Filmmaker and Critic Virginie Despentes Is Still, Unfortunately, Quite Necessary
Virginie Despentes’ feminist arguments in her recently rebooted collection of essays, King Kong Theory, remain fresh and frustratingly relevant.
Film
The Transformational Film Lens: D. Mitry on ‘My True Fairytale’
Director D. Mitry talks with PopMatters about his debut feature film, My True Fairytale, whose story aligns with the tragic loss of his daughter.
Silence Has a Sound: The Unempty Quiet in ‘Sound of Metal’
If punk is for those who reject mainstream culture, then in the music film Sound of Metal, nothing is more punk than radical deaf acceptance.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: ‘Seven Samurai’ (1954)
Today’s Kurosawa 101 focuses on what’s generally regarded as the greatest Japanese film ever made and perhaps the greatest in world film: Seven Samurai.
Widescreen, Big Ideas: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
When Akira Kurosawa made the conversion to a wider screen, he did so by making six consecutive films in widescreen, with a degree of success as resounding as it was influential.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1950 – 1952
Today’s Kurosawa 101 explores two of the greatest films in Kurosawa’s catalog, Rashomon — the film that made Kurosawa and Japanese cinema known throughout the world — and Ikiru — perhaps the greatest film ever made about impending death.
West By East By West: The Influence of Akira Kurosawa on the West and Vice Versa
Through his influences and achievements, Kurosawa became one of the first true international filmmakers, inspiring several generations of filmmakers who would explore notions of genre and identity in film.
‘I Care a Lot’ and the Art of Portraying Awful People
In good films and shows with villains as leads, the protagonists’ ethically questionable actions are at least understandable, and perhaps even defensible. Not so in J Blakeson’s ‘I Care a Lot’.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1949 – 1950
Today’s Kurosawa 101 films include the director’s only effort at bringing a contemporary Japanese stage play to the screen (the rarely seen The Quiet Duel), a police procedural that was the finest Kurosawa film to date (Stray Dog), and a scree against tabloid journalism that resulted in one of the weakest films he would ever direct (Scandal).
Textbook on Film: The Political As Personal in the Films of Kurosawa
Kurosawa’s films often act as deliberate examinations of historical periods, exploring difficult realities that existed and the ordeals of the individuals.
Akira Kurosawa Films 101: 1946 – 1948
Day Two of Akira Kurosawa 101 examines three of his films that address the nature of life in Japan immediately at the end of WWII and the American Occupation.