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» 66
Looking at Charlie — Modern Times: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
"Buck up! Never say die! We'll get along!"
Just Say Oui: An Interview with the Yes Men
by Damon Smith
"I'm shitting bricks, thinking he's onto me."
Film and Film and Film: An Interview with Jonas Mekas
by Jon Lanthier
"One who knows how to, as they say, 'read' the images, can tell everything about me."
Roman Polanski: What's on Trial?
by Karin Luisa Badt
In My Father's Shadow: A Daughter Remembers Orson Welles, by Chris Welles Feder.
by Joseph McBride
» 65
The Miracle Worker: An Interview with Arthur Penn
by Damien Love
"If the system is inimical to you, then you do whatever you can to alter your relationship to the system."
» 64
"Monsieur Hulot and Time": By André Bazin
by Bert Cardullo
"In their blend of social satire, wry charm, imaginative physical gags, and ingenious aural as well as visual devices, Jacques Tati's movies have not been surpassed by those of any other postwar cinematic comic — French or otherwise."
Impressions of an Auteur, Tehran Today: Talking with Iranian Director Khosrow Sinai
by Michaël Abecassis
"This situation requires the filmmakers to be more creative in handling their mostly simple stories, which sometimes are so simple as to seem very modern and minimalistic."
Return of the Obsessed: James Toback Steps into the Ring Again with Tyson
by Damon Smith
"And then he said, 'It's like a Greek tragedy. The only problem is, I'm the subject.'"
» 63
Jerry Lewis: b. Joseph Levitch, Newark, New Jersey, 1926, res. Hollywood
by Michael Stern
"Each film is an elaborately choreographed movement around the problem of Jerry's uncertain relationship to the world around him."
John Cassavetes: The First Dogme Director?
By Angelos Koutsourakis
"The major point of convergence between Cassavetes and the Dogme movement is an oppositional realist form that blurs the boundaries between being and performing."
Out Of His Head: Metaphysical Escape Attempts in the Screenplays of Charlie Kaufman
by Colm O'Shea
"Kaufman's homunculi schema is an implicit mockery of our bottomless ignorance of the nature of consciousness."
Looking at Charlie — City Lights: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
"If you could only see me as I really am, not as I appear but as I really am, as I am in my heart."
Hotels and Homelands: After Ken and Rosa
by D. J. M. Saunders
Neither will be the same
Maps and Movies: Talking with Deepa Mehta
by Sukhmani Khorana
"I think it's really important for you, or anybody who wants to be a filmmaker, to really be honest with yourself."
Of Bullies and Blood Drinkers: Talking to Tomas Alfredson about Let the Right One In
by Karin Luisa Badt
"I think the most horrifying images are the ones you make yourself. Is there someone standing behind the door, or is it just two shoes standing there?"
» 62
The Last Mistress: An Interview with Catherine Breillat
by Damon Smith
"When I make movies, nothing is limited."
» 61
The Kids Are Not All Right: Larry Clark on Wassup Rockers and More
by Damon Smith
"For me it was like, How do I manipulate this kid so he can do this and he's comfortable?, which is all part of directing."
Paradise Betrayed: Talking with Terence Davies about Of Time and the City
by Karin Luisa Badt
"You can't stop time. It stops you."
Object in Mirror May Be Closer Than It Appears: Stuart Gordon Talks about Horror, the Absurd, and Stuck
by Matthew Sorrento
"These two people are stuck in life."
The Mole Man: Going Underground with Alejandro Jodorowsky
by Damien Love
"I think Spielberg is the son from when Walt Disney fucked Minnie Mouse."
» 60
Dream Documents of Civil War: Three Films by Miklós Jancsó
by Gordon Thomas
"Jancsó's controlled aesthetic acts as a dissonance that vibrates expressively with scenes of violence, torture, and shame."
Looking at Charlie — The Circus: An Occasional Series on the Life and Work of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
Life in the ring
A Quiet Storm: Charles Burnett on Namibia and His Post-Killer of Sheep Career
by Damon Smith
"Each film requires for me its own approach."
