Editorial

Features

Straub Anti-Straub by Tag Gallagher

Tag Gallagher notes that Pedro Costa describes his film on Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, Où gît votre sourire enfoui?, as “anti-Straubian”. Gallagher offers a vibrant discussion of Costa’s cinema via the Straubs, and the Straubs’ cinema via Costa’s.

Vanishing Point: The Last Days of Film by Wheeler Winston Dixon

Not another standard eulogy to the death of cinema, but rather an impassioned reflection on how cinéphilia copes and adapts to the changing of the guard from celluloid cinema to digital movies.

The Low-Key Jester: An Interview with Andrew Bujalski by Damon Smith

One of the best US Independent filmmakers to emerge in recent years, the director of the critically acclaimed Funny Ha Ha and Mutual Appreciation discusses his work at length.

A Black Pearl of the Deep: Juraj Herz’s The Cremator by Adam Schofield

An insightful discussion of one of the great films of the Czechoslovak New Wave. A work greatly admired by the Quay brothers, The Cremator’s recent release by Second Run DVD has, justly, exposed Herz’s classic film to a new generation of critics.

Fracturing the Marble Façade: Visceral Excavation in Andrzej Wajda’s Man of Marble by Matilda Mroz

A detailed analysis of the historical and ideological currents at work behind a classic of Polish cinema.

Dreams of Postmodernism and Thoughts of Mortality: A Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Retrospective of Blade Runner by David C. Ryan

Ridley Scott’s film reaches its first milestone. David Ryan charts its critical history, the various interpretations of its thematics and director’s revisions of the film. It has been a moveable feast indeed.

How to Share a Hill by Tag Gallagher

Illuminating discussion of the æsthetic and philosophical connections between King Vidor and the renowned American painter Andrew Wyeth.

Spotlight on Robert Bresson

Going Beyond Cézanne: The Development of Robert Bresson’s Film Style in Response to the Painting of Paul Cézanne by Peter L. Doebler

“Robert Bresson began as a painter and, while he would rarely practice the art, it was a guiding force in the development of his unique film style.” Doebler argues the case for Bresson’s debt to painting and Cézanne in particular.

Robert Bresson and Flannery O’Connor: Unlikely Approaches Toward Grace by Guy Crucianelli

An insightful comparison of the work of two of the great artists of the 20^th Century.

A Man Escaped by Noel Vera

Noel Vera offers a detailed analysis of the spiritual and the material in Diary of a Country Priest.

Sins of Omission: A Dissenting View of Robert Bresson by Dan Harper

At the risk of sounding like the devil, probably, to Bresson’s admirers, Harper expresses some personal doubts about the stature of Bresson’s cinema.

Alfred Hitchcock Revisited

Alfred Hitchcock and John Buchan: The Art of Creative Transformation by Tony Williams

Alfred Hitchcock’s film of John Buchan’s novel, The Thirty-Nine Steps, was one of his most successful, and he repeatedly used the story template in other films, such as North by Northwest. But Hitchcock showed little empathy for Buchan’s ideology.

Hitchcock and Hume Revisited: Fear, Confusion and Stage Fright by John Orr

“This essay is a return to the scene of the crime.” The author of Hitchcock and 20^th Century Cinema re-evaluates his low opinion of Stage Fright, and discovers that the affinities between Hitchcock’s cinema and the philosopher David Hume run far deeper than he had first imagined.

The Sixties, the Thriller and the Judge by Richard Franklin

Alfred Hitchcock had plans to develop a project titled No Bail for the Judge, but when that faulted he turned his attention to Psycho … and changed the course of the thriller genre.

DVD Reviews

Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (Criterion) review by Peter Hourigan

Four Studies by Mikio Naruse (Masters of Cinema & Criterion) review by Michael Campi

Luc Moullet 6-Film Boxset (Blaq Out) review by Maximilian Le Cain

Festival Reports

More Please: Report on the 3^rd Biennial Adelaide Film Festival by Geoff Gardner

Inside and Outside: The 2006 AFI Fest/American Film Market by Bérénice Reynaud

A Cinema In-Flux: German Films at the 57^th Berlin International Film Festival by Mattias Frey

The End of Innocence: Scandinavian Films at the 30^th Göteborg International Film Festival by Mattias Frey

Short: As Long As It Takes as part of The 36^th Rotterdam International Film Festival by Genevieve Yue

Unexpected Filiations: The 26^th Sundance Film Festival by Bérénice Reynaud

Book Reviews

Reinventing European Cinema Studies? The New European Cinema: Redrawing the Map by Rosalind Galt and Crossing New Europe: Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie by Ewa Mazierska and Laura Rascaroli feature review by Polona Petek

Filmosophy by Daniel Frampton review by Tony McKibbin

What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career by Joseph McBride review by Peter Tonguette

Phallic Panic: Film, Horror and the Primal Uncanny by Barbara Creed review by Anneke Smelik

Garland is to Glamour as Water is to Witches of the West: Incongruous Entertainment: Camp, Cultural Value, and the MGM Musical by Steven Cohan review by Diana Sandars

A Hard Act to Follow: In Search of Cinema: Writings on International Film Art by Bert Cardullo review by Dan Harper

Traumatic Encounters in Italian Film: Locating the Cinematic Unconscious by Fabio Vighi review by Luana Ciavola

Also new this issue

2 profiles have been added to the Great Directors critical database:
Derek Jarman • Len Lye

15 new annotations have been added to the Cinémathèque Annotations on Film section:
The Bellboy • Cosmic Voyage • Exiled • The Heavens Call • The Ister • Naked Youth • Opening Night • Ruslan and Ludmila
Michael Mann: Heat • Manhunter • Thief
Jacques Rivette: La belle noiseuse • Céline et Julie vont en bateau • Duelle • Paris nous appartient

12 new lists and 4 revised lists have been added to the Top Tens section.