Ingmar Bergman, one of cinema’s greatest directors, has died.
From the Guardian:
The legendary Swedish film-maker Ingmar Bergman died this morning at his home on the island of Faro. According to his daughter, Eve, the director of The Seventh Seal and Persona died peacefully in his sleep. He was 89.
Having initially trained on the stage, Bergman went on to direct nearly 50 feature films, beginning with Crisis in 1946. His breakthrough came in 1957, courtesy of an extraordinary double-headed triumph of Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal. He would go on to win three best foreign language film Oscars, for The Virgin Spring, Through a Glass Darkly and Fanny and Alexander….
A colossus of world cinema, Ingmar Bergman influenced a generation of film-makers who were inspired both by his effortless command of the medium and his high-minded sense of its moral and artistic possibilities. In 1988, Woody Allen hailed him as “probably the greatest artist, all things considered, since the invention of the motion picture camera.”
… at the Yankee Racers forum!
A new Wes Anderson short film, Hotel Chevalier, will premiere at the Venice International Film Festival, 29 August-8 September 2007 (URL). The film is a 12-minute “out of competition special event” starring Jason Schwartman and Natalie Portman, according to the site. The Darjeeling Limited will also premiere at the event. More soon… (Thanks to MissPortman.com for this lead).
The trailer is now available on YouTube as well.
URL: The Darjeeling Limited trailer on YouTube
We continue to discuss the trailer and the film over on the Yankee Racers forum.
URL: “Trailer News” thread
Oh, and the two songs in the trailer are both by the Kinks. “This Time Tomorrow” (from Lola vs. the Powerman and the Money-Go-Round, Part I) and “Strangers” (from the same album).
I have posted some trailer captures. Enjoy!
All images (c) 2007 American Empirical Pictures and Fox Searchlight
Rumor has it that The Darjeeling Limited trailer will show with the film Sunshine, to be released Friday 20 July 2007. Please e-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces) to confirm or deny this rumor.
Update: It’s true! And, the poster has been released. Enjoy!
According to Variety.com, the current release date for The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wes Anderson’s sixth full-length (and first fully animated) film, is 6 November 2009. They have a good article (URL) about such ‘farsighted’ release planning.
[deleted]I also came upon an article from the Winter 2007 ed. of Cinema Journal: “La Camera-Crayola: Authorship Comes of Age in the Cinema of Wes Anderson” by Devin Orgeron (NC State Univ.).
Like the semicultish but relatively short-lived electronic frenzy to recreate and sell the Team Zissou Adidas sneaker, the clip [the American Express commercial] has taken on a life of its own on the Internet, become another potentially coveted and collectible Anderson product, a part of the Anderson lifestyle [author's italics], characterized by the director’s simultaneous self-deprecation and self-aggrandizement. Critical for us, indeed, is the centrality of Anderson himself within the Andersonian mise-en-scène. Directed by Anderson or not, the spot, claiming to advertise the recognizable credit card, ends up as an advertisement for Anderson himself, his cinematic form, his thematic fascination with the individual, and his network of support… Anderson’s installment is particularly interesting, perhaps, because of its fit within a body of work similarly concerned with the delicate production of personal identity, here reduced to an array of identifiable, imitable, and, as a consequence, even laughable stylistic and thematic characteristics (61-62).
URL: Orgeron article
As usual, I am rather late with this find… James Mottram’s The Sundance Kids centers on the question (according to the Introduction):
‘Are we returning to an age where formerly independent directors are using studio funds to further their own idiosyncratic vision?’ In other words, is this the dawn of New Hollywood Part II? As the title of this book suggests, many of the contemporary film makers under consideration have been connected to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute. For most… it is with a film at the festival. Then there is Wes Anderson, whose debut feature began life as a short film showcased there…. Many of them flunked college [not true for Wes] and eschewed film school….’
Has anyone read this? Thoughts?
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