Dirty work: Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera unearths the contradictions at the heart of a brittle society where culture is yet another arena in which the wealthy exploit the poor
Wellness check: Nicolas Philibert’s new documentary On the Adamant is the latest in a long line of film portraits of hospitals, including films by Frederick Wiseman, Claire Simon, and others
Raindrops keep falling: Charles Burnett’s long unavailable The Annihilation of Fish is an interracial love story that does not make race and age “problems” to be solved, but treats them as mere facts of existence
Smile through it: a trilogy of early features by Dutch filmmaker Marleen Gorris explore the misogyny constraining women’s everyday lives—and their acts of disobedience and rebellion—through complex, provocative narratives
Together and apart: the two directors discuss the making of their award-winning documentary, their transition from journalism to cinema, and finding the right balance between images of incontrovertible violence with those of resilience and life
Look back in anger: the Polish filmmaker is perhaps best known for the proto-psychedelia of 1965’s The Saragossa Manuscript, but much of his formidable filmography consists of realist dramas that explore lost innocence and doomed love
Great expectations: the Romanian filmmaker discusses his madcap latest, an unpredictable, funny, crass, and erudite that speaks to a wide variety of concerns—totalitarianism, neoliberalism, and the corrosive role of media—with extraordinary verve
Sign up for the Film Comment Letter!
Thoughtful, original film criticism delivered straight to your inbox each week. Enter your email address below to subscribe.
