FEATURES
THE CORPORATION
By Alissa Quart
Bashing big business is more fashionable than ever in nonfiction film. Super Size Me and The Corporation offer two contrasting models for this growth industry.
THE BIG RED ONE
By Kent Jones
Combat veteran Samuel Fuller’s epic meditation on the crazy logic of war returns in something close to the form he originally intended.
Plus: an inside look at the restoration process by Richard Schickel
THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST
By Geoffrey O’Brien
One of Hollywood’s biggest stars has pulled off an unprecedented feat: his radically opportunistic film is also the top-grossing indie of all time. A closer look at the aesthetic imperatives behind Mel Gibson’s movie.
SPECIAL SECTION: MAURICE PIALAT
The most important French filmmaker of the last 30 years remains almost unknown in America. A year after his death, we take the measure of this uncompromising and tough-minded observer of human foibles, for whom movie artifice was anathema. A film-by-film journey from his early shorts through such milestones as We Won’t Grow Old Together, À nos amours, and Van Gogh.
Lightning in a Bottle by Kent Jones
Maurice Pialat interviewed by Christian Fevret and Serge Kaganski
Early Shorts by Elisabeh Lequeret
L’Enfance nue by Jean-Pierre Gorin
La Maison des bois by Serge Kaganski
We Won’t Grow Old Together by Dave Kehr
La Gueule ouverte by David Thompson
Passe ton bac d’abord by Jean-Baptiste Morain
Loulou by Molly Haskell
À nos amours by Jean-Michel Frodon
Police by Frédéric Bonnaud
Under the Sun of Satan by Kent Jones
Van Gogh by Phillip Lopate
Le Garçu by Frédéric Bonnaud
MIKE HODGES
By Gary Indiana
With I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead, the director and the star of Croupier reunite for a lethally fragmented revenge drama, set in a netherworld where nothing is what it seems and every step brings you closer to your ultimate destiny.
PETER WATKINS
By Paul Arthur
With his critiques of militarism and mass media, and his explorations of the creative psyche, this controversial Englishman in exile and pioneer of documentary hybrids has challenged the political and cinematic status quo every step of the way.
DEPARTMENTS
EDITOR’S LETTER
OPENING SHOTS
News, Distributor Wanted: Le Monde Vivant by Amy Taubin, Guy Maddin’s Jolly Corner: Guy Maddin on Night Must Fall (1937)
JOURNAL
Giovanni Spagnoletti on Rome
OLAF’S WORLD
Olaf Möller on Sicilian renegades Ciprì and Maresco
DISCOVERY
Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright by David Cox
CRITICS CHOICE
Eight critics rate 25 new releases
MOVIE OF THE MOMENT
Richard Linklater’s Before Sunset by Amy Taubin
FESTIVAL
Berlin by Olaf Möller and Alice Lovejoy & New Directors/New Films by Elizabeth Helfgott
REVIEW
Free Radicals by Kristin M. Jones, The Five Obstructions by Richard Combs, and The Mother by Nicole Armour
BOOKS
Future Cinema by Brian Frye and Ingrid Caven by Gary Indiana
VIDI VIDI VIDI
Love Actually by Gavin Smith, The Rainbow Man/John 3:16 by Chris Chang, SCTV Network/90 Vol. 1 by Kent Jones
FSLC SEEN
Who’s who at recent Film Society events
ONLINE EXCLUSIVES
The Necessity of Jesus
By Olaf Möller
Paolo Benvenuti beat Mel Gibson to it: The Kiss of Judas (Il bacio di Giuda) is one of cinema’s most intriguing interpretations of the Nazerene
