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Surprise! Legendary director Barbet Schroeder, in Locarno to introduce his latest doc “Ricardo and Painting,” was greeted with a Special Tribute Award before the screening.

“Is this for the film?” Shroeder, a modest man, asked on stage. “No,” said Locarno festival director Giona Nazzaro. “It’s for being Barbet Schroeder.”

Despite focusing on harsher subjects in his previous documentaries, “General Idi Amin Dada: A Self Portrait,” “Terror’s Advocate” or “The Venerable W.,” this time Schroeder decided to follow painter Ricardo Cavallo.

“I have already done my ‘Trilogy of Evil.’ I could continue: the world is full of bad people. But then there was this friend of mine, who I thought was such a good person,” he tells Variety.

Cavallo, convinced that “true life exists in creation,” could teach anyone how to change their way of seeing, claims Schroeder, sacrificing everything for his art.

“I am always interested in my characters,...

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a precedent! Barbet Schroeder’s documentary gets up close and personal with a narcissistic dictator consumed by his own ego. Idi Amin rants and raves incoherently and demands to be the center of all attention while taking his country down a road to ruin. This is Africa in 1973, where Uganda has been converted into ‘The Idi Amin Reality Show’ — and where a minion in disfavor might be fed to the crocodiles.

General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait

Blu-ray

The Criterion Collection 153

1974 / Color / 1:37 flat Academy / 90 min. / Général Idi Amin Dada: Autoportrait / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date December 12, 2017 / 39.95

Starring: Idi Amin

Cinematography: Néstor Almendros

Film Editor: Denise de Casabianca

Original Music: Idi Amin

Produced by Jean-Francois Chauvel, Charles-Henri Favrod and Jean-Pierre Rassam

Written and Directed by Barbet Schroeder

Criterion’s decision to bump Barbet Schroeder’s daring 1970s documentary to Blu-ray at this...

When attempting to parse the root causes of religious extremism, a common argument in western discourse involves not only pointing to Islam as an inherently violent ideology, but to Buddhism as its polar opposite; a dogma so rooted in peace and non-violence that it could not possibly result in terror. Of course, these arguments are rarely in good faith, and they are un-attuned to the full scope of the global refugee crisis and its long, macabre history. The Rohingya displacement in Myanmar has seldom touched their borders. Such is the limitation of the western lens, but it’s a lens that French director Barbet Schroeder puts to tremendous use in The Venerable W., a chronicle of our modern extremist and “fake news” climate delivered in a highly concentrated dose, so much so that its New York Film Festival screening had to be prefaced by the short film What Are You Up to,...

This intimate documentary on Ashin Wirathu, the Buddhist fanatic whose ideas have brought down Aung Sun Suu Kyi, is a bleak study of sectarianism by Barbet Schroeder

Barbet Schroeder’s overpoweringly bleak documentary about the Buddhist monk stirring up ethnic hate against Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslims is the third in what has now emerged as his “trilogy of evil” – a trio of disquieting documentaries of which the first two were General Idi Amin Dada in 1974 and Terror’s Advocate in 2007 about the genial, cigar-smoking Jacques Vergès, lawyer for Klaus Barbie.

The Venerable W delivers a nauseous, almost black-comic jab at any liberal who fondly believed that Buddhism and Buddhists somehow float ethereally free of the sectarianism and bigotry that infect any other religion. And it also emerges as a devastating indictment of someone who is not its subject and appears only briefly: Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader who is...

For the holiday season this year, the Criterion Collection is offering an unusual mixture of films. Alexander Payne's Election is the outstanding narrative film among the bunch; this edition features a restored 4K digital transfer, as well as new interviews with Payne and Reese Witherspoon. Documentaries will also demand attention. Barbet Schroeder's General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait dates back to 1974. It's described as "an unsettling encounter with the murderous, charismatic Ugandan dictator." Criterion's edition features a new, restored 2K digital transfer; the film will be available on Blu-ray for the first time. A trio of music docs are gathered together in the box set The Complete Monterey Pop Festival. That will include D. A. Pennebaker's concert films Monterey Pop, in a new 4K...

[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...

The Criterion Collection has unveiled its holiday slate, with “Election” leading the list of titles being released this December. Joining Alexander Payne’s classic in the Collection are a new digital transfer of Barbet Schroeder’s documentary “General Idi Amin Dada: A Self-Portrait,” “The Complete Monterey Pop Festival,” and the previously announced “100 Years of Olympic Films 1912-2012.” More information — and, just as importantly, cover art — below:

Read More:Criterion Collection Announces November Titles, Including Seminal Lesbian Drama ‘Desert Hearts’ and ‘The Philadelphia Story’

“Election”

“Perky, overachieving Tracy Flick (Reese Witherspoon) gets on the nerves of history teacher Jim McAllister (Matthew Broderick) to begin with, but after she launches her campaign for high-school president and his personal life starts to fall apart, things spiral out of control. In Alexander Payne’s satire ‘Election,’ the teacher becomes unhealthily obsessed with cutting his student down to size, covertly backing a spoiler candidate to...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options — not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves — we’ve taken it upon ourselves to highlight the titles that have recently hit platforms. Every week, one will be able to see the cream of the crop (or perhaps some simply interesting picks) of streaming titles (new and old) across platforms such as Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, and more (note: U.S. only). Check out our rundown for this week’s selections below.

