2046
February 21, 2006
Several years in the making (and three cinematographers later), Wong Kar-Wai’s 2046 (2004) is a sequel of sorts to his sumptuous period piece of unrequited love, In the Mood for Love (2000). Or rather, it should be viewed as a continuation of that world,...
Masculin, Feminin
February 20, 2006
Masculin Feminin (1966) was seen as a radical departure for Jean-Luc Godard because of its overt political message and openness about sex. Up until then he was the critical darling with hits like À bout de souffle (1960), Bande à part (1964) and Pierrot...
Rumble Fish: Special Edition
February 4, 2006
History remembers Francis Ford Coppola’s, Rumble Fish (1983) as a film that was booed by its audience when it debuted at the New York Film Festival and in turn was viciously crucified by North American critics upon general release. It’s too...
The Man Who Fell to Earth
February 2, 2006
When The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976) was shown in the United States it was trimmed of 20 minutes of footage because the studio was worried that people wouldn’t understand what was going on. These cuts only made the movie more incomprehensible. This...
Last Life in the Universe
January 31, 2006
Last Life in the Universe (2003) begins with a striking image of a man who has hung himself, his feet dangling with one slipper on and a pile of books underneath. Cut to a shot of the man now standing on the books about to hang himself. It turns out he...
The Brown Bunny
January 14, 2006
After the critical acclaim of Buffalo ’66 (1998), there was a certain amount of anticipation for what its writer/director/star Vincent Gallo would do next. He responded with The Brown Bunny (2003), a film that, to put it mildly, polarized critics and...
The Phantom of Liberty
November 3, 2005
Luis Bunuel claimed in an interview that his film, The Phantom of Liberty (1974), “only imitates the mechanisms of chance. It was written in a conscious state; it is neither dream nor a delirious flow of images.” His film defies a traditional narrative...
L’Eclisse
October 28, 2005
In an essay included in the accompanying booklet, Jonathan Rosenbaum points out that Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse (1962) was the final film in a “loose trilogy about Eros, art, business and emotional alienation in the contemporary world.”...
The Sword of Doom
September 26, 2005
Japan, 1860. It is the era just before the samurai order was dissolved. Ryunosuke (Nakadai), a wandering samurai warrior kills a young woman’s grandfather without provocation. He enters a town and proceeds to shake things up after killing one of the...
My Own Private Idaho
August 25, 2005
Van Sant skillfully legitimized everyday existence with Mala Noche (1986) and Drugstore Cowboy (1989) by presenting fascinating explorations into street life. These films never exploited or romanticized their rather seedy subject matter, but viewed the...
