VPL/Hemisphere:58©

Paris 60 directed by Tony Sebastian Ukpo: Now available to watch for free is what was to become my first feature length film. My swan song film of sorts to the French New Wave films of the 1960s and particularly Jean-Luc Godard, who was and continues to be a great influence on me and my work. I say swan song, because I was going through a heavy period of making films of a similar style and feeling, and this was me trying to step back a bit from that and incorporate more of my own “voice”. I thought for a long time what to do with the film, and in the end, I think it’s now time to release it into the world, in the true spirit of JLG. I never made it with the intention of making money, or gaining any kind of fame, I just made it, to make it, with the hope that indeed some other people may enjoy it. It’s a very personal film, for various reasons, and I like it very much. I hope you do too.

Interesting trivia for those who may be interested.

- The film is called Paris 60, because that was the year and location that the French New Wave started to really take off in world cinema, and was the release year and primary filming location for JLG’s A Bout De Souffle.

- The film lasts exactly 60 minutes

- Is part fiction, part documentary

- There is a feature length prologue film that was made years before, that was ultimately never released

- Completed over a roughly 2 year period

Posted September 5, 2011 at 9:42am in paris 60, tony sebastian ukpo damien gajda beatrice brown vert vertigoheights film jlg cinema fr french new wave | 3 notes

Tout va bien: another JLG book added to my library. Mon chef…

Posted August 21, 2010 at 9:39pm in jlg jean-luc godard for ever godard book cinema french new wave

Alice’s Requiem - Trailer for a short film by T.S. Ukpo

Posted August 9, 2010 at 2:24pm in short film, vertigoheights tony sebastian ukpo alice's requiem trailer cinema 16mm emily lucienne

Top 50 Films of the decade

I’ve been asking myself for a while now, a good few years really, are there any contemporary film makers who we can really see as stand outs of their time? Have we really got people working today that we can see becoming as iconic as Kubrick, Hitchcock, Huston, Kurosawa, Powell and Pressburger, Fellini, Kieslowski? I was thinking primarily of film makers, actors and actresses too, who spawned out of the late 90’s who have started to create a body of work that will truly stand the test of time. My answer of course IS just that…time. Only with time will we be able to look back and really analyse and recognise the true stand outs in contemporary cinema.

2010 is here, and I think 10 years is a good timeframe on which we can reflect and see if there were any films that really hit the mark. Revolutionary in style, substance, conviction, content and originality. everyone has been asking and coming up with lists of the films of the decade, and it made me wonder what the stand outs of my last near decade were in cinema. I feel that whatever films make that list, have directors who are not only capable of making wonderful pieces of cinematic gold, but who are capable of doing so with a voice that is at once unique, and for the most part immediately recognisable. Of course I make no claim to be an authority on cinema, and can only hope to one day have my own work on lists such as this one, be they by critics, cinephiles or fellow cineastes. However I feel that as a film maker, I cannot help BUT consider what has come before me, what I have enjoyed, and sometimes what I might even aspire to. And the act of sharing lists such as these allows anyone who comes across it to have fond memories, or discover new films, or maybe to even heavily disagree with the titles that made an impression on me. But such is the weight of opinion. I find it very hard to have small lists. I couldn’t even begin to think about narrowing down this list to a top 10. It seems just about right to try and fill a top 50, though even then there are many films that could have made this list, or almost did. But I shall leave it organic, as there are a fair few films I missed in the new millenium, but for the most part these are the ones that struck me. And so, in no specific order, and all for different reasons:

Memento