Sight and Sound: the November 2022 issue

“Godard was a constantly changing point in a fixed world. That is, a world of fixed notions about cinema and how it should be properly made and accounted for, about the balance of power across the world, about everyday existence and how to define it, about our inner lives, about freedom, about existence, about language, about the living and the dead.” Kent Jones pays homage to the unparalleled Jean-Luc Godard in a tribute issue of Sight and Sound, joined by filmmakers from around the world.

Elsewhere in the issue: roundups of Venice and Toronto film festivals, Claire Denis on her cinematic loves and inspirations, Gary Oldman on Nil by Mouth at 25, David Thomson on Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward and much more.

Endlessly changeable, endlessly challenging the ideas of audiences and other filmmakers about what cinema could be, Jean-Luc Godard created an unparalleled body of work that, like life, can only be understood by experiencing it. By Kent Jones.

We hear from Leos Carax, Lucile Hadžihalilović, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Alice Diop, Charles Burnett, Béla Tarr and many more about Godard’s influence on their own careers.

On the eve of the 25th anniversary rerelease of Nil by Mouth, Gary Oldman’s brutally realistic portrait of a south London family’s struggle with addiction and domestic violence, Lou Thomas speaks to the director to get an insider’s account of the making of the film.

The director of Both Sides of the Blade discusses the filmmakers and actors who have inspired her, from Jacques Rivette and Elizabeth Taylor to the Safdie brothers and Alice Diop. Interview and introduction by Caitlin Quinlan.

Here we revisit Sight and Sound’s first interview with Godard, by Tom Milne, conducted at the 1962 London Film Festival screening of Vivre sa vie at the National Film Theatre in London.

There were dark undercurrents to many films at the Lido this year, from Gianfranco Rosi’s humane study of Pope Francis to Alice Diop’s powerful drama of infanticide and Lav Diaz’s brutal portrait of corruption and decay in the Philippines. By Kieron Corless.

The festival’s insistence on gender parity has continued to pay dividends, with many of the most original and intriguing films coming from women directors, including Rebecca Zlotowski and Marie Kreutzer – while Steven Spielberg was back on top form with his movie memoir The Fabelmans. By Tom Charity.

A Room of My Own is the latest gem from a bold new generation of Georgian directors, but cinema in the former Soviet republic is facing a government crackdown on cultural expression. By Carmen Gray.

Recommendations from the Sight and Sound team on what to see at the 2022 BFI London Film Festival.

New projects from Luna Carmoon, Sofia Coppola, Pedro Almodóvar and Thea Hvistendahl. By Thomas Flew.

After 12 years as director of content at cult video label Arrow, Francesco Simeoni has stepped out on his own to found Radiance Films. By Thomas Flew.

A new black comedy by the director of In Fabric combines the unlikely subjects of art and food. By Lou Thomas.

Actor-director Owen Kline, whose directorial debut, the dark comedy Funny Pages, is out now, discusses how his idiosyncratic tastes were developed in his local cinema in lower Manhattan. Interview by Leila Latif.

Insights into Miyazaki Hayao’s graphic novel Shuna’s Journey. By Isabel Stevens.

The composer and musician talks about creating soundscapes for Stanley Kubrick and avant-garde director John Smith. By Matilda Munro.

Kathy Burke may be a national treasure, but she’s never won the accolades she truly deserves. By Pamela Hutchinson.

Douglas Sirk’s return to Germany, Interlude, is a lost masterpiece of longing and confinement. By Phuong Le.

Mine may be a lone vote for a cult horror film, but the Greatest Films poll is rightly personal. By Kim Newman

Adieu, JLG: a revolutionary who always looked to the future. By Mike Williams.

A new box-set celebrates and illustrates Kier-La Janisse’s critical-confessional book about female neurosis in horror and exploitation cinema. By Sophia Satchell-Baeza.

What do a philosophical drama from 1970 and Channel 4’s long-running post-pub celebration of Continental schlock have in common? Nothing, and a whole lot. By Robert Hanks.

Nearly 50 years after the collapse of the Colonels’ junta in Greece, this starkly simple documentary about radicalised farmers stands as a landmark. By Neil Young.

One of the authors of the years-long project to document Warhol’s vast film archive describes the arduous cataloguing process and the intoxicating thrill of discovery. By Bruce Jenkins.

The artist’s poignant exhibition explores the troubled history of colonialism within Indigenous communities in Canada. By Susannah Thompson.

What are we to make of the title cards that proclaim the finish of Jean-Luc Godard’s 1967 film – and of so much more than that? By Brad Stevens.

• The Banshees of Inisherin reviewed by Leigh Singer.
• Blonde reviewed by Jonathan Romney.
• Don’t Worry Darling reviewed by Nicolas Rapold.
• Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris reviewed by Caspar Salmon.
• Decision to Leave reviewed by Tony Rayns.
• Inu-Oh reviewed by Thomas Flew.
• Emily the Criminal reviewed by Jason Anderson.
• Midwives reviewed by Ben Nicholson.
• Sound for the Future reviewed by Sam Davies.
• One Second reviewed by Tony Rayns.
• Vesper reviewed by Kambole Campbell.
• Girls Girls Girls reviewed by Violet Lucca.
• After Blue (Dirty Paradise) reviewed by Ben Walters.
• Emily reviewed by Leigh Singer.
• The Woman King reviewed by Anton Bitel.
• Piggy reviewed by Carmen Gray.
• The Cordillera of Dreams reviewed by Maria Delgado.

• The Rehearsal reviewed by Ben Nicholson.
• The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power reviewed by Andrew Osmond.
• This England reviewed by Philip Concannon.
• House of the Dragon reviewed by Kate Stables.
• Five Days at Memorial reviewed by Sukhdev Sandhu.
• The Last Movie Stars reviewed by Violet Lucca.

• Burning an Illusion reviewed by Arjun Sajip.
• The Mummy reviewed by Kim Newman.
• Madigan reviewed by Trevor Johnston.
• Viva Erotica reviewed by Tony Rayns.
• Identification of a Woman reviewed by Lillian Crawford.
• Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell reviewed by Kim Newman.
• Kuhle Wampe or, Who Owns the World? reviewed by Philip Kemp.
• Buck and the Preacher reviewed by Alex Ramon.
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame reviewed by Kate Stables.
• The Trial of Joan of Arc reviewed by Hannah McGill.

• The Whole Durn Human Comedy: Life According to the Coen Brothers reviewed by Adam Nayman.
• The Shining: A Visual and Cultural Haunting reviewed by Ben Nicholson.
• Heat 2 reviewed by Nick James.