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Remembering Women: Claudia von Alemann’s Blind Spot

By Erika Balsom In CS87, Features, From The Magazine

Common Sense Connoisseur: The Critical Legacy of Bertrand Tavernier

By Christoph Huber In CS87, Features, From The Magazine

“I prefer, where truth is important, to write fiction:” On Radu Jude

By Phil Coldiron In CS87, Features, From The Magazine

Brief Encounters: Hamaguchi Ryusuke’s Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy

By Beatrice Loayza In CS87, Features, From The Magazine

Gag Orders: The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Judas and the Black Messiah

By Andrew Tracy In CS86, Features, From The Magazine

Bobby Seale makes a cameo of sorts midway through Judas and the Black Messiah, as Martin Sheen’s porcine J. Edgar Hoover—checking in personally on the progress of the FBI’s campaign against Chicago Black Panther Party chairman Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya)—is shown an artist’s sketch of the BPP’s national chairman gagged and shackled in the courtroom during the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. This revolting spectacle understandably serves as the mid-film dramatic highpoint of The Trial of the Chicago 7, when the repeated, suitably indignant demands by Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) to serve as his own defense counsel in the absence of his hospitalized lawyer—and presiding judge Julius Hoffman’s (Frank Langella) incredible refusal to grant this right, instead directing that Seale’s defense should be undertaken by the representatives for the other defendants—ultimately lead to him being bodily removed from the courtroom by marshals and returned in chains. That image of a defiant Black man, forcibly silenced and immobilized in a hall of American justice, became one of William Burroughs’ “frozen moment[s] at the end of the newspaper fork,” when everyone—including those who would applaud it—can see what they’re being fed.

Journey to the Centre of the Earth: Fern Silva’s Itinerary

By Michael Sicinski In CS86, Features, From The Magazine

Fern Silva’s films cannot be described as ethnography, personal/mythopoeic film, or essay filmmaking, although they often partake of all of those modes. Though his films are rooted in particular places and cultural spheres, they assiduously avoid the rhetorical or declarative traps of typical nonfiction filmmaking. Instead, they envelop the viewer in a diffuse but concrete ambiance, conveying the palpability of land and water, the weight of the air surrounding hills and trees. They represent a doubled physicality—the world as unavoidably there, inseparable from the cinematic substrate of 16mm filmmaking itself—and the result is a hybridized form of documentary “fiction,” in the classical Latin sense. Silva’s films are made, formed in the interface between reality and those human and mechanical processes that bring it into being.

Modern Mabuse: On Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales

By Josh Cabrita In CS86, Features, From The Magazine

The Play for Tomorrow: Steve McQueen’s Small Axe

By Michael Sicinski In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

The Crowd Is Dead, Long Live the Crowd!

By Erika Balsom In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

All the Fountains of the Great Deep: Artavazd Pelechian’s La Nature

By Phil Coldiron In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

Minority Report: Armond White Wants to Make Spielberg Great Again

By Adam Nayman In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

F for Fake: Mank

By Andrew Tracy In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

I Thought I Was Seeing Palestinians: On Kamal Aljafari

By Kaleem Hawa In CS85, Features, From The Magazine

I Lost It at the Movies: Charlie Kaufman’s Antkind and I’m Thinking of Ending Things

By Adam Nayman In CS84, Features, From The Magazine

Open Ticket: The Long, Strange Trip of Ulrike Ottinger

By Michael Sicinski In CS84, Features, From The Magazine

A Pierce of the Action: On Claudine and Uptight

By Andrew Tracy In CS84, Features, From The Magazine

The Home and the World: Three Films by Ruchir Joshi

By Jesse Cumming In CS84, Features, From The Magazine

Chums at Midnight: On Hopper/Welles

By Alex Ross Perry In CS84, Features, From The Magazine

In Search of the Female Gaze

By Erika Balsom In CS83, Features, From The Magazine

Live(stream) and In Person: Watching Zia Anger’s My First Film in the Age of Quarantine

