Colin MacCabe Movies

Actress Tilda Swinton collaborates with director Isaac Julien on this richly textured tribute to the late British filmmaker Derek Jarman. In 2002, Swinton penned the text entitled "Letter to an Angel" in memory of her deceased friend and collaborator. In this film, that elegiac piece of writing is carefully woven with a previously unseen interview with Jarman to create a highly original biography that doesn't rely on talking-head interviews but instead a dreamlike flow of images and observations. Jarman's old family films flicker across the screen as his parents recount his early life and adolescence, and excerpts from the director's films offer insight into the passion of an artist who flouted convention to create a truly unique body of work. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Anne-Marie Mieville and legendary French director Jean-Luc Godard worked together to create The Old Place, a cerebral exercise in explaining how art fits into the world. A collection of seemingly disparate images that edit together in occasionally entertaining, insightful, and profound ways, The Old Place was financed by the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art. This project, shot on videotape, was screened at the 2002 Cannes Film Festival. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In the late '60s, the tone of American horror films began to shift in the wake of the startling success of George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead -- horror films became gorier, bleaker, and began to subtly reflect the political and social upheaval gripping the country. Through the '70s and '80s, films like Last House on the Left, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween held a distorted mirror up to American culture, reflecting its fear and chaos in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate. The American Nightmare is a documentary that looks at the transgressive horror films of the '60s and '70s and the people who made them. Directors Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, and David Cronenberg, special effects man Tom Savini, and film critics Tom Gunning and Adam Lowenstein are among those interviewed by director Adam Simon. The American Nightmare was produced for the premium cable outlet The Independent Film Channel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This entry in the British Film Institute-sponsored international centennial celebration of cinema -- in which noted directors create a film that exemplifies the history of their country's cinema -- offers a brief retrospective of Indian cinema, an industry that annually produces over 800 films of widely varying subject matter and quality. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This entry in the British Film Institute-sponsored international centenary celebration of cinema -- in which noted directors make a film that exemplifies their country or region's cinematic history -- represents continental Africa. Unlike many other series filmmakers, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, a native of the Cameroons, chose not to make a creative documentary, but rather a satirical narrative debate between the characters Cinema and Cineaste about the movie preferences of African audiences. Do viewers prefer to see serious African art films (the kind that populate international festivals) or American action features? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera recounts the three stages of filmmaker Samuel Fuller's remarkable career -- from his beginnings as Arthur Brisbane's copy boy, to his experience as a rifleman in World War II, to his success as a "B" movie writer/director. Tim Robbins narrates the documentary and interviews the lively, articulate Fuller, while fans Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, and Jim Jarmusch provide commentary. The film is highlighted with clips from hard-to-find Fuller films and glimpses of the director's memorabilia, including Gene Evans' helmet from The Steel Helmet, a sword from The Crimson Kimono, and the famed portable camera that Fuller's mother sent to him while he was overseas. It also features Fuller's cartoons, his drawings, readings from his journal, and photographs from his personal collection. Yet, nothing is more prominent in the film than the eccentric, excited Fuller as he tells his own story. Produced only two years before the filmmaker's death in 1997, the documentary is one of his last onscreen appearances. Film critic Andrew Sarris declared that a Sam Fuller film cannot be explained, it must be seen. The same is true for Fuller himself, and this documentary is the closest today's fans will get to that experience. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

