The First Year

Dec 17, 2018 — Secrets from the past are always surfacing in melodramas, altering or illuminating the landscape of the present. So it seems fitting that director John M. Stahl, one of Hollywood’s great masters of melodrama, had a past that is only now...

Dec 14, 2018 — “It’s sad to say, but women do not have much importance in westerns,” observed Anthony Mann, a master of the genre, in a 1957 Cahiers du cinéma interview. Made that same year, Samuel Fuller’s Forty Guns begins with a whopper...

Nov 28, 2018 — Made on a shoestring budget, Edgar G. Ulmer’s 1945 Detour is a landmark of film noir, a hardboiled thriller that represents the genre at its seediest and most fatalistic. But despite amassing critical acclaim and a significant cult following over the decades,...

Oct 18, 2018 — An autumnal round of reviews, excerpts, interviews, and news.

Oct 9, 2018 — In a world vulnerable to authoritarianism, Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s television epic stands as an example of how an artist can speak to a broad audience about revolutionary politics.

Oct 4, 2018 — A “skeleton key” to an epic audiovisual essay by Godard and interviews with Anna Biller and Richard Linklater are among this week’s highlights.

Sep 12, 2018 — Viola Davis, Robert Redford, and Gael García Bernal star in a cluster of new heist movies.

Sep 4, 2018 — Natalie Portman sings, Willem Dafoe paints, and Frederick Wiseman heads to Trump country.

Aug 24, 2018 — Film Studies for Free turns ten, BlacKkKlansman sparks debate—and more.

Aug 22, 2018 — Festivals from New York to London, from Busan to San Sebastián, are finalizing their lineups.