Revisiting the Legacy and Style of the Gravity-Defying Nicholas Brothers
“At a moment that calls for more inclusivity on all levels, the fact that we still have access to the Nicholas Brothers’ work is important.”
Éric Rohmer’s Battle of the Sexes
“Rohmer cares more about posing questions than providing the comfort of a conclusion.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Marshall Shaffer’s #FilmStruckFebruary
Marshall Shaffer Reflects on a Full Month of FilmStruck
The Aesthetic and Formal Challenges of Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Contempt’
“‘Contempt’ is a daunting and formally labyrinthine work, calling its own fallibility to question even as it submits completely to the romance of cinema.”
The Wonder of Cinema and Living in ‘Voyage of Time: Life’s Journey’
“As a ‘purely experimental film,’ ‘Voyage of Time’ is ultimately an extreme, sensory experience.”
Behind the Curtain in ‘David Lynch – The Art Life’
“If ever a soul was captured on camera, this is it.”
‘The Handmaiden’: A Sensuous, Sumptuous Tale of Secrecy, Sex and Subversion
“Park demonstrates how the complicated relationship between role-play, desire, secrecy, power and revenge prove ripe for darkly comic (and perverse) fodder.”
Coffee and Cinephilia: A Conversation with Richard Peña
Alejandra Rosenberg Interviews Richard Peña
Landscape of Awkwardness: On Maren Ade’s ‘Toni Erdmann’
“‘Toni Erdmann’ understands what’s at stake: not the private destiny of an individual, but her ongoing relationship to her era.”
Two Violences: ‘Shield for Murder’
“Movies aren’t neutral vessels that we can stuff with our cultural baggage.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Yasujirô Ozu’s ‘I Was Born, But…’
“If Ozu has taught us anything, it’s that life doesn’t get any easier. But life does go on.”
When the Male Gaze Breaks: Between ‘The Neon Demon’ and ‘Black Swan’
“In Darren Aronofsky’s ‘Black Swan’ and Nicolas Winding Refn’s ‘The Neon Demon,’ the female body is used in its most delicate and presumptuously feminine form.”
Genre Whiplash: The Surprising Genius of Karyn Kusama
“By providing viewers with a satirical undertone, Kusama offers a place to rest, making the subversion of viewer expectations all the more potent.”
We Have Another Reptile on the Loose: ‘The Lair of the White Worm’
“Rare is the horror comedy that evokes laughter while also giving one the creeps.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Mikhail Kalatozov’s ‘I Am Cuba’
“‘I Am Cuba’ is more than a picturesque travelogue. It is a pulsating ethnographic profile, an excavation of sorts, uncovering and unleashing its discoveries with a sweeping scope.”
The Many Peculiar Virtues of Wes Craven’s ‘My Soul to Take’
“As the second last film in one of the great contemporary horror filmmaker’s careers, it’s an extraordinary example of artistic self-reflection and development.”
A Woman’s Touch: The Trinity of the Body in ‘American Mary’
“With ‘American Mary,’ the Soska sisters tell a story that deserves a place alongside the likes of ‘I Spit on Your Grave’ and ‘Hostel’ in its bold but nuanced steps that push forward the genre entire.”
Biography and Authenticity in the American New Wave
“The lucidity and frankness with which this new wave of filmmakers can dissect their own lives speaks volumes to their talents, boding well for their efforts to come.”
Moments of Revelation in Martin Scorsese’s ‘Silence’ and ‘Shutter Island’
“What is the cost to oneself of living by a system of belief?”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Carlos Saura’s ‘Cría cuervos’
“‘Cría cuervos’ is a film preoccupied with death. It surrounds Ana and obsesses her. Starting with its sobering preamble, the picture is inundated by threatening (and tempting) mortality.”