Stratégies militantes : littérature/cinéma – France, 1960-1986

Par Sylvain Dreyer à Fabula LHT No. 2 :

La présente étude entend définir le mode spécifique de restitution d’une expérience liée à l’actualité politique, en interrogeant les stratégies respectives de l’écriture et du cinéma dits « engagés » ou « militants8 ». Il s’agit de questionner les pratiques concrètes et les formes rhétoriques employées au sein d’un corpus de textes et de films qui constituent pour la plupart un témoignage sur les luttes révolutionnaires étrangères de la seconde moitié du vingtième siècle. Ces œuvres mettent en avant leur fonction politique : elles visent une prise de conscience et même un engagement du destinataire dans un contexte d’urgence. Mais la plupart d’entre elles comportent une dimension critique : elles sont aussi le lieu d’une réflexion sur la légitimité et la fonction idéologique du texte ou du film engagé. Elles interrogent en particulier l’usage des mots, des images et des sons, et passent au crible les productions exprimant un point de vue adverse – en premier lieu la presse « bourgeoise » mais aussi des œuvres idéologiquement proches qui sont dénoncées comme dogmatiques ou romantiques. Par cette dimension critique, les rapports entre littérature et cinéma prennent un tour souvent polémique : les films suspectent le « discours » – assimilé rapidement à l’idée de « langage » – d’être un simple vecteur idéologique, quand les textes s’attachent en retour à dénoncer les « clichés » produits par les photographes ou les cinéastes. Enfin, ces œuvres se prennent parfois elles-mêmes comme discours idéologique à défaire, prolongeant ainsi l’exigence exprimée par Barthes au sujet de la critique littéraire : « Toute critique doit inclure dans son discours [...] un discours implicite sur elle-même ; toute critique est critique de l’œuvre et critique de soi-même9 ». Dans une logique autocritique, ces productions contiennent en quelque sorte le mode d’emploi de leur propre déconstruction. Nous proposons de les appeler « œuvres engagées critiques »

Sept heures savoureuses sur six CD avec le critique Serge Daney

Par Nicole Vulser au Monde (18.12.2006).

Serge Daney "Microfilms" (1985-1990), coproduction INA/SCAM, 1 coffret de 6 CD avec Claude Dityvon, Jane Birkin, Alain Cavalier, Jacques Demy, Marguerite Duras, Humbert Balsan, Jean-Claude Biette, Olivier Assayas, Johann Van der Keuken et Eric Rohmer. Durée : 7 heures et 7 minutes. 35 €.

Continue reading "Sept heures savoureuses sur six CD avec le critique Serge Daney"

Letters from Iwo Jima

By Stephanie Zacharek at Salon.com (20.12.2006) :

Clint Eastwood's "Letters From Iwo Jima" springs from an admirable impulse: This companion piece to Eastwood's flawed yet complex "Flags of Our Fathers" sets out to tell the story of the Battle of Iwo Jima from the viewpoint of the Japanese soldiers who fought and died there. Eastwood, working from a script by Iris Yamashita (the story is by Yamashita and Paul Haggis), hopes to humanize these soldiers, showing them as inexperienced young men who loved their families, who were under orders from their superiors to fight viciously, and who were victims of a culture in which dying honorably was considered far more important than preserving life.

The Tanizaki Movies

Jasper Sharp's two movie reviews at Midnight Eye (14.12.2006) : On "Si-sei" and "The Makioka Sisters".

Eastwood’s Balancing of Japanese and American Perspectives

By Aaron Gerow at Japan Focus (12.12.2006) :

History, like the cinema, can often be a matter of perspective. That’s why Clint Eastwood’s decision to narrate the Battle of Iwo Jima from both the American and the Japanese point of view is not really new; it had been done before in Tora Tora Tora (1970), for instance. But by dividing these perspectives in different films directed at Japanese and international audiences, Eastwood makes history not merely an issue of which side you are on, but of how to look at history itself.

Travellings pour cinéphiles

Par Jean-Luc Douin au Monde (07.12.2006).

Continue reading "Travellings pour cinéphiles"

Istanbul Modern Cinema pays tribute to Samuel Beckett

From Turkish Daily News (02.12.2006) :

Istanbul Modern Art Museum Cinema will be celebrating Samuel Beckett's centennial with films based on the playwright's plays throughout December and January. The first part of the screenings, titled "Beckett on Film," consists of nine films and will run throughout December. The second part will take place in January.

