Cineaste articles from December 2007

Cineaste archives from December 2007

Hollywood takes on the Iraq war.(EDITORIAL)(movies dealing with the subject of terrorism and the Iraq War)(Editorial)
December 22, 2007... In a curmudge only postmortem on the 2007 Toronto Film Festival, Variety's chief film critic Todd McCarthy dismissed the current spate of "Iraq-centered fiction films" as "underwhelming" projects that reflect "the safest, least provocative...

Outside the Green Zone: an interview with Brian De Palma.(Interview)
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] "To all the young filmmakers out there, I'd like to say that it took forty-five years for me to get into this festival, and I want you to keep trying, said Brian De Palma at the New York Film Festival in October. He...

Adam Curtis's nightmare factory: a British documentarian declares war on the "war on terror".(Adam Curtis' documentary The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear)
December 22, 2007... Tormented as always by questions of individual freedom, Tolstoy, in the epilogue to War and Peace, says that, "If the will of every man were free, that is, if man could act as he chose, the whole of history would be a tissue of disconnected...

Waking life: an interview with Adam Curtis.(Interview)
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Adam Curtis is obsessed with history. Among the most distinguished, and inflammatory, contemporary nonfiction television directors, Curtis traded a teaching post at Oxford in the mid-1980s for a job at the BBC...

The many faces of Bob Dylan: an interview with Todd Haynes.(Interview)
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] One of the most anticipated films of the fall season, Todd Haynes's I'm Not There was enthusiastically received at the Toronto and New York Film Festivals. Cineaste met with Haynes in October 2007, shortly before the...

The lonely voice of Sokurov: documentaries on the Russian experience from a Russian master.(Russian documentary filmmaker Alexander Sokurov)
December 22, 2007... The first time I heard of Alexander Sokurov and saw one of his films was back in 1989, thanks to the Glasnost Film Festival, which was designed by its U.S. and Soviet collaborators to introduce the American public to the bold new films coming...

Avoiding labels and lullabies: an interview with James Mangold.(Interview)
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Remakes are a tricky proposition for a director. Take an established classic like Psycho and prepare to fend off critics wielding butcher knives; redo a well-remembered entertainment like Sleuth or The Poseidon...

Maghrebi-French (beur) filmmaking in context.
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] It is now more than twenty-five years since the neologism "beur" was adopted into the French language and the first full-length feature film by a "beur" director, that is, a filmmaker of Maghrebi (North African)...

Re-presenting the urban periphery: Maghrebi-French filmmaking and the banlieue film.
December 22, 2007... Although technically the French word banlieue signifies "suburbs," it is an extremely loaded term in its contemporary socio-cultural context. The phrase evokes images of run-down cites (working-class housing projects) located on the peripheries...

French Cinema and the Algerian War: Fifty Years Later: Decades later, the savage conflict and its political and human repercussions are at last being seriously examined by French filmmakers.
December 22, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Today, during the early years of the twenty-first century, the relationship between French society and the legacy of the Algerian War continues to fluctuate. To be precise, this dynamic entails the relationship...

Maghrebi-French sexual citizens: in and out on the big screen.(lack of films with Maghrebi-French sexual citizens as characters)
December 22, 2007... Over the past several decades, French directors have produced a wide and rich array of films depicting sexual citizens in ways that move in directions well beyond the classic 1970s drag-queen images in Eduardo Molinaro's internationally...

The experience of a Maghrebi-French filmmaker: the case of Zaida Ghorab-Volta.
December 22, 2007... Among Maghrebi-French filmmakers, Zaida Ghorab-Volta is a significant figure in a number of ways. She is important for being one of relatively few Maghrebi-French women directors and, notably, the first to make a (medium length) feature film...

Maghrebi-French ("beur") and related cinema: a guide to resources.(Bibliography)
December 22, 2007... RECOMMENDED BIBLIOGRAPHY Books and Special Journal Issues Aitsiselmi, Farid, ed. "Black, Blanc, Beur: Youth, Language, and Identity in France," a special issue of Interface: Bradford Studies in Language, Culture and Society, No. 5,...

I'm Not There.(Movie review)
December 22, 2007... I'm Not There Produced by James D. Stern, John Sloss, John Goldwyn, Jeff Rosen and Christine Vachon; directed by Todd Haynes; screenplay by Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman; cinematography by Edward Lachman; production design by Judy Becker;...

The 11th Hour.(Movie review)
December 22, 2007... The 11th Hour Produced by Chuck Castleberry, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brian Gerber, and Leila Conners Petersen; directed by Nadia Conners and Leila Conners Petersen; written by Nadia Conners, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Leila Conners Petersen; edited...