From a Line of Ancestors: Talking with Doris Dörrie and Natasha Arthy
by Karin Luisa Badt
"We in the West trample on them."
Birds Do It, Bees Do It: Isabella Rossellini Talks about Bug Sex, Human Sex, and Green Porno
by Felix von Boehm and Alexia Berkowicz
"A laugh and information!"
Man with a Movie Camera: Visiting Jonathan Caouette
by Felix von Boehm
"I could somehow control my own story"
» 59
Wes's World: Riding Wes Anderson's Vision Limited
by Joseph Aisenberg
Paging crackle, energy, and wit. Come in, please.
Rebel, Rebel: Gregg Araki Reflects on The Living End and His Totally F***ed Up Career at Sundance 2008
by Damon Smith
"My whole thing, all my life, was march to your own drummer."
» 58
Beyond the Fifth Generation: An Interview with Zhang Yimou
by Bert Cardullo
"I know myself, and know that I can't really be separated from the land where I grew up."
Looking at Charlie — The Gold Rush: An Occasional Series on the Art and Life of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
Hats off, dudes! A masterpiece!
Made in China: Jennifer Baichwal and Edward Burtynsky on Their Travels Across Manufactured Landscapes
by Damon Smith
"We've created a world that buffers us from nature."
Monsters, Inc.: An Interview with Ray Harryhausen
by Damien Love
"I wrecked Washington, and I wrecked New York, and San Francisco. That got rather tiresome after a while."
» 57
Secret Window: The Erotic Gaze of Tom Lazarus
by Lesley Chow
"Lazarus doesn't pathologize the locked-in gaze, he lets us feel it."
Constructive Empathy: Speaking with Kadri Kousaar about Magnus
by Karin Luisa Badt
"People can die without love."
Stay Well, or Else: Michael Moore's Sicko
by Karin Luisa Badt
"What these Americans have could happen to us. And this is frightening."
Silent Light or Absolute Miracle: An Interview with Carlos Reygadas at Cannes 2007
by Karin Luisa Badt
"I hate the idea that film is actually telling a story!"
Back to Basis: Talking with Paul Verhoeven
by Damon Smith
On Black Book and his recent Hollywood defection
Close to Home: The Films of Su Friedrich on DVD
by Tom Sutpen
Autobiography sometimes trumps art in these uneven works
» 56
Nearer My Corman to Thee: Roger Corman Remembers, and Roger Corman Remembered
by Damien Love
Give us another naked nurse and some more explosions!
Our Time of Troubles: Ken Loach on War, Irish History, and The Wind That Shakes the Barley
by Damon Smith
"But I was accused of enjoying walking up and down the red carpet! Their rage knew no bounds."
» 55
Inherit the Wind: Talking with Peter Bogdanovich and Joseph McBride about The Other Side of the Wind
by Damien Love
Life with the restless ghost of Orson Welles' last movie
The Accidental Auteur: A Dialogue with Abbas Kiarostami
by Bert Cardullo
"The fruitful tree bends."
Spirit in the Dark: Barbara Kopple on Filming the Group That Wouldn't Shut Up & Sing
by Damon Smith
"Just put your sneakers on and go. Go on the journey."
Reflecting the Theoretical Beyond: The Quay Brothers Talk about Art, Life, and The Piano Tuner of Earthquakes
by Damon Smith
"It's hard to be intuitive when you've got 42 crew behind you and they're like, 'Look, they don't know what to do here. They're panicking, look at them!'"
Caveh Zahedi's PSA: Talking with the Auteur of I Am a Sex Addict
by Peter Rinaldi
"Not only is it personal — it's downright embarrassing."
The Reckless Art of Erich von Stroheim: Part One: The Pinnacle
by Tom Sutpen
"Like every other skilled fabulist on earth there would forever be a part of Stroheim that truly believed his own fantasies."
Looking at Charlie: The Idle Class, Payday, The Pilgrim, and A Woman of Paris: An Occasional Series on the Art and Life of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
"Now, Goliath was a big man."