The "Beckett on Film" project, the first-ever cinematic screening of all 19 of Samuel Beckett's plays, was created to bring the writer's remarkable canon of work to a wider audience through an easily accessible medium.

Each of the 19 films' directors chose the play they wished to direct and hand-picked the cast they wanted to work with. They were not allowed to change any of the text, and they had to adhere to Beckett's specific directions for each work. The result is a unique collaboration among some of the most distinguished directors and actors working today.

Flags of Our Fathers

By Justin Myers at Mercator Net (18.11.2006).

Altman, la dernière interview

Par Denis Rossano à L'Express (22.11.2006).

Continue reading "Altman, la dernière interview"

Robert Altman Dies

By Rick Lyman at The NY Times (22.11.2006) :

Robert Altman, one of the most adventurous and influential American directors of the late 20th century, a filmmaker whose iconoclastic career spanned more than five decades but whose stamp was felt most forcefully in one, the 1970s, died Monday in Los Angeles. He was 81.

His death, at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, was caused by complications of cancer, his company in New York, Sandcastle 5 Productions, announced. A spokesman said Mr. Altman had learned that he had cancer 18 months ago but continued to work, shooting his final film, “A Prairie Home Companion,” which was released in June, and most recently completing pre-production on a new film that he intended to begin shooting in February.

Also see BBC News (21.11.2006).

I lost Kazuo Kuroki in April, Danièle Huillet in October, and then Robert Altman. I love Nashville. RIP?

Coming to America!

By Stuart Klawans at The Nation (04.12.2006 Issue). On Borat and Flags of our Fathers.

Louise Brooks at 100

By John Davidson at PotMatters (16.11.2006). Introduces The Pandora's Box (DVD) and Peter Cowie's latest book, Louise Brooks: Lulu Forever (Rizzoli, November 2006), and interviews Mr. Cowie. The new year begins with Lulu.

Terayama Shuji Experimental Image World

From UBU Web :

Poet, playright, theatre director, filmmaker, essayist, agitator and lover of all things anarchistic, chaotic, and truthful, TERAYAMA SHUJI (1936-1983) is one of Japan's most revered and respected artists. In the heady and extremist Japanese art scene of the late '70s, Terayama created a number of unforgettable and highly controversial films. EMPEROR TOMATO KETCHUP is his epic, sexually revolutionary and hallucinatory work from 1972 in which "magical women act as the initiatory, yet protectively maternal sexual partners to children. The children, in revolt, have condemned their parents to death for depriving them of self-expression and sexual freedom; they create a society in which fairies and sex education are equally important and literally combinable." -- Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art (AVI)

KAWAII Unchained : Sailor Suit & Machine Gun

By David Wilentz at The Brooklyn Rail (November 2006) :

‘Kawaii’, the Japanese word for cute, is more than an adjective, it’s a far-reaching concept and cultural phenomenon. During the ’80s, Japan saw so-called ‘idols’ dominate pop culture with an emphasis not on traditional sex appeal, but girl/boy next door ‘cuteness’ instead. Marketing geared towards young audiences who identified more with an ‘average’ adolescent like themselves than a larger than life star. The Japan Society’s “Lolita in Full Bloom” series features five popular ‘idol movies’ from the ’80s, offering a revealing look at what makes Japanese pop culture tick and what ‘kawaii’ really looks like.

From the Mop-Top to the Walrus: Some Funny Sides of the Beatles

By Iain Ellis at PotMatters (03.11.2006). On rock music and humor :

Many have discerned Beatle-wit to be Liverpudlian to the core, capturing the down-to-earth dry style and cheeky pranks for which that city is renowned; but the Beatles’ humor transcended their home city, as well as their national roots, often drawing from US comedians like the Marx Brothers, or from States-side novelty humorists like the Coasters (who they often covered) and the contemporaneous girl groups (some of whom they also covered).

