4 Rare Oshima Films in France This March

Carlotta has announced four hard-to-come-across films from Nagisa Oshima from the 1960s for 4 March 2009 in France. The four films are À propos des chansons paillardes au Japon [or Sing a Song of Sex or A Treatise on Japanese Bawdy Songs] from 1967, Été japonais: Double Suicide [or Japanese Summer: Double Suicide] from 1967, L'obsédé en plein jour [or Violence at Noon or Violence at High Noon] from 1966 and Le retour des trois saoulards [or Three Resurrected Drunkards] from 1968. Carlotta released five other Oshima films, all of which are unavailable in the US, last summer: La Trilogie de la jeunesse [Trilogy of Youth] (which includes Contes cruels de la jeunesse [Cruel Story of Youth], Une ville d'amour et d'espoir [A Street of Love and Hope] and L'enterrement du soleil [The Sun's Burial]), Nuit et brouillard au Japon [Night and Fog in Japan] and Les plaisirs de la chair [Pleasures of the Flesh]. As far as I know, the DVDs only include a French subtitle option (which is pretty commonplace with French DVDs), but several of the titles have also been released through Yume Pictures in the UK with English subs (Violence at High Noon, The Sun's Burial, Night and Fog in Japan, Pleasures of the Flesh and Cruel Story of Youth [under the title Naked Youth]).

2009 Notebook, Volume 2: Expanded

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2009 Notebook: Vol 2

I still haven't quite figured out how to categorize the films I watch yet, so most of them are getting their own special categories until I can think of something more universal. [I know this sounds really anal, but I'm really pissed off with iPhoto, as it won't let me set a cropping size for my photos... annoying, I know]

Better Than Expected

A Very Natural Thing - dir. Christopher Larkin - USA - 1974 - Water Bearer Films - with Robert Joel, Curt Gareth, Bo White, Anthony McKay, Marilyn Meyers

Yeti: A Love Story - dir. Adam Deyoe, Eric Gosselin - USA - 2006 - Troma - with David Paige, Brie Bouslaugh, Laura Glascott, Eric Gosselin, Adam Malamut, Joe Mande, Loren Mash

Passable

17 fois Cécile Cassard [Seventeen Times Cécile Cassard] - dir. Christophe Honoré - France - 2002 - N/A - with Béatrice Dalle, Romain Duris, Jeanne Balibar, Ange Ruzé, Johan Oderio-Robles, Tiago Manaïa, Jérôme Kircher, Julien Collet, Jérémy Sanguinetti

Disquiet - dir. Matthew Doyle - USA - 2006 - Self-Distributed - with Matthew Doyle, David Tuchman, Brandon Slagle, Niki Notarile

Lousy, Though Not Without Some Small Amusement

Pieces [Mil gritos tiene la noche] - dir. Juan Piquer Simón - Spain/Puerto Rico/USA - 1982 - Grindhouse Releasing - with Linda Day, Christopher George, Edmund Purdom

Sex/Life in L.A. - dir. Jochen Hick - Germany/USA - 1998 - Strand Releasing - with Tony Ward, Ron Athey, Rick Castro

Almost a Nightmare

Passengers - dir. Rodrigo García - USA/Canada - 2008 - with Anne Hathaway, Patrick Wilson, Andre Braugher, Dianne Wiest, David Morse, Clea DuVall, William B. Davis, Ryan Robbins

A Nightmare

Piccadilly Pickups - dir. Amory Peart - UK - 2000 - N/A - with Alexis Arquette, Jake Darby, Shawn Stone, Rod Hunt, Chris Green, B.J. Wallace

Revisited

Mother of Tears: The Third Mother [La terza madre] - dir. Dario Argento - Italy/USA - 2007 - Myriad/Dimension - with Asia Argento, Cristian Solimeno, Udo Kier, Moran Atias, Adam James, Daria Nicolodi

Vicky Cristina Barcelona - dir. Woody Allen - Spain/USA - 2008 - MGM/Weinstein Company - with Javier Bardem, Rebecca Hall, Scarlett Johansson, Penélope Cruz, Patricia Clarkson, Chris Messina, Kevin Dunn, Pablo Schreiber

More from Berlin...

