"Matt Dillon, for me, was never a Hollywood actor. He is, number one, one of the most beautiful men on earth." Revisit Claire Denis on theater, costumes and working in Africa again, in conversation with @danielkasman.

"That his films have lost none of their electricity is precisely because of their proclivity for risk, their willingness to demand more than what we routinely expect from cinema—to refuse to treat the camera as a mere extension of our retina. Epstein courted the unknown as assiduously as his protagonists did death. And in the ocean, he found an ever-moving, ever-changing being that was both an endless source of inspiration and a kind of refuge. I cannot think of many filmmakers who enjoyed such a molecular and long-lasting connection with water." @LeonardoGoi on Jean Epstein:

As THE HOLE tours the U.S. in a new 35mm print, director Tsai Ming-liang meets @JordanCronk to discuss the 1998 film, his love of musicals, and his regular star Lee Kang-sheng, and more.

"It’s dangerous to critique something that is not there in a filmmaker’s work. [Christopher] Nolan is under no obligation to include depictions of everyday life in his films. But he is fascinated by the way spectacle can annihilate what is ordinary and everyday, and therein lies the paradox: His films are caught between what they want and what they rarely show. And so often, when that everydayness is depicted, it is given only minimal texture and the barest pretense of plausibility." Thomas Quist writes on the absence of the ordinary the work of Christopher Nolan:

.@LeonardoGoi writes on French iconoclast Jean Epstein, "an aquatic filmmaker, an artist who saw water as embodying the kind of cinema he aspired to create: fluid, tempestuous, unpredictable."

"Rossellini demands imaginative labor; Mizoguchi enforces empathetic endurance. Either way, viewers become custodians of sorrow." Zoë Mohaupt rites on the shattering formal precision of Roberto Rossellini’s PAISAN and Kenji Mizoguchi’s SANSHO THE BAILIFF:

"For better or worse, Nolan is likely the world’s most popular (human) image-maker. It’s fair to ask, then, not just what his films are but what they want." Thomas Quist writes on the work of Christopher Nolan — in which heroes fight to achieve normal lives but spectacle obliterates the ordinary.

"While Kurosawa has been predominantly associated with the horror genre, he remains keen on other venues of expression. Even his most haunting films contain understated and sometimes quite brazen humor..." @Jeremyrcarr on director Kiyoshi Kurosawa.

"Despite the wartime setting, this is not at all an action movie but rather a twist on how the safety of enclosed worlds can recreate the conditions of imprisonment. That Araki stands his ground boldly but ignominiously on a policy to not only preserve his prisoner, but in fact to avoid killing all together, all the while scheming to end the larger war around him, centers [Kiyoshi] Kurosawa's cerebral, discursive, and ultimately abstract wartime film ironically on the theme of mercy in a society at war with itself." Revisit @danielkasman on THE SAMURAI AND THE PRISONER:

As the film returns to theaters in a new 4K cut, revisit Ben Simington on Michael Mann's MANHUNTER — a commercial flop that has undergone a "radiant becoming" to achieve the reputation of a masterpiece.

"His films are the forefathers of cinematic and artistic experiments happening right now: assemblage, friendship, collective creation, cracked surfaces that are allowed to remain cracked, unpredictable mutations from person to person, disparate elements joined without any concern whether they stick except in the poetic complicity between the maker and a creatively-inclined beholder. Anything can be linked to anything, as long as it’s in the spirit of a one-to-one human connection, beyond the blind chase for capital and clout. What [Jean-Pierre] Gorin seeks is a montage that humanizes and politicizes in equal stealth measure." Carlos Valladares (@cvalladares0896) writes on the work of Jean-Pierre Gorin — unclassifiable films that offer a path toward a freer, more human cinema in the AI era:

After years of protests and petitions from the Los Angeles film community, the Cinerama Dome theater and the Arclight Hollywood multiplex are set to be revived. Discover this week’s essential film finds in the latest Rushes.

"Though their formal signatures differ—the handheld, rough-hewn images of Paisan against the smooth lateral glides of Sansho—they converge on the same realist telos: an obligation to look..." Zoë Mohaupt writes on Roberto Rossellini and Kenji Mizoguchi.

"I love the idea behind naive art, like that of Henri Rousseau or Niko Pirosmani: that the artists are well trained and skillful, but instead of painting with expert-level craftsmanship, they choose to draw and paint like an untrained child. Their works are very childlike and playful yet still clearly show their undeniable skill..." Thai filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke shares five inspirations for his Cannes prizewinner A USEFUL GHOST:

"It takes a termite visionary like [Jean-Pierre] Gorin to reroute us out of crisis, pulling the lever so that the train tracks lead us into a different place..." @cvalladares0896 writes on the filmmaker and professor’s summer visit to New York City.

"A scoop of Parmesan gelato drizzled with vinegar might not at first sound like the most appetizing treat, but its chilled, buttery umami, cut through with bright drops of acidity, offers an excitingly strange kind of sweetness not unlike [Gunvor] Nelson’s potentially alienating approach to the domestic dramas of her own life..." Beatrice Loayza (@bealoayza) writes on Il Cinema Ritrovato, where restorations and revivals soothed the soul while gelato cooled the body:

"It feels so liberating to think of film outside the frame as being cinematic..." Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke shares five inspirations for their latest film A USEFUL GHOST (now playing on @mubi.)

"Sloshing through puddles in the grounds of the Giardini and Arsenale in early May, there was certainly a sense that something was amiss—that the ideas and ideals put forth by [Koyo] Kouoh, her curatorial team, and the selected artists were in direct opposition to an infrastructure that allows for soft power maneuvers and statecraft by nations that are more interested in silencing the minor keys than listening to them..." Madeleine Seidel writes on video and installation at this year's Venice Biennale:

From this year's Il Cinema Ritrovato, @bealoayza writes on some favorite films’ flavor profiles via their corresponding gelatos, "from the classic and comforting to the funky acquired tastes."

"The 61st Venice Biennale is loud—a mess of voices, ideologies, and images fighting with each other to be heard..." Madeleine Seidel writes on the state of (video) art at this year's Venice Biennale.