Head-On

Feb 29, 1988 — Marx Brothers aficionados have argued for years over the relative merits of A Night at the Opera and the “purer” Marx movies such as Duck Soup. Certainly there’s no comparison on a point-by-point basis: Duck Soup is a classic of...

Nov 10, 2016 — Although Alton Brown is now known mostly for his work in food media, his first career was as a filmmaker. His big break came when he shot the music video for R.E.M.’s 1987 song “The One I Love,” which allowed...

Nov 19, 1989 — After finishing High and Low (1963), director Akira Kurosawa recalls, “I started looking around for something else to do and quite by accident picked up [the novel] Red Beard by Shugoro Yamamoto. At first I thought it would make a...

Apr 4, 2017 — Through an alchemy of stylistic flair and creative restlessness, Seijun Suzuki was able to transcend the by-the-numbers material he was assigned as a director at Japan’s oldest film studio, Nikkatsu, to become one of the most electrifying genre auteurs of...

May 4, 2016 — If you listen back through cinema soundtracks from the past half century, you can hear movie music begin to shift from being mere melodious accompaniment to become its own means of storytelling. That’s what writer Sean Doyle argues in the...

This trio of siblings—Alexander, Zoltán, and Vincent—made many classic-Hollywood and British films that were unique for their epic storylines, lavish production design, and globe-trotting adventures.

Oct 19, 2010 — Clock­ing in at three hours and twenty-seven minutes, Seven Samurai’s lengthy runtime underscores the endurance of the samurai lifestyle, its toils and struggles.

Jul 8, 2015 — Steve Blauner, one of the founders of BBS, the production company that produced Five Easy Pieces, The Last Picture Show, The King of Marvin Gardens, and more, died last month at age eighty-one. We were lucky enough to sit down...

May 31, 2013 — Did You See This?• A rare Hitchcock photo film • Fitzcardboardaldo—the title doesn’t do it justice. • A tip of the hat and a fist in the pocket to Lou Castel • Richard Linklater and James Benning together at last—with...

May 8, 2011 — Performances In her performances, actress Shelley Duvall often seems as though she’s walking through a fog. Her gawky-elegant string-bean body moving as though on a conveyer belt, her perpetually goggling saucer eyes staring out at the world yet seeming to...