Starting on Thursday, September 2nd and continuing until next Friday, September 10th is the 4th Chungmuro International Film Festival in Seoul. The festival began in 2007 with a strong focus on cinema’s past, showcasing large retrospectives on various directors and movements in film history. Last year, however, marked a change in direction, with more current films being shown. This year’s festival continues in that direction, with the large majority of films being contemporary and very little in the way of retrospectives. It has now become more like most festivals, a smaller version of Busan but with far less prestigious or well-known filmmakers. There are benefits to this, of course, giving audiences access to films that are not only unavailable in theatres but also unlikely to make DVD as well. However, as a cinephile, I must say I miss the original festival format. That said, there are some films I’m looking forward to this year. Here is a brief preview. (more…)

Over the past week at the Seoul Cinematheque I’ve continued to enjoy their Cine-Vacances program, especially the line-up of French cinema, such as Jean-Luc Godard’s PIERROT LE FOU (1965) and Luis Bunuel’s BELLE DE JOUR (1967). But these films were both already very familiar to me. The real revelation was Agnes Varda’s 1985 film VAGABOND, one of the great works of the decade. Like her contemporaries Godard and Truffaut, Varda was part of the French New Wave of the late 50s/early 60s, contributing such well-known landmarks as CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 (1962) and LE BONHEUR (1965). But Varda was always more associated with the Left-bank filmmakers, such as Alain Resnais and Chris Marker, directors with more sociological and political interest than the group assembled around the CAHIERS DU CINEMA (Godard, Truffaut, Chabrol, Rohmer). This can be seen in the Left-bank group’s greater interest in documentary and in their overall engagement with French politics, which Godard would only really explore as the 60s progressed and he moved further from the New Wave and which the others  would rarely confront directly.  Varda was not as politically engaged as Resnais in the 60s, when he was making such works as HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) and MURIEL (1963), but her sociological interest was always present and one can argue peaked with VAGABOND, her masterpiece. (more…)

This week at the Seoul Cinematheque I watched two films from their great CineVacances program: Francois Truffaut’s THE LAST METRO (1980) and Claude Chabrol’s THE STORY OF WOMEN (1988). The two have a great deal in common, most specifically the fact that they are both set in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. Also, both are directed by prominent members of the French New Wave, Francois Truffaut and Cluade Chabrol, and both are films made in the 1980s, many years after both World War II and after the New Wave itself had long passed. Looking back at the films from today’s perspective, one can position both films within the history of representations of the Resistance and within the directorial trajectories of both filmmakers. (more…)

Starting on Friday, the Seoul Cinemathque begins its annual summer program, Cine-Vacances. As usual, the schedule is quite eclectic, with a wide range of films and filmmakers. So far, no information has been posted about subtitles for the foreign films, but even if you limit the list of films to English language only, there is lots of quality work to take in. The complete list is given below, divided between English language and foreign films. Hopefully information about subtitles will be given shortly. The complete schedule is available here. (more…)

Currently playing at the Seoul Cinematheque is a 22 film retrospective of probably the most important Japanese director since the classical era: Nagisa Oshima. Best known for his taboo breaking works around obsessive sexuality, Oshima emerged in the 1960s as the most radical figure of the emerging Japanese New Wave. Only some of the films feature English subtitles. The complete list can be viewed here.

I’m a bit behind in the times on this one, but I’ve recently discovered the Arthouse Momo cinema at Ewha Women’s University in Seoul (thanks to Jonathan Kelly for the heads up). The theatre has two cinemas and, as the title suggestions, features art house films, both Korean and international. The reason I had basically given up on art houses in Seoul generally (such as Sponghouse, etc) were the lack of subtitles on non-English language films, combined with the difficulty in obtaining screening information easily. With Arthouse Momo, the later problem is solved, as the website, although mostly in Korean, is easy to use and provides a timetable for screenings. Unfortunately, there still seems to be a general lack of subtitles. Currently, there are two Korean films playing that recently won at Cannes, Lee Chang-dong’s POETRY and Hong Sang-soo’s HAHAHA, but no subtitles. So unless your Korean and/or other languages are fluent, you are limited to the English language films. On Sunday, I saw Tom Ford’s 2009 films A SINGLE MAN, which had not gotten a significant theatrical release here. It is fine film with a great performance by Colin Firth, and very much worth seeking out. They are also showing the English language films WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER (2007) and Roman Polanksi’s latest THE GHOST WRITER (2010), along with the German film NORTHFACE (2008). So, while not perfect, it is a useful resource for those in Seoul. And on the positive side, the theatres are new and high quality. Admission is 9000 won.

Arthouse Momo is located in the Campus Complex of Ewha Women’s University, Line 2, Exit 2 or 3. Once you enter the main gate, the campus complex is up and then on your right. Enter through gate 3 of the complex and turn left, the theatre is down the hall. There are also maps at the gate to find the campus complex, and outside the campus complex in order to find the theatre. First time you may want to get there early, as it can take a few minutes to figure out.

Starting on Thursday, June 10th and continuing until July 4th, there will be a massive, nearly complete 22 film retrospective of the legendary Italian director Federico Fellini at the Seoul Cinematheque. The only missing items are TOBY DAMMIT, an episode in the omnibus film SPIRITS OF THE DEAD, and FELLINI: A DIRECTOR’S NOTEBOOK, a made for TV documentary in which Fellini discusses his work. All of Fellini’s features are included, as are two short films that are parts of anthologies. And, in even better news, it looks like all of the films will include English subtitles. Although I am not the biggest admirer of Fellini, there is no doubt that he is one of the giants of international art cinema. His work is certainly worth exploring, especially on the big screen, since Fellini is as much about spectacle as most Hollywood action directors, albeit spectacle of a very different kind. Fellini’s most famous and critically acclaimed work is 8 1/2, but I personally prefer his 1960 epic LA DOLCE VITA and his 1957 film NIGHTS OF CABIRIA, which features an amazing performance from his wife and muse Giuilietta Masina.  In fact, Masina is featured often in this retrospective as well, and she is consistently great (more consistent than Fellini, I would argue). The complete list of films, with links, is given below. The cinematheque website, which gives the dates and times of the screenings, is here. (more…)

Over the past two weeks I took in two works on Korean film history. The first was the newly released book “New Korean Cinema: Breaking the Waves” by Darcy Paquet, published as part of Wallflower Press’ Short Cuts series of introductory film texts. The second was the documentary/essay film by Jang Sun-woo, THE CINEMA ON THE ROAD (1995), which was made as part of the British Film Institute’s Century of Cinema celebration in which they chose numerous directors (such as Martin Scorsese, Jean-Luc Godard and Anne-Marie Mieville, Oshima Nagisa, Stephen Frears, and others) to make films about his or her respective national cinema. Coincidentally, Paquet’s book and Jang’s movie complement each other in very intriguing ways. In terms of their medium, their time period, and their method, the two are completely different, but yet both are worth seeking out if one is desires to understand Korean cinema and how it has developed. (more…)