By Gary M. Kramer. The 52nd New York Film Festival (September 25-October 12) showcased 30 features, 15 documentary spotlights, and two shorts programs along with revivals, avant-garde films, and other special events. Here is a rundown of some highlights from the fest. Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language assaults viewers with […]
Land of Hope (2012)
October 4, 2014
By Eija Niskanen. Sion Sono, Japanese cinema’s enfant terrible, has delved into the topic of the 2011 Northern Japan 3/11 triple disaster of earthquake, tsunami and nuclear power plant accident in two of his recent films, Himizu (2011) and Land of Hope/Kibo no kuni. Himizu, based on a manga by Minoru […]
BFI London Film Festival 2014: Festival Programme Launch
October 2, 2014
By Cleaver Patterson. Earlier last month saw the official programme launch for the London Film Festival 2014. To a packed house at the Odeon Leicester Square, BFI Chief Executive Amanda Nevill introduced the festival’s director, Clare Stewart, who went on to reveal a sample of the films which will show […]
Night Moves: Pessimism Running Deep
By Christopher Sharrett. Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves was one of the few films of the last season that deserved real recognition and got only a little; it was swamped, as per custom, by the usual blockbusters and played only in the cities and university towns. Reichardt is emerging as an […]
The 71st Annual Venice Film Festival
September 28, 2014
By Zhuo-Ning Su. The Venice Film Festival, the worldwide oldest festival celebrating cinema, ended its 71st run earlier this month (August 27- September 6). Traditionally ranked alongside Cannes and Berlin as one of the most important stops on the cinematic calendar, Venice has seen its profile in the festival world […]
Baseball on Acid: Jeffrey Radice on No No: A Dockumentary
By John Duncan Talbird. Jeffrey Radice’s No No: A Dockumentary about the life and career of African American baseball great Dock Ellis is currently in theaters. Nominated for the Grand Jury prize at Sundance, this is his directorial debut. He was executive producer for the award-winning short documentaries Mondo Ford, The […]
Phoenix (2014)
September 25, 2014
By Zhuo-Ning Su. Marking the sixth collaboration of what’s shaping up to be the most compelling and fruitful auteur-actor duo in modern German cinema, writer/director Christian Petzold’s Phoenix starring Nina Hoss is a well-realized drama with a singular concept soaring in its intellectual reach and emotional resonance. Set in a […]
Project Cancer: Ulay’s Journal from November to November
September 22, 2014
By Noah Charney. For performance artists, their bodies are the canvas on which to paint, the marble from which to sculpt. Some have pierced their bodies with pins, others with vicious hooks linked to chains from which they hang by their nearly-torn flesh, as in some grotesque fresco of martyrdom […]
Joseph Lawson, Genre Filmmaker: An Interview
September 22, 2014
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Joseph Lawson is an American filmmaker who is an unabashed special effects fan, action movie enthusiast, and utterly pragmatic about how films get made today in a rapaciously competitive environment. He’s a commercial filmmaker, working in Hollywood, making films as entertainment. Along the way, he’s getting […]
Sensing the Rhythms of Youth: Daniel Patrick Carbone on Hide Your Smiling Faces
September 21, 2014
By Paul Risker. Arguably the icon of onscreen childhood angst is Antoine Doinel (Jean-Pierre Léaud) in François Truffaut’s The 400 Blows (1959). His desperate gaze out to sea is one that is seared onto the cinematic consciousness. Fast-forward more than half a decade and Hide Your Smiling Faces (2013) sparks the […]