ISSN 1712-9559
Keyword Category : Film Aesthetics and Film History
Andre Bazin Andrei Tarkovsky Black Cinema Cinefest Cinematheque Quebecois Cinematography Cuban Cinema Cult Cinema David Bordwell Feminism Film Canon Film History Film Painting Film Preservation Film Style Film Theory Found Footage Cinema Gay Lesbian German Expressionism Gerry Gianni Di Venanzo Gilles Deleuze Giorgio di Chirico Guiseppe Lanci Henri Bergson Independent Cinema Jackson Pollock Jacques Lacan Lech Majewski Leonard Maltin Modernism Montage Mother and Son Music Nazism Neo Realism Noel Carroll Painting Paul Schrader Pauline Kael Phil Serling Political Political Cinema Political Theory Psychoanalysis Repertory Revolutionary Cinema Sergei Eisenstein Socialist Realism Sound Surrealism Susan Sontag Sven Nykvist Temporality Tzvetan Todorov Walter Benjamin Wetfish William K Everson
1.
An overview of the short film programs at the Festival Nouveau Cinéma 2009.
6.
An interview with co-founder of Severin Films DVD company, David Gregory.
7.
An interview with Maurice Devereaux on his latest and most ambitious film, End of the Line.
8.
A Bergsonian analysis of Andrei Tarkovsky's dream-like aesthetics in Mirror.
9.
A review essay of Daniel Shaw and Richard A. Gilmore's recent critical works on the intersection of film and philosophy.
10.
A theoretical analysis of how the temporal experience is modulated in cinema to accommodate the cognitive possibilities of narrative. The essay relies on the theoretical thoughts of Deleuze and Bergson for its philosophical basis, Paul Ricoeur for the narratology, Bazin for film theory (realism) and then uses the Western genre as its case study.
11.
An analysis of Third Cinema theory that extends the classic tenets of 1960s-1970s political cinema to incorporate the European Diaspora.
12.
This study attempts to determine the factors most helpful to the Egyptian audience in determining their choices of motion pictures.
13.
Interview with Iranian director of the dance film Forbidden Sun Dance, Lila Ghobady, and its subject, dance choreographer Aram Bayat.
14.
Garrett draws on both critical works on Pasolini's Notes for an African Orestes and Pasolini’s own theoretical writing to place Notes for an African Orestes in the context of Pasolini’s own filmography and the broader intellectual framework of Pasolini’s varied cultural and political background.
15.
The second of a two-part 'Bazinian' analysis of cinephilia which explores the 'love of cinema' from the perspective of a philosophical search for truth. What does it mean when one expresses a 'love' of cinema? Can this love be a genuine form of reflection, a valid source of one's human expression?
16.
Author Robert Robertson's sixth Offscreen essay on the audiovisual aspects of Sergei Eisenstein.
17.
The first of a two-part 'Bazinian' analysis of cinephilia which explores the 'love of cinema' from the perspective of a philosophical search for truth. What does it mean when one expresses a 'love' of cinema? Can this love be a genuine form of reflection, a valid source of one's human expression?
18.
An interview with the translator/publisher of the new 2009 translation of André Bazin's What is Cinema?.
19.
A review essay of the brand new translation of André Bazin's What is Cinema?.
20.
An in-depth interview with Frank Henenlotter on the release of his first feature film in 16 years, Bad Biology.
21.
A comparative analysis of the German expressionist classic, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Clive Barker's feature debut, Hellraiser.
22.
The sensuality of this rare, painterly-like Parguayan feature film is discussed by writer Donato Totaro.
23.
A personal account of encountering the 'difficult' works of Alain Robbe-Grillet, and then the man himself.
24.
An analysis arguing for Le Mepris as one of Godard’s most ‘emotionally’ engaged works.
25.
An analysis of masculinity in three key Jamaican films.
26.
An in-depth humanist analysis of Haaz Sleiman's The Visitor.
27.
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.
28.
A festival report on the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival. Films reviewed include Ara, Ex Drummer, and A Jihad for Love.
30.
A thematic and formal analysis of the environmental thread across a group of mainly low budget, independent horror films that showed at Fantasia 2007.
31.
A report of the 2008 Bradford International Film Festival.
32.
Relying on secondary sources and an in-depth formal analysis, author Richard Wallace takes a plunge into defining the ineffable: the Lubitsch Touch.
33.
An interview with Doug Harris, writer/director of the Canadian film Remembering Mel.
34.
