The Friday 5:
Your Weekly Film Update By Film Critic and Historian Jack Hanley
I. Film Dispatch I Am Excited About This Week
As we all (rightly) have been gushing over the narrative debuts featured at this year's 2024 Cannes Film Festival (I know I'm eagerly awaiting Sean Baker's ANORA, Jacques Audiard’s EMILIA PEREZ, Rungano Nyoni‘s ON BECOMING A GUINEA FOWL, and the Yorgos return to "nastiness and weirdness" form with KINDS OF KINDNESS), I am reminded that we often sadly neglect the astonishing non-fiction offerings that emerge from this vital Festival.
Thankfully, Brazilian critic and cultural journalist Ela Bittencourt submitted her "must-see" list from the nonfiction program. Read it here!
II. Rewatch I Loved (Again) This Week
Isn't it just MIRACULOUS when you can rediscover GREAT art through an entirely different (and often radical) perspective? Such was the case when I came across a older, lovely piece in Paste by film critic and scholar Kathy Michelle Chacón who argues for a vampiric reading of the film noir masterwork THE THIRD MAN (my favorite Noir of all time). Was I skeptical? Of course. Did I immediately revisit the film using this interpretive lens? Of course! Did this reading hold up? OH YES...
Read the article here for yourself, and revisit Carol Reed's dark masterwork to see the vampiristic subtext for yourself...I know I'll never look at that final grate scene in the same way again.
Visit kathymichellechacon.com for some amazing film perspectives- and THANK YOU, Kathy for reminding me that we can always discover something fresh and interesting from multiple viewings.
III. Film Series I Am Excited About This Week
For my cinephile readers ALSO based in Boulder, Colorado- I hope to see you in the dark later this year for one of my favorite annual events: our beloved Chautauqua Silent Film Series! This year's curated selections include some beloved favorites like Buster Keaton's THE NAVIGATOR (1924) and Charlie Chaplin's THE KID (1921), as well as some lesser-known gems like 1927's THE KID BROTHER by the underrated Harold Lloyd and the rarely screened Western SKY HIGH from 1922.
As always, this marvelous Festival features live musical accompaniment. It is a gem not to be missed. Get your tickets HERE.
IV. Film Poster I Am Loving This Week
I'm kind of obsessed with this alternative movie poster for JAWS. If you ALSO love the sub-genre of "alternative film posters," you can check out my interview with the brilliant Cleveland freelance writer and film/music historian Matthew Chojnacki to talk about his groundbreaking work from 2013, Alternative Movie Posters: Film Art From the Underground via my film blog at Kinophilia by clicking here!
V. New Project I Am Excited About This Week!
Following up on my recent HOW TO WATCH A MOVIE course that ran at Boulder's own Dairy Arts Center, I would love to pick YOUR brilliant minds about a brand NEW film series/course/program I am also creating and shopping around to several institutions tentatively called "Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Movie Sub-genres- But Were Afraid To Ask".
This course/series would focus on a deep academic and historical dive into some of our most fascinating film sub-genres and movements, paired with a film I select to view and discuss. The course would be a combination of a lecture followed by a film that I feel best represents that sub-genre that we all would watch, followed by a group discussion. As I put together some of the sub-genres and movements that I think are AMAZING and deserved of further deconstruction by the average cinephile, I would so greatly value your opinion.
Of the following topics, what are the one or two that YOU PERSONALLY would be very interested in (or have the most need of education on)? I would truly love your feedback- if you feel inclined to share your selections with me, please email me at Jackhanleyco@gmail.com. I would be eternally grateful for your input and will include you in our special thanks slides for helping!
Mumblecore Films; Blaxploitation Movement; Italian Giallo; Dogme 95; The New Queer Cinema Movement; The French New Wave; Under the Censors: Subversive Cinema Under the Soviet Censors; New Romanian Wave; S. Korean Psychological Wave; The LA Rebellion Movement; British "Kitchen Sink" Dramas; American Melodramas; The Polish School; Magical Realism; Afrofuturism; Film Noir; Greek Weird Wave; Italian Neo-Realism; Iranian New Wave; Nuevo Cine Mexicano; German Expressionism; Cinéma Vérité; Latin American Third Cinema; American New Wave; Indian Parallel Cinema; "Gun-Fu" Action Films; the Heist Movie; Surrealism; Kung-Fu Films; Samurai Cinema; Stop-Motion Films; Black Comedy / Miserableism; the Screwball Comedy; Coming of Age Cinema; Found Footage; Slasher Films; Elevated Horror; Neo-Noir; Revisionist Western; Spaghetti Western; Satires; Gangster Film; Detective Film; Anthropological Drama; absurdist; J-horror (Japanese horror); Kaiju films; Universal Monster Movies; hammer films; vampire cinema; dystopian cinema; hangout movies; folk horror
That's all for this week. Get out there and watch something AMAZING!
Jack Hanley is a Boulder-based film critic, programmer, and historian. He is a programmer with the Chicago Underground Film Festival and Boulder International Film Festival. He is one-half of Blindspotting: A Film Discovery Podcast and Flicker with Jack and Scott on YouTube. Find him at Kinophilia on Medium and at HanleyOnFilm.com
