Cannes 2012 Round-Up

Below is a complete ranking of the films I saw at the 65th Cannes Film Festival. Enjoy! 1. Holy Motors (Carax, France, In Competition) Whe...

Gatekeepers: Tarantino v. Besson?

A concept such as a “Gatekeeper Auteur,” as outlined by Leon Hunt in his book East Asian Cinema: Exploring Transnational Connections on Film...

An Autumn Afternoon (1962) A Film by Yasujiro Ozu

Yasujiro Ozu's final cinematic testament was the tragicomic An Autumn Afternoon , a film that in some ways distills his signature concer...

Differing Visions of the Geisha in Marshall and Naruse

(Like my review of The Sheltering Sky , this is a piece that was written for a class of mine. Had I been given critical freedom, this may ha...

Rashomon (1950) A Film by Akira Kurosawa

When films become canonized - that is to say, they are raised to a mythic level that is considered irreproachable - serious criticism has th...

Empire of Passion (Ai no borei) A Film by Nagisa Oshima (1978)

Nagisa Oshima's Empire of Passion involves a plot that could work its way into any average mystery, thriller, or melodrama (and indeed ...

Ponyo (2008) A Film by Hayao Miyazaki

All of Hayao Miyazaki's animated films are ostensibly "for children", but never has that element been as pronounced as it is i...

Still Walking (Aruitemo aruitemo) A Film by Hirozaku Kore-Eda (2008)

Coming out of the cinema after Hirozaku Kore-Eda's latest film Still Walking , the world seemed so unremarkable. The Boston streets felt...

Ugetsu (Ugetsu monogatari) A Film by Kenji Mizoguchi (1953)

Assembled from two of the nine sections in Akirari Ueda's popular Japanese folk tales, Tales of Moonlight and Rain , Kenji Mizoguchi...

Tokyo Story (Tôkyô monogatari) A Film by Yasuijiro Ozu (1953)

In a Yasujiro Ozu film, there comes a breath of fresh air towards the final act, some stroke of indiscernible life that pricks up our senses...