Manda Bala.(Movie review)
December 22, 2007... Manda Bala Produced by Joey Frank, Jared Goldman and Jason Kohn; directed by Jason Kohn; cinematography by Heloisa Passos; edited by Doug Abel, Jenny Golden and Andy Grieve; original music by Force Theory, Michael Furjanic and Neill...

Persepolis.
December 22, 2007... Persepolis Produced by Marc-Antoine Robert and Xavier Rigault; written and directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, based on Satrapi's graphic novels, music by Olivier Bernet; art direction by Marc Jousset; edited by Stephane...

The Simpsons Movie.(Movie review)
December 22, 2007... The Simpsons Movie Produced by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Mike Scully and Richard Sakai; directed by David Silverman; screenplay by James L. Brooks, Matt Groening, Al Jean, Ian Maxtone-Graham, George Meyer, David Mirkin, Mike...

Rocket Science.(Movie review)
December 22, 2007... Rocket Science Produced by Effie T. Brown and Sean Welch; directed and written by Jeffrey Blitz; cinematography by Jo Willems; production design by Rick Butler; edited by Yana Gorskaya; costumes by Ernesto Martinez; art direction by Halina...

Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition Including La Fille de l'eau (B&W, 72 mins., 1925), Nana (B&W, 130 mins., 1926), Sur un air de Charleston (B&W, 20 mins., 1927), La Petite marchande d'allumettes (B&W, 33 mins., 1928), La Marseillaise (B&W,...

Late Ozu.(Late Ozu Eclipse Series 3)(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Late Ozu Eclipse Series 3, a box set of five DVDs, including Early Spring (B&W, 145 mins., 1956), Tokyo Twilight (B&W, 141 mins., 1957), Equinox Flower (Color, 118 mins., 1958), Late Autumn (Color, 129 mins., 1960), and The End of Summer...

Muriel ou Le Temps d'un retour.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Muriel ou Le Temps d'un retour Directed by Alain Resnais; screenplay by Jean Cayrol; cinematography by Sacha Vierny; edited by Claudine Merlin, Kenout Peltier, and Eric Pluet; music by Hans Werner Henze; starring Delphine Seyrig, Jean-Pierre...

Sansho the Bailiff.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Sansho the Bailiff Directed by Kenji Mizoguchi; written by Fuji Yahiro and Yoshikata Yoda; produced by Masaichi Nigata; director of photography Kazuo Miyagawa; music Fumio Hayasaka; starring Kinuyo Tanaka, Yoshiaki Hanayagi, Kyoko Kagawa,...

La Haine.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... La Haine Directed and written by Mathieu Kassovitz; cinematography by Pierre Aim; edited by Mathieu Kassovitz and Scott Stevenson; starring Vincent Cassel, Hubert Kounde and Sa'id Taghmaoui. DVD two-disc special edition, B&W, 97 mins., in...

Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Three Films by Hiroshi Teshigahara A four-disc box set featuring Pitfall (B&W, 97 mins., 1962), Woman in the Dunes (B&W, 148 mins., 1964), and The Face of Another (B&W, 124 mins., 1966). A Criterion Collection release, www.criterion.com,...

Commissar.(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... This two-disc set has a beautiful black-and-white wide-screen restoration of Alexander Askoldov's one and only full-length feature--a minor masterpiece--and adds some fascinating reminiscences by the film's principals, Askoldov included, that...

If ...(Brief article)(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... At the time of its release in 1968, Lindsay Anderson's If... was dismissed as repellent by conservative critics and hailed as "the first English poetic film" and "ferociously clear" by more sympathetic commentators. One of the leading lights...

9/11 Mysteries.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Of the dozens of 9/11 videos released in recent years, 9/11 Mysteries is one of the most persuasive in terms of seriously challenging the government's official explanation for that day's tragic events. Subtitled Part 1: Demolitions, and...

Reel Bad Arabs.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... "Why do they hate us so?," is the question posed in this documentary. The questioner is not an American reflecting on 9/11 but an Arab reflecting on Hollywood films. Jack Shaheen has examined over a thousand films featuring Arab characters. He...

The Twelve Chairs.(Brief article)(Video recording review)
December 22, 2007... Cuban revolutionary cinema is finally coming to DVD; and a long-forgotten gem has resurfaced: Tomas Gutierrez Alea's 1962 satire The Twelve Chairs. This madcap comedy and treasure hunt follows the adventures of a formerly wealthy and now...

Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl.(Leni Riefenstahl: A Life)(Book review)
December 22, 2007... Leni: The Life and Work of Leni Riefenstahl by Steven Bach. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007. 400 pp., illus. Hardcover: $30.00. Leni Riefenstahl: A Life by Jurgen Trimborn. Translated by Edna McCown. New York: Faber and Faber, 2007. 368pp.,...

Physical Evidence: Selected Film Criticism.(Book review)
December 22, 2007... Physical Evidence: Selected Film Criticism by Kent Jones. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2007. 248 pp. Hardcover: $27.95. Common sense is not only one of the most absent qualities in criticism, but one of the least valued,...

Pastiche.(Book review)
December 22, 2007... Pastiche by Richard Dyer. London and New York: Routledge, 2007. 221 pp., illus. Hardcover: $110.00 and Paperback: $30.95. Pastiche is a highly original reevaluation of what else?--pastiche, a form of imitation and quotation that has, during...

The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film.(Book review)
December 22, 2007... The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film by Tamara L. Falicov. London and New York: Wallflower Press, 2007. 188 pp., illus. Hardcover: $80.00 and Paperback: $25.00. Argentina has long been recognized as an exceptional Latin American...

Me and You and Memento and Fargo.(Book review)
December 22, 2007... Me and You and Memento and Fargo by J.J. Murphy. New York and London: Continuum, 2007. 304 pp. Hardcover: $85.00 and Paperback: $19.95. J. J. Murphy is a critic in search of a theory. Specifically, he's searching for a theory of...

The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits.(Book review)
December 22, 2007... The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of Movies from Classics to Cult Hits Edited by Dennis Lim. Hoboken, N J: Wiley, 2006. 336pp. Paperback: $16.95. There is a lot of good critical writing in The Village Voice Film Guide: 50 Years of...

The Toronto film festival.(COMMUNIQUE)
December 22, 2007... In an essay on Cannes published in Cahiers du cinema in 1955, Andre Bazin observed that the contemporary film festival resembles nothing so much as a religious order. While the public may associate festivals like Cannes and Toronto with endless...

Cineaste Web exclusives.
December 22, 2007... Visit us at www.cineaste.com to read these additional features Adapting The Kite Runner: An Interview with Marc Forster by Rahul Hamid Khaled Hosseini's Afghanistan-set bestseller comes to the screen, from the director of Monster's...

Criticizing Pauline Kael?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2007... I was dismayed to read the presentation of an old, slanderous rebuttal to a Pauline Kael review in Cineaste ("Paul Jarrico Reviews Pauline Kael on Salt of the Earth," Vol. XXXII, No. 4), an article implying that she did not see a film she...

Whose nation?(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2007... I am, of course, immensely grateful to Oliver William Pattenden (Vol. XXXII, No. 4) for his generous review of my book, Cinema and Northern Ireland: Film, Culture, and Politics. However, could I point out that, while the book does indeed...

Congratulations on your 40th anniversary.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2007... Congratulations to you and your colleagues. Cineaste is a terrific publication and seems to get better and better. I try to read at least a few articles in every issue and I am always impressed at how consistently good the writing is and how...

Deluxe edition available.(LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)
December 22, 2007... Thank you for publishing Stuart Liebman's review of Verdict on Auschwitz--The Frankfurt Auschwitz Trial 1963-1965 (Cineaste, Vol. XXXII, No. 4). Your readers may be interested to know that, while First Run Features distributes the 1993...

The Devil Came on Horseback.(SHORT TAKES)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... Directors Annie Sundberg and Ricki Stern's documentary follows the story of former Marine captain Brian Steidle working as an unarmed military observer in wartorn Sudan, his quick rise as a public speaker about the genocide there, and the...

Forever.(SHORT TAKES)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... In her documentary, Dutch filmmaker Heddy Honigmann takes on Pere-Lachaise, Paris's legendary cemetery, and uncovers a string of love stories. Skirting rows of demolished graves, her camera gazes on a few well-preserved sites and the vicarious...

The Price of Sugar.(SHORT TAKES)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... Bill Haney's The Price of Sugar is a gripping true story that documents the efforts of Father Christopher Hartley to secure workers' rights for Haitian sugar-cane cutters working in the Dominican Republic. Narrated by Paul Newman, the film...

The Sugar Curtain.(SHORT TAKES)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... Camila Guzman Urzua's The Sugar Curtain offers a fine example of intellectually provocative autobiographical filmmaking, since the subject sensitively, critically, and even-handedly reveals much of interest about herself and her...

The Unknown Soldier.(SHORT TAKES)(Movie review)(Brief article)
December 22, 2007... In 1995, the Hamburg Institute for Social Research opened an exhibition of historical photographs from German family albums, official army orders, public decrees, short film clips, and personal correspondence that exploded the myth of the...