» 53
Looking at Charlie — First National, Shoulder Arms, and The Kid: An Occasional Series on the Art and Life of Charlie Chaplin
by Alan Vanneman
"LOST CHILD WANTED — Last seen with a little man with large flat feet and a small moustache"
Acts of Revenge — Director Park Chan-wook Discusses Lady Vengeance and More
by Damon Smith
Grand Guignol, Korean style
"How My Brain Works" — An Interview with Michel Gondry
by Scott Thill
"I didn't want to live under the shadow of other films. I want to exist on my own."
» 52
Four Films in Search of an Author: Egoyan Since Exotica
by David L. Pike
Scattered pleasures and frequent irritations
Notes on Naruse: An Auteur Ascends
by Dan Callahan
Pitch-black pessimism, unsparing emotional truths, and women on the verge
Camping out with James Bidgood: The Auteur of Pink Narcissus Tells All
by Sean Fredric Edgecomb
"I don't live in a harem either, but well, God, I did for awhile."
» 51
Expanding the Possibilities: Peter Chung Talks about Aeon Flux, Matriculated, Dark Fury, and More
by Scott Thill
"The more you're able to project your own world upon the work, the more power it has."
Auteur in Distress: On Wallace Beery, von Sternberg, and Sergeant Madden
by Tom Sutpen
Cinema's supreme pictorialist surrenders to "the cop on the beat"
» 50
Darkness, Darkness: The Films of Val Lewton: Looking Back at a B-Movie Master
by Mark A. Vieira
Lewton's struggles to make magic had their own horrors
The Immortality Blues: Talking with Fruit Chan about Dumplings
by Boris Trbic
And other tasty subjects
Revisiting Satyajit Ray: An Interview with a Cinema Master
by Bert Cardullo
"Everybody has access to me, anyone who wants to see me."
On Caché (Hidden): Talking to Michael Haneke at Cannes 2005
by Karin Luisa Badt
"All of us have these hidden moments in our lives."
» 47
"Plant Your Feet and Tell the Truth": An Interview with Clint Eastwood
by Tony Macklin
On Million Dollar Baby and a million-dollar career
What Is Love? Mania Akbari Talks about Life, Love, and 20 Angosht (20 Fingers)
by Dorna Khazeni
This first-time director from Iran inspires cheers — and controversy
Doing What Moves Them at the Moment: Five of Cassavetes' Best on DVD
by Matthew Kennedy
The master of improv gets his due courtesy of Criterion's extras-laden box set
Talking to Hirokazu Kore-eda: On Maborosi, Nobody Knows, and Other Pleasures
by Cleo Cacoulidis
"I simply want to look at people as they are."
"It's Amazing I've Survived": An Interview with Bill Plympton
by Scott Thill
"The football game where the chicken mascot runs around crazy with an erection was inspired by a story that someone told me."
» 46
Capra's Corn? Dante . . . Dickens . . . Capra . . .
by D. J. M. Saunders
George Bailey's wartime America looks eerily familiar
» 45
Looking at Charlie: Keystone and Essanay Days
by Alan Vanneman
The first in an occasional series of articles on the life and work of Charlie Chaplin
F for Fake: The Ultimate Mirror of Orson Welles
by Robert Castle
In which Welles deflates expectations of greatness — and transcends them
The Unbearable Lightness of Being Cool: Appropriation & Prospects of Subversion in the Works of Quentin Tarantino
by Dror Poleg
Overthrowing the patriarchy, one flush at a time
» 44
"Too Busy Making Work": Honoring Michael Snow at the 2004 Thessaloniki Film Festival
by Cleo Cacoulidis
Painter, photographer, sculptor, composer, musician — and here, seminal experimental filmmaker
Forgotten Master: Gregory La Cava
by Gary Morris
Lubitsch wasn't the only one with a "touch"
"You Look Pretty Splendid Yourself, Orson": A Conversation with Curtis Harrington
by Peter Tonguette
On unfinished projects and friendship
» 42
Alfred Hitchcock: A Hank of Hair and a Piece of Bone
by Alan Vanneman
A photo study of the Master's festishes — uh, motifs
Keep on Truckin': An Interview with Joe Gage
by Gary Morris
A gay-porn pioneer speaks
» 40
Through a Glass Darkly: Bergman as Critical and Cultural Bellwether
by Richard Shaw
As Bergman goes, so go attitudes toward European art cinema
Making History: D. W. Griffith on DVD
by Matthew Kennedy
A weighty package of early films by the cinematic titan
» 36
The King Steps Out: Goodbye to Billy Wilder
by Richard Armstrong
"A brain full of razor blades and a heart full of chutzpah"
Catch Me If You Can: The Tarantino Legacy
by Jane Mills
Has Tarantino gone underground or is he revving up to zap the box office with another mega hit?
