| The
Saddest Music in the World |
| Daniel Garrett, September 30,
2004 |
| Daniel Garrett reviews Maddin's latest
film The Saddest Music in the World within the broader
context of recent Canadian cinema and its reception in the United
States. |
Japanese Story, Dirty Pretty Things, The Last Samurai, Cold Mountain,
Master
and Commander, The Dreamers: Self as Individual Consciousness, And
Embodiment of Nation |
| Daniel Garrett, May 31, 2004
|
| I recently traveled to Australia, Japan, England, the
Galapagos, and France without
leaving New York—through modern magic, film... |
| Reassessing
the Theory of Transcendental Style, Part 1: A Case Study of Le
Diable Probablement |
| Colin Burnett, March 31,
2004 |
|
An in-depth, two-part assessment of the critical discourse
surrounding one of cinema's hallowed names, Robert Bresson, who
died December 18, 1999. Burnett concentrates much of his discussion
on the unfortunately polarized views that are continually circulated
concerning Bresson's cinematic-philosophical position as 'Transcenendalist"
or "Materialist."
|
| Birth
of a Nation: Viewed Today |
| Donato Totaro, February
29, 2004 |
|
Nearly 90 years later, Birth of a Nation still has the power to
move and stir an audience. Controversial in its day for its Southern-biased racist ideology, Birth of a Nation makes for a text-book case study on how a film's form can dynamize its ideological content.
|
| First Run Features and Nazi History
|
| Donato Totaro, February 29, 2004
|
|
An in-depth review essay of three First Run Feature
DVDs that deal with the Nazi, two documentaries, Architecture
of Doom and The Eye of Vichy, and the fictional The
Murderers Are Among Us. |
| Psycho
Redux |
| Donato Totaro, January 31, 2004
|
|
Gus Van Sant's re-appropriation of Hitchcock's classic
is given another (close) look.
|
| Rip
in the Curtain: Gus Van Sant's Psycho |
| Mark Carpenter, January 31,
2004 |
|
With Gus Van Sant currently on the hard road back
to relevance - the gnomic, impressive achievement that was Gerry
(2002) having been so closely followed by his Cannes triumph with
Elephant (2003) - the time may be ripe to revisit one of
his most eccentric and reviled (and very nearly forgotten) projects,
his 1998 near-shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho.
|
| Barbarian
Invasions |
| Daniel Garrett, January 31,
2004 |
|
In this essay Garrett asks of himself:
"What is a minor work of art, and what a major one? How do
the perceptions about the social value of characters in film translate
into one’s estimation of a film’s importance?"
These are questions that occur when Garrett views two films focusing
on Native Americans, Randy Redroad’s Haircuts Hurt
and Norma Bailey’s Cowboys and Indians: The J.J. Harper
Story, and then sees Denys Arcand’s The Barbarian
Invasions.
|
| Toward
a Synthesis of Cinema -A Theory of the Long Take Moving Camera,
Part 1 |
| David George Menard, August 31, 2003
|
|
This two-part paper uses Orson Welles The Trial
(1963) as a model to explicate Brian Henderson's long take theory.
Instead of arguing for or against Henderson's critical standpoint,
it uses its classification scheme as a basis for a more thorough
understanding of the theoretical gap that exists between the two
institutional pillars of cinema, the exclusive theories of Sergei
Eisenstein and Andre Bazin.
|
| Re-reading
Bazin's Ontological Argument |
| Prakash Younger, July 31, 2003
|
|
For most film scholars Bazin was a man of many (incompatible)
hats. Bazinian scholar Younger rethinks Bazin the Critic and Bazin
the Theorist to argue otherwise.
|
| UCLA's
'Heroic Grace: the Chinese Martial Arts Film |
| Peter Rist, June 30, 2003 |
|
In September 2002, at the Toronto International Film
Festival, I was very pleased to meet Cheng-Sim Lim, the Head of
Programming at the UCLA Film and Television Archive, who told me
she was curating a series of films celebrating the history of Chinese
Martial Arts on film!
|
| Circadian Cinema: A Working Model |
| John Fucile, June 30, 2003
|
|
Author John Fucile's exploration and research in the
Circadian Cinema model explored below has inspired two short digital
films which he produced, directed, and co-wrote with Simon Fraser
entitled Beat the Blue, which to date has been screened at festivals
in New York, Oregon, Colorado, Massachusetts, Florida and California;
and his most recent digital short, the wide-screen motion picture
Zero.
|
| Teruo Ishii, the outcast
|
| Roberto Curti, May 31, 2003
|
|
Director Teruo Ishii was a featured director at the
5th Udine Far East Film Festival. Curti analyzes Ishii's ero-guro
(erotic-grotesque) cinema.
