Winners: From ‘Nanny’ and ‘Navalny’ to Crowd-Pleaser ‘Cha Cha Real Smooth,’ Sundance Spreads the Wealth The virtual 2022 Sundance Fest concluded with a virtual awards show — no host this year, just a series of statements and videos parceled out across two hours via Twitter. It was an anti-climactic way of wrapping a low-key festival, even […]

A chronicle of the struggle of Indigenous people in Brazil to protect their ancestral land, Alex Pritz’s debut documentary was involvement of the Uru-eu-wau-wau community.   The Territory COURTESY OF SUNDANCE INSTITUTE Focusing on “an island of rainforest surrounded by farms,” The Territory is a first feature for cinematographer Alex Pritz. Its producers include director Darren Aronofsky, […]

Kaplan: Forms of Phallic Domination (1984) Two main cycles of films have dominated commercial cinema from the mid 1960s, in the wake of the women’s movement. The first excluded women (the buddy-buddy film), avoiding the problem of sexual difference altogether. The second, emerging when the problem of sexual difference could no longer be avoided, showed […]

Somerset Maugham Another dear friend, a member of Cukor’s British colony in Hollywood (which included Noel Coward, Vivien Leigh, and others) was noted British writer, Somerset Maugham. Cukor and Maugham’s long-enduring friendship began in as 1923, when Cukor served as a stage manager for Maugham’s three one-act farce, The Camel’s Back on Broadway.  There is […]

An important shift is taking place in the entertainment industry, as streaming services such as Netflix have begun to overshadow traditional theatrical distributors. Some directors, who cherish having their movies projected on the widest of screens, bemoan the change. Fincher embraces it. “Let’s be real: The exhibition experience is not the shining link in the […]