Dossier Kaiju Eiga

Par Francis Moury à Excessif.com (01.11.2006) :

Le genre cinématographique japonais si remarquable des « Kaiju Eiga » ou, traduit littéralement, « films de monstres » est hélas mal distribué aujourd’hui en France. Certains films sortent épisodiquement en DVD, d’autres sont épisodiquement programmés – comme en ce moment ! - sur Ciné cinéma classique : c’est le haut d’un iceberg qu’il faudra bien un jour redécouvrir méthodiquement.

Dans cette attente, nous répertorions ici uniquement les films les plus importants historiquement sur lesquels nous avons pu avoir des informations à jour et à la source japonaise.

Redécouvrir Mikio Naruse, un Antonioni nippon

Par Jean-Luc Douin au Monde (01.11.2006).

Continue reading "Redécouvrir Mikio Naruse, un Antonioni nippon"

Vamping It Up

By Jennifer Makowsky at PopMatters (31.10.2006). On Bram Stoker's Dracula, its movie adaptations, Bela Lugosi, etc...

My favorite "vampire" movie is Carl Dryer's Vampyr (1932). You can watch this movie at Google Video.

Lady Chatterley: Mining the sensual, without the scandal

By Joan Dupont at IHT (26.10.2006) :

Now "Lady Chatterley's Lover," a story of shattered lives and rebirth, has been made into a film by Pascale Ferran, one of France's most gifted directors. Today, raw language and graphic sex no longer shock, nor do wars that leave young people maimed. Ferran, who doesn't speak English, has done a work of excavation, to plumb the sensual experience at the heart of the writer's vast landscape.

Produced by Arte, the French-German network, the film - which opens in France on Wednesday and stars Marina Hands as Constance Chatterley, Jean-Louis Coulloc'h as the gamekeeper, and Hippolyte Girardot as Sir Clifford - may disconcert those who go for the whiff of scandal, for there is neither smut nor violence.

She approached "Lady Chatterley" on tiptoe. "First I worked alone, in tête à tête with Lawrence." Then, the writer Roger Bohbot joined her on the screenplay, and Pierre Trividic, an old friend and collaborator, came to work on the dialogues. And finally, because the dialogues still felt awkward, Fanny and Julien Deleuze retranslated them. "Sometimes you have to get away from the original - and from the translation too," Ferran says.

We've all been veiled from the truth

By Robert Fisk at The Independent/ICH (21.10.2006). On O Jerusalem.

A Ghastly Conflagration, a Tormented Aftermath

By Manohla Dargis at The NY Times (20.10.2006). Reviews Clint Eastwood, Flags of Our Fathers.

Railroad Odyssey

By Ian Thomson at The Guardian (14.10.2006). On Primo Levi, The Truce and his film, Journey.

Clint Eastwood : le vieil homme et la guerre

Par Samuel Blumenfeld au Monde (18.10.2006).

Continue reading "Clint Eastwood : le vieil homme et la guerre"

Hibakusha: Miraculously surviving both atomic attacks

From Mainichi Daily News (18.10.2006) :

The movie "Niju Hibakusha" (Double Hibakusha), in which Yamaguchi appears, was completed this spring. For its American release early in August, Yamaguchi traveled to the U.S., and was there from Aug. 1 to Aug. 5. He had never so much as had a passport before. The film was shown in New York, at U.N. headquarters and Columbia University.

"Let there never be a third atomic bombing," said Yamaguchi. "Please, let us all do everything we can to eliminate nuclear weapons."

On Oct. 14 North Korea's U.N. ambassador angrily walked out of a Security Council meeting that culminated in sanctions against the North in the wake of its announced nuclear bomb test.

"It reminds me of Japan's withdrawal from the League of Nations [in 1933]," says Yamaguchi. "We've got to find a way to stop the nuclear program that will still allow North Korea to save face."

Doillon : "Un film, c'est musical !"

Interview with Jacques Doillon at L'Internaute (18.10.2006) :

Comment avez-vous débuté dans le cinéma ?

De manière peu classique. Le cinéma était un cercle fermé auquel seuls les "fils de" avaient accès. Issu d'un milieu modeste, je n'avais aucune chance d'y faire carrière, même si je fréquentais souvent le ciné-club du lycée. Après avoir raté deux fois mon bac, j'ai multiplié les petits boulots : postier, assureur... Puis, au détour d'un stage, je suis devenu assistant monteur. De là j'ai gravi tous les échelons jusqu'à la réalisation de mon premier film en 1972 : L'An 01. Un parcours d'autant plus étrange que j'ai toujours trouvé vaniteux l'idée même de vouloir faire un film..

