Reporting from the 2022 Telluride Film Festival. He’s a nice gentleman, always properly dressed, prompt to work and other engagements, and he takes pride in his work—even if that means “holding on” to applications stuck in the Sisyphean circles of … Continue reading LIVING
Here dies Kanji Watanabe (Takashi Shimura). For 30 years, he has been pushing pencils and stamping government documents inside the cluttered offices of Tokyo’s City Hall. He has 75 days left to live (stomach cancer), a son who pays him … Continue reading IKIRU
The Magnificent Seven doesn’t open with fanfare. No blaring horns to signal the American West, no soaring strings to complement the vast vistas before the camera, no cinematic shots of warring bandits cresting a hill, no legends, no heroes. Instead: ominous … Continue reading THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN
If I have seen further,” Sir Isaac Newton wrote to his peer, Robert Hooke, “it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” The line is well-known, but it isn’t Newton’s. Like many before and after him, Newton drew on … Continue reading THE HIDDEN FORTRESS (隠し砦の三悪人)
The movie opens and closes with a similar image, the ruins of a fortress, built at the foot of Mt. Fuji, enveloped by fog. A visual cue from famed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa reminding viewers that what goes around comes … Continue reading THRONE OF BLOOD
Michael J. Cinema 