The end of the world is hot on US screens of late, culminating in the intriguing technological experiment, Cloverfield.
35.
An interview with Philippe Spurrell, director of the Canadian supernatural mystery, The Descendant (2007).
36.
Festival report on the ever-growing (48th) Thessaloniki International Film Festival.
37.
An earnest, DIY account of a sighted creature in the New Orleans, Louisiana area.
38.
An interview with the indie masters of camp aesthetics and underground trash (in the best term), the Kuchar bros.
40.
An analysis of Terence Malick's phenomenological-influenced approach to cinematic objects, an approach which expands our conception of 'film realism' and certain formal codes of film language (like point of view).
41.
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.
42.
While most reviewers of Abel Ferrara’s (arguably masterpiece) The Bad Lieutenant tended to laud Harvey Kietel’s performance in spite of his character’s morally reprehensible nature, and the film’s overall harsh subject matter, Jason Mark Scott argues that Ferrara’s stylistic mix of ‘naturalism’ (which is likened to Pier Paolo Pasolini) and lyricism amounts to a poignant treatment of Catholic angst.
43.
All too often film criticism takes itself too seriously. What if film criticism tried to be as entertaining as its product? Offscreen introduces 'Bran Stakhage's' new concept in film criticism: 'post-it' styled criticism which you could print out and stick on your kitchen fridge.
44.
Author Jenna Bond examines the homosexual subtext across three seminal Spaghetti westerns.
45.
A psychoanalytical analysis of the unique Greek cult film??Singapore Sling??, a postmodern melange of classic film noir tropes, melodrama, gothic horror, Expressionism, and exploitation cinema (extreme gore, explicit sex).
46.
A structural analysis of film noir openings. Part 2.
47.
A structural analysis of film noir openings. Part 1.
48.
For this final forum, I invited short contributions from practitioners of audiovisual art working outside of the realm of cinema proper to offer some thoughts on the current state of the art, and what the future might hold for artists interesting in achieving higher levels of integration between sound and image.
49.
In our final feature essay, Charles Stankievech keeps us firmly rooted within the realm of sound. Yet like the other essays in this issue, he too is interested in the blurring of a boundary line: that between the experiences of interiority and exteriority as mediated by headphone technologies.
50.
In the first essay of this issue to eschew considerations specific to audiovisual relationships, Jonathan Sterne nevertheless continues with the more general theme of blurred boundaries by considering the hybridization of media technologies and musical instruments that we have become so used to in today’s world of basement recording studios and stadium DJ concerts.
51.
This essay serves as the point of transition between the two general sections of this edition of Offscreen: Sound in the Cinema and Beyond.
52.
To complete the section of this issue dedicated to the cinema proper, we have a forum addressing an ongoing debate regarding the continuing relevance of the term diegesis and its attendant distinctions between diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
53.
In this essay, Brett Kashmere examines Ryan Tebo’s recent documentary Whoever Fights Monsters, a film which examines the nature of improvisational jazz through a unique approach to the filmmaking process itself.
54.
This piece centers upon a discussion with Hildegard Westerkamp about the use of her soundscape compositions in the films of Gus Van Sant.
55.
In this essay, Randall Barnes takes us deep into the concept of “designing a film for sound” using Barton Fink as a case study for examining the close working relationship between writer/directors Joel and Ethan Coen, sound designer Skip Lievsay, and composer Carter Burwell.
56.
This issue begins with a celebration of sound in film, bringing together ten short essays by a variety of film scholars detailing auditory moments from the history of cinema that they have found to be worthy of discussion.
57.
The explosion of academic interest in sound studies over the past decade has ensured that I can no longer begin a special sound-oriented issue of a journal such as this by declaring the topic a “neglected domain.” Serious inquiry dealing with sound from a wealth of disciplinary perspectives has definitively taken place. In many ways, being free of the cachet that comes with obscurity is very appealing; I no longer have to justify my interest in sound, and can now comfortably take it for granted that the auditory dimension is worthy of exploration in its own right.
59.
An genre analysis of Park Chan-Wook's particular brand of film thriller.
60.
In this survey some of Offscreen's regular contributors speak their mind on cinema of the last ten years. Offscreen would like to thank the valuable contribution of its many writers. To note the obvious, Offscreen would not be where it is today if not for them.
61.
Author Becky Korman compares and contrasts the strengths and weaknesses of a Nigerian (Ezra) and American (Blood Diamond) film based on a similar subject: the consequences of civil war on the people of Sierra Leone as a result of conflict surrounding the diamond trade.
62.
An interview with the director of Bamako, Abderrahmane Sissako.
63.
Authour Jason Lindop offers a close analysis of director Sissako's symbolic treatment of the social and economic effects of globalization and Western intervention in Africa.
64.
Ryan Spence’s essay concentrates on Sissako’s formal interplay between varying forms of interogative discourse (trial process, question/answer, song) and narration, and how the differing power structures of communication in Africa and the West need to be addressed before the true collective voice of Africa can be heard and, in turn, true economic and social progress.
65.
An analysis of the film Thunderbolt, a representative of the hundreds of recent video works to be coming out of Nigeria in recent years (sometimes called Nollywood). Author Murphy places the film within the (hopefully) burgeoning desires and ambitions of this burgeoning commercial industry.
66.
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.
67.
Author Krystle Doromal compares the on/off-screen personas of two Asian American actresses from different eras, Ann May Wong and Lucy Lui. Doromal argues that, while being typecast, these two actresses have also challenged the sterotypical images of Asian Americans in their own different ways.
68.
A close textual analysis of Elie Suleiman’s Chronicle of a Disappearance which demonstrates how the director's understanding of form informs the complex political landscape of the everyday Palestinian experience.
69.
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.
70.
An theoretical analysis of what makes the cult film fan tick, from a psychoanalytical standpoint.
71.
A book review essay of Mark Reid's expansive book on African American cinema, which dates back to the silent films of pioneering director/producer Oscar Micheaux to contemporary American cinema.
72.
A review essay of one of the most intriguing low budget American horror films ever made, taking into account production history and how director Herk Harvey uses the film's technical limitations to its benefit.
73.
A tribute to the Hammer great Freddie Francis, cinematographer par excellence and director of countless horror films, including the film given extensive analysis here, The Creeping Flesh.
74.
An historical contextualisation of Santiago Álvarez' bold political/experimental short films.
75.
An overview of Richard Kerr's multimedia installation, Industrie/Industry.
76.
A comparative analysis between the styles of Robert Bresson and Sergio Leone.
77.
An analysis of how cinematic 'space' can include geographical, physical properties of city landscapes, with a special emphasis on how Los Angeles informs the meaning of Fight Club and Collateral, and Athens in Delivery.
78.
Review essay of the book Dreams of a Nation: On Palestinian Cinema which analyzes the varied complexities surrounding a 'national' cinema in search of Nationhood.
79.
An analysis of Eisenstein's most abstract montage type, 'intellectual montage.'
80.
A review of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain tracing the film's literary roots in Allegory, Romanticism and Epic poetry.
81.
An in-depth interview with one of the driving forces behind the promotion and critical appreciation of Asian cinema, Tony Rayns.
82.
A report on the 2006 installment of the Vancouver International Film Festival, sorting out what author Archibald feels is the ossification of a common arthouse aesthetic.
83.
An exploration of the wild and diverse world of internet cinema, including films made specifically for the internet and those which find a second home (and wind) on the WWW.
84.
An introspective analysis of what happens when aesthetization meets the politically volatile subject of global capitalism.
85.
An industry analysis using Almodovar's Live Flesh and Guy Ritchie's Snatch as case studies of the sort of narrative and stylistic markers used by European cinema to compete with American films in the global market.
86.
An overview of the best seen (and not seen) on Montreal theatre screens.
87.
Professor Paul Salmon reviews the Criterion Collection release of Powell and Pressburger's influential cinematic opera piece, The Tales of Hoffman.
88.
A reflection on the state of the film canon vis-a-vis film critic/filmmaker Paul Schrader.
89.
An interview with young filmmaker Julia Loktev on her controversial film about a female suicide bomber, Day Night Day Night.
90.
An essay on Hakan Sahin's first two features, Mirror and Snow, studies on the psychological effects of living in geographical isolation.
91.
A report on the 47th Thessaloniki International Film Festival in Greece, with a concentration on the International Competition.
92.
A broad survey of the trends and patterns of the American horror film since 1991, the year Silence of the Lambs won several Academy Awards.
93.
An interview with director, cast and select production people of the refreshingly original indie horror film, Shallow Ground.
94.
A look at how two recent documentaries on the slasher/stalker film signals a paradigm shift in the horror genre.
95.
An analysis of the representation of the disabled across the broad spectrum of fantastic cinemas.
96.
A report on the 2006 Tribeca Film Festival, concentrating on the feature fiction films.
