This Is Not a Film with Jafar Panahi and the iguana Igi. Under house arrest[1] following accusations of spreading “propaganda against the Islamic Republic” of Iran, filmmaker Jafar Panahi (Cannes…
Persepolis controversy: Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud animated feature offends – some of – Tunisia’s Fundamentalist Muslims. Persepolis Broadcast: Tunisian Television Station President Apologizes to Offended Muslims Three days ago…
Close-Up movie directed by Abbas Kiarostami. Abbas Kiarostami is one of those “name” non-American directors who is looked to as a god. The low-budget Nema-ye Nazdik / Close-Up is the second…
Jeff Bridges’ The Dude is back, now as a country music singer. This year’s probable Best Actor Oscar winner, Jeff Bridges, who plays troubled country singer Bad Blake in Scott…
There is that old and often neglected nostrum about ‘gilding the lily.’ I was reminded of this while watching Abbas Kiarostami’s acclaimed Ta’m e guilass / Taste of Cherry, co-winner…
Ang Lee’s Brokeback Mountain, the story of two male sheepherders who fall madly in love, was the winner of the Golden Lion at the 62nd Venice Film Festival. The competition’s…
Shot with nonprofessionals in the manner of post-World War II Italian neorealist classics like Vittorio De Sica’s Bicycle Thieves and Umberto D., Kurdish-Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Iraq invasion drama Turtles…
War-related movies were the big winners at this year’s San Sebastian Film Festival: The Iraq War drama Turtles Can Fly received the Golden Shell, while the Danish drama Brothers, about…
Iconic Nouvelle Vague actress Jeanne Moreau (The Lovers, Jules and Jim) is one of the French film stars – a couple of others are Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche –…