By Ali Moosavi. Motamen has dabbled in many genres: noir, comedy, social-drama, romance, thriller. And even Dostoevsky.” Farzad Motamen is one of several Iranian directors who are well-known and respected in their homeland but remain largely unknown outside of Iran. Motamen is a self-confessed American B-Movie lover and fan of […]
Restoring History: Nikolai Izvolov on the 2021 Restoration of Dziga Vertov’s The History of the Civil War
By Tony Williams. Nikolai Izvolov discusses his restoration of Dziga Vertov’s The History of the Civil War in 2021. In his recent review essay, Williams described the restoration as an interesting re-discovery not only for its role as one of Vertov’s early works but also in depicting images of an historical […]
The Surprise of Genre-Blending: Laurent Larivière and Freya Mavor on À Propos de Joan (About Joan)
By Yun-hua Chen. [Blending of genres] was a desire of mine to surprise the viewer, so that the audience does not settle into something and know what’s going to happen.” Director Laurent Larivière’s second feature À Propos de Joan, premiered at the Berlinale Special Gala, is a French, German and […]
Cinema’s Theatrical Spaces: An Interview with George Toles
By Tanja Bresan. There has been a long history of degradation of theatre (especially evident in so much early film theory) in order to build cinema up, to prove its aesthetic worth…. Film often derives things from a similar theatrical space but the simple idea of my book is that […]
Visuals and Different Timelines: Filmmaker Grant Johnson on Agent Game
By Ali Moosavi. I think the 1970s was the golden age of cinema….I very much think that there are certain standards that 1970s established that still exist today and for good reason.” In the new conspiracy thriller/action movie Agent Game CIA officers Bill (Jason Isaacs), Harris (Dermot Mulroney) and Visser […]
Ghosts and Time-Travel in Laos: An Interview with Mattie Do on The Long Walk
By Yun-hua Chen. Every time we meet the standard expectation of what the film should be, or shouldn’t do, we kind of push it a little harder until it comes to this devastating end. I think a lot of people aren’t always prepared for it.” In The Long Walk, the […]
Bruce Willis: One-Day Wonder – An Interview with Edward Drake on Gasoline Alley
By Ali Moosavi. Pay [Bruce Willis] a million bucks for one or maximum two days work…. Though you may only have eight or nine minutes of useable footage, you follow certain rules: show [him] very early in the film, use him in as many locations as you can.” If you’ve […]
Of Matriarchs and Magic: Kate Dolan on You Are Not My Mother
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. I hate the use of “strong” as a constant descriptor for female characters, it feels so one-dimensional…. I just took inspiration from all the women I’ve known in my life and they can be strong, but also weak, they can be stubborn but also thoughtful.” It’s Samhain […]
Environmental Factors: An Interview with Filmmaker John Andreas Andersen on The Burning Sea
By Anees Aref. I wanted the environments to feel real and the people to feel real. As a director it’s a chance to take, because the audience is so used to seeing there has to be a bad guy, to create the classic conflict there has to be some idiot. […]
A “Spiritual Comedy”: An Interview with Jöns Jönsson on Axiom (Berlinale 2022)
By Yun-hua Chen. It’s always very hard to put these labels on films. It’s easier to come up with new labels that didn’t exist before, and that is why I call the film a spiritual comedy. There is humor in it. There are absurd and funny situations. And adding thriller? […]