Mikio Naruse Retrospective

La Maison de la Culture du Japon features Mikio Naruse (fr) in November, announces Séances.

"Ces rencontres avec eux" : dans un Eden, dialogues de Cesare Pavese

Par Jacques Mandelbaum au Monde (17.10.2006).

Continue reading ""Ces rencontres avec eux" : dans un Eden, dialogues de Cesare Pavese"

Samurai Cinema 101

By Nicholas Rucka at Midnight Eye (03.10.2006) :

At long last, 2003 and 2004 appear to be the years that the samurai film gets its dues in the West.

First we saw that Takeshi Kitano's Zatoichi was a surprise hit both in Japan and around the world, cleaning up at international film festivals. Then the Fall of 2003 brought the releases of Quentin Tarantino's love letter to Japanese chanbara film, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, and Tom Cruise starring in the US produced The Last Samurai. Further bolstering samurai cinema's profile, the awards season saw Yoji Yamada's Twilight Samurai receiving an Oscar nomination for best foreign film and, concurrent with this, there were a slew of samurai cinema DVDs released. Put these facts together and we find that now, more than ever, is the time to be getting into this genre.

Le chœur dans nos têtes

Par John Berger au Monde Diplomatique (Août 2006). Sur La Rabbia de Piero Paolo Pasolini.

On fulmine souvent en découvrant comment les journaux télévisés présentent (ou occultent) les événements. On se dit que, si on pouvait, on exposerait cela tout autrement. De manière à rendre plus parlante la réalité. Comme le fit, en 1963, le réalisateur italien Pier Paolo Pasolini dans son film La Rabbia (« La Rage »), un documentaire politique d’une force telle qu’il fut censuré. On peut enfin le voir aujourd’hui.

Tiger! Tiger! Buring Bright

By Tom Mes at Midnight Eye (29.09.2006). Remembering Tetsuro Tamba.

The Pervert's Guide to Cinema

By Gareth Evans at TimeOut (06.10.2006).

Update :: 05.01.2007

Dowload Torrent file (14.1K)

Satsuki Ina's From a Silk Cocoon, Japanese-American Incarceration Resistance Narratives, and the Post 9/11 Era

By Jean Miyake Downey at Japan Focus (28.09.2006) :

The haunting sounds of shakuhachi music and poet Lawson Inada’s resonant narration underscore the powerful emotional and moral reverberations of the Ina family’s American disaporan story, told in Dr. Satsuki Ina’s evocative documentary, From a Silk Cocoon. The film describes her father’s upbringing as a kibei, a Japanese-American educated in Japan; his hastened return to the United States because of parental fear that he would be drafted into the Imperial Japanese military; his marriage to a beautiful kibei, born in Seattle and educated in Nagano; and the profound damage perpetrated by the U.S. government on the young couple during their devastating four years of incarceration during the Second World War because of their ethnic heritage. The Inas spent two years at Topaz Internment Camp, in

Utah

. Then they were separated and Satsuki Ina’s father was sent to Department of Justice internment camp in Bismarck, North Dakota with other so-called “enemy aliens” while Ina, her mother, and brother were sent to Tule Lake Segregation Center, a maximum-security prison for those who either refused or said “no” to a loyalty questionnaire.

The Black Dahlia

By Stephanie Zacharek at The Salon (15.09.2006). — "Ellroy is the kind of writer who uses 30 words when eight would do," oh yeah...

John Lennon and the Politics of Deportation, From Nixon to Bush

By Jon Wiener at Truthdig (12.09.2006).

Big in Japan

By Stuart Klawans at The Nation (25.09.2006 Issue). On Zhang Yimou, Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles, and Ken Takakura.

Ono claims Lennon was the one real rebel in the Beatles

By Andrew Bunscombe at The Independent (07.09.2006) :

"He is the only one who really wanted to do something about [the Vietnam War] when he was a Beatle," she said. "One thing that brought us together was the fact that both of us were rebels in so many ways."

Ono's interview coincided with the premiere last weekend at the Venice Film Festival of The US vs John Lennon. His widow co-operated with the film-makers, David Leaf and John Scheinfeld, and gave them access to rarely seen amateur film footage from 1966 to 1976 - a period when Lennon was convinced the FBI was watching him.

