Olive Films to Release Region 1 DVD of Robert Bresson's "The Devil, Probably"

Hello all. A few days ago, I stumbled upon a pretty great piece of news for anyone who is at all keen on French cinema and one of its most significant figures, Robert Bresson. One of the filmmaker's last and most important films, 1977's The Devil, Probably (Le diable probablement), is finally going to be getting a release on Region One DVD on September 18th courtesy of Olive Films. Now, I had the chance to see this as well as a few other Bresson films earlier in the year at the TIFF Bell Lightbox, which ran a special retrospective of his work, and I will say that I'm not entirely enamoured with the film. However, its engaging narrative regarding a disillusioned young man who grows increasingly disturbed by the harmful forces around him and unusual craftsmanship as chosen by the ever-meticulous Bresson have certainly compelled me to think about it over time, and I am all too eager to give the film a second viewing. I've also read a number of illuminating pieces on it within the excellent volume Robert Bresson (Revised) edited by James Quandt, which only further stress The Devil, Probably's importance within both Bresson's body of work and world cinema (it had a great impact on Olivier Assayas, among other filmmakers). Thank you, Olive Films, for making it more readily available to us.

Shortly after the DVD is released, I will likely be writing a piece on the film that will be posted both here and at Row Three. Until then, I will leave you with a trailer below. Be warned - like the film itself, it is fairly chilly, dissonant, and ends on some real downer notes.

Members of Toronto's Film Community Put Forth Their Greatest/Favorite Film Picks

In one of the most recent reactions to Sight and Sound's newest list of the greatest films ever made according to a poll of filmmakers, programmers, critics, and writers (you know, the one that, among other interesting variations from past results, replaced Citizen Kane with Vertigo in the #1 spot), David Davidson of Toronto Film Review took it upon himself to collect personal film selections from a healthy selection of Toronto's own filmmakers, critics, bloggers, and all-around cinema enthusiasts. I was most pleased to be able to contribute my own picks, which I simply chose according to what my gut and heart told me. Overall I'm very content with each of the ten films I put forth, which I think make up a good selection from the vast history of cinema.

You can check out my list as well as those of David, his girlfriend Arielle, filmmakers Kazik Radwanski, Igor Drljaca, Antoine Bourges, and Simon Ennis, film critics Adam Nayman, Christopher Heron, and Kiva Reardon, and many, many more right here at Toronto Film Review. As always with lists of this sort, diversity and discovery are the names of the game here...

Lime

Coasting Onwards

April 2011 - Frankfurt, Germany

"Pickpocket" by Bresson & Burial

Robert Bresson and dubstep: two great tastes that taste great together? I think so.

Pyre

From Andrei Tarkovsky's The Sacrifice (1986)


"In the spring we made a boat
Out of feathers, out of bones.
We set fire to our homes,
Walking barefoot in the snow."

-from Of Monsters and Men's "Your Bones"

Nostalghia

From Andrei Tarkovsky's Nostalghia (1983)

The Path

April 2011 - Frankfurt, Germany

Wish in an Iron Tree

January 2011 - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

"The Sacrifice" Art by Michał Karcz

Keeping up the Tarkovsky theme with a stunning piece of art inspired by The Sacrifice by graphic designer and artist Michał Karcz - perfect for your desktop!

Full desktop wallpaper source here.

Zone

July 2012 - Oakville, Ontario, Canada

Heroes of Idiosyncratic Non-Fiction

Hello all. Today, I want to share three episodes of a podcast that I listen to fairly regularly: Colin Marshall's Notebook on Cities and Culture, formerly The Marketplace of Ideas. I love this podcast for many reasons, mainly the fascinating range of guests Colin sits down with, the deeply intelligent questions he asks them, and the winding conversations that spring from them.

Three interviews in particular have been getting regular play on my iPod over the past few months, one being with Geoff Dyer; the other two with Pico Iyer. Geoff Dyer is known for writing books on a variety of subjects, among them Andrei Tarkovsky (Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room), D.H. Lawrence (Out of Sheer Rage: Wrestling with D.H. Lawrence), jazz (But Beautiful: A Book About Jazz), and more. But what I love about him is how he approaches such subjects from a personal, level-headed, often funny perspective that specifically avoids stuffy academic over-analysis, opting for a highly relatable and open form of cultural commentary.

Pico Iyer, author of books like Video Night in Kathmandu and Other Reports From the Not-So-Far East, The Lady and the Monk: Four Seasons in Kyoto, and The Global Soul: Jet Lag, Shopping Malls, and the Search for Home, has a more specific area of interest in his writing (travel and world cultures), but like Dyer, he also pulls readers along on unpredictable journeys of ideas, thoughts and observations. His points on the ever-intensifying dialogue between cultures are among the most insightful I've ever come across.

Being committed to a large-scale writing project of my own at the moment, which I hope to make good progress on during this summer and, with luck, I'll be able to talk more about before too long, it is extremely inspiring to read and learn about writers like Dyer and Iyer, who are guided by their own passions, interests, and personal experiences over any other factors, and who make a point of incorporating these very personal components into their non-fiction work. Listening to them discuss such things is just as rewarding, and whether you're a writer or not, the interviews gathered below will surely charge your imagination and get you thinking about how we look at culture, art, and travel. Happy listening!

*Note: Notebook on Cities and Culture is also available on iTunes.

-Literary auteurhood: Geoff Dyer, writer and intellectual gatecrasher (May 2011)

-The world dreamed but not judged: traveler and writer Pico Iyer (August 2011)

-Fathers Chosen and Unchosen with Pico Iyer (April 2012)

Day's Dying Embers

Summer 2011 - Northern Ontario, Canada

Kaurismäki Mania!

On July 31st, the Criterion Collection will be releasing on Blu-ray and DVD Le Havre, Aki Kaurismäki's delightful French fairy tale from last year. I can't wait.




-Here is a wonderful interview that Simon Hattenstone conducted with the dour, funny Finn in London's Soho House.

-And finally, here is Kaurismäki paying tribute to one of his artistic heroes, the great Yasujiro Ozu:

Magic Hour

June 2012 - Oakville, Ontario, Canada

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