Film Comment - May - June 2016.pdf

filmcommentM A Y/J U N E 2 0 1 6|P U B L I S H E D B YT H E F I L M S O C I E T Y O F L I N C O L N C E N T E R|V O L U M E 5 2/N U M B E R 3MOTHER OF INVENTION:AMY TAUBIN ON CHANTAL AKERMANGROWING PAINS:LUCILEHADZIHALILOVICS EVOLUTIONAMERICA UP CLOSE AND VERYPERSONAL IN THE OTHER SIDEHEART OFTERENCE DAVIESS SUNSET SONG THE COUNTRYTHE FILM COMMENT INTERVIEWOFFICIALPREMIUMMEDIAIMAGE:PARAMOUNT/THE KOBAL COLLECTIONHOSPITALITYADDITIONAL SUPPORTMAY/JUNEElinor Bunin Munroe Film Center 144 W 65th St Walter Reade Theater 165 W 65th St filmlinc.org filmlinc#filmliveshereLa Magnani:Wild Is the WindOpens May 6DRAGON INN Opens May 13HIGH-RISE Opens May 20THE OTHER SIDEOpens May 27CHEVALIEROpens June 10TIKKUNOpens June 24RIGHT NOW,WRONG THEN NEW RELEASESMay 410 NEW YORK AFRICAN FILM FESTIVAL May 18June 1LA MAGNANI June 28 OPEN ROADS:NEW ITALIAN CINEMA June 6 PRINT SCREEN:LYDIA MILLET AND RINGU June 1018 HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH FILM FESTIVAL June 19 SOUND AND VISION PRESENTS SERGE BROMBERGS SAVED FROM THE FLAME:AMAZING SLAPSTICK COMEDIES June 21 SOUND AND VISION PRESENTS LINHUMAINE WITH THE ALLOY ORCHESTRA June 22July 9 NEW YORK ASIAN FILM FESTIVALSERIES&EVENTSF F FILM M M L LIVES H HER RE E ESM MEDITORS LETTER 4OPENING SHOTS 6News,Hot Property,Directions,Matas Pieiros In the Moment,Restoration RowMAKE IT REAL 12Writing documentaryENCORE 16Strangers When We MeetSOUND&VISION 18Ironic soundtracks and Laura PoitrasCRITICS CHOICE 21Eight critics rate 25 new releasesSCREENINGS 67Chevalier,Love&Friendship,A BiggerSplash,Right Now,Wrong Then,Weiner,and moreHOME MOVIES 74Our guide for the shut-in cinephileREADINGS 78ric Rohmer:A Biography and moreGRAPHIC DETAIL 80Renato Casaro2 filmcomment May-June 2016contentsPublished by the Film Society of Lincoln Center/May-June 2016 Volume 52,Number 322283422 SUNSET SONG BY JONATHAN ROMNEYTerence Daviess gorgeous adaptation of a Scottish classic portrays a youngwomans often painful coming into her own 28 CHANTAL AKERMAN BY AMY TAUBINFrom first frame to last,the primal maternal bond was like a constant heartbeatin the work of the master filmmaker34 EVOLUTION BY LAURA KERNLucile Hadzihalilovic creates a spellbinding body-horror fable for the ages Plus:an interview with the director by Nicolas Rapold40 ALAN CLARKE BY DAVID FEARA new collection reveals the full radical scope of the influential British directors vision46 THE OTHER SIDE BY NICK PINKERTONRoberto Minervinis intimate nonfiction chronicle yields a study in character and country52 AUTEUR DYSTOPIAS BY HOWARD HAMPTONWith High-Rise,Ben Wheatley becomes the latest director to revel in master-minding a disastrous future58 JEAN-MARIE STRAUB AND DANILE HUILLET BY GILBERTO PEREZA definitive look at an uncompromising oeuvre 404652581867Cover:Agyness Deyn in Sunset Song.Photo courtesy of Magnolia PicturesStaring heavenward on our cover is Agyness Deyn,star of Sunset Song fromTerence Davies.This heart-wrenching and exactingly shot adaptation of a Scot-tish novel about a young woman on a farm comes to theaters in May.Davies hasalready premiered another film,A Quiet Passion,aboutEmily Dickinson,at Berlin,so readers have a lot to look for-ward to.Jonathan Romney talked to the filmmakerwhoseThe House of Mirth graced our Jan/Feb 2001 best-of-decadeissueabout both movies.Among the titles featured in that best-of-decade festival-of-lists issue was La Captive,by Chantal Akerman,whoselegacy continues to grow since her death.In a new essay,Amy Taubin probes the relationship that fueled and compli-cated so much of what Akerman made:the maternal bond,which the filmmaker made the overt subject of No Home Movie but had long delvedinto as no one else had.Taking a rather different tack on mothers is Evolution,whichLaura Kern identifies as variously a film fantastique,a horror film,and much elsebesides.Lucile Hadzihalilovics uncanny nocturnal vision captures a cloistered seasidetown where childhood involves a bit more surgery than one might expect.Kern givesus an early look at the film(accompanied by an interview I conducted shortly afterits premiere),which opens in France in May and hits the U.S.this fall.This issue also features Nick Pinkertons appreciation of Roberto Minervini,anItalian-born filmmaker who has made a practice of chronicling rural American com-munities with hybrid documentary techniques.His latest,The Other Side,filmed inLouisiana,proves both moving and prescient of todays moment in its rural portrait.Elsewhere in the issue,David Fear takes the measure of British iconoclast and gru-eling realist Alan Clarke;Howard Hampton locates Ben Wheatleys J.G.Ballardadaptation High-Rise in the lineage of dystopian visions;Eric Hynes explains howwriting can be part of the documentary form;and Glenn Kenny gets on the wave-length of Richard Quines Kirk DouglasKim Novak suburban melodrama StrangersWhen We Meet.And a final word for a work we are especially honored to publish:a definitive essay by the late scholar Gilberto Perez on the monumental auteurs Jean-Marie S