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A Flower in the Mud: Val Lewton’s Isle of the Dead

Deep Dives

A Flower in the Mud: Val Lewton’s Isle of the Dead

A showcase for some of Boris Karloff’s most nuanced acting, this beguiling horror gem is perfect Halloween viewing.

By Dan Callahan

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Least Wanted—Film Noir’s Character Actors: Thelma Ritter

Dark Passages

Least Wanted—Film Noir’s Character Actors: Thelma Ritter

Supporting roles bring potent flavor to classic Hollywood’s darkest genre. In the first installment of a series, Imogen Sara Smith pays tribute to the queen of character actors: Thelma Ritter.

By Imogen Sara Smith

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Marianne Faithfull Brings on the Heartbreak in Made in U.S.A

One Scene

Marianne Faithfull Brings on the Heartbreak in Made in U.S.A

With her a capella take on the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By,” the singer turns a brief moment in one of Godard’s most playful films into a reflection on loss.

By Michael Atkinson

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What Damien Chazelle Learned from Maurice Pialat’s Stumbled-Upon Cinema

Under the Influence

What Damien Chazelle Learned from Maurice Pialat’s Stumbled-Upon Cinema

The Oscar-winning director of La La Land explains how an early encounter with À nos amours taught him to mix spontaneity and surprise into his own highly stylized worlds.

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Less Is More: Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria

Performances

Less Is More: Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria

No one has utilized the actress’s elusive minimalism and artful underplaying to more brilliantly complicated effect than French director Olivier Assayas.

By Ella Taylor

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The Heat of the Moment: Ten Minutes That Capture the Revolution of 1968
The Heat of the Moment: Ten Minutes That Capture the Revolution of 1968

A breathtaking, rarely screened vérité document encapsulates the social and aesthetic sea change that transformed France in the spring of 1968.

By Sam Di Iorio

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Getting to the Root of the New Tree of Life
Getting to the Root of the New Tree of Life

A look inside the process of collaborating with Terrence Malick on the new cut of his 2011 masterpiece.

By Benjamin Mercer

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Joachim Trier Grapples with the Fractured Time of Don’t Look Now

Under the Influence

Joachim Trier Grapples with the Fractured Time of Don’t Look Now

The acclaimed Norwegian filmmaker talks about Nicolas Roeg’s richly suggestive, nonlinear approach to time in his masterpiece Don't Look Now.

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John Cassavetes, Underrated Surrealist

One Scene

John Cassavetes, Underrated Surrealist

The director of Computer Chess and Support the Girls finds in John Cassavetes a surrealist whose weirdest set pieces could make David Lynch blush.

By Andrew Bujalski

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When Actors Do Double Duty
When Actors Do Double Duty

From Jeremy Irons in Dead Ringers to Kazuo Hasegawa in An Actor’s Revenge, performers who multitask as several characters in a single film tap into the essential uncanniness of cinema itself.

By Shonni Enelow

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Paradise Found: Il Cinema Ritrovato
Paradise Found: Il Cinema Ritrovato

An annual destination for cinephiles from around the world, this film festival in Bologna is a magical place to discover the richness of cinema’s past.

The Sprightly Civil Servant: Norman McLaren at the National Film Board of Canada
The Sprightly Civil Servant: Norman McLaren at the National Film Board of Canada

Can creative genius flourish on the federal dime? Animator Norman McLaren’s remarkably innovative, government-funded films suggest it can.

By Michael Sicinski

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Chloé Zhao Discovers Uncharted Territory in The New World

Under the Influence

Chloé Zhao Discovers Uncharted Territory in The New World

The award-winning director of The Rider explores the deep respect for nature and subjective human experience in Terrence Malick’s masterful vision of early seventeenth-century America.

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Wanda Now: Reflections on Barbara Loden’s Feminist Masterpiece
Wanda Now: Reflections on Barbara Loden’s Feminist Masterpiece

Some of our favorite writers and artists share what continues to haunt them about Barbara Loden’s long-neglected 1970 masterpiece, which returns to theaters in a new restoration this week.

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Machine Gun McCain and the Birth of the Cassavetes Clan

Deep Dives

Machine Gun McCain and the Birth of the Cassavetes Clan

Before John Cassavetes and his core group of actors became famous for their unflinching melodramas, they converged in this tough and dirty Italian gangster film.

By Nick Pinkerton

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Out of Time: Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven

Performances

Out of Time: Sam Shepard in Days of Heaven

In his big-screen breakthrough, Sam Shepard delivers tenderness, ferocity, and the quiet expressiveness of a silent film star.

By Hillary Weston

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Mightier Than the Sword: Shinobu Hashimoto at 100
Mightier Than the Sword: Shinobu Hashimoto at 100

Can screenwriters change the course of film history? The work of key Kurosawa collaborator Shinobu Hashimoto proves they can.

By Stephen Prince

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Corridor of Mirrors: The Eternal Return

Deep Dives

Corridor of Mirrors: The Eternal Return

Building on a rich lineage of gothic fairy tales and noirish melodramas, this lavishly stylized curio has an ominous beauty all its own.

By Imogen Sara Smith

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On the Mishima Set
On the Mishima Set

With her dazzling work on Paul Schrader’s portrait of author Yukio Mishima, graphic designer Eiko Ishioka set out to create sets as vivid as the film’s characters.

By Eiko Ishioka

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David Simon Unravels the Moral Twists of Paths of Glory

Under the Influence

David Simon Unravels the Moral Twists of Paths of Glory

The creator of The Wire takes inspiration from the narrative and moral complexity of Stanley Kubrick’s war masterpiece.

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Look at That Girl
Look at That Girl

Depth, beauty, curiosity—what gave luminous French star Danielle Darrieux staying power across eight decades? Critic Farran Smith Nehme looks for the answer in two films from opposite ends of her career.

Tabletop Intimacy: One Scene from À nos amours

One Scene

Tabletop Intimacy: One Scene from À nos amours

The director of Love After Love examines the emotional subtlety of Maurice Pialat’s camera work in a pivotal scene in the 1983 masterpiece À nos amours.

By Russell Harbaugh

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The Sun on Their Faces: One Scene from People on Sunday

One Scene

The Sun on Their Faces: One Scene from People on Sunday

One of the most memorable sequences in the silent classic People on Sunday explores the experience of being photographed and the tension between still and moving images.

By Imogen Sara Smith

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The One and Only Saul Turell

Flashbacks

The One and Only Saul Turell

On what would have been Saul Turell’s ninety-seventh birthday, Peter Cowie celebrates the man who was the beating heart behind Janus Films.

By Peter Cowie

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