Nieuwe filmrubriek in Subbacultcha

In het toch al zo minuscule Subbacultcha (dat op ansichtkaartformaat verschijnt) had ik tot voor kort slechts een halve pagina tot mijn beschikking om mijn grootse filmliefde in te proppen. De andere helft was voor de thuiskijktip van mijn collega-filmfanaat Gert Verbeek.
Sinds deze maand krijgen wij filmnerds echter maar liefst twee pagina's toebedeeld. Op de ene mogen Gert en ik nog twee extra bioscooptips kwijt, op de andere pagina is mijn rubriekje Spitting Image van start gegaan, ondertitel: "Same shot, different movie".
Lees hier de Subbacultcha online. Ik heb 'm alvast opengeslagen voor je.

PASSION (redux)

In februari schreef ik voor Subbacultcha een mini-recensie van Passion, Brian De Palma's nieuwste (al is "nieuw" een wat ongepast woord in het geval van deze nogal gedateerd aandoende thriller). Na het verstrijken van mijn deadline werd er echter met de releasedatum gegoocheld waardoor de film deze week pas uitkomt. Reden voor mij om mijn recensie bij deze te reposten.

Lees 'm hier:

SPRING BREAKERS

Sinds vorige week is Harmony Korine's nieuwste film Spring Breakers ook in Nederland te zien en is er op de stoep van mening filmtheater een langgerekt 'Spring breeeeaaaak... Spring break foreeeeever...' te horen, een kleine hommage aan gangstarapper Alien, James Franco's beste rol tot dusver.

Voor Subbacultcha schreef ik een mini-recensie van de film, op te zoeken in de digitale versie van het tijdschrift hieronder. Ook schreef ik een toevoeging, over de overeenkomsten tussen Spring Breakers en Paradies: Liebe van Ulrich Seidl. Deze toevoeging is niet in Subbacultcha te vinden, wel onderaan deze post.

First of all
Spring Breakers, Harmony Korine's best effort since Julien Donkey-Boy, is a meditation on a society obsessed with both innocence and the ugly triangle of sex, money and violence. The story revolves around four random college girls with the annual raunch fest of spring break on their minds. Since fun costs money, they violently rob a diner and spend their hard earned cash money on partying hard in Florida. But there's more to this place than just teenagers getting drunk. Enter Alien, a would-be gangster whose license plate says "BALL R". The poor acting skills of the large part of the cast strangely suit the superficiality of the characters they portray. These are fake people trapped in a fake world. This is, Korine states, what the American dream is made of. 

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Furthermore... 
Spring Breakers would make an excellent double bill combined with Ulrich Seidl's Paradies: Liebe, which recently came out. Seidl's protagonist is an overweight, middle aged Austrian housewife who goes on holiday to Kenya. There, after some encouragement from her more emancipated girlfriends, she gets involved with some local hunks o' man meat. She even gets one for her birthday, wrapped in a nice little bow. Both Seidl and Korine are clearly preoccupied with the hypocrisy of (respectively) Austrian and American society. Plus, both of them have something add to the discussion on female sexuality. Korine's girls exploit their sexuality, Seidl's heroine pays for hers. In both cases it's hard to figure out who has the upper hand in their relationships: the man or the woman. It hardly seems a coincidence that both Seidl and Korine collaborated with their wives on these movies.

LE GRAND SOIR

Like Matt Lucas is "the only gay in the village" (that's a Little Britain reference, people), Not (the excellent Benoît Poelvoorde) is the only punk that survived the 80s. He and his dog hang around the sad shopping boulevard in a French no man's land where his parents own a potato restaurant and his brother Jean Pierre has a rather depressing job selling mattresses. An outsider might think Jean Pierre's got it made: he's got a family, a respectable job. But this is the anarchistic universe of Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern, who have displayed an absurdist, Kaurismäki type of humor since their debut Aaltra. So obviously the homeless, unemployed Not is Le Grand Soir's hero, and he's about to show his brother the true meaning of freedom.

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Bovenstaande recensie van Le Grand Soir staat deze maand in Subbacultcha. Lees 'm hier.
Le Grand Soir is vanaf 21 maart in de Nederlandse filmtheaters te zien.

