Self-Efface Yourself! The Fragmented Identities in Ōshima’s The Ceremony

|Alex Kies| Lots of interesting things happen at weddings and funerals. It’s a shame to miss any of it. – Ritsuko Although he is a key figure of Japanese New Wave, and his final films were consciously West-facing, Ōshima Nagisa never quite took off in the West like his friend Kurosawa Akira… Continue reading

All Our Trashcans Within: Tears and Other Feelings in Claire Denis’s Beau Travail

|Ben Tuthill| The first time I watched Beau Travail, I cried for ten minutes straight. I watched it alone. I didn’t understand the plot very well. I knew that the final scene was famous, but when it happened I didn’t really get it. I started crying right about the moment the first credits hit… Continue reading

You Guys Are Soft: Male Friendship and Violence in The Hitch-Hiker

On the surface, Ida Lupino’s The Hitch-Hiker (1953) is a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller about a homicidal maniac who hitches a ride with two friends on their way to Mexicali as murder looms just around the corner. Even the onscreen title that opens the film indicates its true… Continue reading