Cineaste articles from September 1998

Cineaste archives from September 1998

Editorial.(film criticism)(Editorial)
September 22, 1998... Ever since film criticism became a respectable pursuit in the 1920s, critics have both incurred and encouraged a reputation for being not only arbiters of taste and opinion, but also curmudgeons. Recently, a number of prominent critics and...

Defetishizing Bunuel.(books about Spanish film director Luis Bunuel)
September 22, 1998... Bunuel's mind should be an open book by now, after thirty-plus films, and seventy years of commentary on them, and him. Yet his work remains quite secretive, teasing, withdrawn. His life was a long and winding road - Parisian avant-gardes,...

Objects of Desire: Conversations with Luis Bunuel.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by Jose de la Colina and Tomas Perez Turrent. New York, NY: Marsilio Publishers, 1992. Edited and translated by Paul Lenti. 262 pp., illus. Paperback: $12.95. Bunuel's mind should be an open book by now, after thirty-plus films, and...

Bunuel.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by John Baxter. New York, NY: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 1998. 324 pp., illus. Hardcover: $24.00 Bunuel's mind should be an open book by now, after thirty-plus films, and seventy years of commentary on them, and him. Yet his work remains...

L'Age d'Or.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by Paul Hammond. London: The British Film Institute, 1997. Distributed in the U.S. by Indiana University Press. 76 pp., illus. Paperback: $24.00 Bunuel's mind should be an open book by now, after thirty-plus films, and seventy years of...

The actor as critic: an interview with Stephen Fry.(Interview)
September 22, 1998... Once either dismissed as a frivolous esthete or reviled as a sexual reprobate, Oscar Wilde now seems both more 'our contemporary' than almost any other nineteenth-century man of letters and more stubbornly enigmatic than ever. Wilde was, above...

Words, words, words: recent Shakespearean films.
September 22, 1998... Despite his mastery of language, his delight in wordplay, and his reliance on dialog, William Shakespeare would have been thrilled with the expressive capacity of the cinema. Since his actors performed on an essentially bare stage, with no sets...

Setting the stage: an interview with Dean Tavoularis.(motion picture production designer)(Interview)
September 22, 1998... Production design is one of the least discussed and most underrated of the cinematic arts. The production designer (often formally credited as art director) can be extremely influential in creating the overall mood and visual tone of a film. No...

We hardly knew ye: four early films of Paul Robeson.(Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 9)(African-American actor, singer and political activist)
September 22, 1998... The African-American colossus Paul Robeson (1898-1976), is the quintessential example of a historic figure whose name remains well-known but whose achievements are paradoxically obscured by their very quantity and variety - confusing for a...

Body and Soul.(Review)
September 22, 1998... The African-American colossus Paul Robeson (1898-1976), is the quintessential example of a historic figure whose name remains well-known but whose achievements are paradoxically obscured by their very quantity and variety - confusing for a...

Song of Freedom.(Review)
September 22, 1998... The African-American colossus Paul Robeson (1898-1976), is the quintessential example of a historic figure whose name remains well-known but whose achievements are paradoxically obscured by their very quantity and variety - confusing for a...

Jericho.(Review)
September 22, 1998... The African-American colossus Paul Robeson (1898-1976), is the quintessential example of a historic figure whose name remains well-known but whose achievements are paradoxically obscured by their very quantity and variety - confusing for a...

Big Fella.(Review)
September 22, 1998... The African-American colossus Paul Robeson (1898-1976), is the quintessential example of a historic figure whose name remains well-known but whose achievements are paradoxically obscured by their very quantity and variety - confusing for a...

'Eve's Bayou': too good to be a 'black' film?(Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 9)(motion picture by director Kasi Lemmons)
September 22, 1998... Eve's Bayou director Kasi Lemmons is a film industry triple threat. The young artist, whose acting credits include Candyman (1993), Fear of a Black Hat (1993), and Til There Was You (1997), made her screenwriter-director debut with Eve's Bayou,...

Eve's Bayou.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Written and directed by Kasi Lemmons; VHS, color, 108 minutes; distributed by Trimark Pictures, 2644 30th Street, Santa Monica, CA 90405-3009, phone (310) 314-2000. Eve's Bayou director Kasi Lemmons is a film industry triple threat. The...

Sending cinematic smoke signals: an interview with Sherman Alexie.(Race in Contemporary American Cinema, part 9)(filmmaker)(Interview)
September 22, 1998... Every few years or so, press kits arrive at the offices of film magazines announcing that a forthcoming film about Native Americans decisively breaks with the stereotypes of the past. Smoke Signals is the latest film to advertise itself so,...

Smoke Signals.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Every few years or so, press kits arrive at the offices of film magazines announcing that a forthcoming film about Native Americans decisively breaks with the stereotypes of the past. Smoke Signals is the latest film to advertise itself so,...

The abused child of history: Neil Jordan's 'The Butcher Boy.'.
September 22, 1998... Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy is an adaptation of Pat McCabe's highly-praised and controversial novel of the same name. Set in small-town Ireland of the early 1960s, the film traces the descent into violence and madness of twelve-year-old...

The Butcher Boy.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Neil Jordan's The Butcher Boy is an adaptation of Pat McCabe's highly-praised and controversial novel of the same name. Set in small-town Ireland of the early 1960s, the film traces the descent into violence and madness of twelve-year-old...

Off the beaten track: harmonious composer/director teams.
September 22, 1998... The life of most composers who score for film is a proscribed existence dictated by directors and the men with wallets (producers and other financiers), for whom music in their films is often an afterthought. As they near completion of a...