The Big Sick (Michael Showalter)

From start to finish, The Big Sick, directed by Michael Showalter, works as a lovingly-rendered, cinematic answer to the dinner party question: “So how did you two meet?” Based on comedian Kumail Nanjiani‘s real life (he co-wrote the screenplay with his wife Emily V. Gordon), we meet Kumail (Nanjiani) as he finishes a stand-up set in Chicago. He becomes fast friends with a...

The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.

Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.

Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist Gay Talese...

The 55th New York Film Festival will debut a starry roster of documentaries featuring giants of the art and literary worlds as well as Alex Gibney’s postponed “No Stone Unturned,” a critical investigation into the 1994 Loughinisland massacre in Ireland, which was pulled from Tribeca in April.

Other new works include films from directors Abel Ferrara, Sara Driver, Nancy Buirski, Mathieu Amalric, and Barbet Schroeder; Vanessa Redgrave’s directorial debut “Sea Sorrow,” which played at Cannes; and films featuring Joan Didion, Arthur Miller, Gay Talese, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Jane Goodall, plus stories about racism, American immigration, and the global refugee crisis.

Three documentaries spotlight acclaimed writers, including the world premiere of Griffin Dunne’s “Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold,” returning Nyff filmmaker Rebecca Miller’s tender portrait of her father, “Arthur Miller: Writer,” and the World Premiere of Myles Kane and Josh Koury’s “Voyeur,” tracking journalist...

Those who believe that all Buddhists respect their religion's core principles of peace and tolerance should take a look at The Venerable W (Le Venerable W), director Barbet Schroeder’s eye-opening chronicle of one Burmese monk’s long campaign of racism and violence against his country’s minority Muslim population.

The third part in a “trilogy of evil” that began in 1974 with General Idi Amin Dada and continued in 2007 with a look at the controversial French lawyer Jacques Verges in Terror’s Advocate, this scathing portrait gets up close and personal with Ashin Wirathu, the self-appointed spiritual leader of Myanmar’s anti-Muslim crusade.

...

Exclusive: Doc tells the story of controversial Buddhist monk the Venerable Wirathu.

The first English language trailer for Barbet Schroeder’s documentary The Venerable W., which premieres at the Cannes Film Festival (18-27 May), has been released.

Watch it below or on mobile Here.

The subject of the film is the Venerable Wirathu, a highly respected and influential Buddhist monk who has been accused of inspiring persecution of Muslims in his native Burma.

Wirathu was on the cover of Time magazine in 2013 as “The Face of Buddhist Terror”.

The Venerable W. is the third chapter in director Barbet Schroeder’s ‘trilogy of evil’ (alongside General Amin and Terror’s Advocate).

The film will have a special screening at Cannes. Les Films du Losange are handling international sales.

The producers are Margaret Menegoz (Les Films du Losange) and Lionel Baier (Bande à Part).

Read more:

Cannes 2017: Directors’ Fortnight line-up

Cannes 2017: Official Selection in full

Cannes 2017: Critics...

All week long our writers will debate: Which was the greatest film year of the past half century.  Click here for a complete list of our essays. I was one of the first to select years for this particular exercise, which probably allowed me to select the correct year. The answer is, of course, 1974 and all other answers are wrong. No matter what your criteria happens to be, 1974 is going to come out on top. Again, this is not ambiguous or open to debate. We have to start, of course, with the best of the best. "Chinatown" is one of the greatest movies ever made. You can't structure a thriller better than Robert Towne and Roman Polanski do, nor shoot a Los Angeles movie better than John Alonzo has done. Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway give the best performances of their careers, which is no small achievement. If you ask...

Today in history... August 16th, 2003, Idi Amin Dada, the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, died in Saudi Arabia, where he'd been living in exile since 1979. As far as onscreen depictions of Amin, Many of you are likely most familiar with Forest Whitaker's interpretation of Amin, in the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland, for which he earned an Academy Award. But if I may instead/also direct your attention to director Barbet Schroeder's 1974 documentary on Amin, titled, General Idi Amin Dada, made while he was very much at the height of his power. Schroeder was given unprecedented access to the dictator, who was influential in...