PASSION

Sure, Brian De Palma made straight forward crime classics like The Untouchables and Scarface but I've always liked his kitschy, quasi-erotic, Hitchcock inspired psycho thrillers best. Those who are with me, will surely enjoy De Palma's latest film, Passion, a eurotrashy neo noir about two female frenemies. Isabelle, a shy but talented young woman working in advertising, and Christine, Isabelle's cold-hearted bitch of a boss, go from friends to rivals in a plot that illustrates every cliché a man might have about women. And no matter how many smart phones and Skype conversations De Palma put in his script, it only takes one saxophone solo to reveal that this is a 90s movie by heart. And I love it.  

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Bovenstaande recensie van Passion staat deze maand in Subbacultcha. Lees 'm hier.
Passion zou oorspronkelijk in februari in de Nederlandse filmtheaters te zien zijn maar is verschoven naar april.

IFFR 2013

Simon Killer

The 42nd edition of the International Film Festival Rotterdam is promising to be an excellent one. But, as always: too many trees! Cannot see the wood! That's where we come in, taking you gently by the hand through this year's program. First off, there's a program section called Bright Future, which is all about upcoming talent. Then there's a program called Spectrum, which concentrates on experienced filmmakers. And finally Signals will treat you to various retrospectives. Found your way yet? No? Please bare with us then. 

Borderline Films

The three New York dudes behind Borderline Films have previously delivered awesome indie flicks like Afterschool and Martha Marcy May Marlene. Their latest production Simon Killer  is said to rely on a highly suspenseful atmosphere, revealing only a few details on protagonist Simon, an American graduate roaming the dark alleys of Paris. "A dark ride", according to The Guardian, " distinguished by a seductive, urgent score and soundtrack".

Dominik Graf 

One of Signals' retrospectives revolves around Dominik Graf (1952), some obscure German director. Graf's genre movies are said to be both entertaining and disturbing, revealing not only the darkest parts of the human soul but also of German society. That doesn't grab you? How about this: this man also directed some legendary episodes of über-Krimi Tatort. 

Sound Stages 

Sound Stages, also part of Signals, emphasizes the role that music plays in cinema and the importance of acoustics. There'll be live performances on special locations, installations by artists and filmmakers and various presentations and projects. Filmmaker and artist Mika Taanila, filmmaker John Akomfrah and multimedia artist Tony Cokes have confirmed to be part of Sound Stages. 

Miike Takashi 

And last but certainly not least is Rotterdam favorite Miike Takashi, whose disturbing Audition shocked festival goers back in 2000. Takashi's latest, Less of the Evil, is about the lengths a school teacher is willing to go to in order to put an end to bullying. But - who will stop the teacher?

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Bovenstaande tips verschenen deze maand in Subbacultcha. Lees 'm hier. 

De 42e editie van het International Film Festival Rotterdam vindt plaats van 23 januari t/m 3 februari 2013. Lees hier meer.

LOOPER

Liked Inception? Looper is this year's thinking man's blockbuster. Yes, it features Bruce Willis. Yes, there are chases, explosions and bursts of violence. Yes, it's the good guys against the bad ones. But wait! Tthere's also a complicated plot involving time traveling. There's a creepy kid. There are some credible indie actors among the cast, like Joseph-Gordon Levitt and Paul Dano. There's a stunningly beautiful Emily Blunt and some equally stunning set pieces. And the story itself? Well, any piece of information about the movie qualifies as a spoiler, so let's not go there. Go see the movie instead.

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Bovenstaande recensie van Looper staat deze maand in Subbacultcha. Lees 'm hier.
Vanaf 29 november in de Nederlandse bioscoop

AMOUR

The king of psychological horror movies has recently switched thrones. With two Palme d'Ors in his possession, you may now call Michael Haneke the king of European art house flicks. And Amour, his latest Cannes victory, may be his most artsy yet. The lives of Georges and Anne, two happy seniors living in Paris, change radically when Anne falls ill. With one side of her body paralyzed and no hope for recovery, she fully depends on Georges to take care of her. Sounds like a snooze? Wrong. Amour is an emotionally devastating and beautifully crafted movie. And art house or not, it wouldn't be a real Haneke without a hint of horror.

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Bovenstaande recensie van Amour staat deze maand in Subbacultcha. Lees 'm hier.
Vanaf 15 november in de Nederlandse filmtheaters