97.
A review essay of Dai Sijie's France-China production of Sijie's own novel, set during China's Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Author Garrett analyzes (among other elements) how, during one of the darkest periods in China's cultural history, great art (much of it destroyed as part of the 're-education' program) survived through the perseverance of the human spirit.
98.
An in-depth book review essay of Memoirs from the Beijing Film Academy, the fascinating first hand account about some of the more prominent members of China's Fifth Generation filmmakers, written by a professor from the Beijing Academy, Ni Zhen.
99.
A philosophical analysis of Catherine Breillat's controversial Anatomy of Hell.
100.
An in-depth analysis of the representation of women in contemporary Iranian cinema.
101.
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.
102.
A somewhat irreverent, insightful analysis of two recent female-centered Iranian documentaries, The Ladies Room and Iranian Journey.
103.
An analysis of two recent documentaries exposing the social injustices of archaic law and custom in Israel and Central India: Sentenced to Marriage and Highway Courtesans.
104.
An interview with San Francisco-based curator, critic, theorist, writer, producer Jenni Olson
105.
A review essay of two books celebrating the varied contributions of African-American 'imagemakers' in its broadest sense (filmmakers, actors, writers, artists).
106.
A review essay of a multi-author reader on one of the greatest of Scottish films, The Wicker Man.
107.
A trans-gendered analysis of Hitchcock's Marnie.
108.
A discussion on the finer points of the interpretative process and how film's can 'make' meaning, with Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven as the case study film.
109.
A book review of Richard A. Gilmore’s Doing Philosophy at the Movies, which looks at, The Searchers, The Usual Suspects, Vertigo, Fargo, Crimes and Misdemeanors, The Terminator, 12 Monkeys, Trainspotting, Night of the Living Dead, and The Matrix.
110.
A psychoanalytical analysis of recent films which incorporate 'unreliable' narration as a key element of what David Church argues is a 'masochistic' form of visual pleasure.
111.
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.
112.
A tribute to the great Italian actresses Alida Valli, who passed away April 22, 2006.
113.
Costa–Gavras returns with an astute black comedy on the corporate mindset.
114.
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.
115.
A panoply of in-depth reviews focusing on the importance of character as a way of reading film texts for social and philosophical meaning.
116.
An report on teh 26th installment of the Syracuse based Cinefest festival, a four-day fiesta of early cinema.
117.
An exploration of the art of fight choreography as defined by wuxia pan master King Hu.
118.
An analysis of the great montagists Sergei Eisenstein’s interest in synaesthesia and occult traditions.
119.
An idiosyncratic look at contemporary thought filtered through popular art, literature, film, and philosophy.
120.
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.
122.
An idiosyncratic look at contemporary thought filtered through popular art, literature, film, and philosophy.
123.
An analysis of curator Jenni Olson's collection of Black American Cinema Trailers, 1946 - 1976.
124.
A comparative analysis of social/political meaning in Charlie Chaplin's The Immigrant and Busby Berkeley and Mervyn Le Roy's Golddiggers of 1933.
125.
An 'ensemble' piece of film criticism using the unique culture of Louisiana and the Katrina hurricane that shattered Louisiana as a starting point. Films analyzed include: Be Cool, Guess Who, Elizabethtown, Loggerheads, 9 Songs, Cote D’Azur, 2046, Red Eye, Thumbsucker, and Proof.
126.
An in-depth review essay of the notorious horror film In a Glass Cage, released on DVD by Cult Epics.
127.
An overview of all the best of Canadian, American, and International cinema screened in Montreal during 2005.
128.
A review of Austrian experimental/avant-garde films on a DVD collection produced by Index.
129.
An review essay of the compilation DVD from Index, Sonic Fiction: Synaesthetic Videos from Austria.
130.
An interview with the seminal figure in structural cinema, Peter Kubelka.
131.
A review of Austrian experimental/avant-garde films on a DVD collection produced by Index.
132.
An in-depth interview with co-writer and co-director of the Canadian noirish horror film Eternal.
133.
An appreciation of Pauline Kael through Ingmar Bergman.
134.
A narratological study of The Little Shop Around the Corner and its remake by Nora Ephron.
135.
Writer Randolph Jordan weaves through a thematic pattern of pregnancy/death/rebirth which left its mark on FanTasia 2005.
136.
An interview with the director of the indie reality-based melodrama (in the good sense) Firecracker.
137.
A theoretical analysis of the value of Gus Van Sant's Psycho.
138.
Psychoanalytical reading of Hawks' Bringing up Baby and Hitchcock's Vertigo
139.
An in-depth essay on the 10th anniversary of Robert Lepage's impressive debut feature Le Confessional
140.
Revisiting a classic of Quebec cinema, La Petite Aurore, L’enfant Martyre.
141.
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.
142.
Interview with makers of the poetic science-fiction parable The City without Windows (La Dernière Voix).
143.
The evolution of Québécois popular hero IXE-13 from serial novel to film.
144.
A report on La Cinémathèque's major retrospective of the works of Malaysian-born Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang.
145.
An analysis of two classic Cuban shorts, one pre (??El Megano??) and one post-Revolution (??La primena oaroa al machete??).
146.
Geopolitics meet sexual politics in Walk on Water
148.
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'
149.
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'
151.
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.
153.
An analysis of Sontag's infamous later essay lamenting the death of cinephilia.
154.
Re-evaluation of Sontag's seminal essay “Against Interpretation”.
156.
Review of Barbara Wilinsky's book on the cultural history of the arthouse film viewing.
157.
There are works that are less important for what they are than for what they inspire us to think about, and one such work is Rodney Evans’s “Brother to Brother”
158.
Films come and come; and do so quickly enough that it’s hard to know if any of them are of much importance—before a decent, public conversation can occur, they’re gone. Films reviewed include: Hero, We Don’t Live Here Anymore, Vanity Fair, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Motorcycle Diaries, Kilometer Zero, Stage Beauty, Kinsey, Alexander.
159.
“Twist” makes an interesting companion piece to another recent Canadian film by director Tim Southam, “The Bay of Love and Sorrow” (2002). Unlike Tierney, for whom “Twist” represents his first feature film, Southam comes to “The Bay” with a more varied and experienced background.
160.
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.
161.
One of the most impressive publishing endeavors in the area of film scholarship in recent years is the mammoth nine-year undertaking which resulted in this 720 page tome, This Film is Dangerous: A Celebration of Nitrate Film.
162.
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.
163.
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.
164.
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.
165.
A Bleak Heroism of Images: “Woman, Thou Art Loosed” by Michael Schultz and “Moolaade” by Ousmane Sembene.
166.
As I said in my most recent Fantasia International Film festival report, the director of “Bottled Fool”, Hiroki Yamaguchi, is a good bet to become the next big thing out of Japan. After making a prize winning short in 1999 at the age of 21 (“Shinya Zoki”/“Midnight Viscera”) he soon completed his first feature film in the same year, “Hateshinai tameiki” (1999).
167.
On the occasion of Fuon (The Crying Wind, Japan, 2004, 106 mins.) showing in competition at the 2004 Festival des Films du Monde (World Film Festival), in Montreal, the director of the film, Higashi Yoichi, along with principal actor, Uema Muneo, and Yamagami Tetsujiro, the film’s producer were interviewed by Peter Rist for Offscreen.
168.
Masterclass! short film workshops with UK writer/director/actor/educator Simon van der Borgh and US short film guru Kim Adelman.
169.
Along with Totaro's essay, this forms an in-depth introduction to the films of Guy Maddin.
170.
An analytical peek into the twisted world of Guy Maddin.
172.
An in-depth analysis of the representation of men and race across several varied recent films.
173.
An intriguing look back at the on-set experiences of Jonathan Hourigan.
174.
I was fortunate to catch this low budget chiller at a late night screening at Montreal’s Cinema du Parc theatre on April 23, 2004. It had been a long time since I had seen this film, but for reasons soon apparent, it has remained finely etched in my memory.
175.
Fassbinder gets an exhaustive treatment in the recent book by Christian Braad Thomsen, and a likewise turn here by Louis Goyette.
177.
This interview, following the recent completion of his first film, will give us an insider view into the American independent cinema and a chance to better grasp the concept of ‘indie’ cinema.
178.
An in-depth analysis at the social and ideological parameters offered by Lars von Trier's fascinating piece of Brechtian cinema.
179.
An impromptu three-way discussion on one of the most talked about documentary films ever.
181.
A review of the Criterion DVD which suggests Criterion could have done more (or differently) this time around.
182.
I recently traveled to Australia, Japan, England, the Galapagos, and France without leaving New York—through modern magic, film...
183.
A Mäori proverb says you spend your life walking backwards because you can see the past but not the future—that’s why we trip.
184.
Book review essay on that indomitable beast known as the film noir.
