Scraps on Cinema

Well, a new week begins, and the sun sets too soon on a sterling cinematic opportunity. This past Sunday marked the conclusion of the weeklong engagement of A New Old Play  at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and with that there seems to be little else to do but wait to find out if U.S. distributor Icarus Films decides to handle an official home video/streaming release, or if subsequent showings this summer at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Asian Art in D.C. (June 5th), the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria (June 11th), the Austin Asian Film Festival (June 24th), or the Laemmle's Glendale in California (June 24th - 30th) will be all she wrote on the general public's opportunity to see one of the most endearing and technically fascinating films of the year. What's more, no sooner has this first fiction epic by Chinese contemporary artist and documentarian Qiu Jiongjiong been spirited away, so too has the pay-what-you-can streaming service Eventive ...

Somewhere in the remote English countryside, a young middle-class professional from London named Harper Marlowe (Jessie Buckley) rents a very picturesque old property, seeking a soul-cleansing respite from a recent trauma. Received by the owner of the estate, a red-nosed and awkward character named Geoffrey (Rory Kinnear), she is forced to inform him that she is no longer "Mrs." Marlowe, stirring up horrifying memories of her last row with her emotionally unstable ex-husband James (played in flashback by Paapa Essiedu). After some time of contending with James's inability to manage his mental illness, Harper had finally had enough and announced her decision to divorce him. In response, James threatened to kill himself, and even punched Harper, leading her to furiously kick him out of their apartment. In a desperate attempt to get back in, James forced his way into the home of an upstairs neighbor, tried climbing down from the balcony, and then fell to his death, leaving H...

One of the more interesting bits of entertainment news as of late was the announcement that French director Audrey Diwan's next project would be a fresh new adaptation of  Emmanuelle , the notorious erotic novel about the titular heroine who finds herself torn between hedonism and lovesickness through a series of bisexual escapades, all set against the backdrop of exotic Bangkok and its expatriate community of well-off libertines. With the lovely Léa Seydoux set to star, there's no telling what Diwan and writing partner Rebecca Zlotowski have in store. But if you happen to see Diwan's most recent film  Happening  as its specialty run begins to open up after limited premieres two weeks ago, there's at least one scene that can't help but encourage the viewer that such a story is in capable hands. Which is to say, the scene would suffice, if the entire stellar picture didn't say so. Happening  (titled L'événement or The Event  in the original French) is, of co...

Depending on who you ask, it's either a blessing or a curse that New Yorkians hosted the U.S. premieres of two  Gaspar Noé films in the breadth of just five days. The first, Vortex , reached the IFC Center on April 28th, having sailed across the Atlantic on the winds of the most effusive praise that  Noé has received in his polarizing career. The second,  Lux Æterna , was completed all the way back in 2019, but was only recently acquired by U.S. distributor Yellow Veil Pictures. It starts its limited theatrical run at the Metrograph on Friday, after a special screening this past Monday. Noé is a filmmaker who came to international prominence at the turn of the millennium, riding a wave of aesthetically and narratively diverse French cinema that was nonetheless seen as unified by its extensive graphical treatment of sexuality, violence, or some combination of the two. F rom a wider vantage point, one that also considers the  c inéma du look  that preceded this fi...