By Jonathan Monovich. Where we’re headed is a nightmare…. our language is so corrupted on so many different levels that we basically can’t even have film criticism now…. The language that we use is largely under the control of the industry.” —Jonathan Rosenbaum Born into a family of movie theater […]
So You Think You’ve Seen Weird Docs?: Gary D. Rhodes on the Weirdumentary
By Roger Nygard. We yearn to know the secrets of our mind, whether its power can lead to telekinesis or precognition. We yearn to know what lies beyond, from the world of ghosts to the world of alien life forms….” –Gary D. Rhodes I remember how Hammer Film’s Five Million […]
Coming Out of the Soundtrack: Alexandros Voulgaris on They Come Out of Margo
By Yun-hua Chen. It started when I went to a concert by an artist who was quite similar to the one portrayed in the film. The whole experience of watching her on stage was very intense. So I began writing something based on that, and over these 11 years, the […]
Reading Between the Lines: An Interview with Biographer Carl Rollyson
By William Blick. I do not ask myself what information is available about a figure or would they cooperate. Rather, I ask myself, what is in my own experience or what do I think I know about this figure? What qualifies me to write about this person? That is what […]
Building a Mask: Luis Ortega on Kill the Jockey
By M. Sellers Johnson. How do you go through the scenes in life, with what face, with what attitude? It’s really something you can’t choose. You think you can choose but you can’t.” -Luis Ortega From perceptive newcomers like Tomás Gómez Bustillo to internationally regarded directors such as Lucretia Martel […]
Ben Model, Keeping Silent Movies Alive and Well
By Jeremy Carr. I realized that anything I had ever done related to silent film had just sort of handed itself to me, and I leaned into that….” —Ben Model Ben Model loves silent movies. In case it isn’t obvious by his live performances, online videos and podcasts, and the […]
Images and Conditions: Mohammad Rasoulof on The Seed of the Sacred Fig
By Yun-hua Chen. All the value of images—particularly those from social networks—is deeply tied to the circumstances in which the films are created. A film like this would have been entirely different had it emerged under different conditions.” —Mohammad Rasoulof A gripping and intensely charged drama, The Seed of the […]
Seventeen Now Isn’t What It Was: Durga Chew-Bose on Bonjour Tristesse (2024)
By Jonathan Monovich. I think going into anything with a deep respect for what came before is the best you can do.” –Durga Chew-Bose “Whatever happened to the teenage dream?” It’s a question attributed to a Marc Bolan song, though its sentiment remains eternal. Time fleets, as does youth, and […]
“I Try to Make Each Film Feel Like a Debut”: Can Evrenol on Saýara
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. The idea of making a truly dark revenge film at heart, in this day and age of global political-correctness-vs.-fascism, felt like the right thing to do (especially) if you are a true genre fan/filmmaker.” – Can Evrenol Going back at least to Metin Erksan’s classic The Well […]
It Lives! Andrew Repasky McElhinney on A Chronicle of Corpses at 25 Years
By William Blick. Aren’t all genre films structuralist in nature? Isn’t everyone either obeying or disobeying genre conventions?” –Andrew Repasky McElhinney At the turn of the millennium, the filmmaking industry was in flux. A wave of visionary film directors emerged to embrace new forms of cinematic expression. The horror film […]