|
| Remembering
Brakhage |
| Peter Rist, February 28, 2003
|
 |
Professor Peter Rist reminisces on "Stan the Man."
|
| The
"400" Year Plan |
| Donato Totaro, February 28, 2003
|
|
Anyone who has heard Stan Brakhage lecture will probably be familiar
with his now famous artistic credo, his "400 year plan." Offscreen
editor Donato Totaro provides a brief glimpse into the mountain
of a man that was Stan Brakhage. |
| Brakhage’s Silent Legacy for Sound Cinema |
| Randolph Jordan, February 28, 2003
|
|
Drawing on the wide-ranging theories of Michel Chion (Audio-Vision:
Sound on Screen), William C. Wees (Light Moving in Time),
Sergei Eisenstein (Nonindifferent Nature), Peter Kivy (Music
Alone: Philosophical Reflections on the Purely Musical Experience),
and Tom Gunning, Jordan explores how Brakhage's films and theory
ask us to 're-learn' the fundamental principles of how we interect
with the world around us.
|
| The
Gap: Documentary Truth between Reality and Perception |
| Randolph Jordan, January 31, 2003
|
|
The notion of documentary truth might be best understood as that
truth which is found in the way that we mentally organize our perceptions.
Increasingly the theoretical understanding of documentary film is
moving away from the notion of an inherent reality found within a
film text and more towards an understanding of how texts are read. |
| Bahram Baizai, An Unknown Master of Iranian Cinema |
| Najmeh Khalili Mahani, January 31, 2003 |
|
Active before and after the Iranian Revolution of 1979,
writer-director Bahram Baizai is an important figure of Iranian cinema.
Yet he has yet to receive the awards and accolades of his contemporaries,
like Kiarostami, Makhmalbaf, Panahi, and Majidi, at least not in the West. |
| The “Sight & Sound” of Canons |
| Donato Totaro, January 31, 2003 |
|
Every ten years since 1952 the British journal Sight
& Sound has been conducting a survey to find out which films merit
inclusion into their Top Ten. As far as canon formation goes, this is
one of the biggies. Have things changed much since 1992? |
| FCMM 2002 Dossier |
| December 2002 |
|
Offscreen concludes its coverage of the FCMM with two complementary
festival reports and a special spotlight on an important figure
of Canadian cinema, cinematographer turned filmmaker Peter Mettler.
People who have been exposed to the work of Peter Mettler are aware
of how uniquely powerful and emotional his films can be. In the
20 years since he directed his first feature, Mettler has made only
seven films, five features ( Scissere 1982, The Top of
His Head 1989, Tectonic Plates 1991, Picture of Light
1994, Gambling, Gods and LSD 2002), a short feature (Eastern
Avenues 1985), and one short (Balifilm 1997). Yet he
remains one of Canada's most visionary and unclassifiable filmmakers.
Discover Mettler through an in-depth interview, and a review of
his three hour experimental documentary Gambling, Gods and LSD.
Peter Rist rounds out the issue with his annual survey of the past
cinematic year in Montreal. |
| The Michael Snow Dossier |
| November 2002 |
|
Offscreen presents an issue that is singularly devoted
to the 2002 Festival International Nouveau Cinéma Nouveaux Médias’
(FCMM) showcase on Canadian avant-garde artist extraordinaire Michael
Snow. Along with an exclusive, in-depth interview with Michael Snow
which focuses on his most recent work Corpus Callosum, plus
many of his earlier works, the dossier includes essays on Wavelength,
La Region Centrale, Snow and Pedagogy, Snow and his use of
sound, and more. |
| Beyond
the Infinite: Part 1 |
| Leah Hendriks, 09-30-02 |
|
In the first of a two-part analysis, Leah Hendriks
explores the fascinating interconnections that exist above and
below the surfaces between maverick director Stanley Kubrick and
the experimental film works of Maya Deren, Jordan Belson, Stan
Brakhage, and Kenneth Anger. Hendriks concentrates mainly on 2001:
A Space Odyssey (in part one) and Eyes Wide Shut (in
part two). |
| The Wild, Wild World of Diabolik & CO: Adults-only comic books on screen in the 1960s |
| Roberto Curti, 09-30-02
