Rome, Open City: Directed by: Roberto Rossellini Written by: Federico Fellini, Sergio Amidei Starring: Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero Cinematography by: Ubaldo Arata Music by: Renzo Rossellini Released: September 27th, 1945 Neorealist cinema has featured into the Criterion Files before– I wrote about Vittorio De Sica’s classic entry in the movement, Bicycle Thieves, much earlier this year (and followed that piece up with an examination of Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, arguably a contemporary neorealist effort despite valid arguments that neorealist cinema no longer exists)– but Rossellini’s landmark contribution to neorealism, Rome, Open City, represents a very different side of that Italian-born aesthetic. For all of its somber qualities, Bicycle Thieves…
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The Criterion Files: Brazil
Brazil: Directed by: Terry Gilliam Written by: Terry Gilliam, Tom Stoppard, Charles McKeown Starring: Jonathan Pryce, Robert De Niro, Kim Greist, Ian Holm, Bob Hoskins, Michael Palin, Katherine Helmond Cinematography by: Roger Pratt Music by: Michael Kamen Released: December 18th, 1985 Terry Gilliam may possess a degree of prescience, not full-blown clairvoyance but respectable foreknowledge. Then again, studios might just be that predictable. When Gilliam made Brazil, his magnum opus, in 1985, he had in his hands a significant and excellent sociopolitical/cultural satire rife with relevance, a film that skewers the haughty foibles of upper crust society and shines a harsh light on the constricting, stymieing grip of bureaucratic foolishness.…
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The Criterion Files: Days of Heaven
Days of Heaven: Directed by: Terrence Malick Written by: Terrence Malick Starring: Richard Gere, Abby Brooks, Sam Shepard, Linda Manz Cinematography by: Néstor Almendros, Haskell Wexler Music by: Ennio Morricone Released: September 13, 1973 Among the minute number of films Terrence Malick has directed over the course of his decade-spanning career, 1978’s Days of Heaven stands out as his most significant. Maybe it isn’t difficult to rise to the top of a five picture filmography (Malick’s sixth feature length release, To the Wonder, is allegedly due out later this year, and he has two more features tentatively planned to be shot back-to-back soon after), but the purpose of this exercise isn’t about competition;…