R. Emmet Sweeney
@robert-emmet.bsky.social
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Kino Lorber / occasional film critic at oldnew.substack.com
pinned post!
I hard launched a Substack called Old New to get all these cursed thoughts out of my head:
oldnew.substack.com
8 months ago
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Excited to see the Predator enter the world of Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973)
about 13 hours ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
David Hudson
7 days ago
A Few Great Pumpkins
@reverseshot.bsky.social
; Wesley Morris,
@eshynes.bsky.social
, and
@robert-emmet.bsky.social
on more scary movies;
@fredmkaplan.bsky.social
+
@sshaviro.bsky.social
on Kathryn Bigelow; MUBI roundtable on Radu Jude … Did You See This?
www.criterion.com/current/post...
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With Baahubali back in theaters tomorrow, perhaps I can interest you in an interview with Makuta VFX's Pete Draper, who has worked on every SS Rajamouli film since Magadheera (2009):
filmmakermagazine.com/114153-inter...
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Makuta VFX’s Pete Draper on Working with RRR Director S.S. Rajamouli
The culmination of director S.S. Rajamouli’s bombastic use of visual effects, RRR is on its way to becoming the biggest Indian blockbuster of 2022. Starting with the vengeful CGI fly in Eega (2012)…
https://filmmakermagazine.com/114153-interview-makuta-vfx-pete-draper-rrr-s-s-rajamouli/
8 days ago
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a perfect album from 1989
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9 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
Boroughs of the Dead
9 days ago
"I detest the expression “horror film.” I make films on the supernatural and I make them because I believe it." – Jacques Tourneur
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My terrifying wife, the writer/ghost tour baron Andrea Janes -
@boroughsofthedead.bsky.social
- was interviewed about the hauntings at the Merchant's House Museum by ABC7 NY:
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At NYC's most-haunted house, long-dead residents won't give up the ghost
She thinks that a genuine love for the house might be what truly motivates Gertrude's ghost to hang around.
https://abc7ny.com/videoClip/18082621/
9 days ago
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I wrote about Jacques Tourneur's profoundly unsettling and uncertain Night of the Demon (1957), over at my Old New substack.
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Not a Superstitious Sucker: Night of the Demon (1957)
On Jacques Tourneur's profoundly unsettling horror film
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/not-a-superstitious-sucker-night
9 days ago
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Thanks to everyone who came out to this epochal event! Many children got to see a beautiful new 16mm print of Bruce Baillie's All My Life (1966).
add a skeleton here at some point
12 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
Turkey Mulder Bat Flip
14 days ago
Quite a detailed and loving tribute to an American original
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Alice has a message regarding our program tomorrow at
@lightindustry.bsky.social
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14 days ago
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Wrote about the late Ken Jacobs, who scared the fuck out of me as a teacher, freaked the fuck out of me as a filmmaker, and was a chill dude when we collaborated on the Ken Jacobs Collection Blu-ray:
oldnew.substack.com/p/a-wrenching-departure-ken-jacobs
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A Wrenching Departure: Ken Jacobs
On Ken Jacobs as a teacher and a colleague
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/a-wrenching-departure-ken-jacobs
14 days ago
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I wrote about the wrenching departure of filmmaker and film-undoer Ken Jacobs, who I knew as a teacher and a colleague:
oldnew.substack.com/p/a-wrenchin...
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A Wrenching Departure: Ken Jacobs
On Ken Jacobs as a teacher and a colleague
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/a-wrenching-departure-ken-jacobs
15 days ago
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Yes I'm into "gooning" (watching Seann William Scott in Goon (2011) and Goon: Last of the Enforcers (2017))
15 days ago
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Someone left this on my doorstep last night. The force is telling us that people need to buy the I'M "GEORGE LUCAS": A CONNOR RATLIFF STORY Blu-ray - out 11/18!
@connorratliff.bsky.social
@patrickcotnoir.bsky.social
Pre-order:
kinolorber.com/product/i-m-...
16 days ago
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In one week! Come hang.
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20 days ago
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Saw a Three Amigos and Heathcliff Movie double bill
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22 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
Blake Simons
22 days ago
A joy to speak with Nobuhiro Yamashita, Doona Bae, and James Iha about the legacy of LINDA LINDA LINDA, an underdog indie that continues to capture the hearts of new fans. For
@filmmakermagazine.com.web.brid.gy
filmmakermagazine.com/132226-oral-...
