By Michael Miller. The 14th Tribeca Film Festival unspooled April 15-26 at multiple venues in Manhattan. Notable this year is the fest’s major presence in the Financial District downtown; a very short walk from the World Trade Center memorial site. Ten screens were in use at the Regal Battery Park […]
The 2015 San Francisco International Festival Report
May 27, 2015
By Mark James. Conceived in 1957 by film exhibitor Irving “Bud” Levin as a way to expose the locals to foreign film, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest in the Americas. The 58th SFIFF will exhibit more than 180 films from 46 countries in its two-weeks. Noah Cowan, […]
The Agony of Woman in Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
By Christopher Sharrett. Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is a work of such staggering importance that its significance to its own culture (Israel), certainly relevant, is secondary to its challenge to the essentials of patriarchy, and all power systems within it. The most important art […]
Berlinale 2015 Festival Report
May 21, 2015
By Yun-hua Chen. The 65th Berlinale celebrates two generations of German cinema, featuring Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert and Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will be Fine, alongside Andreas Dresden’s Als Wir Träumten and Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria in the competition category. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, made under extremely difficult circumstances, earned […]
The Pictures of a Lady: In Praise of Grace Kelly
May 18, 2015
By Daniel Garrett. Some old films have a special appeal. They might not be excellent or particularly beloved objects, and yet they have something that sustains our attention. When I saw Mogambo (1953), I found the love triangle in it interesting even as I recognized its familiarity: an honest rogue […]
The 34th Istanbul Film Festival: Marked with Solidarity Against Censorship and the Void Left by Cancelled Competitions
May 17, 2015
By N. Buket Cengiz. It was the festival fever once again heralding the coming of spring in Istanbul when the 34th Istanbul Film Festival started on the 3rd of April with great energy as always. Even richer this year with the addition of the National Documentary Competition to its longtime […]
Ex Machina: Woman Abused (to Small Concern)
May 11, 2015
By Christopher Sharrett. Alex Garland’s Ex Machina (some radio announcers have said “ex masheena”—one wonders if anyone knows Athenian drama, and the particular reasons behind theater’s use of the god from the machine) seems to be the must-see sci-fi film of the season, based on comments by newspaper and Internet reviewers. […]
The 65th Annual Berlinale Film Festival
May 11, 2015
By Zhuo-Ning Su. The Berlin International Film Festival—or the “Berlinale”—celebrated its 65th edition earlier this year (Feb. 5- 15). Locked in bitter, continental weather with little sunshine and no palm trees, Berlin is no match for Cannes both in terms of glamour and prestige. In the past decade, the growing […]
Sean Mewshaw and Desi Van Til’s Tumbledown: A Tribeca Interview
May 5, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. Tumbledown, directed and written, respectively, by the husband and wife team of Sean Mewshaw and Desi Van Til, premiered at this year’s Tribeca Film Festival. The film has Hannah (Rebecca Hall) meeting cute with Andrew (Jason Sudeikis) who wants to write a book about the former’s […]
Tribeca 2015 Festival Report
May 5, 2015
By Gary M. Kramer. This year’s Tribeca Film Festival provided a showcase for a pair of fascinating documentaries and a quartet of intriguing genre films. Here are reviews for a half-dozen films from the fest. Uncertain, which earned directors Anna Sandilands and Ewan McNicol the Albert Maysles New Documentary Director […]