f i l m j o u r n e y . o r g

I’ve only seen renowned Hollywood cinematographer Haskell Wexler in assorted documentaries over the years and his thin body, delicate lips, and wry, strained voice always gave me the impression he might’ve been the James Stewart of cinematographers; a mild-mannered professional whose craft shines in films like Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Days of Heaven, [...]

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Gearing up after the holiday, I find that a couple of recent DVD releases keep interacting in my thoughts, Zeitgeist’s Ten by Abbas Kiarostami and Facets’ Voyage in Time (1983) by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tonino Guerra (who has written several scripts for Antonioni and Angelopoulos). I’m always fascinated by the creative process, and Zeitgeist’s [...]

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One of my favorite unreleased movies from last year was Ross McElwee’s essay film Bright Leaves, and just as the film ends its one-week run in Los Angeles this week, Russell Lucas has sent in his glowing review from the Three Rivers Film Festival in Pittsburgh. Here’s hoping for imminent video distribution, at least. [...]

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Not only is this a great way to promote some kind of DVD community consensus, but we Masters of Cinema editors get to a) hear from our readers, and b) sometimes learn about discs we missed.

“The Masters of Cinema DVD Award of the Year 2004 will be announced here on Xmas Eve. As usual, it [...]

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A few notes…
ïI’ve come down with a cold this week, so permit me a moment of persnickety cinephile bitchiness. Most of the folks I know consider Jonathan Rosenbaum’s critique of the first Top 100 Movies list by the American Film Institute to be one of the most inspiring critical essays of the last few [...]

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Preparatory drawing for The 39 Steps (1935) by Alfred Hitchcock

Sketch for Ran (1985) by Akira Kurosawa
I’m always fascinated by the double artistic lives of established directors, people with a significant skill in an art form that requires the assistance of sometimes hundreds of technicians, artists, and actors. But what about their private, personal [...]

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84-year-old Eric Rohmer’s latest film, Triple Agent (2004), has recently been released as a handsome DVD in France. It’s partly a continuation of his fortÈ–verbose adults parcing the emotional and ethical twists and turns of their lives–and partly (like his previous The Lady and the Duke) a thoughtful period piece. Rohmer’s oeuvre is [...]

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I’ve known Russell for several years now and I’m always trying to get him to write more often; he’s full of great insights. Here are his first reviews from the Three Rivers Film Festival currently in progress in Pittsburgh. The festival is surprisingly low-profile given its exemplary line-up. -Doug
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Given the result of the election this week, I’ve been feeling sporadically nauseous, hopeless, and angry. (I concur with Filmjourney discussion participant Michael Kerpan, who writes, “not even an Ozu film could possibly cheer me up.” But in a twist of irony, the Ozu retrospective in Los Angeles began this week.) The [...]

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I recently reviewed the short film compilation Ten Minutes Older (2002) and fear that I didn’t emphasize Spike Lee’s contribution, We Wuz Robbed, and its timely relevance enough; although it’s a straightforward collection of talking heads, its subject–the illegal purging of thousands of voters (including a large number of black people) from Florida’s 2000 voting [...]

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