Best of the Best

Feb 23, 2017 — Few writers have dissected their own coming-of-age with as much unflinching honesty as award-winning author Mary Karr, whose best-selling books include The Liar’s Club and Lit: A Memoir. For the latest installment in our original series Adventures in Moviegoing, now...

Feb 9, 2016 — Jan Troell’s narration of one Swedish couple’s arduous journey to America portrays the migratory quality of marriage—of “finding that you think of this person who is not you, or this place that is not the land of your birth, as...

Sep 30, 2013 — The author describes his interactions with the great Polish filmmaker.

Apr 10, 2013 — Teinosuke Kinugasa’s landmark color film is a visual feast that has finally been vibrantly restored.

Oct 24, 2012 — Ever wanted to be the seventh samurai? How about Death from The Seventh Seal? Or Rosemary and/or her baby? This Halloween, we’re having a costume contest.

Jul 24, 2012 — Trained as a musician, Jean Grémillon became one of French cinema’s most lyrical artists. His most beloved films were made during World War II.

Apr 27, 2012 — Film scholar Annette Insdorf does a great job summing up The Unbearable Lightness of Being in her terrific new book on Philip Kaufman.

Jan 21, 2009 — It’s a clichéd truism that moviemaking is a collaborative art. Of course it is, and there are dozens, if not hundreds, of examples of directors working time and again with the same crew members, trusted writers, cameramen, production designers, editors,...

Jun 30, 2008 — The novelist Mishima Yukio stepped behind the camera to adapt his own short story, which depicts the act of seppuku as a thing of beauty.

Jun 22, 2026 — Deep Dives In 1971, upon the release of his first and only feature film, James Bidgood pulled a disappearing act. He had spent the better part of seven years shooting Pink Narcissus, a hallucinatory tale of a daydreaming gay hustler, on...