In Dreams

Dec 4, 2012 — Misunderstood by Hollywood, embraced by critics, this fatalistic fantasy remains Terry Gilliam’s ultimate trip.

Mar 26, 2012 — A Night to Remember, the 1958 British film adaptation of Walter Lord’s 1955 book about the brief life and agonizing death of the Titanic, has proven unsinkable. With its Olympian yet unfailingly life-size view of the disaster that scuttled illusions...

Feb 1, 2011 — This essay was originally published in the booklet accompanying the 2006 DVD release of The Double Life of Véronique. A new life experience is in the air today, a perception that explodes the form of the linear narrative and renders...

Jun 22, 2010 — In the autumn of 1989, the Iranian magazine Sorush printed a story about an unusual crime: a poor man had been arrested for impersonating a celebrated film director, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, to a middle-class family in northern Tehran. Although the accused,...

Jun 25, 2007 — Chris Marker’s masterpiece is a cinematic essay and travel film made up of asides and digressions that form a portrait of late twentieth-century civilization.

Nov 18, 2018 — This diva of the screen brought a touch of elegance and no-nonsense wit to her roles in Waiting Women, Smiles of a Summer Night, and other Bergman gems.

Jan 26, 2023 — This great director from the golden age of Mexican cinema drew upon a wide range of styles to explore the conflict between tradition and modernity.

The award-winning writer and director of Tótem shares her love for Aki Kaurismäki’s “strange, funny filmmaking spirit,” dedicates her selection of Barbra Streisand’s The Prince of Tides to her mom, and talks about Werner Herzog as a “warrior” in Burden...

Howard Hampton has written for Film Comment, Artforum, and many other publications. He is the author of Born in Flames: Termite Dreams, Dialectical Fairy Tales, and Pop Apocalypses.

May 23, 2025 — We’re in the mood for Wong Kar Wai, Kira Muratova, Carl Theodor Dreyer, Alan Rudolph, and Dag Johan Haugerud.