Sight & Sound

“Rescue isn’t the end of the story”: reclaiming selves and circus tricks in Even When I Fall

Sky Neal and Kate McLarnon’s deft portrait of Nepali women rebuilding their lives after childhoods trafficked into circus performance shows the complexities of rehabilitation from trauma – and the struggle for female self-determination, as the two directors and producer Elhum Shakerifar tell Bidisha.

Saturday 14 April 2018

Interviews

Film of the week: Western faces a cold frontier

Valeska Grisebach’s tense new film summons the essence of a classic Hollywood genre to tell a mournful tale of fractured Europe and wounded masculinity, writes Elena Gorfinkel.

Thursday 12 April 2018

Reviews and recommendations

Susan Anspach obituary: ethereal star of New Hollywood

Elusive but unforgettable, the Five Easy Pieces and Blume in Love actress left an indelible impression in her too-brief career on screen, remembers Peter Tonguette.

Monday 16 April 2018

Obituaries

Takahata Isao obituary: Studio Ghibli’s quiet visionary of the real

Both mentor and foil to his Ghibli co-founder Miyazaki Hayao, Takahata was a restless if unhurried adventurer who opened Japanese animation up to richer, deeper vistas, writes Alex Dudok de Wit.

Sunday 8 April 2018

Obituaries

Slow on the draw: Takahata Isao’s long road to The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

In memory of the late Studio Ghibli co-founder Takahata Isao – Nick Bradshaw’s 2015 feature about the ‘giant sloth’s’ implacable perfectionism, and how he took 14 years to make his delicately refined swansong The Tale of the Princess Kaguya.

Saturday 7 April 2018

Features

Yonebayashi Hiromasa on Mary and the Witch’s Flower: “We want to make films that give people courage”

The Arrietty director has teamed up with fellow Studio Ghibli veteran Nishimura Yoshiaki to start a new company, and fittingly their first film is all about taking a leap into the unknown, they tell Andrew Gutman.

Sunday 8 April 2018

Interviews

Film of the week: 120 BPM is an enthralling, devastating call to action

Robin Campillo’s superb story of Aids activists in the 1990s is more than just a revelatory period piece, it’s a celebration of sex, dance and the invigorating value of collective resistance, writes Ben Walters.

Thursday 5 April 2018

Reviews and recommendations

Ready Player One review: Spielberg’s VR throwback

Steven Spielberg’s teen neuromancer likes life in the rear-view blinkers – with qualms, says Pamela Hutchinson.

Tuesday 3 April 2018

Reviews and recommendations

Stéphane Audran obituary: a new wave icon

A muse to Claude Chabrol, Stéphane Audran left her haute-cheekboned mark on the arthouse of a generation, from The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie to Babette’s Feast, writes Ginette Vincendeau.

Friday 30 March 2018

Obituaries

Film of the week: Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson’s absurdist canine caper

The universe of this shaggy-dog story reflects the influence of classic animators and Japanese auteurs both, but its attention to delightful detail and its sympathy for pack of furry leads are all Anderson’s own, writes Kim Newman.

Thursday 29 March 2018

Reviews and recommendations

Look Back in Anger archive review: the best young British film of our generation

Tony Richardson’s ferocious version of John Osborne’s famous play, starring Richard Burton as the original angry young man, returns to cinemas this weekend. On its first release, Penelope Houston heralded “something new in British cinema”.

Wednesday 28 March 2018

Reviews and recommendations

Real men don’t read? In a Lonely Place and the self-loathing screenwriter

In Nicholas Ray’s classic film noir, Bogie plays a writer with an aversion to opening a book. Is this the reductio ad absurdum of macho masculinity, asks Brad Stevens?

Wednesday 28 March 2018

Bradlands

Fighting through the night: socialist odds and sods at AV Festival 2018

Cut loose from Arts Council funding, this year’s edition of the North East’s invaluable arts biennial forged on with its exploration of socialist pasts and futures against a distracted and hostile climate, writes Michael Pattison.

Tuesday 27 March 2018

Festivals

Women on a Bergman screen – a video essay

Swedish master Ingmar Bergman’s fascination with female experience and emotions underpinned one of the cinema’s greatest virtual communities of women on screen. In this video study Leigh Singer invites Bergman’s talented actresses and their creations into closest possible correspondence.

Friday 2 February 2018

Video

In her eyes: notes on Gloria Grahame (a video essay)

With a curl of her lip and an arch of her eyebrow, Gloria Grahame was the actress who stood up to both Humphrey Bogart and Lee Marvin in their most violent roles. In this video essay, Serena Bramble explores the burn mark Grahame left on the silver screen.

Friday 24 November 2017

Video

Wrapped in plasticity: Twin Peaks’ myriad Laura Palmers

Cristina Álvarez López and Adrian Martin conduct a forensic examination of the slippages at play in David Lynch and Mark Frost’s surrealistic investigative series.

Friday 28 April 2017

Video

Video essay: What is neorealism?

kogonada pits the director of The Bicycle Thieves against the producer of Gone with the Wind on the same movie material.

Friday 17 May 2013

Video