By Paul Risker. “Every project is unique,” explained Enzo Cilenti who recently delved into the past to explore a tale of magic in the Industrial Age in the BBC’s adaptation of Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2015). Cilenti is no stranger to the small screen having appeared in Game […]
In Conversation with Cinematographers by David A. Ellis
July 28, 2015
In following up his 2011 book, Conversations with Cinematographers (Scarecrow Press), David A. Ellis presents his recently released In Conversation with Cinematographers (Rowman & Littlefield ISBN: 978-4422-5109-0; ebook: 978-14422-5110-6) which furthers the discussion with other practitioners of the often ignored trade. This collection of interviews with 23 cinematographers and camera operators, who have worked […]
Love at the Crossroads of Ethnic Conflict: Dalibor Matanic on The High Sun
July 27, 2015
By Amir Ganjavie. The brutal war that followed the disintegration of Yugoslavia and the hatred between Serbs and Croats have provided material for many Balkan filmmakers. Dalibor Matanic’s The High Sun, a fresh take on the subject from Croatia, is the first film from that country to participate at Cannes since 1991, […]
“We Who Live, Will Learn” – André Singer’s Night Will Fall on BFI DVD
July 26, 2015
By James Knight. During his legendary conversation with François Truffaut, Alfred Hitchcock remarked on the differences between feature and documentary filmmaking, stating that in documentary, god has already created all the elements for the director, whereas in feature filmmaking the director must essentially become his own god and create his […]
Men Who Save the World: an Interview with Producer, Sharon Gan
By Noah Charney. The first annual Kopedia Comedy Festival, held in the peaceful coastal town of Koper, Slovenia, a hybrid Italian-Germanic-Slavic port on the Adriatic, featured a special guest who, at least by Slovene standards, qualified as extremely exotic. Sharon Gan is a Malaysian producer, and had brought with her […]
Subversive Detection: Bruno Dumont on P’Tit Quinquin
July 25, 2015
By Paul Risker. The European continent shares an intimate connection to the detective archetype. Nordic shows The Killing (2007-2012), The Bridge (2011-) and Wallander (2005-2013), alongside the French double bill of Braquo (2009-2014) and Spiral (2005-) as well as Italy’s Inspector Montalbano (1999-2013) have over the past decade or so […]
Loach on DVD – The Spirit of ’45 and Loach at the BBC
July 24, 2015
By Tony Williams. Two years before the disastrous election in England that gave the Conservatives a majority to complete the Thatcher Revolution of the 1980s, The Spirit of ’45 appeared theatrically. This was Loach’s documentary on the stunning 1945 General Election that put the Labour Party into power reflecting a […]
Peter Bogdanovich: The Comedy Smuggler
By James Knight. This August will see the US theatrical release of She’s Funny That Way, the latest feature from Peter Bogdanovich. Since his directorial debut in 1968, Bogdanovich has been a man who has lived cinema to its fullest, experiencing everything the medium has to offer. He’s been a […]
Mise-en-scène and the Rebirth of Film
By Tom Silva. Film is a living thing and so it faces an unending series of deaths. Like the mythic hero in Joseph Campbell’s magisterial book The Hero of a Thousand Faces, if film is to experience a long survival, it must be continually reborn. As Campbell wrote, it requires […]
Fair Game: Democratic Principle in Hollywood Romances, from Tracy and Hepburn to the Present
By Robert K. Lightning. Lovers that demonstrate both spiritual affinity and spiritual equality have long been popular in middle-class entertainment. Repartee has often expressed that equality: one thinks of Shakespeare’s Beatrice and Benedict, Austen’s Emma and Knightley, Brontë’s Jane Eyre and Rochester. Romantic relations defined by repartee are inherently democratic, […]