In the following 1961 interview, Jean Renoir discusses with French New Wave director Jacques Rivette his design of the “seventh art” and art in general, demolishing certain generally accepted ideas, and evoking some memories from his own career.
rarefilmm | The Cave of Forgotten Films Posts
Four year old Jairan is ignored at home, and is itching for something to do. She convinces her neighbour, an old lady who is partially blind, that the two of them should travel across one of the world’s busiest cities, Tehran, to buy rice. What could possibly go wrong? A gentle take on Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Talebi’s disarming film starts as an odd-couple adventure, then opens out into something profound and unforgettable.
At Kennedy Airport two frazzled New Yorkers are separately boarding a plane to Temecula, California. Comedian Bobby Stein, who’s trailing his ex-lover and Sally Shelton, a very pregnant travel writer on her way to interview a renowned playboy and owner of a vast vineyard. Their paths all cross at Ruth’s Inn where owner Ruth Oakley has taken naturalism to unnatural extremes. Budd Bailey and Susan and Michael Kaye join them at the Inn, where the guests discover that when you follow your heart it can lead to delight and unexpected places.
Based on the works of the Georgian poet Vazha-Pshavela, this influential classic follows a Christian soldier in the Caucasus at the turn of the twentieth century. When he refuses to cut off his enemy’s hand, he is ostracised by his fellow villagers and sent into exile. Wandering through the wilderness in what seems like a dream, he arrives in a Muslim village, where he is sent to the top of a mountain to freeze to death.
A story about a man who can’t seem to do anything but win at the tables in Vegas. This, of course, brings hustlers out of the woodwork intent on using him for financial gain. One of them is the man’s brother who, incidentally, is trying to find who it was that killed their father, while still another is a woman who has schemes of her own.
At 10 years old, Corina dreams of being admitted to the famous gymnastics school in Deva, a small town in Romania known for having trained an impressive number of Olympic champions. First refused, Corina manages, through training and sacrifice, to pass the entrance test just like her best friend Maria. From then on, the real test begins for them: becoming the best in the world.
Serge Toubiana spent a year in the company of Isabelle Huppert. Wherever she went he followed, including prepping for a theatre production of Medea, doing promo work at Cannes, posing for photo shoots, as well behind the scenes footage of Huppert working with Claude Chabrol on Merci Pour le Chocolat’ and Michael Haneke on The Piano Teacher.
In the final days of the American Civil War, an emigre Hungarian military officer attempts to map the situation of the enemy. Many veterans of the 1848 War of Independence in Hungary fought on the northern side. Experienced Fiala, Boldogh who struggles with homesickness and the reckless Vereczky all experience their enforced emigration in different ways and news of impending peace elicits different reactions from them all. Gábor Bódy’s film is a thoroughly experimental work, constantly surprising and disorienting the viewer, posing serious questions, with a unique style of expression and perspective.