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CINEASTE, VOL. L, NO. 1, WINTER 2024 . ’s Lee Kuras llen Eiller in Mlist Lee journa to t as pho le ins Wte Ka ARTICLES John Farrow: Ingenious Filmmaker, Incorrigible Fabulist, Impossible Person by David Sterritt A new Blu-ray box set puts the unassailable craft and problematic personality of the Hollywood genre specialist—Mia’s dad and Ronan’s grandfather—in the spotlight. 4 The American Experience of Marcel Ophuls by Jonathan van Harmelen The son of director Max Ophuls spent the war years at Hollywood High School in LA, where the racial prejudice he witnessed, and shared, later influenced his documentaries. 20 True to Form: Experimental Cinema’s Engagement with Reality by Michael Sicinski Three books by Scott MacDonald on Avant-Docs chart the rise of avant-garde and documentary hybrids that provide navigation through the complications of the digital era. 26 INTERVIEWS A Brooklyn Cinderella Story with a Dark Edge: An Interview with Sean Baker by Kevin Lally Strap in for a wild ride with Anora, this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes. It’s all of a piece with the director’s previous work…with a screwball comedy difference. 10 A Brazilian Family’s Struggle for Justice: An Interview with Walter Salles by Mitchell Abidor The director, whose own family went into exile after a 1964 military coup in Brazil, revisits that tragic two-decade period in I’m Still Here to tell the story of a congressman who was “disappeared” and his family’s search for answers. 14 Hard Truths and Difficult Personalities: An Interview with Mike Leigh by Leonard Quart A ferocious performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste drives the writer-director’s new film, which he describes as the result of an intense collaboration with his Secrets & Lies star. 24 In Search of Emotional Truth: An Interview with Alessandra Lacorazza by Paul Risker The director of In the Summers explains how she harvested slices of life from the turbulent (and semi-autobiographical) relationship of a father and his two daughters from their adolescence to adulthood. 30 Same Country, Different Rights: An Interview with Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham by Maria Garcia Israel’s abuses of power in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank are the subject of a documentary whose co-directors, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, speak out. 34 NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.CINEASTE.COM Article: The Films of Joris Ivens: Humanitarian Principles and Debatable Political Allegiances by Mitchell Abidor. Interview: Commissioning the Canon: An Interview with Faber & Faber film book editor Walter Donohue by Paul Cronin Blu-ray Review: Albert Brooks’s Real Life reviewed by Michael Sandlin. F Communiqués: The 2024 Gdynia Film Festival by Darragh O’Donoghue and the 2024 New York Film Festival by Will DiGravio. On the Cover: Mikey Madison as the title character in Sean Baker’s Anora (photo couresty of NEON). FILM REVIEWS Kneecap Reviewed by Declan McGrath ....................38 Close Your Eyes Reviewed by Imogen Sara Smith ...............40 Lee Reviewed by Will DiGravio ..........................42 Rumours Reviewed by Graham Fuller ........................44 Janet Planet Reviewed by Robert Koehler .......................46 Dance First Reviewed by Darragh O’Donoghue ............48 Sing Sing Reviewed by Page Laws ..............................50 The Substance Reviewed by Paul Risker ..............................52 HOME VIDEO REVIEWS Pharaoh Reviewed by Darragh O’Donoghue............54 Bandits of Orgosolo Reviewed by Stuart Liebman .....................56 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Reviewed by Jonathan Kirshner ................58 Io Capitano Reviewed by Megan Feeney ......................60 Victims of Sin Reviewed by Karen Backstein ....................62 Typhoon Club Reviewed by Adam Bingham ....................64 Staff Recommendations Reviewed by Cineaste Editors ....................67 BOOK REVIEWS Mary C. McCall Jr.: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Most Powerful Screenwriter Reviewed by Megan Feeney ......................68 A Shared Cinema: Michel Ciment— Conversations with