The Inheritance

Nell Casey is the editor of The Journals of Spalding Gray, An Uncertain Inheritance: Writers on Caring for Family, and the national best seller Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two children.

Feb 19, 2018 — Jonathan Demme put an uncompromisingly feminist spin on the law-enforcement procedural with this wildly successful, Oscar-winning drama.

Aug 11, 2020 — The Complete Films of Agnès Varda In September 2018, I screened Agnès Varda and JR’s Faces Places for the Michigan State University Film Collective. We had a lively discussion that went past the scheduled ending time. As I was getting...

Jan 21, 2008 — In September 1997, I saw Agnès Varda introduce a brand-new 35 mm print of her first feature film, La Pointe Courte (made in 1954), to an admiring audience at Yale University. More astonishing than the luminous black-and-white images was Varda’s...

Aug 19, 2026 — This month’s highlights include a retrospective dedicated to the always-provocative Abel Ferrara, the classic series Neon Genesis Evangelion, and a collection of high-energy tales of female rockers.

Feb 13, 2006 — Jean Renoir’s classic film shows the natural world and the power of technology as wedded through the closely coordinated labor—effected through glances and sign language—of two men.

Jul 14, 1998 — Adirector who knows his genres, Jonathan Demme has never been able to resist turning them inside out. Starting in the film industry as a publicist, Demme was soon hired by Roger Corman as a scriptwriter and then as a director....

Jan 25, 2022 — By repeatedly staging the death of the filmmaker’s father with tragicomic flair, Kirsten Johnson’s hybrid documentary grapples with the realities of dementia and finds grace.

Aug 27, 2021 — This week we’re delving into the history of Black cinema and reflecting on films from Afghanistan and Iran.

Jul 25, 2024 — Claude Chabrol, Bong Joon Ho, Ann Hui, Anna Cobb, and Wei Shujun are among the names that have come up this week.