|
|
Splashy, wild, sexy, and stylish describes the world of the Italian
fumetti ('black' adult comic books). But what happens to the fumetti
when translated to the screen? A distant cousin to the giallo ('yellow'
serial thrillers), the fumetti neri have been mainstays of Italian
pop culture since their inception in the early 1960's. Curti traces
their lineage from comic strip to movie screen. |
| Choreography: the unknown and ignored |
| Mélanie Morrissette, 08-31-02
|
|
Often overlooked in action cinema, the art of choreography gets
its due. Includes an interview with Hong Kong choreographer Loon
Sheng. |
| Thinking About Cinema With Cinema |
| Donato Totaro, 07-31-02
|
|
Totaro explores how certain styles of filmmaking (montage vs. long take style) may be used to activate different cognitive states ('intellect' versus 'emotion'). |
| Islands
of Order, Part 1 |
| Randolph Jordan, 06-30-02
|
|
Randolph uses Clive Barker's The Forbidden
to explore how the Faustian myth of immortality persists in contemporary
attempts at reproduction and regeneration through the intersections
of art and science, art and nature, and music and film. |
| Alberto
Cavallone |
| Roberto Curti, 03-31-02 |
|
Offscreen welcomes Italian freelance writer Roberto
Curti as he analyzes the work of lesser known Italian cineaste Cavallone. |
| Memories
of Cinefest |
| Donato Totaro, 02-28-02 |
|
With the sudden passing away of its founder Phil Serling,
Offscreen looks back fondly at the unique film festival known
as Cinefest. |
|
FCMM 2001: Sounding Off, Part 2
|
|
Randolph Jordan, 12-31-01
|
|
|
Part two of Randolph Jordan's coverage of Montreal's FCMM Festival International Nouveau Cinéma et Nouveaux Médias. |
|
FCMM 2001: Sounding Off, Part 1
|
|
Randolph Jordan, 12-31-01
|
|
|
Randolph Jordan relies equally on his 'eyes' and 'ears' as he concentrates on the often overlooked juxtaposition of sound and image, a dialectic that is becoming an increasingly important part of Montreal's FCMM Festival International Nouveau Cinéma et Nouveaux Médias. |
|
Fantasia 2001 Report: Post 9/11
|
|
Randolph Jordan, 09-30-01
|
|
|
Randolph Jordan summarizes Fantasia 2001 in light of the tragic event of 9/11, an event which may perhaps change how reality-based violence is treated in films and other forms of entertainment. |
|
Fantasia 2001 Report: Take 2
|
|
Donato Totaro, 09-30-01
|
|
|
Fantasia, in its 6th year, continues to grow and mature as an important and eclectic film festival. |
|
Your Mother Ate My Dog! Peter Jackson and Gore-Comedy
|
|
Donato Totaro, 09-01-01
|
|
|
Offscreen presents for the first time in its orginal English language, this revised version of an essay that appeared in a French translation in Séquence magazine in 1995. Read on to see how Peter Jackson revolutionized horror (or comedy?) with his startling early feature films. |
|
Iran 2000: Part 2
|
|
Peter Rist, 07-11-01
|
|
|
Part two of Peter Rist's critical assessment of Iranian films that played at the most recent of the major Montreal film festivals. |
|
Fantasia 2000: Looking Back
|
|
Donato Totaro, 07-11-01
|
|
|
An in-depth festival report on the fifth installment of the Fantasia Film Festival (2000). |
|
Iran 2000
|
|
Peter Rist, 04-01-01
|
|
|
The first of a two-part critical assessment of recent Iranian cinema seen through the eyes of Montreal film critic and film professor Peter Rist. |
|
Family Viewing and the Spatialization of Time
|
|
Donato Totaro, 03-31-01
|
|
|
A look at Atom Egoyan's Family Viewing as both a springboard and touchstone for an inquiry into the nature of time and how shifting perceptions and attitudes toward it have effected society and the individual. |
|
Hong Kong Meets Hollywood
|
|
Donato Totaro, 07-21-00
|
|
|
What happens when Hollywood begins to copy Hong Kong, and Hong Kong begins to copy Hollywood? |
|
To Scare or Not to Scare
|
|
Donato Totaro, - 13-01-00
|
|
|
Historically, Halloween has its origins with the ancient
Druids, who believed that on the eve of "All Saints' Day,"
the lord of the dead, Saman, would summon a host of evil spirits.
