The Criterion Collection
Jun 10, 2009 — There’s a cornucopia for Tati fans over at Kristin Thompson and David Bordwell’s blog, Observations on Film Art and Film Art. In a new entry, Thompson spotlights painter Jacques Lagrange, a somewhat unsung collaborator on all of Jacques Tati’s films,...
Jun 10, 2009 — Kind Hearts and Coronets, that most wicked comedy of ill manners, had established Alec Guinness as an acting force—and coming so soon after he had disappeared into the role of Fagin in David Lean’s Oliver Twist, his dazzling embodiment of...
Jun 8, 2009 — The word “opera” doesn’t immediately come to mind when one thinks of Abbas Kiarostami. Such a grandly theatrical form would seem antithetical to the more minimalist film sensibility of the Iranian director (Taste of Cherry). But thanks to a surprise...
Jun 4, 2009 — Apparently, a group called the Secret Science Club threw a pretty happening Painlevé party in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Seems we weren’t on the guest list (well, it is after all “secret”), so it’s a good thing that the...
Jun 2, 2009 — If you’ve seen John Huston’s wild Wise Blood, then you might want to know more about Flannery O’Connor, from whose debut novel the film is faithfully adapted. A good place to start would be Brad Gooch’s Flannery: A Life of...
May 31, 2009 — Apparently, things were as rough on the set of Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life as they were on-screen. In a new piece for the Guardian, written on the occasion of a theatrical rerelease of the film in the United Kingdom,...
May 20, 2009 — Early in Shohei Imamura’s Intentions of Murder, the librarian Riichi distractedly peruses Herbert Marcuse’s Eros and Civilization while conversing with his clinging mistress, Yoshiko. One can read the reference in many ways: as a glancing jest, as an (uncharacteristic) Imamurian...
May 20, 2009 — The title alone screams incongruity. Shohei Imamura’s 1961 black-and-white caper movie Pigs and Battleships bursts with the confusion and exuberance of a cross-cultural encounter. In its lively portrayal of enthusiastic Japanese locals welcoming the U.S. Navy on R&R to the...
May 17, 2009 — Since the release of the Eclipse box set Travels with Hiroshi Shimizu, the following for the insanely prolific Japanese director has been growing steadily. Of course, David Bordwell’s been a fan for quite some time. On his website, the famous...