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The iconic fashion designer gets his own bio-series on Disney+. Karl Lagerfeld was nothing if not a flamboyant mega-talent. The German born figure took no prisoners in his larger than life voyage to the top of the fashion world.
Daniel Bruhl stars in Becoming Lagerfeld, available today.
The expectation was for a Summer 2024 Blockbuster, the reality was a fizzle. There have been so much written about the failure to generate a barely noticeable Memorial Weekend debut of Furiosa, the latest Mad Max installment. After only collecting $31 million at the box office over the four-day weekend. One commentator after another has an opinion or analyses are still trending on the Internet. Why didn’t this critically lauded fifth work in the series connect?
After the positive debut reception at the Cannes Film Festival, George Miller’s $165 million dystopian epic looked like a sure winner with a 90% Rotten Tomatoes score. No one knows what the public will like. Nine years after the release of Mad Max:Fury Road, director and writer Miller took the prequel route with a backstory to Charlie Theron’s Imperator Furiosa character. This is a no spoiler commentary. I have not watched the movie, but planning to get my ticket soon.
The world is a different place from 2015. Covid, wars on two fronts, perhaps there is audience fatigue on dark subject matter. Who can blame the public? At times, strolling through a news feed requires a Paxil.
Ticket goers, straining under inflation, are more cautious about shelling out twenty or thirty dollars for a movie based on a cinema cult property.
The window for theatrical release before on a streaming service has shortened. Viewers are deciding to wait to watch releases at home. IF and the Ryan Gosling comedy The Fall Guy had less than spectacular openings.
Top billed Ann Taylor-Joy is not the box office draw the industry many in the industry expected. The Miami native’s career could take a hit. Studios may no longer gamble on The Queen Gambit’s drawing eyeballs to movie houses. Meanwhile, co-star Chris Hemsworth will be fine wearing tights in another MCU flick.
As a fan of the Mel Gibson Mad Max Trilogy, I would have liked to a story based on the lone survivor theme. However, given the veteran action star’s age and in particular his well publicised anger management problems, the creative team sought a fresh story more in line with present day sensibilities.
The present media frenzy points to writing off the franchise. I give it a few years, then there will be a reboot with a new director and lead actor. The Mad Max Saga has only stalled, waiting for a refuel.
Check out our Chat Cinema Podcast for all the stories and interviews.
The big news from Cannes Film Festival 2024 is the return of 1970’s auteur Francis Coppola with MEGALOPOLIS. The American Born director’s first feature in thirteen years. Early notices about the $120 million production have not been positive with industry professionals calling the work “Challenging”. The all star sci-fi drama includes acting heavyweights Adam Driver, Dustin Hoffman and Giancarlo Esposito will need a big push to recover its costs. This is not the first time the five time Academy Award Winner has gotten bad news during early previews. APOCALYPSE NOW equally divided opinion
makers in 1979. The Vietnam War drama in my opinion is a work of “Bombastic Pageantry” that at times try’s to numb you into believing it is a great film.
Can Francis get his mojo back at 85? On May 17th we will see.
The rise and fall of fashion wonderkid John Galliano was a magical story of success. Championed by industry heavy weights as a visionary, Galliano gave the world frivolity on the runways of Dior. However, under the surface of smiles, showmanship and Champagne toasts lurked an individual coming off the rails.
Academy Award winning director Kevin Macdonald stripes away the gloss, putting the former Givenchy fashion house head front and center of a documentary film about a man trying to his road to redemption.
Check out the Before Tacky Podcast on the film.
As the saying goes, ?A thief can never trust another thief?, Trojan, the habitual professional burglar in the film Scorched Earth should heed these words. Director and writer Thomas Arslan’s sequel to his popular German film In the Shadows, takes actor Misel Maticevic back into familiar territory. As a leader of a heist crew, Trojan navigates through double crosses where one bad move could be his last.
Arlen’s direction at times feels stiff while reaching for the noir mood with Reinhold Vorschneider’s cinematography interchanging from grey to blue hues. Working from his screenplay, the sixty one-year-old helmsmen keeps the movement going to its natural violent conclusion.
The glue keeping the film together is Misel as the battled weary every man loner, unable or unwilling to escape from this backstabbing world.
