ISSN 1712-9559
Keyword Category : Directors
Abbas Kiarostami Alain Resnais Alan Clarke Alberto Lattuada Alexander Sokurov Alexandre Aja Alfred Hitchcock Amos Gitai Andrei Tarkovsky Asia Argento Atom Egoyan Augustin Villaronga Bahram Baizai Bela Tarr Bernardo Bertolucci Bill Morrison Brian Yuzna Brothers Quay Buster Keaton Charlie Chaplin Claire Denis Clive Barker Coffin Joe Dario Argento Dariush Mehrjui David Cronenberg David Grieco David Lynch Denys Arcand Donigan Cumming Douglas Buck Francis Ford Coppola Francois Miron Guido Hendericks Gus Van Sant Guy Maddin Hakan Sahin Hal Hartley Hideo Nakata Hou Hsiao hsien Humberto Solas Im Kwon Taek Ingmar Bergman Jacques Tati Jafar Pahani Jane Campion Jane Campion Jean Luc Godard Jean Renoir Jim Jarmusch John Carpenter Johnny To Jonas Mekas Joon Jo Bong Jorg Buttgereit Jose Mojica Marins Joseph von Sternberg Karim Hussain Kenji Mizoguchi Kenneth Anger Kim Ki Duk King Hu Kiyoshi Kurosawa Kore Eda Hirokazu Kurt Kren Larry Fessenden Larry Kent Lars von trier Lee Kwongmo Lucio Fulci M Night Shyamalan Mara Mattuschka Mario Bava Mario Monicelli Martin Scorsese Mary Harron Maya Deren Michael Crochetierre Michael Moore Michael Powell Michael Snow Michelangelo Antonioni Mikhail Kalatozov Mikhail Kobakhidze Mitch Davis Mohsen Makhmalbaf Nelson Henricks Orson Welles Ousmane Sembene Pang Brothers Park Ki Hyung Paul Leni Paul Schrader Paul Tana Pedro Almodovar Peter Greenaway Peter Jackson Peter Kubelka Peter Mettler Peter Tscherkassky Phil Hoffman Rainer Werner Fassbinder Richard Stanley Ritwik Ghatak Robert Bresson Robert Frank Robert Pena Robin Schlaht Roshell Bissett Roy Cross Sam Peckinpah Satyajit Ray Sergei Eisenstein Sergio Leone Sergio Martino Shin Sang Ok Sion Sono Sogo Ishii Stan Brakhage Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kwan Stephen Chiau Steven Soderberg Su Friedrich T.F. Mous Takashi Miike Tim Burton Todd Morris Valerie Export Werner Herzog Wes Craven Wim Wenders Wong Kar wai Woody Allen Zhang Yimou
2.
A close analysis of Godard's mise-en-scene in Le Le Mépris, focusing on the film's multifaceted themes.
6.
A theoretical analysis of how critics have responded to Lynch's strategies of constructing meaning.
7.
An analysis of how Blue Velvet consciously opens itself up to seemingly contrary meanings.
8.
An impressionistic account of Transcendental Meditation by way of Lynch and INLAND EMPIRE.
9.
A contextualisation of the giallo The Sister of Ursula as a terza visione film.
10.
A Bergsonian analysis of Andrei Tarkovsky's dream-like aesthetics in Mirror.
11.
An analysis of Third Cinema theory that extends the classic tenets of 1960s-1970s political cinema to incorporate the European Diaspora.
12.
An essay discussing the 'biochemistry' inherent in the filmic medium, and how directors Peter Greenaway and Bill Morrison have incorporated notions of death and rebirth in their films.
13.
Argento attempts the impossible: following in the footsteps of his own masterful supernatural diptych. Many have attacked Argento for failing to live up to his exacting standards, but Totaro argues that the film should be looked at within today's changed horror landscape.
15.
Author Robert Robertson's sixth Offscreen essay on the audiovisual aspects of Sergei Eisenstein.
16.
An analysis of the politicized use of food as a means of generating taboo forms of sensuousness in Iranian cinema.
17.
An assessment of Baizai's troubles in recent years to consistently get films made.
18.
An interview with Abbas Kiarostami detailing his latest film, Shirin.
19.
Steffen Hantke reviews a book on David Cronenberg by Mark Browning which attempts to read Cronenberg through a literary rather than cinematic landscape.
20.
In the second of this two-part essay on Hitchcock as a 'romantic ironist' Menard focuses his attention on the distinctiveness of Hitchcock's form of suspense.
21.
In this first of a two-part essay David George Menard analyzes the narrative methods of plot inversion as exemplified through Hitchcock's plots which pit ideals of romanticism against their potentially subversive thematic and moral counterparts.
22.
A personal account of encountering the 'difficult' works of Alain Robbe-Grillet, and then the man himself.
23.
An analysis arguing for Le Mepris as one of Godard’s most ‘emotionally’ engaged works.
24.
Author Daniel Garrett takes on a trio of items on the great French filmmaker Jean Renoir, a commentary on his 1939 classic The Rules of the Game, and two books, a collection of interviews and a section of a book detailing Pauline Kael’s appreciation of Renoir.
25.
An in-depth analysis od Wong Kar-Wai's first US film, ??My Blueberry Nights??.
26.