Anti-Heroics: The Superman Films of Richard Lester
by Peter Tonguette
In Lester's hands this superhero ain't nothin' but a sandwich
» 35
Sure, I'll Do It: An Interview with Robert Wise
by Andrew J. Rausch
This movie master is still busy after all these years
» 34
Sergei Paradjanov
by Gary Morris
What was it about this jovial, bearlike man that invoked the unending wrath of Russian censors?
Luis Buñuel on DVD
by Gary Morris
Despite his godlike status as one of cinema's great artists and rebels, Luis Buñuel has only recently arrived on DVD
Richard Kern
by Gary Morris
Kern's trashy teens fight and fuck their way through an incomprehensible world
Herschell Gordon Lewis: The Wizard of Gore
by John Wisniewski
An interview with the man who created one of cinema's most enduring genres
John Ford
by Gary Morris
Joseph McBride's new biography shows that this exceptionally powerful but also deeply flawed man hid behind his films and behind a carefully constructed identity that was always in danger of cracking, and sometimes did
» 33
Blood Spear, Mt. Fuji: Uchida Tomu's Conflicted Comeback from Manchuria
by Craig Watts
Resurrection and renewal in postwar Japanese cinema, as seen through Tomu's 1955 masterpiece
Dusan Makavejev
by Gary Morris
Free-associating with a master of free cinema
» 32
George Cukor: The Valor of Discretion
by Joseph McBride
An affectionate look at one of cinema's still undervalued masters
Private Eye: Abigail Child in Brief
by Gary Morris
Child's compulsive visual collages are visual and aural legerdemain
» 31
Interview with John Woo
by Jillian Sandell
Hong Kong's master of balletic blood 'n bulletplay speaks!
» 30
A Black Silence Almost as Violent as Laughter: Jean Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy
by Gary Morris
Cocteau was a brilliant, witty, self-invented personality whose talents put him at the forefront of practically every "ism" of the century, from surrealism to modernism to dada.
Akira Kurosawa
by Gary Morris
A look at the rare Kurosawa films Drunken Angel, Scandal, and I Live in Fear
Interview with Béla Tarr
by Eric Schlosser
The director discusses Werckmeister Harmonies in this interview conducted at the Cannes Film Festival
Tableaux Vivant: Lawrence Jordan
by Gary Morris
Jordan's collage films are "moving" in two senses
Brief Candles: Warren Sonbert
by Gary Morris
The work of an avant-garde master now restored
» 29
Carl Dreyer: Day of Wrath, Ordet, Gertrud
by Gary Morris
The films of this Danish cineaste now appear among the most daring in cinema, with a visionary power that makes them unique
"Not That I'm Horatio Alger": Russ Meyer on The Supervixens
by Gary Morris
Russ Meyer talks about The Supervixens in this 1974 interview from the Bright Lights archives
Wasted: Ian Kerkhof in Brief
by Gary Morris
Underground cinema's baddest bad boy
Raging and Flaming: Jack Smith in Retrospect
by Gary Morris
New York's pioneering campmeister
Home Movies from Hell: Luther Price
by Gary Morris
The master of Super-8 cinema takes us into the cave of the unknown, with extraordinary results
» 28
Ed Wood
by Gary Morris
The two-dollar auteur who never made a dime from his films is now one of cinema's most treasured outlaws, and rightly so.
