"Three Colors: Red" at 25

by Lynn Lee

Transfixed.  Transported.  Exhilarated.  These are words I don’t use lightly when I’m talking about movies, but they all apply to my reaction the first time I saw the final installment of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Three Colors trilogy.  And in large measure they still do.  Even if the initial wonder has given way to a comforting familiarity, few films capture the universal human yearning for connection and kinship (or fraternité, the unifying theme of Red) as vibrantly yet delicately as this one.

I first saw Red some years after its initial release, at a special screening at the university I was attending.  I went in knowing very little about the film except that the friend I went with had seen it before and spoke of it in glowing terms.  He noted that in an ideal world I’d have seen the preceding chapters, Blue and White, but thought I’d enjoy Red even without having done so.

He was right. 

In fact, I occasionally wonder if Blue and White – both of which I admire rather than love – suffered by comparison when I saw them later.  Perhaps I’d have a different take if I’d watched the trilogy in the intended order.  But I don’t think it would have altered my strong personal affinity for Red, which quickly became one of my all-time favorite films...

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How had I never seen... "Farewell My Concubine" (1993)

In this new series, members of Team Film Experience watch and share their reactions to classic films they’ve never seen. 

by Tim Brayton

I wish there was a good reason why it took me 26 years to catch up with Chen Kaige's Farewell My Concubine, co-winner of the 1993 Palme d'Or, two-time Oscar nominee for Best Cinematography and Best Foreign-Language Film, and the film that did more than probably any other single title to present Chinese art cinema to international audiences in the 1990s. Instead, I only have a very terrible reason: it's 171 minutes long, and I never quite managed to make it my top priority in those moments when I had three uninterrupted hours.

To the surprise of nobody, including myself, that turns out to have been a terrible mistake. As long as the film is – and I'd be fibbing if I said that I never once felt that running time – it's unquestionably filling every last one of those minutes with a whole lot of immensely appealing stuff. That Best Cinematography nomination wasn't for show: this is an unbelievably lavish epic of 20th Century history, surely one of the most gorgeous motion pictures of its decade...

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Over & Overs: Twister (1996)

In Over & Overs we ask Team Experience to share movies that they've seen countless times and tell us why.

by Tony Ruggio

As a kid growing up in Texas, with family in Oklahoma and Nebraska, I had a morbid fascination with tornadoes and the would-be thrill of storm chasing. My fascination was outweighed only by the sheer fear of death. The possibility of finding yourself at the mercy of mother nature was all too real in Tornado Alley, at least for a nine year-old. In the summer of 1996 in air-conditioned theaters an entire country (and myself) learned about the Fujita scale, from itty-bitty F1 tornadoes to mile-wide F5 monsters. Twister was a multiplex phenomenon and the first disaster film in decades to strike hot at the box office. With mixed reviews and Independence Day casting a big shadow, it was then somewhat forgotten...until cable came to the rescue. 

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25th Anniversary: Quiz Show (1994)

Best Picture nominee Quiz Show (1994) was released 25 years ago. Here's Anna with a look back...

The year is 1958 (it should be 1956; Redford condensed the three-year scandal into one). Households across America tune in to watch Twenty-One. Everyone is fascinated by the wisdom from reigning champion Herb Stempel (John Turturro). Well, almost everyone; producers Dan Enright (David Paymer) and Albert Freedman (Hank Azaria) as well as the show’s sponsor think it’s high time for some new talent on the show. Enter Columbia University instructor Charles Van Doren (Ralph Fiennes), who had auditioned for their other show Tic-Tac-Dough. And this is when Enright tells Herb to take the fall, which he reluctantly does. But how long until keeping the truth becomes too much for Charles?

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Five Underrated Edward Norton Performances for his 50th

by Abe Fried-Tanzer

Norton directs and co-stars with Bruce Willis in "Motherless Brooklyn"If you had asked me fifteen years ago who my favorite actor was, I surely would have said Edward Norton, though I’m not sure he’s worked enough since then to continue to hold that status. (My other choice of the time, Kevin Spacey, also bears reevaluation... for other reasons). With Edward Norton turning 50 today paired with the recent announcement that Norton’s Motherless Brooklyn, which he wrote and directed and stars in, will be closing out this year’s New York Film Festival, it’s the perfect time to take a look back at his career.

His feature film debut in 1996 in Primal Fear demonstrated an incredible ability to shift back and forth between different personas, earning him an Oscar nomination for his portrayal of an altar boy on trial for a brutal murder. Two years later, he scored a second Oscar bid for a more staggering and gradual shift in worldview as a reformed neo-Nazi trying to prevent his younger brother from going down the same path in American History X. It took sixteen years for Norton to return to the Oscar lineup, this time in Best Picture winner Birdman as an actor who, by many accounts, is closest to what Norton is actually like on set, with a penchant for attempting to exert control even if he’s not actually the one in charge... 

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