Cannes at Home: Day 1 - 'One Cut of the Dead'

by Cláudio Alves

Last year, I had a lot of fun with the Cannes at Home project. It was meant as a way to dispel FOMO by running a homebound parallel companion to the most prestigious film festival in the world. Since we couldn't screen the new titles on the Croisette, we discussed their directors' past works. In other words: I'm back on my bullshit this year, and you're invited to play along. While this miniseries will focus on the Main Competition and its auteurs, the festivities didn't start with any competing titles. Instead, Michel Hazanavicius' latest film, Final Cut, opened the festival. It's the French remake of a Japanese zombie comedy, and you can read about it in Elisa Giudici's first Cannes Diary.

It only seems appropriate to kick off this parallel project with some thoughts on the original film – Shinichiro Ueda's One Cut of the Dead…

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Hou Hsiao-Hsien @75: New Millennium (2001-2022)

The conclusion of a four part series by Cláudio Alves

In the cinema of Hou Hsiao-Hsien, the 21st century started with a neon dream. The camera follows Shu Qi's Vicky as she runs through a Taipei tunnel, lights flickering above. Everything happens in slow-motion, flickers turn into waves and the actress's movement makes a strange unnatural dance. She looks back at us, hair flying in a cloud of black tendrils, her eyes asking us to follow her down the tunnel, like Alice down the rabbit hole. It's a hypnotic sight, made more seductive by the music of Lim Giong, house beats and techno dronings that transform the screen into a pulsing heart.

2001's Millennium Mambo fulfills the formalistic promise of Daughter of the Nile, transcending Goodbye South, Goodbye's tethering to material truth. Like its protagonist, the film looks back at its director's history while moving forward to an unknown future. It's the start of a new chapter for Hou Hsiao-Hsien…

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It's a clean sweep for "Drive My Car" at the Japan Academy Awards

by Nathaniel R

Hidetoshi Nishijima accepting BEST ACTOR for "Drive My Car" 

The 45th annual Japan Academy Awards were held last night (aka hours ago -- time differences are confusing!) in Tokyo. 濱口 竜介's Oscar-nominated Drive My Car was honored in all of its categories. The winners are after the jump... 

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I'll Link to That: Dune, Teen Wolf, and The Gilded Age

• Interview Kirsten Dunst interviews her Melancholia costar Alexander Skarsgárd about the demands of making his Viking period epic The Northman. Fun banter!
• Gr8ter Days takes a 40th anniversary look back at the first mainstream gay movie, Making Love
• Cartoon Brew struggles over abusively low salaries for artists in Japanese anime

Dune Part Two, The Gilded Age, Teen Wolf, Anders Danielsen Lie, Teen Wolf, and a new Luca Guadagnino project after the jump...

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Japanese Academy Awards: 'Drive My Car' up for 9 prizes

by Nathaniel R

March is promising to be a big month for Japanese Best Picture nominee Drive My Car. It just became the second release from Janus Films to make more than one million at the US box office (their biggest hit remains Italy's Oscar winning  The Great Beauty) and despite its steady box office performance, it's moving to streaming on March 2nd on HBOMax. Then, two weeks before the Oscars on March 11th, it is competing at the 45th annual Japan Academy Awards. The nominees for that ceremony are after the jump including a description of the five films up for the big prizes...

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