“For a film about anger — both that of the social movements animated in protest and that belonging to the state which will brook no challenge to its authority — ‘A Grin Without a Cat’ is surprisingly without its own anger.”
“In ‘The Bride Wore Black,’ cruel fate rips true love away from the innocent, suggesting that Truffaut believed pure happiness is only found in fairy tales.”
“Like any cinema, the Safari brought people together to dream in the dark.”
“Despite being an uneven grouping hardly representative of the best these filmmakers had to offer, ‘Six in Paris’ is an interesting capsule of moments in time and space.”
“The small character gestures in ‘Chungking Express’ give the film its soul, but the spark comes from the act of being seen at all.”
“Krzysztof Komeda made sure that the films he scored would be unlikely to exist, with any real significance, without his response to the images he was provided.”
“‘Mank’ probably spends more time than necessary defining the protagonist’s own crisis of conscience within a corrupt and decaying dream factory.”
“Despite being mired in controversy, ‘Bandit Queen’ is one of the finest films made in India that pushes the envelope of cinematic excellence.”
“‘The Black Dahlia’ shows De Palma in a reflective mood, considering the impact cinema, especially his own, has had on the lives and suffering of women on screen.”
“The representation of women in Film Noir is murky territory — in some ways progressive, in other ways deeply misogynistic — certainly when assessing Phyllis in ‘Double Indemnity.'”