You have to admire the absolute gumption that Olivier Assayas demonstrated when he set out to make Irma Vep. His admiration for the brilliant Maggie Cheung was so sincere, he constructed an entire film around her in order to work with her, which led to a very promising partnership between the two artists, which extended…

While it may not be a universally exciting occurrence, but I am always fascinated when comedians decide to step behind the camera and make their directorial debut, which is often a moment in which great cinematic voices are born. It’s certainly more interesting when they go against the grain and direct in a completely different…

One of the many fascinating quirks about the film industry is that if an actor puts in enough work early in their career, and maintains a level of decency and respectability, there comes a point where they are given carte blanche to spend their time however they see fit, without any risk of being viewed…

There has been few concepts that have corrupted the social psyche more than that of suburbia. The idealistic image of charming houses situated behind white picket fences, inhabited by representatives of the perfect nuclear family based on a Norman Rockwell-esque social utopia, has never been feasible. Yet, those who dare to speak out on the…

You have to give credit to Quentin Dupieux for the sheer audacity that guides his career – who else has the gall to make the films that absolutely no one asked for, but yet feel almost essential once we spend some time with them? With a directorial career that started under his musical moniker of…

While is appropriately seen as the elder statesman of Spanish cinema, there was a time when Pedro Almodóvar was not only a young filmmaker, but a controversial one. Based on this current status, it is bewildering to imagine that there was a time when he regularly courted controversy, and seemed to genuinely enjoy scandalizing the…

Wayne Wang occupies a peculiar place in the cinematic culture, since he is not a particularly well-known director on a larger scale, but he is one that is widely respected amongst the niche group of devotees that see the merit in his work. He is best known for American productions like The Joy Luck Club…

The distinction between good satire and revolutionary satire is extremely narrow, and can’t always be predicted at the time, since artists can rarely predict how relevant their work will be in later years, and the extent to which future generations may engage with their ideas. However, the best satires are those that take a bold…

While is a director that has never avoided experimenting with style, although outside of a few radical diversions into very different genres, his films generally maintain a similar quality of being either outrageously funny comedies (particularly in his earlier career) or more self-reflective, complex existential films that blur the boundary between comedy and drama in…

While his career had its origins and conclusion outside of the decade, the 1970s were the period in which Hal Ashby did his greatest work, with nearly every film he produced during this era being masterpieces in some way, and where nothing he made after 1979 being worth much, residing in relative obscurity that is…