Australian Film Culture Draggin' The River: The Ister by Carloss James Chamberlin An essay that travels upriver from a viewing of this unique, probing film to that black sheep of twentieth century German philosophy, Martin Heidegger, and beyond. Killing the Gatekeeper: Autonomy, Globality and Reclaiming Australian Cinema by Matthew Clayfield Recent Australian films still struggle to define a viable “national identity” – but is this even necessary? Parallel Lives: Britain's National Film and Television Archive and Australia's National Film and Sound Archive Under Threat by Ray Edmondson Edmondson compares the plight of two distinguished film archives and ponders how such changes will affect the future of national audiovisual memory.

Comedy and Perception The Gag Reflex by David Cairns An award-winning comic filmmaker reveals a few tricks of the trade. Daze of the Rabblement: Early Film Comedy and Some Modernists by Darragh O'Donoghue How the 1920s experiments of René Clair, Eisenstein and others look back to the marvels and gags of early cinema. The Narrative-Machine: Buster Keaton's Cinematic Comedy, Deleuze's Recursion Function and the Operational Aesthetic by Lisa Trahair To incorporate his chain-reaction gags into a longer narrative, Keaton invented a distinctive form of “comic epic”. Sight Gags and Satire in the Soviet Thaw: Operation Y and Other Shurik's Adventures by Saša Milić In the hit Soviet comedy of 1965, seemingly innocuous slapstick carries a pointed political subtext. The Comic Visualised, or Laughing at Shallow Hal by Meghan Sutherland The Farrelly brothers prove that beauty is truly “in the eye of the beholder”. Where Can The Others Meet? Gender, Race and Film Comedy by Mark Richardson On zombies, racism, subjectivity, and the insult as an expression of love.

Features Voyage to the End of the World: Manoel de Oliveira's A Talking Picture by Yaniv Eyny and A. Zubatov Ostensibly a film about a boat trip, Oliveira' s film questions the legacy of ancient civilisation in western society today. Love in Flight: François Truffaut's La Peau Douce by Maximilian Le Cain To mark the 20th anniversary of Truffaut's death, we present this re-appraisal of one of his finest and most underrated films. Before Sunrise, or Los Angeles Plays Itself In a Lonely Place by Michael J. Anderson Michael Mann's Collateral is an ode to the cool “steel and glass” splendour of Los Angeles, from sunset to sunrise. From Sea to Sky: An Interview with Zhu Wen by Kevin Lee The director of South of the Clouds discusses his fresh approach to filmmaking and successfully evades naming a cinematic influence! The Three Faces of Spidey: Spiderman 2 by Violeta Kovacsics Even better than the original, this sequel marks the maturity of director Sam Raimi as well as his hero. Carlo Di Palma: An Appreciation and a Remembrance by Peter Tonguette This tribute to the distinguished cinematographer (1925–2004) focuses on his 11-film collaboration with Woody Allen. Where are the Snows of Yesteryear?: Hong Sang-soo Searches for Lost Time in Woman is the Future of Man by Acquarello In his fifth feature, Hong sublimates the forms and structures of his previous work in his ever-searching quest for human truth. Finding Freedom the Second Time Around: The Politics of Before Sunset by Kevin Lee Richard Linklater's latest film has exacted a strong emotional engagement with viewers around the world. Here is one response illustrating what makes this film so special. Keith Gordon on Keith Gordon, Part One: From Actor to Director by Peter Tonguette The first half of an in-depth interview, covering Gordon's beginnings as an actor and his first three films as director. Channelling Democracy: Control Room by Bill Stamets This documentary on the Middle Eastern TV network Al-Jazeera raises questions about the meaning of journalistic objectivity. The Thickening Centre: Fahrenheit 9/11 by Tony McKibbin Agitprop or personal essay? McKibbin argues that Michael Moore's “documentary” suffers from generic ambivalence. Parametric Narration and Optical Transition Devices: Hou Hsiao-hsien and Robert Bresson in Comparison by Colin Burnett A Bordwellian analysis of parametric narration in Pickpocket and Flowers of Shanghai demonstrates how Hou rewrites the “Hollywood rule” of fades. Thoughts on the Number Five: Kiarostami, von Trier, and Slessor by Michael Farrell A short, lyrical contemplation on the popularity and usage of the number “five” in recent cinema.

The Suspended Narrative Talking About Seeing: A Conversation with James Benning by Danni Zuvela The uncategorisable experimental filmmaker was recently in Brisbane to introduce a program of his films. In and Out of the Blue: Love's Secret by Maria Walsh A text written to accompany the 1999 film by Sarah Miles, which uses disjunctive techniques to capture the fantasy and frustration of romantic love. The Cinema Too Must Be Destroyed: An Interview with Stewart Home by Simon Strong The prolific British novelist and all-round provocateur discusses his film work.

The State of Denmark The Prodromic Institution of Spass: The Idiots by Gregory Little This analysis of Lars von Trier's original Dogma film considers idiocy as a spreading disease. No Stories to Tell: Danish Cinema Searches for a Subject by Jack Stevenson Dramatic situations are in short supply in modern Denmark – or are the filmmakers themselves to blame? The Lovers from Copenhagen: A Conversation with Manuel Alberto Claro and Tine Grew Pfeiffer on Reconstruction by Lorena Cancela We hear from two members of a collective of young Danish filmmakers, involved in developing a post-classical cinematic grammar.

Festival Reports A Report on the 53rd Melbourne International Film Festival by Rolando Caputo Gde Mama? (“Where's Mother?”): Russian Resurrection Film Festival by Helen Grace A Report on the 13th Brisbane International Film Festival by Jim Knox Aspects of Change: The 58th Edinburgh International Film Festival by George Clark Inner Turbulence: The 4th New York Korean Film Festival by Christopher Bourne Midnight at the Oasis: The 9th Cinematexas International Short Film Festival by Ioannis Mookas

Book Reviews A Fistful of Metaphors: The Dream Life and The Magic Hour by J. Hoberman feature review by Robert Keser Permanent Satisfactions: The Last Great American Picture Show: New Hollywood Cinema in the 1970s edited by Thomas Elsaesser, Alexander Horwath, and Noel King review by Charles Leary Mobile States: Lesbian Rule: Cultural Criticism and the Value of Desire by Amy Villarejo review by Megan Carrigy Danish Dogmas: Purity and Provocation: Dogma '95 edited by Mette Hjort and Scott MacKenzie review by Ove Christensen Scorsese's Alibis?: Scorsese's Men: Melancholia and the Mob by Mark Nicholls review by Tim Groves This Time It's Personal: Touch: Sensuous Theory and Multisensory Media by Laura U. Marks review by Claire Perkins Places in the Heart: Where Does It Happen? John Cassavetes and Cinema at the Breaking Point by George Kouvaros review by Brad Stevens You can order these books directly from

Also new this issue 6 profiles have been added to the Great Directors critical database: Jacques Becker • Bernardo Bertolucci • George Cukor • Jonathan Demme • Bill Forsyth • Louise Kolm-Fleck 18 annotations have been added to the Cinémathèque Annotations on Film section: L'année dernière à Marienbad • Behind Locked Doors • The Bride Wore Red • Ceddo • Comanche Station • A Communications Primer and View from the People Wall • The Connection • Dance, Girl, Dance • Dancers of the Sea • Morning of the Earth • Puberty Blues • Raise the Red Lantern • The Scarlet Letter • Street of Shame • Trans-Europ Express • Twenty-Four Eyes • The Virgin Spring • The Wild Party 15 new lists and 7 revised lists have been added to the Top Tens section.