David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001) has usually been celebrated for its weirdly oneiric narrative hijinks and its unsettling doublings of character. In 2012, the critic Miriam Bale identified the film as a key entry in a subgenre she coined the “persona swap” film, in which the personalities of two female characters become blended or swapped… Read more »
Okay, I’ll be honest, Decision to Leave might be one of the hardest films I’ve had to define. Just when I think it’s a buddy comedy, it turns on its head and becomes more of a neo-noir (but more in terms of story and characterization than mise-en-scene), and then right when it’s settling into that,… Read more »
In the decadent French chateau of a frisky aristocrat and his wandering wife, a showgirl pretending to be a baroness and the cab driver she fell for are arguing about the practicality of a marriage surviving on 40 francs a day. “I know we’re right for each other,” he coos. “I know it deep down… Read more »
In the cinema of Leo McCarey, the act of socializing takes on paramount importance. The rhythms of his films, and the way that they make meaning, largely derive from his direction of actors and from the characters’ behavior toward one another within the fiction — the ways that they look at, listen and react to… Read more »
Full transparency: all Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed were provided by Kino Lorber and the Criterion Collection. Welcome to another edition of “Physical Media Isn’t Dead, It Just Smells Funny.” While the end of July doesn’t have a movie featuring kung fu, the Shaft theme, and a man getting his head dislodged from his body, it… Read more »
Get to know the people behind your favorite university cinema in our new blog series, “Meet Your IU Cinema Staff.” Using the format of our exclusive filmmaker interviews — all of which can be found on our YouTube channel — we’ve crafted a questionnaire for our staff to help introduce them to you, our audience. For… Read more »
