Introduction to Bright Lights’ Douglas Sirk Issue
This is our first issue dedicated to a single director. Douglas Sirk was the logical choice. While not exactly a household word himself, some of his films were among the[…]
Two Weeks in Another Town: Interview with Douglas Sirk
Introduction (Jane Stern) There are more drugstores in Lugano, Switzerland than in any other town in Europe. They are small cliniques, filled with Jacuzzi pumps, sitz bath salts, pine oil[…]
God Is Dead, or Through a Glass Darkly: On Sirk’s Magnificent Obsession
Jon Halliday’s indispensable Sirk on Sirk has confirmed what Sirk’s admirers and students had long suspected: that his films are not all equally “personal,” and that he had a much[…]
Sirk and the Critics
(above) The happy-go-lucky “Sirk ensemble” from All That Heaven Allows: Russell Metty, Agnes Moorehead, Sirk, Jane Wyman, Rock Hudson, Ross Hunter, and dialogue director Jack Davis.
Class Dismissed: Revisiting Losey and Pinter’s Misunderstood Masterpiece, The Servant
They also serve who only stand and annihilate
DVD & Blu-ray · LGBT & Queer · Silents
Queer Silents: Different from the Others, Michael, and Sex in Chains on DVD
Kino’s unusual series spotlights German silent gay-themed cinema
Pucker Up: The Enchantments of Resnais’ Not on the Lips
The world’s first Spherist masterpiece?
The Archers Hit a Bull’s-eye: Powell and Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death
“This is the universe. Big, isn’t it.”
DVD & Blu-ray · Noir · Reviews
“She Loves Too Much”: The Ravishing Leave Her to Heaven on DVD
No matter what she says, don’t upset her
Actors & Personalities · Reviews
Hooker with a Heart of Darkness: Jane Fonda in Klute
Bree Daniels trumps all Fonda’s real-life characters
Documentaries · Exploitation & Erotica
Dancing and Dirging with Jason: On Shirley Clarke’s Portrait of Jason
“Going on stage would’ve been awfully redundant”
Compliments to the Chef: Three . . . Extremes: Dumplings Expertly Mixes Social Critique and Questionable Cuisine
Bring some dramamine to Fruit Chan’s best film to date
Documentaries · Festivals & Awards
In the Realm of the Real: The 3rd Chicago International Documentary Film Festival
“The governments will be forgotten but the masterpieces will remain.”
Comedy · DVD & Blu-ray · Pre-Code
Dinner Is Served: The Return of MGM’s Witty ’30s Romp
Cukor’s all-star gala remains a tasty dish
Train to Somewhere: Hou Hsiao-hsien Pays Sweet Homage to Ozu in Café Lumière
Hou honors the master while remaining true to his own vision
Distribute This! Blast of Silence (Allen Baron, 1961, U.S.A.)
This missing noir masterpiece enters the canon in first place
Maybe Next Year: Slim Pickings at Berlinale 2005
When good ideas go wrong
Saving AI: Artificial Intelligence: Philosophical Aspects of Spielberg’s Neglected Robo-Epic
Human, mecha, supermecha and David
Quickies: Random Short Reviews from Angel Blue to Ruan Lingyu to The Toilers and the Wayfarers
“Here’s to lost beauty. May it always be nearby with the potential to keep you warm.”
Actors & Personalities · Directors
Shadow Man: On Clint Eastwood, Million Dollar Baby, the Coming Together and the Falling Apart
What’s inside those “sculpted spaces of dark intimacy”
Links + BSA
