Monday, April 18, 2022

Girlhood (France: Céline Sciamma, 2014)

 



Girlhood (France: Céline Sciamma, 2014: 113 mins)

Batuman, Elif. "Céline Sciamma's Quest for a New, Feminist Grammar of Cinema." The New Yorker (January 31, 2022)

Brown, William. "Girlhood is remarkable – a film brimming with messages of empowerment." The Conversation (May 7, 2015)

Galibert-Laîné, Chloé. "Why Framing Matters in Movies." (Posted on Vimeo: 2017)

Harris, Sue. "Film of the Week: Girlhood." Sight and Sound (December 14, 2015)

Salmon, Caspar. "The Action Cinema of Céline Sciamma." The Notebook (February 18, 2022)

Kohn, Eric. "Céline Sciamma's Girlhood Is One of the Best Coming of Age Movies In Years." Indiewire (May 15, 2014)

Scott, A.O. "Exploring the Limits in a Man’s World: In Girlhood, a French Adolescent Comes Out of Her Shell." The New York Times (January 3, 2015)

Wilson, Emma. "Scenes of Hurt and Rapture: Céline Sciamma's Girlhood." Film Quarterly 70.3 (Spring 2017): 10-22.
















Thursday, April 14, 2022

Tomboy (France: Céline Sciamma, 2011)





 Tomboy (France: Céline Sciamma, 2011: 84 mins)


"A sensitive, heartrending portrait of what it feels like to grow up different, Sciamma’s beautifully observed coming-of-age tale aches tenderly with the tangled confusion of childhood. When 10-year-old Laure’s family moves to a new neighborhood during the summer, the gender-nonconforming preteen (played by the impressively naturalistic Zoé Héran) takes the opportunity to present as Mickäel to the neighborhood kids—testing the waters of a new identity that neither friends nor family quite understand. Sciamma’s warmly empathetic tone is perfectly complemented by the soft-lit impressionism of Fournier’s glowing cinematography." - "The Female Gaze" (2018)

Batuman, Elif. "Céline Sciamma's Quest for a New, Feminist Grammar of Cinema." The New Yorker (January 31, 2022)

Chang, Chris. "Short Takes: Tomboy." Film Comment (November-December 2011)

Ebert, Roger. "This may form her adulthood, or just be forgotten." Chicago Sun-Times (January 25, 2012)


Holt, Julian. "Transmasculine Identities And The Paradox Of Language: Tomboy, A Reflection." Radical Art Review (July 18, 2021)

Klinghoffer, Ariel. "The radical queer politics and bittersweet legacy of Tomboy." Little White Lies (April 18, 2021)

Salmon, Caspar. "The Action Cinema of Céline Sciamma." The Notebook (February 18, 2022)

Temple, Melissa Bow. "It's Okay to Be Neither." Together for Jackson County Kids (December 16, 2011)












Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Dune (Part 1 - USA/Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2021)





 Dune (Part 1 - USA/Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2021: 155 mins)

Ahuja, Nitin K. "Medicine." Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Armstrong, Vanessa. "For Dune, Composer Hans Zimmer Created Beats That Were 'Humanly Impossible to Play.'" Tor (March 2, 2022)

Baheyeldin, Khalid, et al. "The Book of Dune." Imaginary Worlds (July 12, 2017) ["Frank Herbert’s 1965 novel Dune and its sequels tackled a lot of big themes. The books are about ecology. They’re about journeys of self-realization through mind-altering substances. But religion is at the core of the series, since the main character Paul Atreides transforms from a teenage aristocrat into a messianic revolutionary leader of a nomadic desert tribe. And the real world religion that Frank Herbert borrows from the most is Islam. Khalid Baheyeldin, Salman Sayyid, and Sami Shah discuss why the book resonated deeply with them, despite the fact that Frank Herbert wasn’t Muslim. And Liel Liebowitz explains why the novel even spoke to him as an Israeli."]

Breen, Benjamin. "Pharmacology." The Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Dick, Stephanie. "Computers." The Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Dietrich, Christopher. "Harvesting." The Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Dolan, Thomas Simsarian. "Decolonizing Dune: Reimagining MENA and the Muslim World." Tropics of Meta (December 21, 2021)

Durrani, Haris A. "Sietchposting: A Short Guide to Recent Work on Dune." Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Hadadi, Roxana. "Dune Has a Desert Problem." Vulture (October 29, 2021)

Hudson, David. "Denis Villeneuve's Dune." The Daily (September 16, 2021)

---. "Dune: Beware of Heroes." The Daily (November 2, 2021)

Like Stories of Old. "Into the Dark Depths of Humanity – Understanding Denis Villeneuve." (Posted on Youtube: October 31, 2021) ["A deep dive analysis of the filmmaking philosophy of Denis Villeneuve, and of the themes and meanings found in his work."]