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Oral HIstory: Nobuhiro Yamashita, Doona Bae, and James Iha on “Linda Linda Linda” at 20
Nobuhiro Yamashita, Doona Bae, and James Iha on the making of their cult classic “Linda Linda Linda.”
https://filmmakermagazine.com/132226-oral-history-nobuhiro-yamashita-doona-bae-james-iha-linda-linda-linda-20/
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For my Old New substack I wrote about Edward L. Cahn's hypnotically beautiful past-life monster movie The She-Creature (1956) + a brief note on Ken Jacobs:
oldnew.substack.com/p/past-lives...
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Past Lives: The She-Creature (1956)
A brief note on Ken Jacobs and a longer note on Edward L. Cahn's hypnotic creature feature
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/past-lives-the-she-creature-1956
22 days ago
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An Introduction to the American Underground Film, by Sheldon Renan (1967)
22 days ago
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My remembrance of Tomonari Nishikawa is in the Fall issue of Millennium Film Journal:
millenniumfilmjournal.com/product/mfj-...
23 days ago
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My favorite generation-spanning action film about a revolutionary movement released in 2025 is, of course, Retro (dir. Karthik Subbaraj)
23 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
Nicolas Rapold
23 days ago
It was a special honor to speak with the great Jafar Panahi on the latest episode of The Last Thing I Saw (especially mindful of how this was impossible the last time I wrote about him). His riveting new film IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT opens today - see it!
podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/e...
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Ep. 355: Jafar Panahi on It Was Just an Accident
Podcast Episode · The Last Thing I Saw · 10/14/2025 · 29m
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/ep-355-jafar-panahi-on-it-was-just-an-accident/id1512801510?i=1000731839793
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Meredith Monk personally curated over 100 minutes of archival performance footage to include on the Monk in Pieces Blu-ray I am producing for
@kinolorber.com
. Out 11/25! Pre-order:
kinolorber.com/product/monk...
24 days ago
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Grateful to the Sabres for completely imploding three games into the season. I can now turn my attention to other things like this photo of Scott Adkins on the set of Bedlam (2026)
25 days ago
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Excited to present some brainrot at
@lightindustry.bsky.social
on 10/25 at 2pm with my daughter Alice. She picked YouTube memes and I joined them with experimental and silent shorts. Bring your kids!:
lightindustry.org/thechildrens...
25 days ago
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Alice in my Mets jacket from 1989
26 days ago
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That time Ken Jacobs wrote about The Polar Express for Film Comment:
www.filmcomment.com/blog/ken-jac...
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Ken Jacobs on The Polar Express, 3D, and Religion
Robert Zemeckis’s 2004 3D Santa-scape film yields a teachable moment
https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/ken-jacobs-on-the-polar-express-3d-and-religion/
29 days ago
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Congratsz to László Krasznahorkai for winning the Nobel Prize in Literature! In my 2012 interview with Béla Tarr he discusses their friendship and his decision to retire...
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Interview: Béla Tarr, the Complete Works
Béla's back: with the director announcing a new project, revisit his work with our career-spanning 2012 interview
https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/interview-bela-tarr-the-complete-works/
29 days ago
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My wife Andrea Janes is on the USA Today bestseller list, just above the constitution
30 days ago
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Vadim Rizov gets the full picture of Ken Jacobs in his memorial for
@filmmakermagazine.com.web.brid.gy
:
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Ken Jacobs (1933-2025)
Ken Jacobs wasn’t just a single (albeit huge) formative force in experimental film, but a river through which an array of streams flowed to their own artistic destinations. For New Yorkers…
https://filmmakermagazine.com/132155-obituary-ken-jacobs-1933-2025/
30 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
Sean Gilman
30 days ago
New for subscribers only, a look at a pair of Marko Zaror fight films. Affinity, in which he fights an army of drug dealers, and Diablo, in which he fights Scott Adkins.
www.thechinesecinema.com/affinity-bra...
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Affinity (Brandon Slagle, 2025) and Diablo (Ernesto Díaz Espinoza, 2025)
Two action films from Chilean icon Marko Zaror.
https://www.thechinesecinema.com/affinity-brandon-slagle-2025-and-diablo-ernesto-diaz-espinoza-2025/
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Was entranced by Rishab Shetty's modern fable Kantara (2022), and very much looking forward to the new (confusingly titled) prequel Kantara: A Legend - Chapter 1, which opened last week...
