Category Archives: On

Less is More: Animated Shorts at SFIFF56

Posted on May 1, 2013 by

The distinction between “form” and content” is not useful in this category. Which came first? Which informs what? Which is the story or the design? And indeed in several shorts (“The Deep End,” “Model Starship”) there isn’t a story – … Continue reading →

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SFIFF 56: State of the Cinema by Steven Soderbergh

Posted on April 28, 2013 by

The prolific and ever-curious Steven Soderbergh has made 28 feature films in his almost 30-year career, most which are critically-acclaimed and/or financially successful films: the Ocean’s trilogy, Traffic, Out of Sight, Contagion, Che, and my favorite, Sex, Lies and Videotape. … Continue reading →

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Fashion in Film: Io Sono l’Amore (2009)

Posted on April 21, 2013 by

This lovely film is so formally sophisticated that all the design elements both balance each other out and compete for attention. But in this my third viewing it was the costume design which truly impressed me. The film chronicles the … Continue reading →

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Masculinities: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)

Posted on April 12, 2013 by

I was raised on Scorsese films. In Mean Streets, Goodfellas, Gangs of New York, and others, masculinities are best expressed within the confines of groups (gangs). The group is defined by exclusion – it excludes women, other men who are … Continue reading →

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Fashion and Film, Spring 2013

Posted on April 10, 2013 by

Perhaps it’s just a post-fashion week hangover, or perhaps everyone is jumping on a bandwagon which has been there since the love affair started. Whether it’s fashion referencing film, film directing fashion, film posing for fashion…there’s something for everyone.

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Ang Lee on Ingmar Bergman

Woody Allen and Ang Lee should together moderate a Bergman film fest.

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Sympathy for the Devil: the Editrix in Film

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

In The Devil wears Prada, I realize we are meant to empathize with the earnest writer-turned-fashion-assistant Andy Sachs. She nearly sacrifices her writing career, loses her chef boyfriend, has to ditch her comfortable clothes, and is at the service of … Continue reading →

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Hable con Ella (Talk to Her) (2002)

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

I enjoy the way in which Almodóvar can render the unusual as perfectly normal. Sympathetic girl-next-door nuns; long-lost transsexual fathers; mothers raised from the dead; novelists who waver between hysteria and flinty pragmatism – Almodóvar reminds us that we are … Continue reading →

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Doris Day: A Hollywood Legend Reflects On Life (from Fresh Air)

Posted on March 17, 2013 by

The inimitable and gracious Doris Day, interviewed by Terry Gross in 2012.

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The Sensation of Things Perceived: In the Mood for Love (2000)

Posted on February 5, 2013 by

When directors try to capture three dimensions – that is, life – in what is essentially a two-dimensional medium, interesting things happen. This particular constraint of the film media produces an opportunity to create a richness of feeling that takes … Continue reading →

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