Featured Texts
15th Annual Festival of Illinois Film and Video
2 Oxford Companion Entries (Albert Brooks and découpage)
2 or 3 Things I Know About Her
20th International Tournee of Animation
29th Chicago International Film Festival: Mired in the Present
A Bankable Feast [BABETTE’S FEAST]
A Bluffer’s Guide to Bela Tarr
A Breakthrough And A Throwback
A Christmas Commodity: SCROOGED
A Couple of Kooks [MY BEST FIEND]
A Cut Above [HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER]
A Depth in the Family [A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE]
A Dialogue about Abbas Kiarostami’s SHIRIN
A Different Kind of Swinger [GEORGE OF THE JUNGLE]
A Different Kind of Thrill (Richet’s ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13)
A Few Eruptions in the House of Lava
A Few Things Well [A LITTLE STIFF]
A Force Unto Himself [on Hou Hsiao-hsien]
À la recherche de Luc Moullet: 25 Propositions
A Little Transcendence Goes a Long Way
A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master
A Place in the Pantheon: Films by Bela Tarr
A Prophet in His Own Country [Jon Jost retrospective]
A Quirky Cowboy Classic [on THE THREE BURIALS OF MELQUIADES ESTRADA]
A Radical Idea [HALF NELSON & THIS FILM IS NOT YET RATED]
A Road Not Taken (The Films of Harun Farocki)
A Russian in Hollywood [SHY PEOPLE]
A Short Film About Killing and A Short Film About Love
A Soldier’s Daughter Never Cries
A Stylist Hits His Stride (ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND)
A Time to Lie (CROSS MY HEART)
A Time to Live and a Time to Die
A Touch of Class [GOSFORD PARK]
Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision (book review)
Absence of Conscience [on GOODFELLAS]
Action and Distraction (STRANGE DAYS)
Actor, Auteur [SHIRLEY VALENTINE]
Acts of Defiance [SAVAGE NIGHTS]
Adrift in the Wasteland (NAKED)
African Camera: 20 Years of African Cinema
All You Need Is Cash [SMALL TIME CROOKS]
All and Nothing [IRREVERSIBLE & AMEN.]
Allusion Profusion [ED WOOD & PULP FICTION]
American Beauty [on Chris Petit’s NEGATIVE SPACE]
An American in Paris [ROUND MIDNIGHT] (previously unpublished)
And Now the News [THE 4TH ANIMATION CELEBRATION]
Another Day, Another Genre [MATCH POINT]
Anthropological Auteur (on Jean Rouch)
Around the World in 1,085 Pages (on Pynchon’s AGAINST THE DAY)
Arresting Images [THE BLOODY CHILD]
Art Film by Numbers [THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE 7 HER LOVER]
Art Imitates Love (THE SHAPE OF THINGS)
Art in Action [ZATOICHI & COLLATERAL]
Art of Music Video: Vanguard Revisions
Austin Powers:International Man of Mystery
Baby Face: The Uncut Version and Two Seconds
Bag of Tics [the 1991 CAPE FEAR]
Beautiful Moments [MEN DON’T LEAVE]
Beautifully Fake and Just Plain Phony
Belle de Jour and Belle Toujours
Beyond Bush-Bashing [BOB ROBERTS]
Black Window: Cornell Woolrich and Movies
Black-And-White World [BLACK GIRL]
Blade Runner: The Director’s Cut
Blood on His Hands [GANGS OF NEW YORK]
Blue-eyes Is Back [LAWRENCE OF ARABIA]
Bravery in Hiding [on LUMIÈRE D’ÉTÉ and LE CIEL EST À VOUS]
Bridge Over Troubled Water [THE GRADUATE]
Bright Spots in the Darkness [My 1998 Top Ten List]
Bringing Back the Depression Musical
Bunuel’s Neglected Masterpiece
Cane Toads: An Unnatural History/Films by Jane Campion
Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business
Carnal Capital [MASCULINE FEMININE & THE GIRL FROM MONDAY]
Carpenter’s Gothic [IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS]
Cassavetes’ Prelude and Postscript
Casualties of the Mass Market [THE VOICE OF THE MOON & CASINO]
Catching Up with Godard (an interview)
Chains Of Ignorance [NIGHTJOHN]
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Cheap Thrills [ROAD TO PERDITION]
Check Your Baggage [CRIMSON GOLD]
Chicago International Film Festival
Chinese Puzzle [ASHES OF TIME]
Choreography With a Camera [on Ruiz’s MAMMAME] (upgraded)
Christmas in July; and The Palm Beach Story
Cinema Glut: Here Comes the 28th Chicago International Film Festival
Cinema as a Social Act [THE ILLUSIONIST]
Cinematic Obsessions [THE GANG OF FOUR and SANTA SANGRE]
Cinema’s Secret Garden — The Amateur as Auteur
City of Angels (on WINGS OF DESIRE)
Collected Consciousness [on MYSTERIOUS OBJECT AT NOON]
Colonial Imaging: Early Films From the Netherlands Film Museum
Communication Breakdown [SPANGLISH]
Complaints of a Dutiful Daugher and Fast Trip, Long Drop
Control Room and Route 181: Fragments of a Journey in Palestine-Israel
Cornucoppola [BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA]
Coverup: Behind the Iran-Contra Affair
Crass Consciousness (BARTON FINK)
Creosote and More: Videos by Eric Saks
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Crying in Their Beer (THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD)
Cult Confusion (HAPPY TOGETHER)
Cult of Personality (LET’S GET LOST)
Cutting Heroes Down to Size [SMALL SOLDIERS & SAVING PRIVATE RYAN]
DUELLE: Notes on a First Viewing
Death and Life [on Alexander Dovzhenko]
Deep in the Tarr Pit [THE TURIN HORSE]
Democracy Through the Looking Glass [SECRET BALLOT]
Desperate Characters [BOILING POINT and BODIES, REST & MOTION]
Desperate Measures [OUT OF SIGHT & THE BRIGANDS: CHAPTER VII]
Did They Buy It?: Nicaragua’s 1990 Elections
Disposable Heroes [BREAKDOWN & NIGHT FALLS ON MANHATTAN]
Divine Inspiration (THE APOSTLE & KUNDUN)
Do Yourself a Favor [HOUSE OF CARDS]
Documentaries on Paradjanov and Mamoulian
Dogmatic Subterfuge [THE CELEBRATION]
Doing the Hustle (DANCER IN THE DARK)
Don’t Judge a Film by Its Venue [BLACK BOOK & OFFSIDE]
Don’t Worry, Be Unhappy [SEVEN]
Double Dealing [THE FISHER KING]
Double Deals [BIG BUSINESS & RED HEAT]
Dracula: Pages From a Virgin’s Diary
Dubbed and Dubber (CAN DIALECTICS BREAK BRICKS?)
