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THE FRENCH HAD A NAME FOR IT: FRENCH FILM NOIR, 1946-1964
Everyone knows that the French (specifically, journalist Nino Frank) coined the term film noir. But not everyone knows just how immersed the French became in the production of their own films noirs in...
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HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959)—Review by David Robson
It rises back up, like a ghost. Appropriate that the movie is being re-released to theatres on Halloween, a perfect date for a movie as haunted as Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959). Alain Resnais' landmark...
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3RD I 2014—Frako Loden Previews the Lineup
We here in northern California hardly get a breath! We're barely recovering from the big autumn upheavals—a victorious World Series, Halloween / Day of the Dead festivities and mid-term elections—when...
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BOOK EXCERPT: MISSING REELS by Farran Smith Nehme
Was it really so long ago that the blogosphere sought social cohesion through the early practice of padding blogrolls with favorite bloggers? High on every aspiring blogger's wish list was the...
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FORCE MAJEURE (2014)
As Michael Hawley synopsized in his Evening Class preview for the recent 37th edition of the Mill Valley Film Festival, a prize-winner from Cannes' Un Certain Regard sidebar, "Sweden's satiric Force...
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SFFS: FALL SEASON 2014—Michael Hawley Previews the Line-up
The San Francisco Film Society (SFFS)Fall Season has revamped itself into a trio of mini-festivals for 2014 and will hold court at San Francisco's 114-year-old Vogue Theatre over three consecutive...
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THE WAY HE LOOKS / HOJE EU QUERO VOLTAR SOZINHO (2014)—Frameline Q&A With...
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye."—Antoine St. Exupery, The Little Prince.Brazilian writer / director / producer Daniel Ribeiro is no...
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SELMA (2014)—Q&A With Director Ava DuVernay, Actor David Oyelowo, and...
On Sunday, November 16, 2014, I attended an advance screening of Ava DuVernay's Selma (2014) at the Castro Theatre, co-presented by Paramount Studios and the San Francisco Film Society. Only the second...
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AMERICAN SNIPER (2014)—A Few Evening Class Questions for Screenwriter Jason Hall
Yet another eleventh hour entry in this year's Oscars® race is American Sniper (2014), directed by Clint Eastwood and starring Bradley Cooper as Chris Kyle, decorated United States Navy SEAL and the...
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HOLEHEAD 2014—BLOODY KNUCKLES (2014)
It's difficult not to get heavy-handed with the puns when writing about Matt O'Mahoney's debut feature Bloody Knuckles (2014) [IMDb / Facebook], which boasted its world premiere at Fantasia in their...
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SPRING GARDEN (2014)
In full disclosure, Jake Fullilove's Spring Garden (2014) is a pet project of mine. It first arrived at my desk as a shooting script developed by Jake and his collaborator Matt Shelar, adapted from...
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A GIRL WALKS HOME ALONE AT NIGHT (2014)
Unexpectedly beautiful, at turns contemplative and chilling, Ana Lily Amirpour's debut feature A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014) [Facebook] is being billed as the "first Iranian Vampire Western"...
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HOLEHEAD 2014—BLOOD RIDERS: THE DEVIL RIDES WITH US (2014)
I met Finnish director Lari Teräs a little over a month back in Boise, Idaho at Red Feather's patio where we watched Boise Film Underground's Halloween program of horror shorts. We'd met earlier in the...
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SFFCC 2014—PRELIMINARY BALLOT
Voting for the 2014 San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) for our year-end favorites presents the annual hurdle of coming up with a list of nominations that reflect individual taste within a...
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SFFCC 2014—SECONDARY BALLOT
With the primary ballots of all the members of the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) tabulated, a secondary ballot has been formulated from which we must each choose and rank three of the five...
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SFFCC 2014—AWARDS
At the San Francisco Film Critics Circle (SFFCC) annual voting meeting, we decide on the best—if not our favorite—movies of the year. As laid out in my two previous posts, this is curtailed by...
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NOIR CITY XMAS 2014: THE CURSE OF THE CAT PEOPLE—The Evening Class Interview...
Ann Carter-Newton is best remembered for her touching performance in Val Lewton's The Curse of the Cat People (1944). It remains an extraordinary example of a top-quality child performance in terms of...
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LISTS: 10 FAVORITE INTERVIEWS
As time goes along, I find myself interviewing less and less and yet, even so, year's end reminds me as I have often said that my world is made up of conversations. Here are my favorites for the...
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PSIFF 2015—THE RAMP-UP
In its 26th edition, the Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) inflects Palm Spring's reputation as a refuge to the stars by emphasizing the festival's spectacular dimension, which insures...
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EXODUS: GODS & KINGS (2014)
After the disappointing idiosyncracy of Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014), my Biblical expectations were lowered walking into Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods & Kings (2014), which is probably a good thing...
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