Richard Kovitch
@rkovitch.bsky.social
Director / Writer | ‘Penny Slinger: Out Of The Shadows’ (‘Essential’ - Guardian)
pennyslingerfilm.com
Here to chat films, music & photography.
pennyslingerfilm.com
Here to chat films, music & photography.
RIP: Gene Hackman
February 27, 2025 at 1:49 PM
RIP: Gene Hackman
Things we lost in the LA fire. Gary Indiana’s papers, which had just arrived from NYC in Altadena, where they would be archived. A lifetime’s work up in flames.
Colm Tóibín in the LRB.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colm Tóibín in the LRB.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
January 23, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Things we lost in the LA fire. Gary Indiana’s papers, which had just arrived from NYC in Altadena, where they would be archived. A lifetime’s work up in flames.
Colm Tóibín in the LRB.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
Colm Tóibín in the LRB.
www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...
RIP: Bertrand Blier
January 22, 2025 at 11:35 PM
RIP: Bertrand Blier
A pilgrimage I made to David Lynch’s house / studio in April, 2024. I decided against leaving a sinister videotape on the door mat.
January 17, 2025 at 11:00 AM
A pilgrimage I made to David Lynch’s house / studio in April, 2024. I decided against leaving a sinister videotape on the door mat.
RIP: Jack Bond. What a life. From his ground breaking films with Jane Arden, to his later work on the South Bank Show making docs about the Pet Shop Boys and Patricia Highsmith, Jack Bond was a true maverick. He was a gent too, and made an invaluable contribution to my film about Penny Slinger.
December 24, 2024 at 11:54 PM
RIP: Jack Bond. What a life. From his ground breaking films with Jane Arden, to his later work on the South Bank Show making docs about the Pet Shop Boys and Patricia Highsmith, Jack Bond was a true maverick. He was a gent too, and made an invaluable contribution to my film about Penny Slinger.
As a marker of how difficult it is to know exactly which year a film is associated with now,
Bertrand Bonello’s ‘The Beast’ finds itself =31 in 2024’s @sightsoundmag.bsky.social Greatest Films Of The Year poll, down 5 from its =26 position in the 2023 poll. #timetravel
Bertrand Bonello’s ‘The Beast’ finds itself =31 in 2024’s @sightsoundmag.bsky.social Greatest Films Of The Year poll, down 5 from its =26 position in the 2023 poll. #timetravel
December 24, 2024 at 9:04 AM
As a marker of how difficult it is to know exactly which year a film is associated with now,
Bertrand Bonello’s ‘The Beast’ finds itself =31 in 2024’s @sightsoundmag.bsky.social Greatest Films Of The Year poll, down 5 from its =26 position in the 2023 poll. #timetravel
Bertrand Bonello’s ‘The Beast’ finds itself =31 in 2024’s @sightsoundmag.bsky.social Greatest Films Of The Year poll, down 5 from its =26 position in the 2023 poll. #timetravel
“Oh, I just think good, clean thoughts, like Thanksgiving, George Washington's teeth...”
‘Night Moves’ comes to Criterion, March 2025.
‘Night Moves’ comes to Criterion, March 2025.
December 21, 2024 at 11:50 AM
“Oh, I just think good, clean thoughts, like Thanksgiving, George Washington's teeth...”
‘Night Moves’ comes to Criterion, March 2025.
‘Night Moves’ comes to Criterion, March 2025.
Re-watched ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Scrubs up well in 4K, even if this emphasises the horrors of 1970s dentistry. So many over-the-top, camp performances tho. Its gallery of unhinged, facial contortions & sexual neuroses gives it a psychotic, ‘Carry On’ vibe. The sound design remains extraordinary.
December 8, 2024 at 11:42 AM
Re-watched ‘A Clockwork Orange’. Scrubs up well in 4K, even if this emphasises the horrors of 1970s dentistry. So many over-the-top, camp performances tho. Its gallery of unhinged, facial contortions & sexual neuroses gives it a psychotic, ‘Carry On’ vibe. The sound design remains extraordinary.
