Lars von Trier has a flair for being provocative. Remember when he called himself a Nazi? His new movie, Nymphomaniac: Volume 1, which opens at FilmScene…
Talking Movies
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Talking Movies: In director Alain Guiraudie’s latest film, murder and desire make strange bedfellows
The erotic thriller, with its mix of illicit sex and anxieties about bodily harm, can often come off as rather morally conservative. The femme fatale lures the…
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Talking Movies: The year’s most overlooked foreign films
In a mid-career interview with Swedish television, Ingmar Bergman was asked about how a filmmaker should treat his or her audience. He responds by telling a sort of morality tale about a Chinese wood carver during the Middle Ages who is asked to sculpt a wooden bell stand for a local temple. The carver makes […]
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Talking Movies: The Broken Circle Breakdown takes on the age old ‘reason vs. religion’ argument
Let me take you on a quick tour of the first three scenes of The Broken Circle Breakdown, the Belgian melodrama nominated for the best foreign…
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Talking Movies: American Hustle is a surreal encounter with history, lies and strange romance
Surely there has never been a more provocative time to make a movie about deception, especially deception by the agencies of the US government. Had the…
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Talking Movies: Looking beyond the controversy of Blue is the Warmest Color
Let me begin by giving my opinion on all the controversies surrounding the seven-minute-long lesbian sex scene in Blue Is the Warmest Color. My opinion is that it’s not worth my time to have opinions about silly controversies. The French title of Abdellatif Kechiche’s new movie, which is playing at the newly-opened FilmScene beginning Dec. […]
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Talking Movies: Girls rule in Kimberly Peirce’s Carrie
Even with the internet on your side, bullying a witch in high school probably still ends up with you dying in a fiery crash in your boyfriend’s car. The crash is fierier now, the car and the boyfriend slightly faster and you get to text your dad for help before it happens; otherwise, everything is […]
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Talking Movies: What lurks behind fear?
Warning: In honor of Halloween, this edition of Talking Movies is very, very spooky. Those with weak or cowardly hearts should be apprised of the extreme amounts of spookiness contained herewithin.
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Talking Movies: Recent films by Alex van Warmerdam
With the recent conclusion of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the advertising blitz for Oscar night (yes, five months from now) can officially begin. While the top awards and appertaining press were about movies which told us how Europeans felt about American racial oppression–always appreciated, Steve McQueen–we should not overlook the work of a […]
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Talking Movies: A half-century of the Up Series
Fifty years ago, in 1963, Granada Television, a regional service for Northwest England, commissioned Seven Up!, a brief documentary about the future of England. Who are the workers and executives of that distant, magical year 2000? The idea was to gather together a cross-section of 7-year-olds and interview them about their lives and aspirations. The […]
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Talking Movies: A look at recent films about music
Woe to the cinephile who tries to make sense of the U.S. music industry through its representation in film. Never has a more confusing and hopelessly self-referential picture been painted under the guise of recounting cultural history. Not so long ago, popular films about music might include the bands themselves—the romping Beatles films are still […]
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Talking Movies: Hardacre and Landlocked Film Festival preview
On the list of Stuff White People Like, film festivals come in at number three, beaten only by religions that their parents don’t belong to and coffee. It’s certainly…