Moore, Taylor M. "Ethnography." Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)

Nuriddin, Ayah. "Eugenics." Los Angeles Review of Books (Marhc 27, 2022)

Shakry, Omnia El. "Language." Los Angeles Review of Books (March 27, 2022)













Blade Runner 2049 (UK/USA/Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2017)





Blade Runner 2049 (UK/USA/Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2017: 163 mins) 

Aisenberg, Joseph. "I am Blade Runner 2049Blade Runner 2049 is I." Bright Lights Film Journal (November 3, 2017)

Alpert, Robert. "A.I. at the Movies and the Second Coming." Senses of Cinema #88 (October 2018)

Booker, M. Keith. "Blade Runner 2049 (2017, Dir. Denis Villeneuve)." Comments on Culture (ND)

Desowitz, Bill. "Why Roger Deakins Should Win the Oscar for Bringing Realism to Blade Runner 2049." IndieWire (October 5, 2017)

"Dive Deeper into Blade Runner 2049 with Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC." American Cinematographer (March 5, 2018)

Engley, Ryan and Todd McGowan. "Blade Runner 2049." Why Theory (October 23, 2017) ["In this episode, Todd and Ryan discuss Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049. The conversation centers around how the film depicts ideology and what we mean when we say "ideology"; how the film conceives of desire ensuring subjectivity; and how the relationship between police and capital in the film exposes a link to how the two function in everyday life."]

Fox, Neil and Dario Linares. "Blade Runner 2049." The Cinematologists (October 18, 2017) ["With the original Blade Runner being a formative film for both Dario and Neil, they take the time to discuss the 2017 sequel directed by Denis Villeneuve: Blade Runner 2049. A lot has been said and written about this new incarnation, directly about the aesthetics, philosophical themes and narrative, but also regarding the wider ideological readings related to gender, race and class. We hope you enjoy our contribution to the discourse around a film which, if nothing else, reminds us of cinema's ability to provoke thought and exercise passion."]

Gerwig, Greta, et al. "63 Minute Directors Roundtable Talk." The Hollywood Reporter (Posted on Playlist: January 22, 2018) ["Angelina Jolie (“First They Killed My Father”), Patty Jenkins (“Wonder Woman”), Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), Joe Wright (“Darkest Hour”), Guillermo del Toro (“The Shape of Water”), and Denis Villeneuve (“Blade Runner 2049”)."]

Jagernauth, Kevin. "Blade Runner 2049 Editor Talks Deleted Scenes You’ll Probably Never See." The Playlist (October 30, 2017)

"Jared Leto Stars in a New Prequel to Blade Runner 2049: Watch It Free Online." Open Culture (August 31, 2017)

Koski, Genvieve, et al. "Blade Runner 2049 (2017) / Blade Runner (1982), Part 1." The Next Picture Show #98 (October 17, 2017)

---. "Blade Runner 2049 (2017) / Blade Runner (1982), Part 2." The Next Picture Show #99 (October 19, 2017)

Laczkowski, Jim, et al. "Denis Villeneuve." The Director's Club #140 (December 17, 2017) ["Now Playing Network Master of Ceremonies (and Director's Club founder) Jim Laczkowski joins us for this episode which has us looking at the films of French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve! With Jim's help, we look at how Villeneuve brings his unique combination of thoughtfulness, pathos, family focus, and strangeness to dramas, genre thrillers, and films across the sci-fi spectrum. Includes lots of spiders and one talking fish."]

Landsberg, Alison. "What's So Bad About Being a Replicant?" On the Media (October 6, 2017)

Like Stories of Old. "In Search of the Distinctively Human: The Philosophy of Blade Runner 2049." (Posted on Youtube: Jan 29, 2018) [Uses Ernest Becker's The Birth and Death of Meaning and Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning.]

