AVAILABLE FROM @mastersofcinema @eurekavideo www.mastersofcinema.org AVAILABLE FROM @mastersofcinema @eurekavideo www.mastersofcinema.org Contents October 2016 3322 FEATURES 18 COVER FEATURE Wandering star Andrea Arnold’s new film American Honey follows the adventures of a young woman who takes a road trip into the poverty- stricken hinterlands of the US Midwest. By Simran Hans PLUS Kim Morgan surveys cinema’s other tales of women on the road 32 Boys in the hood The burgeoning friendship between a pair of 13-year-old boys is threatened when a bitter feud develops between their parents, in Ira Sachs’s Little Men. By Graham Fuller 36 My father the hero Víctor Erice’s incomplete 1983 film El sur, the tale of a young girl’s relationship with her distant father, is regarded by many as a masterpiece. By Mar Diestro-Dópido 40 26 Blood on the tracks John Carpenter, one-time powerhouse of genre cinema from Halloween to Escape from Path of glory: Kirk Douglas New York, talks about growing up in the Jim Crow south, and his love of Hammer and As the actor approaches his 100th birthday, we celebrate his Howard Hawks. By Geoffrey Macnab extraordinary career, which saw him play a host of classic roles 46 from ruthless villains to ambiguous mavericks. By Philip Kemp Desert rats In a far cry from the bleak satirical REGULARS brilliance of the best Hollywood war 5 Editorial Poll position 17 The Numbers: Charles Gant films, a recent quartet of limp studio titles listens to independent cinema’s shamelessly exploits the instability in the Rushes summertime blues Middle East for stories of white Americans 6 In the frame: Nathalie Morris on an finding themselves. By Violet Lucca exhibition of Ealing’s film posters Wide Angle 8 O bject Lesson: Hannah McGill 50 Preview: Sophie Mayer celebrates discusses manuscripts in the movies feminist renegade Lizzie Borden 9 Interview: Isabel Stevens talks to 52 S oundings: Sam Davies unravels Baden Baden director Rachel Lang the mysteries of Italian dubbing 10 I nterview: Olivia Howe meets Babak 53 Primal Screen: Geoff Brown curls up Anvari, the director of acclaimed Farsi- with Kitty, the first British ‘goat-glander’ language horror film Under the Shadow 54 F estival: Kieron Corless reports on 12 Preview: Nick James looks ahead to the highlights of this year’s Locarno this year’s BFI London Film Festival 15 D ispatches: Mark Cousins gets under 111 Letters the skin of Scarlett Johansson’s fame Endings The Industry 112 Martyn Conterio explores the 18 16 Development Tale: Charles Gant melancholy final moments of New on The Girl with All the Gifts Hollywood epic Heaven’s Gate October 2015 | Sight&Sound | 1 new films weiner author: the jt film of the month out now lreelreoays esdto 1r9y/09/16 departure released 26/09/16 embrace of the serpent also available on blu-ray released 12/09/16 suburra the nice guys also available on blu-ray also available on blu-ray released 05/09/16 released 26/09/16 a hologram for the king also available on blu-ray released 19/09/16 ingrid bergman: summertime in her own words released 12/09/16 the commune released 19/09/16 released 10/10/16 honeymoon released 26/09/16 the ardennes fopp stores released 26/09/16 the fopp list bristol college green cambridge sidney st the get the lowdown on the best new films edinburgh rose st in this month’s edition of the fopp list, glasgow union st & byres rd fopp free magazine in-store now london covent garden manchester brown st list while stocks last nottingham broadmarsh shopping centre oxford gloucester green Contents Reviews PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY THE BFI Editorial enquiries 21 Stephen Street London W1T 1LN t: 020 7255 1444 w: bfi.org.uk/sightandsound e: S&S@bfi.org.uk FILMS OF THE MONTH HOME CINEMA Social media 58 Baden Baden 97 Around China with a Movie f: facebook.com/SightSoundmag 60 The Girl with All the Gifts Camera, Conversation Piece, t: twitter.com/SightSoundmag 62 Swiss Army Man Cry of the City, The Early Subscriptions t: 020 8955 7070 64 Théo and Hugo Works of Rainer Werner e: sightandsound@ Fassbinder, Gorilla Bathes abacusemedia.com FILMS at Noon, Hangmen Also Volume 26 Issue 10 (NS) ISSN 0037-4806 USPS 496-040 66 Aloys Die!, Horace & Pete, The 67 Ambulance Immortal Story, Kiss of CONTRIBUTORS 62 67 Bad Moms Death, Suture, Lee Tracy Michael Atkinson’s books 68 The Beatles: Eight Days a RKO 4-Film Collection, include Ghosts in the Machine: The Dark Heart of Pop Cinema Week – The Touring Years The World of Kanako Nikki Baughan is a freelance 68 Ben-Hur DVD features journalist, critic and copy editor 69 Blair Witch 96 T revor Johnston applauds Geoff Brown writes on film and 70 The Blue Room a release of Czech New classical music for the Times Martyn Conterio is the author 71 The Brother Wave masterpiece The of a monograph on Mario 71 Captain Fantastic Shop on the High Street Bava’s Black Sunday 72 The Clan 99 R evival: Philip Kemp on Sam Davies is a freelance writer 73 Courted the hand-grenade that was Graham Fuller is a freelance 74 Dare to Be Wild The Ox-Bow Incident film critic based in New York Simran Hans is a freelance 74 The Fencer 103 L ost and found: Fintan 71 writer and programmer for 75 The First Monday in May McDonagh rediscovers the Bechdel Test Fest 75 Free State of Jones Edward Dmytryk’s British Olivia Howe works at the BFI 76 Gary Numan: film Give Us This Day and is one half of the Final Girls, a collective exploring feminist Android in La La Land 100 T elevision: Robert Hanks themes in horror cinema. 78 The Greasy Strangler watches Shakespeare’s Trevor Johnston is a 78 Hell or High Water history plays televised, freelance film critic 79 Hunt for the Wilderpeople then and now Violet Lucca is digital editor of Film Comment 80 Imperium Philip Kemp is a freelance 81 The Infiltrator BOOKS writer and film historian 81 Kubo and the Two Strings 104 Christina Newland Geoffrey Macnab’s most recent 82 League of Gods wonders what James Dean book is Screen Epiphanies Sophie Mayer is the author 83 Life on the Road was really like 78 of Political Animals: The 84 Little Men 105 Isabel Stevens is spaced New Feminist Cinema 85 The Lovers & the Despot out by the design of 2001: Fintan McDonagh is working on 85 Nine Lives A Space Odyssey a book about Edward Dmytryk 86 The 9th Life of Louis Drax 106 Nick Pinkerton salutes Kim Morgan is a critic and programmer and writes about 88 Sausage Party Hasse Ekman, once film at sunsetgun.typepad.com 88 Sour Grapes Bergman’s great rival Nathalie Morris is senior 89 Southside with You 106 Michael Atkinson diiggss iinnttoo curator of special collections at the BFI National Archive 90 Suicide Squad the world of lost filmmss 8888 Christina Newland is a 90 Supersonic freelance writer on cinema 91 Tharlo Adam Nayman is the author 92 Two Women of Showgirls: It Doesn’t Suck 92 Under the Shadow Nick Pinkerton is a New York- based film critic and programmer 93 War Dogs Catherine Wheatley is a lecturer in 94 War on Everyone film studies at King’s College, London COVER Design by Alex Williamson www.alexwilliamson.co.uk NEXT ISSUE on sale 11 October And online this month Víctor Erice and Kirk Douglas video tributes | Star Trek at 50 | Mohamed Khan | LFF preview | Toronto, Venice and Encounters reviews and more bfi.org.uk/sightandsound October 2015 | Sight&Sound | 3 IN CINEMAS SEPTEMBER 23 AVAILABLE ON DEMAND SEPTEMBER 24 SODAPICTURESUK SODAPICTURESUK SODAPICTURES #THELOVERSANDTHEDESPOTUK WWW.SODAPICTURES.COM NEWS AND VIEWS Rushes IN THE FRAME POETRY IN PROMOTION An exhibition of Ealing film By Nathalie Morris hired a young designer, critic and curator, S. John In 1943, Michael Balcon, head of Ealing Studios Woods, to take charge of Ealing’s advertising. posters reveals that they were instituted an advertising policy which would see Over the next 12 years, Woods’s department just as distinctive and original some of the best artists, illustrators and designers created posters that today form as vivid a part as the classic films themselves of the day create posters and other promotional of the Ealing legacy as the films themselves. material for the company’s films. Balcon, a keen Woods was himself a talented painter collector of contemporary British art, firmly and designer and a champion of modern – believed that high-quality productions deserved particularly abstract – art. Before joining Ealing posters of equal merit and distinction. To this end, he had worked in a variety of film and non-film he and studio publicist Monja Danischewsky advertising roles and designed publicity material Scalarama Safar The DIY cinema Very few Arab films get a smorgasbord returns UK theatrical release – throughout September, with hence the importance of an eclectic mix of films at an annual showcase of ON OUR venues nationwide, from contemporary Arab RADAR a doc about rep cinema, cinema like Safar, which ‘Out of Print’, to obscure runs from 14-18 British supernatural oddity September at ICA, ‘Psychomania’ (1973, right). London. Highlights This year also sees an include Muayad Alayan’s initiative in Glasgow that Godardesque crime caper allows you to watch movies ‘Love, Theft and Other in strangers’ homes. Entanglements’ (right). 6 | Sight&Sound | October 2016 for organisations including London’s left-wing Woods’s working papers have recently studio’s distributors, the Rank Organisation. Unity Theatre. In the mid-1930s he had also been donated by his family to the BFI National Rank frequently produced alternative, more curated a series of innovative exhibitions trying Archive and provide fascinating insights into ‘commercial’ posters, much to the frustration to broaden the audience for contemporary art his working methods. While giving each artist of Balcon and Woods, who were constantly by showing work outside traditional gallery creative freedom, Woods remained closely at loggerheads with their paymasters. But settings (venues included the Everyman Cinema involved throughout the process, guiding and the art, design and advertising worlds viewed in Hampstead and a furniture showroom). advising on layout, typography and printing things differently. Numerous laudatory articles Film posters offered a different approach to technicalities. Piper wrote that Woods “always were published across the 1940s and 50s, and the same idea. Although in the 1920s and 30s influenced the final results”, ensuring that Ealing posters featured in several international