Phantom Love on MySpace Films - New Films & Documenteries

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Phantom Love

		A Film by Nina Menkes Female 103 years old VENICE, CALIFORNIA United States Last Login: 3/10/2008

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MySpace URL:

www.myspace.com/phantomlovemovie

Phantom Love's Film Bio

Website	ninamenkes.com
Directors	Nina Menkes
Awards	BEST ARTISTIC ACHIEVEMENT: Bangkok Intn'l Film Festival 2007
Festivals	2007 Sundance Film Festival Cinevegas Locarno International Film Festival Edinburgh International Film Festival Athens Int’l Film Festival (with Menkes retrospective) Viennale Int’l Film Festival (with Menkes retrospective) Warsaw Int’l Film Festival Stockholm Int’l Film Festival San Diego Int’l Film Festival Flanders Int'l Film Fest, BELGIUM Valencia Int'l Film Fest, SPAIN Bangkok Int’l Film Festival REDCAT, Los Angeles MoMA, New York City Pune Int’l Film Fest, INDIA Prague Int’l Film Fest (with Menkes retrospective)
Professional Affiliations	DGA

Phantom Love's Interests

Groups:

Sundance Film Fest, Indie Filmmaker Forum, San Diego Film & Graphics, The War for Music

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Phantom Love's Details

Status:	Single
Zodiac Sign:	Cancer

Phantom Love's Companies

KNR Productions Venice, CA US
Menkesfilm Venice, CA US
Katapult Venice, CA US

Phantom Love's Films

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Films: 4

Total Plays: 5190

Plays Today: 0

Trailer

Run Time: 138

Plays: 1970
Comments: 2

Nitzan

Run Time: 67

Plays: 1160
Comments: 1

Lulu's Dream

Run Time: 70

Plays: 1203
Comments: 3

Snake

Run Time: 77

Plays: 857
Comments: 3

Phantom Love's Latest Blog Entry [Subscribe to this Blog]

Theatrical Premier in Chicago - Very Exciting!!!! (view more)

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Phantom Love's Blurbs

About me:
A surreal drama about a woman trapped within an enmeshed family. Shot primarily in Los Angeles, the film combines fairy-tale elements with brutal black and white photography to create a powerful testament about one woman's descent into Self.

Conceived and Directed by Nina Menkes. Produced by Kevin Ragsdale. Director of Photography Chris Soos. With Marina Shoif as Lulu and Juliette Marquis as Nitzan.

WORLD PREMIER at THE 2007 SUNDANCE FILM FESTVAL!!!!

"One of the year's Best Films"-- Robert Koehler, Variety

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Phantom Love's Friends Comments