The U.S. vs. John Lennon & Trailer.

Deleuze and Horror Film

By Don Anderson at Rhizomes 11/12. Reviews Anna Powell, Deleuze and Horror Film, Edinburgh Univ., 2005.

Surviving ‘Citizen Kane’

By Gary Giddins at The NY Times (03.09.2006). Reviews Simon Callow, Orson Welles : Hello Americans, Viking.

"Nausicaä de la vallée du vent" : une fable écologique et poétique

Par Thomas Sotinel au Monde (23.08.2006).

Continue reading ""Nausicaä de la vallée du vent" : une fable écologique et poétique"

Interview with Ken Loach

"Les raisons de sa colère," propos recueillis par Laurent Rigoulet à Télérama (19.08.2006) :

Télérama : Après le festival de Cannes, vous disiez espérer que Le vent se lève ferait avancer le débat sur « le passé impérialiste » de l’Angleterre. Cela a-t-il été le cas ?

Ken Loach : Il y a eu des discussions très intéressantes, mais surtout en Irlande, où les gens veulent redécouvrir cette période de leur histoire, la véritable nature des enjeux politiques et des sacrifices consentis par toute une génération. En Angleterre, le débat a été dominé par les chroniqueurs de la presse de droite. Quand le film a remporté la Palme d’or, leur agressivité s’est transformée en hystérie. On m’a comparé à Leni Riefenstahl [cinéaste fétiche de Hitler, NDLR], on a comparé le film à Mein Kampf, on a dit que j’étais un ennemi de la patrie et que j’avais réalisé sur des fonds publics un film de propagande pour l’IRA. Du coup, à la sortie, en juin, on m’a surtout interrogé sur mes réactions à cette vague de critiques.

Giant Monsters Attack Japan

"Parker and Stone Get Two More Pictures" by Rafe Telsch at Cinema Blend (22.08.2006). Via Taro-san's post at FG (22.08.2006). Where he found that poster ("Godzilla, Ebira, Gabara"), I wonder.

Also see Ain't It Cool News (22.08.2006).

I hope that Abe-chan will replace Kim-chan and be eaten by Godzilla.

Spike Lee and the ‘New’ New Orleans Blues

By Sheerly Avni at Truthdig (19.08.2006).

Le Molière imaginaire

By Mathilde Blottière at Télerama (19.08.2006) :

En 1645, Molière s’est volatilisé… Dans son deuxième film, Laurent Tirard imagine ce qui lui est arrivé. Reportage sur le plateau de “Molière ou le Comédien malgré lui”, de château en château.

Oliver Stone, 9/11, and the Big Lie

By Ruth Rosen at TomDispatch (16.08.2006).

Hollywood clopin-clopant

By Cécile Mury at Télérama (05.08.2006). A lead :

La femme fatale, le gangster raffiné, le Français dépravé : autant de personnages que le cinéma américain ne concevait pas sans une cibiche entre les doigts. Mais, aujourd’hui, les antitabac ne mégotent pas leurs efforts pour obliger les studios à sevrer leurs héros.

The Sinking of Japan

By Mark Schilling at Japan Focus (n.d.). On Nippon Chinbotsu.

Nippon igai zenbu chinbotsu (The Sinking of the World without Japan), Official Site.

I prefer the latter.

Burst City

David Wilenz reviews Ishi'i Sogo's Burst City (DVD) at The Broorklyn Rail (July-August 2006) :

With a two-hour running time and energy that often revs up to 200 horsepower at 120 per, Burst City can be exhausting. Yet it is this same urgency that makes Burst City such a fascinating spectacle. Some of the film’s most riveting moments are the gigs. Documented in an neo-realist manner, these scenes create a fascinating contrast to the film’s cyberpunk sci-fi milieu. One stunning sequence has a crew of riotous punks with baseball bats storming the stage to attack a group in mid-song, forcing the band to defend themselves with their guitars and drum sticks. Ishi’s camera remains centrally located throughout, keeping us in the thick of the action, eliciting an emotional reaction as primal as the sound of buzz-saw guitars and crashing drums. Ishi would also go on to direct music videos and concert films for various artists including The Stalin and Einstürzende Neubauten as well as Japanese pop divas Chara and UA.

