Fascinating movie desperately in need of a restoration — or at least a better copy floating online.

Over the Edge, Truck Turner, and White Line Fever alone could cement him as one of the greats, and I hear he made many more.

RIP. He and his brother Giorgi’s films are beloved in Georgia but should be celebrated internationally like Iosseliani’s and Abuladze’s. The Eccentrics bangs.

Arena (dir. Richard Fleischer, 1953)

Other cinematographers at the time sneered at this as it was seen as a step back (to silent-era Expressionist design) compared to subtle but masterful medium-contrast photography that didn’t announce itself. Of course, if anyone listened to them, we wouldn’t have noir.

My latest Flashback entry (In Review Online) is about the first Hollywood film made in Italy, Henry King's The White Sister. I wrote about the film's production, the short-lived Inspiration Pictures, and why anyone would suffer the headache of shooting on location: inreviewonline.com/2025/08/08/on-…

Gary Graver, Orson Welles’s frequent (and final) DP and a prolific pornographer, directed a Siskel and Ebert porn parody. Seems like important info for Will Sloan

Excited to get into the filmography of Rudolf Thome, a member of the never-discussed New Munich Group who influenced and were influenced by Straub-Huillet's works in West Germany. Every title looks great.

With DRY LEAF, Alexandre Koberidze reminds us that not seeing is sometimes a way of seeing the world differently. Read Z. W. Lewis's #Locarno78 review. slantmagazine.com/film/dry-leaf-…

My review of Koberidze's Dry Leaf (#locarno78), the only film that's ever caused me to send an email asking "are you sure this is the right file?" Likely the most audacious movie of the year. For Slant: slantmagazine.com/film/dry-leaf-…

Two years ago, I read the NYRB translation of Inferno along with scholarly commentary, and it was easily the most rewarding reading experience that year. Last year, I repeated that with NYRB’s Purgatorio, and, again, nothing better. Look what just came in:

Malombra (dir. Mario Soldati, 1942)

Very well-deserved, one of the best films I’ve seen this year.

Japan’s pinku and Hong Kong’s Cat III are covered often enough, but I can’t find a single Taiwanese Black Movie that isn’t a 4GB (way oversized) VHS rip, most in awful condition. Even this doc on Black Movies only features VHS-ripped clips: boxd.it/6iLA