Eadweard Muybridge, Zoopraxographer
Eastern European Documentaries: Czechoslovakia and the USSR
Ebrahim Golestan (three capsule reviews & one essay)
Echoes of Old Hollywood [DESTINY & THE ADOPTED SON]
Edward Said: The Last Interview
Emotional Striptease [EXOTICA]
Endless Possibilities [on PUMPKIN]
Ere Erera Baleibu Icik Subua Aruaren
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Ethereal Girl [WHO’S THAT GIRL]
Every Man for Himself: The Films of Maurice Pialat
Every Man for Himself: The Films of Maurice Pialat
Exalting the Everyday [CHANTAL AKERMAN BY CHANTAL AKERMAN]
Fables of the Reconstruction: The 4-Hour GREED
Falkenau, the Impossible: Samuel Fuller Bears Witness
Falling Down, Walking, Destroying, Thinking: A Conversation with Béla Tarr
Familiarity Breeds Contempt [SCOOP]
Family Values [REQUIEM FOR A DREAM]
Fear of Feeling [THE ACCIDENTAL TOURIST]
Fear of Feminism (FATAL ATTRACTION)
Feast From the East [Oshima’s GOHATTO]
Feeling the Unthinkable (25TH HOUR)
Female Trouble [MONKEY SHINES: AN EXPERIMENT IN FEAR]
Filling in the Blanks [LE SAMOURAI & THE BIRTH OF LOVE]
Films by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Films by Michaelangelo Antonioni
Films of the Future [on Pedro Costa]
Five Easy Pieces [NIGHT ON EARTH]
Flash and Filigree [MINORITY REPORT]
Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman
Food, Sex, and Death [TAMPOPO]
Forevermore: Biography of a Leach Lord
Form Counts [MIX-UP, ANATOMY OF A RELATIONSHIP, & GAP-TOOTHED WOMEN]
Four Adventures of Reinette and Mirabelle
French Provincial [POULET AU VINAIGRE]
French Revelations [on LE DIVORCE]
French for Beginners (UN AIR DE FAMILLE)
Fresh Clues to an Old Mystery [THE BIG SLEEP]
From the Journals of Jean Seberg
GERTRUD as Nonnarrative: The Desire for the Image
Getting It Both Ways (AMERICAN BEAUTY)
Ghetto Theater [HANGIN’ WITH THE HOMEBOYS]
Ghosts of Hollywood [THE DECAY OF FICTION]
Give Up the Gimmick [MELINDA AND MELINDA]
Glimpse of a Rare Bird [on Boris Barnet] (upgraded)
Godard in the Age of Video [SOFT AND HARD]
Godfather and Son [on THE FRESHMAN]
Good Cop, Bad Cop (MIAMI BLUES & Q&A)
Goodbye Cinema, Hello Cinephilia
Goodbye Susan, Goodbye: Sontag and Movies
Great Freaks of Nature [GREAT BALLS OF FIRE]
HISTORICAL MEDITATIONS IN TWO FILMS BY JOHN GIANVITO
Hack Attack [THE SECRET WINDOW]
Hag Bashing [DEATH BECOMES HER]
Halfaouine–Boy of the Terraces
Handmade Realism [BELL DIAMOND]
Happiness and Letter From Siberia
Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker’s Apocalypse
High Attitude [TRUTH OR DARE & DICE RULES]
His 20th Century [HISTOIRE(S) DU CINÉMA & MONTPARNASSE 19]
History and Love [THREE TIMES]
Hit or Myth [WACO: THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT]
Hollywood Confidential [THE CAT’S MEOW]
Homegirls: New Work by Chicago Women and Girls
Hooey for Hollywood [on THE PLAYER]
How to Capture an Artist [SYLVIA & IN THE MIRROR OF MAYA DEREN]
How to Read the Revolution [BLUSH]
How to Write a $3 Million Script [BASIC INSTINCT]
Hoxsey: How Healing Becomes a Crime
ICONS OF GRIEF: VAL LEWTON’S HOME FRONT PICTURES (book review)
IL CINEMA RITROVATO DVD AWARDS 2012
Ideal Women [THE FAMINE WITHIN]
Images of the World and the Inscription of War
Improvisations and Interactions in Altmanville
In Claude We Trust [THE ACCOMPANIST]
In Defense of Non-Masterpieces
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (EYES WIDE SHUT)
In Loving Memory (THE SON OF GASCOGNE)
In Space, No One Can Hear You Sweat [Soderbergh’s SOLARIS]
In Stalin’s Shadow (on Dovzhenko)
In a World of His Own [on RUSHMORE]
In the City of Sylvia/Some Photos in the City of Sylvia
In the Company of Women [THE BUSINESS OF STRANGERS]
International Sampler (GHOST DOG: THE WAY OF THE SAMURAI)
Interplanetary Postmodernism [EARTH GIRLS ARE EASY]
Interrogating the 60s [on THE SECOND HEIMAT]
Introduction to the Chinese Edition of MORE THAN NIGHT
Invitation to the Trance [SLEEPWALK]
Involuntary Geniuses [THE TIC CODE]
Iranian Sights [LIFE AND NOTHING MORE]