Interview with Shun'ichi Nagasaki

Midnight Eye (June 2006).

Worth a read. Mr. Nagasaki is one of the greatest Japanese movie directors, I believe. I forgot to post it.

Da Vinci, Sedaris, Middlesex, Deleuze

By David N. Meyer at The Brooklyn Rail (June 2006).

とはいえ、ドゥルーズは無関係。『ダ・ヴィンチ・コード』の映画評。

"Choeur de Tokyo" : Ozu, un été japonais

By Jacques Mandelbaum at Le Monde (20.06.2006).

日本の夏は、金鳥ではなくて、小津安二郎というわけ。

Continue reading ""Choeur de Tokyo" : Ozu, un été japonais"

"Bashing" et "Kamikaze Girls" : jeunes filles en marge au Japon

By Thomas Sotinel at Le Monde (13.06.2006).

Continue reading ""Bashing" et "Kamikaze Girls" : jeunes filles en marge au Japon"

Offside rules: an interview with Jafar Panahi

By Jafar Panahi & Maryam Maruf at Open Democracy (07.06.2006) :

Maryam Maruf talks to Jafar Panahi, acclaimed director of Offside, the black comedy about a group of Iranian female football fans who are banned from watching a live world cup game. Plus watch two exclusive film clips.

Kenneth Anger with Pip Chodorov

At The Brooklyn Rail (May 2006) :

Rail: Where do the themes and imagery in Fireworks come from?

Anger: It was a 15-minute film and I had just barely that much 16mm negative to work with. It was given to me by a few sailors who were trained to be cameramen for the Navy. Whenever Uncle Sugar, as they called it, is generous, whether he knows it or not, something’s liberated from the government.

The actual subject was inspired by a dream of mine, and its dream logic. Like Jean Cocteau’s Blood of a Poet, which is basically a film dream—the dream in Fireworks was inspired by a horrible event called the Zoot Suit riots that took place in the last years of World War II.

Rail: And the fire images are also from the dream?

Anger: Yes, the fire images are a reference to the fourth of July, and the Christmas tree is a reference to Christmas. It’s all about holidays, really.

Film noir goes to war

Philip French reviews two books on "film noir" : Sheri Chinen Biesen, Blackout (Johns Hopkins University), and Edward Dimendberg, Film noir and the Spaces of Modernity (Harvard University), at TLS (03.05.2006).

この１０年くらいノワール研究は下火だったような気がするけど、また盛り上がってきたのかな。難しいことは別にして、ノワールものは観ても読んでも、楽しいよね。コーネル・ウールリッチやデヴイッド・グーディスの研究は、進んでいるのかな。

A broadcast from the past to the present

By Giovanni Fazio (rates 3.5 out of 5) on George Clooney, Good Night, and Good Luck, at The Japan Times (04.05.2006).

Sauve qui peut (l'expo)

Aurélien Ferenczi's essay on Jean-Luc Godard and his retrospective exposition (Centre Georges Pompidou), at Télérama (22.04.2006).

A-bomb legacy fading : filmmaker

By Mandy Willingham at The Japan Times (15.04.2006) :

Hoping to increase awareness of the 1945 attacks, particularly the stories of the hibakusha, the filmmaker, who hails from Berkeley, has spent the past year developing a comprehensive documentary for U.S. cable network HBO.

"I feel like I'm going to contribute something and that when the hibakusha are gone (there will) be some record," Okazaki said.

The documentary, set to air in 2007, will feature interviews with 30 hibakusha as well as scientists and plane navigators who were involved in the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings. The filmmaker said he wants to tell the stories of survivors and participants without academic or political analysis.

"(There will) be an American point of view and a Japanese point of view, but no historians and no politicians," Okazaki said.

Quand Lewis et Martin s'aimaient

Alain Lorfèvre's bookreview on Jerry Lewis, Dean et moi : une histoire d'amour (Flammarion), at La Libre (07.04.2006).

