Film
The big BSFC winner was “12 Years a Slave,” which beat “The Wolf of Wall Street” for Best Picture, Best Director (Steve McQueen), and Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor).
“Le Joli Mai” is serious and sober, a bit of a downer, climaxing in a lengthy interview with a dullard union official about why he supports the French Communist Party.
It was intimidating to go into a situation with a director (Alexander Payne) that you love so much and an actor (Bruce Dern) who has done so much and worked with so many amazing people.
Jennifer Lawrence has blossomed into a charismatic screen presence in her gala return as Katniss, the beloved bow-and-arrow heroine of “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.”
“It’s easier to make a movie now but it’s harder to get it distributed in a way that people will see it.”
The first half of “The Broken Circle Breakdown” is directed in the most conventional way. In the better second half, the leads dig deeply into their characters, sing bluegrass wonderfully.
Director/producers Andrew Cohn and Davy Rothbart have constructed a film that ties the desperation of Medora’s shrinking ambitions to the struggle of its scrappy team to win a single game that could suggest a small hope for the future.
In the mesmerizing “The Last White Knight,” documentary filmmaker Paul Saltzman chronicles a five-year dialogue with the man who assaulted him during the civil rights movement.
em>Historic footage—from newsreels, TV stations once-live coverage, from several investigating commissions- has been edited, brilliantly into a coherent, important political film.
Film Commentary: A Contrarian View of “12 Years a Slave”
Why haven’t more movies been made about American slavery? Hollywood studio racism is certainly a prime factor; but even for determined anti-racists, there’s also the aesthetic problem of creating a compelling film drama.
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