Is It Life, or Is It Media? (THE ICICLE THIEF)
It’s All True: Based on an Unfinished Film by Orson Welles
It’s a Big World After All [The Best Movies of 2001]
It’s a Mall, Mall World [CHAIN]
I’ll Undo Everything [I’LL DO ANYTHING]
Jacques Tati’s TRAFIC on Criterion DVD
James Benning’s CALIFORNIA TRILOGY
Jean Renoir, the Boss: The Direction of Actors
Jean Renoir’s Trilogy of Spectacle
Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
Jerks Like Us (GROSSE FATIGUE)
Joan the Maid: The Battles and Joan the Maid: The Prisons
John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars
John Edgar Hoover and the Great American Inquisitions
Joris Ivens’s Labor-Intensive Industrials
Kids’ Stuff [THE HUDSUCKER PROXY]
Kim Novak as Midwestern Independent
Krzysktof Kieslowski: I’m So-So
L.A. Residential (THE BIG LEBOWSKI & TWILIGHT)
LE VRAI COUPABLE: Two Kinds of Criticism in Godard’s Work
LOVE ME TONIGHT and MULHOLLAND DRIVE
Laid But Lonely [ME AND YOU AND EVERYONE WE KNOW, OR, & SAMARITAN GIRL]
Last Days of the Film Festival
Les Statues Meurent Aussi (Statues Also Die)
Less Than Transgressive [9 SONGS]
Liberals in Hiding [RUNNING ON EMPTY]
License to Feel (DISTANT VOICES, STILL LIVES)
Lies of the Mind [TALKING TO STRANGERS]
Life Intimidates Art [IRMA VEP]
Life Is Cheap . . . but Toilet Paper Is Expensive
Life and Death in China [THE DAY THE SUN TURNED COLD]
Life of a Salesman [DIAMOND MEN]
Life on the Edge [DRIFTING CLOUDS]
Light Fantastic [THE LIGHTED FIELD]
Listening Party [on eight jazz films]
Looking Back in Anger [STAR SPANGLED TO DEATH]
Looking Down on the Little People [RADIO DAYS]
Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World
Lost In Their Parts [THE ANNIVERSARY PARTY]
Lost in Translation [THE LOST CITY]
Lost in the Desert [THE SHELTERING SKY]
Lost in the Shuffle [THE DEEP END OF THE OCEAN]
Lost in the Woods [BOOK OF SHADOWS: BLAIR WITCH 2]
Lout of Africa [WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HUNTER]
Love Among the Ruins [SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN]
Love Films: A Cassavetes Retrospective
Love and Politics [THE RUSSIA HOUSE & HAVANA]
Love in the Time of Thatcherism
Magnificent Repression [on FAR FROM HEAVEN]
Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media
Master of Reality (updated, 1/13/2010)
Me and You and Everyone We Know
Mean And Meaner [DUMB AND DUMBER & COBB]
Merry Widow [THE WIDOW OF SAINT PIERRE]
Metaphysical Pop [THE MUSIC OF CHANCE]
Metaphysical [on Robert Frank’s C’EST VRAI!/ONE HOUR]
Metaphysics and Slapstick [THE ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN]
Micromorality [CASUALTIES OF WAR]
Mindless Kicks [RUMBLE IN THE BRONX & BROKEN ARROW]
Mise en Scène as Miracle in Dreyer’s ORDET
Mixed Emotions (BREAKING THE WAVES)
Monbo – or the Gentle Art of Japanese Extortion
Money Changes Everything [HYENAS]
Mother Courage and Her Children and History Lessons
Motion and Emotion: The Films of Wim Wenders
Movie Heaven [DEFENDING YOUR LIFE]
Multinational Pest Control [STARSHIP TROOPERS]
My Filmgoing in 1968: An Exploration
My Movies, Myself [VENICE/VENICE]
My Sex Life…or How I Got Into an Argument
Myths of the New Narrative (and a Few Counter-Suggestions)
Nagisa Oshima: The Man Who Left His Soul on Film
National Stereotypes and Expatriates (2008)
Neither Noir [KISS OF DEATH & THE UNDERNEATH]
“New Hollywood” and the 60s Melting Pot
New Perspectives (LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA & THE DEAD GIRL)
No Joke [MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000: THE MOVIE]
No Stars: A Must-See [THE PLOT AGAINST HARRY]
Not Coming Soon to a Theater Near You
Not Different, Just Not the Same
Not the Same Old Song and Dance
November Days: Voices and Choices
Odd Couplings [BODY OF EVIDENCE & DAMAGE]
Off Color [Kieslowski’s WHITE]
On Second Thoughts [THE LAST BOLSHEVIK]
One Way Boogie Woogie/27 Years Later
One man’s meat is another man’s Poisson (GRAVITY’S RAINBOW)
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
