NYFF: Happy as Lazzaro

Jason Adams reporting from the New York Film Festival

The surprises that flow out of Alice Rohrwacher's Happy as Lazzaro start like a trickle - an idiosyncratic sound in the forest, a mysterious red light burning in the night sky - and flash to a flood by  the mid-point, washing away what we thought we knew of its retro-future strangenesses. The earth cracks like a shell, piece by piece, and reveals another odd shell underneath.

Lazarro tells the story of an isolated band of sharecroppers in rural Italy, whose Sisyphean work in the tobacco fields only seems to plow them further into debt day after day...

Click to read more ...

The European Film Awards Long List

by Nathaniel R

Maria Bäumer plays the famous 1970s actress Romy Schneider in German biopic 3 DAYS IN QUIBERON

Though we only know ten "official" titles for Oscar's foreign film race so far the European Film Awards often hold clues as to other films that might be submitted. Their 49 "suggestions" for nominations (aka finalists) have been announced. Nominations will follow on November 10th with the ceremony to be held December 15th in Seville, Spain. Those 49 films and our thoughts on their Oscar prospects are after the jump... 

Click to read more ...

Q&A: Buffyverse Actors, The Isabelles, Actresses We Don't "Get"

by Nathaniel R

This is always so much fun. Why do I go so long inbetween "episodes"? You asked a bunch of questions so here are a bunch more answers. Continue the conversation with your own answers to these questions why don't you? We thrive on community here not just blabbering at you. 

So let's get right to the Reader Qs, shall we?

RYAN T: Just got back from vacation where I visited Italy for the first time. Alas no epic romance Call Me By Your Name style... but it did make me wonder: what are some of your favorite Italian films?

NATHANIEL: I have never been to Italy. AND I have never had an epic vacation romance. I FEEL CHEATED! I could definitely use some boning up on Italian cinema and am happy to take suggestions from all of you.

I'm afraid my answers in this regard are very "basic cinephile" but here are the 8½ I'd probably list as my favorites...

Click to read more ...

Quick Links: Jordan Peele, Italy Dance Party, Nipplegate

• Collider why you should keep buying movies on DVD/Blu-Ray
• Vanity Fair wonderful account of Jordan Peele's visit to a UCLA class studying Get Out and how Whoopi Goldberg in Ghost inspired his career
• E! on the rise of RuPaul's Drag Race. Is it mainstream now despite RuPaul's protestations?
• select/all a terrific piece on "Nipplegate" at the Superbowl (since Justin Timberlake is headed there again) and on viral content before YouTube
• EW pandeomonium in Italy when Armie Hammer, Luca Guadagnino and Timothée Chalamet arrive. Dancing with fans, etcetera

Julianne in Venice: Suburbicon, Woodshock, Three Billboards...

by Nathaniel R

This lovely photo was taken by longtime Film Experience reader Ferdi in Italy where the Venice Film Festival is ongoing. Isn't she a vision in gauzy red? One more photo of Julianne and more about several Oscar hopeful festival premieres after the jump...

Click to read more ...