Welcome to issue 48 of our journal! the editors August 2008 Editorial The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola – Jean-Luc Godard, Masculin féminin: 15 faits précis We believed that ideas were the most important thing; now they stand before us in rows, like dented cans of Coca-Cola....
Man of Cinema: Pierre Rissient Geoff Gardner August 2008 Feature Articles Todd McCarthy’s recent documentary on Rissient chronicles the remarkable life of an individual devoted to cinema. Gardner offers his own thoughts on the man in question.
Prisoners of Possibility: Robbe-Grillet’s La Belle Captive as ‘Quantum Text’ Lisa K. Broad August 2008 Feature Articles A detailed essay on Alain Robbe-Grillet’s René Magritte-inspired film derived from his 1975 picto-roman of the same title.
Sydney Pollack: A Personal Recollection Scott Murray August 2008 Feature Articles The death of Sydney Pollack earlier this year affords the occasion for Senses of Cinema’s co-Editor to reflect on the man and his films.
Backyard and Ross McElwee’s Observational Comedy Derek Jenkins August 2008 Feature Articles Jenkins discusses one of McElwee’s early and seminal works, and discovers that, “Like all vérité filmmakers, he relies heavily on serendipitous events – what Dziga Vertov called ‘life caught unawares’.”
John Ford Made … Monsters? The Grotesque Tradition in Ford’s Work Phil Wagner August 2008 Feature Articles “The grotesque æsthetic is a window into many of the unresolved contradictions in Ford’s work especially, the uneasy juxtaposition of the tragic and the comic and mankind’s perpetual battle with an unruly inner beast.” So writes Wagner, who traces the strong presence of the grotesque in Ford’s cinema.
New Dates, New British Films: The 62nd Edinburgh International Film Festival Nagisa Hikino August 2008 Festival Reports 18-29 June 2008 A warm and intimate festival experience It was the world premiere of Summer, the second feature by Scottish director Kenny Glena...
BAFICI at 10: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes: The 10th Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente Jay Kuehner August 2008 Festival Reports 8–20 April 2008 Midway through the 10th edition of the Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente (BAFICI), an acrid, ashen fog ...
Movement Per Mutation: A Report on the 61st Cannes Film Festival Markus Keuschnigg August 2008 Festival Reports 14-25 May 2008 I. Statement The Cannes Film Festival is an anachronistic bastard. Make that every film festival that maintains the idea of being a...
Roads of Excess, Roads of Access: The 5th IndieLisboa Neil Young August 2008 Festival Reports 24 April – 4 May 2008 Rather appropriate that a festival run by three directors should have three names. Officially, it’s the Festival Internac...
From the Margins of Japanese Cinema Culture: The 22nd Image Forum Festival Brian Coffey August 2008 Festival Reports 27 April – 6 May 2008 Located on a side street in a busy shopping district, Image Forum has long served as a locus of activity for the Tokyo fi...
A City of Forgetting: The 32nd Hong Kong International Film Festival Adrian Danks August 2008 Festival Reports 18 March - 6 April 2008 The Hong Kong International Film Festival is a curious beast, a marathon survey of selected Asian and broader internati...
AniFest Destiny: The 7th AniFest: International Festival of Animated Films Cerise Howard August 2008 Festival Reports 7–13 May 2008 Such a hive of industry was the seventh AniFest, an annual international competitive festival – and much more besides – held in t...
Of Common Happiness and Sorrow: The 10th Udine Film Festival Olaf Möller August 2008 Festival Reports 18–26 April 2008 Udine’s Far East Film Festival celebrated its tenth anniversary in the only style honourable and becoming: by simply performin...
Consistent Pickings But Few Difficult Pleasures: The 55th Sydney Film Festival Hamish Ford August 2008 Festival Reports 4–22 June 2008 The 2008 Sydney Film Festival was a bigger event – longer, and with more films – than previously, and the first year the festiva...
Children of the Palais: The 25th St Kilda Film Festival Fiona Trigg August 2008 Festival Reports 6–11 May 2008 The St Kilda Film Festival is an annual showcase for short films that celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. St Kilda is a ba...
Rotterdam Delights aka Asia Expanded, Russia Displayed and China Revisited: The 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam Barbara Wurm August 2008 Festival Reports 23 January – 3 February 2008 If one had the time, if one were able to perceive life and its screens on a multiple level, if one were gifted to ...