Onion City Experimental Film and Video Festival
Othello Goes Hollywood (On Orson Welles’ OTHELLO)
Out of the Darkness [Endfield’s INFLATION & THE ARGYLE SECRETS]
Overrated Solutions [L’HUMANITÉ]
Packaged Parables (GABBEH & SHE’S SO LOVELY)
Painter Pics [FRIDA & THE WOLF AT THE DOOR]
Paranoid Illusions [THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE]
Paris Journal, Fall 1971 (Demy, Pollet, Franju, Tati, Rivette)
Partners in Crime [THE GINGERBREAD MAN]
Pasolini’s Second Coming [on MAMMA ROMA]
Past Imperfect [IN PRAISE OF LOVE]
Past Lives, Present Puzzles [on UNIVERSAL HOTEL & EL MOVIMIENTO]
Patience Pays Off [I’M GOING HOME]
Peggy and Fred in Hell: The Complete Cycle
Performance Art Videos, Part I
Performance Art [TORCH SONG TRILOGY & TALK RADIO]
Pieces of Masterpieces [MEDEA & SUNDAY]
Pieces of the Action (RUN LOLA RUN)
Poet of Loneliness (WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?)
Poetry in Motion [THELMA & LOUISE]
Popcorn Punditry [THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW]
Portfolio Without Artist [JOHN HUSTON & THE DUBLINERS]
Potent Pessimism [on Cy Endfield]
Potential Perils of the Director’s Cut
Precious Leftovers (THE GLEANERS AND I)
Pregnant Pas [MARY SHELLEY’S FRANKENSTEIN & JUNIOR]
Prerevolutionary Russian Films
Prewar Jitters [on Lang’s MAN HUNT]
Private Fears in Public Places
Privileged Moments (REMBRANDT LAUGHING)
Profit Motive and the Whispering Wind
RE-Defining Video: Work by Kyle Canterbury
Racism Here and Now (BETRAYED)
Ragged But Right [on UP DOWN FRAGILE]
Real Horror Shows [EYES WITHOUT A FACE & THE KINGDOM]
Reality Bites [THE THIRTEENTH FLOOR]
Reasons for Kicking and Screaming
Reasons to Be Cheerful (Part Two)
Reasons to Believe [SEE YOU IN THE MORNING & SAY ANYTHING…]
Red Bridge to Australia [on CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION]
Red Tape [THE STORY OF QIU JU]
Redeemable for Cash: The Damned and the Saved
Redirecting the Canon [RED HOLLYWOOD]
Rediscovering ALI: FEAR EATS THE SOUL
Redrawing History [POCAHONTAS]
Reel Life: Richard Pena’s Film Center Testament
Reinventing the Present [PUMP UP THE VOLUME]
Reminiscences of a Journey to Lithuania
Return to Beauty [BEYOND THE CLOUDS]
Revenge Is Bitter [BUFFALO ‘66]
Reverence for Things Past [MY FATHER’S GLORY]
Review of David Bellos’s JACQUES TATI
Review of SEARCHING FOR JOHN FORD
Review of THEORY OF FILM PRACTICE (1974)
Reviews of Two Terrence Malick Films
Rick Moranis Gets Short Shrift
Right On! The Original Last Poets
Ritalin Rebellion [CHARLIE BARTLETT]
Ritwik Ghatak: Reinventing the Cinema
Rivette’s Rupture (DUELLE and NORÔIT)
Roger Corman’s Frankenstein Unbound
Roman Polanski and The Catastrophe of Public Discourse
Romance of the Ordinary [on Chantal Akerman]
Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion
SPRINGTIME IN A SMALL TOWN: A Reinvented Remake
Safe Conduct and La nuit fantastique
Same Old Lefty Claptrap [SILVER CITY]
Scenes Not From a Mall [MY COUSIN VINNY & WHITE MEN CAN’T JUMP]
Searching for Taiwan [THE PUPPET MASTER]
Seeing Right Through Us [HOLLOW MAN]
Sex Games [on Polanski’s BITTER MOON]
Sex and Drugs and Death and Writing
Sex and the Single Codger (THE LAST GOOD TIME)
Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors
Shortcuts to Happiness [SECRETS AND LIES]
Shouts and Murmurs [MONDAY MORNING & CHIWASEON]
Sign and Cinema [IN THE LAND OF THE DEAF]
Silents Are Golden (Silent Ozu)
Simple Slimeballs [DANGEROUS LIAISONS]
Smart Weapons [TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY]
Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine
Smell of Camphor, Fragrance of Jasmine
Snowbound: A Dialogue with a Dialogue
So Many Movies, So Little Time
Social Climbing (THE AGE OF INNOCENCE)
Songs in the Key of Everyday Life [THE UMBRELLAS OF CHERBOURG]
Soul Brothers (A FAMILY THING)
Splitting Images [THREE LIVES AND ONLY ONE DEATH & LOST HIGHWAY]
Spoiler Alert [ROADS OF KIAROSTAMI]
Stan Brakhage (1933-2003): In Memoriam/In Celebration
State of the Art [on TIME CODE & KHROUSTALIOV, MY CAR!]
