Articles by Alison Frank
123 articles
Cinema’s 9 Circles of Hell
The cinema: paradise, at times, but many are the sins that writers, directors, cinema owners and fellow audience members can commit to bring the whole experience swiftly down to the ground. Dante...
Dec 13, 2011 / Alison Frank‘The Other’ at The 2nd London Iranian Film Festival
The London Iranian Film Festival is only in its second year, but already it boasts an enchanting and highly professional-looking trailer, as well as a varied line-up of films that blast open the old...
Dec 6, 2011 / Alison Frank‘Leaving’: Made in Prague
This year London’s Czech Film Festival, ‘Made in Prague’ celebrated its 15 th edition (10-27 November). The theme for 2011 was ‘Film and Literature’, and included hard-to-find retro delights such as...
Nov 29, 2011 / Alison FrankA Step Forward: New African Film in Paris
Going to the cinema is one of many everyday pleasures to be had in Paris: the typical variety of films on offer, particularly in the Latin Quarter, seems like a 365-day film festival. On any given...
Nov 21, 2011 / Alison FrankAdapting to ‘The Skin I Live In’: The Antidote to Horror
I won’t give too much away about The Skin I Live In ( La piel que habito ): unlike Woody Allen’s films, an Almodóvar doesn’t come along every year, so it’s important to savour them. Psychologists at...
Nov 4, 2011 / Alison Frank‘Chicken with Plums’: Better on Paper
It’s a well-worn observation that the book is better than the movie. But what about the graphic novel? It seems reasonable to expect the transition from one predominantly visual medium to another to...
Oct 27, 2011 / Alison Frank‘Alois Nebel’: Surrounded by Fog
The feature debut of director Tomáš Lunák, Alois Nebel (2011) is an animated film based on a trilogy of graphic novels by Jaromír99 and Jaroslav Rudiš. The film’s black-and-white images sometimes...
Oct 26, 2011 / Alison FrankThe Descendants: The Kids Will Be All Right
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, 2010) was a highlight of last year’s BFI London Film Festival. This year’s highlight looks set to be The Descendants (Alexander Payne, 2011), a film similar...
Oct 25, 2011 / Alison Frank‘The Artist’: Long on Art, Short on Plot
Have you ever wondered what it was like for spectators watching their first sound film? Michel Haznavicius’ latest feature brings home just how strange it would have been. For the most part, The...
Oct 24, 2011 / Alison FrankWhere Do We Go Now? Onwards and upwards
After making her feature debut as an actress in Bosta (2005), a film about a travelling dance troupe and their eponymous bus, Nadine Labaki went on to direct her own films, in which she also stars,...
Oct 19, 2011 / Alison FrankThe Exchange: Sociability for Self-Absorption
The Exchange ( Hahithalfut , 2011) is the latest feature from Eran Kolirin, who made a crowd-pleasing debut with his 2007 comedy The Band’s Visit . His new film is also intended as a comedy, but...
Oct 18, 2011 / Alison FrankA Disappointing Start to the 55th London Film Festival
Jude Law and Rachel Weisz star in Fernando Meirelles's "360" This year’s London Film Festival launched with a damp squib in the form of 360 , Fernando Meirelles’ latest feature. How far Merielles...
Oct 12, 2011 / Alison FrankBFI London Film Festival 2011: Preview
The 55 th edition of the London Film Festival (LFF) starts tomorrow, October 12 th , and runs until the 22 nd . This year the festival will screen 204 features and 110 shorts from 55 different...
Oct 11, 2011 / Alison FrankArsenals Day 2: Honouring Herz Frank
This year the Riga International Film Festival ‘Arsenals’ has chosen to honour Latvian documentarist Herz Frank on the occasion of his 85 th birthday. Sporting his signature knitted beret and Leica...
Sep 13, 2011 / Alison FrankArsenals Day 1: ‘Eternity’
‘Arsenals’, the 21 st Riga International Film Festival has begun, running from the 10 th –18 th of September 2011. Invited as a member of the FIPRESCI critics’ jury, I’ll be focusing mainly on the...
Sep 12, 2011 / Alison FrankRecent Articles
- Review: ‘A War’ explores war’s quiet, forgotten horrors
- TMA FilmCast #33 — Vera Chytilova and the Czech New Wave
- The fantasist: The comic art of Woody Allen
- Tribeca picks up North American rights to ‘Misery Loves Comedy’ at Sundance
- TMA FilmCast #32 — Alison Frank interviews Ana Geislerova
- ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ tops Online Film Critics Awards
- TMA FilmCast #31 — Alison Frank reports from 67th Locarno Film Fest
- 5 ½ hour film dominates awards at Locarno
- Shorts at #Locarno67: meditation vs testing the audience’s patience
- ‘The Fool’: A modern propaganda film
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