‘Conann’ (2023), Bertrand Mandico’s latest. Links to the Milius film are few. Mandico recasts Conan in a metaphysical world, then critiques history as an inter-generational tale of vengeance. PoMo riffs, Buñuel-esque depravity, & a sublime score all transport us to cinema’s outer limits. Magnifique!
December 8, 2024 at 11:28 AM
‘Conann’ (2023), Bertrand Mandico’s latest. Links to the Milius film are few. Mandico recasts Conan in a metaphysical world, then critiques history as an inter-generational tale of vengeance. PoMo riffs, Buñuel-esque depravity, & a sublime score all transport us to cinema’s outer limits. Magnifique!
RIP: Gary Indiana.
Irreplaceable.
Irreplaceable.
October 24, 2024 at 3:59 PM
RIP: Gary Indiana.
Irreplaceable.
Irreplaceable.
Fernando Arrabal’s ‘Viva La Muerte’ (1971) definitely not for the casual viewer, but if you can stomach the violence & animal cruelty (and be warned, it’s rough) it lands an immense blow as both psychosexual, Oedipal drama, and a nightmarish vision of how the Franco regime secured power.
September 23, 2024 at 7:17 PM
Fernando Arrabal’s ‘Viva La Muerte’ (1971) definitely not for the casual viewer, but if you can stomach the violence & animal cruelty (and be warned, it’s rough) it lands an immense blow as both psychosexual, Oedipal drama, and a nightmarish vision of how the Franco regime secured power.
Paul Vecchiali’s ‘The Strangler’ (1970) wrong-footed me at first, as I’d been led to believe it was a ‘French Giallo’. It’s much stranger than that. Closer to Robbie-Grillet & very much rooted in post-‘68 anxieties, something @suspirialexx.bsky.social makes clear in a great essay in the BR extras.
September 23, 2024 at 7:10 PM
Paul Vecchiali’s ‘The Strangler’ (1970) wrong-footed me at first, as I’d been led to believe it was a ‘French Giallo’. It’s much stranger than that. Closer to Robbie-Grillet & very much rooted in post-‘68 anxieties, something @suspirialexx.bsky.social makes clear in a great essay in the BR extras.
Francis Whatley’s ‘Bowie In Berlin’, @BBCRadio4 revisits Bowie’s self-imposed exodus in the island city. Not so much the music he made there, but the life he lived.
Be curious to hear what @bowiesongs.bsky.social
makes of some of the new claims made.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Be curious to hear what @bowiesongs.bsky.social
makes of some of the new claims made.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
BBC Radio 4 - Archive on 4, Bowie in Berlin
How David Bowie saved his life and career in 1970s Berlin.
www.bbc.co.uk
September 23, 2024 at 7:03 PM
Francis Whatley’s ‘Bowie In Berlin’, @BBCRadio4 revisits Bowie’s self-imposed exodus in the island city. Not so much the music he made there, but the life he lived.
Be curious to hear what @bowiesongs.bsky.social
makes of some of the new claims made.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Be curious to hear what @bowiesongs.bsky.social
makes of some of the new claims made.
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m...
Not read Kael on the films of John Cassavettes before, but seems she agreed with Polanski.
August 20, 2024 at 8:44 AM
Not read Kael on the films of John Cassavettes before, but seems she agreed with Polanski.
“We often settle for what they give us—witness what people watch on television. They sell us what they think we want and we buy it because we want to go to the movies.”
Some great stuff in this Pauline Kael interview from 1998.
scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/inter...
Some great stuff in this Pauline Kael interview from 1998.
scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/inter...
INTERVIEW WITH PAULINE KAEL (MODERN MATURITY) - Scraps from the loft
Pauline Kael has brought the same fierce passion, independence, and incisiveness to her movie reviews since she took on Charlie Chaplin’s Limelight in 1952. When her first book, I Lost It at the Movie...
scrapsfromtheloft.com
August 20, 2024 at 8:36 AM
“We often settle for what they give us—witness what people watch on television. They sell us what they think we want and we buy it because we want to go to the movies.”
Some great stuff in this Pauline Kael interview from 1998.
scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/inter...
Some great stuff in this Pauline Kael interview from 1998.
scrapsfromtheloft.com/movies/inter...
