By Jacob Mertens. A few months ago I was listening to NPR’s This American Life podcast, and I caught an episode that was devoted entirely to a hostage situation in Egypt’s Sinai desert. The story involved journalist Meron Estefanos stumbling onto a den of hostages all seeking rescue, unable to […]
Light From the Screen: Cinema, Painting and Spectatorship
October 29, 2013
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. Noël Coward once observed that “television is for appearing on – not for looking at,” but as the twenty-first century takes firm hold of our collective consciousness, it seems that everyone has become, in one form or another, a spectator of the events of everyday existence, […]
The Counselor
October 28, 2013
By Christopher Sharrett. This overly promoted film had little to recommend it to me, certainly not the presence of Ridley Scott, whose last compelling film was Blade Runner (1982), made over a generation ago. I was interested in the screenplay by Cormac McCarthy, a novelist whose work I view with […]
Oswald Morris: Legendary Cinematographer
October 28, 2013
David A. Ellis talked to the 97-year-old about his work on Moulin Rouge (1952), directed by John Huston, who often referred to Morris as “Kid.” David A. Ellis: How did you get the smoky atmospheric look in the picture? Oswald Morris: We used vaporised oil. I was piling this into […]
Theodor Adorno and Film Theory: The Fingerprint of Spirit (2013)
October 25, 2013
Book Review by Brandon Konecny. Theodor W. Adorno, one of the most recognized members of the Frankfurt School, is a figure seldom mentioned in film studies—and his scarcity is, admittedly, understandable. For anyone who’s read “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment of Mass Deception,” Adorno firmly establishes himself as a scathing critic of […]
Miguel Gomes’ Tabu & F. W. Murnau’s Tabu
October 22, 2013
By Perle Petit. Miguel Gomes’ third feature film takes its name from F. W. Murnau’s 1931 Polynesian epic Tabu, a Story of the South Seas (1931). Released in 2012, Gomes’ sumptuously filmed black and white drama takes reference from the silent film genre to create a unique variation on Murnau’s classic, […]
Yayoi Kusama: The Orgy of Self Obliteration
October 18, 2013
By Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. As an internationally acclaimed Japanese/American artist, Yayoi Kusama rejects any Orientalist assumptions about her work or her self. Yet her playful performances and challenging happenings of the 1960s at times featured images of her wearing the traditional Japanese kimono. Kusama seemingly catered to the audiences of […]
The Aesthetic of Shadow: Lighting in Japanese Cinema (2013)
October 17, 2013
Book Review by Brandon Konecny. Historically, the skillful manipulation of light and shadow has contributed to the distinctiveness of a number of canonical cinemas. From Weimar “street films” to the golden age of horror in the 30s, German Expressionism to detective noirs, lighting has provided filmmakers various ways with which […]
Conspirators: A San Francisco Film Society Hong Kong Cinema Review
October 16, 2013
By Janine Gericke. Conspirators is the third film in Oxide Pang’s Detective trilogy, beginning with The Detective (2007) and The Detective 2 (2011). All three films star Aaron Kwok as detective Chan Tam. Pang should be somewhat familiar to American audiences, having given us a remake of his own film […]
San Francisco Film Society Presents French Cinema Now | November 7-10, 2013
October 13, 2013
By Mark James. Celebrating its sixth year of bringing some of the best contemporary French film to the Bay Area, this year’s French Cinema Now lineup features the latest from famous directors along with some fine examples of the new — succinctly capturing a snap shot of the year’s most […]