Steve Lacy: Lift the Bandstand/Jackie McLean on Mars
Stormy Relations [Michael Almereyda’s TWISTER]
Strange Bedfellows [on NANOU & WE THE LIVING]
Strangeness on a Train [on von Trier’s ZENTROPA/EUROPA]
Strangers in Elvisland [MYSTERY TRAIN]
Stuck, But Slippery [STUCK ON YOU]
Studies in Weightlessness [THE THOMAS CROWN AFFAIR]
Stupidity as Redemption [FORREST GUMP]
Summer Camp [STAR WARS: EPISODE 1 — THE PHANTOM MENACE & TREKKIES]
Surprises at Cannes: Huston redeemed, Tashlin reincarnated (1972)
Survey Of A Sadist [Films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder]
Sweet Outrage [SCOTCH TAPE & FLAMING CREATURES]
Symbol Life [SWAN LAKE — THE ZONE]
THE DEER HUNTER: Flabby Beyond Belief
THE KID WITH A BIKE and Some Other Recent Art Movies
THE NUTTY PROFESSOR: Jerry Lewis’s Masterpiece
Take Two: THE 5,000 FINGERS OF DR. T.
Tales From the Winnipeg Film Group
Tales of Ordinary Madness (on Yasuzo Masumura)
Talking Back to the Screen (Toronto 1992)
Talking Pictures: Scott MacDonald on Cinema 16
Teenage Wasteland [BATMAN RETURNS]
Teenage Wasteland [CRUEL INTENTIONS]
The Actual Definitive Ultimate Director’s Cut (BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT)
The Adventures of Sharkboy & Lavagirl in 3-D
The Attractions and Perils of Internationalism (2007)
The Audience is Us (THE TRUMAN SHOW)
The Beat That My Heart Skipped
The Best of Both Worlds [A.I. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE]
The Black Man’s Burden [BOYZ N THE HOOD]
The Bloody Glamour of Bloody War [PLATOON] (previously unpublished)
The Boy Who Plays on the Buddhas of Bamiyan
The Bridegroom, The Comedienne and The Pimp and other short films
The Brutal Truth (on I STAND ALONE)
The Chicago International Film Festival Week 2: Simon Says
The Chicago International Film Festival: Closing Weekend
The Choice Between Art and Life (LA BELLE NOISEUSE)
The Color of Pomegranates: The Director’s Cut
The Communal Balancing Act [THE EDGE OF THE WORLD]
The Constant Compromise (GOOD NIGHT, AND GOOD LUCK & CAPOTE)
The Decade’s Finest [The Ten Best Movies of the 90s]
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie
The Dreamboat With No Name [THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY]
The Eyes of the World [SEPTEMBER 11]
The Family That Preys Together (THE GODATHER PART III)
The Film Festival That Got Away
The Fountain of Youth and Return to Glennascaul
The Good, the Bad, and the English [DEAD AGAIN]
The Good, the Bad, and the Future
The Gospel According to Saint Matthew
The Grandfather [INTIMATE STRANGER]
The Great Divide [FROM THE OTHER SIDE]
The Greatest Living Soviet Filmmaker
The Guarded Intimacy of SANS SOLEIL
The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
The Heart of an Enigma [BARTLEBY]
The Holiday Glut: A Cautious Consumer Guide
The Human Touch [MEN IN BLACK & CONTACT]
The Human Touch [THE DECALOGUE & FARGO]
The Ill and the Sick [on PRINCES IN EXILE and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS]
The Importance of Being Perverse (Godard’s KING LEAR)
The Importance of Being Sarcastic [SATANTANGO]
The Incredibly True Adventure of Two Girls in Love
The Inner Life of Martin Frost
The Killing of a Chinese Bookie
The Language of Objects [THE WAR OF THE ROSES]
The Life and File of an Anarchist Filmmaker
The Limits of Memory [THE BLONDS & ROSENSTRASSE]
The Line King:The Al Hirschfeld Story
The Man Who Fell to Sleep [SWITCH]
The Modest Master [Luc Moullet]
The Most Intelligent American Movie of the Year [THE BIG RED ONE: THE RECONSTRUCTION]
The Nasty Woody [ANYTHING ELSE]
The Nightmare Before Christmas
The Plain Truth [WELCOME TO THE DOLLHOUSE & NELLY AND MONSIEUR ARNAUD]
The Power of Suggestion (FAST, CHEAP & OUT OF CONTROL)
The Real Presence & Snakes and Ladders
The Revolution Has Been Televised [Peter Watkins’ LA COMMUNE]
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
The Road to Overload [NORTH ON EVERS]
The Saddest Music in the World
The Screening Process [NO SUCH THING & THE SLEEPY TIME GAL]
The Seberg We Missed: Interview with Mark Rappaport
The Second Animation Celebration: The Movie!
