I had recently watched Ingmar Bergman’s all-time-downer classic, “Cries and Whispers,” for the second time when an article critiquing the latest phenomenon of young, sexualized and violent female film characters appeared in the New York Times. Chief Times film critics A.O Scott and Manohla Dargis cite “Kick-Ass,” “Sucker Punch,” and the “Millennium” trilogy as films [...]
Watching The Graduate (Mike Nichols, 1967) is an experience that is uplifting and depressing at the same time. Uplifting because the film marries a stimulating aesthetic and a good story so effortlessly. It is a true crowd-pleaser, because it can be simply enjoyed as a comedy-drama or engaged with and understood in more complex ways [...]
Writer-director Terrence Malick’s “The Tree of Life,” the year’s most anticipated and buzzed about film, won the Cannes Film Festival’s Palme d’Or Sunday night. The award is the festival’s highest honor. “He remains infamously and notoriously shy and humble,” said producer William Pohlad, who accepted in Malick’s stead with producer DeDe Gardner. “But he is [...]
The Cannes Film Festival declared Danish filmmaker Lars Von Trier a “persona non grata” and banned him from the festival Wednesday for saying he sympathizes with Hitler. The remarks came as the filmmaker told an awkward, rambling joke during a news conference to promote his film “Melancholia.” “What can I say? I understand Hitler, but [...]
More than 50 years after “Breathless” Cannes finally gave Jean-Paul Belmondo a Palme d’Or. Belmondo, one the biggest stars of The French New Wave was awarded the Cannes Film Festival’s highest honor Tuesday during a special evening devoted to his legacy, which included a screening of “Belmondo, The Career,” a documentary by Vincent Perrot and [...]
Submarine has been given, on the whole, an easy ride from the critics. I think that there are three reasons for over-indulgence towards this largely forgettable film. First, for many UK reviewers, there is an element of subconscious nationalism. Although every critic tries to be objective, it is hard not to get excited about films [...]
Critics can be a fickle bunch. Lavishing this, lambasting that. But with most films it’s relatively easy to predict the critical response. Originality, cohesiveness, perky dialogue and fleshed out characters get the O.K. Convoluted stories, dull characters and shameless wish-fulfillment fantasies are blasted. But since “Jaws” gave birth to the summer blockbuster in 1975, and that [...]
A new clip has been released from the most anticipated movie of this young decade, Terrence Malick’s “Tree of Life.” Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt), an overbearing, strict father is out of the house while Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) and their sons let themselves have fun for a little while. The film debuted at Cannes this [...]
Zentropa released a new clip of Lars Von Trier’s upcoming apocalyptic drama “Melancholia” this week. The clip features sisters (played by Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg) discussing the nature of the life on earth while the specter of major catasrophe looms large. Watch:
If you find yourself in Oslo, the Norwegian Film Institute’s ‘Filmmuseet’ (Film Museum) is worth a visit. Housed in ‘Filmens Hus’, same building as the city’s cinematheque, this free, compact exhibition gives an engaging overview of film history. It also highlights Norway’s own contributions to film, though in a way that caters more to nostalgic [...]
We’ll always have Casablanca
‘Carnage’ slaughters dialogue with theatrics
Loco: London’s 1st Comedy Film Festival
Orlando: Does Sex Matter?
A soothing demise: Lars von Trier’s ‘Melancholia’ considered
The Power of Limits in The Five Obstructions
Surviving ‘Surviving Life’
‘The Other’ at The 2nd London Iranian Film Festival
‘Leaving’: Made in Prague
A Step Forward: New African Film in Paris