By Jessica McGoff In CS83, Features, From The Magazine

Impresión de un cineasta: On the Films of Camilo Restrepo

By Jay Kuehner In CS82, Features, From The Magazine

They Are All Equal Now: The Irishman’s Epic of Sadness

By Robert Koehler In CS81, Features, From The Magazine

Far from Paradise: Nina Menkes’ Queen of Diamonds

By Erika Balsom In CS81, Features, From The Magazine

Garden Against the Machine: Ja’Tovia Gary’s The Giverny Document

By Michael Sicinski In CS81, Features, From The Magazine

Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown: Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 ft

By Josh Cabrita In CS80, Features, From The Magazine

For a Cinema of Bombardment

By Michael Sicinski In CS80, Features, From The Magazine

Together We’re Willing to Take Any Risk: The Films of Han Ok-hee and Kaidu Club

By Jesse Cumming In CS80, Features, From The Magazine

The Good Fight: The Films of Julia Reichert

By Bob Kotyk In CS79, Features, From The Magazine

Truth and Method: The Films of Thomas Heise

By Michael Sicinski In CS79, Features, From The Magazine

Thinking in Images: Scott Walker and Cinema

By Christoph Huber In CS79, Features, From The Magazine

The Exorcist: Barbara Loden and Wanda

By Courtney Duckworth In CS78, Features, From The Magazine

Audrey II: Sofia Bohdanowicz and Deragh Campbell’s MS Slavic 7

By Adam Nayman In CS78, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Screenlife’s What You Make It: Thoughts on Searching, Profile, Unfriended: Dark Web, and Cam

By Jason Anderson In CS78, Features, From The Magazine

You Can’t Own an Idea: The Films of James N. Kienitz Wilkins

By Dan Sullivan In CS78, Features, From The Magazine

To Thine Own Self Be True: Angela Schanelec on I Was at Home, But…

By Giovanni Marchini Camia In CS78, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Ghost Operas: Music from the Films of Bertrand Bonello

By Sean Rogers In CS77, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Soft and Hard: Claire Denis on High Life

By Adam Nayman In CS77, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Encore: Dora García’s Segunda vez

By Michael Sicinski In CS77, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

The Land of the Unknown: Roberto Minervini on What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?

By Jordan Cronk In CS77, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Tous les garçons et les filles: Philippe Lesage’s Genèse and Les démons

By Adam Nayman In CS76, Features, From The Magazine

Touch Me I’m Sick: Alex Ross Perry’s Her Smell

By Jason Anderson In CS76, Features, From The Magazine

First Person Plural: On Orson Welles’ The Other Side of the Wind

By Phil Coldiron In CS76, Features, From The Magazine

Exchange Rate: The Silent Partner at 40

By Adam Nayman In CS75, Features, From The Magazine

Transgressions in the Dark Age: The Films of Kim Ki-young and Lee Hwa-si

By Kelley Dong In CS75, Features, From The Magazine

Do It Again: On Ricky D’Ambrose’s Words and Images

By Phil Coldiron In CS74, Features, From The Magazine

The Changing View of Man in the Portrait: Errol Morris’ Wormwood

By Lawrence Garcia In CS74, Features, From The Magazine

“You Never Heard of Code-Switching, Motherfucker?”: Joseph Kahn’s Bodied

By Steven Shaviro In CS74, Features, From The Magazine

The Uses of Disenchantment: Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water

By Adam Nayman In CS73, Features, From The Magazine

The Limits of Control: Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel’s Caniba

By Samuel La France In CS73, Features, From The Magazine

Cocote (Nelson Carlo de Los Santos Arias, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Germany)

By Jay Kuehner In CS73, Fall Festival Spotlight, Features, From The Magazine, Spotlight

Madame Hyde (Serge Bozon, France/Belgium)

By Blake Williams In CS73, Fall Festival Spotlight, Features, From The Magazine, Spotlight

