Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. My Heart is an Octopus or My Father on the Shore of the Black Sea, by Bulgarian filmmaker Neno Belchev, is […]
On the Road to Nirvana: Jodorowsky’s Endless Poetry
August 2, 2017
By Elias Savada. “A naked virgin will illuminate your path with a blazing butterfly.” Yes, just the kind of fertile, fantastic utterance you would expect to hear in any luxuriant, eccentric Alejandro Jodorowsky film, especially in his ultra personal Endless Poetry (Poesía sin fin), and you’ll have to take the two-hour-plus […]
Bisarjan: Kaushik Ganguly on Unrequited Love
August 2, 2017
By Devapriya Sanyal and Melissa Webb. On the banks of the Padma lives Padma Halder, named after one of the bigger rivers flowing between the two countries of Bangladesh and India, divided by religion but sharing a common history. But Kaushik Ganguly’s new venture Bisorjon (or Bisarjan) chooses to look beyond that to explore the trope […]
Art Film Fest 2017: 25 Years
By Robert Buckeye. Art Film Fest in Košice, Slovakia (16-24 June) provided greater opportunities for those who seek out film however they can by screening films that were seen recently and awarded at Cannes, Berlin and Venice, including Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, which won the prize for Best Screenplay […]
The Year of the Kneale Olympics – Into the Unknown: the Fantastic Life of Nigel Kneale by Andy Murray and We Are the Martians edited by Neil Snowdon
A Book Review Essay by Tony Williams. It is as if in movies, TV and books, genre progresses through a series of metaphorical prison walls. Inferior and derivative work merely scratches the surface, some not even that. But the giants – the geniuses and serious innovators – smash the walls […]
Call for Contributions: Artist, Transport, Travel
July 31, 2017
From Guest Editor Gary McMahon. Texts are invited for a Film International issue on this theme: Artist/Mode of Transport, or: Genre/Mode of Travel. The rest of the remit is yours to navigate. The artist may be before or behind the camera. Surveying film-making this way need not to be exhaustive but rather impressionistic. […]
Breaking All Stereotypes: An Interview with Egyptian Director Mohamed Diab at Cannes
July 30, 2017
By Neila Driss. The Egyptian screenwriter and director Mohamed Diab is a bold filmmaker, unafraid of tackling subjects that are often taboo in the Arab-Muslim world. In his first film, Cairo 678 (2010), he addresses sexual harassment in the Egyptian capital, while in Clash (2016), his second film as director, […]
Two California Raisins Walk Into a Sitcom: Landline
July 29, 2017
By Elias Savada. Three years ago, filmmaker Gillian Robespierre arrived at the Sundance Film Festival with her first feature, Obvious Child, a small, smart comedy-drama about pregnancy and abortion. It was a charming and perceptive rookie endeavor that made many critics’ Top Ten lists. It also unleashed a new star in […]
Coppola’s Dazzling Teenage Dream: Rumble Fish (Criterion Collection)
July 27, 2017
By Jeremy Carr. Two credits stand out on Francis Ford Coppola’s 1983 film Rumble Fish. One is Stewart Copeland, then drummer for The Police, who provided the picture’s hypnotic, dissonant rock-jazz score. The second is Michael Smuin, choreographer and co-director of the San Francisco Ballet; he staged an early fight scene […]
Laid to Rest: Frederic Mermoud’s Moka
By Devapriya Sanyal and Melissa Webb. Frederic Mermoud’s French-thriller Moka (2016) centers on a grieving woman who is on the hunt for the killers of her young son, fatally wounded in a hit-and-run accident. The film shows her pursuit of a couple in Evian, whom she suspects are the responsible perpetrators. […]