Department S (1969-70) By Tony Williams. “Peter Wyngarde defined the complete, bravura actor who dominated a stage with an incomparable elegant physical presence and a voice which defined emulation, a voice akin to music.” Steven Berkhoff (190) “Peter Wyngarde is an incomparable player of dashing, juicy rakehells, men on the […]
Finding Your Own Answer: Ina Weisse and Nina Hoss on The Audition
Ali Moosavi
June 23, 2020
By Ali Moosavi. It is encouraging to see that films like The Audition / Das Vorspiel, with strong leading female characters are becoming more common. The Audition is directed and co-written by Ina Weisse, herself a veteran actress of more than fifty films. For the film’s leading role though she […]
A Western by Any Other Name: Destry Rides Again (Criterion Collection)
Jeremy Carr
June 21, 2020
By Jeremy Carr. There is, first and most famously, Marlene Dietrich. Since the time of its premiere in 1939, to its latest reemergence in the form of a Criterion Collection Blu-ray, conversation concerning Destry Rides Again has inevitably, and quite justly, hinged on the presence of this beguiling, Berlin-born beauty. […]
Dark Smörgåsbord: Horror Anthologies and Scare Package (2019)
By Alexandra Heller-Nicholas. From Hideo Nakata’s Ringu (1998) to Julian Richards’s The Last Horror Movie (2003), there’s something about the very materiality of the video cassette that evokes horror. Is there something vaguely symbolic about those little black coffins of cinematic memory? Do we subconsciously read them as the perfect […]
Introducing the Classics: How to Serve Your Kids a Slice of Nostalgia Through Film
Singin’ in the Rain (1952) By Noah Charney and James Charney. The pull of nostalgia is a powerful one. We parents had favorites growing up: favorite TV shows, movies, books and games. We’d love to introduce them to our kids and there’s a particular delight when our kids love something […]
Rocking (and Tripping) in the Desert: Stuart Swezey’s Desolation Center
By Thomas Puhr. Los Angeles probably isn’t the first city that comes to mind when one thinks of American punk rock, but Stuart Swezey’s Desolation Center (2018) successfully shines a light on one of the genre’s lesser-known cultural hubs. The titular organization, founded by Swezey himself, held a series of […]
Now Unreeling Online: AFI DOCS at 18
Boys State By Elias Savada. One of the premier documentary film festivals is back for its 18th year. Unlike all previous iterations of the event it started life as Silver Docs but was renamed in 2013 when it expanded beyond the AFI Silver Theatre and Cultural Center and ventured to […]
A Rookie Director Takes to the Skies: 7500
By Elias Savada. German-born filmmaker Patrick Vollrath’s first feature, the foreign-financed, English-language 7500 (pronounced seven-five-zero-zero), is the latest in a long string of airplane hijacking movies. Since most folks are not doing any flying these days (stay home, stay safe), you might find meager travel points accumulating in your frequent […]
Episodic Exploration: Mazursky’s An Unmarried Woman (Criterion Collection)
By Gary M. Kramer. The first reel of An Unmarried Woman practically eavesdrops on the lives of its characters, Erica (Jill Clayburgh) and Martin (Michael Murphy), who have been married for 16 years. They live comfortably in the Upper East Side of New York, and have a smart, 15 year-old […]
Down to the Earth: An Interview with Victor Kossakovsky on Gunda
Yun-hua Chen
June 11, 2020
By Yun-hua Chen. It is a rare opportunity to have an eye-level communication with pigs, chickens and cows. Victor Kossakovsky has once again demonstrated the unique power of cinematic language to open up a new way of seeing commonplace phenomenon or creatures which have long been taken for granted, and […]