Born on January 14, 1963, in Atlanta, Steven Soderbergh found filmmaking in his teens. His Hollywood apprenticeship included work as a cue card holder and a director of concert films. In […]
Tag: Contemporary Film Directors Series
Climbing Twin Peaks, plus David Lynch cooks quinoa
An excerpt from Justin Nieland‘s once-again-timely book David Lynch. Laura Palmer—passive, suffering, already victimized—is one kind of a melodramatic myth, and Twin Peaks, both the series and the fictional town, is Lynch’s […]
Backlist Bop: Women in film
Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and passionate filmmakers working in France today, Claire Denis has continued to make beautiful and challenging films since the 1988 release of […]
There will be analysis. . . on George Toles and Paul Thomas Anderson
During winter break, the Los Angeles Review of Books covered our new book on Paul Thomas Anderson by film scholar George Toles, himself a figure of distinction in the moviemaking dream […]
Dylan the high-heeled marionette
Excerpted from Rob White‘s book Todd Haynes. The black-and-white poise of the re-created tour in I’m Not There softens the actual color footage of these 1966 performances, shot by Pennebaker […]
Release Party: Paul Thomas Anderson
Since his explosive debut with the indie sensation Hard Eight, Paul Thomas Anderson has established himself as one of contemporary cinema’s most exciting artists. His 2002 feature Punch-Drunk Love radically […]
Throwbacklist Thursday: Remain in Flickering Light
As Ebertfest gathers for the sixteenth year, the Press again will contribute to the filmic festivities by providing swag for the official goodie bags. What form of swag? Books, surprisingly. We hope CFD entries on Pixar […]
Bubbly with Success
Pixar is on a winning streak, to say the least. Its animated films not only rack up large box office, they hit the cultural zeitgeist gong in a way that […]
Serve It Up with Oscar!
Sunday night, Mexican filmmaker and auteur Alejandro González Iñárritu took home the Academy Award for Best Director, for his film The Revenant. The Revenant first went into production in 2001. Like many films, […]
Throwbacklist Thursday
You can’t spell “books” without “boo” and UIP publishes many tomes of knowledge eldritch and/or arcane. Can you use these books and journals to cast spells? To revive octopus-faced gods in […]
Happy Birthday, Francis Ford Coppola
In observance of The Great One’s birthday, an excerpt from Francis Ford Coppola, by Jeff Menne, a recent book in UIP’s Contemporary Film Director’s Series. Here Menne describes how Coppola’s early film The Rain […]
Celebrating the long career of film director Manoel de Oliveira
Portuguese film maker Manoel de Oliveira died Thursday at age 106. To call Oliveira’s passion for making films “lifelong” is as close to a literal statement as one can make. His career […]