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2 articles from 2008

23 September 2008 11:36 AM, PDT | From ifc.com | See recent IFC news

By Michael Atkinson

When we first met Aki Kaurismäki, in 1989 when "Ariel" had its run as probably the first Finnish film to play theatrically in America since Jörn Donner's "Portraits of Women" (1970), we more or less fell in love. Lost in the hollow skull of the Reagan-Bush '80s, suffering the ascension of Spielberg and Ivan Reitman and Shane Black, wondering what remote atoll international art cinema had escaped to, and more or less completely ignorant of Finnish life, we had every reason to embrace this last of the red hot deadpan existentialists, whose films somehow altered the cellular structure of working class depression and turned it into cool comedy. His distinctively bittersweet dyspepsia established Kaurismäki, in a thick run of films that included "Leningrad Cowboys Go America" (1989), "The Match Factory Girl" (1990) and "La Vie de Bohème" (1992), as a new arthouse brand name, a kind of vodka-weary Bresson-meets-Tati.

Kaurismäki

Michael Atkinson

10 July 2008 12:48 PM, PDT | From OriginalAlamo.com | See recent AlamoDrafthouseCinema news

To celebrate master filmmaker Monte Hellman's upcoming July 23 appearance at the Ritz we present an appreciation by one of Austin's leading lights.

Richard Linklater's Things I Love About Two-Lane Blacktop

Because it's the purest American road movie ever.

Because it's like a drive-in movie directed by a French New Wave director.

Because the only thing that can get between a boy and his car obsession is a girl, and Laurie Bird perfectly messes up the oneness between the Driver, the Mechanic, and their car.

Because Dennis Wilson gives the greatest performance ever by a driver.

Because James Taylor seems like a refugee from a Robert Bresson movie.

Because there was once a god who walked the Earth named Warren Oates.

Because there's a continuing controversy over who is the actual lead in this movie. There are different camps. Some say it's the '55 Chevy, some say it's the Gto.

Lars Nilsen

2 articles from 2008