February 2011
50 posts
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Artist Choice: Jean-Pierre Melville
I believe that you must be madly in love with cinema to create films. You also need a huge cinematic baggage.
Jean-Pierre Melville, the spiritual father of the Nouvelle Vague, the French New Wave, master of gangster films, classic filmmaker who directed his films by his own means. He was born Jean-Pierre Grumbach in 1917, into a Jewish family living in Alsace, France. He adopted the...
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From Senses of Cinema: Jean-Pierre Melville
And to Melville, the fate of the gangster-movie hero is inseparable from his style or his morality: it’s part of the form he occupies, just as his Cadillac and his chivalrous manners are. A man has no choice; if he’s in a gangster picture, he looks at certain way, behaves a certain way, and dies a certain way. Genre is destiny – and ethics. In fact, Melville’s films express a philosophy that...
January 2011
59 posts
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Le samouraï
The room is cold, dark, and empty…we can hear the chirping of a bird and the passing of cars outside, their wheels against the wet ground…and suddenly, in the shadows of the room, we see movement: there is a suited man lying on a bed. Without rising, he grabs something from a bedstand. He puts it between his lips, and with a quick spark he lights the cigarette. Smoke coils over his...
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Trivia: Le samouraï
After several attempts to cast Alain Delon in the perfect role, Jean-Pierre Melville approached the actor with the script for Le samouraï. Melville recounted, “The reading took place at his apartment. […] Alain listened without moving until suddenly, looking up to glance at his watch, he stopped me: ‘You’ve been reading the script for seven and a half minutes now and there hasn’t been...
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Melville on Le samouraï
(The following interview with Jean-Pierre Melville, by Rui Nogueira, originally appeared in Nogueira’s landmark book Melville on Melville. It is excerpted here.)
- What was your starting point for the script of Le samouraï?
An idea for an alibi. A man commits a crime in the presence of eyewitnesses, yet remains unperturbed. Now, the only alibi you can really count on in life is one...
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The Melville Style
By John Woo
(In 1996, the French journal Cahiers du cinéma dedicated its November issue to director Jean-Pierre Melville. Included in the special edition was a version of this tribute essay by director John Woo, which was dictated to Nicolas Saada in English.)
In Melville’s films, like in mine, characters are caught between good and evil; and sometimes, even the worst gangsters can...
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WatchDirector Darren Aronofsky discusses Black Swan.
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WatchA behind-the-scenes look at the movie with Natalie Portman.
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Movie Choice: Black Swan
A psychological thriller from Darren Aronofsky (director of The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream, and Pi) Black Swan stars Natalie Portman as Nina Sayers, a ballet dancer whose life is consumed with her profession. The artistic director of her company decides to open the new season with a production of Swan Lake and a new prima ballerina who can play both the White Swan and Black Swan. Nina fits...
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WatchDarren Aronofsky and Natalie Portman talk about the cinematography behind the dance sequences in Black Swan.
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“Beauty is composed of an eternal, invariable element whose quantity is extremely...”
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“What is your greatest ambition in life?
To become immortal…and then die.”
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Artist Choice: James Dean
A cultural icon, an American film actor, James Dean was born on February 8, 1931, in Indiana. Despite having only starred in three films, East of Eden, Rebel Without a Cause, and Giant, his name and image have been long-lasting. Dean died on September 30, 1955, when he, driving his Porsche Spyder race car called “Little Bastard,” crashed into a vehicle crossing his lane. His last...
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Movie Choice: East of Eden
Loosely based on the novel by John Steinbeck, East of Eden is an emotionally pulling story based on the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Steinbeck wrote, “As I went into the story [of East of Eden] more deeply I began to realize that without this story [of Cain and Abel]—or rather a sense of it—psychiatrists would have nothing to do. In other words this one story is the...
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Artist Choice: Ryan McGinley
At the age of 25, Ryan McGinley was the youngest artist to have a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Now 33 years old, his collections of work show his constant evolution and are a clear indication for more to come. Awesome career that really fired up when, in 1999, he simply sent out a 50 page home-made book of photographs, The Kids Are Alright, to 100 magazine...
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“Patricia Franchini: Do you know William Faulkner?
Michel Poiccard: No....”
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(Jean-Paul Belmondo as Michel Poiccard and Jean Seberg as Patricia Franchini in À bout de souffle—Breathless)
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Trivia: Breathless
Jean-Luc Godard could not afford a dolly for the filming of Breathless. Instead, he used a wheelchair to push cinematographer Raoul Coutard through many scenes of the film. The idea came from Jean-Pierre Melville, who used the same “low-budget” technique in Bob le Flambeur and Le Silence de la Mer.
Also, according to Melville, Godard asked him for advice during post-production...
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Movie Choice: I Saw the Devil
Brutally violent yet captivating, Kim Jee-woon delivers again with his latest film I Saw the Devil, a gory cat-and-mouse game between a secret service agent and the serial killer who savagely murdered and dismembered his wife. Lee Byung-hun teams up again with Kim (they previously worked on A Bittersweet Life together) alongside Choi Min-sik of Oldboy. Looks like Kim Jee-woon is...
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I Saw the Devil →
There are no English subtitles, but if you want to watch I Saw the Devil now, click on the link above or wait for it’s U.S. limited theatrical release March 4, 2011.
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Interview with Kim Jee-woon →
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“For me, filmmaking combines everything. That’s the reason I’ve made cinema my...”
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Machu Picchu
Old Peak of kings, lost post of the sun,
over the earth’s navel breathes its gold the star,
and the shadow of day circles the stone of hours,
and the furies rise from the ground in green and flower.
There is no silence of things, only silence of time
climbing still ancient walls of man, engulfing
endless waves of clouds and jungled mountains.
Breath to breath seconds break into blossoms.
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Interview with Kim Jee-woon →
(by Paolo Bertolin)
Kim Ji-woon is among those contemporary Korean directors who don’t need an introduction. Since his debut with The Quiet Family (1998), his films have met with commercial success and admiration from domestic audiences, while garnering him a cult following among Asian films fans all over the world. His ambitious contemporary adaptation of a popular Korean folk...
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Movie Choice: A Bittersweet Life
One fine spring day a disciple looked at some branches blowing in the wind. He asked his master, “Master, are the branches moving or is it the wind?” Not even glancing to where his pupil was pointing the master smiled and said, “That which moves is neither the branches nor the wind. It’s your heart and mind.”
The opening koan to one of my favorite...
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“To me cinema is the art of having each thing in its place. In this it resembles...”
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