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Charles Winecoff	Jan 10 2008 3:19 AM This looks like a masterpiece.
FILMSICK	Nov 21 2007 2:41 AM thankyou very much for posting my article in your website wish thai people can watch your another film soon !
nina menkes	Nov 3 2007 4:59 PM FROM: Maurice Spees, BANGKOK THAILAND I saw this film a week ago at the Bangkok Film Festival and I was impressed. Life is this spiritual journey, and there is where it starts, waking up dreaming! the film amazes me because I have been trough the same experience in my life. Constantly searching for a balance between work and nature's harmony. Because of the Netherlands economic mess, as a Video Artist, I ended up working as a croupier in a casino as well. Constantly in the dark (no windows), the same horrible lost people, and yes every day the same, life becomes a habit and you become an habitual animal, forget that you are truly alive. I tried to get people out of their in stead! You expressed this wonderfully, You really experience in it in your film in such a way that it irritates you, and every scene of nature is a harmonious way out of it! that is life exactly. As a croupier for 6 months I needed to get out of that black hole and flew to Thailand. Where I live ever since as a freelance FREE documentary maker and lives observer. I lived here now for 4 years and am completely free. let's all do that!!!! I live in the most beautiful part of thailand in the North. But love to observe the lost man in Bangkok, where I saw this film too.. I was impressed, the film is the experience! is the wake!!! Great expression of truth LOVE MAURICE SPEES
nina menkes	Sep 15 2007 2:20 PM Rotten Tomatoes' Critics Select!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Raindance Review If you've ever wondered what someone was thinking while engaged in routine sex then PHANTOM LOVE may just have the answer. That answer being - lots of things. In this strikingly handsome feature from American indie auteur Nina Menkes, Lulu, a strikingly beautiful 30-something croupier is often caught staring into space as her spectacularly selfish lover pumps away on top of her. We learn not only of her job at the casino in Koreatown, Los Angeles but of her strained relationship with her mother - a woman of non specified Eastern European origin. Her sister also appears to have problems - she's paranoid, medicated and into self harm. Thrown into the mix are images of a deeply troubled childhood. Everyday events unfold as breaking news blares out on TV with violent images ranging from explosions in Fallujah to scenes of US troops engaged in armed combat firmly anchoring the time line to the present. Menkes paints a harsh portrait of a young woman living in urban American - stressed out, put upon by those closest to her, sexually unfulfilled and hardly able to make sense of her own being. Nonetheless this is one of the most profoundly beautiful films of the year. Shot in black and white with a richly detailed sound design, abundant use of animal imagery and exotic locations, Menkes dips into the realms of the subconscious with consummate ease. Suzanne Ballantyne http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?aid=431
nina menkes	Sep 15 2007 2:12 PM Phantom Love * Publication: The List (Issue 583), UK * Date: 16 August 2007 * Written by: Paul Dale Phantom Love’s Unique spirit Nina Menkes has been described as one of the most provocative artists working in film today. Phantom Love lives up to the billing, finds Paul Dale One of the undoubted highlights of this year’s experimental Black Box strand is US filmmaker Nina Menkes’ black and white internationally roaming surreal familial drama Phantom Love. Menkes has been described as one of ‘the most provocative artists working in film today’ and has received high praise from filmmakers Gus Van Sant, Allison Anders and veteran critic Jonathan Rosenbaum among others. Of her new film she says, ‘It’s a surreal drama about a woman trapped within an enmeshed family. Shot primarily in Los Angeles [and India], the film combines fairytale elements with brutal black and white photography to create a powerful testament about one woman’s descent into Self.’ Among her influences, she says, are André Breton, Frida Kahlo, Robert Bresson, Max Ernst, Francis Bacon and Argentinean filmmaker Lisandro Alonso (Los Muertos, Fantasma). That’s quite some roll call. But, interestingly, Menkes considers herself first and foremost a commercial artist. ‘I always try to be commercial,’ she says. ‘But apparently the way I see things and experience things is very unconventional and consequently, since my films reflect my inner life, my films are considered unusual or avant garde.’ Watching Menkes’ films there is little doubt that hers is a remarkably fresh and challenging talent. Despite her evident aptitude for film, Menkes started out as a dancer. ‘As a teenager until around the age of 22 I was a serious dancer and my first film was about dance. I also was always into photography and spent thousands of hours in a darkroom printing my own photographs . . . when I found filmmaking these talents came together for me – movement, sound, interior worlds, photo
