This and That

Jun 21, 1999 — Despite what you may have heard, Armageddon is a work of art by a cutting-edge artist who is a master of movement, light, color, and shape—and also of chaos, razzle-dazzle, and explosion. (It was no surprise to me to learn...

Apr 20, 1992 — Tanya: Oh, James, James, will you make love to me all the time in England? James Bond: Day and night! Sean Connery returns in From Russia with Love in the best of all of Ian Fleming’s stories. Filled with sex,...

Nov 19, 1989 — Almost as long as they’ve been able to talk, films have been able to sing and dance. Frequently high-style, often rapturously romantic, most musicals have nonetheless been content to remain light, sophisticated entertainment. Still, there has always been a minority...

Dec 29, 2008 — If I had not seen The Lady Vanishes at the age of seven, I might never have become a film critic. I was the fifth child of parents well into middle age: clearly an “accident,” as I was ten-years-plus younger...

Joan Mellen is the author of several books about Japanese cinema, including Voices from the Japanese Cinema and The Waves at Genji’s Door as well as monographs for the BFI on Seven Samurai and In the Realm of the Senses....

Feb 11, 2022 — The week wraps with swift thrills from Steven Soderbergh and Dominik Graf and fresh appreciations of Louis Malle and Julien Duvivier.

Oct 1, 2014 — In the hands of director Serge Bourguignon, a potentially sensationalistic story becomes a poetic and complex investigation of love and pain.

Jun 17, 2014 — The brutal lessons of Vietnam remained in America’s national consciousness for a generation. September 11 gave us collective amnesia, and they’ve had to be learned again.

Jul 24, 2026 — Names on our minds this week: Mike Mills, Jean Renoir, Ronee Blakley, and Luchino Visconti.