The Significance of Sniggering (CRUMB)
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemums
The Studly American [APARTMENT ZERO]
The Stuff of Dreams [on SUNRISE]
The Subjective Landscape: Works by Alfred Guzzetti
The Sweet Cheat [THE PAST REGAINED]
The Swordsman in Double-Flag Town
The Taste of Ashes [SARABAND & BROKEN FLOWERS]
The Third Animation Celebration
The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada
The Time to Live and the Time to Die
The Tree, the Mayor and the Media Center
The Trouble With Harry [BLOOD WORK]
The True Auteur: RICHARD PRYOR LIVE IN CONCERT
The Tyranny of Sensitivity [on John Cassavetes]
The Universe in a Cellar (THE WIND WILL CARRY US)
The Unobserved Life [KILLER OF SHEEP]
The Way We Are (THE MOTHER AND THE WHORE)
The Way We Are [IN THE COMPANY OF MEN]
The Way We Weren’t [REBEL HIGHWAY]
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill
The Woman Who Isn’t There [WAKING THE DEAD]
The World According to John Coltrane
The World in a Beijing Theme Park
The World in a Village [GUELWAAR]
The “Presents” of Michael Snow
Thelonious Monk: Straight No Chaser
Theme and Variations [THE LOVERS OF THE ARCTIC CIRCLE]
Then and Now: The San Sebastian International Film Festival
Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey
These Magic Moments (THE NEON BIBLE)
They Drive by Night: The Criticism of Manny Farber
Thinking Inside the Box [CHILDREN OF MEN & PAN’S LABYRINTH]
This Week at the Chicago Film Festival
This Week at the Film Festival
Three films by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Three of a Kind [ NEW YORK STORIES]
Three on a Mensch [on ENEMIES, A LOVE STORY]
Through the Past, Darkly [GHOSTS OF MISSISSIPPI & THE CRUCIBLE]
Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made
Toddler Time (THE WHITE BALLOON)
Too Big for the Screen [on CHARLES MINGUS: TRIUMPH OF THE UNDERDOG]
Too Horrible [LAST EXIT TO BROOKLYN]
Top Ten [The 10 Best Films of 1988]
Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story
True Enough (BOYS DON’T CRY & THE STRAIGHT STORY)
True Parables [ASK THE DUST & FIND ME GUILTY]
True Romances [HAV PLENTY & MR. JEALOUSY]
Truffaut Lite [THE LITTLE THIEF]
Truth is Stronger Than Fiction (THE FINAL INSULT)
Trying to Have Some Fun (QUILLS, SMOKING, & NO SMOKING)
Turnabout: The Story of the Yale Puppeteers
Two Early Chicago Reader Capsule Reviews
Two Heads [EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES]
Two Movies or the Price of None [James Benning’s UTOPIA]
Two Portraits and Universal Hotel/Universal Citizen
Undermining Authority [SURNAME VIET GIVEN NAME NAM]
Unsafe at Any Size [THE CORPORATION]
Unwarranted Heaviness (THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING)
Us Crazy Foreigners [DEAR WENDY & REEL PARADISE]
Us and Them [BLOOD IN THE FACE]
Valerie and Her Week of Wonders
Vietnam Under Glass [THE SCENT OF GREEN PAPAYA]
Villain the Blank [BLOWN AWAY]
Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography
Voyage to the Beginning of the World
Waking Up to the World [30 FRAMES A SECOND: THE WTO IN SEATTLE]
Wall of Sound (on MORTAL THOUGHTS)
Wallflower’s Revenge [THE MATCH FACTORY GIRL]
War Crimes, Hidden and Brandished [on LORD OF WAR & WINTER SOLDIER]
Watch for BERNIE (twice upgraded)
Waters Still Runs Deep [SERIAL MOM]
Wax or the Discovery of Television Among the Bees
We Love It When They Lie [JACOB’S LADDER]
Weird [TALES FROM THE GIMLI HOSPITAL]
Weird and Wild [on Kira Muratova]
Welcome, Stranger [UNCLE NINO & BECAUSE OF WINN-DIXIE]
Well-Done Debut (PARENTS) & Sex and the Single Codger (THE LAST GOOD TIME)
Western Culture Coming and Going [THE CASE OF THE GRINNING CAT & WILL SUCCESS SPOIL ROCK HUNTER?]
We’re All Connected [SHORT CUTS]
What Is a Jew? [EUROPA EUROPA]
What’s Sex Got to Do With It? (THE HOURS AND TIMES & A TALE OF SPRINGTIME)
When Bad Films Happen to Good Actors
When Is a Musical Not a Musical?
When Worlds Collide [WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT]
Where They’re Coming From [WESTERN]
Where the Boys Are [BULL DURHAM]
Why European Conservatives, If They Exist, Have No Reasons To Live
Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East?
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?
William Eggleston in the Real World
Wind from the East (A TALE OF THE WIND)
Witness to the Persecution [CAPTURING THE FRIEDMANS]
Wonders of the World [The Ten Best Films of 1997]
Woody on the Wild Side [MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY]
Working-Class Hero [CINDERELLA MAN]
Worlds Apart (on MOTHER and EVERYONE SAYS I LOVE YOU)
Wright in Japan [Magnificent Obsession: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Buildings and Legacy in Japan]
Wrinkles in Time [ALONE. LIFE WASTES ANDY HARDY]
Notes
A Brief Reflection on “Winning” and “Losing”
A Dialogue about Death by Milan Kundera
A Double Standard at the Library of America?
