This weekend, you could celebrate the 70th anniversary of Seven Samurai—“one of the most thrilling movie epics of all time,” according to esteemed film critic, Roger Ebert. Next week, it could be a quiet but powerful drama starring Dakota Johnson … Continue reading Cinematic Staple: Previewing the Fall 2024 International Film Series
I guess you could say the low point arrived on March 27, 2022, with the broadcast of the 94th Academy Awards. No, the “slap heard ’round the world” wasn’t it—though that cast a pall over the proceedings, didn’t it?—but the … Continue reading Cinema 101
It’s been one week since wrapping the 46th Telluride Film Festival, which means it’s high time for reviews and fall previews. In the spirit of the festival, let’s kick things off by first looking back. Each year, TFF invites someone … Continue reading LATE AUTUMN
CHAPTER IIn WhichWe Discuss The Beatles, The Breeders, Heroin, Meet Winnie-The-Pooh, and Make a Proposal “Form must illuminate content.” — Phil Solomon True for any work of art. Be it a rock ‘n’ roll ballad, an impressionist painting or movie … Continue reading A Matter of Style: Yasujirô Ozu Covers CHRISTOPHER ROBIN
Reverend Toller (Ethan Hawke, in one of his best performances) is having a crisis of faith. The parish pastor of New York’s 250-year-old First Reformed church—once a stopover on the Underground Railroad, now jokingly called a gift shop—watches with detachment … Continue reading FIRST REFORMED
I follow the general fashion in ordinary manners and moral laws in serious matters, but in art I follow myself. Therefore I won’t do anything I don’t want to do. Even if something is unnatural and I like it, I’ll … Continue reading Born On This Day — December 12, 1903
Every decade, the British Film Institute conducts its Sight and Sound poll of the Greatest Movies Ever Made. In 2012, the top two films were familiar: Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo and Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane, but third was a dark horse: Yasujirô Ozu’s 1953 masterpiece, Tokyo Story. If … Continue reading TOKYO STORY (東京物語)
I have formulated my own directing style in my head, proceeding without any unnecessary imitation of others. —Yasujirō Ozu Continue reading Born On This Day — December 12
It’s very easy to show emotions in drama: the actors cry or laugh and this conveys sad or happy feelings to the audience. But this is mere explanation. Can we really portray a man’s personality and dignity by appealing to … Continue reading In Their Words — Wednesday, April 17, 2013
Michael J. Cinema 
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