I cannot compare the latest entry into the series against the 2010 work because I did not view it. As a stand alone, Scorched Earth has tough legs for the fan base pleased, while winning over a few new ones.
Scorched Earth was screened online.
Running time is 104 minutes. Release date in Germany is July 18th 2024.
Cinema and fashion designers have gone hand and hand for decades. Recently, I attended a film festival event. Concerning collaborations, there was a lack of knowledge on the matter among many modern filmmakers. A costume can enhance the profile of film, Jane Fonda in 1968 Barbarella, the famous futuristic scanty pieces have become iconic designed by Paco Rabanne.
The Berlinale must have a deal with Airbnb. Another creative head is relocating to Berlin, the fourth in five years. After the September shock resignation of Chatrian, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced she and a replacement committee would actively seek one artistic head instead of a duo team. Minister Roth felt the festival needed a new direction after years of going to the principle office soberness. Finally, the recognition a sweeping overhaul was needed. After a long wait, I feel vindicated.
Tricia Tuttle takes charge of the film festival this spring from outgoing head Carlo Chatrian. The American born fest organiser ran the BFI London Film Festival.
This begs the question, why did the Berlinale have two heads? At the 2019 announcement, the team had the chemistry of a vegan touring a McDonald’s Burger Patty factory. In Carlo and Mariette’s defence, the two inherited a film festival in steep decline, with a resistant to change thin skinned staff structure, then the Covid Pandemic hit, not ideal situations for even the most seasoned leaders. Carlo headed the creative side, his cinema views veered more toward art house, shunning the glamour, while Mariette, a Berlin insider, would handle the admin tasks. Rissenbeek jumped in March 2023. The behind the scenes drama of the Berlinale have overshadowed the festival itself.
After budget cut announcements, fewer films, the writing was on the wall. Chatrian’s resignation, or should we say, “knifed in the stomach”, triggered a petition signing from global filmmakers lead by Martin Scorsese requesting a reversal of his decision to leave.
As a former attendee, I was to be placed me on a “no go” list for my, now proven right, 2019 Berlinale critiques. I thought major change was warranted at the February film affair. This was a festival basking in its own high-minded pretensions, yet had fallen behind both bigger and smaller cinema gatherings. The size of the festival emphasised quantity, screening up or over 300 or more films in different sections, at the expense of quality.
Berlin has never been a service friendly city. The city has been called “A service desert”. The festival lives up to this reputation. In comparison to other festivals, cinema curating was never a strong point in the German Capital. Forget about asking the Berlinale coordinators about the films showing, they were too busy telling everyone how busy they were. The way to learn if a good film was unspooling: 1. Fest gossip 2. Insider trading 3. A compass.
Tricia could be a much needed shot in the arm for the Berlinale. The powers in Germany decided on her because they want a festival on par with Cannes and Venice. Tuttle has a more commercial sense regarding cinema and certainly with a loaded rolodex of names to the creative world. Her approach will be different than the past on how to organize a cinema gathering, perhaps leaner, more glitz. However, she will have to overcome organisational challenges in trying to revive the fortunes of an increasing less relevant film festival.
The saying “Hope is the last thing ever lost.”
The 74th edition of the BERLINALE starts February 15th, 2024.
Fame is a cheap commodity in the social media world. The lust for for followers has corroded the lines of behavior. Chasing likes is a pluto treasure hunt in the digital world.
Director, actor and producer Hugo Becker shows the self-destructive side of bargain basement celebrity with his Oscar qualifying short film MUKBANGER.
A Black and Paper interview with Hugo Becker.
Why do you think people are obsessed and willing to be mocked and to risk life and death for Social Media celebrity or fame?
I do not believe this starts like that, from one day to the other. It is a long and sad process. What I try to demonstrate in the movie is that it usually starts in a very genuine and naive approach. People who end up making these type of videos had no clue they would end up doing this when they were starting doing videos as teenagers. That is why it is much more dangerous than we think. It is not only for other people, some very balanced individuals sometimes fall into this downward spiral. It is the same type of addiction and vicious circle you find in drugs or porn. And I am not only talking about the creators, but also the viewers.
