discussion
Organized sports. The bread and butter (or lack thereof) that keeps this nation afloat. Money, power, prestige.
We don’t hear about the Tunisian cinema as often as we hear about the Moroccan or Iranian ones. We don’t have a major film festival like the Cairo International Film Festival or the Beirut International Film Festival, but we do have one important, symbolic one: the Carthage Film Festival.
In the “Fun Time VHS Bonanza!” series I will be visiting my local thrift shop and pick up the most obscure VHS tape possible. The article will then be a self-reflective essay about the nuances and feelings that I get from the film.
Villains, if written well, can be the most interesting types of characters of any story. They can drive plots forward, up the action and even provide some emotional tension. Villains, if written well, can be a lot more human than any hero.
“These men who bust their asses work like dogs. And I believe in them, but every day they hurt. They get old, they peel back…
Unless you have been living under a rock for the fortnight or so (or have no interest in the genre), you may have noticed that the first teaser for The Avengers: Age of Ultron has been released. As well as setting off a whirlwind of fan response and a more than considerable amount of excitement, it should be mentioned that it was a master-class in how to create a teaser trailer, or indeed any trailer.
Every year horror film enthusiasts unite to watch their favorite scary films. New movies come out around Halloween season, endlessly trying to be more graphic and push the shock factor a little further. But what is it about these films that keep us wanting more?
Film Noir stems back to the earlier days of Hollywood, starting with the Humphrey Bogart classic The Maltese Falcon in 1941. This film, the first from cinema great John Huston, established many of the trademarks we associate with the sub-genre today. The term Film Noir literally means “black film” and refers to how dark and shadowy the films tend to be.
An independent filmmaker wears many different hats: director, writer, producer, investor, et cetera. Now add to this list social media manager.
Jon Lovitz is a name most young folks don’t know or remember. He is an alumni of Saturday Night Live way back from 1985 to 1990. If you don’t know him from there then maybe you remember him as this guy.
If you ask somebody about the war films they’ve seen, the first titles that come to mind are usually large-scale epics that feature scenes of combat and violence. These films effectively depict the horrors of war. However, the level of action in some of these films can be distracting and compromise our emotional involvement with the characters once we see how quickly they can vanish, and the level of violence that can occur.
Chilean Filmmaker Pablo Larraín never mentioned the word Trilogy when he embarked on creating Tony Manero (2008), Post Mortem (2010) and No (2012), however, these three films do act as part of a whole: Larraín’s vision regarding Pinochet’s military coup of 1973 and the ensuing dictatorship. Tony Manero and Post Mortem are both grim parables of folks stuck in a moral stupor, wandering the streets of a Chile that no longer knows itself, that silently witnesses the arrest and disappearance of hundreds of people every day, violence and torture a common thing and a convenient shroud for the crimes of civilians.
There is a difference between stark realism and good storytelling. Cinema is open to different perceptions. We, as aware audiences, ought to give more importance to the integrity of presenting the story and not its factual correctness.
There had been many films about outer space before 1968, but it was in that year that Stanley Kubrick lit the fuse leading to a powder keg that would explode 9 years later. The influence of 2001: A Space Odyssey is arguably the most influential film ever made.
Every month, the team of Film Inquiry is posed a film-related question. This month, we were wondering about film pet peeves. Do we have any?