On Wang Chung’s title track and score in To Live and Die in LA (1985) Lee Hill October 2020 Pop Music in Film While I would disagree with Mark Kermode, as he argues in his BFI book on the horror classic, that The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973) is the greatest film ever made, a strong case can be made that To Live an...
Triple Agent (Éric Rohmer, 2004) Lee Hill March 2017 CTEQ Annotations on Film In the late Harry Mathews’ provocative mix of memoir and fiction, My Life in CIA (2005), a proverbial American in Paris in the 70s, amused by friends’ suspicions that he is a spy, decides to indulge them by pre...
Une Veille Maitresse (The Last Mistress) Lee Hill September 2016 CTEQ Annotations on Film Catherine Breillat’s Une Veille Maitresse (2007) opens with the title card, “au siècle de Cholderlos de Laclos” (in the period of Cholderlos de Laclos) placing the next 104 minutes or so firmly in the decadent ...
Paris, Texas Lee Hill October 2014 CTEQ Annotations on Film Paris, Texas (1984) is a story about the prodigal son and his uneasy homecoming. It is also, among other things, a road movie, a modern Western, a near textbook perfect example of what an “art film” can be rath...
Prénom Carmen Lee Hill February 2013 CTEQ Annotations on Film Jean-Luc Godard’s Prénom Carmen (First Name: Carmen, 1983) is the third film, after Sauve qui peut (la vie) (Every Man for Himself/Slow Motion, 1980) and Passion (1982), in a busy period in the 1980s that boldl...
The Pinochet Case Lee Hill November 2012 CTEQ Annotations on Film Patricio Guzmán’s Le Cas Pinochet (The Pinochet Case, 2001) is more than just a coda to his epic La batalla de Chile (The Battle of Chile, 1975-79), it is a sober, dispassionate reminder that justice pursued is...
Viridiana Lee Hill June 2011 CTEQ Annotations on Film Set in a Franco-era Spain that has made only the barest of concessions to modernism (there are telephones and cars), but remains fully locked down under Catholicism at its most patriarchal and reactionary, Luis...
The State of Things Lee Hill April 2009 CTEQ Annotations on Film The State of Things/Der Stand der Dinge (1982 Germany/Portugal/US 121 mins) Prod Co: Road Movies Film Production/Wenders Berlin Prod: Chris Sievernich, Wim Wenders Dir: Wim Wenders Scr: Robert Kramer, Wi...
Thief Lee Hill May 2007 CTEQ Annotations on Film Thief (1981 US 122 mins) Prod Co: Mann/Cann Productions Prod: Jerry Bruckheimer, Ronnie Caan Dir: Michael Mann Scr: Michael Mann, based on the novel The Home Invaders by Frank Hohimer Phot: Donald Thorin...
Three Colours: Blue Lee Hill February 2007 CTEQ Annotations on Film Bleu/Blue/Trois couleurs: bleu/Three Colours: Blue (1993 France/Switzerland/ Poland 100 mins) Prod Co: MK2 Productions SA/ CEO Productions/France 3 Cinema/CAB Productions/ “Tor” Productions Prod: Marin K...
36 Fillette Lee Hill February 2006 CTEQ Annotations on Film 36 Fillette (1988 France 88 mins) Source: NFSA Prod Co: CB Films/French Productions Prod: Emmanuel Schlumberger, Valérie Seydoux Dir: Catherine Breillat Scr: Catherine Breillat, Roger Salloch, based on B...
Rebels on the Backlot: Six Maverick Directors and How They Conquered the Hollywood Studio System by Sharon Waxman Lee Hill April 2005 Book Reviews Like Peter Biskind's Down and Dirty Pictures in 2004, Sharon Waxman's Rebels On The Backlot was launched by its publisher at this year's Sundance Film Festival to the kind of media fanfare given to a “state of ...