Anthology Film Archives' recent "Imitations of Life: Stahl vs. Sirk" series demonstrates that, though John M. Stahl and Douglas Sirk both labored in the fields of the Universal melodrama, they don’t have
Above: Mariano de Rosa's Aguas Verdes. With just Clinch (Schwitzkasten; John Cook, Austria 1977) to come (1930 tonight at Arsenal—the cinema, not the footy stadium), the festival score-card
There are no examination rooms in Dr. Ma's clinic in Huangyangchuan, a town in rural China: just one space that serves as waiting area, examination room, and pharmacy. Thus, magically, private
Above: Dominique Thomas (left) and Lola Creton (right), as Bluebeard and his young bride. Would you expect Catherine Breillat to have something in common with Manoel de Oliveira? Surprisingly
It's White Nights with the two stories compressed to one: (1) boy who falls in love with girl who cries to him over the other man she loves, and (2) that girl caught between the sexy jerk, and the supportive
"Romance," says Ricardo Trêpa in Manoel de Oliveira's Eccentricities of a Blond Hair Girl, "begins in art and reality." Begins...and ends, you might say, as his reality is an economic reality
Above: Leonard (Joaquin Phoenix) with one of his two lovers, Sandra (Vinessa Shaw). James Gray has exactly what American cinema needs—sincerity. Gray deals in melodrama—and male melodrama at that—but
Ever hear of Slow Criticism? It's a new movement in film criticism launched into the festival-world's public consciousness at Rotterdam last month, when a special edition of the Dutch magazine Filmkrant
Above: two images from Forum Lenteng, Jakarta. Above: three images from Rumah Buku, Bandung. Dear Harry, Kevin, Andrew and Nitesh,There have been a lot of very interesting topics broached, I apologize
NOW YOU SEE IT I love the fact that Britain's two women directors in the 1950s were called Toye and Box. I also love the fact that Britain had two women behind the camera while American could only manage
Above: Maren Abe's Everyone Else. Everyone Else (dir. Maren Ade) – Five years ago the Berlinale unveiled one of the most uplifting relationship films of the decade, Before Sunset; this year’
Above: a relaxed but aggrevated vision of young adults in 2009... Relaxation infuses the filmmaking of both John Cook's Slow Summer and Andrew Bujalski's Beeswax; only, the first was made by the Canadian