December 2007

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Features

#The Incomplete Tsai Ming-liang

Who else could combine sex with watermelons and the backdrop of an abandoned, leaking building into an ascetic musical? Roger Clarke talks to Taiwanese cinema's great poet of eroticism and loneliness

#Channelling The Past

Channel 4 is 25 years old - and to celebrate its jubilee Alkarim Jivani recalls the way it transformed the broadcasting landscape and Britain's image of itself with founder members Jeremy Isaacs, Liz Forgan and Roger Graef, current C4 head of television Kevin Lygo and experts Mark Lawson and Sarita Malik

Twilight of the idol

The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford is a luminous Western with lessons about hero worship and media manipulation that resonate in the 21st century. Jim Kitses celebrates a new entry in the genre that never goes away

Now I see a darkness

What fuelled Ingmar Bergman's lifelong obsession with death? Geoffrey Macnab investigates the Bergman archives to uncover how the traumas of World War II affected the fledgling director

Dealing dope and death

American directors are turning their attention to a nation in crisis. Nick James shows how TV shows like The Wire and films like Ridley Scott's American Gangster package political concerns into genre formats

Dreaming low-life

Rainer Werner Fassbinder found the source novel for Berlin Alexanderplatz helped him survive a "murderous puberty". Tony Rayns welcomes the restoration on DVD of the 14-part television serial that represents the keystone of the director's career

Selected reviews

#DVD review: Breathless

Tim Lucas on Breathless , the seminal new-wave film that broke all the rules of storytelling and form

#Into the Wild

A recreation of the real-life journey of 22-year-old drop-out Chris McCandless from the comfort of Virginia to the solitude of Alaska proves the perfect vehicle for Sean Penn's directorial talents. Tim Robey follows the trail

#The Darjeeling Limited

#Lagerfeld Confidential

Reviews in this issue:

  • 4:30
  • Air Guitar Nation
  • The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
  • Black Sheep
  • Blame It on Fidel
  • DVD review: Breathless
  • Brick Lane
  • Les Chansons d'amour
  • Clubland
  • Cocaine Cowboys
  • A Crude Awakening The Oil Crash
  • The Darjeeling Limited
  • Elizabeth The Golden Age
  • Ex Drummer
  • The Extras
  • Good Luck Chuck
  • Halloween
  • The Heartbreak Kid
  • Hotel Harabati
  • I Do
  • I Don't Want to Sleep Alone
  • I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry
  • In Memory of Me
  • In the Shadow of the Moon
  • Into the Wild
  • The Jane Austen Book Club
  • Jesus Camp
  • KM31 Kilómetro 31
  • Lagerfeld Confidential
  • The Lookout
  • The Magic Flute
  • Man in the Chair
  • Manufacturing Dissent: Uncovering Michael Moore
  • Marigold
  • Mr. Woodcock
  • The Nanny Diaries
  • Never Apologize A Personal Visit with Lindsay Anderson
  • Planet Terror
  • Princess
  • Rendition
  • Rescue Dawn
  • The Right of the Weakest
  • Shrooms
  • Sicko
  • Sigur Rós Heima
  • Sleuth
  • Talk to Me
  • War
  • The Wayward Cloud
  • Weirdsville
  • Wristcutters A Love Story
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011