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On the Harmfulness of Tobacco In 1959, Paul Newman saw Michael Strong perform Chekhov’s one-act play On the Harmfulness of Tobacco at the Actors Studio in New York. Overwhelmed by Strong’s performance, Newman resolved to preserve it on film. He shot a short movie of Strong’s Chekhov monologue, using his own money, and the result was briefly shown in two theaters in 1962. Newman’s On the Harmfulness of Tobacco is carefully and sensitively shot in black-and-white using high-contrast lighting for close-ups of Strong, who is very naturalistic and very centered in his delivery....

Riley joined us for a wide-ranging conversation that touched on the CIA’s funding of abstract expressionism, the history of the Communist Party of the USA, the Writers Guild of America strike, and the challenge of making politically engaged art in an industry dominated by corporations.

Denis and Pattinson will sit down for a Film Comment Free Talk on Thursday, April 4, at 5:30pm. The seating will be first-come, first-served, and doors will open at 4:30pm. Don’t miss what’s sure to be an enlightening, exciting conversation. For more information, visit filmlinc.org.

In this episode, FC Editor-in-Chief Nicolas Rapold joins FC Assistant Editor Devika Girish in a conversation with Mendonça Filho and Dornelles where they discuss five key scenes from the film. These include the opening scene, which takes us via drone shot and truck drive into the film’s remote setting; a psychotropic interlude in which the residents of Bacurau dance the capoeira in preparation for battle; and finally a climactic action sequence that occurs in a local museum....

Over the past few years, Film Comment has established our own annual tradition of previewing the best movies in the New Directors/New Films lineup with local critics. This time around, FC editors Devika Girish and Clinton Krute were joined by Vadim Rizov (Filmmaker Magazine) and Alissa Wilkinson (The New York Times) for a rundown of some of the gems in the 2024 edition, including including A Good Place, Dreaming & Dying, The Day I Met You, Explanation for Everything, and more....

On today’s podcast, Film Comment’s Devika Girish talks to Miriam Bale (Indie Memphis Film Festival) and Abby Sun (International Documentary Association) about Sundance selections Earth Mama, Past Lives, Against the Tide, Little Richard: I Am Everything, and Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project. Catch up on all of our Sundance 2023 coverage here.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll be sharing excerpts from Devika’s hosting shift at the event, which featured some exciting guests: filmmakers Helena Wittmann and Kamal Aljafari; curator Giovanni Carmine; this year’s Golden Leopard–winner, Julia Murat; artist Hito Steyerl; and scholars Kevin B. Lee and Noa Levin, among others. First up is Wittmann, who talks about her new film, Human Flowers of Flesh, and the ways in which her practice is rooted in embodied and communal experiences of time and space....

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Check back over the course of Venice for a regular stream of new episodes diving into these and other films—and head to our Venice 2019 Cheat Sheet if you need a refresher on what’s playing at the festival.

Descending Steps for Batan and Conical Intersect To describe the art Gordon Matta-Clark made in the last few years of his life as “late work” is not exactly accurate. Matta-Clark died of cancer in 1978. He was 35. His professional career began roughly 10 years earlier. “Late work” implies late style; tragically, the man never had the opportunity to reach the far side of “lateness.” Nevertheless, “Above and Below,” curated by Jessamyn Fiore at the David Zwirner Gallery, focuses on the final period of the artist’s life, and does so in a manner partially attuned to late-style aesthetics—particularly with its oblique emphasis on mortality....

For readers’ thoughts on their picks, click here. 1.The Master Paul Thomas Anderson, U.S. (2) Moonrise Kingdom Wes Anderson, U.S. (3) Holy Motors Leos Carax, France (1) Zero Dark Thirty Kathryn Bigelow, U.S. (10) Beasts of the Southern Wild Benh Zeitlin, U.S. (14) Django Unchained Quentin Tarantino, U.S. (21) Lincoln Steven Spielberg, U.S. (9) Amour Michael Haneke, France (5) The Kid with a Bike Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne, Belgium (7)...

Two-strip Technicolor takes some getting used to. The forerunner of the beloved three-strip process used for much of the classic-film era, two-strip renders white actors’ complexions in rosy shades of pink and does a great job with greens and reds. But most yellows are impossible, and true-blue is basically out of the question. The overall effect is somewhat abstract, but when restored to its original luster, also very beautiful. Last year, James Layton and David Pierce’s weighty history book Dawn of Technicolor, 1915-1935, helped revive interest in early Technicolor; this year, they are back with King of Jazz: Paul Whiteman’s Technicolor Revue....

The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili, 2021) If there’s one film image from last year that I’m holding on to as an emblem for 2022, it’s that of the protagonist of Ephraim Asili’s The Inheritance, Julian, cleaning up the living room of the house where he and his friends have established a collective. They’ve just wrapped up a reading by the poet Ursula Rucker—the first in a series of political art events they plan to host in the “House of Ubuntu,” as they’ve christened it....

Manhattan Baby In Lucio Fulci’s 1982 film Manhattan Baby, an archaeologist is blinded while on a dig in Egypt. At the same time, his young daughter receives a cursed amulet from a ghostly figure who is also blind. The family returns to New York with the cursed amulet, and numerous Poltergeist-esque moments of time-, space-, and credulity-defying horror ensue—closet doors lead to a desert on the other side of the world, babysitters disappear, and taxidermically preserved birds come to life and kill....

Readers’ Poll: Readers are invited to stand up and be counted too! All entries will be automatically entered in our contest for free DVDs from the Criterion Collection. We will publish the poll results, and your comments may be excerpted on the website. Send your ranked list of the year’s 20 best films—plus any rants, raves, and insights—with your name, address, and phone number, to fcpoll [at] filmlinc.com. Deadline: February 5, 2016....