A comparative analysis of the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright's theoretical and practical speculations on glass and Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's proposed first sound film project for Paramount, The Glass House.
27.
An introduction to the theme of nostalgia in the films of Sergio Leone.
28.
Coverage of the 8th installment of the Calgary International Film Festival.
30.
An analysis of Touch of Evil which argues that a formal analysis grounded in cognitivism is better suited than most (i.e. psychoanalytical) in taking into consideration issues of meaning (authorial intention, the collaborative nature of filmmaking) and the particularities of cinema's unique 'autographic' and 'discursive' language.
31.
A textual analysis of the variant versions of Sergio Martino's excellent giallo, All the Colors of the Dark.
32.
A Left-Handed Form of Human Endeavour: Narrative Comparisons & Contrasts Between the Noir Heist Film
An analysis comparing the narrative structures of two seminal noir heist films, The Asphalt Jungle and The Killing.
33.
This piece centers upon a discussion with Hildegard Westerkamp about the use of her soundscape compositions in the films of Gus Van Sant.
37.
Robert Robertson continues his research into previously untapped intellectual/philosophical strains in the work (film and theory) of Sergei Eisenstein, looking at parallels to the American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
38.
Author Guan-Soon wrestles through the virutes and ambiguities of Zhang Yimou’s Hero, a film which, according to Guan-Soon, negotiates between a Hollywood style blockbuster and a culturally savvy Chinese martial arts epic.
39.
In-depth review of the three short film DVDs from Cinema 16, with volumes dedicated to British, American and European cinema. Includes early short films by Ridley Scott, Asif Kapadia, Lynne Ramsey, Christopher Nolan, DA Pennebaker, Tim Burton, Todd Solondz, Jean-Luc Godard, Tom Tykwer, and Lars von Trier.
40.
An in-depth analysis of David Lynch's animated series Dumbland that convincingly argues for its likeness to Dadiast art and Absurdist drama.
41.
A comparative analysis between the styles of Robert Bresson and Sergio Leone.
42.
An analysis of Eisenstein's most abstract montage type, 'intellectual montage.'
43.
An in-depth interview with one of the driving forces behind the promotion and critical appreciation of Asian cinema, Tony Rayns.
44.
Professor Paul Salmon reviews the Criterion Collection release of Powell and Pressburger's influential cinematic opera piece, The Tales of Hoffman.
45.
A festival report on the 20th installment of the Leeds International Film Festival.
46.
A report on the 2006 edition of the Festival of New Cinema in Montreal, with a preamble on the etiquette of big theatre experience in the era of the multiplex experience.
47.
An essay on Hakan Sahin's first two features, Mirror and Snow, studies on the psychological effects of living in geographical isolation.
48.
An analysis of how the representation of the modern male plays out in visceral dynamics of Alexandre Aja's The Hills Have Eyes, while also comparing it to Wes Craven's original.
49.
Rist celebrates the Honk Kong Film Festival as it celebrates its 30th Year Anniversary.
50.
A report on Fantasia Film Festival 2006, discussing issues related to form-content, style for style's sake, and short films featuring man eating cats.
51.
An interview with the director of Strange Circus and The Suicide Club, Sion Sono.
52.
A review of François Miron's revisionist, Sapphic film noir, which imagines a world where women act like Humphrey Bogart and men are nervous, jittery and timid.
53.
This essay examines Mohsen Makhmalbaf's intertextual use of Rumi's famous poem The Three Fish in his early third phase film, Time of Love.
54.
A review essay on three recent books, two focusing on Charlie Chaplin and one on the American critic/playright James Agee.
55.
A trans-gendered analysis of Hitchcock's Marnie.
56.
Using the critical status of Stanley Kubrick, David Church analyzes how the films of a revered art film auteur can also be held up examples of cult cinema.
57.
A tribute to the great Italian actresses Alida Valli, who passed away April 22, 2006.
58.
An interview with David Grieco, Italian director of serial killer film Evilenko.
60.
A psychoanalytical defense of Dario Argento against claims of misogyny.
61.
An analysis of how Jane Campion negotiates the conventions of the sex-noir thriller with more auteurist designs exploring female sexual desire and 'art film' aesthetics.
62.
An exploration of the art of fight choreography as defined by wuxia pan master King Hu.
63.
An analysis of the great montagists Sergei Eisenstein’s interest in synaesthesia and occult traditions.
64.
Part 2 of Peter Rist's look at classic Cuban cinema. A formal and cultural analysis of the short and medium length films of Cuban director Humberto Solas.
65.
Review essay of Guy Maddin's The Saddest Music in the World which concentrates on issues of National and cultural identity.
66.
A review essay of Maddin's most recent docu-short on Roberto Rossellini.
68.
A comparative analysis of social/political meaning in Charlie Chaplin's The Immigrant and Busby Berkeley and Mervyn Le Roy's Golddiggers of 1933.
69.
An overview analysis of Spain's enfant terrible, unique auteruist Agustin Villaronga, director of In A Glass Cage, 99.9, and others.
70.
An in-depth review essay of the notorious horror film In a Glass Cage, released on DVD by Cult Epics.
71.
An overview of all the best of Canadian, American, and International cinema screened in Montreal during 2005.
72.
A review of Austrian experimental/avant-garde films on a DVD collection produced by Index.
73.
An interview with the seminal figure in structural cinema, Peter Kubelka.