A Few Words on Behalf of Uggie
A Forthcoming Novel by Robin Wood
A Free Man [Clint Eastwood’s WHITE HUNTER, BLACK HEART]
A Handful of World: The Films of Peter Thompson, An Introduction and Interview
A Last-Minute Tip for Chicagoans: A BRIGHTER SUMMER DAY (Doc Films, May 18, 7 PM)
A Piece of Folk Wisdom from Little Rock
A Possible Solution to a Mystery
A SEPARATION: The Unspoken Subject in Iranian (and American) Cinema
AITA (FATHER), LA VIDA ÚTIL, & ATTENBERG
Albert Brooks, Woody Allen, and Money
“American Cinema” as Seen From the U.K.
American Self-Scrutiny, Writ Large
Among the Missing (Malraux’s L’ESPOIR)
An Unidentified Subject (Egoyan’s CHLOE)
Austin Notebook: South by Southwest, 2010
Building from Ground Zero: A HEN IN THE WIND
Business as Usual at Cannes (2009)
CITIZEN KANE and The New York Times (just for the record…)
Campaign and Post-Campaign Mode (THE ORDER OF MYTHS and MILK)
Can a “Complete History of American Film Criticism” Exist?
Circle of Pain: The Cinema of Nicholas Ray
Conversation with Paul Morrissey (Part I)
Conversation with Paul Morrissey (Part II)
Course File on Experimental Film (Part 1) (1982)
Course File on Experimental Film (Part 2) (1982)2> Criterion’s Costa
DEAD MAN in 2010: A Czech Preface
Death by a Thousand Director’s Cuts
Early Silents in Oberhausen (2010) (upgraded, 5/23/10)
Eric Hobsbawm on American Empire
FILM SOCIALISME, etc., 40 Years Ago and Now
FOR THE LOVE OF MOVIES: THE STORY OF AMERICAN FILM CRITICISM
Farewell to Dennis Hopper (R.I.P., 1936-2010)
Finding Oneself in the Dark: Costa’s NE CHANGE RIEN
Fredric Brown, Madness, and CRACK-UP
From Bowles to the Bowery: Sara Driver in Hyper Drive
Gilbert Adair (December 29, 1944 — December 8, 2011)
Gold Diggers of 1953 (on GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES)
“Globalized” Kael in THE AGE OF MOVIES
HELSINKI, FOREVER (A City Symphony)
Here’s a Movie in the Making That I Really Want To See
High and Low: Eisenstein’s IVAN THE TERRIBLE
Hoberman in French & in English
IL CINEMA RITROVATO DVD AWARDS 2010
IL CINEMA RITROVATO DVD AWARDS 2011 (Bologna, Italy)
Index of long reviews from the Chicago Reader, by film (or book) title or subject
Introduction to an Index compiled for this web site
J.D. Salinger (1919-2010): A Minor Memoir
Jafar Panahi and Early Pere Portabella: On DON’T COUNT ON YOUR FINGERS and CUADECUC, VAMPIR
Jarmusch Unlimited: THE LIMITS OF CONTROL
Jazz Soundies and other numbers from the 1940s
Jerry Lewis Film Series in Los Angeles in June
Joe Dante, Anonymous King of the Post-Cult Cinema Community
Keith Jarrett, Symphony Center (Chicago), February 12, 2010
LA NUIT DU CARREFOUR: At Long Last Available
LA SAGA: CINÉASTES, DE NOTRE TEMPS: UNE HISTOIRE DU CINÉMA EN 100 FILMS
Lines and Circles [PLAYTIME and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY]
Lisl Ponger’s Cinema: The Lessons of Ignorance
Man on a Shoestring: An On-Location Report on Mark Rappaport’s IMPOSTORS
Mark Rappaport [from FILM: THE FRONT LINE 1983]
Masterpiece Alert (UN SOIR, UN TRAIN)
Medium Cool: Wrestling with Video Art (Whatever That Means)
Michael Jackson and the Suspension of World History
Misrepresented History, Displaced Emotion
Movie Love (on CINÉMA CINÉMAS, 1982-1991)
My Favorite Films of the 1930s
My Two Cents Worth on Daves’ BIRD OF PARADISE
NOT ENOUGH AIR (an amazing play)
Never Too Late [on a Carl Dreyer retrospective]
Olaf Stapledon: The Father of Modern Science Fiction
On Books and Literary Matters (an index of sorts)
On Robin Wood’s TRAMMEL UP THE CONSEQUENCE
On the Arrest of Roman Polanski [updated, 10/2/09]
On the Denied Politics of THE HURT LOCKER
One Key Event & Two Key Scenes (March 2009)
One Observation and Three Figures
One of My Favorite Things [On McCoy Tyner]
Orson Welles: The Consumerist Version
Orson Welles’ Failure vs. David Thomson’s Success (updated, 10/25)
O’Neill’s Next-to-Last Testament: THE ICEMAN COMETH
PANDORA AND THE FLYING DUTCHMAN on DVD and the Irretrievable Past
Play it again: Review of THE CULT FILM EXPERIENCE
Princess Theater, Florence, Alabama in the 1930s
Princess Theatre, Florence, Alabama (an “early” photo and news story)
Princess Theatre, Florence, Alabama, 1944
Problems of Classification: A Few Traits in Four Films by Ermanno Olmi
Program Notes for the North American Theatrical Premiere of THE TIGER OF ESCHNAPUR & THE INDIAN TOMB
ROOM 237 (and a Few Other Encounters) at the Toronto International Film Festival, 2012
Raymond Durgnat’s Web Site is Growing
Raúl Ruiz’s Interactivity: Some Reflections on His Evolution
