The All-Time Edition In late 2022, a few film lists were released. The most visible was Sight and Sound’s once-a-decade poll, now topped by Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles. Compared to the films which have topped the previous lists (Citizen Kane, Vertigo), it is a radical proposal. But we will…… Continue reading Editor’s Note #1 – Three Lists
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Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Some Notes on Etoile Violette
An old memory, more than a decade old by now – sitting in a drab college auditorium, listening to an alumni who had once worked as production designer on a handful of beloved films, most of them directed by Hal Hartley, but who had at that point transitioned to directing rather undistinguished music videos. A…… Continue reading Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Some Notes on Etoile Violette
Translation Corner #2: The Empty Hour by Axelle Ropert
The Empty Hour An Inquiry into French existential films By Axelle Ropert A Rendezvous There are spectators who go to the cinema in the late afternoon. There are those, much more numerous, who only go to the cinema in the evening. And there is the cohort of students, idlers, old people and children, the privileged…… Continue reading Translation Corner #2: The Empty Hour by Axelle Ropert
Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Secret Violence
Secret Violence All of Axelle Ropert’s features revolve in some way around family and the bonds that family has on us. In the previous films discussed, The Apple of my Eye and Miss and the Doctors, these relationships become entangled with other romantic ones. Two of her films, however, focus squarely on the pain of…… Continue reading Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Secret Violence
Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Love at First Sight / Alone Again
Love at First Sight A young boy approaches the brothers who are manning the music at a traditional Greek birthday party. He requests a song from Marika, their legendary great grandmother, but he is quickly shut down. Such songs are too sad for children one of the brothers tells him. He responds simply, “there’s no…… Continue reading Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Love at First Sight / Alone Again
Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Index
Alone Again: The Films of Axelle Ropert In the United States we do not have a long tradition of film critics becoming filmmakers. Critics usually remain critics and filmmakers stay filmmakers. There is a line that is rarely crossed. But in France there is no such line. It is a long tradition going back…… Continue reading Profiles #1 – Axelle Ropert: Index
TV Diary #1 – Cross Game
Four Leaf Clover To be a cinephile does not mean to be anti-television. To be anti-television is a rather outdated position and simply ahistorical. The landscape of European film would be completely different without taking into consideration the films made for television (see Fassbinder, for example). But, on the whole, I remain suspicious of the…… Continue reading TV Diary #1 – Cross Game
Translation Corner #1 – Axelle Ropert
Confronting the Dragon Teenage actors and actresses are often seen in comedies or horror movies. In Petite Solange, did it matter to you, contrary to this, to not tell this type of story biased toward youth? Perhaps if young actors are emerging above all thanks to comedy or genre films, films that are a little…… Continue reading Translation Corner #1 – Axelle Ropert
What is the Modern Cinema? #0 – 2020 Version
This text was written in 2020 and is now being published for the first time. In the age of the virus, the Covid-19, the films which were meant for our theaters disappeared. Instead they found their way online via desperate measures – anything to recoup investment. Films as disparate as Emma, or Bloodshot, or Trolls…… Continue reading What is the Modern Cinema? #0 – 2020 Version
Lucky Star 