74.
An analysis of the recent Index DVD compilation of Austrian experimental director Peter Tscherkassky.
75.
A review of Austrian experimental/avant-garde films on a DVD collection produced by Index.
76.
A report on the 29th International Hong Kong Film festival.
77.
An inside look at one of the more intriguing film festivals in North America, the Telluride Film Festival.
79.
Report on the 19th Leeds International Film Festival,
80.
An appreciation of Pauline Kael through Ingmar Bergman.
81.
An analysis of Werner Herzog's mockumentary Incident at Loch Ness
83.
An in-depth report on the Fantasia International film festival, with a focus on the Thai films, the shorts, and some impressive US films.
84.
Writer Randolph Jordan weaves through a thematic pattern of pregnancy/death/rebirth which left its mark on FanTasia 2005.
85.
A theoretical analysis of the value of Gus Van Sant's Psycho.
86.
Dario Argento lives up to his often noted and inappropriate monicker, The Italian Hitchcock.
88.
Psychoanalytical reading of Hawks' Bringing up Baby and Hitchcock's Vertigo
89.
An in-depth interview with Brazil's horror master Jose Mojica Marins.
90.
An review of the Jose Mojica Marins DVD box-set.
91.
On the occasion of the launch of the NFB's DVD box set L’oeuvre documentaire intégrale de Denys Arcand 1962-1981, Isabelle Morissette meets with Denys Arcand on the subject of On est au coton and the influence that the documentary has had on his creative process.
92.
Interview with makers of the poetic science-fiction parable The City without Windows (La Dernière Voix).
93.
Woody Allen, Melinda and Melinda, Eros, Wong Kar-wai, Michelangelo Antonioni, Crash
94.
First of two part essay on Eisenstein's audiovisual strategies for his sound film Que Viva Mexico! and how his use of music and noise relates to his concept of 'nonindifferent nature'
95.
First of two part essay on Eisenstein's audiovisual strategies for his sound film Que Viva Mexico! and how his use of music and noise relates to his concept of 'nonindifferent nature'
96.
A look back at one of Makhmalbaf's most important mid-career political films, Marriage of the Blessed.
98.
A look back at some Iranian shorts and a feature documentary which have an element of reflexivity which is common to most Iranian cinema.
99.
Each of us is human and has value, but we are not equally valuable—our resources (knowledge, skills, talents, and monies), and relationships to others, determine the extent of our value. Sometimes we feel inferior because we are. The work of people such as Plato and Shakespeare is not important because they are Greek or English but because of how they illuminate the human condition, an illumination not limited by language, national borders, or time.
101.
Recent films of New York filmmaker Bill Morrison have been concerned with the particular struggle between film and its material medium. There is a conflict between the image and matter which ruins the narrative of the original, twisted by the gnawing power of time, but which at the same time produces a paradoxical tale of ruins, born out of this double resistance of the filmic image and its material.
102.
The fact that Decasia (USA, Bill Morrison, 2002) has had many screenings at an equal amount of very diverse feature and documentary film festivals is testament to its slippery nature.
103.
This essay is a response to having seen a two programme retrospective of Bill Morrison’s work on April 28 and April 29, 2004 at La Cinémathèque Québécoise.
104.
It is during the retrospective of his work that was held in Montreal, on April 28-29 2004, at the Cinémathèque québécoise, that New York filmmaker Bill Morrison gave us this long interview, in which he discusses his background, his career, and certain essential features of his artistic and intellectual process, dwelling on issues concerning new technologies, the memory of the film material and the historicity of the filmic medium.
105.
A Bleak Heroism of Images: “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” by Michael Schultz and “Moolaade” by Ousmane Sembene.
106.
Review of Maddin's latest film within the broader context of recent Canadian cinema and its reception in the United States.
107.
Along with Totaro's essay, this forms an in-depth introduction to the films of Guy Maddin.
108.
An analytical peek into the twisted world of Guy Maddin.
110.
A study of two recent art house films (Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter ... and Father and Son) which feature male relationships at their emotional center.
111.
An intriguing look back at the on-set experiences of Jonathan Hourigan.
112.
Fassbinder gets an exhaustive treatment in the recent book by Christian Braad Thomsen, and a likewise turn here by Louis Goyette.
113.
Part-two of Fantasia Festival report.
114.
Fantasia is back after a one year hiatus, stonger than ever.
115.
An in-depth analysis at the social and ideological parameters offered by Lars von Trier's fascinating piece of Brechtian cinema.
117.
An impromptu three-way discussion on one of the most talked about documentary films ever.
118.
A review of the Criterion DVD which suggests Criterion could have done more (or differently) this time around.
121.
A demonstration of the critical value of statistical analysis.
122.
A look back to gauge the current relevancy of this early Bresson reference book.
123.
The future finally looks bright for Bresson DVD enthusiasts. Burnett examines the follow-up Criterion Bresson release.
124.
Bresson's inimitable filmmaking style has its echo in his writing style.
125.
A two-part assessment of the critical discourse surrounding one of cinema's hallowed names, Bresson. Burnett concentrates much of his discussion on the unfortunately polarized views that are continually circulated concerning Bresson's cinematic-philosophical position as “Transcenendalist” or “Materialist”.
126.
