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. Dolissa Medina’s beautiful 30-minute short The Crow Furnace is a film prose poem that blends archival footage, surreal narrative, and montage […]
Les Blank Chased Happiness: A Conversation with Harrod Blank
May 27, 2015
By Matthew Sorrento. Naming Criterion’s new DVD/Blu-ray collection of films by Les Blank (1935-2013) Always for Pleasure was a given. In borrowing the name of Blank’s 1978 documentary on New Orleans, the set contains that film and several others radiating the feeling. Though Blank is known for his works with […]
The 2015 San Francisco International Festival Report
May 27, 2015
By Mark James. Conceived in 1957 by film exhibitor Irving “Bud” Levin as a way to expose the locals to foreign film, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the oldest in the Americas. The 58th SFIFF will exhibit more than 180 films from 46 countries in its two-weeks. Noah Cowan, […]
The Agony of Woman in Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem
By Christopher Sharrett. Ronit and Shlomi Elkabetz’s Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem is a work of such staggering importance that its significance to its own culture (Israel), certainly relevant, is secondary to its challenge to the essentials of patriarchy, and all power systems within it. The most important art […]
Nothing Lost in Times Regained: On the Restored Apu Trilogy
May 25, 2015
By Paul Risker. Fifty-six years have passed since Satyajit Ray added Apur Sansar (The World of Apu, 1959) to Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road, 1955) and Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956) to create the series of films known as the Apu trilogy. In this passage of time the narrative […]
A Mind Went Black: Dark Star: H.R. Giger’s World (2014)
May 22, 2015
By Elias Savada. You may not recall who the 20th President of the United States was. Or the name of the British Prime Minister in 1980. But mention the name Hans Ruedi “HR” Giger and one word immediately comes to mind: Alien. As Dark Star: HR Gigers Welt (expanded in the subtitled […]
The Un-Dead Walks: The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared (2013)
May 22, 2015
By Elias Savada. “Being dead can have its advantages sometimes.” That’s just one of the translated pieces of tossed off dialogue delivered in this Scandinavian smorgasbord of a comedy. No, Hundraåringen som klev ut genom fönstret och försvann (The 100-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared), isn’t a […]
Berlinale 2015 Festival Report
May 21, 2015
By Yun-hua Chen. The 65th Berlinale celebrates two generations of German cinema, featuring Werner Herzog’s Queen of the Desert and Wim Wenders’ Every Thing Will be Fine, alongside Andreas Dresden’s Als Wir Träumten and Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria in the competition category. Jafar Panahi’s Taxi, made under extremely difficult circumstances, earned […]
“With Women Like You in the World…”: The Girl is in Trouble (2015)
May 20, 2015
By Jude Warne. The title of this thriller perhaps suggests all one needs to know about its plot, tone and perspective. A girl is in trouble. The girl here, Signe (Alicja Bachleda), is a stereotype of stereotypes, a beautiful but double-crossing Euro chick who gets physically and verbally abused by […]
The Pictures of a Lady: In Praise of Grace Kelly
May 18, 2015
By Daniel Garrett. Some old films have a special appeal. They might not be excellent or particularly beloved objects, and yet they have something that sustains our attention. When I saw Mogambo (1953), I found the love triangle in it interesting even as I recognized its familiarity: an honest rogue […]