While “The Deep Blue Sea” may be a throwback to another era, director Terence Davies has used his masterful style to engage the audience cinematically and psychologically in an elegant circular structure.
Film
Coming Attractions in Film: April 2012
It’s film festival time! That means you need to stretch, exercise, and drink plenty of liquids because there’s a lot to see. The month is capped with an amazing line up of 66 features at the Independent Film Festival of Boston.
Film Review: Life Without Principle
Director Johnnie To has a playfulness found in much Hong Kong cinema. He has found a different way to unfold a story, making clear how money and greed can inform everything, but with plenty of room for humor and for good fortune.
Film Review: “In Darkness” — Not Just Another Holocaust Movie
Twenty-one years after she received a Golden Globe for “Europa Europa,” director Agnieszka Holland returns with another uncompromising vision of perseverance and the power of human connection in the worst of times.
Coming Attractions in Film: March 2012
What’s coming up now in this small gap between the Awards shows and the Film Festival Season? Lots! This month is a cornucopia of adventurous off-the-radar films. March features several great director’s series, Hong Kong, German, and Czech premieres, women directors, local directors, and a range of documentaries on music that you probably never heard of.
Theater Interview: Viva August Strindberg — The Great Swedish Modernist
August Strindberg’s work unquestionably has not received the degree of popular acclaim in America that it deserves. It’s a bit mysterious, given that major U.S. playwrights — Eugene O’Neill, Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams — have openly acknowledged their debts to Strindberg.
Movie Review: Oscar Nominated Live Shorts — A Very Competitive Year
Five strong contenders: production values are high, the actors excellent, and four are beautifully grounded in their settings –- Norway, Calcutta, and two in Ireland.
Fuse Film Commentary: “The Artist” — Rooting for Simplicity
“The Artist” works on two levels: the audience in the film and the audience watching the film are entertained by the same things. And it’s that simplicity – the era when silent movies were all they had and it was good enough – is the real protagonist.
Film Interview: Helen Whitney — Film as Spiritual Autobiography
Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney: “My films form a kind of spiritual autobiography. I’m always searching for subjects that allow me to ask the big questions: Why are we here? Why must we die? Is this all there is?”
Fuse Film Review: The Ottawa Animation Shorts Festival
I recommend keeping an eye out for this and other animation shows at local, independent theaters and museums. You will be dazzled and amazed.