Edgar G. Ulmer
by Gary Morris
In spite of lavish praise by French critic Luc Moullet (he found in Ulmer's films "the great solitude of man without God") or American critic John Belton's (he called Ulmer "one of his era's bleakest artists and one of film noir's blackest visionaries"), Ulmer has remained little known.
Richard Dindo
by Gary Morris
The eminent Swiss documentarian looks at saints and sinners of history — without telling you which are which.
» 27
Roger Corman
by Gary Morris
In a 1974 interview, the godfather of "New Hollywood" discusses his beloved low-budget exploitation company, New World Pictures.
James Broughton
by Gary Morris
Ecstasy for all! says the pied piper of queer experimental film.
» 26
Federico Fellini
by Toni Maraini
In an interview conducted after his last film, the Master speaks on life, art, and his strange dealings with the mysterious Carlos Castaneda.
The Day the Bronx Invaded Earth: The Life and Times of the Kuchar Brothers
by Jack Stevenson
Major figures in the American Underground film movement of the 'sixties, George and Mike Kuchar are the acknowledged pioneers of the camp/pop aesthetic that would influence practically all who came after them, from Warhol and Waters to Vadim and Lynch.
Lonesome Leni: The Wonderful, Horrible Life of Leni Riefenstahl on DVD
by Gary Morris
Riefenstahl, born in 1902, presents an extremely problematic case — an artist of unparalleled gifts, a woman in an industry dominated by men, one of the great formalists of the cinema on a par with Eisenstein or Welles whose two major works were funded by, and intended to glorify, the Nazis.
Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin: Poets of Everyday Life
by Gary Morris
Between neorealism and the nouvelle vague stand Morris Engel and Ruth Orkin, whose independent feature Little Fugitive (1953) has been credited — by Francois Truffaut, who ought to know — with providing both spiritual imprimatur and nuts-and-bolts strategies for the French New Wave.
» 25
Compulsive Repetitions: Martin Arnold
by Gary Morris
Martin Arnold's short black-and-white experimental films restore much of the novelty, terror, and humor of early cinema. Using elaborate optical and aural manipulations, he turns scenes from old Hollywood movies into hilariously weird, black-comic nightmares.
Ellen Cabot — no, Victoria Sloan — no, David DeCoteau Speaks!
by Paul Freitag
The auteur of Petticoat Planet and Retro-Puppetmaster discusses his kinky leatherboy arthouse epic, Leather Jacket Love Story.
» 24
All Is Grace: Robert Bresson
by Gary Morris
Small gestures bring large questions from the seminal French filmmaker.
Two Early Warhols: Restaurant and Screen Test #2
by Gary Morris
Warhol's high standing as a visual artist and cultural icon has overshadowed his radical work in the cinema, but the recent emergence of many of his early films may change some of that.
Dark Truths: Notes on William Friedkin
by Gary Morris
Friedkin's insistence on telling his dark truths — "there is no subject that is off limits to a filmmaker," he once said — has resulted in a career studded with controversy and breakthroughs.
Behind the Mask: Sadie Benning's Pixel Pleasures
by Gary Morris
Sadie Benning has been a cause celebre in the queer community for almost a decade. Born in 1973 to a filmmaker father and an artist mother, she began making short films at age 15 and two years later came out as a lesbian. An iconoclast even as a teen, she employed the infamous "Pixelvision" camera in most of her early work and continues to use it.
"Sorry! It Had to Be Done!" Radical Actioner Kurt Kren
by Gary Morris
Called the "father of postwar European avant-garde cinema" and regarded in some circles as the continental equivalent of America's Stan Brakhage, Kurt Kren (1929–1998) was an unlikely pioneer. A bank cashier by trade and by all accounts rather elfin, charming, and unassuming in manner, his films predate and predict many of the strategies of present-day radical art.
» 23
Frank Capra's American Dream
by Gary Morris
This beloved film artist was driven as much by self-doubt as by his belief in the power of the "little man."
