Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For regular updates, sign up for our weekly email newsletter and follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSSambizanga.For the past six years, the Belgian film journal Sabzian has invited a guest to deliver an annual “State of Cinema” address. This year’s speaker will be Alice Diop. She will deliver her text on Thursday, December 7, in Brussels, alongside a screening of Sarah Maldoror’s film Sambizanga (1972). Learn more on Sabzian’s website, recently sleekly redesigned for the publication’s tenth anniversary. You can also watch previous State of Cinema speeches on Sabzian’s Screening Room, including last year’s address by Wang Bing.Recommended VIEWINGOutwardly from Earth's Center.Streaming on e-flux until November 30 is Outwardly from Earth’s Center (2007), a short pseudo-documentary by filmmaker and artist Rosa Barba. The film details the experiences of the inhabitants of a fictitious offshore island as...
- 11/29/2023
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSNext week, we are holding a launch event for Issue 3 of Notebook in London. Join us at the Ica London on September 28 for a screening of a new 4K restoration of Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, followed by a conversation between issue contributor Erika Balsom and critic Simran Hans. We are sorry to say that the event is now sold out, but you can still enter our competition to win a pair of tickets. Lee Kang-sheng’s Instagram seems to indicate that he and Tsai Ming-liang shot another installment of their ongoing Walker series in Washington, DC: a few images are posted here.REMEMBERINGPressure.Horace Ové has died aged 86: His debut Pressure (1975) is considered the first full-length feature by a Black British filmmaker; it centers on a Trinidadian teenager living with his family in West London,...
- 9/20/2023
- MUBI
Lammas Park, the BAFTA award-winning production company helmed by Steve McQueen, hosted an advance screening of their keenly anticipated latest short films this week.
The private event, in front of a full house at London’s Picturehouse Central, saw the screenings of “i and i,” directed by Samona Olanipekun, and “Young Hot Bloods,” directed by Jade Ang Jackman, before they hit this year’s festival circuit.
The screenings were followed by a Q&a hosted by Variety contributor Simran Hans, who spoke with the filmmakers, Jackman, Olanipekun, and the cinematographer of “i and i,” Korsshan Schlauer, as well as Mia Powell, new business director at Lammas Park and Ben Morse, Canon Emea’s content production manager.
“Young Hot Bloods” is a period drama inspired by the Suffragette movement that follows an unassuming seamstress Vera (Aliyah Odoffin), who is confronted by an undercover police officer Sullivan (Alfie Allen) trying to stop the militant group of women.
The private event, in front of a full house at London’s Picturehouse Central, saw the screenings of “i and i,” directed by Samona Olanipekun, and “Young Hot Bloods,” directed by Jade Ang Jackman, before they hit this year’s festival circuit.
The screenings were followed by a Q&a hosted by Variety contributor Simran Hans, who spoke with the filmmakers, Jackman, Olanipekun, and the cinematographer of “i and i,” Korsshan Schlauer, as well as Mia Powell, new business director at Lammas Park and Ben Morse, Canon Emea’s content production manager.
“Young Hot Bloods” is a period drama inspired by the Suffragette movement that follows an unassuming seamstress Vera (Aliyah Odoffin), who is confronted by an undercover police officer Sullivan (Alfie Allen) trying to stop the militant group of women.
- 2/10/2023
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI, and sign up for our email newsletter by clicking here.NEWSThis week, we’re remembering the iconoclastic, anti-capitalist filmmaker Jean-Marie Straub, who has died at the age of 89. In the course of revisiting Christopher Small’s Straub-Huillet Companion column, we were moved by this quotation from Straub, from a 1974 edition of Jump Cut:The revolution is like God’s grace, it has to be made anew each day, it becomes new every day, a revolution is not made once and for all. And it’s exactly like that in daily life. There is no division between politics and life, art and politics. I think one has no other choice, if one is making films that can stand on their own feet, they must become documentary, or in any case they must have documentary roots. Everything must be correct,...
- 11/23/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSEnys Men (Mark Jenkin).The New York Film Festival announced its Main Slate. Highlights include new films from Park Chan-wook, Claire Denis, and Kelly Reichardt; a fiction feature from Frederick Wiseman; Mark Jenkin's Bait follow-up Enys Men; and much more.Hong Kong action director John Woo will reimagine his 1989 crime classic The Killer in a new remake due out in 2023. French actor Omar Sy (The Intouchables) will play the lead.Lars Von Trier has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, his production company Zoetrope has confirmed. The director is doing well, and is currently being treated for symptoms whilst continuing to work on The Kingdom Exodus.Artist and El Planeta filmmaker Amalia Ulman's visa is expiring, meaning she may have to leave the United States, where she is currently working on her next feature film.
