FILM
Andy Beta
Staring Back at Chris Marker
11.04.07
"Time present and time past/Are both perhaps present in time future," wrote T.S. Eliot. No filmmaker has absorbed this vertiginous lesson better than cult documentarist Chris Marker. Apropos of the long-awaited DVD release of two Marker classics, and a new book of his photographs, Andy Beta explores intertextual connections that reach across decades.
Benjamin Strong
Son of Kong
01.15.06
Strong, a film buff reared on late 70's blockbusters, questions Peter Jackson's "purist" remake of the 1933 original. He also posits which one of the 3 Kongs is more relevant to this day and age, coming to his answer through a personal reflection on family, violence and refuge.
Brian Pera
Real Escapism: Kentucker Audley and Team Picture
11.03.08
Brian Pera reviews Ketucker Audley's Team Picture, which started gaining attention at last year's Memphis Film Festival. Since then it has been featured in New Talkies: the DIY Generation series at IFC, and film scholar Ray Carney included it as part of Independent's Week: New Independent Cinema 2007 at the Harvard Archives. Team Picture has been embraced by - yet stands apart from - the current laissez-faire Youtube genre trend "mumblecore." Pera argues that Audley wields a unique style that bridges somewhere between the verité of a Cassavettes or Antonioni - the scenes slow and thoughtful, the directing more slight-handed than sleight of hand, and the final product beautiful and with purpose.
Gean Moreno
A Cinema of Poverty: an interview with Caveh Zahedi
09.11.06
One of the first things I saw from Caveh Zahedi was a clip of him trying to convince Will Oldham to do mushrooms with him. Later, I saw a video-still of Oldham laughing wildly and driving through the woods in what looks like a fancy go-kart. It wouldn't be the only time Zahedi documented psychedelic indulgences, but there's more to his films than just tripping out. Gean Moreno interviews the no-budget filmmaker about confession, fandom, and divine intervention.
Jon Frosch
Titles a la Francaise
06.20.06
Jon Frosch is a new writer for Fanzine and he explains France's insidious plot to stereotype the children of America by retitling French releases of Hollywood films according to their whims. It might be lost in translation or maybe we were justified in the whole Freedom Fries affair. Either way, something is going on...
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jacques Tati's Trafic on Criterion DVD
06.26.08
Critic and scholar Jonathan Rosenbaum has written definitively about French director Jacques Tati over the years; Fanzine is pleased to have Rosenbaum's take on Tati's Trafic, newly available on DVD from the Criterion Collection.
Kevin Killian
Charlie Chan on Boot DVD
07.21.05
Author Kevin Killian begins his column FILM WORLD by trying to watch every pirate Charlie Chan film on DVD (all 42), and in the process comes to some startling Freudian conclusions! Don't miss seeing Kevin see the unseeable.
Mark Asch
We've Lost Control (of the Ian Curtis Legend)
10.10.07
Anton Corbijn’s new black-and-white biopic of Ian Curtis, which opens today, has the approval of the singer’s widow, whose memoir it is based on, and the backing of numerous film critics, many of whom can still remember their first intoxicating spin of Unknown Pleasures. But Mark Asch wonders whether something doesn’t get lost when we demystify our rock icons.
Masha Tupitsyn
Jaws Revisited
09.15.08
Like a survivor from a good shark gnashing, what we see in a feature film is really the remains of a great deal of cutting and slicing. What happens in the editing room often stays in the editing room. Of course with the advent of DVDs we now get a lot more options in viewing a film, with the outtakes, deleted scenes, etc. Recently a retrospective of Spielberg films aired on TV, and here Masha Tupitsyn revisits with fresh perspective the collector's edition DVD of the director's 70's blockbuster Jaws.
Mike Powell
Dusan Makavejev’s Sweet Movie comes to Criterion DVD
10.11.07
Schweeet! (you saw that joke coming, but...) It is sweet that Dušan Makavejev's 1974 cult classic has infiltrated the somewhat taught sieve of great films that is the Criterion Collection of DVDs. It's a sexually unabashed film that no doubt the Swedish national socialists (Swedish national socialists?) who recently smashed an Andres Serrano exhibit would love to get their nasty hands on (but that's another story). Mike Powell reviews.
Nancy Keefe Rhodes
Interview with Roger Warren Beebe
12.06.07
Filmmaker Roger Warren Beebe believes experimental movies are for the masses, and to prove it he led an avant-garde roadshow across the States. Nancy Keefe Rhodes talks with the director about his tour and the varieties of non-commercial filmmaking.
Paddy Johnson
Review: Who Gets To Call It Art
02.06.06
Peter Rosen's film looks at the New York art world of the 1960's, focussing on art connoisseur and critic Henry Geldzahler...perhaps a tad too much.
Samantha Culp
White Girl Under Asian Neon
07.21.05
Rounding out this month's occidental perspectives on Asian film, Samantha Culp finds herself ever more like a koi in a tank, oggled and scrutinized because of the popularity and frustrating legacy of Lost In Translation
The Fanzine
Film Poll 2007
12.31.07
Welcome to the first annual Fanzine year-end Film Poll. Don't expect to find Oscar nominees, sleeper hits, or good taste in this survey. This is strictly about our love of movies. Contributors include Benjamin Strong, Mark Asch, Samantha Culp, Kevin Killian, Michael Louie, and Nancy Keefe Rhodes.
Zach Baron
Save The Receipt: Rethinking Wes Anderson
10.17.07
Wes Anderson's latest movie, The Darjeeling Limited, has provoked a number of critics to express their exhaustion with his hermetically sealed realm of white bourgeois male privilege. Zach Baron wonders whether these critics aren't missing the point.