Recommended Pre-Election Reading (and Brief Post-Election Lament)
Recommended Reading & Viewing (THE STRUGGLE)
Recommended Reading and Looking: Online Books by Alfred Leslie (3 so far, more to come)
Recommended Reading: AND THEN THERE WAS NO ONE
Recommended Reading: Aaron Cutler on CERTIFIED COPY
Recommended Reading: By and About Lindsay Anderson
Recommended Reading: Capricci 2012 & Leo Robson on Wes Anderson
Recommended Reading: DANCING IN THE DARK
Recommended Reading: Daniel Mendelsohn on the New Tarantino
Recommended Reading: FRANKLY, MY DEAR
Recommended Reading: HEAVEN’S MY DESTINATION
Recommended Reading: Hoberman on IN A LONELY PLACE
Recommended Reading: Interview with Jia Zhangke by Dudley Andrew
Recommended Reading: Joe Klein on Why We Should Legalize Pot
Recommended Reading: Sadeq Hedayat’s THREE DROPS OF BLOOD
Recommended Reading: THE CROSS OF REDEMPTION
Recommended Reading: THE INVISIBLE DRAGON, revised & expanded edition
Recommended Reading: Two Invaluable New Web Sites…
Recommended Reading: VINCENTE MINNELLI: THE ART OF ENTERTAINMENT
Recommended Reading: n + 1, Fall 2010
Recommended Reading: “Everybody’s Orson Welles”
Recommended Reading: “Long Shot” (Profile of Jia Zhangke)
Recommended Reading: “Otto Preminger and the Surface of Cinema”
Recommended Viewing: MURDER BY CONTRACT
Recommended Viewing: THE GHOST SONATA at the Oracle
Recommended: STRAUSS AT MIDNIGHT
Recommended: THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES by Sarah Kozloff
Reflections on the New Sight & Sound Poll (and Four Lists, 1982-2012)
Review of ANOTHER FINE MESS: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN FILM COMEDY
Review of Chris Fujiwara’s JERRY LEWIS
Review of Tony Pipolo’s ROBERT BRESSON: A PASSION FOR FILM
Reviews of Five Books about John Cassavetes
Rhetoric about Iran: Americans Learning from Their Mistakes
Richard Combs on Michael Haneke
Richard Linklater as Global Regionalist [on BERNIE]
SEDUCED AND ABANDONED Revisited
SEELAND as Decolonized Nonnarrative
Skipalong Rosenbloom: A Few Scholarly Footnotes
Some Afterthoughts about Tarantino
Some Brief Reflections on A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG
Stanley Rosenbaum House, Florence, Alabama, November 1943
Stanley Rosenbaum Residence: The Dream Version
Straub-Huillet’s ÉCRITS and a Few Comparable Insights
Subversion and Sexiness in Three Hollywood Depression Comedies
THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES: half a dozen responses
THE MAD SONGS OF FERNANDA HUSSEIN
THE YOUNG ONE: Buñuel’s Neglected Masterpiece
TV News and the Myth of Public Opinion (Kinsley vs. Borneman)
Tati’s Influence on David Lynch
Ten & Twenty Best Lists, 1995-1999
The Apotheosis of Donald Phelps (and David Wayne)
The Displacements of THE FORGOTTEN SPACE
The Elephant in the Room: INSIGNIFICANCE
The End-of-Film-Criticism Industry (2009)
The First Cordelia [on IN MY FATHER’S SHADOW: A DAUGHTER REMEMBERS ORSON WELLES]
The Good, The Bad & The Ugly: WILD AT HEART
The Humanity of the Defeated: GERMANY YEAR ZERO
The Lure of Crime: Feuillade’s FANTOMAS Films
The Most Alarming News of the New Millennium
The New York Times Celebrates and Cheerfully Perpetuates Neanderthal Thinking
The Online William K. Everson Collection
The Poetry (and the Sociology) of Surreal Juxtaposition
The Undermining of Intimacy: HOME and EVERYONE ELSE
The Unmaking of I’LL DO ANYTHING
The Vanity of Autodestruction: WE CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN
Theatrical Invention (THE FARNSWORTH INVENTION)
Thomas Frank on the government
Three Soviet Masterpieces, Finally Available in Good Editions
Trial and Error (on Jim McBride)
Trying to Compute DON’T COUNT ON YOUR FINGERS
Two (Out of Three) Luc Moullet Books & One DVD
Two 2006 Reader film blog posts (& one afterword)
Two Early Long-Take Climaxes (The Magnificent Ambersons & A Star is Born)
Two Exceptional Eastern European Documentaries about the Cinema
Two Films at the French Film Festival
Two French Godard Books: Informational Obstacles (and Teasers)
Two Good Reasons to be Back in the U.K. (and three quotes)
Two Nervy End-of-the-Year Pictures
Vanity Frame Enlargement (FOUR NIGHTS OF A DREAMER)
WILL THE REAL NORMAN MAILER PLEASE STAND UP (1975 review)
WINTER DREAMS: Fitzgerald Meets Frankenheimer (& Sternberg & Cassavetes)
Watching Kiarostami Films at Home
Welles’s Anguish and Goose Liver: CONFIDENTIAL REPORT
What I’m Reading (August 2010)
What is Cinema? (and, if you know what that is, What is Film Study?)