Still considered the best adaptation of a Martin Beck novel, Bo Widerberg’s ‘The Man On The Roof’ (1976) is wonderfully grim, shifting effortlessly from stoic Nordic Noir into surreal spectacle. Some inspired perversity too (e.g a brutal murder shot from the killer’s p.o.v, gratuitous nudity…)
June 3, 2024 at 10:22 AM
Still considered the best adaptation of a Martin Beck novel, Bo Widerberg’s ‘The Man On The Roof’ (1976) is wonderfully grim, shifting effortlessly from stoic Nordic Noir into surreal spectacle. Some inspired perversity too (e.g a brutal murder shot from the killer’s p.o.v, gratuitous nudity…)
Great quote from ‘Difficult Men’ by Brett Martin, that illuminates a crucial difference between Premium TV shows that are regularly lumped together by critics as a single phenomena, but which are actually worlds apart in approach (from ‘Difficult Men’ by Brett Martin)
June 3, 2024 at 9:24 AM
Great quote from ‘Difficult Men’ by Brett Martin, that illuminates a crucial difference between Premium TV shows that are regularly lumped together by critics as a single phenomena, but which are actually worlds apart in approach (from ‘Difficult Men’ by Brett Martin)
The image of Delon in an oversized trench coat might evoke ‘La Samourai’, but ‘Tony Arzenta’ (1973) is a much more visceral watch - at one point Delon garrotes someone with barbed wire. Racing between European cities shrouded in 70s gloom, this is Eurocrime with a death wish. Grim fun!
May 27, 2024 at 10:35 PM
The image of Delon in an oversized trench coat might evoke ‘La Samourai’, but ‘Tony Arzenta’ (1973) is a much more visceral watch - at one point Delon garrotes someone with barbed wire. Racing between European cities shrouded in 70s gloom, this is Eurocrime with a death wish. Grim fun!
Penny Slinger’s ‘An Exorcism: A Romance’ is available again in a Deluxe new edition. Purchase online here: bit.ly/4bsE9tI
May 22, 2024 at 8:32 AM
Penny Slinger’s ‘An Exorcism: A Romance’ is available again in a Deluxe new edition. Purchase online here: bit.ly/4bsE9tI
Difficult to think of a film that demands a greater act of transgression from its hero than Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s ‘Who Can Kill a Child?’ (1976). One of the great 70s horror films, and probably a tougher watch now than upon its release.
May 18, 2024 at 3:01 PM
Difficult to think of a film that demands a greater act of transgression from its hero than Narciso Ibáñez Serrador’s ‘Who Can Kill a Child?’ (1976). One of the great 70s horror films, and probably a tougher watch now than upon its release.
“Do unto others as they do unto you - the rest is just conversation.”
Revisited Nic Roeg’s hypnotic & unhinged ‘Eureka’ (‘83). First 3 acts remain incendiary, w/ Gene Hackman giving 1 of his greatest performances. Inevitably, the 4th act wilts in his absence. So many great lines. So much mystery.
Revisited Nic Roeg’s hypnotic & unhinged ‘Eureka’ (‘83). First 3 acts remain incendiary, w/ Gene Hackman giving 1 of his greatest performances. Inevitably, the 4th act wilts in his absence. So many great lines. So much mystery.
May 18, 2024 at 2:57 PM
“Do unto others as they do unto you - the rest is just conversation.”
Revisited Nic Roeg’s hypnotic & unhinged ‘Eureka’ (‘83). First 3 acts remain incendiary, w/ Gene Hackman giving 1 of his greatest performances. Inevitably, the 4th act wilts in his absence. So many great lines. So much mystery.
Revisited Nic Roeg’s hypnotic & unhinged ‘Eureka’ (‘83). First 3 acts remain incendiary, w/ Gene Hackman giving 1 of his greatest performances. Inevitably, the 4th act wilts in his absence. So many great lines. So much mystery.
David Bowie on the NYC set of ‘The Hunger’ (1982), by Vinnie Zuffante.
April 27, 2024 at 7:01 AM
David Bowie on the NYC set of ‘The Hunger’ (1982), by Vinnie Zuffante.