Part two of Burnett's critical assessment of the Bressonian theoretical discourse.
127.
Bresson may have been a cinematic iconoclast, but he remains a pivotal figure to the spirit that gave rise to the New Wave.
128.
The future finally looks bright for Bresson DVD enthusiasts. Burnett examines the first Criterion Bresson release.
129.
Pageau revisits Bresson's 'prison' masterpiece after many years to be surprised all over again.
130.
Analysis of Canadian filmmaker Phil Hoffman's poetic treatment of autobiography and aesthetics in Passing Through/Torn Formations.
131.
A look at a documentary account of the life and art of one of cinema's greatest cinematographers, Sven Nykvist.
132.
With Gus Van Sant currently on the hard road back to relevance - the gnomic, impressive achievement that was Gerry (2002) having been so closely followed by his Cannes triumph with Elephant (2003) - the time may be ripe to revisit one of his most eccentric and reviled (and very nearly forgotten) projects, his 1998 near-shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
133.
Gus Van Sant's re-appropriation of Hitchcock's classic is given another (close) look.
136.
In this essay Garrett asks of himself: “What is a minor work of art, and what a major one? How do the perceptions about the social value of characters in film translate into one’s estimation of a film’s importance?” These are questions that occur when Garrett views two films focusing on Native Americans, Randy Redroad’s Haircuts Hurt and Norma Bailey’s Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper Story, and then sees Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian Invasions.
137.
Writer Daniel Garrett collectively analyzes a group of films released in Autumn 2003 in which we can see a “broadening of male sensibility”.
138.
Randolph Jordan stretches his writer's arms in his two-part Fantasia 2003 report, using part one to reflect on cult cinema spectatorship.
139.
Jordan uses part two of his report as an extended mediation on Fantasia (and Jordan) favorite Takashi Miike.
140.
Part two of Hendriks' close textual analysis of Friedrich's personal odyssey.
141.
Part one of Hendriks' close textual analysis of Friedrich's personal odyssey.
142.
Part two of Menard's theoretical explication of classical film theory.
143.
This two-part paper uses Orson Welles The Trial (1963) as a model to explicate Brian Henderson's long take theory. Instead of arguing for or against Henderson's critical standpoint, it uses its classification scheme as a basis for a more thorough understanding of the theoretical gap that exists between the two institutional pillars of cinema, the exclusive theories of Sergei Eisenstein and Andre Bazin.
144.
This essay offers a Deleuzian analysis of the great Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky's montage theory of time-pressure, foregrounded against the historical backdrop of Eisenstein's montage of attractions.
145.
Part two of Menard's unique 'cine-physics'.
146.
A review of Criterion's wonderful transfer of the Alain Resnais film which helped usher in the 1960s modernist cinema.
147.
Part two of Younger's model analysis of the Bazinian discourse.
148.
Younger presents an involved argumentation and defense of Bazin the critic, theorist, and historian par excellence. Far from the often perceived view of Bazin as an inconsistent or politically niave' writer, Younger presents a Bazin relevant and vital for the ages.Part two of Younger's model analysis of the Bazinian discourse.
149.
In September 2002, at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was very pleased to meet Cheng-Sim Lim, the Head of Programming at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, who told me she was curating a series of films celebrating the history of Chinese Martial Arts on film!
150.
Review of Criterion's new transfer of Sam Peckinpah's early 70s classic.
152.
An interview with Georgian short film expert, diirector Mikhäil Kobakhidzé.
153.
By Brett Kashmere and Astria Suparak following the Stan Brakhage Benefit Concert featuring Sonic Youth, Anthology Film Archives, NYC April 12, 2003.
154.
A round-up of some of the best from one of the more interesting National cinemas of the past few years.
157.
The first of a two-parter.
158.
Rist discusses why he thinks Gerry signals a strong return to form for Van Sant.
160.
Stemming from his ongoing graduate work, first-time Offscreen writer Brett Kashmere delves headlong into the fascinating intersection of Brakhage and the cultural expression of the Post-World War II American avant-garde.
161.
Anyone who has heard Stan Brakhage lecture will probably be familiar with his now famous artistic credo, his “400 year plan”. Offscreen editor Donato Totaro provides a brief glimpse into the mountain of a man that was Stan Brakhage.
162.
Drawing on the wide-ranging theories of Michel Chion (Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen), William C. Wees (Light Moving in Time), Sergei Eisenstein (Nonindifferent Nature), Peter Kivy (Music Alone: Philosophical Reflections on the Purely Musical Experience), and Tom Gunning, Jordan explores how Brakhage's films and theory ask us to 're-learn' the fundamental principles of how we interect with the world around us.
163.
Stan Brakhage at the Cinémathèque Québecoise, Montreal, January 27-28, 2001 Part 1: “Death is a Meaningless Word.”
164.
Stan Brakhage at the Cinémathèque Québecoise, Montreal, January 27-28, 2001 Part 1: “Death is a Meaningless Word.”
165.
Active before and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, writer-director Bahram Baizai is an important figure of Iranian cinema. Yet he has yet to receive the awards and accolades of his contemporaries, like Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Panahi, and Majidi, at least not in the West.
166.
