By Max GoldbergRefracted light: Jerome Hiler’s Cinema Before 1300 is a discursive exploration of Gothic cathedrals’ luminous stained glass and a crucial part of a retrospective at MoMA
The Film Comment Podcast: Tribute to Navroze Contractor
Look again: documentarian Deepa Dhanraj discusses the life and work of her late partner and the extraordinary conditions under which he shot Duvidha
By James LattimerGolden hour: this year’s reimagined edition was invigorated by a selection of archival Palestinian shorts and gems such as A Grasscutter’s Tale and The Soldier’s Lagoon
Window on the world: incarcerated journalist Phillip Vance Smith, II delves into how people in prisons watch movies—the streaming devices available, the viewing options, the costs of renting a film, and more
Dirty work: Alice Rohrwacher’s La chimera unearths the contradictions at the heart of a brittle society where culture is yet another arena in which the wealthy exploit the poor
Easy rider: the late cinematographer Navroze Contractor wielded the camera as both a weapon and a paintbrush, giving stunning form to bold adventures in independent Indian fiction
Smackdown: Doug Liman’s Road House remake and Dev Patel’s the vigilante thriller Monkey Man, two exemplars of the Action Movie, balance style and substance to different effect
More please: Arnow’s comedic auto-portrait of a woman adrift in New York City is a moving exploration of romantic and existential indecision, sexual self-expression, humiliation, and the uses of first-person experience in storytelling
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