By Martin Mulcahey. Hollywood has not always been accepting of Latinas. Current stars Salma Hayek, Eva Mendes, and Penélope Cruz follow in the footsteps of trailblazing Dolores Del Rio. Celebrated as “The Princess of Mexico”, Del Rio was a star whose allure captivated legendary figures Orson Wells, Marlon Brando, Elvis […]
Going Places (1974)
December 23, 2011
By Gary M. Kramer. Bertrand Blier’s Going Places—recently re-issued on DVD and Blu-Ray—is perhaps as brazen as it must have been upon release in 1974. The film, based on the writer/director’s novel—whose title translates as “The Testicles”—traces the movement of two horny and ballsy friends, Jean-Claude (Gérard Depardieu) and Pierrot […]
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo (2011)
By Bryan Nixon. I have not read The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson and I have not seen the original 2009 Swedish film by director Niels Arden Oplev, and as such I am unable to draw comparisons to David Fincher’s latest film and his source material. What […]
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (2011)
By Jacob Mertens. Imagine the dim squalor of a CGI 19th century London. A conspicuous automobile squeezes past a narrow alley, coughing smoke, shambling down the cobbled street amongst pedestrians and horse drawn carriages. Inside the car, Sherlock Holmes (Robert Downey Jr.) dons the vaudevillian disguise of a wispy, full-length beard, […]
A Revolutionary Festival: 33rd International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema at Montpellier (October 21-29, 2011)
By Christiane Passevant translated by Neville Rigby. True to tradition, the 33rd International Festival of Mediterranean Cinema, CINEMED, fulfilled its role in revealing new cinematic talent, while also reflecting the new movements, revolts and revolutions around the wider Mediterranean. The great surprise of the year has been to evaluate how […]
The Problem with Dinosaurs
By Carmel Doohan. “Social realism, what the fuck is social realism?” Paddy Considine, Director of Tyrannosaur (Little White Lies- Oct 2011) The ‘social’ came from ‘socialist’. When the soon to be directors of the British New Wave (Karel Reisz- Saturday Night, Sunday Morning, Lindsay Anderson- This Sporting Life, Tony Richardson- […]
Arab Cinema Now and Tomorrow
By Omar Robert Hamilton. No form of art is as tied to reality as cinema. Though Hollywood would have us think differently, the fundamental element to making a film is to press record on a camera. From cinema verité to Avatar – the first step toward making a film […]
American Translation (2011)
December 12, 2011
By Gary M. Kramer. Another penetrating examination of sex and crime, love and death, Pascal Arnold and Jean-Marc Barr’s compelling American Translation picks up thematically where their previous effort, One to Another ended. This striking new film confirms the directors’ insistence on making daring, challenging films about sexual, mental, emotional, […]
Tom McCarthy’s Win Win: All in the Game
By Matthew Sorrento. While wary of classification in general, filmmakers and cinephiles resist associations to the “sports movie” the most. The athlete’s journey to the final match, the win- or lose-all moment, is often simplified into mass culture. The Coen brothers reflected this distrust in Barton Fink, when the title […]
Film Scratches Blog #3
By Liza Palmer, Review Section Editor. Happy holidays 2011, all! The excitement of the season can now be translated into the new Film International call-for-reviews list! Thanks, as ever, for your support of and service to Film International. And good health and best wishes to you and yours. Film International is […]