The Companion

Jul 18, 2019 — With its picturesque Provençal village, florid theatrical dialogue, and cast of familiar southern-French actors, dominated by the formidable Raimu, The Baker’s Wife is classic Marcel Pagnol territory. In 1938, when the film was released, the feted author and playwright was...

Mar 5, 2018 — Along with 132 short films and a slew of masterclasses, installations, discussions, and other events, the Berlin International Film Festival presented 253 features this year. I managed to catch twenty-seven of them, and Adina Pintilie’s Touch Me Not, winner of...

Feb 2, 2018 — Tell Me: Women Filmmakers, Women’s Stories opens today at the Metrograph and runs through February 15. “Programmer Nellie Killian’s selections, which span more than three decades and a wide range of documentary styles, include fascinating titles by directors with a...

Dec 30, 2017 — There’s been a furious flurry of list-making going on at IndieWire over the past couple of days. “IndieWire has reached out to a number of our favorite filmmakers to share with us their lists and thoughts on the best of...

Oct 28, 2017 — New York. “It’s an idea so good,” writes Farran Smith Nehme in the Village Voice, “you can’t believe no one did it before: a book about the deep and abiding friendship between Henry Fonda and James Stewart, true legends of...

Oct 20, 2017 — New York. We opened yesterday’s entry on goings on here and there with a round on MoMA’s series Strange Illusions: Poverty Row Classics Preserved by UCLA, currently running through October 28. We need to again today, because Farran Nehme Smith...

Aug 22, 2017 — The Toronto International Film Festival has announced the titles lined up for its Discovery and In Conversation With . . . programs. And the schedule for its forty-second edition, running from September 7 through 17, is up now, too.Earlier rounds:The...

Aug 9, 2017 — The Toronto International Film Festival has added Canadian features and shorts and a bit more to the lineup of its forty-second edition, running from September 7 through 17. Earlier rounds: Gala and Special Presentations TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, and Short...

May 25, 2017 — “Sergei Loznitsa’s documentaries are conceived as silent commentary,” begins Jay Weissberg in Variety. “His rigorously edited, coolly composed shots contain all the information needed for viewers to feel the weight of his argument. By contrast, his fiction films (My Joy,...

May 22, 2017 — “Philippe Garrel has always only needed the barest means to make movie magic,” begins Daniel Kasman in the Notebook: “a beautiful, tragic face, a sad wall to put behind it, a mournful, pensive walk alone on the street. He is...