This documentary is one of a series put together by the British Film Institute which is called Century of Cinema, detailing the history of moviemaking around the world. This one was put together by director George Miller (Mad Max) and operates under the premise that filmmaking is for the modern Australian what the ancient storyline songs were for the tribal Aborigines. While the premise is not convincingly developed, the fascinating history of Australian filmmaking is shown, with appropriate clips from the films under discussion. Purists were reportedly distressed that some film clips included were not "letterboxed," but otherwise found this documentary to be both informative and interesting. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In 1994, the British Film Institute commissioned a set of films to mark the centenary of the movies. They would trace the history of several national cinemas, and the BFI's choice for interpreting the history of American film fell to director Martin Scorsese, a longtime champion of film history and preservation. Scorsese's approach to his subject is director-centered, as he examines the tension inherent in the struggle of an artist wishing to make a personal statement against the collaborative nature of films and the commercial pressures of the Hollywood moviemaking factory. Segments of this series are devoted to the director as storyteller (examining narrative devices in the Western, gangster film, and musical), illusionist (technical tricks), smuggler (imbedding personal messages), and iconoclast (bucking the system to make films his own way). The series is replete with telling clips, not just snippets or shots, but entire scenes which illustrate Scorsese and co-director Michael Henry Wilson's points. Other filmmakers, including John Ford, Francis Ford Coppola, Billy Wilder, and Orson Welles, are seen in archival footage or interviews created for the series, offering their own take on the art of filmmaking. Scorsese doesn't discriminate between filmmakers with glossy reputations and those who always worked on the fringe of public awareness. If anything, he goes out of his way to champion mavericks like Samuel Fuller whose "visceral cinema" never enjoyed box-office success or awards. Personal Journey was first shown on British TV, released in limited fashion to theaters in the United States, and shown here on TV as well. A tie-in book was published in 1997 by Miramax Books; it contains the entire script for the series, excellent black-and-white stills, and dialogue from some of the clips. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Utilizing computer-generated effects and creative splicing to place Germany's most famous living directors in a fantasy movie house, filmmaker Edgar Reitz takes an innovative approach toward exploring the history of German cinema. In this magical theater, directors such as Leni Riefenstahl, Detlev Buck, Volker Schloendorff, Margarethe von Trotta, Wim Wenders, Werner Herzog "discuss" the state of German cinema with a focus on New German Cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This Japanese documentary represents director Nagisa Oshima's entry in the British Film Institute commissioned series, "Century of Cinema," designed to be a collection of the personal opinions of renowned international filmmakers concerning the cinema of their native countries. It is entirely comprised of B&W stills and short film clips. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This South Korean documentary is an entry in the "Century of Cinema" celebration, which is sponsored by the British Film Institute and designed to allow prominent filmmakers to chronicle their country's cinematic history. This entry by Jang Sun-Woo reflects his thesis that Korean cinema is difficult to describe or categorize because it completely changes every few years to reflect the current social and political climate. He demonstrates his point with filmclips and interviews with prominent directors. He also journeys to historically (cinematically speaking) important locations. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This largely character-driven thriller-drama is the feature-film debut of British documentary filmmaker Isaac Julien, and provides viewers with an insider's look at the diverse lifestyles of hip, young black immigrants who lived upon the fringes of 1977 London society. The film begins in a colorful park setting where, in the late-night hours, gay men cruise. A stabbing occurs and unbeknownst to the killer, a passerby has recorded it on cassette. The story then jumps to two young aspiring DJs, the heterosexual and flamboyant Chris and his best friend, the gay and rather reserved Caz, as they defiantly broadcast soul music from their ragtag, rolling pirate radio station. With their "Soul Patrol," the two symbolically thumb their noses at the conservative BBC that dominates the airwaves. The murder victim is a friend of Caz, and he becomes a prime suspect in the case. Unbeknownst to him, someone has dropped by the cassette tape with the evidence that will save him. At the same time, his friendship with Chris becomes strained when it becomes obvious that both young men are on the cusp of heading in dramatically different life directions. Caz has been getting increasingly involved with the politics and wildness of the fledgling punk-rock movement, while normally wild Chris has been offered a lucrative contract to work as a DJ at a major, mainstream radio station by his new girlfriend Tracy, a production assistant there. Still, the two try to somehow prepare to co-host a concert protesting the upcoming Queen's Silver Jubilee celebration. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Melancholia is a British suspenser, filmed and financed in Germany. Jeroen Krabbe plays a German art critic who in more turbulent times had been a radical activist. Krabbe's past collides with his present when a London political figure is marked for assassination. With only the slightest tinge of conscience, Krabbe agrees to pull off the killing. It is always a pleasure to see leading lady Susannah York, even in the morally ambivalent circumstances of Melancholia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide