Venice Diary #01 - Tár, White Noise, and Princess

by Elisa Giudici

Hello readers! It's Venice time again. As with previous festivals, I'll be reviewing the movies with some festival experience details on the side. I screened three and a half movies (we'll get to the half at the end) in the first Day of the Mostra. Both the official opening night film White Noise and Princess in the Orizzonti section were a bit disappointing though both are far from failures. On the bright side, Cate Blanchett really delivers in Tár.

But first something a little spooky as Venice starts off on the wrong foot. This year Sala Darsena (the main screening room for press and industry) appears to be …cursed? During the screening of White Noise a bat (a real, actual bat!) flew in front of the screen...

Click to read more ...

Venice at Home - Day 1: Noah Baumbach

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, The Film Experience welcomed a new series – Cannes at Home. While works by the world's greatest auteurs premiered at the Croisette, the project was an aid to combat FOMO for those not fortunate enough to attend the event. Now, it's time to introduce a new endeavor focused on the Venice Film Festival and its official selection. From August 31st to September 10th, this series will consider past works from the many filmmakers currently presenting their films in competition, offering a parallel program you can enjoy at home. At the same time, Elisa Giudici will be in Venice, updating us on the festivities.

First up, there's the opening film – White Noise. While we wait for Noah Baumbach's latest to arrive, let's recall the director's history…

Click to read more ...

One For Them, One For Me: Noah Baumbach's "Madagascar 3" and "Frances Ha"

A new series by Christopher James

Noah Baumbach at a screening of Frances Ha

Do one for them; do one for you. If you can still do projects for yourself, you can keep your soul.

— Martin Scorsese: A Journey

Many creatives have pointedly or inadvertently taken Martin Scorsese’s career advice. One has to hit it big in order to have clout in Hollywood. Often, it takes clout to make passion projects. In this column, we want to look at the times wherein a filmmaker or actor’s career triumphs have come at a time where they’ve also had to make compromises. In some cases, people have taken the easy cash grab in order to sustain more creative endeavors. Other times, the populist “one for them” ends up being a creative triumph, loosening the talent up.

The first entry in this series belongs to Noah Baumbach, for his wonderfully chaotic 2012. In the same year he begins his partnership behind the camera with Greta Gerwig in Frances Ha (released in 2013), he secretly writes Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted. Do these movies share any DNA, or is it a textbook case of “one for them (I need money), one for me (I’m an artist)”?

Click to read more ...

The New Classics: Frances Ha

By Michael Cusumano  

Scene: Paris
Frances is a dancer by trade, but I think it’s fair to say that throughout Noah Baumbach’s Frances Ha her real art is poor decision making. In that regard, her impromptu trip to Paris is her masterpiece. 

The spontaneous journey to France is the quintessential youthful indulgence. “Oh to be so young and free that I could drop everything and jet off to Europe.” Unfortunately for Frances, Baumbach’s films delight in subverting such self-consciously grand gestures. In Kicking and Screaming a character engages in the classic end-of-movie race to the airport only to find he can’t get a last minute ticket. When the cashier offers him a ticket for the following day he deflates and declines. The moment will have passed by then. Frances doesn’t merely run to the airport, she flies to the other side of the Atlantic. As such, her antics earn her an even more brutal dismantling...

Click to read more ...

Greenberg's 10th and Gerwig as Muse

by Cláudio Alves 

Once upon a time, long before she was an Academy Award-nominated director and screenwriter, Greta Gerwig was the acting princess of mumblecore. Along with the Duplass brothers and Joe Swanberg, she helped solidify the identity of that often-maligned subgenre, full of naturalistic dialogue and very little in the ways of storytelling. The actress quickly transcended the limitations of mumblecore and became a starlet of the independent American cinema from 2010 to 2016, starring in such gems as Damsels in Distress, Jackie and 20th Century Women. 

Among her more frequent collaborators, Noah Baumbach stood out. She was his muse and he knew how to capture her talents like no other. Or was it the other way around? In any case, their first collaboration marked a turning point in both their careers. We're talking about Greenberg, which celebrates 10 years today…

Click to read more ...