Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Favorite Neo-Noir Films
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite neo-noir films in celebration of #Noirvember.
Murray Lerner’s ‘Festival’: A Prototype for the Music Documentary
“‘Festival’ challenges our preconceptions about the past – in this case, that of folk music and of music documentaries themselves.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Jeremy Carr on Erich von Stroheim’s ‘Greed’
“‘Greed’ is like the gold within the soil, a gem that must be mined from its sullied context.”
Cinema of Secrets: An Interview with Philippe Garrel
Julia Yepes Interviews Director Philippe Garrel
The Song of the Cloud-Capped Mountain: Anushka Meenakshi and Iswar Srikumar’s ‘Kho ki pa lü’
“‘Kho ki pa lü’ is about a lot of things, but it’s mostly about music. It is about Li, the songs that people sing when they cultivate rice in small müles.”
The Tattoos Tell the Story: Viggo Mortensen’s Painted Body
“Mortensen uses his body to display his characters’ essential tensions, as they ride the line between truth and lies, loyalty and betrayal, chaos and control.”
When Hansel and Gretel Live in a Bus: Paakhi A. Tyrewala’s ‘Pahuna: The Little Visitors’
“In a country whose cinema is often just classified under the homogenous canopy of ‘Bollywood,’ a film in Sikkimese is not only a welcome change but also a political reversal of existing canons. It is a small but eventful beginning, a small step towards a more inclusive ‘Indian’ cinema.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Favorite Film Noir Moments
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite film noir moments in celebration of #Noirvember.
Of Elephants, Daughters and Rebels: Bobby Sarma Baruah’s ‘Sonar Baran Pakhi’
“In its thorough research and extensive reconstructing of the artist’s life, ‘Sonar Baran Pakhi’ is a document of celebration. Of the artist, the daughter, the mother. And the effortless rebel.”
Gabe Klinger’s ‘Porto’: A Middling, Moody Romance
“‘Porto’ aims for atmosphere but merely achieves it with convention.”
Review: Maysaloun Hamoud’s ‘Bar Bahar’
“‘Bar Bahar’ is an unmissable dramedy that puts women at the heart of a hypocritical world in flux.”
‘Ali: Fear Eats the Soul’: Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Timely Melodrama
“Fassbinder created a masterpiece that is relatable due to his depictions of racism, discrimination and the complexities of identity — themes which still resonate loudly today.”
Conduits of Fear: The Vital Role of The Youth in Horror
“Horror is a genre that believes, rightly, that young people are the future.”
Secret Defense: A Close-Up on Arnaud Desplechin’s ‘Esther Kahn’
“Phoenix delivers an opaque but strikingly physical performance, reminiscent of the women in Charlie Chaplin’s films.”
Norman McLaren: Genius in Motion
“Unconventional but playful, rarely has the avant-garde been so joyful to discover.”
Vague Visages Writers’ Room: Favorite Halloween Movies
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite Halloween flicks.
‘Halloween II’: Rob Zombie’s Mad Opus on Trauma and the Tendrils of Toxic Familial Ties
“It is the rare film where form and content align at a time when its creator is close to formal mastery and itching for singular experimentation.”
The Haunted House Heartbeat in Dario Argento’s ‘Inferno’
“The real strength of ‘Inferno’ is the dominant sense of terror that Argento creates through his mastery of physical space (shaded by bright reds and blues, contrastive images of grandeur and decay in the production design)…”
Album Review: WHIMM ‘A Stare Ajar’
“This is a trio dwelling on the sharp, atonal edge of post-punk”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Summer with Monika’
“Undeniably the central focus of ‘Summer with Monika,’ Andersson’s overt sex appeal somewhat minimizes her remarkable range in the film, her seamlessly oscillating moods and subtle facial intimations.”