CineAction articles from January 1 2008

CineAction archives from January 1 2008

The bones of Reagan or the ruins of art cinema in contemporary American film.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... A Democratic victory would not change the world, but it would at least slow the momentum of the bombs-and-Jesus crowd. Those people have had their way long enough. Not even the Book of Revelation threatens a plague of vengeful yahoos. We all...

Analogical thinking; Organizational strategies within the work of Jean-Luc Godard.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Throughout the Western world, the 1960s were a time of immense cinematic innovation. In France, the person who most epitomized this phenomenon was, unquestionably, Jean-Luc Godard and he is still active today. Indeed, if from A bout de souffle...

The high solitude of a rare bird.(Essay)
January 1, 2008... During all the years I have lived in daily contact with Jean Seberg, I have regained from her some of that brave candor you need to win by losing. -Romain Gary Once upon a time, there was an actress called Jean Seberg who lived her life....

Fellini goes to the beach.(Federico Fellini)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Characters in Fellini's films often end up at the beach where they seem to arrive at some sort of self-realization that is intuitive and physical; the relationship between them and the sea seems to act as a catalyst for a certain kind of...

The romance of certain old clothes or they don't make 'em like that anymore; Honor de Cavalleria and art cinema's last stand.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Nostalgia for a bygone era of filmmaking is something one usually associates with the paradigm of classical Hollywood: of a particular generation (or a particular breed of cinephile) fondly recalling the kind of stars, films, even genres that...

On and around I don't want to sleep alone; Tsai goes back to his roots, and forges ahead ...(Tsai Ming-Liang)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... ... where angels fear to tread... (I'm no angel...) It is clear that Tsai Ming-Liang's latest film is highly personal, and as such it invites the kind of probing that may appear impertinent and may also be wide of the mark. Fools like...

"I heart Hedwig".(Hedwig and the Angry Inch)(Movie review)
January 1, 2008... Hedwig and the Angry Inch is an internationally acclaimed motion picture adapted from a musical by John Cameron Mitchell. Mitchell wrote, directed, and starred in the film as Hedwig, a tall task for anyone, but for a first time...

The voice of Marianne faithfull; On Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Walking around the halls of Versailles, and passing from her grand public bedroom into her small private apartments, surrounded by her fabrics and trinkets, I could imagine the girl... Being there you can feel how lost they must...

A polite way of being desperate; An interview with Marjane Satrapi.(Interview)
January 1, 2008... Persepolis is the darkly humorous adaptation of Paris-based Marjane Satrapi's candid graphic novels about her coming of age in Iran and in Austria. Directed by Satrapi and fellow comics artist Vincent Paronnaud, the film is one of the most...

The Brave One; 'There's plenty of ways to die'.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... "... precisely because the universe in which we live is somehow a universe of dead conventions and artificiality, the only authentic real experience must be some extremely violent, shattering experience. And this we experience as a...

Movements and rhythms; On Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3.(Critical essay)
January 1, 2008... Whereas the identity of Spider-Man was still a secret and Peter Parker's unrequited love for Mary Jane was the central theme in Spider-Man 2 (2004)--a love where the other is unaware she is being loved--this theme of secrecy is unceremoniously...