The Base

Mar 31, 2016 — Repertory PicksThis week, The University of Wisconsin–Madison Cinematheque will present a special screening of Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s dazzling 1951 film The Tales of Hoffmann, adapted from French composer Jacques Offenbach’s 1881 opera of the same name. The event...

Nov 19, 2015 — There’s no better time than a crisp Sunday evening in November to cozy up and take in a spooky Victorian ghost story. This weekend, if you’re in Columbia Heights, Minnesota, you can do just that.

May 27, 2015 — Costa-Gavras’s political drama sheds disturbing light on the violent methods used by governments to maintain order.

Feb 26, 2015 — The threat of death hangs over Watership Down, Martin Rosen’s wise and uncompromising animated adaptation of Richard Adams’s classic novel about rabbits on a survival mission.

May 15, 2013 — Delmer Daves’s 3:10 to Yuma, driven by compelling mano a mano suspense, is quite a yarn. It’s no surprise, then, that it’s based on a story by the estimable Elmore Leonard. Known predominantly for his crime fiction such as Get...

May 13, 2013 — Delmer Daves’s visually majestic, emotionally charged western finds its drama in the decency of its characters.

Mar 12, 2013 — Working in America, German master Fritz Lang contributed to the anti-Nazi effort with this nightmarish, surreal tale of espionage.

Nov 5, 2012 — The following originally appeared as the afterword to the 2003 New American Library edition of the novel Rosemary’s Baby. Having observed that the most suspenseful part of a horror story is before, not after, the horror appears, I was struck...

Oct 9, 2012 — British wartime audiences ate up these rule-breaking costume pictures—entertainments for a populace seeking escapism.

Mar 7, 2012 — A celebration of one of the great cosmopolites of the twentieth century, in one of the cosmopolises he adored.