For the past 15 years, Mexican director Alejandro González Iñárritu has been one of his country’s most prominent cultural ambassadors, so it’s hardly surprising when he gives his own national traits a touch of hard sell. Sitting in a London hotel lounge just before Christmas, he explains the emotional intensity that characterises his films: “When […]
While the medium is galloping towards infinite possibilities, an introspective study of its past is becoming more and more necessary. One significant way in which cinema triumphs as a truly global experience is in upholding its universal character over the ages, and sustaining an all-encompassing intimate fraternity, despite attaining the proportions of a more and […]
Not only in his time but in present day, Michelangelo Antonioni’s style of narration is considered unique and inimitable. There is something about his films that make all the different narrative spaces of his stories recognizable, regardless the language the characters are speaking or the landscapes they are roaming. Whoever the actor, whether it’s Jack […]
Released in 1985 to critical acclaim, Elem Klimov’s “Come and See” is not an underrated film – those who see it are quick to recognize its excellence. It is, however, a criminally underseen one, most likely because of where and when it was made (more on that later). Additionally, it has no big stars or […]
Mr. Nicholson, do you often think about dying? Yes, these are subjects that we think about all the time but don’t necessarily talk about. Everybody has thought about if they want to be cremated, buried, or whatever. What’s your preference? I want a big 25-foot pink statue that holds my grave. Or I also might […]
For at least fifty years, the work of Stanley Kubrick has constituted an ideal object of study for serious cinephiles. Now that the technological democratization of the past decade has allowed some of the most serious cinephiles to become video essayists, that study has flowered into a host of mini-documentaries closely examining the techniques of all […]
Mr. Wenders, you once said that at the beginning of your career you felt like a painter who was searching for a way to express time. Would you still describe your approach to making films that way? I started making movies as an extension of painting. I worked as a painter, I wanted to be […]
Alfred Hitchcock is unquestionably the greatest director of suspense films in cinema history. His best films are marked by sequences of suspense that are memorable, exciting, engaging and cinematically magnificent. Hitchcock described the difference between suspense and surprise by giving the illustration of two men sitting at a table with a time bomb set to […]