30 days ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
J Hoberman
about 1 month ago
That's me, July 1969, in Colorado where Ken somewhat improbably was teaching at the Aspen School of the Arts & I even less probably was his feckless 20-year-old assistant. I learned how to thread a Kalart Victor (& outside of class dropped acid & had the revelation that Everything is Now.) Thx Rob!
add a skeleton here at some point
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😎
@jhoberman.bsky.social
pic by Ken Jacobs
about 1 month ago
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"Ken Jacobs" by Art Spiegelman (2008, reprinted in Binghamton Babylon)
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
J Hoberman
about 1 month ago
www.villagevoice.com/witnessing-a...
The ultimate underground movie--a lyrical junkyard allegory annotated w chunks of mainly ’30s found footage. “A documentary showcase for the underdog’s spontaneous, uncontrolled fantasy” (Parker Tyler), desperately, despairingly beautiful, never more relevant.
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Made the family watch Orchard Street (1955). A crowd pleaser!
about 1 month ago
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It was one of the great honors of my life to have Ken Jacobs as a teacher, and then to work with him on releasing a Blu-ray collection of his work. One of the true geniuses of the cinema. RIP.
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
J Hoberman
about 1 month ago
Ken Jacobs (1933-2025) A great artist, a wonderful teacher, & speaking personally, a close friend for over 50 years. Linking to a piece I wrote to mark his 80th birthday.
www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/m...
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Translation of Eric Rohmer's first and only book out in July 2026:
www.mcnallyeditions.com/books/p/elis...
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Élisabeth — McNALLY EDITIONS
Éric Rohmer Foreword by André Aciman Translated from the French by Aaron Kerner Witty banter, lust, ennui, and an undercurrent of violence underlie a seemingly paradisiacal summer on the eve...
https://www.mcnallyeditions.com/books/p/elisabeth
about 1 month ago
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At the movies
about 1 month ago
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I interviewed internet personality
@willsloanesq.bsky.social
about his Ed Wood book over at my substack OLD NEW.
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Against the Grain: An Interview with Will Sloan about Ed Wood
Will revalues the "worst director of all time"
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/against-the-grain-an-interview-with
about 1 month ago
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It's been over a decade since Parker (2013), but somehow 2025 is Donald E. Westlake szn with 3 of his books adapted for film..directed by Shane Black (Play Dirty), Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice), and Duke Johnson (The Actor).
about 1 month ago
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Zaror is an inspiring independent film artist/action god. Enjoyed this peek into his process. Wrote a bit about Affinity in my Big Bad Film Fest coverage:
oldnew.substack.com/p/dtv-action...
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about 1 month ago
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🚨Out today from Andrea Janes &
@leannareneehieber.bsky.social
!🚨 Publisher's Weekly sez it's a "Spine-tingling investigation of ghostly mayhem and gory deeds." Buy a copy or I will be lock you inside a secret room in my fogbound mansion!
www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/781356...
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America’s Most Gothic by Leanna Renee Hieber, Andrea Janes: 9780806543741 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books
From the Bram Stoker nominated author team who penned A Haunted History of Invisible Women, the first book of its kind to investigate gothic tropes that define American lore. Here is the hidden, dark ...
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/781356/americas-most-gothic-by-leanna-renee-hieber-andrea-janes/
about 1 month ago
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reposted by
R. Emmet Sweeney
J Hoberman
about 1 month ago
mailchi.mp/filmcomment/...
Crashing into the zeitgeist against who-knows-what headwinds, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another is a kick-ass, madcap, antifascist action flick—imagine Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames on big-budget steroids, served over ICE... Not only tumultuous but funny.
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Henry Threadgill’s Listen Ship is out today via Pi Recordings - a 6 guitar-2 piano voyage through interstellar space. I wrote about the world premiere performance at the Long Play Festival earlier this year…https://oldnew.substack.com/p/with-ears-wide-open-long-play-festival
about 1 month ago
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Had an animated chat with
@nicolasrapold.bsky.social
about his brilliant new Miyazaki book, formative Ghibli moments, and totalitarian parakeets. It's over at my Old New substack:
oldnew.substack.com/p/flibberti-...
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Flibberti-Ghibli: Nicolas Rapold on The Worlds of Hayao Miyazaki
An interview with Nicolas Rapold on his new Miyazaki book, totalitarian parakeets, and the lonely life of pilots
https://oldnew.substack.com/p/flibberti-ghibli-nicolas-rapold-on
about 1 month ago
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A Working Man is the absolute nadir of Jason Statham's otherwise flawless filmography.
about 1 month ago
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RIP Claudia Cardinale Gebo and the Shadow (dir. Manoel de Oliveira, 2012)
about 1 month ago
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