---. "The Problem of Other Minds – How Cinema Explores Consciousness." (Posted on Youtube: May 31, 2018) ["How have films engaged the problem of other minds? In this video essay, I discuss cinematic explorations into consciousness in the context of the cognitive revolution that has challenged many of the basic assumptions about what was for a long time believed to be a uniquely human trait." Uses Frans de Waal's book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?: "Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition--in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos--to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we've underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal's landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal--and human--intelligence."]

Fox, Neil and Dario Linares. "Blade Runner 2049." The Cinematologists (October 18, 2017) ["With the original Blade Runner being a formative film for both Dario and Neil, they take the time to discuss the 2017 sequel directed by Denis Villeneuve: Blade Runner 2049. A lot has been said and written about this new incarnation, directly about the aesthetics, philosophical themes and narrative, but also regarding the wider ideological readings related to gender, race and class. We hope you enjoy our contribution to the discourse around a film which, if nothing else, reminds us of cinema's ability to provoke thought and exercise passion."]

Maher, Michael. "How Roger Deakins Shot and Lit Blade Runner 2049." The Beat (October 16, 2017)

Rosenberg, Alyssa. "‘Blade Runner 2049’ is about learning that you’re not the main character in your own story." The Washington Post (October 17, 2017)

Skiveren, Nicolai. "Cinematic Waesthetic: Wasted Worlds, Wasted Lives and Becoming-Waste in Contemporary Science Fiction Film." Revenant #10 (March 2024) ["This article explores the aesthetic, affective, and epistemological connections that bind together science fiction (SF) as a genre of cognitive estrangement, and the varied forms of waste that have come to permeate the genre’s filmic depictions of the future. Whether it be in the shadowy alleyways of Blade Runner 2049 (2017), the shantytowns of District 9 (2009), or the ravaged environments of Idiocracy (2006), waste is always there, lurking in the background, enveloping its human and nonhuman subjects with its elusive yet distinct atmosphere. And yet, it remains unclear what purpose(s), if any, waste might serve within these film-worlds. Because despite the seemingly central place that waste occupies in our cultural imaginaries of the future, no one has yet presented a systematic reflection on its affective, symbolic, and narrative significance. This article therefore brings together writings on ecological SF (Caravan 2014) and critical waste studies (Bauman 2004; Hawkins 2005; Viney 2014) to scrutinize the waste found across the above SF films. The article proposes that waste in contemporary SF film can be seen to operate mainly within three overlapping modes: ‘Wasted worlds,’ ‘Wasted lives,’ and ‘Becoming-waste.’ Drawing especially on Adrian Ivakhiv’s tripartite model for an eco-philosophy of the cinema, this article calls attention to the often subtle ways in which waste participates in (i) cinematic world-building, (ii) representations of otherness, and (iii) depictions of radical forms of change. Taken together, these three modes represent a suggestive image of how waste forms part of contemporary SF film."]

StudioBinder. "Denis Villeneuve & His Cinema of Ambiguity — Directing Styles Explained." (Posted on Youtube: April 6, 2020) ["Denis Villeneuve movies are made to confuse you. At every opportunity — in the story, in the cinematography, editing, and music, Villeneuve wants to keep you guessing. Watching Denis Villeneuve movies is to be placed in an environment of uncertainty. And that’s what makes them so interesting. In films like Enemy, Prisoners, Polytechnique, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, Villeneuve consistently creates awe and wonder with images and sounds we’ve never seen before. In Enemy, Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) must confront the possibility that he is more than a single person. In Sicario, Kate (Emily Blunt) is pushed into the world of drug cartels by a tight-lipped company man (Josh Brolin) and a near-silent assassin (Benicio Del Toro). In Prisoners, Keller (Hugh Jackman) ventures into murky moral territory to find his kidnapped daughter. In Arrival, Louise (Amy Adams) and Ian (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with bridging the communication gap between beings from another dimension. In all these movies, the characters find themselves in new worlds without answers. In this video, we’ve cracked the code on Villeneuve’s love of ambiguity and we explain how his directing style works across 7 areas of focus including sound, color, production design, and more. Villeneuve creates movies that can be enigmatic but there’s no denying that he is a film artist in complete control of his medium. If you’re studying directing, cinematography, editing, or pursuing ANY career in filmmaking, there are a ton of lessons to be learned from Denis Villeneuve. This is the ultimate breakdown of Denis Villeneuve’s directing style."]

