Sunday, September 1, 2024 at 5:27PM by Nathaniel R
Though I know I've been absent from writing, I have been updating the International Feature Film Oscar charts to track the submissions. So far 15 countries have announced their submissions, some of which are available to US viewers. After the jump, the list so far, impending decisions from Israel and South Korea, and general observations...
Tuesday, May 14, 2024 at 4:00PM By Ben Miller
Following the release of Darren Aronofsky’s divisive 2017 film mother!, most of the viewers who saw it didn’t know what was going on. It was only until it was explained that it made any sort of sense, and then it almost made too much sense. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Evil Does Not Exist lives on that same plane, with significantly more subtlety.
Not that this is the time or place to spoil the film by breaking it down scene by scene, but those places exist and can be found relatively easily. That doesn’t exactly bode well for the film. It’s one thing for a filmmaker to make you think, it’s another to send you on a search for answers you wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. On the flipside, the answers make so much sense, it enhances the film long after the credits have rolled...
Wednesday, April 17, 2024 at 2:00PM 
NAUSICAÄ OF THE VALLEY OF THE WIND (1984) is the only Miyazaki film ever screened at Cannes.
In 1997, to mark the occasion of its 50th edition, the Cannes Film Festival awarded a special Palme des Palmes to Ingmar Bergman. Afterward, and since 2002, it has also attributed the Honorary Palme d'Or to film artists in honor of their esteemed careers. Until now, the prize has gone to directors, producers and actors such as Catherine Deneuve, Manoel de Oliveira, and Agnès Varda, among many others. This year, however, the festival will award its first Palme d'Or to animated cinema and a group rather than an individual. The honoree is Studio Ghibli, cofounded by Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki, and the dear departed Isao Takahata. This comes after The Boy and the Heron won the studio its second Oscar and breaks with American dominance over these Honorary awards in the past few years.
It's a joyous occasion but it's also imbued with a fair amount of sorrow…
Thursday, April 11, 2024 at 8:00PM 
Early this morning, journalists congregated around Thierry Frémaux for the announcement of the 77th Cannes Film Festival Official Selection. The director shared titles from various sections, confirming some suspected rumors and setting the world of cinephilia abuzz. As ever, the main focus is on the Competition titles, as the next Palme d'Or may be among the films already announced. But of course, a project or two are usually added before the festivities start at the Croisette, so our champion may remain in mystery. Many predicted Audrey Diwan's Emmanuelle remake to be selected, for instance, but the Happening director was notoriously absent from today's dispatch.
In the past few years, The Film Experience has had two parallel coverages, and we hope to keep the tradition. There's Elisa Giudici on the ground, reviewing new films through her festival diary. And then there's my Cannes at Home project, focused on past projects by the competing auteurs. Let's go down the list…
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 at 6:00PM 
Exploring Hayao Miyazaki's filmography is to dive into a cinema that's often as moving as it is mysterious. Connections to the land abound, calling for ecological harmony in a place ravaged by modernity. Tradition dances with progress, teetering on the edge of oblivion, while dreams soar high above the clouds, for flight is the highest form of freedom. Even his most straightforward exercises tend to have an oneiric touch, some connection to the unknown within us and the world we inhabit. Because he taps into such (un)realities, Miyazaki's narrative work can move between genres and expectations, often complicating conflicts beyond the usual archetypes or doing away with them altogether. And through it all, animation allows the impossible to become possible, the screen a window to imagination unbound…