185.
Hundreds of directors, producers, distributors, commissioners and others from all corners of the documentary industry from all corners of the world descended on Fremantle Western Australia for this year’s Australian International Documentary Conference (26-28 February). Sándor Lau dives into the belly of the beast in search of its soul.
187.
A demonstration of the critical value of statistical analysis.
188.
A look back to gauge the current relevancy of this early Bresson reference book.
189.
The future finally looks bright for Bresson DVD enthusiasts. Burnett examines the follow-up Criterion Bresson release.
190.
Bresson's inimitable filmmaking style has its echo in his writing style.
191.
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”.
192.
Part two of Burnett's critical assessment of the Bressonian theoretical discourse.
193.
Bresson may have been a cinematic iconoclast, but he remains a pivotal figure to the spirit that gave rise to the New Wave.
194.
The future finally looks bright for Bresson DVD enthusiasts. Burnett examines the first Criterion Bresson release.
195.
An in-depth review essay of three First Run Feature DVDs that deal with the Nazi, two documentaries, Architecture of Doom and The Eye of Vichy, and the fictional The Murderers Are Among Us.
197.
A look at a documentary account of the life and art of one of cinema's greatest cinematographers, Sven Nykvist.
198.
An ideological analysis of the form-content bias in Birth of a Nation (1915).
199.
Cult classic of the 1970s rediscovered and gets a small theatrical and DVD release.
201.
A thematic-based analysis of Shyamalan's narrative structure, with an emphasis on temporality.
202.
Donato Totaro looks at Shyamalan's visual style in his extensive two-part analysis of Shyamalan's (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs).
203.
Donato Totaro looks at Shyamalan's visual style in his extensive two-part analysis of Shyamalan's 'trilogy' (The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs).
204.
Review of the recent American low budget indie film, Virgil Bliss, released recently on DVD by First Run Features.
205.
Najmeh Khalili returns with a theoretical speculation on new digital media which looks for answers by looking into the cinematic past.
206.
Garrett paints a loving portrait of Diana Ross as an American artist who has been both essential and inspirational for the better part of five decades.
207.
The cinematic image of Baron von Munchausen examined.
208.
Early cinema and the representation of Baron von Munchausen.
209.
Part two of Menard's theoretical explication of classical film theory.
210.
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.
211.
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.
212.
Part two of Menard's unique 'cine-physics'.
213.
A review of Criterion's wonderful transfer of the Alain Resnais film which helped usher in the 1960s modernist cinema.
214.
The first of a two-part essay on one of cinema's still greatest thinkers and writers.
215.
Part two of Younger's model analysis of the Bazinian discourse.
216.
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.
217.
For most film scholars Bazin was a man of many (incompatible) hats. Bazinian scholar Younger rethinks Bazin the Critic and Bazin the Theorist to argue otherwise.
218.
The second of a two-part essay on one of cinema's still greatest thinkers and writers.
219.
Author John Fucile's exploration and research in the Circadian Cinema model explored below has inspired two short digital films which he produced, directed, and co-wrote with Simon Fraser entitled Beat the Blue, which to date has been screened at festivals in New York, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, Florida and California; and his most recent digital short, the wide-screen motion picture Zero.
221.
The Association of Moving Image Archivists journal's flagship issue.
222.
Political analysis of Alfonso Arau's Like Water for Chocolate.
223.
Is the recent “end of cinema” discourse new? Jovanovic examines the theoretical and historical legacy of this discourse (part 2).
224.
Is the recent “end of cinema” discourse new? Jovanovic examines the theoretical and historical legacy of this discourse.
225.
By Brett Kashmere and Astria Suparak following the Stan Brakhage Benefit Concert featuring Sonic Youth, Anthology Film Archives, NYC April 12, 2003.
228.
The first of a two-parter.
229.
Rist discusses why he thinks Gerry signals a strong return to form for Van Sant.
231.
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.
232.
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.
233.
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.
234.
Stan Brakhage at the Cinémathèque Québecoise, Montreal, January 27-28, 2001 Part 1: “Death is a Meaningless Word.”
235.
Stan Brakhage at the Cinémathèque Québecoise, Montreal, January 27-28, 2001 Part 1: “Death is a Meaningless Word.”
236.
Every ten years since 1952 the British journal Sight & Sound has been conducting a survey to find out which films merit inclusion into their Top Ten. As far as canon formation goes, this is one of the biggies. Have things changed much since 1992?
237.