A recurring element that struck me during the 2002 Festival International Nouveau Cinéma Nouveaux Medias’ and which I have decided to use as my anchor for this report, is the fragmented narrative, and/or the anthology or omnibus format. Many films at the FCMM were structured using this time honored tradition. Films covered in this report include 11’09’’01, Ten, Gambling, Gods and LSD, Dolls, and Elsewhere.
167.
Boistered by a half-year sabbatical, Peter Rist was a man on a mission, and watched over 250 films on the big screen in 2002. Rist gives us an idea about what makes Montreal one of the best cities in North American for the discerning filmgoer, and how it can be even better.
168.
In a perfect world Peter Mettler would be a household name. Unfortunately it isn't. Stefik takes you on a journey with one of Canada's lesser known gems, filmmaker Peter Mettler
169.
Stefik tries to define the particular and unique qualities that make up the Peter Mettler film experience. Although largely a review of Mettler's latest films, “Gambling, Gods and LSD”, Stefik also touches on some of Mettler's earlier works.
170.
The top of Michael Snow’s curriculum vitae reads, born: Toronto, Ontario, 10 December, 1929. Occupation: filmmaker, musician, visual artist, composer, writer, sculptor. As Canada’s best-known living artist, Snow is also one of the world’s two most highly acclaimed experimental filmmakers (the other being Stan Brakhage, US).
171.
La Région Centrale (Quebec, 1971, 180 min., 16mm, color) is arguably the most spectacular experimental film made anywhere in the world, and for John W. Locke, writing in Artforum in 1973, it was “as fine and important a film as I have ever seen.” If ever the term “metaphor on vision” needed to be applied to a film it should be to this one. Following Wavelength, Michael Snow continued to explore ...
172.
Thirty-five years after its inception, Wavelength (Ontario, 1967, 45 min.) remains one of the most vital and (still) groundbreaking films in the history of experimental cinema. It is, quite simply, the “Citizen Kane” of experimental cinema. Screenings of Wavelength in and out of academic situations have probably generated more mixed emotions-frustration, boredom, exhilaration and awe (sometimes in the same spectator)- than any other film.
173.
If ever the term “Renaissance Man” applied, it would be to Michael Snow. Most artists would be pleased to have made inroads into one art, but Snow is a strange beast, extending his creative talons into music, painting, sculpting, photography, and film (are you dizzy yet?). So as ecstatic as we were to have one hour with Snow out of his extremely busy schedule, we realized given his prodigious achievements....
174.
The films of Michael Snow require a certain intellectual disposition. To be fully understood and appreciated they should be placed within the context of art history, and more specifically modernism, where each medium’s intrinsic value is maintained. But aren’t such pretensions to a medium’s purity merely utopian, or in the least fragmentary or incomplet
175.
Michel Chion’s Audio-Vision: Sound on Screen presents some compelling strategies for approaching and interpreting the use of sound in film, and provides many avenues for using sound as a way of understanding cinema from a more transcendental frame of mind. What Chion discovers through his process of coming to terms, so to speak, with his expanded vocabulary for sound analysis is that much of the deeper experience we get from cinema is a direct result of the transcendence....
176.
As an invited guest to Pi-Fan, Professor Rist was asked to share his knowledge of King Hu to interested observers. Offscreen extends the privilege to its readers.
177.
Iranian cinema once again leads the way at the Montreal World Film Festival.
178.
Iran has Samira Makhmalbaf and a famous father named Mohsen. Italy has Asia Argento and a famous father named Dario. The parallels pretty much stop there.
179.
Hospitality Korean style makes Professor Rist's first (and certainly not last) trip to Pi-Fan (5th Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival) an event to remember.
180.
Splashy, wild, sexy, and stylish describes the world of the Italian fumetti ('black' adult comic books). But what happens to the fumetti when translated to the screen? A distant cousin to the giallo ('yellow' serial thrillers), the fumetti neri have been mainstays of Italian pop culture since their inception in the early 1960's. Curti traces their lineage from comic strip to movie screen.
182.
In the first of a two-part analysis, Leah Hendriks explores the fascinating interconnections that exist above and below the surfaces between maverick director Stanley Kubrick and the experimental film works of Maya Deren, Jordan Belson, Stan Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger. Hendriks concentrates mainly on 2001: A Space Odyssey (in part one) and Eyes Wide Shut (in part two).
183.
The long wait for Tarkovskians is finally over. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky) is out on DVD!
184.
An in-depth analysis of Criterion's swank release of Sir Carol Reed's British noir classic.
185.
Vesia offers a culturally based analysis of the Gangster film, Hong Kong style.
186.
Perhaps not the best giallo ever made, but an interesting entry into the female paranoia film.
187.
Kudos to Columbia-Tristar for their continued excellence in Asian DVD's.
188.
Totaro explores how certain styles of filmmaking (montage vs. long take style) may be used to activate different cognitive states ('intellect' versus 'emotion').
189.
It is usually thought that reflexivity in art comes with maturation and development. Hardly, as Morissette demonstrates with her in-depth analysis of reflexivity in early cinema.
190.
Perhaps still an appendice to the mega-Just For Laughs Comedy Festival, the new programming crew are out to make a mark.
191.
Randolph uses Clive Barker's The Forbidden to explore how the Faustian myth of immortality persists in contemporary attempts at reproduction and regeneration through the intersections of art and science, art and nature, and music and film.
194.
Sándor Lau treats us to coverage of New Zealand's wackiest and most challenging festival
195.
