An Ibsenian chamber drama completing the unofficial trilogy begun with Cries and Whispers (1972) and continued with Scenes from a Marriage (1974), Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten, a translation of which I cannot find) is one of Ingmar Bergman’s sparest, most accessible films. Based, like the other two, on an original screenplay of his, it addresses some […]
Daily Archives: June 15, 2007
The U.S. documentary Ballets russes has proven popular among the culture-vulture set. Unfortunately, it isn’t clear what theme, if any, directors Geller and Goldfine were pursuing. Moreover, the chronological approach wreaked havoc when the ballet company split into two companies, so, after pursuing one of these to the end of the 1940s, the film had […]
Martin Scorsese’s directorial contributions to American cinema are dubious; his films, including Mean Streets (1973) and Raging Bull (1980), are shallow, structurally deficient, mean-spirited—for instance, misogynistic. The charm of Scorsese the tireless advocate for good cinema is hard to reconcile with the god-awful movies he has mostly made. (Robert De Niro, Sarah Bernhard and Jerry […]
Cinema isn’t purely ideological, and from time to time a film is bound to cross one’s path that impresses one as problematic in the extreme. Formally, Russian Ark, a meditation on Russian history, is as beauteous, as sumptuous, as technically daring, as exciting as anything I have seen, inside or outside a movie house. How […]
Unlike Oliver Stone’s listless Wall Street (1987), which at least has good intentions, Cameron Crowe’s Jerry Maguire really believes that greed is good. To distract us from this cynical message, however, the movie lathers over it, in sentimental and tear-jerking fashion, decoy noises about love, caring, and marital commitment, none of which it believes in. […]
Dennis Grunes 