- 8/9/2022
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSDavid Warner in The Wars of the Roses.David Warner, who died earlier this week, is warmly paid tribute to by artist and filmmaker Tacita Dean in the Guardian. In the piece, Dean talks about her admiration for the actor's performance in Alain Resnais' Providence and how she convinced him to star in her own film of the same name.Mary Alice also passed away this week, aged 85. A Tony- and Emmy-winning actor, Alice was known for her roles in Charles Burnett’s To Sleep With Anger, Brian De Palma’s The Bonfire of the Vanities, and Penny Marshall's Awakenings, among many other performances on both stage and screen.As part of a series of events investigating "the new languages of the contemporary," the Locarno Film Festival will host a 24-hour-long talk titled "The Future of Attention,...
- 8/3/2022
- MUBI
Guardian critics Charlotte Northedge, Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Simran Hans look ahead to the best of the year in culture
It may be cold and grey in Britain right now but for the Guardian’s culture critics there is plenty to be excited about in the new year, even if you are staying inside for now. Charlotte Northedge (books), Ben Beaumont-Thomas (music) and Simran Hans (film) join Nosheen Iqbal to look ahead to some of the year’s biggest and most anticipated releases.
There are new books from Monica Ali, Douglas Stuart and Hanya Yanagihara. And in 2022 there will be a continued surge in demand for ‘cosy crime’ novels driven by the wildly successful previous releases by Richard Osman, who returns in autumn with his third book.
It may be cold and grey in Britain right now but for the Guardian’s culture critics there is plenty to be excited about in the new year, even if you are staying inside for now. Charlotte Northedge (books), Ben Beaumont-Thomas (music) and Simran Hans (film) join Nosheen Iqbal to look ahead to some of the year’s biggest and most anticipated releases.
There are new books from Monica Ali, Douglas Stuart and Hanya Yanagihara. And in 2022 there will be a continued surge in demand for ‘cosy crime’ novels driven by the wildly successful previous releases by Richard Osman, who returns in autumn with his third book.
- 1/7/2022
- by Presented by Nosheen Iqbal with Charlotte Northedge, Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Simran Hans; produced by Sami Kent and Rudi Zygadlo; executive producers Phil Maynard and Mythili Rao
- The Guardian - Film News
Guardian writers pick their favourite hidden gems from the year including a jumpy supernatural thriller and a tender queer romance
Makwa (Phoenix Wilson) may smoke cigarettes and wear a tough-guy leather jacket, but his face betrays the soft, doughy features of a pre-teen boy. Alternately neglected and beaten by his father, he’s an emotionally inarticulate knot of coiled rage. Cruelty is learned behaviour. The idea, that those who experience trauma are destined to repeat the cycle, is at the centre of the sinewy debut feature from Indigenous American writer-director Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. In the film, Makwa, a young Ojibwe boy living on a reservation in Wisconsin, commits a violent crime and escapes the consequences. When we revisit him as an adult, this time portrayed with icy detachment by a transfixing Michael Greyeyes, he’s reinvented himself. Living in Los Angeles, with an office job and a blond wife,...
Makwa (Phoenix Wilson) may smoke cigarettes and wear a tough-guy leather jacket, but his face betrays the soft, doughy features of a pre-teen boy. Alternately neglected and beaten by his father, he’s an emotionally inarticulate knot of coiled rage. Cruelty is learned behaviour. The idea, that those who experience trauma are destined to repeat the cycle, is at the centre of the sinewy debut feature from Indigenous American writer-director Lyle Mitchell Corbine Jr. In the film, Makwa, a young Ojibwe boy living on a reservation in Wisconsin, commits a violent crime and escapes the consequences. When we revisit him as an adult, this time portrayed with icy detachment by a transfixing Michael Greyeyes, he’s reinvented himself. Living in Los Angeles, with an office job and a blond wife,...
