By Jacob Mertens. All writers, at one point or another, have felt the inspired moment when a story moves through them as if they were a conduit. The ability to manifest a living, breathing creature on a piece of paper can feel like an act of magic, and it is […]
Dark Humor in Films of the 1960s – Part 3
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. This is the third article in a 4-part series. You can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. Death has often been used to comic effect in films, but an all out assault on what Jessica Mitford termed “the American way of death” is another […]
Inside Film: The Condition of the Working Class
Inside Film’s upcoming documentary, The Condition of the Working Class (now in post-production), was inspired by Friedrich Engels’ book written in 1844, The Condition of the Working Class in England. How much has really changed since then? The power relations in our society remain essentially the same. As a result […]
The Do-Deca-Pentathlon (2012): A San Francisco International Film Festival Review
By Janine Gericke. 25 events, 2 brothers, 1 champion. Mark and Jay Duplass’ latest film, The Do-Deca-Pentathlon is an enigmatic comedy about two estranged brothers who want to determine once and for all, who the better brother is. How do they do this? By competing in 25 sporting challenges over […]
Dark Humor in Films of the 1960s – Part 2
By Wheeler Winston Dixon. This is the second article in a 4-part series. You can read Part 1 here. With sick comedy beginning to bubble up through the margins of the studio system in Hollywood, filmmakers in Britain soon leaped on the bandwagon. The country was in a “gallows humour” […]
12th New Horizons International Film Festival, Wroclaw, July 19th – 29th 2012
By Rob Dennis. The New Horizons Film Festival, taking place for the 12th year in the city of Wroclaw, Poland, displayed a distinctly Latin character this year. With a strand devoted to new Mexican cinema and a retrospective of the films of Carlos Reygadas (showcasing the Polish premiere of his […]
Little Ted, Among the Dead
By Matthew Sorrento. Imagine Seth MacFarlane, late at night, banging the deskspace next to his laptop – the real him, not the smiling, media friendly celebrity we’ve come to know. He’s on deadline to return notes for the script of his feature film, to be his feature directorial debut. In […]
Farewell, My Queen (2012): A San Francisco International Film Festival Review
By Janine Gericke. Versailles calls to mind images of opulence, decadence, couture, ostentatious design and, of course, Marie Antoinette. Filmmaker Benoît Jacquot’s film Farewell, My Queen, based on the novel by Chantal Thomas, shows viewers both sides of this famous palace. The beautiful side, with its lush fabrics, golden hues […]
Reopening Pandora’s Box in San Francisco
By Michael T. Toole. It was quite the celebration for both Louise Brooks fans and silent cinéastes in general when the 17th Annual San Francisco Silent Film Festival presented a restored print of Pandora’s Box last month. G.W. Pabst’s ever engrossing and eminently stylish examination of pure sexuality and the […]
Embracing The Apocalypse: A World Without People
August 21, 2012
By Gwendolyn Audrey Foster. “If civilization goes down, that Would be an event to contemplate.” (Robinson Jeffers, “May-June, 1940”) Human-centered popular folktales of Apocalypse and Doomsday narratives of every imaginable scenario are undeniably as powerful and plentiful as they have been from the beginnings of human narrative tradition. Indeed, apocalyptic […]