Ephraim Asili’s Immeasurable Equations

By Jesse Cumming In CS72, Features, From The Magazine

Those You Call Mutants: The Films of Lucrecia Martel

By Blake Williams In CS72, Features, From The Magazine

Ahead of Its Reflection: Ben Russell’s Good Luck

By Phil Coldiron In CS72, Features, From The Magazine

Electroshock Therapy: Matthew Rankin on The Tesla World Light

By Jason Anderson In CS71, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Would You Like to See a Magic Trick?: Basma Alsharif’s Ouroboros and its Contexts

By Phil Coldiron In CS71, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Dusting the Corners: Luke Fowler’s Restorative Histories

By Michael Sicinski In CS71, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Rossellini’s War Trilogy: Neorealism or Historical Revisionism?

By Celluloid Liberation Front In CS71, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Common Boston: Dennis Lehane on Screen

By Sean Rogers In CS70, Features, From The Magazine

Small Things and Big Things: Feng Xiaogang’s I Am Not Madame Bovary

By Shelly Kraicer In CS70, Features, From The Magazine

Orchestrating the Apocalypse: The Survival Horror of Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evils

By Christoph Huber In CS70, Features, From The Magazine

Unseen Forces: Joshua Bonnetta in Sound and Image

By Michael Sicinski In CS70, Features, From The Magazine

Something, Everything: Manuela De Laborde on AS WITHOUT SO WITHIN

By Blake Williams In CS69, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

The Working Hour: Salomé Lamas’ Eldorado XXI

By Michael Sicinski In CS69, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Super-Ornithologist: João Pedro Rodrigues’ Birdman

By Robert Koehler In CS69, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Artifact Bonfire: Ken Jacobs and Reichstag 9/11

By Daniel Kasman In CS69, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

From the Other Side: Exiled in Trumpland

By Roberto Minervini In CS69, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

Weapon of Flesh: Shiota Akihiko’s Wet Woman in the Wind and the Return of Roman Porno

By Christoph Huber In CS68, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews

The Rules of the Game: Paul Verhoeven’s Elle

By Adam Nayman In Cinema Scope Online, CS68, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews, TIFF 2016

Sehnsucht: Ruth Beckermann on The Dreamed Ones

By Andrea Picard In Cinema Scope Online, CS68, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews, TIFF 2016

Saying Something: The Films of Angela Schanelec

By Blake Williams In Cinema Scope Online, CS68, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews, TIFF 2016

The Wanderer: Eduardo Williams’ The Human Surge

By Leo Goldsmith In Cinema Scope Online, CS68, Features, From The Magazine, Interviews, TIFF 2016

The Gag of Realism: Nathan for You

By Benny Safdie In CS67, Features, From The Magazine

Power of Attorney: Better Call Saul

By Adam Nayman In CS67, Features, From The Magazine

El Filibustero: Lav Diaz’s A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery

By Michael Sicinski In CS67, Features, From The Magazine

Archive Fever: The Films of Pietro Marcello

By Blake Williams In CS64, Features, From The Magazine

Eternal Damnation: Arturo Ripstein’s Bleak Street

By Jose Teodoro In CS64, Features, From The Magazine

Field Studies: Mark Lewis’ Invention

By Michael Sicinski In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

Star Wars: Laura Poitras’ Astro Noise

By Jerry White In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

True Colours: On Margaret Honda’s Style

By Phil Coldiron In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

Uniquely American Symptoms: The Manchurian Candidate

By Adam Nayman In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

Last Action Hero: Jason Statham Plays It Straight

By Christoph Huber In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

Wang Bing Films Souls: On Ta’ang and Other Recent Work

By Shelly Kraicer In CS66, Features, From The Magazine

Sundance 2016: Good Grief!

