By Giuseppe Sedia. To certain a degree Bullet Ballet (1998) represents a dividing line in Shin’ya Tsukamoto’s cinematic career that shifted once and for all from film to digital after he entered into his forties. This was certainly a distressing but inevitable transition for the cineaste whose cult arose thanks […]
Child’s Pose: The Limits of the Awful Mother
May 26, 2014
By Christopher Sharrett. Gwendolyn Audrey Foster offers on this site a larger account of Călin Peter Netzer’s Child’s Pose than what follows here. I saw a Region 1 DVD of this film; it is impressive in many respects, yet not as accomplished, to my mind, as some of the exemplary […]
Tribeca 2014 Festival Report
May 23, 2014
By Michael Miller. At this year’s Tribeca Film Festival several films—both narrative features and documentaries—probed the theme of masculinity from different perspectives. In the buddy film Land Ho! (directed by Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz), Mitch (Earl Lynn Nelson) and Colin (Paul Eenhoorn) are two retired guys each trying to make […]
First Fruits of Inspiration: The Films of Wheeler Winston Dixon
By Matthew Sorrento. Here at Film International, we’re honored to have the hardest working man in film culture as a regular contributor. Since taking up film history, theory, and criticism in 1984, Wheeler Winston Dixon has authored and edited over 30 book-length works, on titles ranging from the criticism of […]
Yes, but it’s not cinema
May 20, 2014
By James Knight. It’s been thirty-two years since Wim Wenders shot Room 666 in a hotel room at the 1982 Cannes Film Festival. What concerned Wenders at the time was the future state of cinema, and primarily, cinema’s relationship with television. The film featured several well-known directors alone in a […]
Oskar Fischinger 1900-1967: Experiments in Cinematic Abstraction (2013)
May 20, 2014
A Book Review by Brandon Konecny. It’s a shame that Oskar Fischinger hasn’t found his way into more literature on avant-garde cinema. Apart from the late William Moritz’s immaculately researched Optical Poetry: The Life and Work of Oskar Fischinger (2004), he remains a figure who’s often referenced along with a […]
The 33rd International Istanbul Film Festival
May 19, 2014
By N. Buket Cengiz. The 33rd International Istanbul Film Festival was held between April 5th and April 20th, 2014. In the International Competition, The Golden Tulip—named in memory of Şakir Eczacıbaşı, the late director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (IKSV)—was given to Blind, directed by Eskil Vogt. […]
Godzilla: Savior of Mankind
May 17, 2014
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Godzilla is a simple creature. A relic from the prehistoric era, brought to life by atomic testing, Godzilla has only one aim in life. He just wants to destroy everything in his path, and he doesn’t care one whit about humanity. He’s an inescapable metaphor for […]
Female Sexual Pleasure Unpunished in Bright Days Ahead
May 14, 2014
By Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. Finally, a film about an older woman who has an affair, and doesn’t get punished by the narrative. How delightful! How unusual! It isn’t as if Bright Days Ahead (Les Beaux jours) is a masterpiece, but it does get a few things right and it is […]
Criminally Boring: Wolf Creek 2 (2013)
May 14, 2014
By Gary M. Kramer. It has been nearly a decade since Wolf Creek (2005) provided a cautionary tale about backpacking through the outback. Now with Wolf Creek 2, the crazed killer of captives, Mick Taylor (John Jarratt) returns. If this sequel—also based on actual events—is not as strong as the […]