Cineaste articles from September 2003

Cineaste archives from September 2003

Film criticism in cyberspace.(Editorial)(Editorial)
September 22, 2003... In recent years, the Internet has become more than merely a source of endless porn and spam hawking cheap Viagra and shady real-estate deals. Coverage of the arts--and film in particular--is thriving in cyberspace, and while web-based criticism...

True confession, sort of: Capturing the Friedmans and the dilemma of theatrical documentary.
September 22, 2003... A sure way to tell that a new movie has acquired a glaze of cultural importance is when it makes the jump from the entertainment segments of newspapers, magazines, and TV shows to feature sections, op-ed pages, and their televisual equivalents....

The complexities of cultural change: an interview with Stephen Frears.(Interview)
September 22, 2003... Stephen Frears is a director whose films resist easy classification. He has worked in both his native England and in Hollywood, and both within and outside of established genres. Indeed, to study Frears is to crash headlong into those auteurist...

Can Hitchcock be saved from Hitchcock studies?
September 22, 2003... As Robert Kapsis has noted in Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation, Alfred Hitchcock always courted the press. From the early years in England working for Michael Balcon at Gainsborough to his final years in Hollywood working for Lew Wasserman...

The sincerest form of flattery: a brief history of the mockumentary.
September 22, 2003... "There hasn't been a new film genre since Fellini invented the mockumentary," declares Donald Kaufman, or maybe it was Charlie Kaufman, in Adaptation, quoting screenwriting guru Robert McKee. He's wrong, of course--fake does, mock docs, bogus...

The sisters of no mercy: an interview with Peter Mullan.(Interview)
September 22, 2003... When Peter Mullan's The Magdalene Sisters was screened at the Venice Film Festival last year, Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, a spokesman for the Vatican, attacked the film as a dishonest portrayal of the Church and accused its director of making...

My Big Fat Greek gripes.
September 22, 2003... My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002) is one of those films whose phenomenal success seems inexplicable. Although made on a modest budget with no stars, special effects, or promotional gimmicks, it has become the most economically successful ethnic...

Reel Bad Arabs.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... If ever we needed a book countering stereotypes of Arabs, now is the time. Negative images of Arabs in American culture are of course nothing new. Throughout this century, American portrayals of Arabs have ranged from problematic to downright...

In memoriam: Guy Hennebelle (July 9, 1941-July 3, 2003).(Brief Article)(Obituary)
September 22, 2003... It is with deep sorrow that we note the death on July 3rd, 2003, from cancer, of Guy Hennebelle, longtime colleague and friend of Cineaste, who served as our Paris Correspondent and Editorial Associate from 1973 to 1996. Throughout his career...

Splendid misery: an interview with Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman.(Interview)
September 22, 2003... In their first venture into fictional film, documentarians Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have not strayed entirely from their roots. Taking as their topic Harvey Pekar, the author and protagonist of the underground comic book...

The Weather Underground.(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced and directed by Sam Green and Bill Siegel; cinematography by Andrew Black and Federico Salsano; edited by Sam Green; original music by David Cerf and Amy Domingues; voice-over narration by Lili Taylor and Pamela Z; featuring Bernardine...

The Dancer Upstairs.(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced by John Malkovich and Andres Vincent Gomez; directed by John Malkovich, screenplay by Nicholas Shakespeare, based on the novel by Nicholas Shakespeare; cinematography by Jose Luis Alcaine; original music by Alberto Iglesias and Pedro...

Swimming Pool.(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced by Olivier Delbosc and Marc Missonnier; directed by Francois Ozon; screenplay by Francois Ozon and Emmanuele Bernheim; cinematography by Yorick Le Saux; edited by Monica Coleman; music by Philippe Rombi; production design by Wouter...

Sweet Sixteen.(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced by Rebecca O'Brien; directed by Ken Loach; screenplay by Paul Laverty; cinematography by Barry Ackroyd; edited by Jonathan Morris; original music by George Fenton;production design by Martin Johnson; costume design by Carole K. Millar;...

Under the Skin of the City.(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Jahangir Kowsari; directed by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad; screenplay by Rakhshan Bani-Etemad and Farid Mestafavi; cinematography by Hassein Jafarian; edited by Mastafa Kherghehpoush; production design by Omid...

Corrections for Cineaste, vol. XXVIII, No. 3 ("oh, the embarrassment of it all").(Correction Notice)
September 22, 2003... On the cover: It's Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne who are interviewed in the issue, not Jean-Luc and Pierre. At least we got it right inside the magazine! In Chris Sharrett's review of Gods and Generals, the correct subtitle for David...

Festival de Cannes 2003.(Communique)
September 22, 2003... Towards the end of the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the frequent condemnation of the festivities as "the worst Cannes ever" became a loudly intoned mantra--one that was gleefully chanted by critics for mass-circulation dailies as well as...

Federico Fellini: I'm a Born Liar.(Homevideo)(Video Recording Review)
September 22, 2003... This year marks the tenth anniversary of the death of Federico Fellini on October 31, 1993, and a number of events and film releases are planned to take place around that date to reconsider the Italian director's place in cinema history. At...

Straw Dogs.(Homevideo)(Video Recording Review)
September 22, 2003... Directed by Sam Peckinpah; produced by Daniel Melnick; screenplay by David Zelag Goodman and Sam Peckinpah; cinematography by John Coquillon; edited by Roger Spottiswoode, Paul Davies, Tony Dawson; music by Jerry Fielding; starring Dustin...

Pepe le Moko.(Homevideo)(Video Recording Review)
September 22, 2003... Directed by Julien Duvivier; adaptation by Jacques Constant, based on the novel by Detective Ashelbe; photography by Jules Kruger and Marc Fossard; music by Vincent Scotto and Mohamed Yguerbouchen; starring Jean Gabin, Mireille Balin, Gabriel...

The Joke.(Homevideo)(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Produced by Milos Stejskal; directed by Jaromil Jires; screenplay by Milan Kundera, Jaromil Jires, and Zdenek Blaha; cinematography by Jan Curik; edited by Joseph Valusiak; original music by Zdenek Pololanik: starring Josef Somr, Jaroslava...

W.C. Fields: a Biography.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by James Curtis. NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 2003. 593 pp., illus. Hardcover: $35.00. Drunk. Mean. Hated his family. Hated kids. Hated Mac West. Stashed money in secret bank accounts all over the world. Said he kept a Bible in his library to...

Paris Hollywood: Writings on Film.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by Peter Wollen. London and New York: Verso, 2002. 314pp. Hardcover: $60.00 and Paperback: $20.00. One of the more interesting paradoxes of Peter Wollen's writing career is that he was perceived as an academic well before he had a...

The Magic Hour: Film at Fin de Siecle.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by J. Hoberman. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press, 2003. 272 pp., illus. Hardcover: $69.50 and Paperback: $19.95. The Magic Hour is haunted by death in cinema. Rather than mourning the medium's supposed mortality (a subject...

The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes from the Underground.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes From the Underground by Goran Gocic. London: Wallflower Press, 2001. 196 pp., illus. Hardcover: $55.00 and Paperback: $20.00. Emir Kusturica by Dina Iordanova. London: British Film Institute, World...

Entertaining America: Jews, Movies, and Broadcasting.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... Edited by Jeffrey Shandler and J. Hoberman, New York: The Jewish Museum and Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. 334 pp. illus. Hardcover: $ 49.95 and Paperback: $35.00. In Jews Without Money, his semiautobiographical novel of...

Screen Couple Chemistry: the Power of 2.(Book Review)
September 22, 2003... by Martha P. Nochimson. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002. 416pp., illus. Hardcover: $65.00 and Paperback: $27.95. First off, this book is not really about screen chemistry--thankfully. An exclusive examination of such an abstract...

First Kill.(Short Takes)(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... The heart of Coco Schrijber's documentary, First Kill, is an interesting interview with Michael Herr, author of Dispatches, a memorable collection of his Vietnam experiences as a journalist, and coscreenwriter of Apocalypse Now and Full Metal...

Flag Wars.(Short Takes)(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... Linda Goode Bryant and Laura Poitras's verite documentary, shot over four years, depicts the gentrification of a downtown Afro-American, working-class Columbus, Ohio, neighborhood. An economically depressed area, it contains immense,...

Heremakono (waiting for happiness).(Short Takes)(Movie Review)
September 22, 2003... With the release of his most recent film, Abderrahmane Sissako has established himself as the most exciting new filmmaker to emerge from Africa in the last decade. Made with nonprofessional actors in the small transit town of Nouadhibou on the...

Pierre Bourdieu: sociology is a martial art.(Short Takes)(Brief Article)
September 22, 2003... If Americans have heard of the late Pierre Bourdieu at all, it is most likely because some of his more turgid prose is often cited by academics with an interest in cultural studies. Bourdieu's reputation was much different in France, where he...