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What Makes Michel Piccoli's Characters So Timelessly Compelling?

In Piccoli's characters there are always at least two selves—an outer self that strikes out at the world with aplomb and confidence and an inner self that crouches diffidently behind the façade, hoping not to be found out, hoping to get away with the deception.

Film

Portraits of Love and Death: Godard's Nostalgic Cinema in 'Le Mépris'

A half century later Godard's Contempt still captivates audiences. Contempt is not as simplistic as it may appear; it is not a mere telling of rejection but of absolute dissolution, of modernized romance and the failings of modernity.

Siobhan Lyons

Film

Do they Know We're in Darkness?: 'We Have a Pope'

In refusing to depict the nature of divinity that's absolutely necessary to a story about the papal election, We Have a Pope squanders a great premise with theologically flat reflection.

Reviews

'Belle de Jour': A Modern, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'-Like Take on Gender Politics

In Luis Bunuel's 1967 erotic masterpiece, Séverine’s masochism is a steady and unyielding force; sex is merely the avenue down which she chases it.

Film

La Grande Bouffe & Tales of Ordinary Madness

La Grande Bouffe and Tales of Ordinary Madness are products of a dark worldview. Neither offers solutions about how to improve a disintegrating society.

Film

Belle Toujours

Pointless and puerile, malicious and misogynistic, Belle Toujours is the opposite of an homage.

Barbara Herman

Reviews

All Around the World: The Best International/Indie Films of 2007

Beginning and ending with the superlative filmmaking of Jia Zhang-ke, traversing the nooks and crannies of the globe, PopMatters presents the 20 best international and indie films of 2007.

Featured: Top of Home Page

I'm Going Home (2001)

Explores the ageless, ceaseless, and fruitless desire to find a place of peace.

Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece

Reviews

I'm Going Home (2001)

I'm Going Home not only retains its heart, but expands it until the film's emotional power is almost too much to handle.

Jocelyn Szczepaniak-Gillece

Film

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What Makes Michel Piccoli's Characters So Timelessly Compelling?

In Piccoli's characters there are always at least two selves—an outer self that strikes out at the world with aplomb and confidence and an inner self that crouches diffidently behind the façade, hoping not to be found out, hoping to get away with the deception.

Portraits of Love and Death: Godard's Nostalgic Cinema in 'Le Mépris'

A half century later Godard's Contempt still captivates audiences. Contempt is not as simplistic as it may appear; it is not a mere telling of rejection but of absolute dissolution, of modernized romance and the failings of modernity.

Do they Know We're in Darkness?: 'We Have a Pope'

In refusing to depict the nature of divinity that's absolutely necessary to a story about the papal election, We Have a Pope squanders a great premise with theologically flat reflection.

'Belle de Jour': A Modern, 'Lady Chatterley's Lover'-Like Take on Gender Politics

In Luis Bunuel's 1967 erotic masterpiece, Séverine’s masochism is a steady and unyielding force; sex is merely the avenue down which she chases it.

La Grande Bouffe & Tales of Ordinary Madness

La Grande Bouffe and Tales of Ordinary Madness are products of a dark worldview. Neither offers solutions about how to improve a disintegrating society.

Belle Toujours

Pointless and puerile, malicious and misogynistic, Belle Toujours is the opposite of an homage.

All Around the World: The Best International/Indie Films of 2007

Beginning and ending with the superlative filmmaking of Jia Zhang-ke, traversing the nooks and crannies of the globe, PopMatters presents the 20 best international and indie films of 2007.

I'm Going Home (2001)

Explores the ageless, ceaseless, and fruitless desire to find a place of peace.

I'm Going Home (2001)

I'm Going Home not only retains its heart, but expands it until the film's emotional power is almost too much to handle.

Tipping the Swear Jar: How mewithoutYou Used the F-Bomb to Say More Than the F-Word

Electro's Sotomayor Merge House and Merengue on "Menéate pa' mí" (premiere)

Gab De La Vega Turns and Faces the Familiar, Strange on "YYZ" (premiere)

British Soul/Blues Artist Izo Fitzroy Asks for "Blind Faith" (premiere)

Fell Runner Celebrate the Strange Dreams of an Unlikely Hero with "Jeffrey" (premiere)

The James Hunter Six's "Brother or Other" Asks to Spread the Love in a Time of Division (premiere)

Crowhurst + Gavin Bryars Demonstrate the Powers of Collaboration With "Dead Swans of Dreams" (premiere + interview)

Matt Wilson and His Orchestra Consider Memory, Mortality With "When I Was a Writer" (premiere + interview)

Robert Vincent Considers the Human "Conundrum" (premiere)

Electropop's Σtella Shares the Funky Dance Pop of "The Break" (premiere)