Posterized: one of a kind auteur Leos Carax

"Posterized" returns for a new season. Every Friday!

by Nathaniel R

If you've followed the career of French director Leos Carax over the years than the response to his latest picture, Annette, which opened Cannes last month and hits theaters today, did not surprise you. He's always been a director who left some scratching their heads while leaving others thrilled or even reverently besotted. If you haven't yet experienced any of his movies we urge you to try them out to see which camp you fall into. 

How many of his 7⅓  pictures have you seen?  The posters are after the jump...

Click to read more ...

International Oscar Race Pt 2: Movie Stars, genres, and stats

by Nathaniel R

We aim to maintain our title of 'the site that gives you the most when it comes to Oscar's Best International Feature Film race.' Nevertheless, even if we aren't that anymore with all the corporate sites and the indies now covering the race, at least we were influential in popularizing the coverage! That's a legacy we're proud of.

Speaking of popular. How many of the films have stars that movie-savvy folks will recognize? Let's look at the international stars with fanbases outside their home countries (and other areas of trivia interest) after the jump...

Submissions with internationally-familiar stars

Click to read more ...

How Had I Never Seen... "Beau Travail"?

by Cláudio Alves

People cope with stress in different ways. Earlier this month, when the US presidential election was unfolding and the world held its breath, I turned to Twitter to reminisce about 2020 cinematic excellence and try to calm my nerves. I also scoured the internet for good deals on physical media, a bit of retail therapy, adding more DVDs and Blu-Rays to a collection that has long ago surpassed a thousand films. Part of the new additions were my first ever Criterion editions! 

All this to say that the discs arrived this week and, since the Criterion Channel has a new collection of Claire Denis films, I decided to finally watch the much-lauded Beau Travail and write about the experience. And what an experience it was…

Click to read more ...

NYFF: "Night of Kings"

Our coverage of the New York Film Festival -- you can buy virtual tickets to most of these films -- continues.

by Nathaniel R

The prison movie is its own specific subgenre, holding close to its own tropes, structural familiarity, and character types. Though we've never been imprisoned, we imagined these are culled from reality as much as imagined from collective nightmare. As a general rule, we long for escape from well worn genres, but in some cases it's useful shorthand. Such it is with Philippe LaCôte's Night of Kings, the buzzy Ivory Coast Oscar submission which we suspect might have been too confusing to resonate for Western audiences, were if not for these familiar, even universal, elements...

Click to read more ...

Showbiz History: Jack's first wedding, Susan's best performance...

Random things that happened on this day (June 17th) in film history

1919 Happy Beryl Reid Centennial. The British stage actress didn't make many movies but is perhaps best remembered today for her leading role in the lesbian drama The Killing of Sister George which netted her both a Tony Award on stage and a Golden Globe nomination for its film version. 

1962 Jack Nicholson, pre-superstardom, marries actress Sandra Knight  (their only movie together, The Terror, will be released the next year). The marriage lasted six years. Despite high profile relationships thereafter (Rebecca Broussard, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Anjelica Huston chief among them) Nicholson never tied the knot again.

1988 It was quite an actressy weekend in movie theaters...

Click to read more ...