New short film: The Lillies Are Just Around The Corner [video]

 

A strange hitman picture.

Rouzbeh Rashidi's 3rd zero budget feature film, Bipedality (2010), can be watched here...

Rouzbeh Rashidi's third zero-budget feature film "Bipedality (2010)", featuring Dean Kavanagh & Julia Gelezova, can be watched here: www.youtu.be/xYXSPEhVr5U

"Total cast and crew of three people including the actor and actress. There wasn't any script or pre-writing planning for this film and all the shots were taken only one time without any rehearsal but occasionally actors were given notes to read in order to provoke certain feelings and then filmed the scene straight away. The three main segments of the film were shot in only three days but the inserts and pillow-shots were taken over a full year in various parts of Ireland."

 

 

www.experimentalfilmsociety.com

Aki Kaurismaki's Match Factory Girl [Stills]

Kaurismäki took his penchant for despairing character studies to unspeakably grim depths in the shockingly entertaining The Match Factory Girl. Kati Outinen is memorably impenetrable as Iris, whose grinding days as a cog in a factory wheel, and nights as a neglected daughter living with her parents, ultimately send her over the edge. Yet despite her transgressions, Kaurismäki makes Iris a compelling, even sympathetic figure. Bleak yet suffused with comic irony, The Match Factory Girl closes out the “Proletariat Trilogy” with a bang—and a whimper. —The Criterion Collection

The Great Acting Blog: "The Acting In Fassbinder's Fear Of Fear"

Fassbinder's Fear Of Fear is a quite brilliant tale about Margot, whose harmonious family life with husband Kurt and daughter Bibi, unravels as she begins to suffer from anxiety attacks leading to alcoholism, an illicit affair, and a spell in a mental hospital. Margit Carstensen's performance as Margot is sensational, and marked as it is by a spectacular emotional acuity. However, one of the really striking aspects about this film is the general excellence of all the performances; from Irm Hermann and Brigitte Mira as Carstensen's nagging in-laws, to Adrian Hoven's seduce-and-destroy Doctor Merck, to all the performances in between, each possesses a precision and intensity.

I wondered how these performances were arrived at, and so had a little nose around the internet, but could find precious little about Fassbinder's thoughts on the subject. However, I did find this comment he made about working on Berlin Alexanderplatz, which may help to explain his general conceptions about acting: - 

"I find it awful when a person in a film talks the way people talk in real life. In my opinion that robs a thought of its general force. It eliminates the general state of fearfulness. How should I put it? It reduces everything to something the moviegoer can reject, simply because he doesn’t happen to speak this dialect, doesn’t move this particular way in real life. In my opinion artificiality offers the only possibility for giving a broad spectrum of moviegoers access to the specific world of an artistic work".

It's hard to know what process Fassbinder and his actors went through, but due to their predominantly theatrical background, one would assume that there would have been a decent rehearsal period, which means that there was an opportunity to shape the performances, fitting them into Fassbinder's overall vision for the film. Furthermore, Fassbinder wrote the script himself, and so would have created the structure he wanted the performances to slot into. This all helps to create the uniformity of style which the actor's performances possess. This, coupled with the considerable talents of the actors Fassbinder employed, would help to explain the general level of excellence. But what of the style?  I would describe the acting in Fear Of Fear as distilled; there is a clarity of idea and action in each scene, which leads to very precise intentions, everything we see the actors do is deliberate, and therefore meaningful. Fassbinder blocks the actors very carefully, almost to the point of choreography. This all adds up to the "artificiality" Fassbinder mentions - we are witnessing performances rather than snap-shots of life. This artificiality is characteristic of "the specific world of an artistic work", or, put another way, artificiality renders a work artistic. 

Margit Carstensen in Fassbinder's Fear Of Fear [1975]

My Film Of 2012 ....

Intriguing, unusual and simple, great performances, stunning black & white.

The Face Of Another: "Kati Outinen"

The Great Acting Blog: "My 5 Favourite Performances Of 2012"

Irene Jacob in The Dust Of Time (Theo Angelopoulos)

An epic performance by Jacob, in a film which spans decades. She not only manages the shift in age without fuss, but she also delivers a performance of astonishing sensitivity but which is neither self-pitying nor self-promoting - it's honest and true. An example of the high artistry which acting can be.

