The New World

Nov 26, 2019 — In a key scene of the beloved Bette Davis film Now, Voyager (1942), the heroine goes to dinner on a cruise ship wearing a cloak decorated with fritillaries. A fritillary is a spangled butterfly, and the scene signals that Charlotte...

Sep 30, 2019 — At first glance, Jean-Pierre Melville’s body of work might seem to display a schizophrenic split between two currents or tendencies. The first is in total symbiosis with the history of France and is rooted in the filmmaker’s own life, notably...

Jul 15, 2019 — Studio Visits Looking at a painting by Gregory Manchess is like stepping into another world. Over the course of his forty years as a professional illustrator, the Kentucky-born, New York– and Oregon-based Manchess has created an adventurous and sweepingly immersive...

Apr 26, 2019 — A politically engaged actor who refused to be commodified, this French icon showcased her piercing intelligence throughout four decades of unforgettable performances.

Mar 27, 2019 — From the beginning of his career, Mexican filmmaker Carlos Reygadas has strived to find a balance between careful planning and the spontaneity of the moment. For our edition of his feature debut, Japón, an existential tale that follows the spiritual...

Feb 25, 2019 — Songbook Pace Lou Reed, nobody’s life is saved by rock and roll in Cold Water. This in spite of  its young characters’ relentless pursuit of it, in both musical and metaphysical forms. Made in 1994, set in 1972, Olivier Assayas’s...

Jan 8, 2019 — “Elements which can be eliminated have been eliminated” is how Abbas Kiarostami once described his late turn toward minimalism. While the Iranian director was known for the intricate, metatextual playfulness of his work, he also spent much of his career...

Sep 11, 2018 — There is a brief, nearly throwaway scene early in Olivier Assayas’s Cold Water (1994) that testifies to the transcultural power of rock and roll. In an apartment outside Paris in 1972, we see two teenage brothers wrestling over a portable...

Sep 5, 2018 — It took a while for Paul Feig—the director behind such smash-hit comedies as Bridesmaids and Spy—to come around to the darker side of cinema. Back in his college days, the filmmaker appreciated the superior technique of the dramas and foreign films he saw in his...

May 21, 2018 — W hether she’s pushing herself to new heights on stage and screen or nurturing her passions as a painter and poet, Juliette Binoche is as creatively voracious now as she’s ever been. Her combination of strength and disarming vulnerability as...