The Other Side of the Road

by Steven Rybin

[26.1.10] - Australian director John Hillcoat's stately Western "The Proposition" (2005) was a stark, mystical story about a civilization's confrontation with its own barely repressed savagery. In mounting an adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's austere apocalyptic novel "The Road", Hillcoat is working with a similar theme, and has found an even more suitable narrative context for the earlier film's end-of-a-world tone, eschewing only the dust browns and evening blues of "The Proposition" for the harsh whites, grays, and blacks appropriate to the wintry devastation of McCarthy's vision. Although Hillcoat thus comes well prepared to an adaptation of The Road, his film version nevertheless has the disadvantage of greeting legions of viewers, less familiar with "The Proposition", perhaps, than with McCarthy's novel, who may be suspicious of an attempt to transpose the book's rigorously affecting prose to the cinema. His effort is also coming on the successful heels of 2007's film version of McCarthy's "No Country for Old Men", an Oscar winner and an intimidating benchmark by any measure.

[en] The Other Side of the Road

Reviews » La teta asustada, Llosa, 2009

Golden Bears, Amulets, and Old Wives’ Tales?

by Ryan Prout

[8.1.10] - La teta asustada is the second feature from Peruvian director Claudia Llosa. An international co-production, some of the funding for the film came from Spain where Llosa has been based for the past several years. Set in and around Lima, the drama grabbed headlines in February 2009 when an international jury headed by Tilda Swinton selected the film for the prestigious Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival. The film has also picked up awards at the Guadalajara Mexican Film Festival and at the Montréal Festival of New Cinema. However, the film failed to win the main prize at the Lima Latin American Film Festival which gave rise to subsequent speculation about divisions among the jury there over the merit of the film’s folkloric elements.

[en] Golden Bears, Amulets, and Old Wives’ Tales?

Reviews » Capitalism: A Love Story, Moore, 2009

Love in the Time of Capitalism

by Salvador Jimenez Murguia

[15.12.09] - Modern mediums of art and film have provided extraordinary opportunities to deliver messages of change, and at times, offering insight on how to do so. Without a doubt, as a connoisseur of cinematographic philosophy, Michael Moore has continually grappled with interpretations of a world around him; yet changing the collective perception of his viewers has never been a simple task.

[en] Love in the Time of Capitalism