Yilmaz Güney’s first directorial effort succeeded his time in prison in Turkey in the 1970s and his escape from prison in 1981. It was made entirely in France and takes place almost entirely inside a prison. It is a damning, relentless portrait of Turkish prison life, with particular attention on the male adolescent inmates and their …
The French title of Romain Goupil’s debut feature is Mourir à trente ans, which actually means ‘Death at thirty,’ in contrast to the designated English-language title. Goupil’s debut is a documentary of his firsthand experiences as a militant Trotskyite in 1960s France as a teenager, along with several of his close friends, during the heyday of …
Upon seeing Hong Sang-soo’s films, Marin Karmitz has recounted that he knew right away he wanted to work with Hong for his future projects. With MK2, Karmitz did just that, producing Hong’s fifth and sixth films, Woman is the Future of Man and Tale of Cinema (2005). In retrospect, for enthusiasts of Hong’s cinema these two films mark a …
Following his first experience, or experiment, with filming in digital with ABC Africa (2001), Abbas Kiarostami found another variable with which to explore and push the limitations of cinema and the boundaries between documentary and fiction. Ten consists of ten scenes shot with two digital cameras placed on either side of a car …
The late Greek auteur Theo Angelopoulos’ The Beekeeper stars Marcello Mastroianni as Spyros, an aging man estranged from his family and the time in which he lives. In place of home, family, and job, he embarks on a road trip from northern to southern Greece as a beekeeper (as his father and grandfather once did before him). In the …
Coup pour coup/Blow For Blow was Marin Karmitz’ third and last stint behind the camera. Its unfussy and blunt visual form functions intensely in the service of the story of a strike and sit-in at a textile factory by its workers. In this regard, the film is political in content and execution: Karmitz worked exclusively with one hundred …
The Taviani brothers came into their own as sole directors in the late 1960s. But it was not until their fifth feature, Padre padrone, that they were first recognised for their efforts (it won both the Palme d’Or and Fipresci prize at the Cannes International Film Festival). Padre padrone is based on the 1975 autobiographical novel …
Xavier Dolan’s fourth feature film is a return for him to navigating behind and in front of the camera. At the same time, with this film he treads into the new territory of psychological suspense. Based on Québécois playwright Michel Marc Bouchard’s stage play of the same name, Dolan plays the titular character who travels to the Quebec …
Canadian filmmaker Xavier Dolan continues to develop his precocious talent as he goes through his mid-twenties, already with five feature films under his belt and each one highly lauded and in some cases awarded. Such is the fate of his most recent feature Mommy (2014), which shared the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes International …
From 5-23 June, the Museum of Modern Art will present ‘MK2: Carte blanche,’ a film series devoted to the eclectic films produced by the company MK2. This year is the fortieth anniversary of the company’s founding, and the film series is a celebration of both the company and its founder Marin Karmitz. MK2 is one of the biggest independent …