By Jeremy Carr. Rainer Werner Fassbinder was particularly adept at transitioning between the cinema and television (and theater, for that matter), starting the crossover just a few films in to his prolific directorial career, with Das Kaffeehaus, a TV movie released in 1970. In 1972, already with a mind-boggling 14 titles […]
Unlovely Spectacle: D.A. Miller on Call Me By Your Name
By David Greven. An exchange I had with an older, straight, white academic in Film Studies serves as an instructive example of a particular phenomenon that I will call the Miller Effect. Hearing me express admiration for Ang Lee’s 2005 film Brokeback Mountain, which I consider a masterpiece, he stared […]
Marcel Pagnol’s “Marseille Trilogy”: An Essential Reemerges on Criterion
By Christopher Weedman. Among the most impressive film restorations of 2017 was Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy (1931-36), which I reviewed last March when Janus Films screened it theatrically in select US cities. Those not fortunate enough to live near such splendid art-house and independent film venues as the Film Forum […]
The Form and Function of a Cult Film: Deep Red by Alexia Kannas
A Book Review Essay by Jeremy Carr. Alexia Kannas’ Deep Red (Columbia University Press, 2017), her contribution to the Wallflower Press Cultographies series, in which she takes a deep dive into the making, reception, and legacy of Dario Argento’s 1975 giallo masterpiece, is an ideal meeting of author, subject, and publishing […]
White Micro-aggression Against Black Film: Awards and Why They Matter
January 30, 2018
By André Seewood. Every weekend numerous websites inform us of the short term box office grosses of various films like Star Wars: The Last Jedi which itself has raked in a whopping 591 million dollars in short-term office gross in this country alone. This notion of box office profit as the […]
“America First” or Second? – America Through a British Lens: Cinematic Portrayals 1930-2010 by James D. Stone
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Captain Hornsby: “What an extraordinary fellow!” Colonel Thompson: “Well, he’s an American.” – Too Late the Hero (Robert Aldrich, 1970) This book, which began life as a doctoral dissertation, represents the best attributes of McFarland Publishers in bringing to publication works that would generally be ignored by […]
Beyond Wishes: Bronson’s Loose Again!: On the Set with Charles Bronson by Paul Talbot
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. If Dr. Johnson had James Bosworth as his chronicler in the inimitable The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), so the departed star Charles Bronson is posthumously fortunate enough to have Paul Talbot. On the Set with Charles Bronson (BearManor, 2016) is an enlarged […]
The Enormous Gap Between Dream and Realization: Scenarios by Werner Herzog
January 8, 2018
A Book Review Essay by John Duncan Talbird. There are snowy peaks all around, majestic crests, and the mountains tower like Holy Cathedrals. Very clear, icy, silent air, frost lying on the hoary ground, all in deep, majestic silence. From the mountain crests, glacial tongues lick down into the depths. Clouds […]
More Than a Headrush: Frank Henenlotter’s Brain Damage (1988)
By Matthew Sorrento. Traditional readings of the film see it as a commentary on the damning nature of chemical dependency. While the theme’s presence is undeniable, the film also depicts the freeing and often empowering nature of stimulants.” After the release of his horror-comedy Re-Animator (1985), debuting filmmaker Stuart Gordon […]
Noir from the States to the Ilses: The Stranger and Appointment with Crime from Olive Films
By Tony Williams. 1946 was an “annus mirabilis” (“amazing year” for those who never studied Latin) for American, British film noir, and many of its international counterparts. Both appearing a year after the end of World War Two, The Stranger and Appointment with Crime were generic achievements in their own right […]