ジェリー・ルイスの自伝 Dean and Me : A Love Story (Doubleday) がフランス語に翻訳されて、その書評。「ディーン」というのは、もちろん、ディーン・マーチンのこと。なに、底抜けコンビを知らないってか！

Condamner à mort

Magali Nachtergael's bookreview on Catherine Mavrikakis, Condamner à mort : Meurtres et la lois à l'écran (Presses Universitaires de Montréal, 2005), at Acta Fabula (30.03.2006) :

La mort est un spectacle, et la télévision l’a compris depuis bien longtemps. Malgré la fausse transparence du titre, l’essai de Catherine Mavrikakis ne se présente pourtant pas comme une nouvelle critique de cette société de l’image qui pose son objectif dans les moindres recoins de notre intimité, jusqu’à celle de la mort. Au contraire, son propos, à travers les affaires retentissantes de grands criminels américains, tendrait à démontrer que la mort serait plutôt une issue contre le tout-image et contre l’impossible réclusion dans l’institution carcérale. Condamner à mort. Les meurtres et la loi à l’écran convie en effet la pensée moderne au banquet de la peine de mort et de son scénario répressif. Chaque étude de cas permet à l’auteure de s’interroger sur notre façon de considérer l’horreur des crimes, leurs punitions ou leurs remèdes ainsi que les mots et le dispositif qui accompagnent en retour une autre violence : celle, aseptisée, de la justice d’État. La pensée de Catherine Mavrikakis se déploie dans des méandres complexes toujours savamment et élégamment conduits : en avertissement, elle définit sa posture critique comme une adhérence — sans adhésion — à l’écran pour voir au plus près ce qui s’y trame.

かなり面白そうな映像論が出版されていたのね。

Buñuel en balade au Mexique

By Thomas Sotinel at Le Monde (14.03.2006).

メキシコ時代のブニュエルについて。

Les Pro Forma Than You Think

By David N. Meyer at The Brooklyn Rail (February 2006).

私の好きな映画批評家による、２００５年度最良映画１０本。

Life Is Sweet

Peter Cowie's bookreview on Tullio Kezich, Federico Fellini : His Life and Work (Faber & Faber, 2006), at The Nation (20.03.2006 Issue).

フェッリーニの評伝について。アメリカでは相当人気があるみたい。日本ではイマイチではあるけど。

The Two Neil Youngs : Demme's Film Shows A Saccharine Singer

By Ron Rosenbaum at The NY Observer (27.02.2006) :

Mr. Demme’s film omits the dark, electrifying, deeply disruptive, sometimes bleak, sometimes exhilarating and subversive Neil Young. Not the “country-rock” musician that Mr. Demme’s reliably adoring film-critic acolytes describe him as, but rather the hard-core, killer rock ’n’ roll genius whose electrifying, volcanic sound and deeply resonant and compressed lyrics left an imprint not just on music, but on popular culture itself. Neil Young is not just a transformative rock god—but as the spiritual godfather to Kurt Cobain, he was also a powerfully influential transformer of American popular culture, the progenitor of the wickedly acute, wised-up post-punk cultural sensibility.

ジョナサン・デミの新作、Neil Young : A Heart of Gold について。

British director takes Berlin cinema prize

At Independent.co.uk (19.02.2006) :

The Berlin Film Festival ended last night with a surprise result and a major award for British director Michael Winterbottom. The Silver Bear for Best Director went jointly to Winterbottom and his co-director Mat Whitecross for The Road to Guantanamo, their documentary-style recreation of the events leading to the incarceration of three British Muslims in the US camp in Cuba.

ベルリン国際映画祭の最優秀監督賞に、Road to Guantanamo のマイケル・ウィンターボトムとマット・ホワイトクロスが選ばれた。

週末にパソコンから離れていたから、記事に遅れている。

"La route vers l'enfer," at La Libre Belgique (17.02.2006) — こちらは、監督のマイケル・ウィンターボトムのインタビュー。「地獄への道」とは、すごいタイトル。

Qu'est-ce qui vous a poussé à faire ce film?

J'ai vraiment été choqué quand les Américains ont «inventé» Guantanamo à Cuba afin d'échapper aux lois américaines et de pouvoir emprisonner des gens sans aucune contrainte légale, sans procès. Quand Asif et ses camarades ont été libérés, je me suis dit que c'était une histoire incroyable. Nous les avons rencontrés un mois ou deux après. Nous leur avons simplement demandé s'ils voulaient nous raconter leur histoire. Et trois ou quatre semaines plus tard, on commençait les interviews.

