May 2012

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Features

#The great escape: La Grande Illusion

In past S&S polls of the greatest films of all time, Jean Renoir’s La Grande Illusion has lost out to his later, allegedly more personal film La Règle du jeu. It’s time to reconsider, says Ginette Vincendeau

#Blood and sand: Beau Travail

In the latest of our essays making the case for contenders in S&S’s poll to find the Greatest Film of All Time, Hannah McGill revisits Beau Travail, Claire Denis’s rapturous 1998 exploration of male identity in crisis

#Lost and found: Group Portrait with Lady

Like so many films by the great Yugoslavian director Aleksandar Petrovic, Group Portrait with Lady is off the radar. By Vlastimir Sudar

Cover feature: Minor quay

Since leaving his native Finland, director Aki Kaurismäki has broadened his canvas with Le Havre, but his deadpan vision remains the same. Michael Brooke talks to him, and surveys his career to date

A man apart

Artist-filmmaker Ben Rivers’s feature debut Two Years at Sea is a mesmerising portrait of life on the margins. He talks to Andréa Picard

Whit and whimsy

Fans of Whit Stillman have had a long wait for another taste of his acerbic dialogue and wry social portraiture. He talks to Nick Pinkerton about his first film in 14 years, Damsels in Distress

Revolt into style

From Futurism to Dogme, filmmakers have felt the urge to pronounce new laws of their art. Nick James charts a brief history of the manifesto

Blood and sand

In the first of two pieces on contenders for S&S’s upcoming Greatest Film of All Time poll, Hannah McGill revisits Beau Travail, Claire Denis’s rapturous 1998 exploration of male identity

Moon kampf

Timo Vuorensola’s satirical sci-fi comedy Iron Sky takes Nazi scientific theory to its illogical conclusion. By Kim Newman

A canadian in paris

What is Winnipeg’s most famous director Guy Maddin up to in the basement of the Pompidou Centre? Jonathan Romney pays his respects to ‘The Seances Project’

Selected reviews

#Film review: Breathing

Karl Markovics’ debut study of an institutionalised teenager finding release in mortuary work takes several leaves from the Dardennes’ neorealist playbook. Catherine Wheatley sees muted naturalism turn to the sublime

#Film review: The Cabin in the Woods

Drew Goddard and producer Joss Whedon’s marvellous meta-monster horror may be smarter (and funnier) than it is scary, says Kim Newman

#Film review: Damsels in Distress

The erstwhile laureate of satires of the American preppie heart, Whit Stillman breaks his 13-year silence with a decidedly tongue-in-cheek college comedy. Kate Stables wonders if its frivolity is for real

#Film of the month: Goodbye First Love

Girl meets boy, girl loses boy, girl meets older man… The new film by Mia Hansen-Løve confirms the promise of Father of My Children with a frank – and very French – look at the pangs of young love, says Philip Kemp

#Film review: Le Havre

In Aki Kaurismäki’s deadpan fairytale of working-class solidarity, quirky flirts with cutesy and bathos with true poignancy. Hannah McGill sees the raw humanity shining through

#DVD: The Mizoguchi Collection

The films of Mizoguchi Kenji combine detachment with intense emotional involvement, argues Brad Stevens

Reviews in this issue:

  • Albert Nobbs
  • Angel & Tony
  • Beauty
  • Being Elmo
  • Blackthorn
  • Film review: Breathing
  • Buck
  • Film review: The Cabin in the Woods
  • A Cat in Paris
  • Cleanskin
  • Film review: Damsels in Distress
  • Delicacy
  • The Divide
  • Elles
  • Gone
  • Film of the month: Goodbye First Love
  • Grave Encounters
  • Hara-kiri Death of a Samurai
  • Hard Boiled Sweets
  • Film review: Le Havre
  • The Hunger Games
  • Iron Sky
  • Jeff, Who Lives at Home
  • John Carter
  • London Paris New York
  • Marley
  • The Monk
  • Mozart’s Sister
  • Oliver Sherman
  • The Other Side of Sleep
  • Payback Season
  • The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!
  • Project X
  • The Raven
  • Salmon Fishing in the Yemen
  • Silent House
  • Town of Runners
  • Two Years at Sea
  • Wanderlust
  • We Are Poets
  •  
  • DVD: The Mizoguchi Collection
  • DVD feature: Geoffrey Macnab revisits a quartet of post-war classics from Poland
  • DVD feature: Tim Lucas is captivated by a new film that brings Bruegel to life
  • DVD: American Dreams (lost and found)/Landscape Suicide
  • DVD: Il boom
  • DVD: The Doom Generation
  • DVD: Encounters: Four Ground-Breaking Classics of Gay Cinema
  • DVD: Friendly Fire
  • DVD: Game of Thrones
  • DVD: Her Private Hell
  • DVD: Italian Crime Collection: Fernando Di Leo
  • DVD: Films by Fritz Lang
  • DVD: Lifeboat
  • DVD: Male of the Species
  • DVD: Miracle in Milan
  • DVD: Films by Edgar Reitz
  • DVD: Carlos Saura’s Flamenco Trilogy
  • DVD: Films by Imamura Shohei
  • DVD: Treasure Train
  • DVD: Urbanized
  •  
  • Book: Nick Pinkerton savours a film-by-film appreciation of Barbara Stanwyck
  • Book: John Wrathall evaluates tips from yet another guide to the art of screenwriting
  • Book: Michael Atkinson hails a pioneering survey of the career of Russian director Alexander Sokurov
  • Book: Jane Giles relishes a good-natured account of Hollywood sexual excess from the 1940s to the 1980s
Last Updated: 20 Dec 2011