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'Life is a game.' One of the earliest reviews of the cinema began with these four wild words. Writing in London's The New Review in 1896, the mysterious O. Winter [...]

Jay Leyda--or rather his absence--frequently haunts my efforts at film scholarship. (1) Consider People's Congressman (1948), a campaign film for U.S. Congressman Vito Marcantonio, which I first encountered in the [...]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a newspaper column published in April 1953, the American social critic Walter Lippmann sharply criticized the creation of a newly bureaucratized government propaganda agency by noting the [...]

I thought, just like many people think, that the people of the state or the people of the country have a memory of the things that you did when you [...]

I tell you, it is hard to say all that North Carolina is. But she is all of this and more. --FROM THE FILM NORTH CAROLINA: THE TAR HEEL STATE [...]

Michael Relph and Basil Dearden had an unpretentious approach to filmmaking, an adaptability that helped them survive the collapse of Ealing where several of their colleagues faltered. A discussion on the Dearden-Relph partnership offers some possible explanations for their successful post-Ealing collaboration that resulted in 17 films in a wide range of genres.

A discussion on Chantal Akerman's work reveals that her 1983 film 'The Eighties' was made as a kind of proof of concept for the more ambitious 'Window Shopping' of 1986, and contains bits of the gestures, set-up and songs of the later movie. Both films imply an equation between deadpan postmodern irony, the commodification of all forms of self-expression, and the conventional nature of the signs that represent emotion.

Issues related to the films of Euzhan Palcy, a black woman director from Martinique, are examined. Topics include her use of film to educate audiences about black history in such films as 'Sugarcane Alley,' 'A Dry White Season,' and 'A Voice for History'; and themes she employs such as inadequate education for blacks, South African apartheid, postcolonialism, and the statesmanship of Aime Cesaire, the Martinican poet.

Issues related to the life and work of Moroccan filmmaker Farida Benlyazid are examined. Topics include her struggles for independence as a divorced mother; her studies in Paris, France; and the themes regarding such issues as societal outsiders, cultural and personal identity, and the state of modern women in such films as 'Cane Dolls,' Badis,' 'Door to the Sky,' and 'Looking for the Husband of My Wife.'

Issues related to the political and artistic elements of the 1994 Tunisian film by Moufida Tlatli, 'Silences of the Palace,' focusing on the parallel narratives between the gaining of independence for Tunisia and the gaining of independence of the film's main character, the daughter of a slave. Topics include the patriarchal aspects of postcolonial societies, and an interpretation of the unwed main character's choice to give birth to a daughter as a way to redefine gender and nation.

The Russian film director Sergei Eisenstein developed his theory of film making while teaching at the Soviet Union's Institute of Cinematography in the 1930s. He conducted a workshop on directing from 1932 to 1935. He used the workshop both to model the artistic film experience by creating and to explore the aesthetic theory of film with his students. His ideas of image and representation were created then, used as instruction for his students and refined in the process. These ideas from the 1930s became central to his film theory of montage and organicism.

The director Peter Watkins has created his masterpiece of media criticism with the 14.5 hour-long film 'The Journey.' The film seems to consist of disconnected interviews and documentaries about the problems of the world such as militarism, pollution, hunger or media deconstruction. The separate themes eventually merge into a global picture with globalism as the main theme. All problems are seen to relate to all others, including the media presentation of reality. Another dimension of media criticism emerges from the obvious difficulties overcome in the process of filming.

Pedro Almodovar is Spain's leading film maker. His latest film is 'High Heels. 'Production of the film is described, and Almodovar's career is detailed.

Actress Jodie Foster is showing a great talent for directing on the film 'Little Man Tate.' The film's story is about a child prodigy, a subject Foster is very familiar with.

'Prospero's Books' is the latest film by Peter Greenaway. This controversial work freely adapts Shakespeare's 'The Tempest,' and contains many scenes containing nudity.

Actor-director Kenneth Branagh followed up his success as the star and director of 'Henry V' with the film 'Dead Again.' The film is a murder mystery with strange twists involving reincarnation.

The movies of Stanley Kubrick, Brian DePalma and Martin Scorsese share common features of intertextuality and parody. This is illustrated by the movies 'Body Double,' 'The King of Comedy' and 'The Shining.' Common features include intertextual overkill, failed artist nonheroes, daring to be bad parody, conflicted obsessions, self-parody directors' signatures and cultural juxtapositions as parodies.