In a first of a two-part essay, Rist looks back at 25 years of attending the Montreal World Film festival.
238.
The notion of documentary truth might be best understood as that truth which is found in the way that we mentally organize our perceptions. Increasingly the theoretical understanding of documentary film is moving away from the notion of an inherent reality found within a film text and more towards an understanding of how texts are read.
239.
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.
240.
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.
241.
While lamenting the FCMM's decision to eliminate live performances (at least for this year), Randolph Jordan points to the short film as the one area where the FCMM continues its cutting edge, innovative programming.
242.
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....
243.
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.
244.
The long wait for Tarkovskians is finally over. Stalker (Andrei Tarkovsky) is out on DVD!
245.
Totaro explores how certain styles of filmmaking (montage vs. long take style) may be used to activate different cognitive states ('intellect' versus 'emotion').
246.
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.
247.
An interview with Chilean director Silvio Caiozzi.
248.
Can cinema reproduce the full sensorial spectrum, and if so, what would this cinema look like?
249.
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.
251.
A long overdue look at Zulueta's lost cult classic, Arrebato.
252.
Firstrun Features does an admirable job with the DVD transfer of Dariush Mehrjui's excellent Leila.
253.
The first of an extensive, three part report on the music and sound festival Mutek.
255.
A review which tries to capture the unique experience which is Béla Tarr’s Sátántangó.
256.
Steven Soderbergh balances arthouse modernism with conventions of the classical genre to produce nouveau gangster chic.
257.
PhD candidate Morissette follows up last month's interview with another brief chat with the late, great Phil Serling.
258.
An in-depth analysis of an overlooked silent film classic by Russian emigré Dimitri Kirsanov.
259.
In wake of the untimely death of its founder Phil Serling, Offscreen looks at the first post-Serling Cinefest.
260.
With the sudden passing away of its founder Phil Serling, Offscreen looks back fondly at the unique film festival known as Cinefest.
262.
An interview with long time Cinefester and film historian Leonard Maltin.
263.
Professor Peter Rist, former student and long time friend of historian, archivist, scholar, and film collector William K. Everson, reminisces.
265.
The Road Movie meets pure movement in the form of Henri Bergson. Part 1.
266.
The Road Movie meets pure movement in the form of Henri Bergson. Part 2.
267.
Should feminist scholarship be looking beyond American horror for a more varied representation of female desire and sexuality?
268.
An analysis of the year that was. An improvement over 2000, according to Rist.
269.
Good things do come in small packages, with this subtle and delicate low budget digi-film that dignifies 24 hours in the life of two flawed, yet endearing losers, lovers Alex and J.D.
270.
Although there is a fear among film purists where digital revolution is concerned, those of us who study film are more often inclined to acknowledge the benefits of digital technology. For such reasons as the recent DVD-Rom entitled Masterpieces of Silent Japanese Cinema.
271.
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.
272.
Part two of Randolph Jordan's coverage of Montreal's FCMM Festival International Nouveau Cinéma et Nouveaux Médias.
273.
Offscreen presents an interview with Italian cinematographer Guiseppe Lanci, who has worked with such greats Andrei Tarkovsky, Nanni Moretti, and Marco Bellochio.
274.
Offscreen presents an interview with Italian cinematographer Guiseppe Lanci, who has worked with such greats Andrei Tarkovsky, Nanni Moretti, and Marco Bellochio. (Italian version).
275.
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.
276.
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.
277.
Part two of David Neo's subtle analysis of Fractal memory images in Sokoruv's Mother and Son.
278.
Gilles Deleuze Meets the Mandelbrot set in this theoretical exploration of the memory images in Sokoruv's modern day Kammerspiel classic Mother and Son.
279.
A relatively new breed of film comedy hybrid has emerged in the past 20 or so years, the 'mockumentary.'
280.
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.
281.
Offscreen presents this probing interview with the Brothers Quay, conducted in Trieste, Italy.
282.
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.
283.
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.
284.
Offscreen welcomes Randolph Jordan with his first of a two-part festival report on Fantasia 2001.
285.
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.
286.
The definitive interview on one of Montreal's most notorious independent feature films, Subconscious Cruelty. Enough said.
287.
Part two of Peter Rist's critical assessment of Iranian films that played at the most recent of the major Montreal film festivals.
288.
Using the theories of Lacan, Freud, and Zizek, Gullatz explores the depth of psychic horror across a selection of classic and contemporary horror films.
289.
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.
290.
