The One Life of Two Women in Jacques Rivette’s ‘Céline and Julie Go Boating’
Céline and Julie Go Boating transcends its mystic device of hijacked cinéma verité to present an authentic idea of truth in the contrived world of celluloid.
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‘Claudine’ Is a Sweetly Embroidered Drama of Class Struggle
John Berry's Claudine is a compelling watch featuring performances that leave impressions upon the heart long after the film is over.
Martin Scorsese’s ‘The Irishman’ and the Gangster’s Reimagined Soul
Scorsese's The Irishman is not a masculine power fantasy, nor could its heavy underlying sadness ever be mistaken for delight in violence or criminality.
Eraserhead’s Stylistic Tics Leave Traces of Infection
David Lynch's impossibly mundane and unspeakably grotesque Eraserhead turns a looking glass upon an entire constellation of avant-garde signifiers.
‘The Elephant Man’ Lives Within Our Skin
David Lynch’s The Elephant Man is as much a life-affirming parable as it is an exercise in reorienting the boundaries of what we recognize as human.
Scorsese’s ‘World Cinema Project No. 3’ Has a Filtered Gaze
Scorsese's selections for World Cinema Project No. 3 recall an attitude typical of a bygone age of film studies when professors would rationalize overlooking the reactionary politics of a film because aspects of the filmmaking itself trumped such "trivial" concerns.
Postcolonial Re-imaginings in Mambèty’s ‘Touki Bouki’
Restored by the World Cinema Project and now available from The Criterion Collection, Djibril Diop Mambéty's cheeky critique of colonialism, Touki Bouki (Journey of the Hyena) reveals a great act of myth-making.
The Threat of Violence in George Marshall’s Western Comedy, ‘Destry Rides Again’
George Marshall's western spoof, Destry Rides Again, has a serious central premise; can society function without the threat of violence?
The Poetry of Murder in Jean Renoir’s ‘Toni’
Renoir's Toni is a grim piece of work saturated in summer sunshine and tree-speckled shadows.
Buster Keaton’s Last Silent Masterpieces: ‘The Cameraman’ and ‘Spite Marriage’
Buster Keaton was aware that the camera can be a catalyst of violence, especially stereotypical violence, for audience consumption -- and that it could also evoke the shared joy of cathartic laughter.
“Just Don’t Believe Truth” in John Cassavetes’ ‘Husbands’
The pugnacious characters in Cassavetes' Husbands couch their inauthenticity in bullying. For them, anger is more authentic than placidity, rage more authentic than sadness, cruelty more authentic than kindness.
‘The Lady Eve’ Indulges Preston Sturges’ Humor, Both Literate and Broad
Preston Sturges’ The Lady Eve is layered with texture and substance draped in the gleeful prurience of a master of slapstick and romance.