The Blade

Aug 22, 2023 — In 1962, the young Bo Widerberg threw a grenade into the complacent waters of Swedish cinema. It came in the form of four articles in the evening newspaper Expressen—followed by a book version titled Vision in 
Swedish Film—in which Widerberg...

Jul 8, 2022 — This week: Juliette Binoche’s work with Krzysztof Kieślowski and Claire Denis, post-Berlin School German cinema, and Tom Cruise’s “immaculate superstardom.”

Jun 25, 2022 — This week sees new issues of film and literary journals as well as great writing on Stanley Kwan, Hong Sangsoo, and Claire Denis.

Feb 17, 2022 — Here’s a sampling of early critical response to this year’s winners.

Feb 6, 2018 — “A jolt of a movie, Black Panther creates wonder with great flair and feeling partly through something Hollywood rarely dreams of anymore: myth.” So begins Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. “Most big studio fantasies take you out for...

Oct 24, 2017 — “Federico Luppi, a dignified Argentine actor well known for his complex performances in the dark fantasy films of Guillermo del Toro, died on Friday in Buenos Aires,” reports Daniel E. Slotnik in the New York Times. Luppi, seen above with...

Sep 29, 2017 — “A ravishing visual colossus, Blade Runner 2049 more than lives up to its predecessor’s legacy as a groundbreaking mixture of sound, images and mood,” begins Screen’s Tim Grierson. “This long-anticipated sequel’s screenplay sometimes struggles to keep pace, but director Denis...

Jul 8, 2013 — With its marvelous, distinctive camera work, Kenji Mizoguchi’s searing drama is as technically remarkable as it is humane.

Dec 13, 2011 — Seijun Suzuki’s delirious, absurdist deconstruction of the crime genre is the strangest film the director made at Nikkatsu, Japan’s oldest film company.

Jul 20, 2021 — Dismissed as gossip-column fodder in its time, Jacques Deray’s cooly enigmatic villa thriller is an exploration of masculine vanity and feminine disillusion.