Circling Back: The Avant-Garde Looks to the Past, and Other Small (But Substantial) Pleasures: The 37th International Film Festival Rotterdam David Schwartz August 2008 Festival Reports 23 January – 3 February 2008 The V2_Institute for the Unstable Media is housed in a small warehouse building down a modest alleyway in Rotterda...
Lee, Ang David Minnihan August 2008 Great Directors b. 23 October, 1954, Pingtung County, Taiwan Filmography Select Bibliography Articles in Senses Web Resources Ang Lee’s Fine Line Between E...
Cox, Alex Randolph Lewis and Ralph Beliveau August 2008 Great Directors b. 15 December 1954, Liverpool, England Filmography Select Bibliography Articles in Senses Web Resources Introduction Ever since Repo Man ...
Don’t Let Them Drag You Down: The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by Philip Brophy Diana Sandars August 2008 Book Reviews The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert by Philip Brophy is part of a Currency Press series designed to introduce more audiences to Australia...
Scenes from a Revolution: The Birth of the New Hollywood by Mark Harris Simon Weaving August 2008 Book Reviews It is one of the most iconic film posters of the last 50 years. A shapely female leg splits the image horizontally, stocking halfway off, or halfway o...
Polanski in Motion: Roman Polanski: The Cinema of a Cultural Traveller by Ewa Mazierska Michael Goddard August 2008 Book Reviews The familiarity of Polanski’s name both as a filmmaker and as a cultural figure extends well beyond the field of film studies. This could lead to a qu...
Hitchcock’s Romantic Irony by Richard Allen Karen Goodman August 2008 Book Reviews Richard Allen demonstrates his enduring fascination and respect for Hitchcock’s filmmaking within a compelling new authorial study. Hitchcock’s Romant...
The Cinema of Small Nations edited by Mette Hjort and Duncan Petrie Polona Petek August 2008 Book Reviews Film scholarship is undergoing a paradigm shift. In the past decade or so, a significant body of work has emerged, which reflects the opinion that the...
The Cinema Book edited by Pam Cook Constantine Verevis August 2008 Book Reviews Several years ago, I took on the coordination of a large, introductory film studies unit, entitled Contemporary Popular Film. A look over items that h...
Blacksmith Blues: History, Film and the Outlaw: The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith by Henry Reynolds Sean Gorman August 2008 Book Reviews I first came across the story of Jim and Joe Governor in 2002 when I was researching, for my PhD, a biography of the Noongar (south-west Western Austr...
Alejandro and the Academy: Anarchy and Alchemy: The Films of Alejandro Jodorowsky by Ben Cobb Margaret Barton-Fumo August 2008 Book Reviews For nearly 40 years, the Chilean-born eccentric Alejandro Jodorowsky has reaped both the disadvantages and the rewards of worldwide cult status. His f...
“Pure Artifice”: Fritz Lang’s Moonfleet Adrian Danks August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film (1) Moonfleet (1955 USA 88 mins) Prod Co: MGM/Loew’s Incorporated Prod: John Houseman Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Jan Lustig, Margaret Fitts, based...
Medium Cool David Sanjek August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Medium Cool (1969 USA 110 mins) Prod Co: Paramount Prod: Tully Friedman, Haskell Wexler, Jerrold Wexler Dir, Scr, Phot: Haskell Wexler Ed: Vern...
Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle) Darragh O’Donoghue August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle)/Ma vie sexuelle/My Sex Life… or How I got into an Argument (1996 France 178 mins) Prod Co: France...
La Maman et la putain Martine Pierquin August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film La Maman et la putain/The Mother and the Whore (1973 France 215 mins) Prod Co: Elite Films/Ciné Qua Non/Les Films du Losange/Simar Films/V. M. ...
Gymnasts, Homunculi and Burning Crocodiles: A Few Thoughts on If…. David Melville August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film If…. (1968 UK 107 mins) Prod Co: Memorial Enterprises Prod: Michael Medwin, Lindsay Anderson Dir: Lindsay Anderson Scr: David Sherwin Phot: Mir...
Greetings Brian Wilson August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Greetings (1968 USA 88 mins) Prod Co: West End Films Prod: Charles Hirsch Dir, Ed: Brian De Palma Scr: Brian De Palma, Charles Hirsch Phot: Rob...
