Articles
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The special effects of Tsui Hark
It took me a while to understand and finally appreciate Tsui Hark’s output since 2010. Up until 2008’s All About Women I had always come to grips with his cinema, in one way or another. However, I still remember leaving the screening of Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame at Venice Film Festival with more concerns for his career than excitement for what I had just seen. Somehow I wasn’t able to buy his love for CGI and 3-D.
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My 2016 in films
Instead of a list of the best films I saw this year, I would like to take a different approach. I keep track of every film I watch, so it is easy to highlight what really matters. Be it a classic from the 40s or a lost gem of the 90s, cinema is always much more than a mere round up.
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Usefulnessless
Unexpectedly, it took me more than usual to process Oliver Stone’s Snowden. It is not a convoluted film nor its craft stroke me as the more rewarding JFK. It is its inexplicable usefulnessless that kept tormenting my brain days after the viewing.
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Prince on film
I refrained from writing about Prince right after his recent death. Not only because I did not want to put myself in the same position shared by most commentators, but mainly because I felt in no position at all.
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Better Living Through Criticism
Anthony Oliver Scott – A. O. Scott as it is spelled on his Better Living Through Criticism – wrote a book that on almost every page seems to be pointing its finger at me. Incredibly, more often than not Better Living Through Criticism aims precisely at my cultural background, filling all the gaps my IT curriculum has left me with when I approach cinema and film criticism.