By Blake Williams In CS66, Features, From The Magazine, Spotlight

Mother of All of Us: Ida Lupino, The Filmaker

By Christoph Huber In CS65, Features, From The Magazine

Landscape Suicide: The Films of Daïchi Saïto

By Jordan Cronk In CS65, Features, From The Magazine

In Dreams Begin Responsibilities: The Films of Patricio Guzmán

By Max Nelson In CS63, Features, From The Magazine

Joyce Wieland: Word of Mouth

By Samuel La France In CS63, Features, From The Magazine

Implications of a Totality: Frames for the Films of Joseph Bernard

By Phil Coldiron In CS63, Features, From The Magazine

Blackhat, White Noise: Michael Mann’s System of Objects

By Andrew Tracy In CS62, Features, From The Magazine

A Perfect Game: Kevin Jerome Everson’s Park Lanes

By Michael Sicinski In CS62, Features, From The Magazine

The Funniest Joke in the World: On Rick Alverson’s Entertainment

By Phil Coldiron In CS62, Features, From The Magazine

Leeching Upon the Lifeblood of the Real: Ben Rivers’ The Sky Trembles and the Earth Is Afraid and the Two Eyes Are Not Brothers

By Leo Goldsmith In CS64, Features, From The Magazine

Random Notes on a Projection of The Clock by Christian Marclay at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 4:32 pm, July 28, 2011-5:02 pm, July 29, 2011

By Thom Andersen In CS48, Features, From The Magazine

The Systematically Incomplete Dialectical Process, or, Articulations of Structural Mythopoeia in the Para-Classical Realm for the Metrickally Measured Linguistical Motivics and Deeply Felt Cinematic Appoggiatura of Mr. David Gatten, Gentleman by Michael Sicinski

By Michael Sicinski In CS49, Features, From The Magazine

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From the Magazine
- Issue 87: Table of contents
  
  Alexandre Koberidze, Dasha Nekrasova,Radu Jude, Amalia Ulman, Monte Hellman, TV or not TV, Eberhard and Phyllis Kronhausen, Azor, New Order, Siberia
- Remembering Women: Claudia von Alemann’s Blind Spot
  
  Cherchez la femme, they say. It sounds nice, but what this expression actually means is that woman is the root of all (male) problems, always to blame. Claudia von Alemann’s extraordinary Blind Spot (Die Reise nach Lyon, 1980), recently restored by the Deutsche Kinemathek in cooperation with the Institut Lumière, is a rare film that puts the pursuit of a woman at its heart—not so that she can be punished, not so that a man’s troubles can be explained, but so that her achievements might be rescued from oblivion and might, in the process, change another woman’s life.
- Common Sense Connoisseur: The Critical Legacy of Bertrand Tavernier
  
  The two most cherished film books in the pile on my bedside table are in a language my command of which is rudimentary at best. But since both Jacques Lourcelles’ Dictionnaire du Cinéma – Les Films as well as Jean-Pierre Coursodon and Bertrand Tavernier’s 50 ans de cinéma américain have never been translated from French into either English or German, I gladly make do, filling the gaps with a mixture of autodidactic guesswork and occasional dictionary consultation, which for all its drawbacks has proved to be a viable method.
- “I prefer, where truth is important, to write fiction:” On Radu Jude
  
  In the name of the popular, delighting in reduction and obviousness, a boring assertion: the common ground of every film movement christened a “new wave” over the last 70 years has tended toward revision, a self-conscious desire to provide a true image of the people in opposition to the distorted picture given by whatever relevant iterations of official culture. The banality of this claim can be measured by the volume of cant and platitude produced in support of it, often by the artists themselves. There is, I hope, little need to rehearse these arguments regarding realism, myth, and so on. Who today can help but squirm when faced with the phrase “true image of the people?”
- Siberia (Abel Ferrara, Italy/Germany/Mexico/Greece/UK)
  
  Abel Ferrara is a changed man. While the evidence suggests that this is very good news for Ferrara himself and his immediate family, it could result in a minor schism in the manner in which his films are received. For most of his career Ferrara has been the subject of a Romantic cult that glorified his legendarily self-destructive behaviour, and often read this (literal) lawlessness as an integral part of his renegade creative vision.