Fury John Fidler August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Fury (1936 US 92 mins) Prod Co: MGM Prod: Joseph L. Mankiewicz Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Bartlett Cormack, Fritz Lang, from the story “Mob Rule” by ...
Power and the Mythic Gaze in Fritz Lang’s Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler Arthur Rankin August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Dr. Mabuse, der Spieler (1922 Germany 270 mins) Prod Co: Uco-Film GmbH Prod: Erich Pommer Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Thea von Harbou, based on the no...
You Only Live Once Christopher Justice August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film You Only Live Once (1937 US 86 mins) Prod Co: Walter Wanger Productions/United Artists Prod: Walter Wanger Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Graham Baker, b...
Witches’ Hammer Andrew Leavold August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Witches’ Hammer/Kladivo na čarodějnice (1970 Czechoslovakia) Prod Co: Filmové Studio Barrandov Dir: Otakar Vávra Scr: Otakar Vávra, Ester Krumb...
Paris Doesn’t Belong to us Anymore: Arnaud Desplechin’s Absurd Theatre of Life in La Sentinelle Adam Bingham August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film La Sentinelle (1992 France 139 mins) Prod Co: Why Not Productions/2001 Audiovisuel/La Sept Cinéma/Films A2 Prod: Nicole Arbib, Pascal Caucheteu...
Where Dreams Go to Die: Scarlet Street Sarah Nichols August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film Scarlet Street (1945 USA 102 mins) Prod Co: Diana Productions/Universal Prod, Dir: Fritz Lang Scr: Dudley Nichols, based upon the novel and pla...
Petulia, mon amour Adrian Danks August 2008 CTEQ Annotations on Film This is a revised version of an article that first appeared in CTEQ: Annotations on Film no. 4, 1996. Petulia (1968 USA 105 mins) Prod Co: P...
Adieu, Eric Rohmer Rolando Caputo and Michelle Carey April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Co-editors’ introduction to this commemorative issue on Eric Rohmer.
When Rohmer Was Making ‘Silent Films’ Jackie Raynal with Berenice Reynaud April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Like many of his collaborators, filmmaker Jackie Raynal was present at the Cinémathèque Française’s memorial homage to Rohmer earlier this year. Sparked by the occasion, she looks back at her time with Rohmer in this heartfelt reminiscence.
New Interview with Eric Rohmer Pascal Bonitzer, Jean-Louis Comolli, Serge Daney and Jean Narboni April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers A landmark interview originally published in Cahiers du cinéma in 1970. The journal was in the midst of its Marxist/Leninist era, while Rohmer's Bazinian idealism was vindicated by the success of My Night at Maud’s. A fascinating joust between two entirely opposed views of the cinema
Eric Rohmer’s Place de l’Étoile Luc Moullet April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Fellow critic and filmmaker Luc Moullet gives due consideration to Rohmer’s sketch in Paris vu par… highlighting its fidelity to location.
Secrets and Lies: Three Documentaries About Eric Rohmer Bruce Perkins April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Rohmer was himself a private and reserved individual who, more often that not, shunned the spotlight. Bruce Perkins examines three documentaries on the filmmaker, and concludes that together they offer as vivid and multi-dimensional a portrait of Rohmer as we can wish for.
Eric Rohmer, Educator Alain Hertay April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Former pupil and author of a study on Rohmer, Alain Hertay, offers a reflection on the short films Rohmer made for educational television.
Cinema and the Classroom: Education in the Work of Eric Rohmer Darragh O’Donoghue April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers In both content and form, a strong pedagogical endeavour has informed the work of Rohmer throughout his career. Darragh O’Donoghue discusses this inclination, focusing on some of the earlier shorts and made-for-television documentaries.
The Sign of the Map: Cartographic Reading and Le signe du lion Roland-François Lack April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers The topographical tracings of Rohmer’s feature debut reveal a dual motif: the cartographic and the photographic. Roland-François Lack’s insightful essay meticulously traces the unfolding of this dual motif.
La collectionneuse: Dandies on the Côte d’Azur Jacob Leigh April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Jacob Leigh looks into both the production history and the general cultural influences that inform Rohmer’s first-produced but fourth listed of the feature length ‘Moral Tales’.