Interview with Republic of Korea director Park Ki-Hyung on his smash debut horror hit Whispering Corridors (1998).
291.
Why is French philosopher Henri Bergson relevant for today's film theory?
292.
The Montreal-based Tana discusses these films and his experiences as an Italian-Canadian filmmaker.
293.
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.
294.
The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On is an impassioned cinema verite-styled account of the one-man wrecking crew/dissident Okuzaki Kenzo, an ex-Private of the 36th Engineering Corps who fought in the West Pacific during World War 2. Read review of recent book on the film.
295.
What happens when Hollywood begins to copy Hong Kong, and Hong Kong begins to copy Hollywood?
296.
A look back to Fantasia 1999 and a look forward to Fantasia 2000.
297.
Read here about The 24th International Hong Kong Film Festival.
299.
Will Buster Keaton ever date? Unlikely, as this recent retrospective demonstrates.
300.
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?
301.
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.
302.
An in-depth historical analysis of pre-Revolution Iranian cinema.
303.
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.
304.
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.
305.
During the 1999 Fantasia Film Festival Montrealers were “graced” with the presence of Grace Quek (alias Annabel Chong), in town promoting a documentary about her life entitled SEX: The Annabel Chong Story, directed by Canadian filmmaker Gough Lewis.
306.
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.
307.
From May 19th to May 30th Montreal will host an historically important cultural event when The Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema and IITS at Concordia University in association with Ciné-Asia present the film series: Chinese Cinema: 1933-1949.
308.
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
309.
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.
310.
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).
311.
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.
312.
In his second book Deleuze tackles temporality in a more direct fashion. Although the book is considerably longer than the first (344 to 250 pages), Deleuze does not propose rigid or neat classifications. The central shift remains from a cinema that defined itself primarily through motion to one that concerned itself more directly with time. The time-image moved beyond motion by freeing itself of the sensory-motor link to a pure optical and sound (tactile) image.
313.
In his second book Deleuze tackles temporality in a more direct fashion. Although the book is considerably longer than the first (344 to 250 pages), Deleuze does not propose rigid or neat classifications. The central shift remains from a cinema that defined itself primarily through motion to one that concerned itself more directly with time. The time-image moved beyond motion by freeing itself of the sensory-motor link to a pure optical and sound (tactile) image.
315.
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.
316.
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.
317.
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.
318.
Lech Majewski, writer/director of The Roes' Room, calls his film an “autobiographical film opera”. A writer and director of opera as well as of film, Majewski composed the music and libretto that provide the text of the film.
319.
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.
320.
Following up on Part 1 by looking at the effects of May 1968 on filmmakers outside of France, concentrating on Michelangelo Antonioni.
321.
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.
322.
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem is a wonderfully audacious treatment of the paradoxes of history, truth, and temporality.
323.
The following essay will demonstrate how The Puppetmaster is one of the purest Bergsonian films ever made.
324.
“I have selected fifty films that are my choices for the best films to have competed at Cannes.”
325.
“The film image is an alienated reflection -an imitation of life perilously similar to the original.”
327.
Every now and then a horror film comes out that reaffirms one's tenuous faith in the Hollywood “major” Independent studios. The Prophecy is one such film.
328.
The Untold Story: Bun Man is a cracker of a serial killer film, Hong Kong style.
329.
The Asian Cinema Studies Society held its fifth biennial Conference for the first time ever in Canada. The result was a hotbed of wide-ranging activities and academic pursuits from scholars across the world.
330.
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.
331.
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...
332.
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...
333.
Both the Canadian Kissed and Spanish Aftermath deal with the taboo subject of necrophilia. However, the respective filmmakers Lynne Stopkewich and Nacho Cerdà are as far apart in approach as there native countries are geographically.
334.
The Love God is easily one of the most wildly inventive, original American genre films of recent years.
335.
SHANGHAEID TEXT is an interesting experimental short that blends original footage with a variety of found footage (Soviet and Hollywood films, soft porn, riot footage).
336.
During the Hollywood Studio period (roughly 1920 to 1950), the demarcation line between the majors and the independents was quite clear. The majors, the “Big Five” (Warners, MGM, RKO, Paramount, Fox) and “Little Three” (Columbia, Universal, United).
337.
In a John Ford film, death is inevitably followed by birth in order to propel the reaffirming, regenerating life-cycle; likewise, the same week that saw the death of two cinema icons, Jimmy Stewart and Robert Mitchum, sees the flagship issue of Offscreen.
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