Category: Film review

In recent years, Iranian cinema has often been associated with Italian neorealism with its evocative, non-professional actors and direct representations of everyday life. But Behrooz Afkhami’s new film, The River’s End (Gavkhouni), suggests a much more European and formally adventurous mold that merges dreams and reality in a compelling meditation on the grieving process. That it’s also charming and enlivened with knowing humor makes it especially rewarding viewing. I managed to see it as part of UCLA Film and Television Archive’s ongoing festival of contemporary Iranian cinema last night, and immediately began hoping for a chance to see …

Last night I had the opportunity to see Mani Kaul, one of the key figures of the New Hindi Cinema of the late-’60s and ’70s, present his first feature, Daily Bread (Uski Roti, 1970), at the REDCAT theatre in Los Angeles. Kaul’s career has been associated with somewhat experimental and documentary films. “As for autobiographical, experimental or otherwise self-reflexive strands [in documentary], these are almost nonexistent in India,” writes Tom Waugh in Cine Action. “Virtually the only exception is Mani Kaul.” Although Kaul studied under famed Indian director Ritwik Ghatak, his primary inspiration came elsewhere. “I think …

A few recent gems from France:

Screenville‘s Harry Tuttle has sent in his enticing review (perhaps the first in English) of the recently-restored Le Moindre geste, a film with a complex, 40-year history that just received its official release in France.

And Franck Poncelet wrote us at Masters of Cinema about a real find, the DVD release of 1963’s Un Roi sans divertissement (A King Without Distraction), a film directed by FranÁois Letterier, the lead “model” of Bresson’s 1956 A Man Escaped. Unfortunately, the film doesn’t contain English subtitles, but Poncelet assures us that “like good …

I’ve only seen renowned Hollywood cinematographer Haskell Wexler in assorted documentaries over the years and his thin body, delicate lips, and wry, strained voice always gave me the impression he might’ve been the James Stewart of cinematographers; a mild-mannered professional whose craft shines in films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Days of Heaven, and Matewan. But if his son Mark’s new documentary Tell Them Who You Are is any indication, he’s a highly irritable and difficult, sharped-tongued curmudgeon.

Mark Wexler’s film is the latest success in the blooming genre of therapeutic, first-person, digital essay films exploring …