Is Mukbanger a class or socio-economic issue commentary?
Money is part of the issue, for sure, for some people. But not the main reason. Love and attention are. Otherwise they would do something else I think, because there are many bad ways to make easy money. The real reasons of people getting involved in MUKBANG are I believe the quest of recognition at all costs, the loneliness, the lack of love and existential issues.
And of course the social networks and some algorithms, because let’s face it, they provoke and accelerate this downward spiral. Because they push you more and more in the same environment, leaving you in a kind of mental cage. In which the definition of success is to be viewed, to be followed. To exist. As much as possible. No matter the cost. When success actually should be about achieving something that makes sense, about helping people around you, about fighting for your ideas, trying to improve the world around you.
France is a country and culture renowned for cuisine, you are a Frenchman, in the movie those images are poles apart. Please explain?
Well, there is art cuisine and Food porn. These are two very different things. I did a series called Chefs as an actor, and we were lucky enough to be taught by great French Chefs like David Toutain, and Thierry Marx. Thanks to them, I learned that art cuisine is about creating something beautiful, supposed to make you feel good, to enlighten your day, to make you travel in your head, while learning a whole new taste universe that you might not know.
The other, Mukbang, is not about food really, it is about putting your physical health in danger with random and bad products, in a huge and absurd quantity, it is about damaging yourself, your body and in the long run your mental health. And that is what probably fascinates and/or reassures people watching. Not about the food they eat in reality. The first time I learned about Mukbang, and watched a documentary about it, I did not eat for two days. Not only because of the food, but because I could not believe it was a real phenomenon watched by millions of people. And when I realized it was actually real, and not science-fiction, I was terrified that we already got to that point… As if the tv show in the movie Requiem for a dream was actually really broadcasted on Fox.
There is a slippery slope of good guy/bad guy in the film, explain.
My intention was clearly not to point out one person responsible for the whole thing. But on the opposite, I strongly believe that all of them share a responsibility at their level. Like we all do on many subjects. Of course, everyone in its own way, and at a different level of responsibility. But is Mika naive and innocent? No. Is his manager protecting him like he should? No. Is the broadcaster supposed to let them do this? Probably not. Are people supposed to watch things like that and encourage the creation of such videos ? Clearly not. Can the family have a good and or bad influence over it? Yes, but sometimes we unfortunately do not even realize how our reactions, and choices can affect and have consequences for other people around us. So, question is, once we know, what do we do about it? What is the limit?
What was the cinematography influence?
So many geniuses. So many people I admire. Complicated to say. Of course, I am an unconditional fan of Stanley Kubrick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Milos Forman, Agnès Varda, Darren Aronofsky, Joachim Trier… I have always been impressed of the way they manage to put you in the shoes of the character so that you feel like him and you understand his weirdest behavior without explanations.
For that film, Mukbanger, I wanted the audience to feel trapped inside, like him. Looking for a way out, trying to escape. That is why I used this format 4:3, and I made these frame choices of Mika literally eating the frame. In the meantime, it had to be moving and interacting all the time so you never get a chance to stop and think, like him, you just go on, because you want see further, you want to know how it ends, you are addicted.
I also somehow wanted the audience at the end of the film to understand that they actually are in the position of the viewers, the “voyeurs”, and to understand how addictive this can be for anyone. And thus why we have to be extremely careful, especially for the younger generation. Because this addiction is part of us… you want more ? Well, this is human nature, most of us if not all of us do unfortunately. All right then, but therefore it is urgent that we help people focus on the interesting, on the beautiful, on the things that are greater than us. Talk about ideas, about how to improve things, and not waste time watching people wasting their own life Mukbanging.
To me, this phenomenon is like an alarm, it is really the metaphor of human nature over-consuming and choosing the wrong path. This movie is a small attempt to stop it.
Chat Cinema talks to director Turan Haste about his Oscar Qualifying short film THE MOISTURE. The Venice Film Festival entry is a story of challenging relationships for a teacher in a remote Turkish village.
For this episode of Chat Cinema we talk to film maker Ahmad Alyaseer about acceptance even in death. His acclaimed, winning 102 prizes so far, short film OUR MALES AND FEMALES has qualified for the 2024 Academy Award.