Tag Archives: Costa-Gavras

“The best actors in the world are those who feel the most and show the least.” — Jean-Louis Trintignant

It’s his birthday today. My first encounter with the intriguing, mysterious (and yet somehow still vulnerable) Jean-Louis Trintignant, was seeing The Conformist at The Music Box in Chicago, circa mid-90s. I was completely unfamiliar with him. Even just the look … Continue reading

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September/October 2023 Viewing Diary

I moved in late September. Again. I found a little cozy apartment, the second floor of a little house, with slanted ceilings, little cubbyhole-eaves everywhere, and a big yard. It’s a 10 minute walk to the beach. I found it … Continue reading

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December 2021 Viewing Diary

Nightmare Alley (2021; d. Guillermo del Toro) I will re-post here the thoughts I jotted down on Facebook after I saw it for the first time. I absolutely loved this film. Nightmare Alley is gorgeously shot, with an ominous moody … Continue reading

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I mourn the death of the rhetorical question

… which I chalked up to the irritations of simplified Internet-speak, but this tendency of annoying people to actually answer what is CLEARLY a rhetorical question shows up in Costa-Gavras’ State of Siege (1972). So those who refuse to recognize … Continue reading

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April 2021 Viewing Diary

Jewel Robbery (1932; d. William Dieterle) This glittering pre-Code, starring William Powell as a jewel thief, and Kay Francis as a married woman in love with her jewels, is such a subversive delight. Powell is devastatingly charming and Francis is … Continue reading

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April 2018 Viewing Diary

Elvis Presley: The Searcher (2018; d. Thom Zimny) New 2-part HBO doc about Elvis. Grateful it exists now. Long overdue artistic redress. I reviewed for Ebert. Morvern Callar (2002; d. Lynne Ramsay) Re-watched in preparation for her latest, You Were … Continue reading

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Everybody Breaks, Bro: Costa-Gavras’ The Confession

The fourth shot in Costa-Gavras’ excruciating film The Confession. If Robert Conquest explained the machinations behind the Soviet show trials in the 1930s in The Great Terror, and if, in Darkness at Noon, Arthur Koestler walked you through the the … Continue reading

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Elvis Overhears an Assassination Threat in Costa-Gavras’ Z.

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