bits and pieces from the northern island.
Some film critics desperately rack their brains to find all sorts of hidden meanings and implied theories in films. I cannot blame them so much: after all, camouflaging hogwash as clever criticism is their primary source of income. They have to make a living too, you know. I remember when I was a cinema student … Read the full article →
I hate the terrible feeling of déjà vu I get when I watch Italian documentaries. I hate it not because of the feeling itself, but for the memories it brings back. With memories, rage and disdain are also bound to emerge. I know what I am going to see and I don’t want to see … Read the full article →
Nelu Manciu is a simple man living in Salonta, Romania, near the Hungarian border. His greatest passion is fishing, so he often crosses the border in his fishing trips. Nelu, who works as a security guard for a local supermarket, has a grumpy wife named Florica and a leaky roof. They both live in the … Read the full article →
Noam Chomsky will be giving a free lecture today at the International Film Festival. He will partecipate via videoconference from his home in Cambridge, Massachussets. Chomsky, professor emeritus of linguistics at the University Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he has worked since 1955, and one of the most prominent American scholars, has been for … Read the full article →
One day during the winter a mysterious stranger shows up in a town plagued by endless war. The man, who goes by the name of Battal, saves a boy on the verge of drowning. The boy’s father and his fellow townspeople are grateful to the stranger at first, but after an initial eagerness they become … Read the full article →
La chute de la maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher in English) has always been regarded as one of the milestones in the history of cinema. It’s been said the film was based on the homonymous story by Edgar Allan Poe, but it was actually loosely inspired by two distinct stories by … Read the full article →
Films about indigent street musicians have their special appeal. Street musicians are, despite their excruciatingly uncool outward aspect, able to emanate the sort of aura you’d expect from old minstrels, with all the good and the bad it involves. Films like the recent Once demonstrate the audience has a soft spot for stories revolving around … Read the full article →
In sauna veritas. Once I read on some bulletin board that Finnish people never in their lives resort to small talk. Not even to fill social gaps or to conceal boredom. They’d rather be silent for a long time than chat idly. Since the person making this statement was a Finnish girl and since I … Read the full article →