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Broadway The Hard Way: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Birdman, or the Psyche of an Actor
Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu had already been a known commodity in Hollywood circles for a while. His debut feature, Amores Perros, became a fan favorite, while his U.S. projects 21 Grams, Babel, and Biutiful landed him the star power of Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Sean Penn, or Javier Bardem. With his fifth movie, Birdman: […]
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Slaves & Masters: The 86th Annual Academy Awards Coverage
It’s that time of the year again. Hollywood appreciates itself by handing out prestigious golden trophies. 2013 was full of surprises, both in a positive and in a negative way. This year’s class trots out its fair share of favorites, ranging from a satire on capitalism and stockbrokers (The Wolf Of Wall Street) and a […]
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‘Argo F*ck Yourself’: The 85th Annual Academy Awards Coverage
Hollywood is clearly an appreciation society, and with the 2013 Oscars, the industry’s season of appreciating itself has just come to a close – for now. Unlike a year ago, when The Artist by Michel Hazanavicius and Hugoby Martin Scorsese scooped up five of the prestigious awards each, there were no clear-cut winners this time […]
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Holy Water: The Sinister Los Angeles of Roman Polanski’s Chinatown
If you thought film noir was long dead and gone, think twice. The genre – if you can even call it that – has never vanished from the landscape. The rumors about its demise have been largely exaggerated – for the simple reason that there have been many noteworthy classics since the heyday of film […]
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When Dream and Day Unite: Ingmar Bergman’s Wild Strawberries as a Rather Peculiar Road Trip
With nine Academy Award nominations, the Swedish son of a priest Ingmar Bergman is both among most successful European filmmakers and among the most renowned directors never to take home one of the prestigious golden trophies. Three of his movies won Oscars as Best Foreign Films, The Virgin Spring, Through A Glass Darkly, and the […]
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Dear Friends: The French Surprise Hit Intouchables, or a Unique and Charming Plea for Respect and Tolerance
A big fuss has been made about Michel Hazanavicius’s French silent film The Artist winning Best Picture at the 2012 Academy Awards. Yes, it’s an aberration, since a non-Anglo-American movie winning the prestigious trophy usually only happens once in a blue moon. Roberto Benigni’s Italian Life Is Beautiful tried but failed against James Cameron’s Titanic […]
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Sweet Temptation: The Collapse of Relationships in Atom Egoyan’s Chloe
‘I think with all directors there are ideas that recur, at least for the ones that have creative control of their films,’ controversial Canadian director Atom Egoyan once remarked. As one of the selected few in the movie industry who don’t need their products to turn a profit, the four-time winner at Cannes and two-time […]
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Girls United: Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids as a Refreshing Take on a Male Genre
Comedies have always been treated like second-rate citizens at the Oscars. In contrast to the Golden Globes, which hand out separate awards for dramas and comedies, the Academy has downright neglected funny films for ages. It was therefore all the more surprising to see Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids – a movie that scooped no trophies at […]
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Back to the Roots: Recalling the Silent Age in Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist
The Hollywood industry has had a soft spot for nostalgia and its own past as of late. This has been an ongoing trend for a while now, as the example of Martin Scorsese’s 2004 movie The Aviator about the notorious multibillionaire, bon vivant, and film pioneer Howard Hughes demonstrates. But the latest awards season is […]
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Golden Boys: The 84th Annual Academy Awards Coverage
The 84th Annual Academy Awards have just come to a close. So what can we take away from it other than Billy Crystal being a charming, but aging host or the ladies gushing about Brad Pitt’s outfit? For starters, there were two big winners among the films: Hugo, Martin Scorsese’s 3D adventure, and The Artist, […]