By Melanie A. Marotta. The difference between Prince Mamualde and Blacula is indicated by Blacula’s bushy eyebrows, fangs, and pork chop sideburns. The costuming of Prince Mamualde—in a suit and cape—however is befitting a prince. It is this prince and his anti-racist message that should be honored on Blacula’s 50th […]
The Surprise of Genre-Blending: Laurent Larivière and Freya Mavor on À Propos de Joan (About Joan)
By Yun-hua Chen. [Blending of genres] was a desire of mine to surprise the viewer, so that the audience does not settle into something and know what’s going to happen.” Director Laurent Larivière’s second feature À Propos de Joan, premiered at the Berlinale Special Gala, is a French, German and […]
Gaggle of Spies: Jean-Louis Roy’s The Unknown Man of Shandigor (Deaf Crocodile Films)
By Thomas Puhr. Contemporary audiences will hear Roy’s sardonic message loud and clear. Whether they’ll laugh or cry (or both) is a matter of taste.: “Swiss director Jean-Louis Roy’s long-lost mid-1960s Cold War super-spy thriller is a marvelous and surreal hall of mirrors, part-Dr. Strangelove, part-Alphaville,” reads the press release […]
Cinema’s Theatrical Spaces: An Interview with George Toles
By Tanja Bresan. There has been a long history of degradation of theatre (especially evident in so much early film theory) in order to build cinema up, to prove its aesthetic worth…. Film often derives things from a similar theatrical space but the simple idea of my book is that […]
Visuals and Different Timelines: Filmmaker Grant Johnson on Agent Game
By Ali Moosavi. I think the 1970s was the golden age of cinema….I very much think that there are certain standards that 1970s established that still exist today and for good reason.” In the new conspiracy thriller/action movie Agent Game CIA officers Bill (Jason Isaacs), Harris (Dermot Mulroney) and Visser […]
Ukrainian Film and Restorations at Silent Film Festival
By Thomas Gladysz. Arrest Warrant (1926), an Ukrainian film directed by Heorhii Tasin, is a briskly paced gem. It tells the story of Nadia (played by Vira Vareckaja), who’s revolutionary husband flees the city in the midst of civil war, leaving her behind with a cache of secret documents. Expressionist […]
Ghosts and Time-Travel in Laos: An Interview with Mattie Do on The Long Walk
By Yun-hua Chen. Every time we meet the standard expectation of what the film should be, or shouldn’t do, we kind of push it a little harder until it comes to this devastating end. I think a lot of people aren’t always prepared for it.” In The Long Walk, the […]
Morbius: The Bad Taste of Bat Guano
By Elias Savada. A nonsensical Frankenstein/Dracula/Jekyll & Hyde mashup from Marvel.” There are not a lot of good things to say about the latest marginal Marvel character to hit the big screen, and plenty of bad ones. This sidebar effort — a nonsensical Frankenstein/Dracula/Jekyll & Hyde mashup — is from […]
Notes on “The Women Behind Hitchcock”
By Robert K. Lightning. Seeking to identify signature elements in Joan Harrison’s and Alma Reville’s work but also intertextual correspondences between their independent work and their collaborations with Hitchcock….” In August of 2021, New York’s Film Forum resumed its pre-closure series “The Women Behind Hitchcock”, a series devoted to examining […]
Film Scratches: March 2022
Film Scratches is a blog by David Finkelstein focusing on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. The Mathematics of Epiphany: Haiku (2020) Haiku is a breathtaking, thrilling exploration of Japanese poetry, culture, and sensibility, by German composer […]