Talk to Her

May 21, 2017 — So the idea here should be self-evident, but just in case: click a title to see the first round of critical response—reviews, interviews, video, and so forth—and check back now and again, as nearly every entry below is updated for...

Jan 9, 2017 — Since its inception more than a half-century ago, the National Society of Film Critics has maintained its reputation for championing idiosyncratic and independent voices during the commercially driven awards season, with past best picture awards going to films like Michelangelo...

Jul 30, 2015 — Repertory PicksTonight, the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley is welcoming the great Spanish director Víctor Erice (The Spirit of the Beehive, El sur), to talk about his career with film scholar Richard Peña. In addition to screening all of Erice’s...

Oct 16, 2014 — This past August, on the occasion of Volker Schlöndorff’s being selected for a Silver Medallion award by the Telluride Film Festival, Criterion’s Peter Becker talked with the German filmmaker about his long career. A short version of the conversation was...

Apr 23, 2014 — Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso, coming out next week in a Criterion edition, was an inspiration for Alexander Payne’s Oscar-winning Sideways. Being such a fan of the film, which is beloved in Italy but underappreciated here in the U.S., Payne agreed...

May 21, 2012 — Certified Copy is no ordinary love story. Though it initially seems like a typical romance, featuring two strangers who meet in a picturesque Tuscan town, it is one of the trickiest films in recent memory. Earlier this year, its director,...

Nov 28, 2006 — Paris. We landed here yesterday at midday, and after a quick stop at our hotel, executive producer Fumiko Takagi and I headed straight to the offices of TF1 and Canal+ in Issy-les-Moulineaux for meetings. Issy is not what you think...

Apr 24, 2000 — When I make a film, it is a sleep in which I am dreaming. Only the people and places of the dream matter. I have difficulty making contact with others, as one does when half-asleep. If a person is asleep...

Oct 12, 1998 — Are there cultural purists still remaining who would argue that the “Westernized” title of Akira Kurosawa’s 1963 masterpiece—High and Low—throws polluted water on the cosmological fire of its given name: Tengoku to jigoku—literally, Heaven and Hell?Kurosawa’s once insisted-upon reputation as...

Nov 19, 1990 — By facing death, Akira Kurosawa fashions an affirmation of life, characteristically clear-headed in its exploration of man’s fate.