"He had only thirty minutes for me, and twenty I spent to make him feel calm and comfortable. Then I said: “I know that deep inside you are a poet. Tell me about the iceberg, and tell me about your dreams."

Werner Herzog’s interview technique.

From a interview archived on rogerebert.com

I’ve been reading NAB news for the last few days, so this I love.

NAB ‘93.  3/4 decks! Silicon Graphics supercomputers! Real buttons & knobs!

newyorker:

…a 1966 interview with Renoir conducted by the director Jacques Rivette, who gets him to speak about the effect of technical advances on the art of the cinema and on art as such, with surprising results.

Watch the clip, and then click-through for more from Brody on Jean Renoir, technology, and art: http://nyr.kr/Pt2KTc

(Source: newyorker.com)

2012 SIGHT & SOUND DIRECTORS’ TOP 10 FILMS

1. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

=2 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

=2 Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

4. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)

5. Taxi Driver (Scorsese, 1980)

6. Apocalypse Now (Coppola, 1979)

=7  The Godfather (Coppola, 1972)

=7 Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

9. Mirror (Tarkovsky, 1974)

10. Bicycle Thieves (De Sica, 1948)

Sight & Sound's decennial Greatest Film's Poll came out today →

2012 SIGHT & SOUND CRITICS’ TOP 10 FILMS

1. Vertigo (Hitchcock, 1958)

2. Citizen Kane (Welles, 1941)

3. Tokyo Story (Ozu, 1953)

4. La Regle du jeu (Renoir, 1939)

5. Sunrise: a Song for Two Humans (Murnau, 1927)

6. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Kubrick, 1968)

7. The Searchers (Ford, 1956)

8. Man with a Movie Camera (Dziga Vertov, 1929)

9. The Passion of Joan of Arc (Dreyer, 1927)

10. 8 ½ (Fellini, 1963)

thedailywhat:

Movie Trailer of the Day: Grumpy ex-jewel thief Frank Langella receives a gift from his daughter: a robot butler programmed to look after him as he ages. But before long, Frank is up to his old tricks, as he and Robot try their luck as a heist team.

Also starring Susan Sarandon, Liv Tyler, and James Marsden, Robot and Frank is out August 24.

[iwatchstuff]

Movie of the summer?

(Source: thedailywhat)

"When we see a film, he claims, each of us may identify with the characters in the narrative, but more basically each identify with his or her self. The machinery makes us the camera, seeing what it sees, as if its gaze were our own. Cinematic illusion provides the famous “illusion of reality” not by what it shows but by the way it shows it, which mimics our usual act of perception. But it mimics it to a higher degree, because the camera can go anywhere in space or time. As Pudovkin had suggested, we become an idealized eye, not a real one. The movie viewer is a purely perceiving subject. This confirms us in our own sense of identity: I see and hear, therefore I am."

David Bordwell goes through Film History with a psychological eye in his essay, The Viewers Share.

Fun retread through some stuff from school.  Especially the stuff about how “viewers can be “conditioned” to take their experience to a higher level.” PREVIOUSLY

This is so nauseatingly good. Love the line about earnest manipulation. I’ll rep Ken till I die.

(I’ve been going through Baseball this month. Highly recommended too).

theatlantic:

theatlanticvideo:

Ken Burns on Why His Formula for a Great Story Is 1+1=3

For a documentary filmmaker, it’s hard to imagine a more intimidating project than making a documentary film about Ken Burns. When Sarah Klein and Tom Mason set out explore the mysterious nature of story, however, they decided to do just that. In their beautiful short documentary, Ken Burns: On Story, the filmmaker shares insights into the craft of storytelling and reveals his highly personal quest to “wake the dead.”

Read an interview with the filmmakers on the Atlantic Video channel.

A Ken Burns-style documentary about Ken Burns could fuel PBS for DECADES.

smithsonianmag:

Happiness According to Alfred Hitchcock

A clear horizon. Nothing to worry about on your plate. Only things that are creative and not destructive.

Ed note: Read about the lost Hitchcock film that offers a glimpse into early film history.

"I always wonder what happens to the guy who gets drawn into a smuggling ring. You know, he’s a regular guy, and he gets drawn into some situation. You always see him getting back into the situation after he’s leaving work, and I wonder what he did all day, while the plot was going on… So I thought that it would be fun and interesting to try to keep Lisa’s entire life afloat as it went along while she was going through all this."

Kennith Lonergan discusses Margaret with the New Yorker’s Richard Brody

Errol Morris is making shorts for the New York Times now.  I think this is a fantastic idea. 

This one is about a competitive chicken wing eater.