The Last Stage

May 12, 2018 — An urgent dispatch from the conflict in eastern Ukraine is winning plaudits from critics.

Feb 7, 2018 — Looks like we all missed it. Most of us, anyway. Way back, December 27, Craig Hlavaty reported for the Houston Chronicle that Richard Linklater has been working on a film set in the summer of 1969. And not even quietly....

Jan 23, 2018 — With her award-winning short film playing on the Criterion Channel, Chilean newcomer Francisca Alegría chats with our programmer about the art and experiences that inspire her work.

Jan 4, 2018 — Even as we look ahead to the films we’re hoping to see this year, there’s still some 2017 sorting to do. And let’s begin with Farran Smith Nehme’s refreshing list of some of the older films she caught last year....

Jun 4, 2015 — Rainer Werner Fassbinder stocked the cast of The Merchant of Four Seasons with friends and colleagues from his experimental theater days.

Mar 27, 2006 — The Italian drama marked the first full blossoming of director Vittorio De Sica and screenwriter Cesare Zavattini’s ongoing collaboration.

Jan 5, 2006 — Akira Kurosawa appreciated Shake­speare’s knack for linking the private and the political, threading a tale of corruption and revenge through a tangle of blood ties.

Feb 3, 2026 — This year’s winners tell stories of trauma and triumph.

Aug 26, 2025 — Alice Wu’s feature debut is a romantic comedy in which the most compelling relationship is the one between a young queer Chinese American woman and her long-widowed mother.

Aug 25, 2025 — In such provocative delights as Jamón jamón and Golden Balls, one of Spain’s most original directors celebrates the sensual pleasures of food and sex while capturing the rapid changes his country experienced at the turn of the millennium.