By Matthew Sorrento. In 2008, the Criterion Collection issued Anthony Mann’s The Furies (1950) with the restored film sleeved alongside the 1948 source novel by Niven Busch. The film will remain “lesser” Mann, with The Naked Spur (1951), The Man from Laramie (1955) and Man of the West (1958) as […]
The Passion of Life: Federico Fellini’s Il Bidone
September 14, 2014
By Robert Kenneth Dator. As with any truly influential director, Federico Fellini—simply, Fellini—has been talked to death. However, with so much talk generated through so much derivative thought, it is possible to perpetuate precept rather than forge original observation. So, let us come out from behind all the humanism, neo-realism, […]
Starred Up (2014)
September 9, 2014
By Sam Littman. Within the first fifteen minutes of David Mackenzie’s prison drama Starred Up, it becomes clear that the titular felon, 19-year old Eric Love (Jack O’Connell), belongs in prison, though in this case the offense that sent him to a Young Offender Institution and the misbehavior that caused […]
The Boxtrolls (2014)
September 5, 2014
By Cleaver Patterson. American-made animated films appear to have a fascination with middle European cities and architecture. Take The Boxtrolls for instance: the latest work from Laika Entertainment—the production company behind recent hits Coraline (2009) and Paranorman (2012)—has a predominance of gabled rooftops and twisting cobbled streets, which not only lends the […]
La Sirga (2013)
September 3, 2014
By James Teitelbaum. The armed conflict in Columbia has now been claiming lives for fifty years. The Columbian government has been battling several paramilitary organizations plus a handful of further guerrilla groups over everything from land reform to cocaine production. With those same guerrilla groups allegedly working for mafia drug […]
A House of Nightmares: Douglas Sirk’s Sleep, My Love
August 28, 2014
By Jeremy Carr. Sleep, My Love begins with a nightmarish state of panic as Alison Courtland (Claudette Colbert) wakes to find herself inexplicably on a Boston-bound train. She doesn’t remember boarding the train. In fact, the last thing she recalls is going to sleep in her New York City home. […]
Sleepwalker (1984)
August 25, 2014
By Janine Gericke. Saxon Logan’s 1984 film Sleepwalker was once thought to be lost. Distributors weren’t sure how to market and sell the film; so instead, it ended up on a shelf for nearly 30 years. Finally, BFI Flipside have not only restored the film for a DVD/Blu-ray release, but […]
Love is Strange (2014)
August 20, 2014
By Mark James. Love is strange, and so is the real estate market these days, especially in New York. Love’s form can change along with the place and the people that house it. And so Love is Strange—director Ira Sachs’ and screenwriter Mauricio Zacharias’s second installment in a New York […]
Consumed: David Cronenberg’s Foray into Body Horror Prose
August 18, 2014
A Book Review by Shane Joaquin Jimenez. The Nest (2014), the latest film by David Cronenberg, is comprised of a single unbroken GoPro shot. A topless woman sits on an examination table in a dungeon-like basement, pleading for a mastectomy. Her left breast, she says, is filled with a swarm […]
The Varieties of Experience: Michel Gondry’s Mood Indigo
August 16, 2014
By Paul Risker. In my review of Alive Inside for Film International, the idea arose that the act of explaining one’s love of a piece of music undermines the intimate bond formed between person and art. Now whilst discussion may not undermine any intimate bond formed in this case between […]