- 12/30/2021
- by Simran Hans, Jordan Hoffman, Radheyan Simonpillai, Adrian Horton, Steve Rose, Pamela Hutchinson, Lisa Wong Macabasco, Benjamin Lee, Peter Bradshaw , Andrew Pulver, Guy Lodge and Charles Bramesco
- The Guardian - Film News
The winners will be announced at an in-person ceremony on Sunday, December 5.
Producer Andrea Cornwell and actors Emma Corrin and Jason Isaacs are among the jurors of this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).
Mogul Mowgli producer Bennett McGhee presides over the main jury that includes Cornwell; The Crown star Corrin; actress Jennifer Ehle; director and writer Alice Lowe; director and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker (a Screen Star Of Tomorrow this year); Ted Lasso casting director Theo Park; composer Nainita Desai and writer-broadcasters Simran Hans and Michael Leader.
The new talent jury is chaired by actress, writer and director...
Producer Andrea Cornwell and actors Emma Corrin and Jason Isaacs are among the jurors of this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFA).
Mogul Mowgli producer Bennett McGhee presides over the main jury that includes Cornwell; The Crown star Corrin; actress Jennifer Ehle; director and writer Alice Lowe; director and cinematographer Molly Manning Walker (a Screen Star Of Tomorrow this year); Ted Lasso casting director Theo Park; composer Nainita Desai and writer-broadcasters Simran Hans and Michael Leader.
The new talent jury is chaired by actress, writer and director...
- 11/12/2021
- by Orlando Parfitt
- ScreenDaily
When “Mudbound” brought Mary J. Blige Oscar bids for acting and songwriting (“Mighty River”) in 2018, a trail was blazed and an annual tradition began. In 2019, Lady Gaga won for penning “Shallow” from “A Star Is Born” and was simultaneously included in the Best Actress lineup. Last year, Cynthia Erivo (“Harriet”) competed for both Best Actress and Best Original Song (“Stand Up”). The trend is set to continue this year now that Leslie Odom Jr. is expected to reap double bids for “One Night in Miami.” He would be the first man to achieve this double act and could be the first person to pull off both wins.
Since he made his Broadway debut in “Rent” at age 17, Odom’s singing voice has been an integral part of his acting career. In 2012, after over a decade of adding theatre and TV roles to his resume, he made his film debut in “Red Tails,...
Since he made his Broadway debut in “Rent” at age 17, Odom’s singing voice has been an integral part of his acting career. In 2012, after over a decade of adding theatre and TV roles to his resume, he made his film debut in “Red Tails,...
- 2/27/2021
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
From the March on Washington in August 1963 until his murder in April 1968, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was subject to an asphyxiating surveillance and smearing campaign waged by the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover. Worried that the rise of “a black messiah” would upset the segregated status-quo, Hoover sought to weaponize ill-obtained information on King’s private life, such as his extramarital affairs, to discredit his public persona. Drawing from long-secret documents, and anticipating the release of others stored in the National Archives, Sam Pollard’s incendiary, deeply unnerving MLK/FBI chronicles the long and restless history of the bureau’s harassment. As Simran Hans notes at The Observer, the portrait Pollard paints of King is that of “a complicated and fallible man rather than an untouchable icon,” while the film itself raises some crucial, and often disturbing, questions about the ethics of examining the past.
- 1/21/2021
- MUBI
Match points: Channing Tatum and an almost unrecognisable Steve Carrell in Foxcatcher.
Welcome to this week's Stay-At-Home Seven - if you want more inspiration, try our recent Streaming Spotlight on archaeology on film.
A Film I Love...
The latest season of this Cambridge Film Festival initiative started on January 8 and is continuing in fortnightly chunks. The series sees British film critics offer an introduction to films which are streamed on a "pay what you can afford" basis. Among the films coming up this weekend are Olivia Wilde's bright and bawdy high school comedy Book Smart, Damian Chazelle's jazz-inflected Sundance winner Whiplash and Garrett Bradley's affecting documentary Time, introduced by Anna Smith, Amon Warmann and Simran Hans respectively. More details of how to book from the official site.
The Way Way Back, 6.55pm, Film4, Monday, January 18
Nat Faxton and Jim Rash’s sunny side up debut is filled...
Welcome to this week's Stay-At-Home Seven - if you want more inspiration, try our recent Streaming Spotlight on archaeology on film.
A Film I Love...
