By Danny King. For his first two stabs at directing, Ralph Fiennes has selected subject matter that seems typical of an actor-turned-director almost to the point of parody. His 2011 debut, Coriolanus, took an oft-disregarded but palpably intense Shakespeare text as its starting point, and the resulting film is jam-packed […]
Our Children, or the Importance of Medea
December 21, 2013
By Christopher Sharrett. Joachim Lafosse’s Our Children (Á perdre la raison, a.k.a. Loving without Reason, a much more sensible title) put me in mind of Catherine Corsini’s Leaving (Partir, 2009), in part because both films represent the continued promise of the international cinema during the US cinema’s ongoing willed bankruptcy […]
A Conversation with In Fear’s Jeremy Lovering
December 20, 2013
One of the boldest creative choices of the year came courtesy of director Jeremy Lovering, who took a bite out of the unconventional when he shot his unscripted feature debut, the psychological horror film In Fear (2013). Lovering discussed with Film International‘s Paul Risker his intent to create a portrait […]
Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie (Revised Edition) (2013)
December 18, 2013
A book review by Liza Palmer. In 2004, I had the pleasure of reviewing the first edition of Tony Lee Moral’s Hitchcock and the Making of Marnie for Scope. When I was approached to review the revised edition, I did not hesitate, recalling the first version to be a strong, […]
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug (2013)
December 17, 2013
By Cleaver Patterson. A book like J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit was always going to be too big in size and scope to be contained, should it ever be made, by just one film. Whether this justifies stretching it over three, as New Zealand director Peter Jackson has done, […]
In No Great Hurry: 13 Lessons in Life with Saul Leiter (2012)
December 14, 2013
By Robert Kenneth Dator. Every single bit of visual stimulus that comes to the human brain via the visual cortex must be interpreted, learned, and filed away for future reference. This morgue of literally countless images—and more important, bits of images—from every conceivable axial point of reference serves as a […]
AFI 2013 Festival Report
December 11, 2013
By Michael Miller. AFI Fest unspooled along Hollywood Boulevard November 7-14, 2013 to almost entirely full houses. The event permits a sizable number of free tickets available to the public via an online lottery. This enables a large, diverse audience to partake of the equally diverse cinematic fare. Here is […]
Henry Mancini: Reinventing Film Music (2012)
December 11, 2013
A Book Review by Jack Curtis Dubowsky. Henry Mancini—the iconic composer of ‘Moon River,’ ‘Peter Gunn,’ ‘Baby Elephant Walk,’ ‘The Pink Panther,’ over 100 feature films, and winner of twenty Grammys and four academy awards—leaves a problematic musical legacy. As John Caps, author of this new book, puts it, “His […]
The Thalia: An Appreciation
December 8, 2013
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Does anyone remember The Thalia, located at 95th and Broadway, one of Manhattan’s greatest revival houses? I pretty much grew up there. It opened in 1931, and closed in the mid 1980s. The still above is from Woody Allen’s Annie Hall (1977); I’d use another still […]
Trouble in Paradise (1932)
December 7, 2013
By Adam O’Brien. Like Roberto Rossellini, Ernst Lubitsch is a filmmaker whose greatness is both clear and very difficult to articulate. Penetrating and illuminating writing on his work (like that on Rossellini’s) is something of a rarity, and the availability of his films on DVD has been somewhat patchy. But […]