By Jonathan Monovich. I find that the past lives in the present. Like Faulkner said, ‘The past is never dead. It’s not even past’…. Whenever there have been attempts to return to zero, they’ve amounted to nothing. —Kent Jones In the deeply personal, My Voyage to Italy (1999), Martin Scorese […]
“Revival Means Giving Life”: Julia Marchese on a Decade of Out of Print and Repertory Theaters
By Ellie Dean. I wanted to show these wonderful indie cinemas that are fueled on pure film lust, and to hopefully bring back memories of the cinemas the audience attended in their lifetimes that were meaningful to them.” —Julia Marchese In 2014, Julia Marchese made her directorial debut with Out […]
A Clarifying Distance: Michael Haneke’s Code Unknown, Global Art Cinema, and the European Union
By James Morrison. My films are meant as polemical statements against the American ‘barrel-down’ cinema and its dis-empowerment of the spectator. They are an appeal for a cinema of insistent questions instead of false (because too quick) answers, for clarifying distance instead of violating closeness, for provocation and dialogue instead […]
On the Brink of Obliteration: Black Dog (Gou Zhen, 2024)
By Yun-hua Chen. A portrait of a town on the brink of obliteration and a meditation on lives rendered powerless by political and socioeconomic currents….” A man and a dog in a small northwestern town in China’s Gobi Desert—this premise might sound like a minimalist bore, but not when the […]
The Slow Burn – The Rebirth of Suspense: Slowness and Atmosphere in Cinema
A Book Review by William Blick. A richly researched and detailed study that contributes original perspectives on an aspect of cinema that is often underrepresented….” Being a Gen-X kid, I was raised on Hollywood blockbusters of the 1980s. With a steady diet of films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, […]
VCU/University of Richmond French Film Festival | Richmond, Virginia, 27–29 March 2009
By Tim Palmer. For the contemporary cinephile – especially a lover of world cinema – the sight of 1800 people applauding a complex film adaptation of a Marguerite Duras novel, after a packed Saturday lunchtime screening, is real cause for optimism. On Saturday 28 March 2009, this lively scene was […]