New films set for Berlin unfortunately do not include Claire Denis' White Material, which hopefully will see its premiere at Cannes instead, though I doubt in competition seeing as the film stars Isabelle Huppert, the head of this year's jury. The rest include:

Cheri - dir. Stephen Frears - with Michelle Pfeiffer, Kathy Bates, Rupert Friend, Anita Pallenberg, Iben Hjejle
Deutschland 09 - dir. Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmaker, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhaeusler, Dani Levy, Angela Schanelec
Eden à l'ouest - dir. Costa-Gavras - with Riccardo Scarmarcio, Juliane Köhler, Ulrich Tukur, Eric Caravaca
Happy Tears - dir. Mitchell Lichtenstein (Teeth) - with Parker Posey, Demi Moore, Rip Torn, Ellen Barkin
Ricky - dir. François Ozon - with Sergi Lopez
Sturm - dir. Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem) - with Kerry Fox, Anamaria Marinca, Stephen Dillane
Tatarak - dir. Andrzej Wajda - with Krystyna Janda

Full list at IndieWire and on IFC Daily.

DVD Release Update - 16 January

Although I was a little disappointed to see that Last Year at Marienbad wasn't on the list, Criterion named their April releases; and although they weren't the Nagisa Oshima films I would have liked to have seen put out, I do look forward to rewatching both In the Realm of the Senses and Empire of Passion (formerly known in the US as In the Realm of Passion). Unfortunately, as Criterion doesn't put quotes on their DVD titles, In the Realm of the Sesnes will be without Madonna's glowing review: "It turns me on because it's real." In addition to those two, Stephen Frears' The Hit, starring John Hurt, Terence Stamp, Tim Roth, Bill Hunter and Fernando Rey, and 23 short films from director Jean Painlevé.

New Yorker announced Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub's Class Relations [Klassenverhältnisse] for 17 March. MGM will be releasing three musicals on 7 April: Goldwyn Follies (which is also available in their big musical box-set), It's a Pleasure with Sonja Henie and Howard Hawks' A Song Is Born.

Watchmaker Films, though Koch Vision, are releasing Profit motive and the whispering wind and Mississippi Chicken on 7 April. And finally, Kino will have Raphaël Nadjari's Tehilim on 31 March.

Bad News, Tennis Shoes!

Well, not really, but a friend of mine told me that his favorite video store clerk once referred to the lovely Ludivine Sagnier as "bad news in tennis shoes." While I hardly agree, the phrase has stuck. I digress, it looks as if Sagnier has become a mother once again, delivering a baby girl with director Kim Chapiron (Sheitan, below), which I suppose means that she's no longer with actor Nicolas Duvauchelle (Inside, Trouble Every Day, Le petit voleur), the father of her other daughter. Congratulations.

Gettin' Gay with Kids (and Breillat and Van Sant) at Berlin

Another wave of titles have been announced for Berlin's Panorama section, including, most excitingly, a new film from Catherine Breillat entitled Barbe bleu. I was under the impression that Breillat's new film was to be a remake of her own Parfait amour! with Naomi Campbell; I really hope this project hasn't fallen through. In addition to Barbe bleu, her film Tapage nocturne [Nocturnal Uproar], starring Joe Dallesandro from 1979, will also be screening. Gus Van Sant will be there to show Milk, as well as the doc The Times of Harvey Milk. A pair of films about Quentin Crisp will also be screening in the Panorama this year: the documentary Resident Alien and The Naked Civil Servant, which stars John Hurt as Crisp. The other two films of note that were announced are the new film from Lucía Puenzo, El niño pez, which reunites her with XXY star Inés Efron, who is slowly becoming my favorite young actress and Michael Winterbottom's documentary The Shock Doctrine. Full report over at IndieWire.