Night Moves Around Maud Bruce Jackson April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Arthur Penn’s 1975 detective thriller contains one of the most noted of references to My Night a Maud’s, but as Bruce Jackson argues, it is more than just a token nod.
Choice and Chance: A Dialectic of Morality and Romance in Eric Rohmer’s My Night at Maud’s Constantine Santas April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Love, morality, fidelity and chance crystallised around Pascal’s ‘wager’. Taken by many to be the key film of the ‘Six Moral Tales’ series, the fascination of this film has not receded with time. Constantine Santas unravels the film’s thematics.
The Roving ‘I’: Ambiguous Subjectivity in Eric Rohmer’s ‘Six Moral Tales’ Karen Goodman April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Karen Goodman examines the nature of desire and subjectivity, both male and female, in Rohmer’s first great series of films.
The Tale of Perceval le Gallois and the Young Althusserians Daniel Fairfax April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Infused with artifice, Rohmer’s remarkable adaptation of Chrétien de Troyes’ 12th-century verse poem marked a temporary radical shift in style for the filmmaker. But why? Daniel Fairfax looks for answers in the light of post-68 French film theory.
Love and Desire in Eric Rohmer’s ‘Comedies and Proverbs’ and ‘Tales of the Four Seasons’ Fiona Handyside April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers Much of Rohmer’s ‘80s and ‘90s work concerns the myriad of amorous choices his modern heroines face. Moreover, Fiona Handyside argues, they form a meta-text on the representation of love through the ages.
Following The Law of One’s Own Being: The Crying Woman in The Green Ray Tony McKibbin April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers A discursive exploration on the philosophic significance of the figure of ‘the crying woman’ in this most radiant of films.
Short Take Tributes on Rohmer Various. April 2010 Eric Rohmer Dossier, Feature Articles, Special Dossiers A selection of individual tributes and short essays by Terry Ballard, Adam Bingham, Conall Cash, John Conomos, David F. Coursen, Adrian Danks, Linda Ehrlich, and Wheeler Winston Dixon.
Reworking Romanticism: Paul Cox’s Man of Flowers Victoria Duckett December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers Let us not say, “If only the texts were richer, the witnesses more loquacious, the confessions more detailed!” Don’t we seem today to have everything ...
Paul Cox: An Appreciation Roger Ebert December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers I believe the first film by Paul Cox I saw was Man of Flowers (1983), at the 1984 Chicago Film Festival. The next year, My First Wife (1984). I heard ...
Ardea Paul Carter December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers Ardea cinerea is the scientific name of the Grey Heron found in Europe. In Human Touch (2004) a heron alights for a moment on a stone basin in the gar...
The Persistent Maverick Maria Stratford December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers “I find living itself quite difficult so you may as well make it more difficult by doing something crazy.” - Paul Cox (1) Paul Cox has been making...
A Collaboration Between Two Artists Asher Bilu December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers My work with Paul Cox as Production Designer has been successful, I believe, because we have much in common. On the surface, our backgrounds are simil...
Idiosyncrasy and Film Alexander Garcia Duttmann December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers 1. If I had to choose a motto for Paul Cox’s films, no motto would seem more appropriate to me than the phrase: “For people who like that sort of thin...
To the point on point Chris Haywood December 2009 Paul Cox Dossier, Special Dossiers “Paulus Henrikus Benidictus Cox”: the name triggers images of a character from some historical tale by Umberto Eco. From my experiences of collaborati...
On The Beach (Stanley Kramer, 1959, USA) Deane Williams September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
Strike Me Lucky (Ken G. Hall, 1934) Lesley Speed September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
Wolf Creek (Greg Mclean, 2005) William “Bill” Blick September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
On the Home Front: Newsfront (Phillip Noyce, 1978) Adrian Danks September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
Intervention: Katherine, NT (Julie Nimmo, 2008) Dugald Williamson September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
Romper Stomper (Geoffrey Wright, 1992) Lucille Paterson September 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
“Take it all off baby, take it all off” – The Australian Kamasutra: Love Serenade (Shirley Barrett, 1996) Catherine Simpson August 2009 Key Moments in Australian Cinema, Special Dossiers
Moving through the Absence: Viviane Vagh’s Ground Zero NY, 2005 Diana Gonzalez July 2009 Special Dossiers, Spotlight on Viviane Vagh From there, faced with these large frescoes, the feeling of the past being wiped away, of its disappearing and the impression of ruins: of traces of...
