By Elias Savada. Russian-born and German-trained Alisa Berger shows off her experimental and artistic tendencies in The Astronaut’s Bodies, a graduation project for the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. Her first feature is a meditative family drama that extends its light story line (also by Berger) into juxtaposed threads […]
Negotiating Entanglement: An Interview with Jason James
February 13, 2018
By Tom Ue. Entanglement, the latest film by director Jason James, follows the story of Ben Layten (Thomas Middleditch) after he discovers that he nearly had an adopted sister: his parents abandoned their plan to adopt a child after learning that they had him. Ben searches for, and begins to […]
Marcel Pagnol’s “Marseille Trilogy”: An Essential Reemerges on Criterion
By Christopher Weedman. Among the most impressive film restorations of 2017 was Marcel Pagnol’s Marseille Trilogy (1931-36), which I reviewed last March when Janus Films screened it theatrically in select US cities. Those not fortunate enough to live near such splendid art-house and independent film venues as the Film Forum […]
Flicks and Politics: An Interview with Rob Reiner
February 8, 2018
By Ali Moosavi. Rob Reiner is one of the most successful American directors working today. However, it’s difficult to pin him down to any particular genre or style of film making. He has made one of the greatest cult comedies of all time (This Is Spinal Tap, 1984), two of […]
Social Critique, in Truth and Fiction: 2018 Oscar Nominated Live Action and Documentary Shorts
February 8, 2018
By Elias Savada. With less than a month before we find out how many Academy Awards The Shape of Water will actually win, the short list of the shortest films are usually the last entries that most people, even critics, will catch before game night: Sunday, March 4th. Between those 15 […]
Big Dreams and Odd Dwellings: 2018 Oscar Nominated Animated Shorts
February 7, 2018
By Gary M. Kramer. The best short films hook viewers, carry them through the story, and deliver a surprising finish. Animation is best when it is used to depict things that cannot quite happen in real life – especially when animation is used to do this in inventive ways. The […]
All That Shapes a Star – Grace Kelly: Hollywood Dream Girl by Jay Jorgensen and Manoah Bowman
A Book Review by Anthony Uzarowski. In the 1950s female movie stars were expected to be more than human. For a price of a cinema ticket one could sit in the dark, gazing at the world’s most beautiful people. In some cases, viewers might even expect to witness the divine, for some […]
The Form and Function of a Cult Film: Deep Red by Alexia Kannas
A Book Review Essay by Jeremy Carr. Alexia Kannas’ Deep Red (Columbia University Press, 2017), her contribution to the Wallflower Press Cultographies series, in which she takes a deep dive into the making, reception, and legacy of Dario Argento’s 1975 giallo masterpiece, is an ideal meeting of author, subject, and publishing […]
Bromance, Romanian Style: Andrei Cretulescu on Charleston
February 5, 2018
By Martin Kudláč. The Romanian writer-director-producer Andrei Cretulescu rolled out his first feature-length offering Charleston at the biggest Swiss showcase in Locarno. The film continued to tread the festival circuit and made a stop-over in Warsaw where Film International caught up with the filmmaker. Diverging from the aesthetics of the New […]
Disorder in the Court: The Insult
February 2, 2018
By Elias Savada. When 46-year-old automobile mechanic Tony George Hanna (a piercing-eyed Adel Karam) is first seen in The Insult, he’s at an open air rally supporting the country’s right wing, anti-refugee political faction. At home, a photo of his hero hovers over the crib of his soon-to-be-born daughter, despite pleas […]