Author Archives: Devon Dickau

A bright neon sign lights a lone box-office window. Fliers are scattered around the pavement. Photos and movie posters adorn the outside walls. A friendly, almost familiar face tears a ticket and another, only a few steps away, invites you to buy a drink. And then the clock strikes 12. But instead of commanding you […]

Every year, the Sundance Film Festival inadvertently determines the fate of independent film in the U.S. more than any other cinematic event. More selective than a black-tie mixer or Harvard Law, it embodies a mysterious aura, a quality of myth, the stuff of legend. But there is more to Sundance than an increasingly selective slate […]

Beyond a sweating Bruce Lee dubbed with usually robotic English pronunciation, the history of Chinese martial arts cinema has remained relatively obscure. However, thanks to decades of collecting and newly remastered prints, the UCLA Film and Television Archive is currently presenting “Heroic Grace: The Chinese Martial Arts Film, Part II,” a continuation of the 2003 […]

From Méliès to Truffaut to Renoir, French film has traditionally set the standard for high-class, innovative world cinema. Some would place Bertrand Tavernier in that tradition. Unlike his would-be ancient counterparts, however, Tavernier remains a thriving filmmaker today, still aiming to tell his tale. And thanks to the third annual “On Set with French Cinema” […]

People have long associated Los Angeles with Hollywood and major studio films. But for David E. James, that isn’t enough. The author and USC film professor believes the city is getting left out of the credits when it comes to its contributions to avant-garde cinema, saying that many view San Francisco and New York as […]

“North Country” Directed by Niki Caro Warner Bros. In 1975, the first women were hired in northern Minnesota iron mines. By 1989, men still outnumbered women 30 to one. Josey Aimes was the one in the ratio. Based on the book “Class Action” by Clara Bingham and Laura Leedy Gansler, “Whale Rider” director Niki Caro’s […]

With the recent muggings and discovered explosives, students in Westwood have faced some near-campus scares. Late at night, with only a cell phone backlight as a guide, the feeling is that anything could happen. But even scarier than Westwood 2005 is Hell’s Kitchen, New York City, circa 1938. Crime lords are kings, adolescents are students […]