Sergio Leone and the Infield Fly Rule When I noted last week that I see films and film criticism as two sides of the same coin ("The unexamined film is not worth watching"), I was trying to imagine what it…
When the issue of torture comes up, many people think of the way it's portrayed on the screen (especially in '24'), as an effective tool for extracting vital information in a ticking-clock scenario. Hey, it works for Jack Bauer, and…
View image Sven Nykvist, behind the camera. Roger Ebert interviewed the late master cinematographer Sven Nykvist in a fascinating visit to the set of "Face to Face" in 1975: Sven Nykvist photographs Bergman's films. He is tall, strong, fifty-one, with…
Matt Zoller Seitz's "The House Next Door." I feel strongly that film, and film criticism, are two sides of the same coin, each essential to the experience of the other. Without both sides, the coin itself couldn't exist in three-dimensional…
Thierry Ehrmann: "'In your resistance,' I tell them, 'you are contributing to this work. This work is encapsulating you, absorbing you.'" It's a place, it's a sculpture, it's an installation, it's a performance piece, it's a movie, it's a house,…
View image Captains of America. Imagine a country where, even at the highest levels of power, ignorance is flaunted and incompetence rewarded. OK, maybe that's too easy. Imagine a studio dumping a movie because it just doesn't know how to…
David Thomson, or "David Thomson"? Critic or stalker? David Thomson is often described as a "film critic," but film criticism is not quite what he does. Nor is he a journalist or a biographer or a historian by any traditional…
Collaborator with Roman Polanski on "Repulsion," "Cul-de-Sac," "Fearless Vampire Killers," "The Tenant," "Tess," "Frantic," "Bitter Moon" and others. From The Guardian: "Cul-de-Sac" (1966) had echoes of "Waiting for Godot," but was more directly influenced by Harold Pinter, not only in…
FIPRESCI Critics' Choice: "D.O.A.P." "After 10 days, 352 films, and 27,747 minutes," a Toronto International Film Festival press release announces, the "People's Choice Award" (bestowed in recent years upon such films as "American Beauty" and "Tsotsi"), went to "Bella," an…
"Beauty is overrated": Patrick Wilson to Kate Winslet in "Little Children." What are your expectations about the second feature directed by Todd Fields (Nick Nightingale in "Eyes Wide Shut") after "In the Bedroom"? Ditch them -- a smart thing to…
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