The latest season of this Cambridge Film Festival initiative started on January 8 and is continuing in fortnightly chunks. The series sees British film critics offer an introduction to films which are streamed on a "pay what you can afford" basis. Among the films coming up this weekend are Olivia Wilde's bright and bawdy high school comedy Book Smart, Damian Chazelle's jazz-inflected Sundance winner Whiplash and Garrett Bradley's affecting documentary Time, introduced by Anna Smith, Amon Warmann and Simran Hans respectively. More details of how to book from the official site.
The Way Way Back, 6.55pm, Film4, Monday, January 18
Nat Faxton and Jim Rash’s sunny side up debut is filled...
- 1/18/2021
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“Blinded by the Light” opened on August 16, and it lands in an interesting position. Following “Yesterday,” it’s the second film of the summer centering on a young British man of South Asian descent whose life is transformed by the music of a legendary artist. In that case it was The Beatles. In this case it’s Bruce Springsteen. So what do critics think of this latest variation on the theme?
Of course, the films take quite different approaches to the artists that inspired them. “Yesterday” was a speculative film that imagined a world where only one man on Earth remembered the songs of the Beatles, while “Blinded” is a coming-of-age story about a teenager (Viveik Kalra) who just really loves Bruce Springsteen. And the reviews are quite divergent as well. As of this writing “Blinded” has a MetaCritic score of 71 based on 42 reviews counted thus far — 34 positive, 7 mixed, and only 1 negative.
Of course, the films take quite different approaches to the artists that inspired them. “Yesterday” was a speculative film that imagined a world where only one man on Earth remembered the songs of the Beatles, while “Blinded” is a coming-of-age story about a teenager (Viveik Kalra) who just really loves Bruce Springsteen. And the reviews are quite divergent as well. As of this writing “Blinded” has a MetaCritic score of 71 based on 42 reviews counted thus far — 34 positive, 7 mixed, and only 1 negative.
- 8/16/2019
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
If you liked the much-acclaimed High Life, it’s well worth dipping into this French auteur’s compelling back catalogue
As a film critic, I tend to stay away from sweeping “best ever” superlatives, but I make an exception for French director Claire Denis. Calling her the greatest working film-maker, as I often do, is not only something I’ve believed for many years, but invariably serves to annoy fanboys on the internet incensed that one arbitrary critic hasn’t handed the honour to Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan or another man of their choosing.
Not that it’s a terribly unusual opinion to hold these days. This is a good year for fans of Denis and her dreamy, distinctive brand of visceral sensualism, with a fresh wave of adoring appreciations greeting the recent release of her warped, ravishing, sexual sci-fi odyssey High Life. The BFI, meanwhile, is holding a big-screen...
As a film critic, I tend to stay away from sweeping “best ever” superlatives, but I make an exception for French director Claire Denis. Calling her the greatest working film-maker, as I often do, is not only something I’ve believed for many years, but invariably serves to annoy fanboys on the internet incensed that one arbitrary critic hasn’t handed the honour to Martin Scorsese, Christopher Nolan or another man of their choosing.
Not that it’s a terribly unusual opinion to hold these days. This is a good year for fans of Denis and her dreamy, distinctive brand of visceral sensualism, with a fresh wave of adoring appreciations greeting the recent release of her warped, ravishing, sexual sci-fi odyssey High Life. The BFI, meanwhile, is holding a big-screen...
- 6/10/2019
- by Guy Lodge
- The Guardian - Film News
Cinephiles rushed to praise the list and take it to task: here are some responses that stood out
Last Sunday, in the Observer special supplement on European cinema, we published a list of 25 films from across the continent that we felt were essential viewing in these tumultuous times.
Compiled by Observer critics Mark Kermode, Simran Hans, Wendy Ide, Guy Lodge and Jonathan Romney, and edited down to the final 25 by me, the list ran in chronological order from 1922 (Nosferatu) to 2017 (On Body and Soul), taking in masterpieces from France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Greece and the UK along the way.
Last Sunday, in the Observer special supplement on European cinema, we published a list of 25 films from across the continent that we felt were essential viewing in these tumultuous times.
Compiled by Observer critics Mark Kermode, Simran Hans, Wendy Ide, Guy Lodge and Jonathan Romney, and edited down to the final 25 by me, the list ran in chronological order from 1922 (Nosferatu) to 2017 (On Body and Soul), taking in masterpieces from France, Italy, Poland, Romania, Greece and the UK along the way.
- 2/16/2019
- by Killian Fox
- The Guardian - Film News
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