Friday, August 26 2011
Variation on a Theme: An Interview with J.K. Simmons
J.K. Simmons's most visible credit to date is the scenery-chomping role as J. Jonah Jameson in Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy. But in The Music Never Stopped, (now out on DVD) a deeply rewarding film about music therapy, family, and the Summer of Love generation, Simmons shines in his first lead film role as the uptight father of an amnesiac hippie.
Thursday, August 25 2011
Believers Keep on Believin’: Vera Farmiga Envisions a Higher Ground
Oscar-nominated actress Vera Farmiga rips a page from the Ida Lupino playbook and directs herself to a funny, moving performance in one of the year's most surprising -- and unmissable -- debut features. Farmiga and co-star Dagmara Domincyzk talk with PopMatters about the experience...
Monday, August 22 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 7: Kenji Mizoguchi to Satyajit Ray
Pushing boundaries seems to be the thread that ties the directors of our seventh day together. From Japanese innovators to Italian iconclasts and Polish provocateurs, the directors that fall between Kenji Mizoguchi and the man who was perhaps India's greatest visual storyteller, Satyajit Ray, all push the form in incredible, surprising ways.
Friday, August 19 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 6: Ernst Lubitsch to Vincente Minnelli
Today runs the gamut. Hollywood to indie art house, female perspective to male, screwball comedy to chamber drama. The odyssey from Ernst Lubitsch to Vincente Minnelli will provide illumination on how film's first special effects were used, how two brothers presciently preceded reality TV in the Hamptons, and why some directors prefer to work about once a decade on average...
Monday, August 15 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 5: Derek Jarman to Mike Leigh
Mid-way through our series, Day 5 is a glorious mishmash of international auteurist cinema. Today we go from saints and sinners, from Brookyln to Britain, from the beginning of time to the Dystopian future, and around the world and beyond.
Friday, August 12 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 4: Samuel Fuller - John Huston
On our fourth day, this journey through the 100 Essential Film Directors continues to twist and turn in unexpected ways. From bold, opinionated Hollywood voices to those who essentially created the language of cinema, today will shed light on kings of genre like Samuel Fuller, through lions like the legendary John Huston.
It’s the Film at Work: Interview with Shamim Sarif and Hanan Kattan
"Whatever situation you are in," says Shamim Sarif, "there are opportunities for the human spirit to grow, and I like to have that possibility in the films and the work that we do."
Monday, August 8 2011
PopMatters 20 Questions: Jon Polito
Jon Polito’s mug is so familiar that he almost feels… familiar, like the merchant at the corner store, the beat cop in your ‘hood, or the local mobster. Yeah that's it, the local mobster.
The 100 Essential Directors Part 3: George Cukor - John Ford
Spiritual possession, screwball comedy, German kinks, and the quintessential American Western genre are among the disparate characters we shine a light on today as PopMatters counts down the 100 Essential Film Directors. Today we look at George Cukor through John Ford. Who falls in the middle might surprise you...
Friday, August 5 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 2: Robert Bresson to David Cronenberg
Our second day of "100 Essential Directors" could loosely be described as one that defines "influential." Each of the auteurs sandwiched in between Robert Bresson and David Cronenberg has left a lasting mark on cinema, each employing a signature style that is unmistakable.
Thursday, August 4 2011
‘Rise’ of the Post-9/11 Fictions
Speculations abound about the forthcoming release of Rise of The Planet of the Apes on August 5. Clingan postulates a narrative connection between Rise and Post 9/11 American-Arab relations.
Like Mao’s Long March: An Interview with Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood
The co-directors of the Magnolia Films' documentary Magic Trip: Ken Kesey's Search for a Kool Place open up about the daunting task of constructing their visually stunning movie out of the film found in damaged, rusted canisters stored in the Kesey family barn.
Tuesday, August 2 2011
The 100 Essential Directors Part 1: Chantal Akerman - Bernardo Bertolucci
Neurotic New Yorkers, Queer Mavericks, Swedish close-ups and the art of putting a microphone on every person on set are but a few of the themes explored in PopMatters' first group of ten essential directors, Chantal Akerman through Bernardo Bertolucci. Please note that any perceived omissions were likely on purpose...
Friday, July 29 2011
Ashton Kutcher vs. The Village Voice: Looking for Real Men on the Internet
The feud between Ashton Kutcher and the Village Voice sparked a firestorm, and highlights a need for a greater understanding of sex trafficking -- and media representation of it -- across the board. How should the media and Hollywood approach this complicated subject?
Wednesday, July 27 2011
Sherlockians, Whovians, Woodies: Summer is the Season for Cinematic Tourists
Each summer they descend upon London en masse. Who are these cinematic tourists, and why do they travel thousands of miles to see where real or fictitious people enacted the stories that captured fans’ imagination?
Tuesday, July 26 2011
Overlooked Polish Masterpieces: Two Essential Films by Jerzy Kawalerowciz
Kawalerowicz's work would set the intellectual tone for post-war acts of filmic subversion and transcendance within Poland's burgeoning industry, essential characteristics that Polish cinema would come to be best known for.
Thursday, July 21 2011
Ethical Backbone: An Interview with ‘A Better Life’ Director Chris Weitz
"The moment that you turn a camera on to a situation that is politically charged at all," Chris Weitz says,"Your film is going to be politicized in the minds of the people who watch it. And that’s okay."
Thursday, July 14 2011
What a Wonderful ‘Life’: An Interview with Director Oliver Schmitz
Life, Above All director Oliver Schmitz brings the best-selling novel Chanda's Secret to the big screen with a dazzling cast of African actresses. Schmitz chats with Nik Ruckert about the making of this universal South African tone poem about tolerance.
Friday, July 8 2011
The Sound of ‘Beginners’: An Interview with Mike Mills
With his acclaimed new film Beginners, director Mike Mills sits down with PopMatters to discuss the autobiographical nature of the soundtrack, and oh so much more ...
Thursday, July 7 2011
‘Go Lala Go!’ and ‘Working Girl’: The Chinese/American Dream
Both Go Lala Go! and Working Girl feature the basic Cinderella narrative. Yet there are marked distinctions between the Chinese and American processes, and the films differ greatly in their approaches to female conflict, empowerment, and class struggle.
