It was the 1960s, and revolution was in the air. For French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, cinema was the way to express ideas artistic, political, and otherwise. He opened the decade with Breathless, a free-flowing anarchic take on cinematic language that was … Continue reading MASCULIN FÉMININ
He’s just so damn handsome. Smooth skin, full head of shiny black hair, snappy dinner clothes, thin as a rail—what girl wouldn’t fall for Jerry Corbett? Coffee heiress Joan Prentice sure does. She falls for his charm and she falls … Continue reading MERRILY WE GO TO HELL
In 1975, the U.S. was at a crossroads. The Vietnam War was over, and Americans were more disillusioned than ever. Big cities out east, like New York and Washington D.C., prepped for the Bicentennial, but Small Town, U.S.A., seemed not … Continue reading ROLLING THUNDER REVUE: A BOB DYLAN STORY
Nowadays we call them noir, but back in the 1940s and ’50s they didn’t have a name. Born out of 1930s hard-boiled novels and an influx of European filmmakers fleeing fascism, films noir (as French film critics later coined them) were … Continue reading THE FURIES
It’s 1950, and John Ford wants to make a movie: The Quiet Man, from a story by Maurice Walsh, about a retired boxer who returns to his birthplace in Ireland and falls for a vivacious redhead. The movie will star John Wayne … Continue reading RIO GRANDE
Born April 23, 1894, in Salt Lake City, Utah, Frank Borzage wanted to be in entertainment since he was a kid. That takes money, so Borzage worked odd jobs in mines and on cooking lines to pay his way. Work … Continue reading Frank Borzage
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, The Tree of Life—available on Blu-ray and DVD from The Criterion Collection—is a watershed moment in contemporary cinema. Pairing the impressionistic poetry of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the abstract visual effects of Douglas Trumbull, the concrete … Continue reading THE TREE OF LIFE
Has decency become a sin?” Ibrahima Dieng cries. On his knees, Ibrahima holds out his empty hands in mock offering. The world has stripped him bare, and now, in an ending fitting of Kafka, Ibrahima offers up the scraps. So … Continue reading MANDABI
There’s reality, and then there’s everything else. Cinema exists firmly in the latter: Cameras don’t capture reality; they capture a perspective of it with a defined beginning, middle, and end. Add editing into the mix, and you’ve got something new … Continue reading SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM: TAKE ONE
