Category Archives: Cinema

Werner Herzog’s THEATER OF THOUGHT, A Bracing Exploration of the Brain | Opens December 13 at Film Forum

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Herzog-THEATER-OF-THOUGHTFilm Forum is set to present the US theatrical premiere of Werner Herzog’s THEATER OF THOUGHT opening Friday, December 13.

After 50+ years exploring the far corners of the world, Werner Herzog focuses inward — on the human brain, via the cutting-edge field of neuroscience, with its attendant ethical quandaries. Joined by Columbia professor Rafael Yuste (the film’s science advisor), the two cross the country querying innovators in cerebral research and bioethics: Can computers help people communicate telepathically? How can the brain be stimulated to curb depression, pain, or the effects of Parkinson’s? Is thought control possible? Can fear be located in the brain? And — as only the beguiling Herzog could inquire — will a scientist be able to read his mind and see his film before he’s made it? Herzog’s curiosity is at its peak in this romp through technological advances once only the stuff of science fiction.

The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Telluride Film Festival and went on to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as DOC NYC, where Herzog was awarded the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

THEATER OF THOUGHT will be the 17th of Herzog’s films to debut at Film Forum, making him the second most-premiered filmmaker in the theater’s 54-year history.

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Michelangelo Antonioni’s First Masterpiece, IL GRIDO

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IL-GRIDOIL GRIDO (1957), the widely underseen early masterwork by Italian auteur Michelangelo Antonioni, will run at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration from Friday, November 8 through Thursday, November 14.

Deserted by the mother of his child, Aldo, a factory worker (played by Hollywood tough guy Steve Cochran) wanders through the Po Valley in search of solace and connection. His romantic prospects—including a gas-station owner (Dorian Gray), a sex worker (Lyn Shaw), and an old girlfriend (Betsy Blair, Oscar nominee for the prior year’s Marty and Mrs. Gene Kelly)—fizzle out into alienation and despair.

Made three years before his international breakthrough L’avventura, this rare departure from exploring affluent society is among Antonioni’s most politically trenchant films and a raw expression of anguish that remains one of Italian cinema’s great underappreciated gems. Strikingly composed with atmospheric photography by the great Gianni Di Venanzo, IL GRIDO reveals a director in the process of discovering his artistic signature.

Directed by Michelangelo Antonioni, from the screenplay by Michelangelo Antonioni, Elio Bartolini and Ennio De Concini, the film stars Steve Cochran, Alida Valli, Betsy Blair, and Dorian Gray.

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“Lets Get Lost”, Documentary Portrait of Jazz Legend Chet Baker, Opens November 1 at Film Forum

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Photo by William Claxton

“Lets Get Lost” (1988), Bruce Weber’s Academy Award-nominated documentary portrait of the elusive jazz icon Chet Baker, will run at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration from Friday, November 1 through Thursday, November 7.

A James Dean look alike pretty boy whose jazz trumpeting and melancholy epitomized 50s cool, Chet Baker had become, when famed photographer Bruce Weber finally caught up with him after three decades of fandom, an alcoholic and a junkie, whose petulantly angelic looks peeping out from behind a gaunt, valleyed and crevassed face could have starred for Sam Peckinpah.

Two visually stunning and musically moving hours with the iconic jazz trumpeter in the most romantically erotic jazz documentary ever made, shot by D.P. Jeff Preiss in stark, brooding film noir black & white.

Shifting back and forth from past to present, from Baker’s breakout performance and his controversial “doomed youth” years, to his poignant late-career decline and struggles with addiction, LET’S GET LOST forms a dreamy, improvisational quality offering a rare, behind-the-scenes glimpse into the decadent life of jazz music’s original bad-boy.

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Andrei Tarkovsky’s “The Sacrifice”, New 4K Restoration Opens October 25 at Film Forum

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Andrei-Tarkovsky-THE-SACRIFICETHE SACRIFICE (1986), Russian expat master Andrei Tarkovsky’s final film, will run at Film Forum in a new 4K restoration from Friday, October 25 through Thursday, October 31.

Opening with a small group of familiar players in a tense isolated situation, THE SACRIFICE unfolds to encompass the director’s cosmic view as, faced with nuclear holocaust, a mystic sacrifice must be offered to restore the world — with unforeseen results.

Produced in Sweden with a cast headed by Bergman star Erland Josephson (Scenes from a Marriage, Cries and Whispers) the film was shot by Bergman’s longtime cinematographer, two-time Oscar winner Sven Nykvist. The director’s last work – made as he was dying of cancer – THE SACRIFICE is Tarkovsky’s personal statement, a profoundly moving, redemptive tragedy steeped in unforgettable imagery, including an astounding long take at the film’s finale.

The film was awarded the Grand Prix and a prize for artistic contribution (in recognition of Nykvist’s cinematography) at the 1986 Cannes Film Festival, and won the 1988 BAFTA for Best Foreign Language Film.

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Robert Bresson’s Late Masterwork THE DEVIL, PROBABLY | New 4K Restoration Opens September 20 at Film Forum

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the-devil-probablyRobert Bresson’s late masterwork THE DEVIL, PROBABLY (1977), a blistering indictment of post-May ‘68 France, will run in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from Friday, September 20 through Thursday, September 26.

Constructed as a flashback and based off of a newspaper story, THE DEVIL, PROBABLY centers on four disaffected youth, disillusioned with the reality inflicted upon them by their elders, as they drift through Paris, politics, religion, and psychoanalysis, witnesses to a society in moral and physical decline. “I hate life. I hate death. My sickness is that I see things clearly,” confides student Antoine Monnier to his shrink – but, even as he promises marriage to his two girlfriends, he also arranges his own… suicide?

