By Cleaver Patterson. At one point, about half way into Marguerite (2015), the drama by French writer/director Xavier Giannoli, singing teacher Atos Pezzini (Michel Fau) is trying, diplomatically, to describe his pupil Marguerite Dumont (Catherine Frot) to some of those who have assembled to hear her latest performance. Where Marguerite […]
Orlacs Hände: A Constant Dilemma
By Amy R. Handler. Reaching back to time’s beginnings, Orlacs Hände (1924) forever touched the future, but at what price? Robert Wiene’s cinematic interpretation of Maurice Renard’s Les Mains d’Orlac (1920), cannot be neatly labeled expressionist in spite of its creation near the end of Weimar’s expressionist movement. Certainly there […]
All the Fire: The use of sexual imagery as a way for attracting cinema audiences in 1950s America
By Anthony Uzarowski. The 1950s are often seen as the time of Hollywood’s greatest splendour, yet the reality of the time was plummeting cinema attendance, which by 1953 came to be half of what it had been in 1946. In the face of radical social and economic changes, as well […]
Crimson Glory: The Hidden Depths of Dario Argento’s Deep Red
March 29, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. Anyone taking it upon themselves to comment on a film by the master of the giallo thriller Dario Argento is, to some extent, staking their reputation as a critic and writer. No-one will ever get it one hundred per cent right. Aficionados of his work — of […]
Zootopia: A Modern Interpretation of a Fairy Tale
March 24, 2016
By Cleaver Patterson. Judy Hopps (Ginnifer Goodwin) is a young bunny with big ideas. Living in the rural town of Bunnyburrow her parents expect her to follow in the family tradition, growing and selling various fruit and vegetables. But Judy yearns to go to the fabled city of Zootopia, where […]
Cannibalized Chaos: Iago, The Joker and the “Good Sport” of Postmodernism
By Richmond B. Adams. During a conversation approximately one-third of the way through The Dark Knight (2008), Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) expresses to Alfred Pennyworth (Michael Caine) his view concerning the escalating rampages of The Joker (Heath Ledger) across Gotham City.[1] Wayne states that “Criminals aren’t complicated, Alfred. We just […]
A Conversation with Marco Berger
March 11, 2016
By Mark James. Argentinean director Marco Berger first gained notoriety for his 2009 Berlin Film Festival hit, Plan B—a film that explored modern gay romance in an ironically authentic Buenos Aires where nothing is as it appears on its surface. In the film Berger fuses genuine erotic suspense with romantic comedy […]
The 2016 DC Independent Film Festival
March 9, 2016
By Gary M. Kramer The DC Independent Film Festival, billed as “the oldest independent film festival in our nation’s capital,” started screening dozens of features, documentaries, shorts and animated films March 4-13. Here are some of the highlights from this year’s program. Train Station (March 10, 8:15pm) is an impressive […]
The Sentinel Excavated
By Christopher Sharrett. I use the word “excavated” in my title not because the 1977 horror film The Sentinel , directed by Michael Winner, is lost to film history, but because it has been buried – with some justification – by legitimate criticism worthy of respect. I will argue in […]
The Best and the Most Overrated of 2015
By Film International. The editors’ Top 10 and Overrated 10 include films that were released in the editors’ respective regions during 2015. They have been selected by Daniel Lindvall (editor-in-chief, based in Stockholm, Sweden), Jacob Mertens (review and festival editor, based in Madison, WI, USA) and Matthew Sorrento (interview and […]