Cineaste articles from March 1996

Cineaste archives from March 1996

Editorial. (death of Cuban director Tomas Gutierrez Alea)(Editorial)
March 22, 1996... Cuban cinema - indeed, world cinema - lost one of its greatest directors when Tomas Gutierrez Alea, known to his friends and colleagues as "Titon," died of lung cancer in Havana on April 16, 1996, in his 67th year. A number of Cineaste editors,...

Between ethics and politics: an interview with Tim Robbins.(Cover Story)(Interview)
March 22, 1996... When Robert Altman said of actor/director Tim Robbins, "There's a new Orson Welles, and he's it," Altman was assessing Robbins's debut as director and screenwriter of the 1992 political satire, Bob Roberts, in which Robbins also played the title...

The making of David Lean's film of 'The Bridge on the River Kwai.'
March 22, 1996... In 1956, David Lean was a leading director in English eyes only; internationally he was a minor player. Under normal circumstances, he would not have been offered such a prestigious subject as Kwai, not when men like John Ford, Howard Hawks or...

A couple of furry black and white pets sitting around talking ... about 'Babe.'
March 22, 1996... Occasionally the Cineaste Editorial Board meets at the homes of its editors, during which time the animal companions of Board members feel compelled to join in the cat fights (or dog fights, depending upon the issue at hand) that sometimes ensue....

A gun up your ass: an interview with Jim Jarmusch. (American independent filmmaker)(Interview)
March 22, 1996... A dozen years ago, when his second feature, Stranger Than Paradise, catapulted him to worldwide fame, Jim Jarmusch seemed at the height of arthouse fashion. Having already known him a little before then, I could tell that the extent to which he...

Naming the right names: amending the Hollywood blacklist.
March 22, 1996... When The Day of the Triffids was released in 1963, its screen credits listed Philip Yordan as the film's only screenwriter. The science-fiction classic, which stars Howard Keel as a scientist battling man-eating plants from outer space, was not...

Art, history and politics in the former Yugoslavia: an interview with Michael Benson.(Interview)
March 22, 1996... One of the more inventive ways of fighting the 'soft' totalitarianism of post-Tito Yugoslavia took shape in Slovenia in the early 1980s. The rock ensemble Laibach (provocatively named from the German for the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana) launched...

Chronicles of modern Greece: an interview with Pantelis Voulgaris.(Interview)
March 22, 1996... Last fall, when the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) hosted a mid-career retrospective of films by Pantelis Voulgaris, New Yorkers had a rare opportunity to see the work of one of the most accomplished directors of Greek cinema. The seven features and...

A Litany for Survival. ('A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde')(Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 6)
March 22, 1996... Audre Lorde was an inspiring poet, gay rights activist, and essayist who left a lasting impression on everyone she met. Film portrayals of such persons can be daunting, since they must faithfully render the person to those whom she inspired,...

Tales from Arab Detroit. (documentary on Arab Americans)
March 22, 1996... Documentaries on Arab Americans can be counted on one hand and Joan Mandell's new film is one of only two that have had any national exposure. Mandell centers her thoughtful portrait around the visit of an Egyptian storyteller to Detroit's Arab...

A second look. (1940 film 'The Proud Valley')
March 22, 1996... In the wake of the Million Man March on Washington and the O.J. Simpson verdict, a viewing of Ealing Studio's modest production The Proud Valley (1940) may appear not so much as 'what might have been,' but as an impossible vision dreamed up by...

Dead Man Walking.
March 22, 1996... Social melodramas like Tim Robbins's Dead Man Walking have an interesting niche in the vast array of product manufactured by Hollywood studios. The Hollywood style, of course, was perfected to create films which were seamlessly escapist. Rather...

City Hall.
March 22, 1996... It's a rarity to have an American film which deals seriously with urban politics. In fact, when one tries to compile a list of urban political films, few come readily to mind. One remembers The Last Hurrah (1958), John Ford's sentimental homage...

Dead Man.
March 22, 1996... In Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man, there is no American West. There is only a landscape that America the conqueror has emptied of its natives and turned into a capitalist charnel house. The Western is the American cinema's pride and joy as well as its...

Fargo.
March 22, 1996... White-out conditions bracket the outskirts of Fargo, a warmhearted tale of cold-blooded murder from the brothers Coen, director Joel and producer Ethan. The opening shot sketches the color scheme: barely discernible through overcast skies and...

The films of David Lean on laserdisc.
March 22, 1996... Over the four decades of his directorial career, David Lean (1908-1991) fell in and out of critical favor, but he was always highly regarded by fellow filmmakers. Whether it was for intimate dramas of human relationships like This Happy Breed and...

I Am Cuba.
March 22, 1996... In one long, continuous take, the mobile hand-held camera moves at street level through a funeral procession, then rises several stories to the top of a building, crosses over a street and enters a cigar factory, then moves past the tobacco...

The Usual Suspects.
March 22, 1996... Prior to the release of The Usual Suspects in the summer of 1995, Gramercy Pictures began their ad campaign with the enigmatic slogan, "Who is Keyset Soze?," posted on the sides of buses and on billboards. Such obtuse and gimmicky ad practice,...

Dennis Potter: The Last Interview.
March 22, 1996... British writer Dennis Potter was probably the most imaginative and profound television dramatist of our time. In perverse, mordant, sexually graphic masterworks like Pennies from Heaven and The Singing Detective he extended the stylistic and...

The Belgrade International Film Festival.
March 22, 1996... After six years of being away from Serbia because of the war, I returned to see old friends and new films in January as the guest of the Belgrade International Film Festival. I was also anxious to see if peace had actually begun after the horrors...

Odd Man Out: A Memoir of the Hollywood Ten.
March 22, 1996... Edward Dmytryk achieved notoriety in the early 1950s when he became the only member of the Hollywood Ten to recant his previous views and retestify as a 'friendly' witness for the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). In Odd Man Out, he...

Dangerous Knowledge: The JFK Assassination in Art and Film.
March 22, 1996... The assassination of President John F. Kennedy was the most photographed murder in history, with more than 500 films and stills taken of the November 22, 1963 tragedy by eyewitnesses and newsmen. Many of these images have become graven in popular...

Black Film/White Money.
March 22, 1996... In Black Film/White Money, Jesse Algeron Rhines, a professor of political economy at Rutgers University as well as an editor of Cineaste, takes on black American movies - their history, the factors (both historical and contemporary) affecting...

Flickers: An Illustrated Celebration of 100 Years of Cinema.
March 22, 1996... Gilbert Adair's Flickers is not a book to read from first to last page in one sitting. No argument is being teased out, no thesis is being developed. It is a simple (but not simply written) celebration of one hundred years worth of movies....