The Disaster Area: From Airport to Airplane! – Part Two
Part Two of a Four-Part Disaster Movie Series by Bill Bria
World Cinema Project: The Sights and Sounds of a Nation – ‘Trances’ and ‘Redes’
“As with the underlying creed of Trances, the unambiguous intent of Redes’ communal message resonates in its country of origin and around the world, communicating the pleas for justice, egalitarianism and independence that are vital facets of life and are so often central to the best of all cinematic documentaries.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #11 – ‘Night Falls on Manhattan’
“In ‘Night Falls on Manhattan,’ Lumet arrives at acceptance — the system is what it is. He is resigned to his inability to chronicle any meaningful change through his work.”
The Disaster Area: From ‘Airport’ to ‘Airplane!’ – Part One
“It is during the 70s that the disaster film’s most pure and admirable entries were made, bookended by two significantly different stories involving air travel fiascos.”
World Cinema Project: Beyond the Bounds of Narrative – ‘Limite’ and ‘Mysterious Object at Noon’
“Abstract and disjointed, the narrative of ‘Mysterious Object at Noon’ is progressively piecemeal, and what occurs in ‘Limite’ is even more inconclusive.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #10 – ‘A Stranger Among Us’
“As a chronicler of the justice system in a dozen or more films, Lumet is intimately concerned with the ways in which it represses individual thought and fails to live up to its supposedly defining principles.”
World Cinema Project: Persistence of Vision – ‘Dry Summer’ & ‘Law of the Border’
“‘Dry Summer’ and ‘Law of the Border’ remain available as fascinating, engaging documents of a national cinema often forgotten.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #9 – ‘Q & A’
“The thrill of a film like ‘Q & A’ comes in watching how Lumet finds new ways to level his criticisms, harnessing the cynicism that has propelled his work and suffusing each frame with deep, corrupting rot.”
World Cinema Project: Nowhere Fast – ‘Touki Bouki’ and ‘Taipei Story’
“For those suffering from the same dissatisfactions depicted in ‘Touki Bouki’ and ‘Taipei Story’ — be they based on economics, vocation, familial and romantic relations or a broad national uncertainty — hope may be all there is. And that, at least, is something.”
12 Angry Films: Sidney Lumet on Justice #8 – ‘Daniel’
“Though Sidney Lumet is by and large a classical filmmaker who privileges wide shots, staging and judicious framing over highly expressive techniques, ‘Daniel’ is one of his most formally adventurous works.”