Author Archives: Daniel Joslyn

SMULTRONSTÄLLET (1957)

Our Swedish entry is, unsurprisingly, from Ingmar Bergman, about an old man taking a road trip that also ends up as sort of a trip through his life.

INSOMNIA (1997)

More a “blanc” than a noir, this a really great thriller in which a big city detective finds himself investigating a murder in a small town north of the Arctic Circle, where the sun is out 24 hours a day and keeps him from sleeping. Is his gradual insanity caused by the lack of sleep, the case, or both?

SERGEANT YORK (1941)

I have some thoughts about our American entry’s take on the intersection and patriotism, and also on the completely ridiculous accents basically everyone in this movie has. A lot of people like it though!

ARCHANGEL (1990)

Canada’s entry is an early work from one of the most idiosyncratic of the internationally known modern directors, Guy Maddin, very loosely inspired by real events, in the style of a very early sound film from circa-1930, for reasons.

LA STRADA (1954)

Italy brings a strong representative to our Winter Festival in Fellini’s modern fable of an innocent young woman who ends up on the road with a brutish circus performer.

FUNNY GAMES (1997)

Our entry from Austria is a sadistically violent movie that challenges the viewers as to why they like violent movies in the first place.

DR. MABUSE, DER SPIELER (1922)

You might not expect a movie from 1922 to actually work as an action movie with actual suspense and car chases and things, but somehow it does? This is the story of the prototype supervillain.

THE BLUE KITE (1993)

If given the choice, this would not be the entry of the Chinese government, which immediately banned this depiction of one family beaten down by two horrible decades of Chinese history.

UCHO (1970)

Our Winter World Cinema Festival begins with a Czech entry that was banned by the Communist Regime for 20 years because, well, its criticism of Communism ain’t subtle.