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Australian Cinema Bad Australian Cinema, or How Watching One Perfect Day Made Me Want to Make a Bomb by Christos Tsiolkas Just what do recent Australian feature films amount to? According to Tsiolkas, bar an exception or two, not very much at all, leaving him with only a call to action. Hearing the Story: Sound Design in the Films of Rolf de Heer by Cat Hope (B. Mus. Hons.) Specific sonic challenges are built into each of de Heer's films from the script stage onward. One Perfect Day Film Criticism and Theory Precarious Boundaries: Affect, Mise en scène and the Senses in Angelopoulos' Balkans Epic by Anne Rutherford A theoretical analysis of the affective force of mise en scène in Ulysses' Gaze – a “porous interface” between nations, between elements, between screen and viewer. “One More Effort, Americans…”: A Report on “Beyond Film Criticism: A Symposium in Homage to Serge Daney” by Paul Grant Despite the rising profile of Daney's criticism in the English-speaking world, this recent conference suggested that some problems of translation persist. Ulysses' Gaze Features Engaging Medusa: Competing Myths and Fairytales in In the Cut by Sue Gillett In this imaginative analysis of Jane Campion's latest film, the desires and trajectories of contemporary characters are revealed to be not all that far removed from those of ancient mythology. The Red Light Bandit Between Breakup and Tradition: Recent Argentinean Cinema by David Oubiña Like X-ray images of society, films by younger Argentinean directors evolve new forms from their country's political paralysis. Neon Gothic: Lost in Translation by Wendy Haslem Recalling the work of Antonioni and evoking the Gothic in its emphasis on alienation and disjunction, Lost in Translation, together with other recent romantic comedies, represents a significant shift in the romance genre. Annotations from the Edge of an Abyss: Rogério Sganzerla's Anthropophagic Film Collages by Jorge Didaco A tribute to Rogério Sganzerla, Brazilian filmmaker extraordinaire, who whilst working in an era of military dictatorship made culturally and aesthetically radical, subversive films which reinvented ideas of performance, gender politics and the role of women. In the Garden of Earthly Delights: Irreversible by Yaniv Eyny and A. Zubatov Tracking back, or forward, through the stages of Gaspar Noé's gruelling revenge-rape saga, the authors uncover the deep reactionary logic of its chronologically-reversed narrative. Christmas Ford Till '47 by Tag Gallagher “The essential Ford composition is a person acting freely within a geometric space,” writes Gallagher in this close look at the first half of a great and complex career. Fast, Cheap and Out of Control: Three Films from New Zealand's Digital Video “Revolution” by Philip Matthews Escaped convicts, bickering family members and fairy-tale grotesques – the darker side of contemporary New Zealand in three recent features. Multichannel Memory: Notes on a Conversation with Duncan Roy by Cara O'Connor Using “multichannel” techiques, Duncan Roy's AKA tells the autobiographical story of a runaway teenager – and reveals the inseparability of memory, narrative and "self". Sous la páve, le pláge!: Lesbian Vampires Vs the Situationist International by Simon Strong Were the history-making events of May '68 secretly inspired by an obscure B-grade horror movie? Now it can be told… Politics and the Documentary Conversations with Emile de Antonio by Bruce Jackson An exemplary, early prototype of political documentary filmmaking, de Antonio's body of work is as vital today as it was in the past. Here, we are given insight into his views on filmmaking; the manner in which de Antonio funded his politically sensitive films; opponents and facilitators; and much, much more. Making History: Errol Morris, Robert McNamara and The Fog of War interview by Tom Ryan Matters of truth and perception, style and representation, ethics and political responsibility, history and human error all come to the fore in Morris' latest documentary, and are discussed here. “You've Got to Have a Good Haircut”: Live Forever and an End of Spin by Tara Brabazon Like other recent British TV programs and films, Live Forever performs an ironic semiotic critique of popular culture, in particular revealing, in nostalgic fashion, a moment in contemporary British cultural history when local music and politics stood for something. Emile de Antonio Book Reviews Westfront 1918 The Mirror of Memory: African Film and the Question of Criticism feature review by Niels Buch-Jepsen Film Theory in Translation: Chinese Films in Focus: 25 New Takes edited by Chris Berry review by Linda Rui Feng Chaos and Control: The Cinema of Emir Kusturica: Notes from the Underground by Goran Gocic review by Tony McKibbin From London to Xanadu: Dickens and the Dream of Cinema by Grahame Smith review by Ken Mogg An Endless Number of Great Deeds: Film Front Weimar: Representations of the First World War in German Films of the Weimar Period (1919-1933) by Bernadette Kester review by Jay Weissberg Energy Unleashed: Leos Carax by Fergus Daly and Garin Dowd review by Tony McKibbin A Science of Pleasure: Screen Couple Chemistry: The Power of 2 by Martha P. Nochimson review by Lesley Chow You can order these books directly from Film Festivals Dancing about Architecture: Sundance Film Festival 2004 report by Bérénice Reynaud This Little Piggy Went to Market: Slamdance X Film Festival report by Carloss James Chamberlin The Movies that Make Up our Minds: Ken Jacobs and the Avant-Garde at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2004 report by Genevieve Yue Letter From Krungthep: Bangkok International Film Festival 2004 report by Brandon Wee A Cinematic Campus: Berlinale 2004 report by Kevin Lee Been Underground So Long, It Looks Like Up to Me: New York Underground Film Festival 2004 report by Ioannis Mookas The Raspberry Reich WHAT'S ALSO NEW THIS ISSUE 8 profiles have been added to the Great Directors critical database: Mario Bava, Lucio Fulci, Kon Ichikawa, Vincente Minnelli, Nagisa Oshima, François Ozon, John Sayles, Fred Zinnemann. 45 annotations have been added to the Cinémathèque Annotations on Film section: Accattone, Les Amants, Arsenal, The Atomic Cafe, L'Avventura, Back for Christmas (episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents), Baisers volés, The Battle of Midway, Il Bell'Antonio, Le Bonheur, Breakaway, La Captive, Charulata, The Circus, Crime and Punishment, Crumb, The Dark Mirror, Days of Hope, The Decay of Fiction, Donzoko, Earth, A Face in the Crowd, Flashing Spikes, John Ford: Other Directions, Four Sons, The Getaway, The Grateful Dead, Jacquot de Nantes, Johnny Staccato: “The Shop of the Four Winds”, Lady Windermere's Fan, Looking for Mushrooms, The Mascot, Moonrise, The Outlaw Josey Wales, La Peau douce, Pocket Money, Repulsion, Ride with the Devil, The Rink, Sergeant Rutledge, The Testament of Dr. Mabuse, Vagabond, Vendredi soir, Witchfinder General, Woman in the Moon. 20 new lists and 3 revised lists have been added to the Top Tens section.