N. T. Binh Reviewed by David Sterritt .........................69 A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda Reviewed by Thom Delapa ........................70 Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 Reviewed by Adrian Martin ........................72 King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker’s Artistry and Vision Reviewed by Charles Maland .....................73 The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 Reviewed by Larry Ceplair .........................75 Dorothy Parker in Hollywood Reviewed by Elroy Rosenberg ...................76 Book Brief Reviews ..............................78 DEPARTMENTS Editorial ..............................................1 Letters ........................................................3 Index to Cineaste, Volume XLIX......29 Short Takes .............................................80 2 CINEASTE, Winter 2024
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LETTERS Kudos from a Longtime Supporter I first encountered Gary Crowdus and his fledgling magazine in the early 1970s. In the 1976 edition of The International Film Guide, I wrote, “If the Alternative Cinema ever elects an official magazine, then Cineaste should top the poll. Edited with persistence and good sense by Gary Crowdus, this periodical covers film theory and political cinema, and its interviews are always extensive.” By 1988, I was endorsing it even more enthusiastically: “Perhaps the finest anti-establishment movie magazine, never afraid to tackle controversial issues and never prone to Hollywood worship.” Returning to the readership fold after far too long an absence, I find that Cineaste has both matured and evolved. It has no need to be “antiestablishment” because there is no establishment in the film magazine field in the U.S. Gone are the days when one would eagerly await the arrival of Film Comment, American Film, Films in Review, or Premiere. This is both sad and inevitable. The Internet has siphoned off most of our intelligent film criticism, and the egregious blog lurks in every corner of the Web. It’s clear that the magazine’s center of gravity has shifted toward Europe—and beyond. The Fall issue’s main features were devoted to veteran names from the old continent—Chantal Akerman, Jerzy Skolimowski, Catherine Breillat, and Agnieszka Holland. All these cineastes, whether alive or dead, have had the courage to experiment with the film form, and to do so, moreover, without succumbing to the arcane or the esoteric. All too much writing on film dwells on content, rather than form. Thanks to Cineaste, I have a feeling that form is returning to the position of importance it held during the Golden Age of foreign cinema (1957–68?), when Antonioni, Godard, and Resnais were pushing the envelope of film expression. That the magazine appears to be in such robust health may well be due to the accessibility of virtually every kind of film. Almost every title referred to in interviews can be found on disc— DVD, Blu-ray, or 4K. Still more are alive and kicking on streaming platforms such as The Criterion Channel, Hulu, Sundance Now, Magnolia or in the U.K., the British Film Institute BFI Player or Curzon Home Cinema. I suspect that many a reader of Cineaste will take a disc out of its slipcase after reading a piece in the magazine and watch all or part of a film again with peeled eyes. So, while the streaming phenomenon has taken a serious chunk out of the exhibitors’ market, it has rendered the task, and duty, of a magazine like Cineaste that much more relevant. I’m happy to find that book reviews continue to occupy a goodly proportion of the pages in each issue. Of course, it’s my own stock in trade, but film books are still allotted far too little space in national papers or major arts magazines. And it’s commendable that Cineaste in its previous issue should put the spotlight on film archive librarians, without whom film historians like myself would be starved of oxygen. On the cusp of its Golden Jubilee, Cineaste has survived where others have withered away. Bravo, Cineaste! Peter Cowie Chailly-Montreux, Switzerland A Brief Review Comment Cineaste is the most enjoyable and informative film magazine in English. Routinely, I find myself grabbed by some