Notes on Free Women/Femmes libres Grant Wiedenfeld July 2009 Special Dossiers, Spotlight on Viviane Vagh In a field dominated by intellectual showmanship and hermetic eccentricity, Viviane Vagh’s filmmaking speaks with a voice as familiar as it is poe...
Magical Transformations: A Conversation with Viviane Vagh Justine Gaunt July 2009 Special Dossiers, Spotlight on Viviane Vagh “There are lots of different identities in my genes”, says Viviane Vagh. We speak on the ’phone, she in Paris, me in Yorkshire, but either of us c...
Viviane Vagh and the Poetics of Disappearance, Or: A Portrait of Cinema as a Young Girl Gabriela Trujillo July 2009 Special Dossiers, Spotlight on Viviane Vagh A young girl on a sunny day. Gracefully, she comes and goes. Does she know she’s being filmed? Does she know that, as her image multiplies on the ...
Experimental Fusions: Viviane Vagh’s Beachcombers Installations Romy Sutherland July 2009 Special Dossiers, Spotlight on Viviane Vagh Viviane Vagh’s absorbing installation series, “Beachcombers”, is a celebration of fusion. Vagh explores the meeting points of natural elements, su...
Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Australia John Hughes July 2009 MIFF Premiere Fund/Post-Punk Dossier, Special Dossiers The new feature documentary scheduled for release at the Melbourne International Film Festival this year, Indonesia Calling: Joris Ivens in Austra...
Richard Franklin: Director/Producer Scott Murray and Tom Ryan July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers An extensive interview originally published in 1980 with the director of the classic road-movie thriller Roadgames. Written by Everett de Roche and starring Stacy Keach and Jamie Lee Curtis.
The Two Bazzas Keith Connolly July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers Combined review of Bruce Beresford’s two early seminal comedies of the grotesque, The Adventures of Barry McKenzie and Barry McKenzie Holds His Own.
Dead-End Drive-In Philippa Hawker July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers Review of Brian Trenchard-Smith’s 1986 apocalyptic thriller. One of Quentin Tarantino’s favourite Aussie movies.
Everett de Roche Paul Davies July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers Extract from a 1980 interview with the screenwriter of Long Weekend.
Turkey Shoot Geoff Mayer July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers Review of the now infamous 1982 violent hunter-versus-hunted film directed by Brian Trenchard-Smith and produced by Antony I. Ginnane.
Russell Mulcahy Jim Schembri July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers A 1984 interview with the director of the Aussie outback baroque thriller Razorback.
Long Weekend Scott Murray July 2008 Dossier on Australian Exploitation, Special Dossiers Review of the Everett de Roche-scripted ecological thriller directed by Colin Eggleston.
Deval in ’68: An Interview with Patrick Deval Fergus Daly and Maximilian Le Cain August 2008 Before the Revolution The director of Acéphale and Héraclite l’obscur looks back on the people, films and events that have shaped his work and thoughts.
Vivre sa vie: An Introduction and A to Z Roland-François Lack August 2008 Before the Revolution Roland-François Lack provides an informative lexicon to this early masterpiece by Godard.
“Mange ta soupe”: Introduction to the Bourseillers on Jean-Luc Godard Sally Shafto August 2008 Before the Revolution Published here for the first time in English, translator Sally Shafto provides a brief context for the two pieces that follow by Antoine and Christophe Bourseiller on their encounters with Godard.
“1963-1968. Paris: The Godard Years” Antoine Bourseiller August 2008 Before the Revolution A chapter from Bourseiller’s memoir Sans relâche: Histoires d’une vie which offers a rich and moving account of his friendship with Godard.
Excerpts from L’Aventure moderne Christophe Bourseiller August 2008 Before the Revolution Some salient passages from Christophe Bourseiller’s memoirs on growing up in the 1960s. Christophe is one-time child actor for Godard, Maoist and Situationist.
Land of Promise: The British Documentary Movement 1930-1950 (British Film Institute) Richard Armstrong August 2008 DVD Reviews Richard Armstrong takes a look at this historically significant DVD compilation from the British Film Institute.
