I Love These Wicked Nights: On Masahiro Shinoda’s ‘Pale Flower’
“‘Pale Flower’ is a magnificently emblematic example of the stylization, self-consciousness and independent spirit that defined the Japanese New Wave.”
The Crashing of the Wave: ‘Six in Paris’
“Despite being an uneven grouping hardly representative of the best these filmmakers had to offer, ‘Six in Paris’ is an interesting capsule of moments in time and space.”
The Tension of Space and Time: Béla Tarr’s ‘Sátántangó’
“‘Sátántangó’ becomes an almost transcendental experience, illustrating fissures in a civilization constructed by an inimitable, sublime design.”
World Cinema Project: Permanent Impermanence — ‘Pixote’ and ‘Memories of Underdevelopment’
“‘Memories of Underdevelopment’ shares with ‘Pixote’ a cautious destabilization, a sense of how long can this last, of tipping points, radical reform and the capricious aftermath.”
Book Review: ‘Picturing Peter Bogdanovich: My Conversations with the New Hollywood Director’
“‘Picturing Peter Bogdanovich’ is a passionate, engaging and thoroughly insightful volume of film history.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.”
March of Time: The Enduring Magic of Federico Fellini
“The persona, the artist, the maestro, the ringmaster — one can’t help but bask in the direct, subjective joy and the elegiac reverence for cinema itself.”
‘A Woman Is a Woman’: Falling in Love with Karina, Godard and the Wave
“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.”
The Beautiful Brutality of Sergio Corbucci’s ‘The Great Silence’
“‘The Great Silence’ is miles away from the graceful, operatic majesty of Leone’s more famous entries. Corbucci’s cynical vision is fashioned from a style that is brutal and spontaneous…”
Speaking Power to Truth: Roberto Rossellini’s ‘Paisan’
“Rossellini astonishingly blends the good and the bad into an imperfect merging of society in all its multiplicity of guises. Death, desolation and violence are as pervasive in the film as love and empathy.”
A Storm Is Threat’ning: Perspectives on The Rolling Stones and ‘Gimme Shelter’
“Whether they intended to or not, the ‘Gimme Shelter’ filmmakers had tapped into and exposed a diabolical soul and a deep-seated hostility. The sun that had fleetingly shone so brightly was starting to set.”
A Lonely Breed: Sam Peckinpah’s Modern West(ern)
“Whenever they exist, wherever they roam, with this continuation of personality and principle, it is often as if Peckinpah’s characters were simply picked up from the past and dropped into another time, a time where the Western — and western — spirit remains.”
Man on Fire: ‘White Heat’ and the Dynamic James Cagney
“Cagney’s sadistic lead in ‘White Heat,’ a searing 1949 crime drama from director Raoul Walsh, is something well past the norms of a conventional male protagonist — or antagonist, for that matter.”
This Is This: The Manifold Masculinity of Michael Cimino’s ‘The Deer Hunter’
“‘The Deer Hunter’ encapsulates a commanding representation of a precise period in American history, a precise location and precise types of men — somewhat clichéd, yes, but remarkably representative.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Ingmar Bergman’s ‘Fanny and Alexander’
“‘Fanny and Alexander’ is an easily entertaining primer to the cinema of Ingmar Bergman…”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Steve James’ ‘Hoop Dreams’
“As much as ‘Hoop Dreams’ concerns the sports-centric plight of William and Arthur, it is perhaps even more significantly an illustrative case study of what perpetually imperils men (and women) of a certain social, economic and racial constitution.”
Vague Visages Is FilmStruck: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s ‘El Topo’
“Jodorowsky’s film is a potpourri of consecrated iconography and symbolism, providing ‘El Topo’ a breadth of sacred resonance and no doubt augmenting its potential for provocation and interpretation.”