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Roman Polanski’s Prada Ad Is Also Just A Good Short Film

it’s called  A THERAPY, it probably earned Polanski as much in one afternoon as he gained from his year-long commitment to Carnage, and it might be the better of the films, to boot. premiering at Cannes this week and featuring lovely performances by Ben Kingsley and Helena Bonham Carter (and a score by Alexandre Desplat, whose work you might know from approximately every film made since 2002), A Therapy is definitely more advertisement than art, but it’s amazing how quickly a master like Polanski can assert his control, even in the service of selling things.

(Via THE PLAYLIST)

Reaction / Review: CARNAGE (dir. Roman Polanski) 2011 so i got home from this approximately 8 seconds ago, but wanted to jot down a few immediate thoughts before diving into my full-length review for some other site. so… Carnage. Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s much-ballyhooed play is every bit as clever and ferocious as you might imagine, but on film it feels practically entombed, its quartet of stagey performances (all majestically nuanced yet arch to the bone*) pointing back to the story’s theatrical origins with every ruthlessly efficient expression. with Polanski at the helm this feel’s like genius on a fool’s errand… it’s hopelessly lacking in cinema, Polanski seems too tickled by the challenge of a real-time narrative, as if he’s content to transpose rather than adapt. the text is too tight to allow for many intrusions, and Polanski’s framing — while articulate and precise — is never especially visceral… you can see his decisions in action, but they’re seldom felt.  he’s made far better films about people absolutely losing their shit in suffocating apartments, films that tackle similar matters with more bile but less vomit. Carnage doesn’t feel lazy so much as it does unnecessary, a functional rendering of Reza’s rich but too-delicate play that’s too content with the source text to do anything interesting with it. and just when Polanski seemed to be swinging for the fences again… bah. *okay okay, Christoph Waltz just kills it. 6 / 10

Reaction / Review: CARNAGE (dir. Roman Polanski) 2011

so i got home from this approximately 8 seconds ago, but wanted to jot down a few immediate thoughts before diving into my full-length review for some other site. so… Carnage. Polanski’s adaptation of Yasmina Reza’s much-ballyhooed play is every bit as clever and ferocious as you might imagine, but on film it feels practically entombed, its quartet of stagey performances (all majestically nuanced yet arch to the bone*) pointing back to the story’s theatrical origins with every ruthlessly efficient expression.

with Polanski at the helm this feel’s like genius on a fool’s errand… it’s hopelessly lacking in cinema, Polanski seems too tickled by the challenge of a real-time narrative, as if he’s content to transpose rather than adapt. the text is too tight to allow for many intrusions, and Polanski’s framing — while articulate and precise — is never especially visceral… you can see his decisions in action, but they’re seldom felt. 

he’s made far better films about people absolutely losing their shit in suffocating apartments, films that tackle similar matters with more bile but less vomit. Carnage doesn’t feel lazy so much as it does unnecessary, a functional rendering of Reza’s rich but too-delicate play that’s too content with the source text to do anything interesting with it.

and just when Polanski seemed to be swinging for the fences again… bah.

*okay okay, Christoph Waltz just kills it.

6 / 10

Catherine Deneuve looking through the camera on the set of REPULSION. there are a metric ton of great photos from the set of Polanski’s REPULSION, but this one — which i’m just now seeing for the first time — has instantly vaulted up my list of favorites. it’s not the most striking image to emerge from the set (and it’s certainly unspectacular when compared to several sequences from the film, itself), but between the camera cranks, the florid dress, and the thick veins of crazed blonde hair… it’s alchemy, a cool break from creating madness. (credit to the great blog If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger…)

Catherine Deneuve looking through the camera on the set of REPULSION.

there are a metric ton of great photos from the set of Polanski’s REPULSION, but this one — which i’m just now seeing for the first time — has instantly vaulted up my list of favorites. it’s not the most striking image to emerge from the set (and it’s certainly unspectacular when compared to several sequences from the film, itself), but between the camera cranks, the florid dress, and the thick veins of crazed blonde hair… it’s alchemy, a cool break from creating madness.