nina menkes	Sep 13 2007 2:45 PM PHANTOM LOVE is a Rotten Tomatoes' Critics Selection!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Short Synopsis A surreal drama about an alienated family set in Koreatown, Los Angeles and Rishikesh, India. Review If you've ever wondered what someone was thinking while engaged in routine sex then PHANTOM LOVE may just have the answer. That answer being - lots of things. In this strikingly handsome feature from American indie auteur Nina Menkes, Lulu, a strikingly beautiful 30-something croupier is often caught staring into space as her spectacularly selfish lover pumps away on top of her. We learn not only of her job at the casino in Koreatown, Los Angeles but of her strained relationship with her mother - a woman of non specified Eastern European origin. Her sister also appears to have problems - she's paranoid, medicated and into self harm. Thrown into the mix are images of a deeply troubled childhood. Everyday events unfold as breaking news blares out on TV with violent images ranging from explosions in Fallujah to scenes of US troops engaged in armed combat firmly anchoring the time line to the present. Menkes paints a harsh portrait of a young woman living in urban American - stressed out, put upon by those closest to her, sexually unfulfilled and hardly able to make sense of her own being. Nonetheless this is one of the most profoundly beautiful films of the year. Shot in black and white with a richly detailed sound design, abundant use of animal imagery and exotic locations, Menkes dips into the realms of the subconscious with consummate ease. Suzanne Ballantyne © 2006-2007 Raindance Festivals Ltd. All Rights Reserved. http://www.raindance.co.uk/site/index.php?aid=431
nina menkes	Aug 23 2007 7:08 PM Nina Menkes’ PHANTOM LOVE reviewed in EYE ON FILM By Chris Docker at the Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival FIVE STARS (highest rating) Nina Menkes' surrealist film, Phantom Love, starts without any hint of stillness. Black and white images. Beautifully framed. Body parts, moving back and forth. Like a mantra. Hypnotic. Are they moving, or are they being moved? (As might corpses swaying to the rolling motion of a train, for instance.) The camera pans back slightly. We see they are lovers. But the woman's eyes are distant. She gazes over his shoulder. Eventually, she closes them. Copy picture The long opening sequence has already put the viewer in a contemplative mood, in spite of its carnality. Lulu, the main protagonist, subsequently draws us into her self-observation. We travel down her psychological corridors to experience pain, then resolutions. Each shot is brilliantly composed in exquisite monochrome. Brutal police. TV footage of Iraq (does she know someone on a tour of duty or does the news just reflect her inner anger and frustration?). The woman silhouetted with her cat against the window. Using psychological symbols presents a filmmaker with a dilemma. Dismantle conventional linear narrative too much and the viewer can become perplexed or alienated: do it too subtly and they may miss the point. Bunuel's ants escaping from a hole in the hand (Un Chien Andalou) can seem off-putting or obscure. But a similar suggestion that decay is just beneath the surface in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later can easily be missed because audiences focus too much on the story. Directors like David Lynch (Mulholland Drive, Lost Highway) have helped wean audiences onto surrealism and the opportunities offered by cinema to explore subconscious worlds. Cinema-lovers who tire of formulaic films may find more interest in the challenges presented by works like Phantom Love. Menkes has two strong advantages. Firstly, her poetry is beautiful to watch. Any distres
Anthony T	Jun 20 2007 11:43 PM Thank you for adding me.
Rebecca	Jun 20 2007 3:26 AM Will your movie be playing anywhere in Los Angeles? It looks beautiful, and I would love to see it.
Judy	Jun 18 2007 3:18 PM Thanks for adding me!
SOULFUL ACTRESS	Jun 18 2007 5:25 AM Thanks for the add! Please view my link http://www.phylliswilliams1.exploretalent.com By the way, nice page!!!
Jafri Pictures	Jun 16 2007 1:34 AM Thanks for the add! Check out the trailer at my page and let me know what you think with a comment/rating, thanks!
tsion b.	May 17 2007 2:27 AM Hello!! We watched "The Bloody Child" In class yesterday, it was unlike any other film I've ever seen. IT's nice to see you on myspace!! Take Care!! XoX, Tsion
The 4th Dimension	May 13 2007 6:02 PM Welcome to the 4th.
