"I'm always happy when good films are received by a
public. It's good for everyone, for myself, Darren Aronofsky, James Gray and
others. I know James. He is the model. He can make films for little money and
with an enormous independence." - Paul Thomas Anderson
The revered French film-magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, since Stéphane Delorme became the chief-editor in
2009, has been producing and emphasizing more their multi-article feature section. Cahiers is still emphasizing their film reviews but they are
no longer dedicating the magazine’s cover each month only to a still from a new
film (something Positif does) as
there has been a shift towards new and different areas. What is published in these features is
some of the more interesting film writing today: cinephile-oriented
criticism-infused journalism.
The new February issue's feature is The American Force which includes reviews of the new Spielberg,
Tarantino, and Bigelow films and think-pieces about how these American
filmmakers are reflecting upon the country’s history (N.686), the January's
feature is the most anticipated films of 2013 (cf. more on it below), and
December's controversial feature is The Ten Pitfalls of Auteur Cinema (which Richard Brody does a good job of surveying, The
Art-House Consensus). The Cahiers
features vary in subject, accessibility and
relevance. Example: one needs to be interested in France's film schools to gain
from their survey of them (N.676), or be familiar with the entire filmography
of Hong Sang-soo to really appreciate that dossier (N.682), or have at least
seen Sokurov’s Faust (N.679) to want to better understand it
philosophically and its art-history visual references. The point is: even if
one is not familiar with these topics, it is important writing that is pushing
the boundaries of published film-writing. The magazine’s back-issues also make
for a valuable asset as references for when the films finally become available to the reader.
One of Cahiers's more interesting features is New York:
La Génération "Do It Yourself"
(Sept. '11, N.670) where they interview a range of up-and-coming independent
New York filmmakers and ask them questions regarding filming, their motivation
to create, and what they think about the city (cf. New
York and Toronto DIY filmmakers).
Highlights from these interviews are when filmmakers talk about some of their
influences: Ronald Bronstein, "I guess that Frederick Wiseman is the
master." The Safdie brothers on Two Lovers, "a
masterpiece of melodrama," and on the “essential” New York filmmakers
there is Abel Ferrara and the Woody Allen of Broadway Danny Rose. The Borderline Films guy’s (Antonio Campos, Sean
Durkin and Josh Mond) favorite New York filmmakers are Scorsese and the James
Gray of Little Odessa ("Gray
shows a specific part of New York that you rarely see"). Marie Losier
admires the Maysles brothers, D.A. Pennebaker and Jonas Mekas. And according to Carlen Altman from The Color Wheel, "My only cinéphilie comes from Weekend
at Bernie's and Scary Movie 3, because I love Anna Faris," and for Alex Ross Perry the New York
filmmaker par excellence is the Woody Allen of Husbands and Wives.
If Abel Ferrara is brought up several times in the
interviews (he also has a cameo in the Safdie’s Daddy Longlegs) it is no doubt because his films resonate and that
he embodies what it means to be an independent New York filmmaker. Ferrara
seems to be currently experiencing a renaissance as in France this past year two of
his more recent films 4:44 Last Day on Earth and Go Go Tales were finally distributed and both made their way
onto Cahiers' Top Ten Films of 2012. Clayton Patterson writes
about Ferrara that he is "a true champion of the Lower East Side," Nicole Brenez writes that "he stays the real king of New York,"
and Jean-Sébastien Chauvin aptly compares him to another master filmmaker:
“Godard is like the hero of 4:44 by
Ferrara: he doesn’t even need to go outside, as he sees all, and the images
from outside come to him.” So if Ferrara is the king of New York then James
Gray is the prince of the city.
There is a new book, and the first one, on Gray which is a
good starting-point to discuss the director of such great films like Little
Odessa, The Yards, We Own the Night, and Two
Lovers (cf. Two
Lovers and White Nights). Even though Gray is quite generous in
his director commentary tracks on the DVDs of his films, Jordan Mintzer’s Conversations
with James Gray (Synecdoche books), which is edited by David
Frenkel, offers a new and interesting perspective on the director. Mintzer is a Hollywood
Reporter film-critic, though he also freelances (his piece on Serge
Daney for The
Moving Image Source is really good) and he has also produced, and
written a couple of screenplays, for Matthew Porterfield (Putty Hill). This industry perspective gives the book an
insightful journalistic quality where the interviewer is trying to pry
interesting answers from his subject and also that of a peer who wants to
better understand the craft and different areas of filmmaking.
Conversations with James Gray opens up with a foreword by Mintzer, an introduction by Jean Douchet, James
Gray: The Art of Thought ("The films of James Gray, both in
their thought and expression, are classic works which reinvent our conception
of classicism. They are, therefore, entirely modern."), and there are a few
nice things said by Francis Ford Coppola.
The book is divided by interviews: in Origins, Gray discusses his background growing up in New
York, and in The School of Film
Gray talks about his love of movies. After this the interviews are film
specific: Little Odessa, which also includes interviews with Tim
Roth, the producer Paul Webster, and the director of photography Tom Richmond. The
Yards, which also includes interviews with
Mark Wahlberg, James Caan, the screenwriter Matt Reeves, the director of
photography Harris Savides, and composer Howard Shore. We Own the
Night, which also includes the story-board
for the famous car-chase scene, and interviews with Eva Mendes, Moni Moshonov,
the producer Nick Wechsler, the director of photography Joaquin Baca-Asay, and
production designer Ford Wheeler. Two Lovers, which also includes interviews with Gwyneth
Paltrow, Vinessa Shaw, the producer Anthony Katagas, the editor John Axelrad,
and sound designer Douglas Murray. Finally there is Z And Beyond, which is of interest for Gray’s comments about the unrealized The Lost City of Z, a
filmography - which begins with Gray’s 1991 student 12-min film Cowboys and
Angels - and an index.
In the January issue of Cahiers du Cinéma (N.685), the new month for their regular issue dedicated to
the “most anticipated films of the year,” the film that editorially is
the most highlighted is James Gray’s The Nightingale. Along with
the new Gray film (who is also co-writing another film with Guillaume Canet) Cahiers
features Claire Denis’ Les Salauds,
Bong Joon-Ho's Le Transperceneige,
Arnaud Desplechin's Portrait of Jimmy P., Lisandro Alonso's Viggo Mortensen project, Michel Gondry's L'Écume
des jours, Xavier Dolan's Tom à
la ferme, Serge Bozon's Tip Top, Quentin Dupieux's Wrong Cops and Réalité, Jean-Luc Godard's Adieu au Language, and Bruno Dumont's Camille Claudel, 1915.
"Rien n'est plus beau que la pellicule," according to Darius Khondji, which is also the title of the interview with him
by Mintzer in Cahiers. Khondji,
who most recently shot Woody Allen's To Rome With Love, is the director of photography on The Nightingale and he talks to Mintzer (who also wrote about his experience
on the set for Libération) about many interesting things
regarding the film. Khondji talks about all the small details regarding the
visual references in the film, how they dealt on set with all of the technical
details (CinemaScope vs. digital), and what kind of work goes into shooting a
period film. On filming with celluloid, "we wanted an image that is more
brute, and not so clean." Gray and Khondji made sure to hire John DeBlau as the chief electrician,
who Khondji worked with previously on The Interpreter by Sydney Pollack. And Khondji elaborates on some
of the visual references for the film that includes Coppola’s The
Godfather II, the paintings of the Ashcan
School (Bellows and Shinn), the erotic polaroids of the Italien architect Carlo
Mollino, and Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller.
*****
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