I blogged more fully on Irene Jacob in "The Shy Poetry Of Irene Jacob"

Andre Wilms in Le Havre (Aki Kaurismaki)

A wonderful example of laid-back-cut-the-crap simplicity, which sits perfectly in the cinematic universe of Aki Kaurismaki. Wilms plays an aging ex-bohemian-turned-shoe-shiner, who hides an immigrant on the run from the police. Every moment of Wilm's performance rings utterly true, and, along with his charm, creates something warming and moving.

Thomas Doret in The Kid With A Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)

An immensely powerful performance from Doret, playing an abandoned and unloved 12 year old. His scenes of rejection are heartbreaking, as is his scene involving a show of self-loathing. Doret resists the temptation to embellish his scenes with exposition and manipulate the audience, instead he is direct, and this directness is the true source of his power in this performance. Doret went a long way in changing my generally negative view of child actors. 

I blogged more fully on Doret's performance here

Denis Lavant in Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

Lavant plays a whole range of characters from an assasin to a beggar to a monster to a family man, and all during one night. It's a great role for any actor, but to which Lavant brings his intense physicality and innate strangeness. It's a unique, bravura performance, which must be seen to be believed.

Teresa Madruga in Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

Madruga's performance is marked by a sadness, and a lonliness, and which is rarely displayed openly, it is more a question of Madruga's prescence, as when she finds out a student who was meant to be staying with her now isn't, we feel her disappointment rather than see it. It is also a performance which is inflected by the film's visuals; director Gomes employs a magnificent black and white, and often the camera is static, which creates an emptiness and emotional flatness.

The Great Acting Blog: "My 5 Favourite Performances Of 2012"

Irene Jacob in The Dust Of Time (Theo Angelopoulos)

An epic performance by Jacob, in a film which spans decades. She not only manages the shift in age without fuss, but she also delivers a performance of astonishing sensitivity but which is neither self-pitying nor self-promoting - it's honest and true. An example of the high artistry which acting can be.

I blogged more fully on Irene Jacob in "The Shy Poetry Of Irene Jacob"

Andre Wilms in Le Havre (Aki Kaurismaki)

A wonderful example of laid-back-cut-the-crap simplicity, which sits perfectly in the cinematic universe of Aki Kaurismaki. Wilms plays an aging ex-bohemian-turned-show-shiner, who hides an immigrant on the run from the police. Every moment of Wilm's performance rings utterly true, and, along with his charm, creates something warming and moving.

Tomas Doret in The Kid With A Bike (Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne)

An immensely powerful performance from Doret, playing an abandoned and unloved 12 year old. His scenes of rejection are heartbreaking, as is his scene involving a show of self-loathing. Doret resists the temptation to embellish his scenes with exposition and manipulate the audience, instead he is direct, and this directness is the true source of his power in this performance. Doret went a long way in changing my generally negative view of child actors. 

I blogged more fully on Doret's performance here

Denis Lavant in Holy Motors (Leos Carax)

Lavant plays a whole range of characters from an assasin to a beggar to a monster to a family man, and all during one night. It's a great role for any actor, but to which Lavant brings his intense physicality and innate strangeness. It's a unique, bravura performance, which must be seen to be believed.

Teresa Madruga in Tabu (Miguel Gomes)

Madruga's performance is marked by a sadness, and a lonliness, and which is rarely displayed openly, it is more a question of Madruga's prescence, as when she finds out a student who was meant to be staying with her now isn't, we feel her disappointment rather than see it. It is also a performance which is inflected by the film's visuals; director Gomes employs a magnificent black and white, and often the camera is static, which creates an emptiness and emotional flatness.

Eleven Zero Budget Feature Films by Rouzbeh Rashidi Online Now!

Rouzbeh Rashidi has released all of his eleven zero-budget feature films from 2008 to 2011 online (Unlisted: Anyone with the link can view + HD viewing is recommended). Watch the entire films HERE:

1_Light & Quiet (2008)

2_Only Human (2009)

3_Bipedality (2010)

4_Reminiscences of Yearning (2011)

5_Zoetrope (2011)

6_Closure of Catharsis (2011)

7_Cremation of an Ideology (2011)

8_tenebrous city & ill-lighted mortals (2011)

9_Filmore (2011)

10_Immanence Deconstruction of Us (2011)

11_Jean Speck (1860-1933) (2011)

Via Experimental Film Society

Le Doulos Poster Art

https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-NgU78zIUICc/TWyAQGRrt6I/AAAAAAAAARI/J2d6r0...