nina menkes	May 11 2007 4:33 PM Unexpected Filiations The 26th Sundance Film Festival January 18-28, 2007 by Bérénice Reynaud Bérénice Reynaud is the author of New Chinas/New Cinemas (1999) and Hou Hsiao-hsien's A City of Sadness (2002). She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts. In spite of a creeping feeling that Sundance 2007 was not a great vintage, there were some really good films – albeit sprinkled in different sections. The inaugural edition of “New Frontier” – designed to “celebrate experimentation and the convergence of film in art as an emerging hotbed for new cinematic ideas” – attracted a lot of attention and was an interesting combo of offbeat narrative films from South Korea (Roh Gyeyong-Tae's The Last Dining Table), Denmark (Christoffer Boe's Off-Screen) and the USA (Anthony Hopkins's maiden directorial effort, Slipstream), an homage to French artist Pierre Huyghe, two experimental documentaries (Lynn Herschman's Strange Culture and Zidane: a 21st Century Portrait by artists Philippe Pareno and Douglas Gordon [see below]) – the line-up being crowned by the scintillating premiere of Nina Menkes's Phantom Love. Menkes' films revolve around what she once termed the “crazy bloody female center” (this is actually the title of a DVD compilation of her earlier work). In her films, an alienated female protagonist wrestles with inner demons while engaging in a metaphorical journey of self-discovery. She mixes surreal imageries and a plot (of sorts) that follows the inner logic of dreams with masterfully captured images of real, yet oppressive landscapes: a middle eastern desert in The Great Sadness of Zohara (1983); streets and dance halls of East Los Angeles in Magdalena Viraga (1986); the dry outskirts, seedy motels, dusty streets and casinos of Las Vegas in Queen of Diamonds (1991); the Mojave desert and the 29 Palms GI station in The Bloody Child (1996). Phantom Love continues, expands and enriches Menkes' themes and aesthetics – an
nina menkes	Apr 11 2007 1:34 AM With Phantom Love, Nina Menkes adds another masterwork to her extraordinary oeuvre. Its story of a woman’s trauma and healing is told, not with conspicuous special effects, but with a virtuosic use of fundamental film techniques: black and white 35mm photography, exquisite framing, and resonant sound design. It is a triumph of visual intelligence and aesthetic integrity. -- David E. James, Professor Critical Studies School of Cinema-Television University of Southern California
natashinka	Apr 1 2007 12:16 AM Voila--my review of Phantom Love, enjoy :-) MENKES’ PHANTOM LOVE Reviewed by Natasha Subramaniam Andrei Tarkovsky tells us that a teacher wrote the following about his film Mirror (1974): “The film itself lifts the spell of silence and enables one to free one’s spirit from the anxieties and trivia that weigh us down…showing the true, instead of the false, values of the world; making every object play a part; making every detail of the picture into a symbol; building up to a philosophical statement through an extraordinary economy of means; filling every frame with poetry and music.” (p. 11, Sculpting in Time) Thirty-three years later, this also describes the power of Nina Menkes’ new feature, Phantom Love. Combining the real and surreal in daring ways, the film blurs the distinctions between the two to tell the story of an alienated woman’s inner, spiritual awakening. Structured to reflect the main character, Lulu’s internal conflicts, one experiences Phantom Love the way one experiences life—going in and out of dreams and nightmares to assemble one’s own reality.
natashinka	Apr 1 2007 12:15 AM 2. The film merges human and animal worlds in with great focus and heart, mesmerizing us by a dream about a swimming Octopus, and imprinting in our memories other wise creatures like a clairvoyant Cat, mysterious Snake, swarm of Bees, magical Horses, and fragile Moth clinging to a lampshade. The black and white style symbolizes the transcendental approach of the film—primal, stripped to the bone, and made bare to take us deeper into Lulu’s story with light, shadow, and grain. Synthesizing documentary shooting with dream-like, fairytale imagery, Menkes roams through the psychic closets of her characters, and in the process asks us to do the same for ourselves. Phantom Love is pure cinema, reminiscent of the transformative films of Bergman, Antonioni, Cocteau, and Tarkovksy.
