I recently had the opportunity to speak by phone with Jan Komasa, director of the Polish film Corpus Christi, which is on the shortlist of films being considered for an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Feature. The film is the story of a young man (Daniel) who impersonates a priest in a small town parish…. [Read More]
Thursday at AFIFest 2019
As AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi draws to a close, it is time to thank the festival and it’s press office for allowing me to attend and report on the festival. I also want to thank the countless volunteers who helped to make the festival run smoothly and make sure I got in the… [Read More]
Tuesday at AFIFest 2019
It’s nice to be able to compare notes with others at AFI Fest 2019 Presented by Audi. You get to hear what other people have seen and were impressed by, or just compare notes and confirm that what you saw was pretty bad. Sometimes such discussions can make you rethink your schedule. I opened the… [Read More]
Friday at AFIFest 2019
Welcome to Hollywood and AFI Fest Presented by Audi. I love coming to this festival and discovering some of the best films in the world, some of the great history of the industry, and the work of filmmakers who are just now making a name for themselves. Part of the New Auteurs section featuring emerging… [Read More]
Birds of Passage – Lost Values Lead to Ruin
“If there’s family, there’s respect. If there’s respect, there’s honor. If there’s honor, there’s word. If there’s word, there’s peace.” Among the Wagúu people of northern Columbia, family is the basis for everything. If that is not cared for, step by step, all values will erode until society falls apart. In Birds of Passage, Columbia’s… [Read More]
Cold War – Smoldering Sorrow
“Love’s love and that’s that.” A pair of star-crossed lovers are the focus of Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Poland’s entry for Best Foreign Language Film consideration. Set in the years following the Second World War, it moves back and forth between the Communist and Democratic worlds, but it is not the geopolitical situation that is… [Read More]
Capernaum – Chaos or Miracles
In production notes for the film, Labaki says the title comes from the French word “capharnaüm” which translates as “chaos”. She also notes that it is the name of a biblical city, which was “a place where miracles could happen.”
Shoplifters – A Twisted Family Tale
Winner of the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Shoplifters is a part of Hirokazu Kore-eda’s examination of family’s place within society. This is a topic he has looked at from various angles in other films, notably Like Father, Like Son; Our Little Sister; Nobody Knows; and I Wish. (I recommend them all.)
Roma – A Loving Memory of Life
In a taped message before the screening of Roma at AFIFest, director Alfonso Cuarón noted that it was based on memories from his childhood in Mexico City in 1971, and called it “a love letter to the women who raised me.”
Wednesday at AFIFest 2018
In the theater before each screening at AFIFest 2018 Presented by Audi, there are slides about AFI that show sponsors and donors. Those are all very important. Those are the reasons AFIFest is free to the public. But there are also those not listed because there are so many of them—the volunteers. It takes lots… [Read More]
