China is increasingly recognized as the largest film market outside the United States, but Los Angeles has long been ahead of the curve in mounting rare programs devoted to the country's cinematic riches. The latest example is the nearly monthlong China Onscreen Biennial, running Oct. 17-Nov. 14, which will offer......
Matchstick trees jut upward like gnarled pitchforks. Jagged explosions of sunlight splash across zigzagging streets. Stretched buildings and contorted rooms evoke the violent projections of wounded minds within. Such expressionist visions materialized in the cinema of Germany following the horrors of World War I, and probe long fingers through the......
Early success can be a double-edged sword. This was decidedly true for 25-year-old Orson Welles, who wrote, directed and starred in Citizen Kane (1941), championed throughout the world as the greatest film ever made. A Hollywood art film and a politically incorrect satire of a contemporary media giant, it also......
Though it's often overlooked on the repertory circuit, West African film has long been a rich and vital voice in global cinema. Mired in tragedy, the region's colonial history has inspired a volatile mix of African tradition and aesthetics, European cosmopolitanism, and fierce political awareness. Throughout October, the Loyola Marymount......
In 1992, when renowned Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray was presented a lifetime achievement Oscar on his deathbed, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences couldn't find enough prints to assemble a tribute reel. "Literally," says Academy Film Archive director Mike Pogorzelski, "the only prints that were in the U.S......
LACMA spotlights the mysterious work of a french master There are few filmmakers today as edgy or enigmatic as Bruno Dumont (Humanité, Twentynine Palms). His films sketch figures — usually young couples, often in French-speaking Flanders — in landscapes that lend metaphysical shadings to stark physical stories of bodies, sex......
See also: *More L.A. Weekly Film Coverage It's tempting to think we're in the midst of an Alfred Hitchcock resurgence. Last year, for the first time in half a century, a worldwide poll in Sight & Sound magazine chose Vertigo (1958) over Citizen Kane (1941) as the greatest film of......
As its monumental Stanley Kubrick exhibition draws to a close June 30 — catch it while you still can — the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will screen Kubrick films a final time, paired with movies by filmmakers Kubrick admired or with whom he shared affinities, curated by the......
As one of today's most acclaimed experimental filmmakers, Phil Solomon's 40-year career spans handmade films to digital art and gallery installations. Thanks to the efforts of several local venues, Los Angeles will host the most comprehensive presentation of Solomon's work to date, beginning May 16. Commissioned in 2000 for Washington,......
The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, the largest such event in Southern California, is now in its 29th year, and its lineup of films from more than 20 countries is, as always, a mixed bag of talent, intentions and indie spunk. Of the films screened for review, four stand......