The Film Stage

Claire Denis Eyes Crime Drama The Soap Maker
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Claire Denis, set to turn 79 this year, has not slowed in the least. As cameras roll on Cry of the Guards she’s entered negotiations to direct The Soap Maker, an update-of-sorts of Mauro Bolognini’s 1977 horror feature Gran Bollito,...
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The Actor Trailer: André Holland-Led Noir Drama Arrives This March
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After co-helming Anomalisa with Charlie Kaufman, we’ve long anticipated Duke Johnson’s next feature The Actor. A decade since the filmmaker’s last film, the drama is finally set for a release from NEON, and it’s much sooner than expected. The André...
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Berlinale Review: Reflection in a Dead Diamond is a Feverish, Visceral Assault on the Senses
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Positive or not, all critical appraisals of Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani’s films inevitably land on the same talking point: their inordinate cinephilia. Rightly so: the Belgian duo’s filmography––an oeuvre now spanning four features and a handful of shorts––teems with...
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Charles Burnett’s Landmark Masterpiece Killer of Sheep Gets New Theatrical Trailer for 4K Restoration
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It was just last week we published an interview with the great Charles Burnett, whose 1999 drama The Annihilation of Fish was finally resurrected and is now rolling out in theaters. This spring, Kino Lorber will now give another one...
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First Trailer for Michael Shannon’s Directorial Debut Eric LaRue Starring Judy Greer and Alexander Skarsgård
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After working with such directors as Werner Herzog, Sidney Lumet, William Friedkin, Guillermo del Toro, Rian Johnson, Jeff Nichols, and many more, Michael Shannon embarked on his directorial debut a few years ago. Eric LaRue, scripted by Brett Neveu based...
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Bring Her Back Trailer: Sally Hawkins Leads the Next Horror Feature From Talk to Me Directors 
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After being one of the biggest Sundance breakout stories in the last few years, Talk to Me filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou quickly embarked on their next feature. Sally Hawkins, who opted out of the latest Paddington, is ready for some visceral...
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Berlinale Review: Yalla Parkour Paints a Resilient, Risk-Taking Portrait of Palestinian Life
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As horrifying images and videos of Israel’s forced displacement and ethnic-cleansing in Gaza, now supported with even more tenacity on the part of the United States regime, become the principal media representation of Palestinian lives, the importance of showing a...
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“Cinema Should Serve as a Doorway to the Transcendent”: Nino Martínez Sosa on Liborio
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Through the story of the religious leader Papá Liborio, Nino Martínez Sosa’s 2021 film Liborio deftly contends with the cultural, spiritual, and political forces of a colonized Dominican Republic. After establishing a Black, self-sufficient community in the rural hills of...
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The Criterion Channel’s March Lineup Features Michael Mann, Alain Guiraudie, Dogme 95 & More
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No streaming service does a director retrospective like the Criterion Channel, and March offers two masters at opposite ends of exposure. On one side is Michael Mann, whose work from Thief through Collateral (minus The Keep) is given a spotlight;...
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Berlinale Review: The Ice Tower is Lucile Hadžihalilović’s Most Bewitching Film Yet
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If there is a filmmaker whose work can be described as “elemental cinema,” that’s Lucile Hadžihalilović. It’s easy to chronicle her 2015 film Evolution as fluvial for its many water (and underwater) scenes, but also how its rhythmic flow steers...
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