Fassbinder Double Feature: "Ali" & "Maria Braun"

by Cláudio Alves 

In these days of "social distancing" and delayed releases, the cinephiles among us must satiate our hunger for cinema in the privacy of their own homes. Streaming services are saviors during such trying times, offering a respite from the chaos. Among them, The Criterion Channel continues to shine brightest as a paragon for the promotion of the seventh art's best triumphs. Just this month, two of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's most beloved and accessible masterpieces were made available for streaming. We're talking about 1974's Ali: Fear Eats the Soul and 1979's The Marriage of Maria Braun.

Join us as we peruse the glamor and doom, fear and fury of these singular films…

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Interview: Eliza Hittman on 'Never Rarely Sometimes Always'

by Murtada Elfadl

The first great movie of 2020 has arrived. Visceral, exquisite and artfully rigorous Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always drops the audience into the experience of two teenage girls in rural Pennsylvania. Faced with an unintended pregnancy and a lack of local support, Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) and her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) embark across state lines to New York City on a fraught journey trying to secure an abortion. The performances from newcomers Flanignan and Ryder are stunning in their simplicity and authenticity and Hittman reaches new heights with her assured filmmaking no matter what you thought of her previous films, Beach Rats (2017) and It Felt Like Love (2013). The movie won raves at this year's Sundance and won the Grand Jury Prize, or 2nd place, at the Berlinale last month.

Ryder, Hittman and Flanigan at the Berlinale

We recently met with Hittman in New York. [This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.] 

Murtada Elfadl: Congratulations on the film. I saw it at Sundance. I really loved it. It's great.I wanted to ask you first about working with the actors. I hear Sidney Flanagan has never acted before and Talia Ryder has maybe done a couple of things,

Eliza Hittman: Stage. She's done musical theater.

They are amazing. I was flabbergasted by these performances. I read about your casting process, but can you talk about working with them on set, how did you manage to get these performances out of them?

We had a day and a half to prepare and to rehearse.

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Coronavirus Disrupting the Movie Biz

by Nathaniel R

With MULAN moving there are no wide-releases left for March due to the spread of the coronavirus

As you've undoubtedly heard the coronavirus pandemic has many governments as well as companies shutting down or postponing various services, products, and events, particularly where crowds are involved, and leaving lots and lots of people without income and given the sorry state of the US without universal healthcare we suspect things will be getting much worse. (It's also kept your host here interminably busy / depressed at his other job outside of TFE which is a matter for the therapist couch rather than this blog). But, as ever, we exist to discuss the movies here.

Though Cannes in France is still trying to keep their own May dream alive, here in NYC, the Tribeca Film Festival, which was scheduled to begin on April 15th has been indefinitely postponed, while Broadway theaters have all been shuttered through April 12th. So far movie theaters in the US are still open (though thousands are closed in China) but what movies will there be left to show?

A lot of films have begun indefinitely delaying their release dates...

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Is Daniel Day-Lewis the best triple Oscar winner?

by Cláudio Alves

In the past 92 years, only a handful of performers have managed to win more than one Oscar. More than two is even rarer and more than three is a feat only ever achieved by Katharine Hepburn. In the relatively exclusive club of three-time Oscar-winning actors, we can find six names, four men and two women. Despite their golden prizes, perusing their winning performances can be a sad affair with most of them having at least one terrible victory in their collection. For Meryl Streep it's The Iron Lady, for Ingrid Bergman Anastasia and Murder on the Orient Express. Jack Nicholso's win for As Good As It Gets isn't very well-regarded and Walter Brennan's first two victories are rather dire.

Only one rises above the others as a perfect case of the Academy honoring an actor for the right performances. It's Daniel Day-Lewis, of course…

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Crimson Peak: An Ecstasy of Gothic Style

by Cláudio Alves

Some films age like fine wine, others like milk. Guillermo del Toro's predecessor to one of the weirdest Best Picture winners ever is closer to grape juice than dairy. If you don't believe it, check out Crimson Peak, which is newly available on HBO Now. The film wasn't particularly well-received upon its 2015 release, but the years have been kind to it, highlighting its best elements while dulling the impact of its less impressive aspects. Its intoxicating visuals are of particular magnificence, resurrecting the iconography of classic Hammer-style horror philtered through the showmanship of Guillermo del Toro's imagination. Some may say this is a case of style over substance, though nothing couldn't be farther from the truth. After all, Crimson Peak is a production where style is substance…

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