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Bright Sights: Recent DVDs — A look at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror) — Random short reviews of the worthy and worthless in recent and old-school cinema

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Peter Watkins and the Politics of Expression

On Edvard Munch (1974) and The Freethinker (1994)

"Watkins' filmmaking bravely seeks an insistence on personal truth — his own and the viewer's."

from the editor

Because we care . . .

features foyer

The Double Standard: The Twins of Two-Faced Woman and Sylvia Scarlett — "She is both sentimental and shameless."

Peter Watkins and the Politics of Expression: On Edvard Munch (1974) and The Freethinker (1994) — "Watkins' filmmaking bravely seeks an insistence on personal truth — his own and the viewer's."

False Consonances and False Consciousness: Contrarian Notes on the Ideology of Film Music — "Defenseless against music, I must submit to its despotism and, depending on its whim, be god or garbage." — E. M. Cioran

articles antechamber

Naomi Watts: Cinema's Postmodern Mother of Mirrors — "We're home free in the new mediated womb of the Naomi persona — which is to say, trapped, by our own desire."

Only the Pictures: We're All Editing, Ed — But about this audit

Hillbilly Hustle: The Thin Line Between Hillybilly Sexploitation and Blaxploitation in Trash Cinema — "How you gonna keep um' down on the farm after they seen all this?" — voiceover from the trailer for the 1972 sexploitation film Sassy Sue

Wes's World: Riding Wes Anderson's Vision Limited — Paging crackle, energy, and wit. Come in, please.

Presence and Absence: Towards a Working Conception of Screen Characters — "A basic consistency on the actor's part remains uniquely convincing as character, no matter how simplistic that character's definition."

little stabs

Little Stabs of Happiness (and Horror): Random Short Reviews of the Worthy and the Worthless in Recent and Old-School Cinema — "Don't snatch! Don't grab! They're ugly!"

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Issue 59 | February 2008
Next issue: May 2008
www.brightlightsfilm.com
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recent cinema roundabout

Stunted Lives: On 4 Months, 3 Weeks, & 2 Days — Unsettling and unmissable

A Boy and His Dog: On Will Smith, Apocalypse, and I Am Legend — "Neville remains wholly oblivious, falling into each trap the ferals set . . ."

When Virtue Sleeps: The Moral World of Denys Arcand's L'Âge des Ténèbres — "We are asked to think morally: is the happiness these characters seek possible or desirable?"

The Foxy, the Dead, and the Foxier: Re-Visiting Death Proof — "He's old enough to be my dad!"

interrogation alcove

Rebel, Rebel: Gregg Araki Reflects on The Living End and His Totally F***ed Up Career at Sundance 2008 — "My whole thing, all my life, was march to your own drummer."

the empty guest room

On the Walkabout: Remembering Heath Ledger (1979-2008) — "Wasn't he just there, standing right in front of us?"

Nuts to the Squirrels and Roués Redeemed: The Discreet Charm of Charles Boyer — "In Boyer, self-belief and theatrical technique are seamlessly fused together."

documentary dormer

Innocence Lost or Regained? The Clear-Eyed Vision of Jesus Camp — "Real things happening to real people"

film festival flying buttress

Onward and Inward: On the 2007 Thessaloniki International Film Festival — "Each work limns a moral dilemma that has no discernible answer."

Tickets to the Dark Side: The 43rd Chicago International Film Festival — "We will see whose heart is sharpest!"

revival room

Downward Mobility: On Roger Corman's Bloody Mama — "You never could make a decent living . . . you never did mount me proper."

Communication Breakdown: Reboarding Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train — "You only need one leg to get around. Sure helps to have two."

Thank God for Uncle Tom: Race and Religion Collide in The Green Pastures — A kinder, gentler condescension

Ode to Lili: And Leslie Caron — "This MGM movie is studio-system filmmaking at its most protective, and it's designed entirely to showcase Leslie Caron . . ."

bright sights

Bright Sights: Recent DVDs: Our Hitler, Sawdust and Tinsel, Black Sun, Marketa Lazarova, Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu, Automatons — An ongoing column that looks at some of the most intriguing of recent, under-the-radar releases