Laurent Cantet’s extraordinary classroom drama is now available on DVD in the U.S. Pairing it with Nicholas Philbert’s contemplative documentary, viewers can enjoy a mini film festival on the challenges that face today’s teachers.
So many of our identity markers are doomed to extinction because we have trouble producing images that will enact or rehearse them as formative ideas. (Or “performative” ideas?) Because it is effective, The Ordinary Radicals shows us that there is a need for more Christian documentaries and essay films, which in light of Matthew’s language would be better eyes for the body.
A while back I posted a capsule review of Scenes From a Parish, and ever since then I have become increasingly convinced that this is a film more people with even the slightest interest in Christian praxis beyond the culture wars should make an effort to see. It is a very understated, modest film – […]
In this wide-ranging interview, Jeffrey Stout discusses themes from his 2004 book DEMOCRACY AND TRADITION, including such topics as religion, democracy, secularism, piety, and the intellectual orientation he, following Stanley Cavell, calls “Emersonian Perfectionism.”
Tarantino’s films expose the Binx Bolling in us all, restless until we have a tidy border of cultural reference within which we can claim our stake. Most of his intricately scripted and arranged films are hardwired into the idea that his audience has nostalgic connections to all the bits of media history he is tossing out at us.
Sylvain Chomet, creator (director? conductor?) of Bellville Rendezvous has been at work on the animated production of an old Jacques Tati script. The /Film post from which the following stills were lifted goes on to say that: “He has also, so far, shown a complete lack of control in plotting and pacing. There’s no denying […]
Rosenbaum has been retro-posting reviews he wrote for the Monthly Film Bulletin in the 70’s on his website. Among these trips down memory lane is a dense review of Badlands that caught my eye on account of the way Rosenbaum’s descriptions become so lyrical: The stylistic familiarities, on the other hand, appear too quickly and […]
Harvey Keitel: “I wanted to play this part because I have a deep desire to know God. Knowing God isn’t just a matter of going to confession and praying. We also know God by confronting evil, and this character gave me the opportunity to descend into the most painful part of myself and learn about the dark places.”
Herzog vs Ferrara at the Venice Film Festival “It was shaping up to be the film festival’s equivalent of a pub brawl, a bloody showdown between two notorious loose cannons of world cinema. In the red corner: Abel Ferrara, the New York director of the original Bad Lieutenant. In the blue: German film-maker Werner Herzog, […]