The great and final act of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s remarkable career was the production of a trilogy called Three Colors—Blue, White, and Red—that represents the colors of the French flag, and the values they represent: liberty, equality and fraternity. Filmed in three countries (France, Poland, Switzerland), their plots Read More …
A stuttering student is hypnotized to cure his impediment. A strong wind blows across a field. A ceiling collapses in a rainshower. A bird lands on a boy’s head. A sleeping woman levitates over her bed. A man clutches some feathers in his hand, and Read More …
It’s tricky to review The Son without raising viewers’ expectations. To rave about the film’s artistry might create a certain anticipation of being dazzled. But, “the truth must dazzle gradually,” and The Son — like all of the Dardenne Brothers’ films — is the antithesis of what most moviegoers Read More …
With a rigorous style that is often off-putting to newcomers, Bresson eschews the usual emotional cues we’ve become conditioned to expect at the movies. His editing is, above all, efficient—refusing to emphasize one moment over another. We’re forced to pay fierce attention and draw our Read More …
“What is the true meaning of life?” Polish director Krzysztof Kieslowski has asked. “Why get up in the morning? Politics doesn’t answer that.” The Decalogue, Kieslowski’s extraordinary, challenging collection of ten one-hour films made for Polish television in the dying days of the Soviet Union, doesn’t Read More …
To witness The Passion of Joan of Arc is to glimpse the soul of a saint in her hour of trial. The film is more than a dramatization, more than a biopic, more than a documentary: It is a spiritual portrait, almost a mystical portrait, of a Read More …
In 2017, when IMAGE Journal still owned and operated the Arts & Faith website, its film issue came with a photo from David Lowery’s A Ghost Story on the cover. Like The Green Knight, that film polarized Arts & Faith members. Lowery’s quiet films are Read More …
Why are the films of Asghar Farhadi, the foremost chronicler of his Muslim country, especially recommended to Christian viewers? Perhaps one reason is that Farhadi doesn’t shy away from illustrating the gaps between the principles and values that inform the culture and its citizens and Read More …
Art influences life and life influences art. In other words, our entertainment shapes the way we view the world, and the world shapes the type of entertainment that is made. On its surface, Annette is a toxic love story between offensive comedian Henry McHenry (a terrifying Adam Read More …
Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story begins with what looks like a shot from the director’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan. The camera hovers over a crumbling city, swooping past a wrecking ball as it haunts the remains of a once bustling neighborhood. Eventually, Read More …