(credit to the great blog If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger…)

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REVIEWS OF CRITERION’S EPIC SLATE OF AUGUST RELEASES

Welcome to Criterion Corner, where the movies love you back. A column dedicated to the wide and wonderful world of the Criterion Collection, Criterion Corner runs twice a month, one installment featuring reviews of Criterion’s new releases, and the other an essay pertaining to Criterion culture. Follow @CriterionCorner and the Criterion Corner Tumblr for daily updates!

I’ve been saying for months now that Criterion’s August slate is their strongest in recent memory, and now that I’ve had a chance to explore all eight new releases I’m happy to say that this is one of those rare but joyous occasions where I don’t come off looking like a total moron (hold for polite applause). I can now say for certain that Criterion’s line-up this month is truly immense — a deep and impressively varied roster of films, this  panoply of classics is all over the map, but one could make an argument that the releases are unified by a rowdy rebellious streak. From the anarchic schoolboys of Jean Vigo’s Zero de Conduit and the older youths of If… they directly informed, to the wayward gangsters of Stanley Kubrick’s The Killing who refuse to be content with a life of mediocrity, and the broken mother of Lee Chang-Dong’s Secret Sunshine who isn’t placated by the comforts of religious credo, this is a collection of films in which the status quo is like an itch begging to be scratched, and violently.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO MOVIES.COM AND READ THE REVIEWS

Criterion GIveaway!!!  Roman Polanski’s CUL-DE-SAC (DVD) 1966.  so i suddenly found myself with an extra copy of the latest Polanski film to be inducted into the Criterion Collection, and decided I’d rather give it to someone who wants it than let it collect dust in my apartment because i’m too lazy to try and sell it.  TO ENTER, JUST RE-BLOG THIS POST! (or RT the tweet that may have brought you here). 1 winner will be randomly selected on monday. winners of the previous contest, your copies of SECRET SUNSHINE will be shipped to you on tuesday. the next (scheduled) contest / giveaway will be on September 1, and I’ll be running scheduled contests / giveaways on the 1st of each month after that.  …bonus points if you notice how sweet my clock is.

Criterion GIveaway!!! 

Roman Polanski’s CUL-DE-SAC (DVD) 1966. 

so i suddenly found myself with an extra copy of the latest Polanski film to be inducted into the Criterion Collection, and decided I’d rather give it to someone who wants it than let it collect dust in my apartment because i’m too lazy to try and sell it. 

TO ENTER, JUST RE-BLOG THIS POST! (or RT the tweet that may have brought you here).

1 winner will be randomly selected on monday. winners of the previous contest, your copies of SECRET SUNSHINE will be shipped to you on tuesday.

the next (scheduled) contest / giveaway will be on September 1, and I’ll be running scheduled contests / giveaways on the 1st of each month after that. 

…bonus points if you notice how sweet my clock is.

Trailer: CARNAGE (dir. Roman Polanski) 2011

and so we have a trailer for Polanski’s latest, one day removed from his 78th birthday. CARNAGE is slated to open the New York Film Festival in October, and is officially synopsized as “The story of two sets of parents who decide to have a cordial meeting after their sons are involved in a schoolyard brawl.” 

it’s a one-location chamber piece, adapted (quite faithfully, it would appear) from Yasmina Reza’s acclaimed play God of Carnage. the cast has actually down-graded in star power somewhat from the loaded Broadway production, but the actors that Polanski has assembled aren’t exactly a 2nd-rate bunch. having not seen the play, i’m struck by the comic tone of the trailer (the title and prestige of the production lead me to presume we were in for much darker fare, though i imagine that compared to the timbre of the trailer, we are). 

CARNAGE will be released on 12/16/2011, and on the heels of something as potent as THE GHOST WRITER it’s hard not to be excited. 

(via Twitch)