Werff, Tom Van Der. "The best thing about Blade Runner 2049 is what it isn’t." Vox (October 9, 2017)














Monday, April 11, 2022

Sicario (USA: Denis Villeneuve, 2015)





 Sicario (USA: Denis Villeneuve, 2015: 121 mins)

Deakins, Roger. "Sicario." DP30 (November 14, 2015)

Foley, Darren. "Sicario: Film Analysis." Must See Films (Posted on Youtube: March 28, 2016)

Laczkowski, Jim, et al. "Denis Villeneuve." The Director's Club #140 (December 17, 2017) ["Now Playing Network Master of Ceremonies (and Director's Club founder) Jim Laczkowski joins us for this episode which has us looking at the films of French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve! With Jim's help, we look at how Villeneuve brings his unique combination of thoughtfulness, pathos, family focus, and strangeness to dramas, genre thrillers, and films across the sci-fi spectrum. Includes lots of spiders and one talking fish."]

Lane, Anthony. "Dark Places: Sicario." The New Yorker (September 21, 2015)

McGrath, Callum. "Looking to the other side: Dismantlement and reimposition of borders in Sicario and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada." Senses of Cinema #108 (January 2024) ["Two films that engage in ideas of the permeability of the US-Mexico border are Sicario (Denis Villeneuve, 2015) and The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (Tommy Lee Jones, 2005). This article will explore how these films either reimpose or dismantle the border. To construct these arguments, an analysis of cinematic techniques will be undertaken for each film, with a focus on mise-en-scène. It will be argued that the negative depiction of Mexico in Sicario reimposes border ideology. Subsequently, the article will assert that The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada instead dismantles the border division. In both texts, however, there are challenges and nuances to these arguments, as will be explored. These include border permeability in instances that are beneficial to the hegemony of the US in Sicario, and some aspects of Mexico’s romanticised portrayal that reinforce a divide in The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada."]

Orr, Christopher. "The Almost Greatness of Sicario." The Atlantic (September 25, 2015)

Scott, A.O. "Sicario Digs Into the Depths of Drug Cartel Violence." The New York Times (September 17, 2015)

StudioBinder. "Denis Villeneuve & His Cinema of Ambiguity — Directing Styles Explained." (Posted on Youtube: April 6, 2020) ["Denis Villeneuve movies are made to confuse you. At every opportunity — in the story, in the cinematography, editing, and music, Villeneuve wants to keep you guessing. Watching Denis Villeneuve movies is to be placed in an environment of uncertainty. And that’s what makes them so interesting. In films like Enemy, Prisoners, Polytechnique, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, Villeneuve consistently creates awe and wonder with images and sounds we’ve never seen before. In Enemy, Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) must confront the possibility that he is more than a single person. In Sicario, Kate (Emily Blunt) is pushed into the world of drug cartels by a tight-lipped company man (Josh Brolin) and a near-silent assassin (Benicio Del Toro). In Prisoners, Keller (Hugh Jackman) ventures into murky moral territory to find his kidnapped daughter. In Arrival, Louise (Amy Adams) and Ian (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with bridging the communication gap between beings from another dimension. In all these movies, the characters find themselves in new worlds without answers. In this video, we’ve cracked the code on Villeneuve’s love of ambiguity and we explain how his directing style works across 7 areas of focus including sound, color, production design, and more. Villeneuve creates movies that can be enigmatic but there’s no denying that he is a film artist in complete control of his medium. If you’re studying directing, cinematography, editing, or pursuing ANY career in filmmaking, there are a ton of lessons to be learned from Denis Villeneuve. This is the ultimate breakdown of Denis Villeneuve’s directing style."]

Tallerico, Brian. "Sicario." Roger Ebert (September 15, 2015)





































Prisoners (USA: Denis Villeneuve, 2013)

 Prisoners (USA: Denis Villeneuve, 2013: 153 mins)


Foley, Darren. "Prisoners: 'Pray for the Best, Prepare for the Worst.'" Must See Films (Posted on Vimeo: 2014)

Laczkowski, Jim, et al. "Denis Villeneuve."  The Director's Club #140 (December 17, 2017) ["Now Playing Network Master of Ceremonies (and Director's Club founder) Jim Laczkowski joins us for this episode which has us looking at the films of French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve! With Jim's help, we look at how Villeneuve brings his unique combination of thoughtfulness, pathos, family focus, and strangeness to dramas, genre thrillers, and films across the sci-fi spectrum. Includes lots of spiders and one talking fish."]

