When explaining why he dropped out of film school, Paul Thomas Anderson said “My film making education consisted of finding out what filmmakers I liked were watching, then seeing those films. I learned the technical stuff from books and mags…Film school is a complete con, because the information is out there is you want it.” Whatever ones motivation, the joy… Read more »
In Ang Lee’s essay, “A Never-ending Dream”, released after he won his first Best Director Academy Award, there is one line that defines this visionary director, a confession from his wife: “‘I’ve always believed that you only need one gift. Your gift is making films. There are so many people studying computers already, they don’t need an Ang Lee to… Read more »
Fritz Lang’s career is largely defined by the two places he chose to make films- first in Germany (he was born in Austria), where he was a pioneer of Expressionist films and dubbed “the master of darkness” by the British Film Institute, and produced such masterpieces of the form as M and Metropolis, and Hollywood, where he landed after fleeing… Read more »
The term ‘Folk’ tends to be seen as describing, historically, a form of traditionalism in a country’s culture and especially in a country’s rural culture which has not been affected by modernity to the same degrees as its metropolitan counterparts. Every Culture in the world has started out with its different ‘folk’ customs and beliefs, some of which have been… Read more »
Comedy is a very popular genre of film. When we go to the movies, we want to laugh as well as cry. Thus, within this plethora of films, some gems can go unnoticed – or forgotten. Here is a list of films that you may not have heard of. A few on this list always been “sleepers”; but most were… Read more »
Once in a while, a film comes along that affects the viewer on a deep and emotional level, while it can also leave others completely cold. The 1971 Hal Ashby film “Harold And Maude” is one of those ‘crazy diamonds’. The original black comedy about suicide, it is, in fact, an incredibly positive, joyous and life affirming film. Described as… Read more »
There will never be another like Marilyn Monroe. Born Norma Jeane Mortenson in 1926, Marilyn started her career modelling, followed with tiny, often not speaking parts, in films for 20th Century Fox and Columbia Pictures. But it wasn’t until her appearance in John Huston’s The Asphalt Jungle in 1950 for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that people started to take note of her. Her… Read more »
Thirty years after his death, Francois Truffaut remains one of the most respected and celebrated innovators of world cinema. A major force of the French New Wave movement, Truffaut was never afraid to take risks in his work, either artistically or politically. In the spirit of his fellow defiant New Wave colleagues, Truffaut endowed cinema with an impressive body of… Read more »
The South Korean New Wave began in 1998 when, for the first time, nine home-grown films made it into the top 20 at the South Korean box office. The release of Shiri in 1999 put the South Korean New Wave on the map by becoming the biggest box-office success in South Korean film history with total admissions of over six… Read more »
“Every film I make represents a departure for me. You see, it takes so long to make a film. By the time you get to the next one you’re already a different man.” Polanski started film acting at nineteen and made his first student film in 1957 (Murder). Over the course of his career as a director, Roman Polanski has… Read more »
Like Italian Neorealism, German Expressionism had a direct relation with the politics of the time. Neorealism emerged after fascism destroyed Italy. In response, leftist filmmakers tried to create a cinema which dealt with the social realities produced by fascism. German Expressionism was born in between two World Wars, in a growing Germany where Weimar Republic had a promising future. The… Read more »
“So bad, it’s good” cinema is on the rise, as evidenced by new websites (RiffTrax), books (Showgirls, Teenwolves, and Astro Zombies), and podcasts (How Did This Get Made?) that have been created during the past decade to meet demand from a growing fan base. It may seem like an inaccessible medium, or even a fruitless endeavor to watch them, but… Read more »
Animated films are often thought of as kid’s films, but in many cases, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Many animated movies are in fact targeted at children, but then there are also those which cross into more mature territory, as well as those that cross the bridge and can be greatly enjoyed by both the older and the… Read more »
In Japanese cinema, the genre of jidaigeki refers to films set in a pre-20th Century period of Japanese history. A sub-genre of jidaigeki is the chambara–or sword fight–movie, a type that most often features samurai in various kinds of dramatic action, and in nearly every case showcasing displays of great swordsmanship and valor. The most legendary practitioner of the chambara… Read more »
“Marlon had an expression, he’d say: Let’s go out and jiggle the molecules.” – Quincy Jones Throughout the history of art, there have arguably been only a handful of artists in any medium that reconfigured the way we perceive life and our place within it. Painters Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso famously challenged our sense of sight with Cubism. Jazz… Read more »
British director Michael Powell and Hungarian writer and producer Emeric Pressburger were a two-man creative powerhouse in the mid-20th Century. ‘The Archers’ (as they styled themselves) unleashed a sequence of classic films onto the world that has a unique place in cinema history. Huge box office and critical hits upon first release, their work was latterly (and incorrectly) dismissed as… Read more »
With two films by Terrence Malick (Knight of Cups and an untitled Malick project) in the works and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings in post-production, we look back to some of the best films starring Christian Bale – one of the most meticulous, devoted and talented actors of his generation, a man constantly searching for the next intriguing performance…. Read more »
The word “giallo” is Italian for “yellow” and is derived from a series of cheap mystery novels that featured a trademark yellow cover. The giallo film genre was heavily influenced by these novels and the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Visionary Italian directors Mario Bava and Dario Argento created and defined the genre with films like “The Girl Who Knew Too… Read more »
A unique product of cultural, historical, and artistic conditions, the screwball comedy film was the quintessential genre of the mid-1930’s to the 1940’s and has proven to be both popular and enduring over the years. With roots in the classical farces seen on the theater stage, the screwball comedy is typified by a courtship-related plot centered around a strong female… Read more »
