Leonard Quart is Professor Emeritus of Cinema — CUNY and COSI; Contributing Editor, Cineaste; Columnist for Berkshire Eagle; and co-author of American Film and Society Since 1945 —4th Edition (Praeger).
Being a mayor is a thorny and difficult job, and I would rather have a cynical, power-driven pol like Cuomo fail than another fresh, young progressive like Mamdani, who seems to be genuinely committed to social change.
What moved me to begin thinking about the world differently was reading writers who wrote about existential choice, like Camus and Sartre, which meant for me transcending convention and the values that shaped my early life.
While reading, one begins to feel that an American version of fascism is ominously evolving, and the paper is filled with items that carry a frisson of apprehension that clearly can’t be paranoia on the reader’s part.
In 1900, an accident victim would have been carried home to recover or die, and few hospitals had an “emergency ward.” By 1945, all that had changed and hospitals began to organize their critical care resources into emergency departments.
The film I just saw, "Being Maria," directed by Jessica Palud, centers on Maria Schneider, brilliantly played by Anamaria Vartolomei, who fully captures her anguish and self-destructiveness.
I know self-criticism is as important as criticizing the other side, but Trump and his cohort seem unable to engage in self-criticism or stop operating like a juggernaut that lays waste to its critics and opponents.
Nothing is ever that harmonious in Ozon’s world. There is always a twist at the center of the supposed concord or a dark side to a character who seems utterly benign.
The discipline is not only physical but also emotional; Julie maintains a tight lid, despite much questioning, on the churning anxiety that permeates her existence.
Trump took office and brought a regime set on revenge and retribution and committed to the destruction of institutional norms. It is an administration much more nihilistic than conservative.
A short, 15-minute fictional film nominated for an Academy Award, "A Lien" was directed by brothers David and Sam Cutler-Kreutz. It centers on a young couple confronting the oppressiveness of the immigration process.
While reading about the ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hamas, I have been watching a powerful documentary about the plight of West Bank villagers under siege by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and violent ultra-nationalist settlers, whom the army allows to operate with impunity.
