( Read more... )

( Read more... )

Swimming to Cambodia (Jonathan Demme, 1987). Jonathan Demme may not have been the best filmmaker of the nineteen-eighties, but I think there's an argument to be made that he was the most interesting. This film is a good illustration of that point. It's a film version of one of Spalding Gray's monologues, a meandering but always focused act of ( Read more... )

Roman Holiday (William Wyler, 1953). It would take some dedicated hunting through Hollywood history to find another star turn that justifies hanging an entire film upon it as much as the one at the center of this lovely wisp of a romantic comedy. It's really all about Audrey Hepburn and her swoon-inducing performance as a pampered princess who ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

The Agronomist (Jonathan Demme, 2003). I greatly admire Demme's commitment to interspersing documentaries and other non-fiction offerings throughout his filmography, but I also need to sadly concede that this is not a strong effort. The film examine the life and contentious career of Jean Dominique, who operated a Haitian radio station committed to ( Read more... )

( Read more... )

( Demme, McCarthy, Nair, Setton, Turtletaub )

( Read more... )

( Antonioni, Demme, Herzog, Roeg, Spielberg )