“It is Karina who embodied the freedom, fascination and the unpredictability that would define the French New Wave. It is Karina who made so many fall in love — with her and with cinema as an extraordinary, exultant medium.”
Yoana Pavlova on William Brown’s ‘Non-Cinema: Global Digital Film-making and the Multitude’
“I like failure because it’s spiritualizing. We think we know what will make us happy, but we’re usually wrong. Failure forces us to rethink our salvational strategies.”
“Even when it sparks anger, fear, silence or screams, the response is a gift, and what we do with that gift is integral to the future of criticism and filmmaking in general.”
“Within the shell of its high-concept premise, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s ‘The Wages of Fear’ develops into a harrowing depiction of humanity in crisis; economic, political and cultural crisis.”
Julia Yepes Interviews Director Philippe Garrel
In the Vague Visages Writers’ Room on Facebook, freelancers were asked to comment about their favorite Halloween flicks.
“Bergman’s cinema had entered a phase of pronounced maturity.”
“The narrative’s complete subordination to the cinematic is a running commentary on the capabilities of film as form.”
“The film goes beyond strict and narrow generic classification and touches upon something universal, something profound about undying affection and the unreliability of reality.”
“The point is to look as closely as Varda herself, who watches every detail with curiosity, kindness and a relentless sense of wonder.”
“Like his characters, Demy’s camera in ‘Lola’ moves everywhere but goes nowhere; it’s a paradoxically headlong hesitation.”
“Fifty-three years after initial release, ‘The Umbrellas of Cherbourg’ continues to be a formally and contextually innovative French New Wave production; a film that has influenced contemporary directors such as Barry Jenkins, Damien Chazelle and Joachim Trier.”
“While Truffaut’s ‘Day for Night’ (1973) is his most pronounced and profound love letter to the moviemaking process, ‘Shoot the Piano Player’ is an exuberant tribute to the end result.”
“‘Contempt’ is a daunting and formally labyrinthine work, calling its own fallibility to question even as it submits completely to the romance of cinema.”
Jeremy R. Carr on the 50th Anniversary of Robert Bresson’s ‘Au hasard Balthazar’
A Weekly Column on Film Criticism by Justine A. Smith
“‘A Married Woman,’ more than any of his films to that point, is the work that lit the increasingly controversial spark.”
“It can’t help but seem like there was one film about a dog bringing people together in light of troubled times, if only briefly, but then it was decided that there would also be a film about a dog being a prop for stories that his detractors would label as ‘autopilot Solondz.'”
A Series on Italian Cinema by Q.V. Hough
