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Muriel, or the Time of Return

DVD review

Alain Resnais has had difficulty winning an American audience, partly due to the unavailability of much of his work here, and partly due to the avant-garde nature of his first two features (Hiroshima mon amour and Last Year at Marienbad), which caused many US critics to dismiss him as a filmmaker interested in “form over content.” James Monaco offers a fine riposte to one such critic, Pauline Kael, in his book on Resnais:

“Really, Alain Resnais’s films, far from being the complicated and tortuous intellectual puzzles they are reputed to be, are rather simple, elegant, easily understood–and felt–investigations

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Make Way for Tomorrow

Film review

Now that Sátántangó has been released on DVD (in the UK), and Histoire(s) du cinéma has once again been delayed by Gaumont (in France), the next holy grail for the widest swathe of home viewing cinephiles might be Leo McCarey’s sublime and shattering Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), the last film screened in the UCLA film archive’s “Curated by… Guy Maddin” series. If anyone knows why Paramount has yet to release this film in any video format anywhere in the world, I’d love to hear the justification, because the film has astonished commentators and filmmakers alike for decades. Two examples: …

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India: Matri Bhumi (1958)

Film review

Last weekend, the UCLA film archive screened one of Roberto Rossellini’s rarest films, India (1958); according to Peter Brunette in his informative book on the filmmaker, the only print available in the US for years was an unsubtitled, black-and-white copy owned by the Pacific Film Archive, so it was a joy to see a rare color print despite its less-than-stellar quality. It’s one of Rossellini’s most acclaimed films; Godard once mentioned it in the same breath with Eisenstein’s Que Viva Mexico, Murnau’s Tabu, and Welles’ It’s All True; like those works, it’s a loving tribute to a …

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Au hasard Bresson

DVD review


Au hasard Bresson (1966)

DVD extras aren’t always so informative; you get the impression producers compile whatever they can find off the editing room floor or use the opportunity to re-sell the movie (as if that were needed), with actors and technicians warmly reminiscing about the production.

One of the best DVD extras I’ve seen recently is included with the Criterion Collection’s Mouchette DVD, Theodor Kotulla’s 30-minute Au hasard Bresson, but maybe that’s because it’s a real documentary (that won a German Lola) and not a “featurette.” It offers a rare glimpse into the production of Mouchette, and …

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The Tailenders

Film review


The Tailenders (2006)

I’ve avoided owning a TV for the past 17 years, but I know I miss some good stuff on occasion, one of which is the PBS series P.O.V., which bills itself as “television’s longest-running showcase for independent non-fiction films.” And judging by their recent excellent line-up (My Country, My Country, Maquilopolis, Tintin and I) and upcoming programs (The Camden 28, 49 Up, Wrestling with Angels: Playwright Tony Kushner), they certainly seem to be living up to their mission.

One of their recent programs, The Tailenders, was screened …

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Recent documentary screenings

Film review

Over the past few weeks, I’ve seen some pretty knockout documentaries that have been rattling around in my head ever since; each of them offers a penetrating portrait of their subject that expands into larger questions of form or meaning. I’ll comment on two today and two others tomorrow. -Doug


The Legend of Time (2006)

A few posts down, I wrote about what proved to be my favorite film at PSIFF, Albert Serra’s Quixotic (Honor de Cavalleria), but Serra’s fellow Catalan filmmaker, Isaki Lacuesta, may have provided my second favorite film with this seemingly effortless, but enigmatic and deeply …

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