By Matthew Sorrento. To regard the “First Murder” of the Judeo-Christian tradition as a parable on fratricide is to miss the greater point. The brother turning on his own does channel an uncanny dread, and yet the tale comments on the universality of the crime: how any murder is like […]
Alain Robbe-Grillet’s L’Immortelle Finally Released on DVD and Blu-ray
April 2, 2014
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Many years ago, in 1969, when I was working as a writer for Life magazine under editor Thomas Thompson, one of the highlights of my working week came on Monday, when the screening schedule of newly released films would be distributed throughout the office, and we’d […]
Crowded Out, Fenced In: Pirjo Honkasalo’s Concrete Night
April 1, 2014
By Daniel Lindvall. François Truffaut’s classic first film, The 400 Blows, ends on a beach. Antoine Doinel (played by Jean-Pierre Léaud, who must have been about 14 when the film was shot) has just run away from a borstal in the middle of a game of football. The film leaves […]
Joe – A SXSW Review
April 1, 2014
By Jacob Mertens. To call Joe anything but a return to form for director David Gordon Green would be a disservice. And that has nothing to do with how terrible his recent spate of films have been, save for the uneven but affecting Prince Avalanche (2013). Instead, it has to […]
The Secret World of the Warrior Elites: 007, Fukuyama and Tom Jones
March 31, 2014
By Rajko Radovic. If you have a message, send it by Western Union! That was the legendary answer Hollywood bigwigs would fire at those among suspiciously mortal critics, usually foreign or pinko, who were wondering whether or not the pictures they were making had anything to say. On a certain […]
Contemporary Romanian Cinema: The History of an Unexpected Miracle (2013)
March 29, 2014
A Book Review by Brandon Konecny. In the introduction of his Post New Wave Cinema in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, published in 1989, Daniel J. Goulding writes, “Among the internationally significant national cinemas of Central and Eastern Europe, only Romania has shown little sign of renewal…At the time […]
Scripting for the “Old Hands”: An Interview with Charles Agron and Tobin Bell on Dark House
By Michael T. Toole. Victor Salva has long had a popular career in the horror genre with titles such as Clownhouse (1989) and the Jeepers Creepers franchise (beginning in 2001, with Part III in the works). His latest offering, Dark House, mines some known territory of the eternal (and essential) battle of good and evil. If you’ve […]
Filming Living History: An Interview with Award-Winning TV Documentary Producer, Michael Rossi
March 27, 2014
By Noah Charney. February saw the release of a new, highly-acclaimed documentary film called The Rise and Fall of Penn Station, about the sadly-demolished, once-magnificent architectural wonder of a train station in the heart of Manhattan, one that made Grand Central Terminal look pale in comparison. Michael Rossi was a […]
Only Lovers Left Alive – A SXSW Review
March 25, 2014
By Jacob Mertens. A man and a woman lie naked on a bed of black satin, their pale skin holding the frame like a match struck in a dark room. Eyes closed, bodies delicately entwined, the two form an unconscious union. They hold close to each other and sleep […]
Berlinale 2014 Festival Report
March 22, 2014
By Yun-hua Chen. The 64th Berlinale opened with Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, a fitting festival film that set a playful tone and brought glamour to town, thanks to which we saw the presence of Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray and Saoirse on the red carpet. In this yearly […]