The Seventh Art: Mark Peranson Interview

Make sure to check out the nineteenth issue of the Toronto video film-magazine The Seventh Art. In it there are great interviews with Mark Peranson (La última película), Ramon Zürcher (The Strange Little Cat), Frank Pavich (Jodorowsky’s Dune) and Ben Wheatley (A Field in England). Some other recent highlights include their interviews with Denis Côté, the Ross Brothers, and Hirokazu Kore-eda. And make sure to get a subscription to watch the entire interviews!

Fitting Andrew Bujalski

The films of Andrew Bujalski can be defined by their transitional qualities, or the difficulties one has in defining his films in relation to any certain period of American independent film. While he tends to get lumped in with the ‘mumblecore’ movement, those films are aesthetically defined by a cold, low-key but distanced approach. Bujalski instead has shot all but one of his films on 16mm film, which brings a warmth to his films that truly hits its peak in Beeswax (2009), as Bujalski explores the suburbs of Austin, Texas. There’s a mid-afternoon-in-summer feel in his work that can occasionally have a displacing effect as you watch one of his films, as the warmth of his films makes them feel much older than they really are.

Coupled with this aesthetic warmth is Bujalski’s affectionate approach to characterization, reminiscent of early Linklater. His characters are more inclined to say what’s important to them in a direct way and are charmingly assertive, compared to the early films of his contemporary, Joe Swanberg. While many mumblecore films use improvised dialogue and scenarios, Bujalski’s films are scripted with a certain type of contemplation that lends itself well to the warmness of his work. Even Bujalski’s Computer Chess (2013), which is more surreal and cartoon-like compared to his previous films, has the ability to add an ounce of pathos to even its most silly characters.

Computer Chess marks an interesting break from Bujalski’s previous work. Shot on a vintage tube Sony AVC-3260 video camera and set in the early 1980’s, the film is also his first to be shot with an outline rather than a script. As the mumblecore genre expands to the noir mystery of Cold Weather, the Manhattan-esque Frances Ha and the horror genre in You’re Next, Bujalski’s Computer Chess is difficult to include in this expansion. It’s a film that doesn’t concern itself with the wealthy, social aimlessness of those films. Computer Chess also experiments with form in a far more conscious way, beginning with a mockumentary approach that feels genuinely convincing. When I saw the trailer for the first time, I was sure it was for a documentary. As well, the mannerisms of the period-piece affect in the film do not resemble the present-day setting mannerisms of traditional mumblecore films.

The transitional effect in the progression of Bujalski’s films feels natural and effortless, yet engaging in new and interesting ways. His first two films, Funny Ha Ha (2002) and Mutual Appreciation (2003), feel very much of a pair. They are immensely successful in establishing Bujalski’s nuanced and conscious approach to characterization. As well, these films feel a part of a lineage of American independent films of the late-1990’s and early-2000’s, films that might not have much in the way of traditional plotting and arc, but have a stronger insistence on thematic unity. With Beeswax, made 6 years after Mutual Appreciation, Bujalski takes a more direct approach to narrative that breaks away from his first two films, while still maintaining a direct approach to characterization. 

Bujalski will be in town as part of The Seventh Art - Live Directors Series presented by CINSSU on February 3rd and 4th at Innis Town Hall to screen Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation.  

Ben Harrison

New Issue of The Seventh Art

Make sure to check out The Seventh Art for live streaming interviews with some of the coolest directors and soon their new issue where you can find great new interviews with the likes of Christopher Doyle and Xavier Dolan. As well they also have a great new interview with Brad Deane about his upcoming Cinematheque program. And they will be putting on a special screening of Last Night with its director Don McKellar in attendance on Wednesday September 11th at 7:30 at the OCADU Gallery.

Whit Stillman at The Royal (December 12th to the 13th)

One of the most exciting things in the world of Toronto film-criticism - along with Andrew Parker's extensive reviews of each week's new releases - is the video-magazine, The Seventh Art. When most film criticism keeps using the written format - relying on second-hand descriptions of images - The Seventh Art excels with their video-essays by showing the scenes along with voice-over narration commenting on them.

It is great news to hear that The Seventh Art is branching outward toward film programming as this week as part of a new initiative, the Live Directors Series, invited Whit Stillman to introduce two of his films. So at The Royal on Wednesday, December 12th at 7PM they are screening Metropolitan (1990) and on Thursday, December 13th at 7PM they are screening The Last Day of Disco (1998).

It is worth bringing up something Stillman talks about in the recent interview in Bad Day magazine (N.14),

“I have a theory that people should approach movie experiences like theater experiences. Every showing of a film, no matter what the format, is all performance, it’s about the interaction between the person and the piece. Even though the actor’s performance doesn’t change, it’s vastly different each time someone sees it, how they respond."

It's exciting to have the opportunity to see these films with the director in attendance and with a lively host Christopher Heron to moderate the Q&A.

The MDFF Interview by The Seventh Art

The Seventh Art is a new video-magazine, based out of Toronto, that conducts extended interviews with leading local and world filmmakers – inspired, in style, by the French television show Cinéastes de notre temps – and produces high quality video-essays. The Seventh Art recently conducted a long interview with the guys at MDFF – Dan Montgomery, Kazik Radwanski and Antoine Bourges – where they discuss with them everything from their creative process, production, distribution and their films East Hastings Pharmacy and Tower. Christopher Heron, the lead interviewer of The Seventh Art, also made a video-essay about Radwanski’s MDF Trilogy - Assault, Princess Margaret Blvd. and Out in that Deep Blue Sea (“The films of the MDF trilogy all deal to a variety extent to a protagonist in crisis…”) – which is one of the special features on their handmade DVD.

Some interesting comments from the Seventh Art interview includes when Radwanski discusses how he was first drawn to cinema,

“I remember that for a few years in high school when I was really depressed. That I sort of fell in love with cinema. When I think why would anyone want to watch the films that I’ve made. I think back of myself in high school and how I would watch this, […] and feel compassion.”

Radwanski’s comments how the Canadian film tradition of the documentary influenced his work,

“When I’m looking at Canadian cinema, what I would draw from it is documentary. Even when I was younger and trying to figure out what direction to go, it was definitively Canadian documentary. Allan King, directors like that. For sure, that Canadian tradition. But at the same time, with documentary, it was more a feeling that I like, a feeling, a texture.”

Here is the full MDFF interview by The Seventh Art: