Essays
Artwork by Neven Udovičić Few films that purport to “blur the boundaries between fiction and reality” ever go beyond stating the fact that much of reality is fake or performative, and that, conversely, a lot of what we assume to be entirely artificial is in fact the most true. That
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The story is what first catches the attention. A man who can draw his gun faster than anyone else finds himself forced to kill many others, in many American towns, as each new opponent tries and invariably fails to take his title. This premise would not be half as interesting
Essays
On cinema as a refuge Stop pathologising Disney adults! Thus rang out a cri de coeur, recently, from one Dr. Jodi Eichler-Levine, Professor of Religion Studies at Lehigh University, at the outset of a Twitter thread that swiftly went viral. The professor was reacting to a Reddit thread about two
Essays
Toothless satire and punching down in All My Friends Hate Me Much of UK-made cinema from the last few years has felt increasingly unimaginative. On one side, you have the feel-good, Richard Curtis-esque comedies, the Downton Abbeys and WWII adventures, invariably starring any number of Colin Firth impersonators. On the
Essays
How did we get here? The trap of representation, “in cinema at large and in Hollywood in particular,” Elena Lazic wrote, “is usually understood to mean the way in which increased presence on screens does not necessarily translate into larger creative power or salaries in front of and behind the
Essays
Croatian director Antoneta Alamat Kusijanović on her film Murina Over the course of a few days, existing tensions between a father and his teenage daughter escalate to a point of crisis. It sounds like a straightforward coming-of-age story, but it is not. Here, the person throwing tantrums and acting irrationally
Essays
Icelandic director Hlynur Pálmason on his film Godland Godland begins, like Fargo, with a title card announcing a spurious real-life inspiration for the film: in this case, a cache of seven wet-plate photographs, taken by a Danish priest in the 19th century, that are the first known pictures of South
Essays
Artwork by Neven Udovičić Again morning — sun-draped terrace — Sapphire sea — all the world on a holiday — Rifle Fire — Brooding doves — Brutality of man — and still the sun. Intertitle from Erich von Stroheim’s Foolish Wives (1922) Summer is here! In the Northern hemisphere, the weather is getting warmer, the sky
Essays
Billy Ray's Shattered Glass centres something more important than affability Another film could have told the story of The New Republic prodigy and serial liar Stephen Glass with bombastic, paranoia-tinged intensity, the kind that defines Alan Pakula’s trilogy of films about far-reaching corruption. Or it could have
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Channel 4 faces the greatest crisis in its lifetime. Is it possible to save it? The day that it was confirmed that the UK government intends to privatise Channel 4, my Twitter feed filled up with tweets that drove me up the wall. They were mostly variations on this sort
Essays
Three artists foreground how fruitful and fun a vision of art without boundaries can be One of the richest events at this year’s Berlin Film Festival occurred on its literal fringes. In association with the festival, the Haus der Kulturen der Welt presented the second staging (since its debut
Essays
A manifesto for experimental film, inspired by the work of Light Cone seen at IndieLisboa When I studied film at university, a teacher insisted that we should write one, maybe even two, manifestos in our lives. At the time, it seemed glib, a playful roast about the passions of youth