この映画も日本には来ないだろうな。

Innocence found

By Judy Abel at The Boston Globe (19.02.2006) :

NEW YORK Here's some news that may be difficult for diehard Neil Young fans to accept: He's not really a downer. He's actually kind of upbeat, occasionally bordering on jovial. The man who's written the soundtrack to some of life's lowest moments -- "Yes, only love can break your heart. What if your world should fall apart?" and "The woman I'm thinking of, she loved me all up, but I'm so down today" -- spent a recent afternoon joking and laughing with Jonathan Demme, who directed Young's new concert film "Neil Young: Heart of Gold," which opened Friday. "It was kind of a dream of music heaven," Young says."Things are right in every song. And just from an acoustic point of view there's no theater like [Nashville's] Ryman Auditorium."

ニール・ヤングとジョナサン・デミのコラボレーションについて。ヤングが、"brain aneurysm" を患っていたとは、全然知らなかった。

'The Road to Guantanamo' Film Releasing

By Clive Freeman at IPS/CommonDreams (18.02.2006).

Winterbottom's film tells the true life "horror story" of four young men of Pakistan origin -- one of them now presumed dead -- who travel to Karachi, then on to a village near Faisalabad in Punjab, where one of them, Asif Iqbal, is to marry a bride chosen for him by his mother.

The group gathers shortly before the wedding. Then on the spur of the moment they embark on a well-intentioned but unwise escapade into Afghanistan to help victims of the war -- just days before American bombardments start in September 2001.

The three young men from Tipton, near Birmingham in England, soon recognise the folly of the venture but turning back proves impossible. Almost certainly betrayed by locals they are swept up by Coalition allies, and shunted into a container which ends up being machine-gunned by Northern Alliance troops led by General Dostum's forces, killing many inside.

ベルリン国際映画祭に出品された、グアンタナモ関連の映画、The Road to Guantanamo についての報告。映画祭のほうは１９日に終了しているけど、概要はホームページで閲覧可能。

Liv Ullmann's Face

By Danny Miller at The Huffington Post (08.02.2006).

"The best thing that comes with success is the knowledge that it is nothing to long for." — これは、リヴ・ウルマンの言葉。参りました。

Hotel Rwanda & The Ringer

日本に入ってこない映画を見るのに、BitTorrent はとても利用のしがいがある。二つの映画とも、ダウンロードして見たのだけど、どちらも受けると思うよ。

『ホテル・ルワンダ』のほうは、『ホテル・ルワンダ』のロビーを参照のこと。『ザ・リンガー』については、反米嫌日戦線「狼」（美ハ乱調ニ在リ） (05.02.2006) に詳しいから、そちらを参照のこと。

どちらの映画もマニアックなものではないから、TorrentSpy.com, TorrentBox.com, The Pirate Bay, Torrent Reactor などで、簡単に Torrent ファイルを入手できるはず。後は、BitTorrent とか BitComet とか Azureus に、その Torrent ファイルを読み込ませて、ダウンロード開始。朝起きれば、完了しているはず。

日本は世界に名だたる文化国家だから、こうした苦労を嫌がってはいけない。（もちろん、皮肉だよ）

"I Would Die For Israel"

Spiegel Interview with Steven Spielberg (26.01.2006).

シュピーゲルで、『ミュンヘン』について、スピルバーグにインタビュー。

SPIEGEL: You have frequently criticized the Bush administration.

Spielberg: I criticize the Iraq war, the restrictions placed on citizens' freedom. I criticize it because I love my country.

SPIEGEL: How would you describe your attitude to Israel?

Spielberg: From the day I started to think politically and to develop my own moral values, from my earliest youth, I have been an ardent defender of Israel. As a Jew I am aware of how important the existence of Israel is for the survival of us all. And because I am proud of being Jewish, I am worried by the growing anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the world. In my film I ask questions about America's war on terror and about Israel's responses to Palestinian attacks. If it became necessary, I would be prepared to die for the USA and for Israel.

Video blog a hit as promotion material for 'Simsons' movie

"Video blog a hit as promotion material for 'Simsons' movie," at Mainichi (16.01.2006).

映画　シムソンズ　ムービーブログぅ～？！

カーリングを題材にした映画。『ウォーターボーイズ』の監督ですか。