In modern days the only evil spirits called on during Halloween
(excluding all those little tyrants running around in costumes!)
are those emanating from movie screens. |
|
Three Films by Eisenstein
|
|
Christina Stojanova, - 12-05-99
|
|
|
Sergei Eisenstein has always been the pride of the Soviet cinema, but it was not until after perestroika, and especially after the collapse of Communism, that Russian theoreticians began to freely explore the national-psychological roots, cultural
|
|
Affliction
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 03-05-99
|
|
|
Affliction is a powerful account of domestic male violence and a man trapped within its vicious circle. Nick Nolte is the trapped man Wade Whitehouse, the town's part-time sheriff and all-around handyman, and son to Glen Whitehouse (sublimely played
|
|
Sopyanje
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 03-05-99
|
|
|
Sopyanje is a stirring Korean style road movie that weaves emotive Korean folk music (Pansori) and pastoral landscapes with a powerful plea for Korean identity.
|
|
No one to be Missed
|
|
Cynthia Wu, - 28-04-99
|
|
|
Getting an interviewing with Zhang Yimou is difficult. Even in my hometown Beijing, I felt he was harder to reach than he was in Montreal last winter.
|
|
Gilles Deleuze's Bergsonian Film Project
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 31-03-99
|
|
|
Both Gilles Deleuze and Henri Bergson were, to extremely varying degrees, philosophers interested in cinema who used cinema to suit their particular intellectual needs. In the case of Bergson, he cultivated his ideas during a zeitgeist that includ
|
|
Gilles Deleuze's Bergsonian Film Project
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 31-03-99
|
|
|
In his second book Deleuze tackles temporality in a more direct fashion. Although the book is considerably longer than the first (344 to 250 pages), Deleuze does not propose rigid or neat classifications. The central shift remains from a cinema th
|
|
DEAR WORLD: The Kids Are NOT All right
|
|
Jamie Gaetz, - 11-02-99
|
|
|
In its 27th version, the International Festival of New Films / New Media in Montreal took a leap forward by returning to its roots. In shifting focus from the carnival-like elements that have predominated since the festival's move to a summer venue a
|
|
|
Une oeuvre qui nous regarde
|
|
Nicolas Renaud, - 11-12-98
|
|
|
Stan Brakhage, cinéaste américain, a réalisé depuis les années 50 plus de 250 films, et ce, toujours en marge de toute production industrielle. Une oeuvre rigoureuse aux dimendsions mythique, qu'il s'impose de découvrir ou de revisiter.
|
|
BIRTH FROM ABOVE
|
|
Daniel Lynds, - 05-11-98
|
|
|
As part of his method he becomes one of the combatants or performers, knowing that each scene will present a different battle. If each new video is born from this type of process then Cumming is not only the field commander but a soldier as well.
|
|
Fant-Asia 1998: The Year of the Torture, Part 1
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 15-10-98
|
|
|
Montreal's Fantasia Film Festival returns for its third successful year, presenting challenging Asian and International films. Read here for in-depth converage of Montreal's most popular (populist?) film fest.
|
|
Fant-Asia 1998: The Year of the Torture, Part 2
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 19-10-98
|
|
|
The extreme levels of violence found in Hong Kong and Japanese films confounds many Western viewers because Western culture, unlike most Eastern cultures, tends to moralize violence. Read on for a cultural contextualisation of violence Asian style.
|
|
An Introduction to Korean Cinema
|
|
Peter Rist, - 16-10-98
|
|
|
For the second year in a row, Le Festival des Films du Monde is putting the spotlight on a country in which the cinema is at the heart and soul of its nation's culture. Susan Sontag recently pronounced that cinema is dead because cinephilia is dead.
|
|
May 1968 and After: Cinema in France and Beyond
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 22-05-98
|
|
|
May 1998 marks the 30th anniversary of the student riots and subsequent strikes that took hold of France from mid-May to June 5, 1968. The disturbances and events that led to the uprising are well chronicled.
|
|
S'entêter à faire réfléchir
|
|
Steve Rioux, Nicolas Renaud, Joel Pomerleau, - 17-03-98
|
|
|
Le 27 février dernier, nous rencontions le cinéaste-vidéaste Robert Morin. L'occasion de discuter de son dernier film,
Quiconque meurt, meurt à douleurs
, de l'ensemble de son oeuvre et de bien d'autres choses, histoire de voir la dure r
|
|
|
History and Time as a Fork in the Square
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 14-03-98
|
|
|
Bernardo Bertolucci's The Spider's Stratagem is a wonderfully audacious treatment of the paradoxes of history, truth, and temporality. It is an art film that arrives at the same conclusion as John Ford's reflexive western, The Man Who Shot Liberty V
|
|
The Contemporary Dopplegänger
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 13-02-98
|
|
"The film image is an alienated reflection -an imitation of life perilously similar to the original."
|
| Halloween
Horror Movie Lists |
|
Donato Totaro , - 25-10-97
|
|
|
French translation of Horror Film Movie list, originally
written as part of a Halloween special. |
|
(October 4, 12:00pm - 12:00am)
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 25-10-97
|
|
|
For the uninitiated (which included me) Eurofest is a one-day smorgasbord of European horror and sleaze that has included over its four-year life-span zombie mayhem, giallo madness and action-adventure.