Dogma days at Cannes.(films at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, France)
September 22, 1998... Dogma 95: is it a hoax, or for real? The two films from Denmark selected for the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival competition arrived bearing the proclamation - even to the extent of handsome little certificates in their press books -...

The Celebration.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Dogma 95: is it a hoax, or for real? The two films from Denmark selected for the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival competition arrived bearing the proclamation - even to the extent of handsome little certificates in their press books -...

Life is Beautiful.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Dogma 95: is it a hoax, or for real? The two films from Denmark selected for the 1998 Cannes International Film Festival competition arrived bearing the proclamation - even to the extent of handsome little certificates in their press books -...

Paradise postponed: Ealing, Rank and 'They Came to a City.'.(motion picture production firms Ealing Studios and Rank Organisation PLC; 1944 film produced by Ealing)
September 22, 1998... Towards the end of 1944, a startling rumor rippled through the British film community. Ealing, the most staunchly independent of the smaller studios, was said to be doing a deal with the giant Rank Organization. Ealing, the same studio whose...

They Came to a City.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Towards the end of 1944, a startling rumor rippled through the British film community. Ealing, the most staunchly independent of the smaller studios, was said to be doing a deal with the giant Rank Organization. Ealing, the same studio whose...

The Truman Show.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Produced by Scott Rudin, Andrew Niccol, Edward S. Feldman and Adam Schroeder; directed by Peter Weir; screenplay by Andrew Niccol; cinematography by Peter Biziou; production design by Dennis Gassner; edited by William Anderson; music by...

Nil by Mouth.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Produced by Luc Besson, Douglas Urbanski, and Gary Oldman; written and directed by Gary Oldman; cinematography by Ron Fortunato; production design by Hugo Luczyc-Wyhowski; edited by Brad Fuller; music by Eric Clapton; starring Ray Winstone,...

What Farocki Taught.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Produced and directed by Jill Godmilow; technical collaborator, Ted Mandell; writing collaborator, Gloria Jean Masciarotte; cinematography by Kevin Loncar and alan Smith; set design by Bruce Auerbach. 16mm color, 30 mins. Distributed by Video...

Carla's Song.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Produced by Sally Hibbin; directed by Ken Loach; screenplay by Paul Laverty; cinematography by Barry Ackroyd; production design by Martin Johnson; edited by Jonathan Morris; music by George Fenton; starring Robert Carlyle, Oyanka Cabezas, Scott...

Solidarity Song: The Hanns Eisler Story.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Produced by Gabriele Faust and Niv Fichman; directed by Larry Weinstein; script by Larry Weinstein and Thomas Wallner; cinematography by Horst Zeidler; edited by David New; music by Hanns Eisler. Color, 84 mins. Distributed by Bullfrog Films,...

The beloved Bs.(mediocre or B motion pictures)
September 22, 1998... Back in the days when a night at the movies meant a double feature, a cartoon, a newsreel, previews, and a selected short, critics tended to ignore or even sneer at the B picture which completed the double bill. With the French coinage of the...

T-Men.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Directed by Anthony Mann; VHS, black and white, 92 mins. Back in the days when a night at the movies meant a double feature, a cartoon, a newsreel, previews, and a selected short, critics tended to ignore or even sneer at the B picture...

Raw Deal.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Directed by Anthony Mann; VHS, black and white, 79 mins. Back in the days when a night at the movies meant a double feature, a cartoon, a newsreel, previews, and a selected short, critics tended to ignore or even sneer at the B picture...

He Walked By Night.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Directed by Alfred L. Werker; VHS, black and white, 79 mins. The video series, "Noir: The Dark Side of Hollywood," is distributed by Kino on Video, 333 W. 39th St., NYC 10018, phone (800) 562-3330. Back in the days when a night at the...

Cleo from 5 to 7.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Directed by Agnes Varda; starring Corinne Marchand, Antoine Bourseiller, Dominique Davray, and Dorothee Blank; a Criterion Collection laserdisc, B&W, 90 rains., CLV; French with English subtitles. Distributed by Image Entertainment, 9333 Oso...

Vagabond.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Directed by Agnes Varda; starring Sandrine Bonnaire, Macha Meril, Yolande Moreau and Yahiaoui Assouna; a Criterion Collection laserdisc, color, 105 mins., CLV; French with English subtitles. Distributed by Image Entertainment. Watching the...

Speaking About Godard.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki; foreword by Constance Penley. New York/London: New York University Press, 1998. 245 pp., illus. Hardcover: $55.00, Paperback: $17.95. Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki's dialogues about eight features by...

Negative Space: Manny Farber on the Movies.(Review)
September 22, 1998... (expanded edition) by Manny Farber; preface by Robert Walsh. New York: Da Capo Press, 1998. Paperback: $15.95. Kaja Silverman and Harun Farocki's dialogues about eight features by Jean-Luc Godard, stretching from Vivre sa vie (1962) to...

Public Television: Politics and the Battle Over Documentary Film.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by B.J. Bullert. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1997. 242 pp., illus. Hardcover: $49.00 and Paperback: $20.00. The origins of American public television as we know it today can be found in the mid-to-late 1960s, when the Carnegie...

Dorothy Dandridge: A Biography.(Review)
September 22, 1998... by Donald Bogle. New York: Amistad Press, 1997.613 pp., illus. Hardcover: $27.95. Beyond excavating and reconstructing the details of a long-ignored or faded celebrity life, the production of any black 'star' biography, must often be, at...

Play It Again Sam: Retakes on Remakes.(Review)
September 22, 1998... Edited by Andrew Horton and Stuart Y. Dougal. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998. 367 pp., illus. Hardcover: $50.00, Paperback: $19.95. Horton and Dougal's anthology is at once expansive, illuminating, and a little exhausting:...