“Bresson’s chilling visions of daily life—includes a brilliant sequence aboard a bus that depicts the mechanical world as a horror—suggesting its hostility to the passions of youth… These children of the revolution tremble with uncertainty, and their loose gestures and shambling ways conflict with his precise images. Both the world and Bresson’s cinema are in disarray, and the signs of his inner conflict are deeply troubling and tremendously moving.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker
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John Ford’s Epic Western “The Searchers” New 4K Restoration at Film Forum

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the-searchers-restrorationA new 4K restoration of John Ford’s monumental western THE SEARCHERS (1956), starring John Wayne and Natalie Wood, will run at Film Forum from Friday, September 13 through Thursday, September 19.

After John Wayne returns home to Texas from the Civil War, he sets out to track down the surviving members of his family who’ve been abducted by Comanches. With Jeffrey Hunter, they go on a dangerous multi-year quest to rescue his kidnapped niece Natalie Wood.

“THE SEARCHERS showed Ford’s willingness to make a more ‘modern’-seeming Western for an audience that wanted greater psychological realism from the genre… the film turns the concept of Western heroism inside out, showing the lone gunman who acts in the name of nascent civilization as a warped, destructive force.” – Joseph McBride in Searching for John Ford

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Akira Kurosawa’s SEVEN SAMURAI, Restored in 4K for the First Time | Opens July 5 at Film Forum

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SEVEN-SAMURAIA new 4K restoration of Akira Kurosawa’s epic masterpiece, SEVEN SAMURAI (1954), starring the legendary Toshiro Mifune and Takashi Shimura, will run at Film Forum from Friday, July 5 through Thursday, July 18.

In 16th century Japan, as proud samurai end up as masterless, wandering ronin and farmers are prostrate under the heel of marauding bandits, a village patriarch counsels resistance. How? Hire samurai, “hungry samurai.” Under the calm leadership of Takashi Shimura (Kurosawa regular, star of Ikiru and Godzilla), that magic number enlist for a war against 40 mounted bandits, winding up at the most hair-raising battle ever filmed.

Kurosawa’s orchestration of swords, spears, arrows, men, horses, rain, wind, and mud; blazing tracking shots; giant close ups; chiaroscuro lighting; telephoto lenses that put us underfoot as horses crash amid struggling men; deep focus shots that render the tip of a sword poking into the lens equally clear with scurrying figures fifty feet away, transitions that effortlessly whip us from scene to scene; and ensemble performances that give dimensionality to every character, topped by Toshiro Mifune’s eventual transition from manic goofball to tortured, self-hating tragic hero make SEVEN SAMURAI one of the most influential films of all time.
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“THE G” Revenge Thriller Sets Release To UK Cinemas

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The-GUK film outfit Lightbulb Film Distribution has announced that “The G” will be released in UK & Irish cinemas nationwide from Friday 21st June.

Written and directed by Karl R. Hearne, the film stars Dale Dickey (Winter’s Bone, Hell Or High Water) and Romane Denis.

The UK premiere took place at Glasgow Film Festival.

In the film, a mysterious older woman seeks revenge on the corrupt legal guardian who destroyed her life.

Lightbulb has also shared a first-look of the theatrical poster.

THE G will be coming to UK & Irish cinemas on 21st June.

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Dark Star Pictures picks up Brande Roderick’s 70s horror throwback “Wineville”

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winevilleDark Star Pictures has acquired the US and Canadian rights to Brande Roderick’s wine-soaked horror film Wineville going into the 2024 Cannes Film Festival. The directorial debut from director/producer/star Roderick (Starsky and Hutch, Baywatch), Dark Star Pictures is planning a September 2024 release of the film in select theaters, followed by VOD/Digital and Physical Media.

Set in the 70s, Wineville follows Tess (Brande Roderick), who is forced to return to the California winery that was her childhood home following the death of her brutal and abusive father. Now a single mom raising her 11-year-old son, Tess dreads setting foot again in the house filled with hateful and painful memories. Once there she is immediately confronted by her bitter and unforgiving aunt, who runs the place with her adult son. However, while trying to sort out her inheritance and dealing with an attraction to the mercurial young ranch hand, a violent murder reveals the evil still just below the surface there. In order to escape once again and save both herself and her boy, Tess will need to uncover the horrible truth of her own past and the roots of the murderous legacy that has been unleashed once again.

Additional cast include Carolyn Hennesy (General Hospital, Cougar Town), Texas Battle (Hard Kill, Coach Carter), Casey King (Star Trek: Pickard) and introducing Keaton Roderick Cadrez. Wineville was written by Richard Schenkman (The Man From Earth), who also produced alongside Roderick, Robin DeMartino, and Todd Slater.
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Charles Crichton’s Classic Caper Comedy THE LAVENDER HILL MOB New 4K Restoration

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THE-LAVENDER-HILL-MOBCharles Crichton’s THE LAVENDER HILL MOB (1951), a classic heist comedy starring Alec Guinness, will run in a new 4K restoration at Film Forum from Friday, May 10 through Thursday, May 16.

“It’s a good job we’re both honest men,” remarks seedy Cockney knickknack manufacturer and hustler Stanley Holloway (13 years later, My Fair Lady’s Alfred Doolittle) as he gets the gist of fastidious bank clerk Guinness’ scheme: to smuggle Bank of England gold bullion out of the country by melting them down into seemingly tacky Eiffel Tower souvenirs.

One of the highlights of the golden years of British comedies from Britain’s famed Ealing Studios, THE LAVENDER HILL MOB was an international smash hit that won screenwriter T.E.B. Clarke an Oscar for Best Writing and a Best Actor nomination for Guinness, as well as a BAFTA Award for Best British Film. Its dénouement atop the real (filmed on location) Eiffel Tower features the most dizzying comedy chase ever.
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