A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. Deliberately described as a “provocative film scholar,” this prolific, self-educated expert in film, who has written more than 250 books in the area of popular culture, now turns his attention to a specific species of an audience he knows very well that he […]
Beyond Genre to the Other Arts: King Hu’s Dragon Inn (1967) from the Criterion Collection
July 18, 2018
By Tony Williams. For those really interested in the art of cinema, the achievements of King Hu (1932-1997) are comparable to others such as Bela Tarr and Andrei Tarkovsky – to name but a few. Yet, the achievements of this great Chinese-born director who left us far too early are […]
When War or Love Come: Berlinale 2018
By Martin Kudláč. For some time, Berlinale has been grooming its image as a political film festival. Its 2018 edition, which is its current director’s penultimate edition in charge as Dieter Kosslick is to step down after wrapping Berlinale 2019, having held the post and honing the festival since 2001. Immigration […]
The Lodgers: The Specter of History
By Alex Brannan. “Be in bed by midnight’s bell. Never let a stranger through your door. Never leave each other all alone.” These are the rules that define the lives of twin siblings Rachel (Charlotte Vega) and Edward (Bill Milner) in Brian O’Malley’s period horror The Lodgers. Orphaned after the tragic […]
Why the Neglect?: Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927)
July 16, 2018
By John W. Fawell. The following is an excerpt from Ernst Lubitsch’s The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg: the Art of Classic Hollywood, now available from Lexington Books/Rowman & Littlefield (all rights reserved). A reassessment of The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1927), it seems to me, has to begin with some reflection […]
Wake Up at the Back There! It’s Jimmy Edwards by Anthony Slide
A Book Review by Tony Williams. The name of Jimmy Edwards (1920-1988) may not be familiar to American audiences, let alone contemporary British ones, except for those tuning in to the “Talking Pictures” cable stations and others running archive film and television series that put many contemporary examples on broadcast […]
Connecting Posthumously: Ofir Raul Graizer on The Cakemaker
By Tom Ue. Israeli-born film director and video artist Ofir Raul Graizer lives and works in nexus of Berlin, Uckermark, and Jerusalem. In 2015, he co-directed with Teresita Ugarte the 15-minute narrative film “La Discotheque” in the project Chile Factory, which premiered at Cannes Director’s Fortnight. His first feature The […]
Film Scratches: A Stroll with Mickey and Marcel – Promenade Mythanalytique: Logotype, Parole & Empreinte (2017)
July 14, 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. Promenade Mythanalytique: Logotype, Parole & Empreinte is a 23 minute lecture/performance/animation tour de force by French artist Paul Jacques Yves Guilbert. […]
Illuminating the Bipartisan Problem: Kimberly Reed on Dark Money
By Travis Merchant. In today’s age of fake news, constant debates, and online videos that depict two sides arguing intensely, it is difficult to find something that everyone can agree on. One of those issues is the use of money within politics in campaign financing: this is the subject of […]
Reflecting Our Troubled Times: Barnaby Miller on S|T|R|A|Y|S
By Daniel Lindvall. S|T|R|A|Y|S, described by its makers as “a living graphic novel,” portrays a cross section of contemporary Londoners dealing with the effects of financial crisis and austerity. The characters are at once individuals and social types – banker, minimum wage worker, businessman, petit bourgeouis entrepreneur, et cetera. They […]