“Fathers make sense when we can reduce them to symbols, but the actual business of parenting is so defined by ‘feminine’ qualities — emotional openness, compassion, gentleness, patience — that we often struggle to correlate them with a father figure.”
“Faced with the death of its utopian hopes, the remnants of America’s counterculture split into two tendencies: the pastoral and the criminal. Its despondency was turned inwards and outwards; one side sought to build alternative structures in line with a higher authority, while the other strove to rearrange the wreckage of the existing order.”
“The cowboy is an emissary of civilisation, enduring all the hardships the elements can throw at him to create a space in which civilised values can flourish unhindered. The symbolism of the cowboy is so potent that it continues to be invoked for political gain.”
“With the Acid Western, the genre had once again proven itself capable of assimilating new grievances and anxieties.”
“Looking back at a film like ‘Rocky IV,’ we can’t just say ‘wow, look how dumb we were back then’ because the simple truth is that we haven’t earned the right. We are still making the same mistakes, still falling for the same macho con.”
“With his concern for the outsider, and his reorienting of the West’s perception in the American mind, Peckinpah helped to birth the Acid Western.”
“There are things about ‘Rocky III’ that definitely raise eyebrows — its racial dynamics and maybe even its class politics — but ultimately it shows a fighter overcoming his opponent by reaching out to those around him and confronting the problems within.”
“Films like ‘Rocky II’ age well because the moments that now seem anachronistic serve to shed light on problems we still have today, delivered by the kind of characters viewers can sympathise with, even if one doesn’t agree with all their opinions.”
“The ‘Rocky’ films have given us great heroes. Their protagonists are sweet and kind, courageous and indominable. They have given us so much to cheer for. But they’ve also grown out of an idea of masculinity that is deeply, meaningfully flawed.”
Manuela Lazic and Adam Nayman on Conducting Interviews and Writing about Directors
In the second part of a three-chapter conversation conducted over months via a large Google Doc, Manuela Lazic and Adam Nayman discuss acting and how film critics interpret performances.
In the first part of a three-chapter conversation conducted over months via a large Google Doc, film critics Manuela Lazic and Adam Nayman discuss what makes a writer’s voice, colleagues that keep inspiring them and how, a generation apart, they became interested in movies and writing.
“If you have an ounce of capitalist discomfort, La cérémonie will surely begin to boil your blood, and that’s where things get interesting.”
“Les biches remains one of the more elusive and symbolic films of Chabrol’s career, as the narrative adopts a dreamlike structure that often obscures reality and truth.”
“Whereas a film centered on violence would typically reveal escalating notes of danger, Chabrol refocuses his attentions on nervous energies — unfulfilled lust, romantic insecurity and escalating paranoia.”
“Youth is central to Violette, and Isabelle Huppert’s petite frame and almost childlike features lend the film a skewed point of view that is coloured neither by experience or shame.”
“The Bride Wore Black has a rather deft sense of humor that raises it above many of the other brightly-lit neo-noirs of the 1960s. The irony does not come from the film’s anti-style, but rather in the brazen reversal of gender roles and Moreau’s deadpan delivery.”
“It is incredible to think that Louis Malle was only 25 years old when he made Les Amants, as it seems to hold the wisdom and erotic impulse of a much older man.”
“For all the beauty of Malle’s classic, Moreau’s half-mad gliding has become the signature image of the film.”
“Celestine is a difficult role in that it relies on a careful balance between sex appeal and misplaced indignation. While Moreau’s Celestine uses her sex as a means to raise her social place early in the film, her priorities seemingly shift as she uses her body in order to expose a murderer and rapist (or so she believes).”
