The New Spirit

Oct 24, 2005 — Jean-Pierre Melville’s great film flirts with macho extremism and slips over into dream and poetry just as it has us most alarmed.

May 26, 2003 — Transcription of a speech given by long-time Derek Jarman collaborator and friend, actress Tilda Swinton

Aug 20, 2001 — Carl Dreyer’s modern tragedy eschews melodrama, striking a balance between suffering and triviality.

Oct 18, 1998 — 1986 was not a good time to make a film which attempted to capture the Punk spirit. Deep into second-term Reagan/Thatcher, American and British pop culture were infected with cynicism, hopelessness, immobility. So when Alex Cox came over with his...

Jul 26, 1993 — But for the recalcitrance of RKO, Evergreen could have been the finest of Fred Astaire’s movies. Instead, it was never an Astaire film, but “merely” the best musical ever made in England, and the finest film of the legendary Jessie...

Jun 24, 1990 — Some films have become famous simply because they’ve sold a lot of tickets. Others have major studio publicity machines behind them, the better to hog the spotlight. Still others earn their fame the hard way through genuine critical acclaim. But...

Jun 26, 2019 — Boasting the longest, most versatile career of any Czechoslovak New Waver, the late master made films mixed with deep compassion and an antiauthoritarian spirit.

Sep 2, 2026 — Shatara Michelle Ford is an African American filmmaker. Their debut feature, Test Pattern, was released by Kino Lorber in 2021 to critical acclaim, landing on over a dozen best-of-2021 lists. It received nominations at the Gotham Awards, Spirit Awards, and...

Apr 9, 2020 — Rashaad Ernesto Green was born in the Bronx, New York, and has made two feature films, Gun Hill Road (2011) and Premature (2020). At the Independent Spirit Awards this year, he won the Someone to Watch Award and was nominated...

Oct 26, 2017 — Jonas Carpignano was born in 1984 and grew up in New York City and Rome. His first feature film, Mediterranea, debuted at the Cannes Film Festival—Semaine de la Critique in 2015 before receiving the award for the best directorial debut...