Open Secret—a nearly forgotten and difficult-to-find B-programmer from 1948—ought to be seen by everybody. In it, newlyweds John Ireland and Jane Randolph go calling on Ireland’s old army buddy, only to become entangled in subterranean hell, where anti-Semitism is alive … Continue reading Those Wonderful People Out There in the Dark: Dispatches from the 10th annual TCM Classic Film Festival
Birds of Passage—from Colombian directors Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra—is a masterpiece. See it. Need more? Very well, here’s the story: Set in Colombia and spanning the years 1969 to 1980, Birds is divided into five sections, songs really, that recount the … Continue reading BIRDS OF PASSAGE (PÁJAROS DE VERANO)
Ash is Purest White is a gangster movie. Well, sort of. Sure, the movie opens with a room full of low-level gangsters gambling, but openings can be deceiving. From there, it’s only a matter of minutes before one gangster pulls a … Continue reading ASH IS PUREST WHITE (江湖儿女)
For one week each spring, throngs of people overrun the University of Colorado’s picturesque campus seeking the pleasure of a good conversation at the Conference on World Affairs. Despite the highfaluting name, the Conference on World Affairs (CWA to regulars) … Continue reading The Pleasure of a Good Conversation: Previewing the 2019 Conference on World Affairs
Paris, modern-day: The cleanses are coming. Staying one step ahead, the passenger (Franz Rogowski) flees Paris, stowing away on a train bound for Marseilles. There he picks up the name, “Georg.” Georg is known, even revered for his political writing, … Continue reading TRANSIT
It’s hard to overstate the significance of 1939 in American cinema. Even though the movies were nearly four decades old, a series of events and artistic developments conspired to bring Hollywood into maturity. Some of these advancements were technological: sound … Continue reading 1939: Hollywood’s Golden Year
Watching movies in 2019 is no longer a question of where, but why. It could be everywhere: Multiplexes, art house theater, film societies, living rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, public transportation, parks—name the space and you’ll be able to watch a movie … Continue reading THE CONFORMIST (IL CONFORMISTA)
An object is not without context, and a perspective is not without a point of view. For British philosopher Alan Watts, this was a question of magnification. For example, take a photograph: look at it close up, and you see … Continue reading Truth at Every Level: Previewing the 2019 Brakhage Center Symposium
Kathryn Bernheimer—programmer of the Boulder Jewish Film Festival (BJFF)—knows what her audience wants. “Opening and closing films have to be feel-good,” she says. “And they have to be substantive.” And for the seventh annual BJFF, screening March 7–17, she has … Continue reading What Cinema is Capable of: Previewing the 2019 Boulder Jewish Film Festival
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