Long before Bergman’s Persona undertook its psychological and existential excavation of selfhood, cinema had already been preoccupied for nearly a century with the blurring...
The Power of Goodbye: Messina Gets Maudlin with Future Grief
The devil’s unfortunately absent in the details of Another End, a conceptual science fiction melodrama...
Investigation of a Suspicious Citizen: Maresco Salvages Cinema
“I am not interested in any filmmaker. I am not even interested in my own films…” said...
Portrait of a Lady: Pallaoro Quietly Searches for Grace in Profound Reconciliation
There’s a relentless, nearly crushing sense of heartache girding Andrea Pallaoro’s Monica, his...
Grimm Fairy Tale: De Paolis’ Neo-Realist Exploration of Migrant Sex Work Brazen, Bewildering
Life’s anything but a fairy tale for the titular character at the...
No Whale Out: Pallaoro Strikes Somber Chords with Pitch Perfect Rampling
You’ll be hard pressed to find another melodrama as inconspicuously tightlipped as Andrea Pallaoro’s...
The thrill of meeting Marjane Satrapi reminded me of being 6 years old at Disney Land when I met the living, breathing Cinderella. Except Cinderella was an actress with a blond wig and Marjane is the real woman behind her autobiographical graphic novel, turned movie, “Persepolis”. The distinctive mole on her nose and her dark sultry eyes rose off the page and appeared in front of me, smoking and speaking with a French accent.