THIS IS THE FILM: Jiri Menzel's Closely Observed Trains

 

At a village railway station in occupied Czechoslovakia, a bumbling dispatcher’s apprentice longs to liberate himself from his virginity. Oblivious to the war and the resistance that surrounds him, this young man embarks on a journey of sexual awakening and self-discovery, encountering a universe of frustration, eroticism, and adventure within his sleepy backwater depot. Wry and tender, Academy Award™-winning Closely Watched Trains is a masterpiece of human observation and one of the best-loved films of the Czech New Wave. —The Criterion Collection

 

JIŘÍ MENZEL

With his debut feature film Closely Watched Trains (1966), Czechoslovakian filmmaker Jirí Menzel became an important member in Czech New Wave cinema and won an Academy Award. Menzel started out as an assistant director and occasional actor for Vera Chytilova following his graduation from the Prague film school F.A.M.U. In 1965, Menzel directed an episode (“The Death of Mr. Baltazar”) for the feature anthology Pearls of the Deep, a tribute to distinguished Czech author Bohumil Hrabal. Later that year, he contributed an episode in a similar tribute to the writings of Josef Skvorecky, Crime at the Girls School. Following the success of Closely Watched Trains, Menzel directed Capricious Summer (1968) and turned in a great performance as a tightrope walker (Menzel is actually an accomplished balancer and performs regularly on-stage). In 1969, he made Larks on a String, considered by many to be his best work. Unfortunately, its critical stance on Communism led to its being banned from release until 1990 when it played internationally. Because the film was banned, Menzel was barred from filmmaking until 1974 when he publicly announced that he supported Communism. He then made Who Looks for Gold?, but has since disowned the film because of the personal price he had to pay to make it. From the late ‘70s through the mid-’80s, Menzel made non-political, nostalgic comedies that were almost slapstick at times. He had international success in 1986 with the delightful My Sweet Little Village. In the late ‘80s, Menzel again returned to political activism and continued to make films though the mid-’90s.

(From http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=2:102538)

 

Via MUBI.com

Lisandro Alonso's Fantasma [2006] - A Brilliantly Minimal Picture

Couldn't find a trailer, but here's the opening 10 minutes.

 

 

"Director Lisandro Alonso offers an offbeat and wonderfully bizarre commentary on his singular filmmaking practice in this self-reflexive featurette which finds Argentino Vargas, the star of Los Muertos, wandering through the Teatro San Martin — the Buenos Aires home theater of the Cinemateca Argentina — in search of the film’s premiere. As Alonso’s camera slowly floats through the shadowy bowels of the building, striping bare the dingy backstage of the cultural apparatus, Fantasma offers a spirited commentary on the theatricality of even the most rigorously non-professional performance and of the cinematic ritual itself. —http://hcl.harvard.edu/hfa/films/2009octdec/alonso.html"

The Great Acting Blog: "Kati Outinen On Aki Kaurismaki - Actors' Creativity"

Kati Outinen is probably best known for her work with Finnish filmmaker, Aki Kaurismaki, having appeared in many, many of his films, including Match Factory Girl, Take Care Of Your Scarf Tatiana, and most recently, Le Havre. For those unfamiliar with Outinen's work, I sincerely recommend you take a look, she is a model of truth and simplicity. Anyway, below, I've listed some notes from the interview above.

- She says these days it's more important to be quick than good.

- Says you can't force creativity, it takes time - you can't put a deadline on creativity, and you can't control it.

- Aki Kaurismaki doesn't control the actors, he knows what he wants, but he doesn't force the actor to do it. 

- She says artists put creativity at the top of their priorities.

- Kaurismaki only rehearses technical things, like blocking.

- Says Kaurismaki doesn't give answers if you ask questions about character - just do something and then he will offer notes.

- Says modern actresses have to look like porn stars but act like businesswomen, thin businesswomen.

- She says there are times when Kaurismaki forgets to tell her that she has the lead role in his films. With Match Factory Girl, he only told her a week before filming began.

For me, the key point is the director not forcing his "ideas" onto the actor - the actor must be allowed to get on with his work, using his own creative dynamics, not those of the director.  These days the director dominates the actor, and so the actor may not work in a creative mode, but in a mode to please the director - this may help to explain why modern acting is, in the main, so bland, and under-energied; there is a general lack of creativity. It is crucial the actor bring his own creativity to the scene, and the director must create space for this.

