Vitro Nasu

(Chloe Zhao and Brady Jandreau)

See their interview on youtube here

How, horse, actors, six man crew Chloe Zhao made Rider (Film Independent blog)

Happy birthday Chloe Zhao !

In 2017, Zhao directed The Rider, a contemporary western drama, which follows a young cowboy’s journey to self-discovery after a near-fatal accident ends his professional riding career.[38] The film was executive produced by her father, Yuji Zhao.[39] As with her first feature, Zhao engaged a cast of non-actors who lived at the filming location, in this case on a ranch.[40] Her inspiration came from Brady Jandreau—a cowboy she had met and befriended on the reservation where she shot her first film—who suffered a severe head injury when thrown from his horse during a rodeo competition.[41] Jandreau would star in the film, playing a fictionalized version of himself as Brady Blackburn

Zhao now resides in the Topatopa Mountains in Ojai, California with three chickens, Red, Cebe, and Lucille and two dogs, Taco and Rooster[81] and her partner and cinematographer, Joshua James Richards.[11] Richards and Zhao met while Zhao was researching for her first feature film Songs My Brother Taught Me and Richards was still a film student at NYU. He has been her cinematographer for her next two films and served as camera operator on Marvel’s Eternals.

Bike Rack Urban Design

Alfred Jarry Bike & Mercury Retrograde

Graveyard of Over Supplied Bicycles in China

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(Digital image by Fung Lin Hall)

(Photo by Maks Levin)

(Photo by Maks Levin)

Photojournalist Maks Levin reported missing near Kyiv

(Maks Levin)

First reported by Ukrіnfоrm news service and later confirmed by the Kyіv Іndependent, Lyseiko reported that the last time Levin got in touch was on March 13. At that time, he was with taking photographs within the combat area in Vyshhorod District.

“Each Ukrainian photographer is dreaming of taking a photo that would stop the war.” – Maks Levin

Maks Levin was born in Kyiv Region in 1981. He has worked as a photojournalist and documentary photographer for many Ukrainian and international publications. Levin’s most documentary projects were connected with the war in Donbas and Ukraine.

Maks Levin – Lens Culture com

Missing from Kyiv frontline and feared abducted – Guarudian

Happy birthday Xavier Dolan

Xavier Dolan MUBI
(“Tom At The Farm” described as Beautiful, Interesting, Incredible Cinema)

Gaspard Ulliel
(And Xavier Dolan)

Xavier Dolan’s emotional tribute to Gaspard Ulliel at Cesar Awards

Melvil Poupaud
Laurence Anyways directed by Xavier Dolan.

Great interview on Xavier Dolan Melvil was eloquent. (Youtube)

Sad news, William Hurt passed away on March 13, 2022, he was 71 years old.

William Hurt
A Couch in New York, directed by Chantal Akerman

(William Hurt and Sandrine Bonnaire were in the Plague an adaptation of Albert Camus novel. They had a daughter. William Hurt appeared in Bonnaire’s documentary film years later).

William Hurt, Harvey Keitel

“My Inspiration is no longer drawn from the cinema” (MUBI)

(Celine Sciama scripted “Being 17”, here Techine with Sciama and actors from Being 17)

Andre Techine wiki

Brontes Sisters

Brontes Sisters – Modern Family – art forum

Sensitive to the extreme limits the Brontë sisters faced owing to their sex, Téchiné is careful not to overdramatize the fact that Charlotte, Emily, and Anne all published, in 1847, their first novels under male pseudonyms (becoming, respectively, the “brothers” Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell). The director’s insistence on understatement—though never at the expense of diminishing the anguish and thwarted desire the sisters endured during their too-short lives (all died before reaching the age of forty)—clearly guided the performances as well.

Roland Barthes as an actor

Roland Barthes

(Via Téchiné wiki)

Téchiné is noted for his elegant and emotionally charged films that often delve into the complexities of human condition and emotions. An intimist flavor pervades his work. One of Téchiné’s trademarks is the lyrical examination of human relations in a sensitive but unsentimental way. Influenced by Roland Barthes, Bertolt Brecht, Ingmar Bergman, William Faulkner and the cinematic French New Wave, Téchiné’s originality lies in his subtle exploration of sexuality and national identity, as he challenges expectations in his depictions of gay relations, the North African dimensions of contemporary French culture, and the center-periphery relationship between Paris and his native Southwest.[6] Shy and ascetic-looking, Téchiné does not opine on political issues and rarely appears on television.[2] Fear of flying prevents him from attending most film openings or festivals more than a train ride from his Paris apartment overlooking the Luxembourg Garden.[2]

“I never know how each film will end,” Téchiné has said. “When I’m filming, I shoot each scene as if it were a short film. It’s only when I edit that I worry about the narrative. My objective is to tell a story, but that’s the final thing I do

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors

The film was Parajanov’s first major work and earned him international acclaim for its rich use of costume and color. The film also features a detailed portrayal of Ukrainian Hutsul culture, showing Carpathian environment, family rituals, the beauty of Hutsul traditions, music, costumes, and dialect.