attractive article or interview, only to read the entire issue through, something I don’t do even with The New Yorker. In fact, I usually start with the book reviews, so as to keep up with topics and trends in our field. Reviews act like sandpaper, usually gently burnishing a new publication, but sometimes rubbing hard enough to produce the heat of friction. I appreciate the latter, because they can pry open a contrary perspective on a topic sealed off by the book’s covers. Darragh O’Donoghue clearly knows enough to pry open my French Cinema: A Very Short Introduction [Book Briefs, Cineaste, Fall 2024]. Thankfully he likes much of what he finds. What he doesn’t like are some of the choices he understands were dictated by the format. How did I neglect Vigo, for instance, an auteur I’ve published scores of pages on before? That was my mistake, especially since Vigo stands at the source of “The Cahiers Line,” a throughline that the book demonstrates has made French cinema stand out. Instead of questioning omissions, I wish he had argued with this premise, since it justifies my choices. It also rhetorically demands the flow of the two-part final chapter in which, as he rightly puts it, the “greater gender and racial diversity of French cinema this millennium” (developed across ten pages), “ends with ten pages on…twenty-first-century inheritors of the New Wave spirit.” I won’t fault his failing to address other premises, such as French cinema’s alternation between “makeup” and “démaquillage,” its twenty-year periodicity, and its status among the arts. After all, his had to be a ‘brief review’ of a “very short introduction,” that happily grabbed his attention. Dudley Andrew New Haven, CT Long Overdue Praise for Film Librarians Much gratitude is due Philippe Garnier for his wonderful piece on film librarians [“Let Us Now Praise Remarkable Librarians,” Cineaste, Fall 2024]. I would like to add my own thanks to the late Ned Comstock. I talked to Ned on the phone (this was during the height of COVID) in the middle of his very last week before retiring from USC about my book on Louis B. Mayer and Irving Thalberg forthcoming from Yale's Jewish Lives series. Though time was unusually tight for Ned, he emailed me an extraordinary collection of material, everything from a handwritten note from Lillian Gish to King Vidor about The Big Parade to transcripts of Thalberg's legendary story conferences. I remain today, as I was then, flabbergasted by his exceptional knowledge and generosity. His like may not be seen again. Kenneth Turan Pacific Palisades, CA A Reader for Decades I started reading Cineaste in California when I was studying film at San Francisco State in the 1970s. I subscribed when I moved to Oregon forty-five years ago and my current move to Washington wouldn’t be right without making sure my subscription followed me. Thank you for updating my mailing address. I have subscribed to other film journals over the years, but I have kept every single back issue of Cineaste I have acquired or received, and they have all moved with me once again, this time from Eugene to Seattle. Speaking of acquired back issues, I recently secured a copy of Cineaste’s very first issue published in 1967. On the first page of that issue, I was pleasantly surprised to read that your magazine was intended “for the young, developing filmmaker.” The description could have depicted me almost fifty years ago as a recently graduated history major beginning graduate studies in film studies and 16mm production. Your magazine spoke to my ambitions to do independent documentary filmmaking on historical and political subjects. Although my career eventually took me into broadcast journalism, I have consistently found your in-depth analysis of films in a social, political, and cultural context thoughtful and stimulating reading. Thank you for a most wonderful film journal. Its excellence, in my humble opinion, remains undiminished. Bill Goetz Seattle, WA Letters to the Editors Readers’ letters of comment should be emailed to cineaste@cineaste.com. Please try to keep your letters to 500 or fewer words. Authors of letters chosen for publication will receive a free one-year subscription or an extension of their current subscription. CINEASTE, Winter 2024 3

