Nazarin

Review coming.  Directed by: Ming-liang Tsai Produced by: Laurence Picollec Chinlin Hsieh Bruno Pesery Written by: Ming-liang Tsai Pi-ying Yang Music by: Cinematography by: Benoît Delhomme Editing by: Sheng-Chang Chen Release Date: 2001 Running Time: 116 Language: Mandarin, French, Min Nan, English Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #98

This dark comedy from Joel & Ethan Coen is a distillation of some of the duo’s most potent themes. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is our Job figure, a physics professor in suburban Minneapolis who finds his life falling apart both personally and professionally. The principle of uncertainty, introduced early in the film via Schroedinger’s famous…

Classifying Paths of Glory as an anti-war film is the result of lazy thinking. Shot in simple black-and-white in 1957, this is the film that put director Stanley Kubrick on the map, and there’s a very good reason why. While loosely based on a true story referred to as the “Corporals of Souain” during World War I…

Appreciation coming.  Directed by: Lech Majewski Produced by: Lech Majewski Written by: Michael Francis Gibson Lech Majewski Music by: Lech Majewski Józef Skrzek Cinematography by: Lech Majewski Adam Sikora Editing by: Lech Majewski Norbert Rudzik Release Date: 2011 Running Time: 92 Language: English, Spanish, Flemis Arts & Faith Lists: 2020 Top 100 — #60

In a key scene of Romanian writer–director Cristian Mungiu’s 4 Months, Gabita Dragut (Laura Vasiliu) and her college roommate and friend Otilia (Anamaria Marinca) agree never again to discuss the horrific events of that day. To draw a shroud of silence over certain overwhelming experiences is a natural impulse. We avert our eyes, like urban pedestrians…

“All creation groans” in the unforgettable, long shots that open and close Carlos Reygadas’ remarkable film. It’s hard to believe this movie was released in 2008—it has a quality that will make it a major event for film students for many decades to come.   It’s set in a Mexican community of Old Order Mennonites, where…