Best of the Best

Jul 7, 2016 — In honor of the director, we look back at his quintessentially American narratives.

May 30, 2014 — The long relationship between director and festival has never been without its complications.

Sep 17, 2013 — The author sheds some light on the fascinating life of the American scriptwriter behind Roberto Rossellini’s Paisan.

Oct 4, 2012 — Louis Malle is remembered primarily as a fiction filmmaker, but he had a parallel career as a documentarian. In fact, he got his start in nonfiction: when he was just twenty-three years old, Malle was given the opportunity to collaborate...

Sep 13, 2011 — Robert Altman’s spellbinding drama about stolen identities is propelled by evanescent reveries of his own and inventive contributions from cast and crew.

Sep 8, 2009 — “It’s not my fault that I’m Japanese . . . yet it’s my worst crime that I am!” The words are those of Kaji, hero of The Human Condition (1959–61), but in his anguish and existential despair, he also speaks...

This patient observer of everyday life in Japan has been enormously influential among filmmakers seeking a cinema of economy and poetry.

Apr 11, 1988 — Over the years countless films have been made about war, its horrors and its devastations—few, however, have been as moving and heartfelt as René Clément’s.

Sep 9, 2015 — Here’s an enjoyable reminder of what Terry Gilliam does best: a new trailer for Gilliamesque: A Pre-posthumous Memoir. Animated in that old Monty Python style and set to the disturbingly catchy score from Brazil, it’s a nice, quick preview of...

Sep 30, 2014 — Sundays and Cybèle—Serge Bourguignon’s searing French drama about an unorthodox relationship between a traumatized war veteran and a young girl—was not an easy film to market. Its subject matter is difficult, and the complexity of its characters’ lives and motivations...