The 1980’s were a time of innovation and progress for science fiction films. The groundwork that had been laid in the late ’60’s with 2001: A Space Odyssey, and later in the ’70’s with Star Wars and Alien, allowed for leaps and bounds in the following decade in terms of storytelling, special effects, and subject […]
Features
Dr. Harford Or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Masks
Good news for all Stanley Kubrick fans! There is a new documentary which is about the making of the masks in Eyes Wide Shut. In Kubrick’s last masterpiece, Dr. Bill Harford (played by Tom Cruise) wears an androgynous mask, as its creator Franco Cecamore specifically intended. This reinforces the theme that Dr Harford’s increasingly ambiguous […]
Nagisa Oshima, R.I.P.
I just heard the shocking news that one of the most prominent Japanese film director Nagisa Oshima passed away several hours ago. I have only seen 8 of his films, and fell in love with his works after watching the Oshima’s Outlaw Sixties Eclipse Set from Criterion Collection. Most people know Oshima’s name from […]
Michel Piccoli, Happy Birthday!
When I heard that today is famous French actor Michel Piccoli‘s 87th birthday, my first reaction was “What? He’s that old?”. Then I remembered that he had a cameo in the most controversial film of the year – Leos Carax’s Holy Motors, he played the boss who only appeared very briefly in a limousine scene, it was […]
Tatsuya Nakadai, Happy Birthday!
Today marks the 80th birthday of the legendary Japanese actor Tatsuya Nakadai, who was most famously known as the leading man of Akira Kurosawa’s late films like Ran and Kagemusha. Unlike another well-known Japanese actor Toshiro Mifune, who was criticized as “only being able to act Samurai well”, Nakadai has a wider range in his performances. […]
Yasujiro Ozu, Happy Birthday!
Today marks the 109th birthday of great Japanese auteur Yasujirô Ozu, it also means this master of cinema has left us for 49 years(Ozu was born and died on the same day). This year, his most important film Tokyo Story was voted as the best film in the Sight & Sound top 100 films of all […]