Filmmaker Retrospective: The Realistic Cinema of Jia Zhangke

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Over the past decade, Jia Zhangke has secured his position not only as the leading figure of China’s “Sixth Generation” of filmmakers, but also as one of the world’s most important contemporary directors. Hailing from the small city of Fenyang in Shanxi province, Jia spent his free time on the streets, a self-professed hooligan of […]

Filmmaker Retrospective: The Cinema of Paul Thomas Anderson

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On October 6, 2014, Paul Thomas Anderson’s new film, Inherent Vice, an unprecedented adaptation of Thomas Pynchon, will premiere at the 52nd New York Film Festival. Every available scrap of information to be found on the internet is being trawled by the ‘unofficial’ fan page dedicated to him: Cigarettes and Red Vines – the Definitive […]

20 Essential Films For An Introduction To Soviet Cinema

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The history of soviet cinema began from the 1917 Russian and Revolution and ended somewhere in 1996. Even after the collapse of SSSR, the Soviet atmosphere could still be felt. The Soviet movie industry has spanned a lot of years and genres, starting from experimental avant-garde of Eisenstein, continuing with the focus on socialistic problems, […]