The Great Acting Blog: "Kati Outinen On Aki Kaurismaki - Actors' Creativity"

Kati Outinen is probably best known for her work with Finnish filmmaker, Aki Kaurismaki, having appeared in many, many of his films, including Match Factory Girl, Take Care Of Your Scarf Tatiana, and most recently, Le Havre. For those unfamiliar with Outinen's work, I sincerely recommend you take a look, she is a model of truth and simplicity. Anyway, below, I've listed some notes from the interview above.

- She says these days it's more important to be quick than good.

- Says you can't force creativity, it takes time - you can't put a deadline on creativity, and you can't control it.

- Aki Kaurismaki doesn't control the actors, he knows what he wants, but he doesn't force the actor to do it. 

- She says artists put creativity at the top of their priorities.

- Kaurismaki only rehearses technical things, like blocking.

- Says Kaurismaki doesn't give answers if you ask questions about character - just do something and then he will offer notes.

- Says modern actresses have to look like porn stars but act like businesswomen, thin businesswomen.

- She says there are times when Kaurismaki forgets to tell her that she has the lead role in his films. With Match Factory Girl, he only told her a week before filming began.

For me, the key point is the director not forcing his "ideas" onto the actor - the actor must be allowed to get on with his work, using his own creative dynamics, not those of the director.  These days the director dominates the actor, and so the actor may not work in a creative mode, but in a mode to please the director - this may help to explain why modern acting is, in the main, so bland, and under-energied; there is a general lack of creativity. It is crucial the actor bring his own creativity to the scene, and the director must create space for this.

The Great Acting Blog: "Thomas Doret In The Kid With The Bike"

Doret plays Cyril, a 12 year old who has been dumped into foster care by his father, who, unbeknownst to the boy, doesn't give a damn about him, and just wants rid of him. Doret runs away from the foster home to his dad's apartment. When the caretakers find him, Doret flees to a nearby doctor's surgery where he grabs hold of a woman, Samantha, so that they won't take him away. To calm Doret down, they take him back to his dad's apartment, and show him that it is empty and deserted, confirming that his father has left. With Samantha, Doret finally finds his father, who is however, none too pleased when the boy shows up, and tells him he never wants to see him again. Samantha in turn, takes the heartbroken Doret under her wing. However, falling under the spell of a local drug dealer, Doret robs a shopkeeper, beating the owner and his son with a baseball bat. Fearing Doret has been indentified in the robbery, the drug dealer abandons Doret and forces him to keep the stolen money. Doret gets caught by the police, but the matter is dealt with through a mediation with the shop owner, who accepts Doret's apology. Some time later, the son of the shop owner sees Doret by chance on the street, and beats him up, forcing Doret to hide up in a tree for safety, until the son throws a stone, which causes Doret to fall out of the tree. Doret lies on the ground, seemingly unconscious, until he comes to, and calmly walks away from the trouble.  

Doret's performance is remarkable in it's simplicity and directness. There is a scene where Doret visits his father again, only this time to offer the money he got from the robbery, thinking this will win his father's acceptance. His father is a little stunned, before refusing the money and sending Doret on his way. Doret hardly inflects the scene at all, he offers the money to his father with an almost animalistic simplicity, and it is this simplicity which renders the moment heartbreaking. Compare this to James Dean's performance in East Of Eden, where there is a similar scene of rejection involving money; Dean explains the character's pain to us with the preposterous emotional excretion; "YOU'RE TEARING ME APAAARRTT!", rendering the moment false and meaningless. Doret is courageous in resisting the temptation to explain what is happening, enabling us to engage with the scene for ourselves, which in turn, makes it meaningful. 

Doret had never acted before, so much of his performance will have been instinctive, and perhaps he has yet to become inhibited by the protective guff of adulthood, and so we get this wonderful unfettered performance from him. There is perhaps only one scene where Doret appears to be comprehendingly expressing the inner pain of his character, and what an extraordinary scene it is. While driving in the car with Samantha, Doret suddenly begins to scratch at his own flesh, and punch himself, it is gut wrenching to watch - it represents a bout of self-loathing, induced by Doret's belief that he is the cause of his own rejection, that he is the source of his own pain, and so wants to destroy the thing which is causing him pain (as he perceives it). Again, Doret performs the scene completely free of James Dean-style sentimentality, but with his customary simplicity and directness. I have to say that, generally, I am not a fan of child actors, and have held off seeing this film largely because the protagonist is a child, but the strength of Doret's performance here, may just have given me cause to change this view.

