And  now, for the nearly-ritualistic Cannes Festival press release that announces little, leaves much to speculation and wraps up with a note of mystery while flirting with contradiction--and causes much collective eye-rolling in people, one would assume? It did in me, at least. I am rolling my eyes right now, at this strange bird of a message received in my inbox at 6 p.m. Paris time. It began thus: "Following the declaration

The 2020 Census is upon us, and its results will determine how much representation each district will get in the House of Representatives. But for decades there have been various attempts to cheat the system in a trick called gerrymandering, wherein voting districts are redrawn to effectively divide certain blocs and thus reduce their collective representative power in Congress.

“Slay the Dragon,”

Kioumars Derambakhsh, the Iranian director, documentary maker and still photographer, died in Paris of COVID 19, on March 31st. During his long career, his many interests and wide culture caused him to direct a number of documentaries on a range of subjects, (including a thirteen-episode series on the drawings of Eugène Flandin, famed French 19th-century traveler to Iran, or ancient Armenian churches in Ispahan) feature films

On January 29th, 1979, President Jimmy Carter and Chinese Deputy Premier Deng Xiaoping signed historic accords, reversing years of U.S. opposition to China. But now, on the forty-year anniversary of this normalization, the U.S. and China are at the threshold of what many fear is a new cold war.

“Better Angels,” a documentary directed by two-time Academy Award winner

These are tough times for movie lovers. Theaters across the country are closed, many libraries shuttered and people are staying home. However, there is still a way to enjoy watching films. In fact, it may give people a chance to see the more classic cinema that they’ve otherwise been ignoring. The Turner Classics Network (TCM) runs films 24/7 and perhaps the highlight of their line-up is the weekly segment “Noir Alley” hosted by noted

The one and only Phillip Marlowe. Created by Raymond Chandler, he is perhaps the best-known of all private eyes. Almost everyone knows his name. A good private detective thriller can be cinematic gold and if Phillip Marlowe is your guide through the mystery, all the better.

Marlowe is a tough-talking, hard-living, private eye who dives headfirst into the underbelly of his cases and always gets in

Canceled, not canceled. And now--maybe--merely postponed? The Cannes Festival, in a PR pas-de-deux that has sowed confusion and let on few key details, has issued a press release last night. In its usual imperfect English (but their heart was in it), the Cannes communiqué went :

"Today, we have made the following decision : The Festival de Cannes cannot be held on the scheduled dates, from May 12

A number of movie goers will surely identify with me when I say that, Swedish actor Max Von Sydow, who died on March 8th at the age ninety, has been part of my committed film-lover’s life for as far back as I can remember. His tall-as-a-tree lean—-later gnarled--body, his long face more and more gloomy as the years went by, were part of innumerable experiences, from the most esoteric Ingmar Bergman often indecipherable

Born in Soussa, Tunisia thirty-seven years ago, a consumer mainly of ninja and Jean-Claude Van Damme VHS movies as a teenager Ala Eddine Slim came into cinema upon discovering, not without thrills, "The Sunchaser” [1996] by Michael Cimino on television, "on a Thursday evening after Special Reporter." For the last ten years he has run, along with a few close friends, a kind of collective derived

PARIS - "[with a view to] ... honor those involved in making cinema in 2019, to regain calm and to make the cinema festival [otherwise known as the ceremony “Les Césars”] a celebration, the board of directors of the Association for the Promotion of Cinema has made the decision to resign unanimously [...]”

So read part of the press release issued by the executive board of the César Awards last Thursday