Thursday, August 14 2008
A Fairy Tale Childhood: An Interview with Guy Maddin
The Canadian cult director talks to PopMatters about family, childhood, memory and his cinematic Gesamptkunstwerks that often look like damaged artifacts dredged up from an archive of lost 1920s and '30s film.
Life Into Art: Strange Culture and the Measure of Documentary Film
Strange Culture is a critical entry point into the current discussion of what makes a documentary a documentary, most notably because it announces its own subjectivity in a clear and provocative way.
Thursday, June 19 2008
The Technology of the Occult: Méliès and the Invention of Film
Like any illusionist, Méliès created wonderment with only the slightest of pretense, creating a filmic language that continues to be explored and exploited today.
Wednesday, June 11 2008
The Phantasmagoric Phantom Carriage
The Phantom Carriage was truly revolutionary in the way it exploited the unique features of motion pictures, and clearly anticipated the sophisticated narrative and visual structure of modern films.
Wednesday, March 26 2008
The Perfect Lean, Mean, Macho Machine
The Die Hard series is a true rollercoaster of visual excesses guaranteed to raise the viewer’s adrenaline levels – while invoking intriguing ideological and cultural subtexts that deal with race, gender, masculinity, and social anxieties.
Friday, February 22 2008
Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Jake
Chinatown remains a stalwart of '70s cinema. The uninspired follow-up 16 years later reminds one that, sometimes, a masterpiece needs to simply be left alone.
Friday, January 25 2008
The Best Music DVDs of 2007
The last few years have seen some mind-blowing DVD repackaging of a wide variety of musically projects. 2007 is the best yet.
Monday, December 3 2007
Berlin Alexanderplatz
Berlin Alexanderplatz, both serial film and novel, are essential to knowing Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Friday, November 9 2007
Incomplete Coquette: The Brigitte Bardot Collection
As a vision, Bardot is still alluring. As an actress, however, she’s a strange cinematic cipher. These films just do not serve Bardot.
Wednesday, October 24 2007
Past Imperfect: Luis Buñuel’s Early Work
Sometimes, filmmaking genius is evident in every movie a cinematic master makes. In the case of this famed Spanish surrealist and his two early efforts, the future achievements are well hidden.
Monday, October 22 2007
Test Patterns: TV That Should Be on DVD
As a wrap up to the five-part Best of TV on DVD feature, we offer this partial wish list, this "where are they now?" wistfulness to some of our favorite forgotten shows that should be on DVD.
Friday, October 12 2007
Part 5 - Beyond the Envelope
The format forced the issue among cult and commercial products. And TV on DVD highlighted the cream of the creative, forward thinking crop.
Thursday, October 11 2007
Part 4 - Feasts from the Fringe
Cable created supply where there was little or no demand. Out of the myriad of subject specific programming, a few gemstones managed to shine.
Wednesday, October 10 2007
Part 3 - The New Networks
It would never work... no one challenged the reigning broadcast junta and survived. No surprise then that the upstarts snuck in and changed the face of TV forever.
Tuesday, October 9 2007
Part 2 - Outsider Influences
TV was at a standstill. On one side -- the status quo. On the other -- the innovators from outside the mainstream. Guess who ended up winning the 'classics’ argument?
Monday, October 8 2007
Part 1 - All Time Classics
Where it all began... how TV became the cultural icon it is today, and the seminal shows that offered audiences a glimpse into the medium’s artistic potential.
Wednesday, June 6 2007
Kids’ DVDs: June 2007
Given that babies and young children love nothing more than repetition, repetition, and... um.... repetition, I can't understand why even the pointiest of heads would think children between the ages of six months and three years could possible need 23 different Baby Einstein DVDs.
Monday, March 19 2007
Cinema Cuba Libre
The primary goal of The Cuban Masterworks Collection seems to correspond with Engel's call "to break down the reluctance of non-Cuban audiences to look at their films at all, and to make them look without prejudice."
Wednesday, February 28 2007
Lest We Should Forget
The unanticipated moments, the flickering images of people dying and afraid, make the War Chronicles series a haunting testimony to the tribulations of the individual despite the script's framing narrative depicting the nearly anonymous unfolding of events.
Wednesday, December 6 2006
Won’t Somebody Please Think of the Children?
As our inner Helen Lovejoy knows full well, Christmas Is For Thee Children. So what on earth can we pick up for our kids from Wal-Mart that'll fit into an SUV laden with goodies from the Pottery Barn and beyond? Well, DVDs. Obv. And why not start with the Christmas Classics?