StudioBinder. "Denis Villeneuve & His Cinema of Ambiguity — Directing Styles Explained." (Posted on Youtube: April 6, 2020) ["Denis Villeneuve movies are made to confuse you. At every opportunity — in the story, in the cinematography, editing, and music, Villeneuve wants to keep you guessing. Watching Denis Villeneuve movies is to be placed in an environment of uncertainty. And that’s what makes them so interesting. In films like Enemy, Prisoners, Polytechnique, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, Villeneuve consistently creates awe and wonder with images and sounds we’ve never seen before. In Enemy, Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) must confront the possibility that he is more than a single person. In Sicario, Kate (Emily Blunt) is pushed into the world of drug cartels by a tight-lipped company man (Josh Brolin) and a near-silent assassin (Benicio Del Toro). In Prisoners, Keller (Hugh Jackman) ventures into murky moral territory to find his kidnapped daughter. In Arrival, Louise (Amy Adams) and Ian (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with bridging the communication gap between beings from another dimension. In all these movies, the characters find themselves in new worlds without answers. In this video, we’ve cracked the code on Villeneuve’s love of ambiguity and we explain how his directing style works across 7 areas of focus including sound, color, production design, and more. Villeneuve creates movies that can be enigmatic but there’s no denying that he is a film artist in complete control of his medium. If you’re studying directing, cinematography, editing, or pursuing ANY career in filmmaking, there are a ton of lessons to be learned from Denis Villeneuve. This is the ultimate breakdown of Denis Villeneuve’s directing style."]


Incendies (Canada/France: Denis Villeneuve, 2010)

 


Incendies (Canada/France: Denis Villeneuve, 2010: 130 mins)

Druta, Gianini. "Misfit and Corporeality in Incendies (Denis Villeneuve, 2010)." Metacritic Journal for Comparative Studies and Theory #1.1 (2015): 122 -137.

Green, Mary Jean. " Denis Villeneuve's Incendies: From Word to Image." Québec Studies #54 (September 2012): 103 - 110. 

Gulgoz, Selun. "The Politics of Art: Middle Eastern Women in Fiction and Film." The Millions (January 5, 2012)

Laczkowski, Jim, et al. "Denis Villeneuve." The Director's Club #140 (December 17, 2017) ["Now Playing Network Master of Ceremonies (and Director's Club founder) Jim Laczkowski joins us for this episode which has us looking at the films of French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve! With Jim's help, we look at how Villeneuve brings his unique combination of thoughtfulness, pathos, family focus, and strangeness to dramas, genre thrillers, and films across the sci-fi spectrum. Includes lots of spiders and one talking fish."]

Meerzon, Yana. "Staging Memory in Wajdi Mouawad's Incendies: Archaeological Site or Poetic Venue?" Theatre Research in Canada 34.1 (2013): 12 - 36.

Pike, David L. "Burning the Candle at Both Ends: Denis Villeneuve's Incendies (2010)." Bright Lights Film Journal #74 (November 2011)

Rabin, Nathan. "Nathan Rabin vs. The IMDb Top 250: Incendies." The Dissolve (October 22, 2014)

Said, Edward W. "Invention, Memory, and Place." Cultural Studies: From Theory to Action. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 2005: 256-269. [In BCTC Library and professor has a copy]

StudioBinder. "Denis Villeneuve & His Cinema of Ambiguity — Directing Styles Explained." (Posted on Youtube: April 6, 2020) ["Denis Villeneuve movies are made to confuse you. At every opportunity — in the story, in the cinematography, editing, and music, Villeneuve wants to keep you guessing. Watching Denis Villeneuve movies is to be placed in an environment of uncertainty. And that’s what makes them so interesting. In films like Enemy, Prisoners, Polytechnique, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, Villeneuve consistently creates awe and wonder with images and sounds we’ve never seen before. In Enemy, Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) must confront the possibility that he is more than a single person. In Sicario, Kate (Emily Blunt) is pushed into the world of drug cartels by a tight-lipped company man (Josh Brolin) and a near-silent assassin (Benicio Del Toro). In Prisoners, Keller (Hugh Jackman) ventures into murky moral territory to find his kidnapped daughter. In Arrival, Louise (Amy Adams) and Ian (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with bridging the communication gap between beings from another dimension. In all these movies, the characters find themselves in new worlds without answers. In this video, we’ve cracked the code on Villeneuve’s love of ambiguity and we explain how his directing style works across 7 areas of focus including sound, color, production design, and more. Villeneuve creates movies that can be enigmatic but there’s no denying that he is a film artist in complete control of his medium. If you’re studying directing, cinematography, editing, or pursuing ANY career in filmmaking, there are a ton of lessons to be learned from Denis Villeneuve. This is the ultimate breakdown of Denis Villeneuve’s directing style."]





