Teuvo Tulio’s Martyrs for Love and Cinema
Finnish director Teuvo Tulio’s films go so far over the top that sometimes you wouldn’t think the actors could breathe up there.
Michael Barrett
Michael Barrett works in a public library. For more than 20 years, he wrote a monthly video column in the San Antonio Express News stressing classic and foreign films. His national publications include Video Watchdog, Nostalgia Digest and Retro Cinema. He's also written scripts that still await their destiny.
‘Krakatit’ Shows How to Start Worrying and Fear the Bomb
Sci-fi thriller Krakatit still resonates with its message of neurotic hysteria in the face of technology and fascism.
Silent Film Restoration Is an Act of Love
To experience restored silent films – even just salvaged bits of them – is to be dazzled and intrigued by a window into the past and to be lit by a desire to see more.
Scorsese’s World Cinema Project #5 Carries Serenity and Chaos
All the films in Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project No. 5 showcase filmmakers whose output deserves restoration, but Kummatty offers the most direct and unapologetic sensual pleasures.
7 French Noirs for Those Long Cold Winter Nights
The French were making their own postwar brand of dark, downbeat, terse, vivid, chic, and cynical criminal melodramas before anyone ever heard the term “French Noir”.
‘Daddy’ Is a Blast of Feminist Art to the Face
Daddy is a classic example of an artist making a museum film that showcases her campy and confrontational art and performance.
To Save and Project 2026 Nails Cutting-Edge Film Restoration
To Save and Project’s 2026 offerings include an early talkie that rivals Alfred Hitchcock and an overall fascinating glimpse of film and real history.
The Best DVDs of 2025
The Best DVDs of 2025 are the works of serious auteurs whose films will stick in your brain like haunting melodies – or shards of glass.
‘Route One/USA’ Drives Along History and Memory
In Robert Kramer’s documentary Route One/USA a fictional character rides shotgun in this road trip history and memory.
‘Sirius’ Casts a Glittering Eye on WWII Hungary
The not-so-subtle commentary on Hungary’s German and Italian allies, disguised within a lavish, escapist, romantic fantasy, is only one of the surprising things about Sirius.
‘He Who Gets Slapped’ Gets Its Slap-Happy Revenge
Lou Chaney-starring He Who Gets Slapped gives viewers a macabre melodrama with a taste of serious literature – until it ends in bloody revenge.
‘Promise Her Anything’ Leaves Us Holding the Baby
In Hollywood’s eternal battle between the puritan and the prurient, Promise Her Anything shows the puritan still holds the whip. Oh, baby.