MALADY), dir. Apichatpong Weerasethakul, 2002

















WERCKMEISTER HARMÓNIÁK, dir. Béla Tarr, 2000













ÜÇ MAYMUN, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, 2008
















SHIRIN, dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 2008















YI YI: A ONE AND A TWO, dir. Edward Yang, 2000


















LOST IN TRANSLATION, dir. Sofia Coppola, 2003




















STELLET LICHT, dir. Carlos Reygadas, 2007

















طعم گيلاس (TASTE OF CHERRY), dir. Abbas Kiarostami, 1997


















花樣年華 (IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE), dir. Wong Kar-Wai, 2000

Death Of The Shadow

DEATH OF THE SHADOW

Ten For EST

TEN FOR EASTERN STANDARD TIME

Writer's block/vacation/winter has kept me away from this site for a week. I haven't had one thing in particular that I've been focused on writing about- too many things happened in the past week and my brain is on overload. Here are a few things that have been on my mind:


















1. POMMES FRITES AT BALTHAZAR
The best meal by I had by far in the city this past weekend.. Croque Monsieur/Madame? and french fries so good I can't even remember the words In 'N Out Burger.





2. ONE OF THE NICEST THINGS ANYONE HAS EVER SAID TO ME
I received an email from someone who I am a big fan of and it has totally made my week.


















3. HILLARY CLINTON IN THE PERSIAN GULF
Hillary at her best: stonefaced, bold, and empowered. A strength that never falters, inspiration that grows and grows.














4. TYPE RECORDS 53, 54, & 55
Type has established itself as one of the finest and most cohesive labels out there right now. I am reminded of how Touch used to be maybe 7 or 8 years ago- everything from the covers, the music, and the sense of lost/forgotten yesterdays is in complete synchronicity. Alphabet 1968 by Black To Comm, Give It Up by Zelienople, and Landings by Richard Skelton. Coming soon is the final record by The Yellow Swans which is sure to be a classic.



















5. THE ROLLING STONES
I can't stop listening to them. I often forget just how powerful Let It Bleed really is. Gimme Shelter, You Got The Silver, Monkey Man, Live With Me.... songs don't get much better than this.
















6. "THE ENDING, FOR SIMPLY BEING ITSELF WITHOUT APOLOGIES, IS PEERLESS"
The latest Top 10 list for Criterion comes from Michael Atkinson. The quote is from his thoughts on Kiarostami's A Taste Of Cherry. This film has been on my mind a lot lately, but I've never been able to think of words that can describe it as perfectly as this.



















7. GARANCE DORÉ & SCOTT SCHUMAN AT BAND OF OUTSIDERS
Two of the three reasons I started writing again in the first place (the other would be Gwyneth Paltrow) in person. I was so not expecting to see them that night (I was really only looking for Kirsten Dunst), but when they walked past I could have fainted. To see them at my first fashion show, and to have my first show be my favorite designer.. too much for one night is all I can say.















8. ROGER EBERT
There is a heartbreaking feature on Robert in the latest issue of Esquire, written by Jeff Labrecque. Speechless, but still so much to say. A dedication and love for the cinema that is simply unequaled. I still make it a habit to check for a new Great Movie every two weeks. Keep strong, Roger.. we still need you.


















9. MARC BY MARC JACOBS PRIMARY COLORS BLAZER
At Barneys this weekend, this blazer completely jumped off the rack at me. I completely fell in love with it and it just might have to be one of the VERY FEW purchases I am allowing myself for the rest of the year.



















10. "SORRY ANGEL"
I first really fell in love with this song when Charlotte sang it last month, but the more and more I listen to her dad's version I love it even more. Such a perfect song.