Friday, April 8, 2022

Polytechnique (Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2009)

 


Professor in Polytechnique: “The universal law of entropy also tells us that any isolated system left on its own, is inevitably destined to irreversible degradation, to the point of self-destruction.”


Polytechnique (Canada: Denis Villeneuve, 2009: 77 mins)

Bailey, Patricia. "Reliving the tragedy: Director Denis Villeneuve discusses his film about the Montreal Massacre." CBC News (February 4, 2009)

Gonzalez, Ed. Polytechnique Slant (June 26, 2011)

Jacobs, Derek. "Denis Villeneuve Week – Day 2: “Polytechnique” (Canada, 2009)." Plot and Theme (September 29, 2015)

Laczkowski, Jim, et al. "Denis Villeneuve." The Director's Club #140 (December 17, 2017) ["Now Playing Network Master of Ceremonies (and Director's Club founder) Jim Laczkowski joins us for this episode which has us looking at the films of French Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve! With Jim's help, we look at how Villeneuve brings his unique combination of thoughtfulness, pathos, family focus, and strangeness to dramas, genre thrillers, and films across the sci-fi spectrum. Includes lots of spiders and one talking fish."]

Lee, Kevin B. "The Tragic Timing of Denis Villeneuve." (Posted on Vimeo: 2016) ["How cinema is given meaning and feeling through the sculpting of time."]

Scott, A.O.  "A Fictional Killer of Women Who Is All Too Familiar." The New York Times (June 28, 2011)

StudioBinder. "Denis Villeneuve & His Cinema of Ambiguity — Directing Styles Explained." (Posted on Youtube: April 6, 2020) ["Denis Villeneuve movies are made to confuse you. At every opportunity — in the story, in the cinematography, editing, and music, Villeneuve wants to keep you guessing. Watching Denis Villeneuve movies is to be placed in an environment of uncertainty. And that’s what makes them so interesting. In films like Enemy, Prisoners, Polytechnique, Blade Runner 2049, and Arrival, Villeneuve consistently creates awe and wonder with images and sounds we’ve never seen before. In Enemy, Adam (Jake Gyllenhaal) must confront the possibility that he is more than a single person. In Sicario, Kate (Emily Blunt) is pushed into the world of drug cartels by a tight-lipped company man (Josh Brolin) and a near-silent assassin (Benicio Del Toro). In Prisoners, Keller (Hugh Jackman) ventures into murky moral territory to find his kidnapped daughter. In Arrival, Louise (Amy Adams) and Ian (Jeremy Renner) are tasked with bridging the communication gap between beings from another dimension. In all these movies, the characters find themselves in new worlds without answers. In this video, we’ve cracked the code on Villeneuve’s love of ambiguity and we explain how his directing style works across 7 areas of focus including sound, color, production design, and more. Villeneuve creates movies that can be enigmatic but there’s no denying that he is a film artist in complete control of his medium. If you’re studying directing, cinematography, editing, or pursuing ANY career in filmmaking, there are a ton of lessons to be learned from Denis Villeneuve. This is the ultimate breakdown of Denis Villeneuve’s directing style."]

Villeneuve, Denis. "It’s hardly hyperbole at this point to crown Denis Villeneuve as one of the most astonishing and consistently energizing talents to come out of this country." Toronto Film Critics Association (January 19, 2015)


















Tuesday, April 5, 2022

Joachim Trier (Ongoing Filmmaker Archive)



“People talk about the death of cinema, and they talk about the death of the novel. The novel has reinvented itself and changed form and been experimental and, therefore, has survived. I think movies should be inspired by that — the spirit of the possibility of the dramaturgy not being one thing. The dramaturgy or the structure of your telling is up for grabs, and it’s personal.” – Joachim Trier, Seventh Row Louder than Bombs Interview Part 1

“How to show thinking in cinema, it’s something I’m really interested in. I get so pissed when people say, “Oh, thinking, that’s for the novel. Cinema is about the exterior”. I disagree. Film can be incredibly subjective.” – Joachim Trier, Louder Than Bombs Interview Part 2


