Issue 44
“Surrealism” and the Omnipotence of Cinema
Starting from André Breton’s 1924 Manifesto of Surrealism, this essay explores the ways in which the Movement’s philosophical ideas found expression in the ‘first wave’
The American Friend: Tom Luddy on Jean-Luc Godard
Tom Luddy was the principal conduit for almost all of Godard’s forays into the North American film scene. From Godard’s ‘Dziga Vertov’ tours to his
Life Sentence: Dreams of Captivity and Freedom in Jan Švankmajer’s Šílení
Sebastian Manley thoughtfully dissects the interweaving influences and meanings found in the most recent work of this great Czech surrealist animator
Hand of Hysteria: The Bipartite Body of the Brothers Quay
This essay examines the role of stop-motion animation as a reversal of the model of hysteria as posited by psychoanalytic approaches
Cinema of Pre-predication: On Stan Brakhage and the Phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty
“Brakhage gives us phenomenologies on celluloid.” So argues Alex Cobb as he draws out the affinities between the filmmaker and the philosopher
For the Life of Experimental Cinema: A Conversation with Raphaël Bassan
Filmmaker Viviane Vagh talks to one of the seminal figures of the French experimental film scene. Filmmaker, critic and cinema historian, Raphaël Bassan speaks about
There’s other Stuff than Art? An Interview with Michael Betancourt
A stimulating discussion with Miami-based filmmaker and theoretician Michael Betancourt about his unique audio-visual experiments
“Me, I Just Film My Life”: An Interview with Jonas Mekas
The most influential figure in the history of the ‘New American Cinema’ discusses his past, present and ongoing projects. The interview concludes with Mekas’ strikingly
Transcendental Style in 2007: The 31st Hong Kong International Film Festival
20 March – 4 April 2007 Much of what I saw at this year’s Hong Kong International Film Festival gave new relevance to Paul Schrader’s
Iranian Cinema Looks Inward: The 25th Fajr International Film Festival
1-11 February 2007 In the year 2000, Hamid Dabashi provided an overview of the state of Iranian cinema. That year, according to Dabashi, heralded the