Wit

Apr 21, 2009 — “Just takes a few months to get to be a hundred. If you’re in the right place at the right time.” I first saw Henri-Georges Clouzot’s masterpiece The Wages of Fear when the restored version was released in the U.S.,...

Apr 20, 2009 — The French scientist-educator-filmmaker Jean Painlevé’s groundbreaking work consistently revealed not only a commitment to informed science and effective communication but to the creative expression of ideas.

Apr 19, 2009 — More than fifty years after he first appeared on-screen, it seems that Monsieur Hulot has finally quit smoking. And not voluntarily. In accordance with a 1991 law prohibiting tobacco advertising in subway stations and on buses, the Paris Public Transport...

Apr 16, 2009 — If you’re feeling symptoms of Edie-itis lately—wearing sweaters and towels as kerchiefs, doing impromptu soft-shoes around the house, unexpectedly calling your mom “Mothuh, dahling”—don’t worry, you’re not alone. Something is definitely in the air.Staunch fans of the Maysles brothers’ 1976...

Apr 15, 2009 — Many a morning have we staggered into work, bleary-eyed, from staying up late to watch some unexpected treat on Turner Classic Movies. So on this, TCM’s fifteenth anniversary, we’d like to thank the invaluable cable station for the memories—and the...

Apr 9, 2009 — The first time I “met” Max was in May of 1959, when Bergman’s stunning production of Urfaust came to London for just one week in the World Theatre Season. Groupie of all things Swedish that I was, I waited outside...

Apr 2, 2009 — It was announced this week that Rialto Pictures founder and Criterion friend Bruce Goldstein will receive the 2009 San Francisco International Film Festival Mel Novikoff award, “given annually to an individual or institution whose work has enhanced the filmgoing public’s...

Mar 31, 2009 — Coed Magazine mysteriously popped up in our list of top referring sites yesterday, but it turned out not to be the campus publication we assumed it was. Seems the online laddie mag ran an interview (NSFW) with porn star Sasha...

Mar 24, 2009 — With a sense of urgency, and a touch of morbidity, Yahoo! Movies has put out a list of “100 Movies to See Before You Die.” “To choose the titles for the list,” write Yahoo!’s editors, “we considered factors like historical...

Mar 16, 2009 — Dave Kehr heralds the rediscovery of “the oceanic depth and diversity of Japanese cinema” in recent years, “thanks in no small part to home video,” in a lovely New York Times piece on the latest example of that, Eclipse Series...