As America anticipates the first general election Presidential debate of 2012 tonight, it’s clear that there’s one thing on everyone’s mind: what does The Criterion Collection have to say about American politics at the executive level? The Collection certainly has a multitude of world leader’s represented, from Idi Amin in Barbet Schroder’s General Idi Amin Dada (1974) to Ivan the Terrible in Sergei Eisenstein’s two-part masterpiece of the same name. But Criterion also has three of the best movies made about real and fictional 20th century American Presidents and Presidential candidates… #602: The War Room (1993) The cinema verite documentary more or less began in the field of Presidential politics with Robert Drew’s Primary (1960), a film that chronicled the Wisconsin Democratic primary battle between John F. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey. It was a fly-on-the-wall’s-eye-view of presidential politics, and revealed the exhausting process of campaigning between hands shaken and speeches given. More...

Today in history… April 11, 1979, Idi Amin Dada, the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, is deposed, as rebels in exile backed by Tanzanian forces seize control of the country. Several hundred thousand people are believed to have been killed during his brutal 8 year regime. Amin died August 16th, 2003, in Saudi Arabia, where he’d been living in exile since 1979.

Most are likely familiar with Forest Whitaker’s interpretation of Amin, in the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland, for which he earned an Academy Award.

But if I may instead/also direct your attention to director Barbet Schroeder’s 1974 documentary on Amin, titled, General Idi Amin Dada, made while he was very much at the height of his power. Schroeder was given unprecedented access to the dictator, who was influential in the making of the film, but it’s far from propaganda material.

It’s worth reading up...

Today in history… February 2nd, 1971, Idi Amin Dada, the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, seized power in Uganda. Several hundred thousand people are believed to have been killed during his brutal 8 year regime. Amin died August 16th, 2003, in Saudi Arabia, where he’d been living in exile since 1979.

Most are likely familiar with Forest Whitaker’s interpretation of Amin, in the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland, for which he earned an Academy Award.

But if I may instead/also direct your attention to director Barbet Schroeder’s 1974 documentary on Amin, titled, General Idi Amin Dada, made while he was very much at the height of his power. Schroeder was given unprecedented access to the dictator, who was influential in the making of the film, but it’s far from propaganda material.

It’s worth reading up on how the project came together. The Criterion Collection blog...

[Update 8/27/10 - I went back to InstantWatcher.com to check on the status of upcoming expiring Criterion films, and it appears that this entire list has disappeared from their listings. I checked on a few of the titles, and it looks like their streaming end dates have been extended! I will be updating this post later, with the correct dates, but it looks like something happened between this post going up, and now.]

Some sad news to report, on the streaming side of things today. I just learned, via the excellent website InstantWatcher.com, that more than a few Criterion Collection films will be expiring from Netflix’s Watch Instantly service on September 22nd.

In total, 66 films from the Criterion Collection will be removed from the line-up, but don’t go canceling your account just yet. Over the past year, on several monthly occasions, a number of Criterion films were added, allowing viewers to stream some of the best titles that Criterion had at their disposal. Netflix has never claimed that everything on Watch Instantly would last forever, and there may be a number of reasons why these titles are going away. Some theories I’m kicking around:

Criterion and Netflix set up a deal, and that deal is coming to an end. Pretty simple. Criterion may be looking at moving more of these titles to Hulu,...

Today in history… Idi Amin Dada, the military dictator and President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979, died August 16th, 2003, in Saudi Arabia, where he’d been living in exile since 1979. Most are likely most familiar with Forest Whitaker’s interpretation of Amin, in the 2006 film, The Last King of Scotland, for which he earned an Academy Award.

But if I may instead/also direct your attention to director Barbet Schroeder’s 1974 documentary on Amin, titled, General Idi Amin Dada, made while he was very much at the height of his power. Schroeder was given unprecedented access to the dictator, who was influential in the making of the film, but it’s far from propaganda material.

It’s worth reading up on how the project came together. The Criterion Collection blog has an essay on the film which you can read Here, before or after you watch the full 90-minute documentary, which...

What constitutes a remake of a documentary? Would you consider Milk to be based on The Times of Harvey Milk? Rob Epstein, who directed the latter, was thanked in the credits of the former and his film was surely an inspiration. His footage was even lifted or recreated for parts of Gus Van Sant's dramatized version. But Milk was ultimately deemed an original work, at least as far as the Academy Awards are concerned.

If you were to argue the case that the biopic is based on the documentary, where then would you draw the line? Is Monster based on Nick Broomfield's first Aileen Wuornos film (he too is thanked)? Is part of Munich based on One Day in September? And speaking of films by Kevin Macdonald, is The Last King of Scotland at all a remake of Barbet Schroeder's General Idi Amin Dada? It does feature footage from the doc,...