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Tag Archives: France
Review: Girlhood (2015); directed by Céline Sciamma
I am a huge fan of the work of director/writer Céline Sciamma. She has directed/written three features so far, Water Lilies, Tomboy, and now Girlhood, all of them EXCELLENT, all of them featuring girls in pre-adolescence or adolescence trying to … Continue reading
Year in Review: Running my mouth in 2014
I may write some magnum opus in the next two days, you never know, but here are links to some of the things I’ve written in 2014, here and elsewhere. I have worked hard to keep my site an eclectic … Continue reading
Posted in Books, Movies, Music, Personal
Tagged Alfred Wertheimer, Anna Magnani, Austria, Carroll Baker, Christopher Hitchens, Claude Rains, Eli Wallach, Elvis Presley, Eminem, France, friends, Gena Rowlands, Germany, Harry Potter, Howard Hawks, Inherent Vice, Iran, Iranian film, Israel, Italy, Jafar Panahi, Japan, Jim Jarmusch, Joan Crawford, John Cassavetes, Juliette Binoche, Kristen Wiig, Kwik Stop, Lars von Trier, Lauren Bacall, Lester Bangs, Liv Ullmann, Lon Chaney, Love Streams, Mark Twain, Martin Scorsese, Nicolas Cage, Orpheus Descending, Palestine, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Poland, Richard Linklater, Romania, Russia, Seth Rogen, Seymour Cassel, Sudden Fear, Supernatural, Sweden, Tennessee Williams, The Beatles, The Everly Brothers, Tommy Lee Jones, Trotsky, war, year in writing, Zac Efron
14 Comments
My Favorite Films of 2014
My Top 10 (more in-depth commentary, and other writer’s choices over at Rogerebert.com): 1. Beyond the Lights, directed by Gina Prince-Blythewood. 2. Boyhood, directed by Richard Linklater. Review here. 3. Closed Curtain, directed by Jafar Panahi. Review here. 4. Force … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged Australia, Bong Joon-Ho, Denmark, documentary, France, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Germany, Iranian film, Jafar Panahi, Jean-Luc Godard, Jim Jarmusch, Josephine Decker, Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Lars von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, Poland, Richard Linklater, South Korea, Sweden, Vietnam, Wes Anderson, Zac Efron
35 Comments
NYFF 2014: Clouds of Sils Maria (2014); directed by Olivier Assayas
The buzz for Olivier Assayas’ latest film was deafening; it made it difficult to avoid not only spoilers, but a glut of opinions that may somehow color my own. (The same thing just happened with the Inherent Vice premiere that … Continue reading
Posted in Movies
Tagged drama, France, Germany, Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, reviews, Switzerland
12 Comments
The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola
From Masculin Féminin (1966), directed by Jean-Luc Godard.
New York Film Festival 2014: The Blue Room; directed by Mathieu Amalric
The Blue Room is so lean and so taut, with so little fat on its bones, that it calls into question other movies that try to do similar things only take twice as long to do it. The Blue Room … Continue reading
Happy Bastille Day
One of the best scenes in cinema, the scene of the “dueling anthems” in Casablanca, when the crowd drowns out the German anthem with “La Marseillaise”. Gives me goosebumps every time, especially considering that most of those extras and actors … Continue reading
The Books: Arguably, ‘Edmund Burke: Reactionary Prophet’, by Christopher Hitchens
On the essays shelf: Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France is one of the great political tracts in existence. Like Tom Paine (who wrote Rights of Man as a sort of blistering REPLY … Continue reading