Firstrun Features does an admirable job with the DVD transfer of Dariush Mehrjui's excellent Leila.
196.
A review which tries to capture the unique experience which is Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó.
197.
Steven Soderbergh balances arthouse modernism with conventions of the classical genre to produce nouveau gangster chic.
198.
An interview with Montreal-based filmmaker Roshell Bissett on her first feature, the horror film Winter Lily.
199.
The Road Movie meets pure movement in the form of Henri Bergson. Part 1.
200.
The Road Movie meets pure movement in the form of Henri Bergson. Part 2.
201.
An analysis of the year that was. An improvement over 2000, according to Rist.
202.
A roundtable discussion with filmmakers Robin Schlaht, Roy Cross, Michael Crochetière, and film critic/writer/teacher Johanne Larue.
203.
Randolph Jordan relies equally on his 'eyes' and 'ears' as he concentrates on the often overlooked juxtaposition of sound and image, a dialectic that is becoming an increasingly important part of Montreal's FCMM Festival International Nouveau Cinéma et Nouveaux Médias.
204.
Part two of Randolph Jordan's coverage of Montreal's FCMM Festival International Nouveau Cinéma et Nouveaux Médias.
205.
A review of Robin Schlaht's recent Canadian feature Solitude.
206.
Offscreen presents an interview with Italian cinematographer Guiseppe Lanci, who has worked with such greats Andrei Tarkovsky, Nanni Moretti, and Marco Bellochio.
207.
Offscreen presents an interview with Italian cinematographer Guiseppe Lanci, who has worked with such greats Andrei Tarkovsky, Nanni Moretti, and Marco Bellochio. (Italian version).
208.
Throughout, Tati contrasts the cold colors and industrial sounds of the Arpel’s and the Plastac factory to the warm, earth tone colors, traditional French music, and human sounds of the old quarter. Tati may prefer this idealized vision of the past, but he remains the realist.
209.
The most gratifying aspect of Criterion's new digital transfer of Mario Monicelli's classic comedy caper film I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street) is the fuller appreciation of the stunning black and white cinematography by Gianni Di Venanzo.
210.
Part two of David Neo's subtle analysis of Fractal memory images in Sokoruv's Mother and Son.
211.
Gilles Deleuze Meets the Mandelbrot set in this theoretical exploration of the memory images in Sokoruv's modern day Kammerspiel classic Mother and Son.
212.
Josef von Sternberg once said that he would not mind if his films were projected upside down, so much was his contempt for 'conventional' Hollywood storytelling.
213.
A relatively new breed of film comedy hybrid has emerged in the past 20 or so years, the 'mockumentary.'
214.
Red Desert is the final film of Antonioni's Alienation Tetralogy, and one of the best films to depict the complex notion of neurosis and social illness.
215.
Offscreen presents this probing interview with the Brothers Quay, conducted in Trieste, Italy.
216.
Early in 2001 Hors Champ presented a 4-day event featuring a selected program of vintage works by one of America's leading visual artists, experimental filmmaker Stan Brakhage. Nicolas Renaud recounts what was for many an extremely moving 4-day aesthetic experience.
217.
Randolph Jordan summarizes Fantasia 2001 in light of the tragic event of 9/11, an event which may perhaps change how reality-based violence is treated in films and other forms of entertainment.
218.
Fantasia, in its 6th year, continues to grow and mature as an important and eclectic film festival.
219.
Offscreen presents for the first time in its orginal English language, this revised version of an essay that appeared in a French translation in Séquence magazine in 1995. Read on to see how Peter Jackson revolutionized horror (or comedy?) with his startling early feature films.
220.
Offscreen rarely reviews big budget Hollywood. But I am making an exception with the latest remake of Planet of the Apes, if only to reaffirm why it is that Offscreen treads cautiously when it comes to current Hollywood.
221.
Image Entertainment presents for the first time in North America, the uncut, English dub version of Mario Bava's gothic masterpiece, The Mask of Satan (re-titled Black Sunday by AIP for its US release in 1961).
222.
Orson Welles has been on record as saying that The Trial (1962) was the favorite of his films. Perhaps this is because it was the first film since Citizen Kane to be released precisely as he had intended, without any studio imposed changes and interference.
223.
The definitive interview on one of Montreal's most notorious independent feature films, Subconscious Cruelty. Enough said.
224.
Part two of Peter Rist's critical assessment of Iranian films that played at the most recent of the major Montreal film festivals.
225.
The first of a two-part critical assessment of recent Iranian cinema seen through the eyes of Montreal film critic and film professor Peter Rist.
226.
A look at Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing as both a springboard and touchstone for an inquiry into the nature of time and how shifting perceptions and attitudes toward it have effected society and the individual.
227.
One of the grand masters of contemporary cinema visits Montreal. Read an exclusive interview here at Offscreen.
228.
Interview with Republic of Korea director Park Ki-Hyung on his smash debut horror hit Whispering Corridors (1998).
229.
One of the most influential and important horror magazines, Fangoria horror magazine, selects Spanish director Nacho Cerda as one of the 13 rising Horror stars to keep on eye on.
230.
The Montreal-based Tana discusses these films and his experiences as an Italian-Canadian filmmaker.
231.
