Email Author Jim Hoberman

2010 Stories by Jim Hoberman

• Once Upon a Time in the West

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Sergio Leone (1969). Sergio Leone considered this his Western to end all Westerns—“a ballet of the dead”—and there is... More >>

• Seven Men from Now

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Budd Boetticher (1956). Budd Boetticher’s first Randolph Scott western initiated a cycle that marked the end of the traditional western.... More >>

• La luna

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci (1979). Bertolucci's wiggiest film attempted to trump The Last Tango in Paris with a graphic tale of mother-son... More >>

• Early to Bed

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Ludwig Berger (1932). Weimar at its most insouciant: This charming quasi-musical, starring Willy Fritsch and Käthe von Nagy (and... More >>

• The Iron Giant

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Brad Bird (1999). Set at the dawn of the space race and predicated on a sci-fi mythology of sputniks, spooks, and shelter drills, Brad Bird's... More >>

• Paprika

  published December 15, 2010

  Dir. Satoshi Kon (2006). Anticipating Inception, Paprika was the late cyberpunk animation director’s last and most complicated anime. A new... More >>

• Guest

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. José Luis Guerin (2010). Using the year-long international tour afforded by his 2008 festival hit In the City of Sylvia,... More >>

• Head

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Bob Rafaelson (1968). Eons before Spice World or Josie and the Pussycats there was this drop dead hip, if not entirely... More >>

• Hart of London

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Jack Chambers (1970). A landmark in Canadian avant-garde film, Jack Chambers’ magnum opus works and reworks the 1954 trapping and... More >>

• The Postman Always Rings Twice

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Tay Garnett (1946). It’s more MGM than James M. Cain, but Tay Garnett’s overly polite adaptation of the archetypal adultery-murder... More >>

• Partner

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Bernardo Bertolucci (1968). A true period piece in its wacky aesthetic New Leftism, Bertolucci’s self-consciously Godardian riff on... More >>

• The Last Laugh

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. F.W. Murnau (1924). UFA’s Berlin set was never more impressive than in this F.W. Murnau city drama—a movie of great visual panache... More >>

• Berlin: Symphony of a Great City

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Walter Ruttman (1927). A day in the life of 1927 Berlin is rendered prismatically—the most modern metropolis in Europe as documented by... More >>

• It's a Wonderful Life

  published December 8, 2010

  Dir. Frank Capra (1946). The quintessential Christmas heartwarmer was originally regarded with suspicion by Hollywood’s right-wing ideologues... More >>

• Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawerence

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Nagisa Oshima (1983). Seriously underrated when it was released, Oshima's account of British POWs and their Japanese captors is Kabuki of the... More >>

• Fires on the Plain

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Kon Ichikawa (1959).              This first-rate anti-war film, and the... More >>

• Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Ricki Stern & Annie Sundberg (2010). This documentary-portrait celebrates the indomitable stand-up comic through the course of her 76th year.... More >>

• Dodeska'-Den

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Akira Kurosawa (1970). An under-appreciated experiment, Kurosawa’s first color film is something like a Pop Art remake of The Lower... More >>

• Nosferatu the Vampire

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. F.W. Murnau (1922). The first, uncredited adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a memorably atmospheric horror film awash with... More >>

• The Wide Blue Road

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo (1957). Gillo Pontecorvo’s first feature—a tale of struggling fisher folk on Italy’s Dalmation coast—is... More >>

• After Hours

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Martin Scorsese (1983).       Although it should have been set in Williamsburg rather than Soho, Martin... More >>

• The Live

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. John Carpenter (1988). The Reagan revolution is masterminded by tele-canny creatures from outer space in John Carpenter’s minor classic... More >>

• Himatsuri

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Mitsuo Yanagimachi (1985). One of the strongest Japanese films of the ‘80s (also known as Fire Festival), Mitsuo... More >>

• Violette Nozière

  published December 1, 2010

  Dir. Claude Chabrol (1978). Hard to see and well worth it, this Chabrol classic features Isabelle Hupert as a Parisian schoolgirl who took early... More >>

• Les Bonnes Femmes

  published November 24, 2010

  Dir. Claude Chabrol (1962). Shifting mood in the nouvelle vague manner, Claude Chabrol’s precocious masterpiece—re-released in an... More >>