» 22
The Spirit Moves: The World of Kenji Mizoguchi
by Gary Morris
Mizoguchi, with Ozu and Kurosawa one of the three undisputed masters from the golden age of Japanese cinema, was born in 1898 in the middle class district of Hongo, in Tokyo. Two events occurred when the future director was seven that may have played a pivotal role in the kinds of films he would make.
» 21
Dark Angel: Rainer Werner Fassbinder
by Gary Morris
Few filmmakers lived their private lives more publicly than Rainer Werner Fassbinder (1945-1982), and few have had those lives so relentlessly linked to their artistic output.
Akira Kurosawa on VHS: Three Early Films
by Gary Morris
Akira Kurosawa has been seen as one of the three components of a kind of Holy Trinity of golden-age Japanese auteurs, with Ozu reckoned as the contemplative Father; Mizoguchi as transcendent Holy Spirit; and Kurosawa; nicknamed "the Emperor," in the role of Son.
Seduction Is Universal: Thoughts on Radley Metzger
by Gary Morris
A few of porn's pioneering directors took the sexual revolution seriously and brought more authentic gay and bi imagery into their "straight" films. Radley Metzger, whose work spans the early 'sixties through the mid-'eighties, is by far the best of this meager lot.
» 20
Seconds in Eternity: Gregory Markopoulos
by Gary Morris
How does it happen that a filmmaker once lauded as "the American avant-garde cinema's supreme erotic poet" vanishes entirely from the cultural landscape? Gregory Markopoulous was complicit in his own disappearance from the histories of modern art and cinema, where by any reasonable standard he belongs in the very forefront.
» 17
Slapstick Realist: The Cinema of Paul Morrissey
by Gary Morris
Much of the myth, if we can call it that, surrounding Paul Morrissey comes out of his early relationship with Andy Warhol's Factory and its glittering, damaged denizens. In a world of stylized weirdos, Morrissey was the straight businessman, always looking for the commercial possibilities inherent in a scene where few believed any existed.
Tender Fictions: Barbara Hammer's Truth Club
by Gary Morris
Barbara Hammer is best known for her groundbreaking experimental film Nitrate Kisses (1992), which fearlessly broke two taboos by showing older lesbians in extended erotic embrace, all in richly detailed black and white. Hammer has been making films since the 1970s (she was one of the inspirations for Word Is Out), and wanted to create her autobiography "before someone else does it." Tender Fictions (1995) is the result — a playful, imaginative, penetrating description of an artist's life.
Angel in Exile: An Interview with Silent Movie Pioneer Allan Dwan, December 1980
by Gary Morris
His thoughts on Fairbanks, Shirley Temple, Ronald Reagan, and all the "pansies and poseurs of Hollywood." No one was safe from the cruel barbs of the Great Auteur!
» 16
An Interview with Russ Meyer
by Gary Morris
Behind that mountain of oversized tits-and-ass that make up Russ Meyer's 'body' of work is an extremely intelligent, charming, and funny man, well-versed in cinema history and pop culture.
It's an Ed Wood World After All!
by Gary Morris
The "world's worst director" never apologized for wearing women's clothes, though many have questioned his taste in sweaters.
» 15
Gregg Araki
by Matthew Severson
In an interview, Araki talks about his film-school influences — Godard, Bresson — and the violent "nightmares" he thoughtfully brings to audiences.
» 14
Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles
by John W. Hall
A case can be made that much of Hitchcock's Psycho, including some of its most memorable and disturbing elements, is taken from Orson Welles' Touch of Evil.
Dialogues with Madwomen: An Interview with Allie Light
by Gary Morris
Using a mixture of home movies, archival footage of psycho wards, re-enactments, and interviews with her subjects, Light has created a complex, moving portrait of women in whom depression, schizophrenia, and multiple personalities coexist with powerful, sometimes inspired levels of creativity.
© 2010 Bright Lights Film Journal | www.brightlightsfilm.com
Current Issue: 67 (February 2010) | Next issue: 68 (May 2010)
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