Another edition of the FCMM has come and gone, and I can not remember an edition which featured as many programmers and organizers brimming with perennial smiles.
232.
A look back to Fantasia 1999 and a look forward to Fantasia 2000.
233.
Read here about The 24th International Hong Kong Film Festival.
235.
An in-depth interview with the director of the smash horror hit series Ring.
236.
Will Buster Keaton ever date? Unlikely, as this recent retrospective demonstrates.
237.
The Award winning Canadian experimental narrative film Subterranean Passage is a meticulously layered visual puzzle that slowly unravels through a series of echoing motifs on the wonder and resiliency of childhood imagination.
238.
Text of the lecture given by Donigan Cumming as part of a series of video screenings in France, October 25th to November 2nd 1999.
240.
Canadian director Atom Egoyan discusses his existential serial killer film Felicia's Journey.
241.
Genghis Blues touches the very core of the human soul -as great music does- and demonstrates with poetic simplicity how music can be the great cultural leveler. How else can you explain the immediate, symbiotic link that is established between a burly, blind, near-forgotten San Franciscan bluesman and the people of a remote Central Asian nation, Tuva?
242.
Historically, Halloween has its origins with the ancient Druids, who believed that on the eve of All Saints' Day, the lord of the dead, Saman, would summon a host of evil spirits. In modern days the only evil spirits called on during Halloween (excluding all those little tyrants running around in costumes!) are those emanating from movie screens.
243.
An in-depth historical analysis of pre-Revolution Iranian cinema.
244.
The 28th International Festival of New Cinema and New Media set the marker posts on the route to the future. This one festival comprises two very separate events that –for the moment– have little to do with each other.
245.
My curiosity about a film entitled Burn, Witch, Burn has been peaked since the day I purchased an original one-sheet of the film in the mid-1970's. With the film still unavailable on video, I had written off the likelihood of every seeing the film.
246.
For its annual benefit screening, La Cinémathèque Québécoise offered a restored 35-mm print of Paul Leni's searing expressionistic historical drama, The Man Who Laughs.
247.
The continual blur of Montreal Film festivals does not allow the seasoned filmgoer much chance to breathe, let alone contemplate each individual festival within the city’s cinematic global whole.
248.
The distinguished Italian director Mario Monicelli was in Montreal to serve as Jury Member at the 1999 Montreal World Film Festival. I spoke to Mr. Monicelli about Italian comedy in general and, more specifically, one of the first films to gain both critical and popular success and help cement the Italian comedy film's international reputation, I Soliti Ignoti (Big Deal on Madonna Street), 1958.
249.
Sergei Eisenstein has always been the pride of the Soviet cinema, but it was not until after perestroika, and especially after the collapse of Communism, that Russian theoreticians began to freely explore the national-psychological roots, cultural
250.
Sopyanje is a stirring Korean style road movie that weaves emotive Korean folk music (Pansori) and pastoral landscapes with a powerful plea for Korean identity.
251.
Affliction is a powerful account of domestic male violence and a man trapped within its vicious circle. Nick Nolte is the trapped man Wade Whitehouse, the town's part-time sheriff and all-around handyman, and son to Glen Whitehouse (sublimely played by James Coburn).
252.
Getting an interviewing with Zhang Yimou is difficult. Even in my hometown Beijing, I felt he was harder to reach than he was in Montreal last winter.
253.
As part of their April-May program la Cinémathèque québécoise featured a mini-retrospective of one of Italy's oldest living directors, Alberto Lattuada (born, 1914).
254.
No one to be Missed, which in Zhang Yimou's words is one of my best movies, deals with a rural town's school drop-out problem. Zhang Yimou is a director known for having excellent work relations with his film crew.
255.
Korea was the spotlighted nation at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival (August 27-September 7). One of the nine Korean films featured was Lee Kwangmo's Spring in my Hometown , a poignant story about the effects of the Korean War on two neighboring families in a small village in South Korea.
256.
Brain Yuzna was one of many invited guests of the Montreal Fant-Asia 1998 Film Festival (July 10-August 9). Yuzna's two most recent films were featured in the festival's International section, Progeny and The Dentist 2.
257.
Brain Yuzna was one of many invited guests of the Montreal Fant-Asia 1998 Film Festival (July 10-August 9). Yuzna's two most recent films were featured in the festival's International section, Progeny and The Dentist 2.
258.
Brain Yuzna was one of many invited guests of the Montreal Fant-Asia 1998 Film Festival (July 10-August 9). Yuzna's two most recent films were featured in the festival's International section, Progeny and The Dentist 2.
259.
Brain Yuzna was one of many invited guests of the Montreal Fant-Asia 1998 Film Festival (July 10-August 9). Yuzna's two most recent films were featured in the festival's International section, Progeny and The Dentist 2.
260.
Interview conducted by Donato Totaro, Mitch Davis, and Jason J. Slater in Montreal, Canada during the 1999 Fantasia Film Festival. Photos taken by King-Wai Chou.
261.
Interview conducted by Donato Totaro, Mitch Davis, and Jason J. Slater in Montreal, Canada during the 1999 Fantasia Film Festival. Photos taken by King-Wai Chou.
262.
As part of his method he becomes one of the combatants or performers, knowing that each scene will present a different battle. If each new video is born from this type of process then Cumming is not only the field commander but a soldier as well.
264.
