Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. Astrid’s Self-Portrait is Rena Riffel’s experimental feature about a woman obsessively documenting her own life. The opening of the film, labeled […]
Film Scratches: Conditioned Responses – Recent Short Work by Steven Lapcevic (2014-2018)
December 5, 2018
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. In the mesmerizing and terrifying worlds created by 3d animator Steven Lapcevic we’re all just puppets, hyper-conditioned by the media into […]
More than Rippin’ or Rascality: Jonah Hill’s Mid90s
By Brandon Konecny. “My visceral reaction when I hear someone is making a movie about skateboarding is…I wish they [sic] wouldn’t,” says professional skateboarder Rodney Mullen. And his remarks are understandable. Aside from maybe Larry Clark’s Kids (1995), skateboarding has never fared well in narrative cinema, usually serving as an […]
“Viewers Have Their Own Pace”: Christophe Charrier on Jonas
By Tom Ue. Much of contemporary crime fiction revolves around the search for resolution rather than solution. Some, such as Epix’s new television adaptation of Joël Dicker’s bestselling novel The Truth About the Harry Quebert Affair (2018), offers both. Christophe Charrier’s Jonas (also known as Boys) (2018) offers neither. The […]
Rebirth: Luca Guadagnino’s Suspiria
By Janine Gericke. In 1977, Italian horror legend Dario Argento released Suspiria – a seminal classic among horror fans and cinephiles. Luca Guadagnino, whose Call Me by Your Name won raves last year, has made a compelling albeit head-scratching homage to the original film. Taking place in 1977 Berlin, a young woman joins […]
There’s No Place Like Home: Revisiting Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (Criterion Collection)
December 3, 2018
By Jeremy Carr. In her essay for the Criterion Collection release of Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day, Moira Weigel opens with a roll call of the assorted characters who have appeared in the films of Rainer Werner Fassbinder: There is the cruel friend from Berlin Alexanderplatz, carrying himself like a […]
Announcing “Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers” by Geoffrey Mayer
December 1, 2018
Film International is pleased to welcome “Daredevils of the Red Circle and Other Cliffhangers,” a new blog on serials by Geoffrey Mayer. This blog will continue his work in his book Encyclopedia of American Film Serials (McFarland, 2017). Below Mayer discusses his book research and focus in upcoming entries. Serials seem so […]
Struggling Adrift: The Raft (Flotten)
By Daniel Lindvall. In May 1973 six women and five men set out from the Canary Islands to cross the Atlantic to Mexico in a twelve by seven metres large raft, the Acali. The ungainly vessel was made of wood, steel and glass, and equipped with a sail but no […]
Re-Working Hitchcock: Brian De Palma’s Sisters (Criterion Collection)
By Tony Williams. De Palma’s Sisters has long been overdue for a new 4K digital restoration that Criterion now supplies along with some significant supplementary material on the disk. The days have long gone when the director’s post-satirical films were dismissed by critics as mere Hitchcock copies in a manner […]
The Sweet, Swedish Smell of Fear: Border
November 25, 2018
By Elias Savada. Scandinavian folklore is home to dozens of curious creatures. Trolls, dwarves, and elves might be the ones most of us on the eastern side of the Atlantic Ocean recall on a regular basis. It’s a natural progression that movies and television have appropriated these supernatural beings, particularly in […]