Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Kino Lorber, Arrow Video, Vinegar Syndrome, Fun City Editions, and Imprint Films. Believe it or not, I’ve been doing these reviews for over a year at this point and it’s been lovely watching how much it’s all grown. This originally started with me desperately wanting to review… Read more »
Tag: French cinema
Pour Djamila (For Djamila)
Guest post by Joan Hawkins, Professor of Cinema and Media Studies at Indiana University. Based on a book written by Simone de Beauvoir, Pour Djamila recounts the story of Djamila Boupacha, an Algerian woman and National Liberation Front Activist who was arrested by the French in 1960, accused of terrorism and tortured. Under torture, she… Read more »
How to Watch Movies Like a Surrealist
The Parisian surrealists of the 1920s had opinions about everything. About painting. About poetry. About politics. Their ideas came of age in the early decades of cinema so, of course, they had opinions about that too. In surrealist fashion, their taste was often capricious, categorizing directors into who was worth watching and who had succumbed… Read more »
Lee Miller, Undeterred
Guest post by Lauren Richman. It is 1929 and Lee Miller (American, 1907–1977) has just settled in Paris. At only 22 years old, Miller had already lived one of what would be many remarkable lives: after a chance meeting with publisher Condé Nast, she was propelled into the fashion world, her drawn likeness appearing on… Read more »
Physical Media Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny: Blu-ray Reviews for August 2021
Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Kino Lorber, Criterion, Code Red, and Cohen Film Collection. The semester has started, summer is coming to a close, but the Blu-ray reviews are back in full swing. If there was a theme to this month’s titles, it would be stellar performances and star personas, with the… Read more »
Physical Media Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny: Blu-ray Reviews for May 2021
Full transparency: all Blu-rays reviewed were provided by Fun City Editions, Arrow Video, MVD, Kino Lorber, and Criterion. Well, folks, things have heated up considerably since I started doing these reviews last fall. I’ve reached out to so many great distributors and all of them have been kind, helpful, and generous with what they allow… Read more »