(Svetlana and Sergwi Parajanov)
Widow of Sergei Parajanov dies in Kyiv

Svetlana Shcherbatyuk-Parajanova was a philologist and teacher.

The Persecution of Parajanov and Tarkovsky

(Tarksovky and Parajanov – see films, photos etc here)

Ukraine Rhapsody

Sting sings Russians for Ukraine refuges

Body Armor Ukraine – fight Russia to the last drop of Ukrainian blood

(When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit)

Review here

‘When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit’ Review: Judith Kerr’s Childhood Classic Gets Faithful, Tasteful Screen Treatment
Oscar-winner Caroline Link’s child’s-eye saga of a Jewish refugee family fleeing Nazi Germany misses some of its source novel’s urgency, but it’s absorbing and beautifully crafted.

Caroline Link wiki

Caroline Link on directing “When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit

Happy birthday Simon Abkarian! (His wiki – see his filmograpy here)

Simon Abkarian was born Simone Abkarian on March 5, 1962, in Gonesse, a northeastern suburb of Paris, France, into a French – Armenian family. Young Simon Abkarian grew up in a trilingual environment, he learned French at school in addition to his native Armenian, and also learned English by watching American films since he was a kid. He spent most of his childhood in France until the age of nine, then went with his parents to Beirut, Lebanon.

The Audition (2019)

In one of his latest movies, The Audition by Ina Weisse, Simon Abkarian portrays the luthier Philippe married to Anna, a violin teacher. They have a musically gifted son Jonas, who Anna has been trying to impose her lessons on. The story revolves around their family dynamic when Anna starts preparing a talented violinist Alexander for the end-of-the-year exam. She becomes obsessed with Alexander’s lessons, moving further away from her husband and son. With this role, Simon Abkarian expands his repertoire, portraying a calm and loving character, who primarily evokes empathy.

(Simon Abkarian in Audition)

Ararat

Directed by Atom Egoyan, Ararat is one of the most well-known movies about the horrors of the Armenian Genocide. In the movie, Simon Abkarian plays Arshile Gorky, a famous visual artist of Armenian origin. His portrayal of Gorky is haunting and powerful.

Many Lives of Simon Abkarian

Tahar Rahim & Simon Abkarian

Fatih Akin directed Tahar Rahim and Simon Abkarian in “The Cut”.

Sally Potter directed Simon Abkarian in “Yes”

Happy Hinamatsuri Girls day in Japan

37 Seconds Movie directed by Hikari

A story of Cerebral Palsy and self-dicovery

(Moving Shinji Somai )
Film review “Moving’ by Shinji Somai

13-year-old Tomoko Tabata provides a great anchor for the film in her debut, as the narrative seems to follow her every whim. The plethora of feelings, behaviors, and psychological statues she depicts is the highlight of a naturalistic performance, which allowed her to begin a career in acting that continues until today.

Girls building a solar toy car.

See girls building Solar Car toy

(Yevgenia Belorusets)

(From “Victories of the defeated,” a photo series from eastern Ukraine, by Yevgenia Belorusets.)

Ukraine War Book – Codastory. com

A wartime diary by Yevgenia Belorusets – Artforum

This diary will be updated daily and is copublished with Isolarii press.

This ability of the residents of Berdyansk to fight on and on, to approach the soldiers unarmed and shout the truth in their faces, even when the city has almost fallen into Putin’s hands, promises a lot. It is hope itself.

My father is a translator, he translates German poetry into Russian. Thanks to his translations of Paul Celan, I fell in love with this poet when I was still a student. For years, since the Maidan Revolution, he has published his translations almost exclusively in Ukraine.

He took part in protests back then, I remember calling him from Berlin and finding out that he was standing with the demonstrators at the parliament building. Then I heard an explosion; luckily he wasn’t hurt. Now he is in Kyiv. He feels quite weak after a long cold and cannot go to the shelter. Maybe he doesn’t want to either. Every day I see how he continues to work on his translations. Despite the rocket attacks, despite the danger, or maybe because of it.