companies such as Shell had shown that art and Ealing had a strong, coherent visual style. exhibitions celebrating modern design. Balcon advertising could successfully go hand in hand, This coherence encompassed all of the was gratified and bemused, writing in a 1954 film posters were not respected as an artform. company’s printed material, from promotional memo to Woods: “If the posters get better Woods changed that. Carefully matching artist brochures and press advertisements through known than the films, I shall be jealous.” to film, he commissioned some of the top names to office stationery. It went beyond Ealing, Highlights from the S. John Woods archive i of 20th-century British art and design, including as well, since Woods’s remit also included will be on show as part of the exhibition Edward Ardizzone, Edward Bawden, James the related organisations ABFD (Associated ‘Recent Acquisitions to BFI Special Boswell, Barnett Freedman, Robert Medley, British Film Distributors) and Group 3. Collections’, which runs at BFI Southbank, John Minton, John Piper and Ronald Searle. The Ealing style was not appreciated by the London, from 9 September – 23 October Estuary Festival The Man Who Fell to Earth The Thames estuary is the David Bowie’s humanoid alien inspiration and setting for this beams into UK cinemas from festival (17 September – 2 9 September with a new 4K October), which has a number of restoration to mark the 40th film events. Among the highlights anniversary of the cult sci-fi are John Akomfrah’s installation odyssey from Nicolas Roeg ‘Mnemosyne’, a programme of (pictured with Bowie, right). The artists and leftfield documentaries film was Bowie’s feature debut, installed in a Southend-on-Sea and arguably his most arresting beach hut, Nikolaj Larsen’s Thames film role. A collector’s edition essay ‘Portrait of a River’ (right), and Blu-ray and DVD, which includes a new film by Jem Cohen observing many enticing behind-the-scenes Southend and Canvey Island. extras, will follow on 24 October. October 2016 | Sight&Sound | 7 RUSHES OBJECT LESSON PAPER WEIGHT In the beginning was the word: the deranged adventures of The Saragossa Manuscript begin when the illustrated text in the titular work is read aloud In the world of film – the world the loss of the vast, aimless book he’s been unable Shakespeare is blocked when romantically to finish is at once just punishment for infidelities disappointed – tossing away manuscript of the image – the manuscript and other misdeeds, and a liberation that permits pages when betrayed by a girlfriend – and can be a token of irrelevance him to pursue a more honest life, including productive only once in love again. In Reprise, leaving his wife for his pregnant mistress. the sensitivity needed to be a writer is also or a source of meaning “Oh God, it’s half the book,” says Jamie (Colin vulnerability to madness, and the muse who Firth) in Love Actually as the wind carries his pages unlocks creativity can also disable it. By Hannah McGill off into a lake; but as housemaid Aurelia (Lúcia The ideas of words as sacred and woman Joachim Trier’s Reprise Moniz) strips off to dive in after it, his belief in as muse are both subverted in Morvern Callar (2006) commences with the book and its quality rapidly fades. Whether (2001), in which the title character appropriates two writers dropping it’s her commitment to saving his work or the her late partner’s manuscript, passes it off as her manuscripts into a flesh she reveals in the process that stirs him (a own work, and spends the not inconsiderable postbox. Anything could slow-motion pan over her body rather suggests advance on travel and partying. A blithely happen; the books may the latter), infatuation with Aurelia swiftly Who needs the slog of be written, but their fates are not. A manuscript, displaces investment in his pages. “It’s not bloody on screen as in life, is a thing of wildly unstable Shakespeare,” he protests as she swims after them. reading words on paper value and meaning. It is mere paper and ink Bloody Shakespeare himself, however, until interpreted by a reader, and even then its at least as he appears in Shakespeare in Love when cinema can spirit you worth might be measured radically differently (1998), reverses this depiction of book-writing straight into the story? by different readers. Its author might love it, but as unromantic, emasculating drudgery. This a publisher reject it – or vice versa. And though any value it possesses is theoretically located in its content, it might, if sufficiently rare and prized, gain astronomical worth as a physical object, even while that content can be freely reproduced. Manuscripts can of course hold profound significance in the film world, as the sources of movies, but on screen they frequently represent the fragility of the creative ego and lifestyle. In both Wonder Boys (2000) and Love Actually (2003), an incomplete manuscript is presented as a burden on its author – its physical weight emblematic of a convoluted and restricting emotional life, its sacrifice a blessing in disguise. For Wonder Boys’ Grady Tripp (Michael Douglas), Joachim Trier’s Reprise (2006) The Shining (1980) 8 | Sight&Sound | October 2016