Lou Andreas-Salomé, born in Russia in 1861, machete-chopped herself into the inner sanctum of the all-male intellectual community in Germany with a strident drive for independence and equality. Gifted with an extraordinary intellect, a drive to pursue advanced study and a strong will, she demanded that the leading thinkers of her time, including Friedrich Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud, accept her like their other male colleagues.
Was she dreaming?
— by RON WILKINSON — Don Diego de Zama suffocates within a glass cage in the sweltering miasma of Spanish colonial Paraguay. A minor official of an invasion, he is stationed where occupiers are sent to die. If they do not die they are forgotten. South American born, and slowly being written off, he is […][...]
— by BEV QUESTAD — If we knew the secret to being happy, would it change how we lived our lives? Sky Bergman, inspired by her grandmother who, at almost 100 years old still worked out, has made a film of interview responses to questions related to what might help us live in the now. […][...]
— by RON WILKINSON — Hardly the first film about The Great War, the pin-point focus of this essay on mental disintegration makes it one of the best. It is a stripped-down production, shot almost entirely in the mud-filled trench sets. Most of the dialogue takes place in the incredibly squalid officers’ quarters where commanding […][...]
— by JESSIKA OWENS — The silent film is not particularly prevalent in today’s cinema experience. When I have asked people their thoughts on silent films, more times than not they have a preconceived notion of what that means. A very specific type of image springs to their mind and, almost always without pause, Charlie […][...]
— by RON WILKINSON — Every soul is a fish on a journey through the sea and the setting is water for much if this riveting film. The movie is animated but the story line is so complex and has so many symbolic references that it is most suitable for adults. The magic is in […][...]
— by BEV QUESTAD — Celebrating Jerome Robbins’ birth centennial, ballet companies are resurrecting his choreographed works throughout the US this spring. Most famous for his collaboration with Leonard Bernstein in creating “West Side Story,” Robbins has been described as the “quintessential American choreographer” by Lourdes Lopez, former dancer for his New York City Ballet […][...]
— by RON WILKINSON — In his narrative feature debut, writer/director Ryan Prows shows some good stuff, but not enough to make this flick a success. It unabashedly copies the style of “Pulp Fiction” but does it to considerably reduced effect. The movie opens in a great setting in what must be the seediest motel […][...]
— by RON WILKINSON — A dozen residents of a French psychiatric hospital have one thing in common. None of them volunteered to be there. They have been adjudicated to be a danger to themselves or others. Therefore, they will stay in the lock-up until the authorities decide they can leave. Beyond that, they have […][...]