“The Cinema Leads Me There”: the 41st International Film Festival Rotterdam Daniel Fairfax March 2012 Festival Reports Ugly city, beautiful cinema. It strikes me that the world’s major film festivals are opposed in nature to the cities that host them. Take Berlin. The city is an epicentre of alternative subcultures, artistic...
Pelechian, Artavazd Daniel Fairfax March 2012 Great Directors b. Feb 22, 1938, Leninakin (now Gyumri), Armenia. 1. In film festivals, cinémathèques, galleries and conferences around the world, the same scene plays itself over and over. Two film-lovers will be engag...
Jacques Rivette by Douglas Morrey and Alison Smith Daniel Fairfax October 2011 Book Reviews Jacques Rivette: Phantom of the Cinema could well be an alternative title for this book, the long overdue first English-language monograph on the enigmatic French director. Seldom in the history of the cinema h...
“An exceptional forum to defend freedom of expression”: The 64th Cannes Film Festival Daniel Fairfax June 2011 Festival Reports Stepping off the TGV at Cannes-Ville railway station, and onto the Rue Jean-Jaurès early on a Wednesday afternoon, the sentiment becomes palpable. The heaving throng of people being disgorged from the station e...
Film, Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinkers edited by Felicity Colman Daniel Fairfax December 2010 Book Reviews In terms of theoretical scope, the book I currently hold in my hands could hardly be more comprehensive; in terms of ambition, it could hardly be more colossal. With Film, Theory and Philosophy: The Key Thinker...
A Double World of Undigested Memory: The 57th Sydney Film Festival Paul Macovaz and Daniel Fairfax July 2010 Festival Reports Pioneer Room Rhapsody A slightly cagey throng of greying cinemagoers mill nervously in the lower foyer of Sydney’s State Theatre. Red liveried ushers assure us the theatre will be opened soon. A quick trip t...
The Tale of Perceval le Gallois and the Young Althusserians Daniel Fairfax April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Infused with artifice, Rohmer’s remarkable adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century verse poem marked a temporary radical shift in style for the filmmaker. But why? Daniel Fairfax looks for answers in the light of post-68 French film theory.
Celestial Sensations: The 13th Rencontres Internationales, Paris Daniel Fairfax December 2009 Festival Reports So there I was, my dear reader, about to come back to Paris after several peripatetic weeks, ready to settle into my new flat and wondering what I was going to do with myself upon my rentrée. Clearly the though...
Illusion 24 frames per second: François Truffaut’s La Nuit Américaine Daniel Fairfax April 2005 Brief Encounters Francois Truffaut's testament on the filmmaking process. This article evaluates the film's standing amongst the many film-with-a-film themed works.