Doret had never acted before this film, or, at least, I have not been able to find any record of him doing so, and I am not aware of him receiving any training, and yet he is able to deliver this quite brilliant performance. No-one can know what the future holds for him, the vast majority non-actors fail to kick on after terrific debuts. Having said that, Doret does re-inforce my general view that acting is a talent which cannot be instilled. 

HSP 134 Is Complete

 

HSP (134) / 10min Colour Stereo DSLR Ireland 2012

 With Maximilian Le Cain and Rouzbeh Rashidi

 

homosapiensproject.tumblr.com

The Great Acting Blog: "Thomas Doret In The Kid With The Bike"

Doret plays Cyril, a 12 year old who has been dumped into foster care by his father, who, unbeknownst to the boy, doesn't give a damn about him, and just wants rid of him. Doret runs away from the foster home to his dad's apartment. When the caretakers find him, Doret flees to a nearby doctor's surgery where he grabs hold of a woman, Samantha, so that they won't take him away. To calm Doret down, they take him back to his dad's apartment, and show him that it is empty and deserted, confirming that his father has left. With Samantha, Doret finally find his father, who is however, none too pleased at the boy shows up, and tells him

 he never wants to see him again. Samantha in turn, takes the heartbroken Doret under her wing. However, falling under the spell of a local drug dealer, Doret robs a shopkeeper, beating the owner and his son with a baseball bat. Fearing Doret has been indentified in the robbery, the drug dealer abandons Doret and forces him to keep the stolen money. Doret gets caught by the police, but the matter is dealt with through a mediation with the shop owner, who accepts Doret's apology. Some time later, the son of the shop owner sees Doret by chance on the street, and beats him up, forcing Doret to hide up in a tree for safety, until the son throws a stone, which causes Doret to fall out of the tree. Doret lies on the ground, seemingly unconscious, until he comes to, and calmly walks away from the trouble.  

Doret's performance is remarkable in it's simplicity and directness. There is a scene where Doret visits his father again, only this time to offer the money he got from the robbery, thinking this will win his father acceptance. His father is a little stunned, before refusing the money and sending Doret on his way. Doret hardly inflects the scene at all, he offers the money to his father with an almost animalistic simplicity, and it is this simplicity which renders the moment heartbreaking. Compare this to James Dean's performance in East Of Eden, where there is a similar scene of rejection involving money; Dean explains the character's pain to us with the preposterous emotional excretion; "YOU'RE TEARING ME APAAARRTT!", rendering the moment false and meaningless. Doret is courageous in resisting the temptation to explain what is happening, enabling us to engage with the scene for ourselves, which in turn, makes it meaningful. 

Doret had never acted before, so much of his performance will have been instinctive, and perhaps he has yet to become inhibited by the protective guff of adulthood, and so we get this wonderful unfettered performance from him. There is perhaps only one scene where Doret appears to be comprehendingly expressing the inner pain of his character, and what an extraordinary scene it is. While driving in the car with Samantha, Doret suddenly begins to scratch at his own flesh, and punch himself, it is gut wrenching to watch - it represents a bout of self-loathing, induced by Doret's belief that he is the cause of his own rejection, that he is the source of his own pain, and so wants to destroy the thing which is causing him pain (as he perceives it). Again, Doret performs the scene completely free of James Dean-style sentimentality, but with his customary simplicity and directness. I have to say that, generally, I am not a fan of child actors, and have held off seeing this film largely because the protagonist is a child, but the strength of Doret's performance here, may just have given me cause to change this view.

Doret had never acted before this film, or, at least, I have not been able to find any record of him doing so, and I am not aware of him receiving any training, and yet he is able to deliver this quite brilliant performance. No-one can know what the future holds for him, the vast majority non-actors fail to kick on after terrific debuts. Having said that, Doret does re-inforce my general view that acting is a talent which cannot be instilled. 

... "What is your greatest ambition?" ... "To become immortal then die".

JLG 82

The Face Of Another: "Rudolph Hrusinsky"

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