In two years short years, American Independent director Douglas Buck has becomes a Fant-Asia fan favorite for his uncompromising brand of “domestic horror”; Douglas Buck was back at Fant-Asia '98 with his short film Home , a companion piece of sorts to last year's Cutting Moments (the film that had people crying OUCH).
265.
The latest incarnation of the Festival of New Cinema and New Media (FCMM) runs from October 15 to 25 and seems to be another attempt at redefining itself.
266.
The extreme levels of violence found in Hong Kong and Japanese films confounds many Western viewers because Western culture, unlike most Eastern cultures, tends to moralize violence. Read on for a cultural contextualisation of violence Asian style.
267.
For the second year in a row, Le Festival des Films du Monde is putting the spotlight on a country in which the cinema is at the heart and soul of its nation's culture.
268.
Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival returns for its third successful year, presenting challenging Asian and International films. Read here for in-depth converage of Montreal's most popular (populist?) film fest.
269.
I have left for last the most powerful alienating effect on nature, Sokurov's use of special distorting lenses and mirrors that give the image an oblique, quivering feel. It is a unique form of distortion, one that has had many viewers baffled.
270.
Following up on Part 1 by looking at the effects of May 1968 on filmmakers outside of France, concentrating on Michelangelo Antonioni.
271.
May 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the student riots and subsequent strikes that took hold of France from mid-May to June 5, 1968. The disturbances and events that led to the uprising are well chronicled.
272.
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem is a wonderfully audacious treatment of the paradoxes of history, truth, and temporality.
273.
The following essay will demonstrate how The Puppetmaster is one of the purest Bergsonian films ever made.
274.
“I have selected fifty films that are my choices for the best films to have competed at Cannes.”
275.
“The film image is an alienated reflection -an imitation of life perilously similar to the original.”
276.
I have left for last the most powerful alienating effect on nature, Sokurov’s use of special distorting lenses and mirrors that give the image an oblique, quivering feel. It is a unique form of distortion, one that has had many viewers baffled.
277.
« A quietly dark, sinister reworking of The Island of Dr. Moreau and various children's tales (Tom Thumb, Jack the Giant Killer)»
278.
Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness, though not based on any specific work of H.P. Lovecraft, is one of the most Lovecraftian films ever made.
279.
This is by far the best Freddie film since the original in 1984. Only a fresh comparison between them would decide which of the two is better.
280.
The first Korean film I saw was Im Kwon-Taek’s Adada (1987) at Montreal’s World Film Festival in August, 1988. But, with virtually no coverage of Korean cinema in the English language, nothing had led me to expect that Adada would be such an interesting work, thematically, stylistically, and in its narrative content.
281.
In 1996 James Quandt, programmer for the Cinematheque Ontario in collaboration with the Audio-Visual Division of the Japan Foundation,Tokyo organized the film series, Mizoguchi The Master.
282.
Early in 1997 the CCA (Cinémathèque Canada) ran a near complete retrospective on Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf.
283.
Having seen only three of the 60 plus films directed by Sang-Ok it may be premature to start tossing out superlatives, but his films seen at the recent Cinematheque Canada’s (CCA) Three Korean Master Filmmakers series represent one of the major international cinema revelations of recent years.
284.
The two great pillars of Indian cinema, Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak, made remarkable, though considerably different, films in 1958: The Music Room and Ajantrik.
285.
Today, Martin Scorsese is considered by the majority of film critics as the greatest living American director. In a survey done in the early nineties, Raging Bull was elected as the best American film of the eighties.
286.
The whirlwind that was Fant-Asia has come and gone, leaving in its wake some 70,000 spectators and a trail of cinematic blood and bullet-ridden body parts.
287.
A Gun for Jennifer is a ballsy, energetic feminist revisionist take on the traditionally male revenge action film. After a successful festival run, it has seen comparisons to such female revenge films as Ms. 45 and Thelma and Louise, though...
288.
The inimitable Richard Stanley's films thus far include the cyper-punk cult science-fiction film Hardware (1990), the poetic experimental documentary on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan, Voices of the Moon (1991) and the oneiric horror film...
289.
Fantasia ’97 promises to be as spectacular as last year’s edition, Montreal’s first festival of commercial (Fantasy and Action) Asian cinema, Fantasia, which was arguably the city’s most popular film festival of all time.
292.
Linoleum floors, toy horses, souvenirs, ash trays, slippers, sagging skin, shriveled hands, truth and dare; CUT THE PARROT is a tragic comedy with an artist and caste of marginal performers whose guttural monologues take on the characteristics of
293.
The sciences do not try to explain, they hardly even try to interpret, they mainly make models.
294.
With a healthy majority of Fant-Asia's International section devoted to Italian horror I thought it would be appropriate to get things rolling with some thoughts on Italian style horror.
295.
After wishing to visit the city since childhood, I finally got the opportunity in 1997 to attend what is probably the best of the Asian film festivals and perhaps the finest non-competitive film festival anywhere in the world, the Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF).
297.
Lucio Fulci's archetypical Italian zombie epic The Beyond plays at Fantasia in a pristine 35mm print.
298.
After ten plus days of hectic film/video and moving image viewing, the FCMM is over, leaving a year void to be filled in by other film festivals. The point, however, is that none of the other festivals are going to be anything like this one.
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