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CINEASTE, VOL. L, NO. 1, WINTER 2024

.

’s Lee

Kuras llen

Eiller in

Mlist Lee journa to t as pho le ins

Wte

Ka

ARTICLES John Farrow: Ingenious Filmmaker, Incorrigible Fabulist, Impossible Person by David Sterritt A new Blu-ray box set puts the unassailable craft and problematic personality of the Hollywood genre specialist—Mia’s dad and Ronan’s grandfather—in the spotlight. 4 The American Experience of Marcel Ophuls by Jonathan van Harmelen The son of director Max Ophuls spent the war years at Hollywood High School in LA, where the racial prejudice he witnessed, and shared, later influenced his documentaries. 20 True to Form: Experimental Cinema’s Engagement with Reality by Michael Sicinski Three books by Scott MacDonald on Avant-Docs chart the rise of avant-garde and documentary hybrids that provide navigation through the complications of the digital era. 26 INTERVIEWS A Brooklyn Cinderella Story with a Dark Edge: An Interview with Sean Baker by Kevin Lally Strap in for a wild ride with Anora, this year’s Palme d’Or winner at Cannes. It’s all of a piece with the director’s previous work…with a screwball comedy difference. 10 A Brazilian Family’s Struggle for Justice: An Interview with Walter Salles by Mitchell Abidor The director, whose own family went into exile after a 1964 military coup in Brazil, revisits that tragic two-decade period in I’m Still Here to tell the story of a congressman who was “disappeared” and his family’s search for answers. 14 Hard Truths and Difficult Personalities: An Interview with Mike Leigh by Leonard Quart A ferocious performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste drives the writer-director’s new film, which he describes as the result of an intense collaboration with his Secrets & Lies star. 24 In Search of Emotional Truth: An Interview with Alessandra Lacorazza by Paul Risker The director of In the Summers explains how she harvested slices of life from the turbulent (and semi-autobiographical) relationship of a father and his two daughters from their adolescence to adulthood. 30 Same Country, Different Rights: An Interview with Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham by Maria Garcia Israel’s abuses of power in a Palestinian village in the occupied West Bank are the subject of a documentary whose co-directors, one Israeli and the other Palestinian, speak out. 34 NOW AVAILABLE ONLINE AT WWW.CINEASTE.COM Article: The Films of Joris Ivens: Humanitarian Principles and Debatable Political Allegiances by Mitchell Abidor. Interview: Commissioning the Canon: An Interview with Faber & Faber film book editor Walter Donohue by Paul Cronin Blu-ray Review: Albert Brooks’s Real Life reviewed by Michael Sandlin. F Communiqués: The 2024 Gdynia Film Festival by Darragh O’Donoghue and the 2024 New York Film Festival by Will DiGravio. On the Cover: Mikey Madison as the title character in Sean Baker’s Anora (photo couresty of NEON).

FILM REVIEWS Kneecap Reviewed by Declan McGrath ....................38 Close Your Eyes Reviewed by Imogen Sara Smith ...............40 Lee Reviewed by Will DiGravio ..........................42 Rumours Reviewed by Graham Fuller ........................44 Janet Planet Reviewed by Robert Koehler .......................46 Dance First Reviewed by Darragh O’Donoghue ............48 Sing Sing Reviewed by Page Laws ..............................50 The Substance Reviewed by Paul Risker ..............................52

HOME VIDEO REVIEWS Pharaoh Reviewed by Darragh O’Donoghue............54 Bandits of Orgosolo Reviewed by Stuart Liebman .....................56 Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid Reviewed by Jonathan Kirshner ................58 Io Capitano Reviewed by Megan Feeney ......................60 Victims of Sin Reviewed by Karen Backstein ....................62 Typhoon Club Reviewed by Adam Bingham ....................64 Staff Recommendations Reviewed by Cineaste Editors ....................67

BOOK REVIEWS Mary C. McCall Jr.: The Rise and Fall of Hollywood’s Most Powerful Screenwriter Reviewed by Megan Feeney ......................68 A Shared Cinema: Michel Ciment— Conversations with N. T. Binh Reviewed by David Sterritt .........................69 A Complicated Passion: The Life and Work of Agnès Varda Reviewed by Thom Delapa ........................70 Revolution in 35mm: Political Violence and Resistance from the Arthouse to the Grindhouse, 1960–1990 Reviewed by Adrian Martin ........................72 King Vidor in Focus: On the Filmmaker’s Artistry and Vision Reviewed by Charles Maland .....................73 The Future Was Now: Madmen, Mavericks, and the Epic Sci-Fi Summer of 1982 Reviewed by Larry Ceplair .........................75 Dorothy Parker in Hollywood Reviewed by Elroy Rosenberg ...................76 Book Brief Reviews ..............................78

DEPARTMENTS Editorial ..............................................1 Letters ........................................................3 Index to Cineaste, Volume XLIX......29 Short Takes .............................................80

2 CINEASTE, Winter 2024

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