In any good film festival, one’s life flashes before one’s eyes. And the history of cinema. Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (KVIFF) is a good film festival. It is big enough to encompass a variety of things, both good and bad: some glitz, numerous middling new films, latest works from recognised auteurs, and a number [...]
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Bill Mousoulis
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Bill Mousoulis is the founding editor of Senses of Cinema. He is an Australian independent filmmaker now based in Europe.
Articles by Bill Mousoulis:
It’s not easy being Greek. As an outsider, I can see it in their faces, faces etched with struggle, pain, desire, hope. Of course, this is a cinematic panoply in itself, a drama “behind the scenes” playing out in various configurations, in a setting that is a veritable hotbed of forces (see Petro Alexiou’s report [...]
My first visit to this festival, I found the spa town setting most uninspiring: it was like a summer carnival – a river, food stalls, a rock stage, a techno tent, kids with balloons, teenage girls in shorts. I’m used to my festivals in cold urban settings! So it was a relief on most days [...]
Late 1960, Northern Greece: the Thessaloniki Film Festival is launched, and my father, aged 27, emigrates to Australia. Late 2009: the Thessaloniki festival celebrates its 50th edition, and I re-locate from Australia to Greece. As a cinephile living in Melbourne, for years I was enamoured with European film culture and festivals such as Cannes and [...]
9–25 June, 2006 Whether the glass is half-empty or half-full, let us be thankful that we can still drink. But let us also prod the barkeep to serve it up better next time. As a Melbournite, I cannot help but constantly compare the Sydney film festival to the Melbourne one. And it practically is “half” [...]
July 20–August 7, 2005 Question: Why did the film festival cross the road? Answer: Because it didn’t know how to go either left or right. In her report on the 52nd Melbourne International Film Festival two years back, Michelle Carey suggested that, for the future, MIFF “needs to trim the fat and truly think about [...]
What ails thee? A perennial question asked of Australian cinema. Independent filmmaker Bill Mousoulis submits his diagnosis.
June 7-21, 2002 For a list of the Festival’s award winners, click here. Curiously, the Sydney Film Festival has not spliced the word ‘International’ into its official designation, as have other Australian and overseas festivals in the last 15 years. For all intents and purposes, however, the Festival very much conforms to an international festival [...]
This interview was conducted on June 18, 2002. One of the two outstanding hallmark programs of this year’s Sydney Film Festival was, besides the extraordinary unforgettable Jean Eustache films, “Unseen Cinema: Early American Avant Garde Film 1893 –1941”. This four-part program (originally consisting of 20) was curated by the film archivist, curator and filmmaker Bruce Posner [...]
In one way or another, most teen stories are about what cultural theorists call the liminal experience: that intense, suspended moment between yesterday and tomorrow, between childhood and adulthood, between being a nobody and a somebody, when everything is in question, and anything is possible. – Adrian Martin (1) Especially for Hollywood, it is only [...]
(Robert Guédiguian, 1998) This unassuming film has reservoirs of riches that have transfixed me three times now. I saw it initially at last year’s Melbourne International Film Festival, and was immediately surprised and delighted by its sweetness and simplicity. A second viewing confirmed my feelings, but left me with doubts about its form. Now, third [...]
Following on from the French Film Festival held at the same venue (Como Cinema, Melbourne) a couple of months back, this Chinese Film Festival was presented. It seems to now be a growing trend, having these festivals of national cinemas. This festival attracted modest crowds, and the brochure presentation was not up to par (the [...]
Filmspeak The Films – Alan Clarke Retrospective The Films – Main Programme This year’s 2000 (as opposed to “47th”, according to most flyers, programmes, etc.) Sydney Film Festival took place between June 9-23. I attended from Melbourne, catching eight days (June 13-20) of the event. I’ve experienced the Sydney Film Festival (SFF) on only one [...]
June 9 – 23, 2000 As I write this, the Sydney Film Festival is a few days away from beginning. I have managed to catch one of the films to play at it, and here are my quick impressions of it: Away With Words Dir: Christopher Doyle Hong Kong/Japan 90 mins Well, I guess if [...]
This festival was held recently in Melbourne, and featured a dozen new features from Greece. Two reports filed here.
Rohmer’s editor of the past 10 or so years talks about the director’s unique working methods.
Mark Spratt, of Potential Films, distributor of Romance, talks about taking the film to the OFLC.
A look at the controversial film from 1975, a brilliant but horrible exposé of fascism and sadism. It is currently banned in Australia.
Asian cinema recently has been quite extraordinary – this is a quick report on this program that toured Australia recently.
Bresson’s cinema has been caricatured as “flat” – this author suggests that Bresson’s films explode with emotion.
A personal look at some of the more striking films of the previous decade, Iranian and French films highlighted.
An overview and discussion of the work of Greek-Australian film-makers, and whether the voice they speak with is inherently, deeply Hellenic.