natashinka	Apr 1 2007 12:15 AM Part. 3 Tapping into the metronome of Lulu’s everyday encounters, Phantom Love plunges into its heroine’s subconscious to expose the narratives that strangle and trap her—narratives that concern the destructive aspects of Lulu’s relationship with her mother and sister, which consequently affect her ability to love and be loved. Few filmmakers have depicted mother/daughter and sister/sister dynamics with such depth. Nina Menkes artfully presents these relationships as intense ties, which are difficult to cut, impossible to erase, ridden with guilt, and are an endless cycle of resembling reflections. These internal struggles confront and relate to the images of war and destruction on Lulu’s television. The distance between Lulu and her TV begins to disappear as the film progresses, eventually culminating in a levitation sequence where Lulu’s body explodes, much like the bombs she sees devastating the Middle East. She floats above her bed then looks right at us through the film screen—asking us, if we too feel the same way. Directly following this chilling, but totally courageous moment, Lulu’s own nightmares are mirrored in the TV, with the image of a little girl running for her life in a vacant battleground. Phantom Love moves through darkness to find a light so strong it consumes the last frame of the film—we see visions of serenity, fluidity, and strength as Lulu begins her journey to a new, renewing place on the other side of a mystical bridge.
nina menkes	Mar 15 2007 4:04 PM March 8, 2007 LOS ANGELES TIMES by KEVIN THOMAS MOVIE REVIEW A surreal yearning in 'Phantom Love' Nina Menkes explores a woman's painful process of self-discovery. With "Phantom Love," Nina Menkes, long one of the most audacious and potent experimental filmmakers, continues her explorations of solitary women undergoing a painful process of self-discovery in an often surreal, fragmented world that mirrors the tumult and longing in their inner lives. Like its predecessors, "Phantom Love," screening Saturday at REDCAT as part of the "Where Did Our Love Go" film series, is shot superbly by cinematographer Chris Soos in rich black and white and follows one striking, evocative image with another. It's easy — and best — to yield to Menkes' powerfully seductive vision, which invites viewers to make intuitive connections. For all its surreal touches, "Phantom Love" is actually one of Los Angeles-based Menkes' most accessible works. "Phantom Love" opens with a sex scene in which a beautiful woman, Lulu (Marina Shoif) is clearly not getting any pleasure out of the single-minded, self-absorbed exertions of the young man (Bobby Naderi). Menkes returns periodically to scenes of this one-sided business; it is possible that Lulu's story is unfolding as a flashback, taking place in her memory while her lover pursues his strenuous efforts. Lulu's apartment, furnished with tasteful, traditional-style furniture, is in a splendid, old Spanish-style structure, and has a formality echoed in her elegant appearance: She favors dark gowns and glamorous makeup. Lulu, who speaks with a charming Russian accent, and her home seem from another era, but the brutality and chaos of the contemporary world are forever intruding. In her living room she often watches news of the war in Iraq, and the sounds of sirens and traffic disrupt her tranquil surroundings. In the street outside, police arrest a youth; a baby placed in a cardboard box is abandoned in an alley. Lulu's life is highly marginalized, divided by her time at home and at a casino where she works as a croupier. Lulu's imagination may yield such Freudian images as an immense python oozing down the hallway outside her apartment door, but gradually she is confronted with the real-life psychotic breakdown of her younger sister Nitzan (Juliette Marquis). Trying to deal with Nitzan and warding off their intrusive mother propels Lulu onto a path of self-liberation that Menkes expresses in an increasingly daring, surreal manner. It's not surprising that Menkes takes her motto from a Zen priest: "Make no provision for retreat." There's no turning back for Lulu in her interior odyssey or for Menkes in creating such a challenging yet luminous work. calendar@latimes.com Nina Menkes' 'Phantom Love' Where: REDCAT, at Walt Disney Concert Hall, 631 W. 2nd St., L.A. When: Saturday, 9:30 p.m., part of the "Where Did Our Love Go" film series running Friday through Sunday at REDCAT, associated with MOCA's "WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution"
nina menkes	Mar 8 2007 7:22 PM we're happy that the LA Times loves PHANTOM LOVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!--see two articles from today's LA TIMES Calendar Weekend. Hope to see you at REDCAT for our sneak preview and celebration Saturday night. Los Angeles Times – Thursday, March 08, 2007 “A serial risk-taker, Menkes never stumbles” by Kevin Thomas http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/cl-wk-menkes8mar08,0,7762996.story?coll=cl-movies Los Angeles Times – Thursday, March 08, 2007 “A surreal yearning in ‘Phantom’” by Kevin Thomas http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/
natashinka	Mar 8 2007 6:07 PM Read LA times Article on Phantom Love: http://www.calendarlive.com/movies/reviews/cl-wk-phantom8mar08,0,2448001.story
ORION	Mar 4 2007 9:23 PM How do I get tickets to the screening?
Miss Sassy	Feb 26 2007 3:35 PM Thanks for the add. This film looks really good. When will it be released on dvd?
natashinka	Jan 30 2007 4:49 AM PURE CINEMA!!! :-) a stunning, breathtaking movie

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