|
|
Kenji Mizoguchi: The Master
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 18-09-97
|
|
|
In 1996 James Quandt, programmer for the Cinematheque Ontario in collaboration with the Audio-Visual Division of the Japan Foundation,Tokyo organized the film series, "Mizoguchi The Master." The series included stops along New York, Edmonton, Van
|
|
Korean Cinema in Montreal
|
|
Peter Rist, - 18-09-97
|
|
|
The first Korean film I saw was Im Kwon-Taek’s Adada (1987) at Montreal’s World Film Festival in August, 1988. Until David Overby programmed the magnificent retrospective of East Asian films at Toronto’s Festival of Festivals the previous Septe
|
|
Two Films by Shin Sang-Ok
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 18-09-97
|
|
|
Having seen only three of the 60 plus films directed by Sang-Ok it may be premature to start tossing out superlatives, but his films seen at the recent Cinematheque Canada’s (CCA) "Three Korean Master Filmmakers" series represent one of the major
|
| Mohsen
Makhmalbaf: Retrospective |
| Donato Totaro , - 18-09-97
|
| |
From what I’ve seen so far Mohsen is at least the
equal of Abbas Kiarostami, and in terms of eclecticism, commands
a much more varied cinematic style. It’s also apparent that
the spirit of neo-realism and Zavattini’s ideals about making
social |
| |
|
|
THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TRAVIS BICKLE
|
|
Andre Caron, - 03-09-97
|
|
|
Winner of the Palme d'Or at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, the film celebrated its twentieth anniversary last year and remains as powerful and disturbing as ever, particularly in regard to the ambiguous ending in which psychopath taxi driver Travis
|
|
Fant-Asia Report 1
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 07-22-97
|
|
|
The square block from Bleury to Saint-Alexandre is so abuzz with Fant-Asia energy it should be christened "Chanville." It surely felt that way when about 200 perturbed fans were turned away from a sold out screening of Jackie Chan's Drunken Master 2...
|
|
Fant-Asia Report 2: A Wrap Up
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 08-13-97
|
|
|
The whirlwind that was Fant-Asia has come and gone, leaving in its wake some 70,000 spectators and a trail of cinematic blood and bullet-ridden body parts. The corner of St.Catherine and Bleury will never be the same, not until next year at
|
| A Gun
For Jennifer: Interview |
|
Donato Totaro , - 11-08-97
|
|
|
A Gun for Jennifer is a ballsy, energetic feminist revisionist take on the traditionally male revenge action film. After a successful festival run, it has seen comparisons to such female revenge films as Ms. 45 and Thelma and Louise, though
|
|
Richard Stanley Interview
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 11-08-97
|
|
|
The inimitable Richard Stanley's films thus far include
the cyper-punk cult science-fiction film Hardware (1990), the poetic
experimental documentary on the Russian invasion of Afghanistan,
Voices of the Moon (1991) and the oneiric horror film Dust Devil. |
|
The Film is the life, Mr. Renfield
|
|
Stacey Abbott, - 10-07-97
|
|
|
Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. He held in his hand an antique silver lamp, in which the flame burned without chi
|
|
WHAT MAKES THE BLOOD DRIP SO WELL?
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 10-07-97
|
|
|
With a healthy majority of Fant-Asia's International section devoted to Italian horror I thought it would be appropriate to get things rolling with some thoughts on Italian style horror.
|
|
INDEPENDENT HORROR CINEMA
|
|
Donato Totaro , - 10-07-97
|
|
|
During the Hollywood Studio period (roughly 1920 to 1950), the demarcation line between the majors and the independents was quite clear. The majors, the "Big Five" (Warners, MGM, RKO, Paramount, Fox) and "Little Three" (Columbia, Universal, Unite
|
|
21st Hong Kong International Film Festival
|
|
Peter Rist, - 10-07-97
|
|
|
After wishing to visit the city since childhood, I finally got the opportunity in 1997 to attend what is probably the best of the Asian film festivals and perhaps the finest non-competitive film festival anywhere in the world, the Hong Kong Intern
|
|
Fantasia ’97: the Hong Kong programme
|
|
Peter Rist, - 10-07-97
|
|
|
Fantasia ’97 promises to be as spectacular as last year’s edition, Montreal’s first festival of commercial (Fantasy and Action) Asian cinema, Fantasia, which was arguably the city’s most popular film festival of all time.
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|