"About Joachim Trier." The Seventh Row (Ongoing Archive)


Reprise (2006)

Oslo, August 31st (2011) 

Louder Than Bombs (2015)

Thelma (2017)

The Worst Person in the World (2021)

Louder Than Bombs (Norway/France/Denmark/USA: Joachim Trier, 2015)

 Louder Than Bombs (Norway/France/Denmark/USA: Joachim Trier, 2015: 109 mins)


Ihre, Jakob.  "Louder Than Bombs." American Cinematographer Podcasts #71 (May 27, 2016) ["Director of photography Jakob Ihre sits down with filmmaker Jim Hemphill to discuss his work on the acclaimed independent film Louder Than Bombs. Ihre discusses the role of the cinematographer in facilitating great performances, his ongoing collaboration with director Joachim Trier, being influenced by films including Ordinary People and The Breakfast Club, and how he finds visual corollaries for emotional states."]

Weston, Hillary. "The Art Form of Memory: A Conversation with Joachim Trier." Current (April 8, 2016)

The Worst Person in the World (Norway: Joachim Trier, 2021)





 The Worst Person in the World (Norway: Joachim Trier, 2021: 128 mins)

Carrassco, Salvador. "Anatomy of a Breakup or Her Life to Fix: The Worst Person in the World." Senses of Cinema #103 (October 2022)

Gruder, Susannah. "The Worst Person in the World." Reverse Shot (February 3, 2022)


Lie, Anders Danielson, Renate Reinsve, and Joachim Trier. "The Worst Person in the World." Film at Lincoln Center #384 (February 2022) ["As proven in such exacting stories of lives on the edge as Reprise and Oslo, August 31, Norwegian director Joachim Trier is singularly adept at giving an invigorating modern twist to classically constructed character portraits. Trier catapults the viewer into the world of his most spellbinding protagonist yet: Julie, played by Cannes Best Actress winner Renate Reinsve, who’s the magnetic center of nearly every scene. After dropping out of pre-med, Julie must find new professional and romantic avenues as she navigates her late-twenties, juggling emotionally heavy relationships with two very different men (Trier regular Anders Danielsen Lie and engaging newcomer Herbert Nordrum). Fluidly told in 12 discrete chapters, Trier’s film elegantly depicts the precarity of identity and the mutability of happiness in our runaway contemporary world."]

O'Malley, Sheila. "The Worst Person in the World: Lost and Found." Current (June 28, 2022) ["Idleness” is a grave sin, perhaps the gravest, in a world where the answer to “What do you do?” is more important than the answer to “How are you?” Whatever it is that you “do” must fit into the appropriate container for your age and life phase. Everyone agrees you need ambition, goals, a plan. But what happens if your timeline doesn’t match up with expectations? What if you want to keep your options open? What if you are baffled at the idea of having to make a choice and stick to it for all time? What if you legitimately do not know what you want? Julie (Renate Reinsve), the woman on the cusp of thirty who stumbles and cavorts her way through Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World (2021), experiences all these questions, sometimes simultaneously. Saying “I don’t know”—as she often does—is seen as fickle, indecisive, but maybe Julie’s idleness is creating a clear enough surface for the “submerged truth” that Virginia Woolf describes, however eccentric it may be, to rise. It’s the rare film that allows a character to just be, loosing her from the constraints of plot, giving her a huge playground—here, the city of Oslo—in which to think, question, make mistakes, behave poorly, course-correct, all while having no idea what she’s doing or why."]

Pugh, Lindsay. "Renate Reinsve: ‘I wanted her to be strong in the chaos.'" Seventh Row (January 19, 2022)

Power, Nina, et al. "The Worst Person in the World." The Lack (October 25, 2023) 












Reprise (Norway: Joachim Trier, 2006)





 Reprise (Norway: Joachim Trier, 2006: 105 mins)

Dargis, Manohla. "Two Friends, Two Novels, One Mailbox: Lives at the Speed of Ambition." The New York Times (May 16, 2008)

"Joachim Trier." Seventh Row (Archive)

Pham, Annika. "Reprise." Cineuropa (July 16, 2007)

Tinkham, Chris. "Joachim Trier: Cowriter and Director of Reprise." Under the Radar (May 2, 2008)

Weston, Hillary. "The Art Form of Memory: A Conversation with Joachim Trier." Current (April 8, 2016)