AFS Viewfinders

AFS Viewfinders is a film culture website with information, resources and opinions designed to deepen and broaden appreciation of film.

Watch This: Orson Welles’ Complete 1979 Variety Show Pilot

Made in 1978 and 1979 as an attempt to land a network deal, this ORSON WELLES SHOW pilot is more cheaply made than most talk shows, it is shot with one camera, with patently staged audience participation and a laugh track. It’s really weird. Welles directed it and his special gifts of direction and on […]

Chale Nafus on Jean Cocteau

AFS Director of Programming Chale Nafus presents Jean Cocteau’s BLOOD OF A POET as part of the Avant Cinema screening series on Tuesday April 28. Here are his notes on Cocteau. Surrounded by 19th century artworks in his childhood home, Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (1889-1963) seemed destined for the world of art. A man […]

Destination Auteur: the Premiers Plans Festival D’Angers and AFS’ New French Cinema Weekend

SPARTACUS & CASSANDRA AFS Associate Artistic Director Holly Herrick reports on one of the best film festivals in the world:  To see selections from the Premiers Plans Festival D’Angers, attend AFS’ New French Cinema Weekend, taking place May 1-3. Filmmakers and Premiers Plans programmers will be in attendance.   Best known for it’s medieval history […]

Richard Linklater Introduces and Discusses BLUE VELVET

As surely everyone in Austin knows, filmmaker (and Austin Film Society Artistic Director) Richard Linklater is programming and hosting a weekly series of ’80s films that runs through the first week of June. It’s a pretty sweet set-up, pretty much a film school in itself. If you’re in Austin, go see these movies! Here are […]

Whoa! TWIN PEAKS-themed Japanese Coffee Commercials Directed by David Lynch

Apologies if you’ve seen these already. I never knew that David Lynch and the TWIN PEAKS cast made a series of commercials for the Japanese Georgia canned coffee brand, apparently in 1993. Kudos to Japan for their enviable track record of knowing a good, weird thing when they see it.

The Dark Story of James Gray’s THE IMMIGRANT. What Happened?

Maybe you heard of James Gray’s critically lauded period epic THE IMMIGRANT, starring Marion Cotillard and Joaquin Phoenix. It played in competition at Cannes in 2013, and was the odds on favorite to cruise all the way through to the Oscars, as so many Weinstein-backed films have. But that never happened. In fact, the film […]

The Many Faces of Jean-Paul Belmondo

Jean-Paul Belmondo is one of the great stars of the international cinema. As a young former boxer and knockabout, he was thrust into international art-house stardom by Jean-Luc Godard in BREATHLESS (1960) and soon became a major box office draw in all kinds of films, from obtuse Godard polemics to spy capers. He was gifted […]

One of the Best International Film Festivals is Here in Austin 4/22 – 4/26: Schedule Posted

MARSHLAND (LA ISLA MINIMA) Cine Las Americas is in its 18th year and is one of the very best festivals for discovering films you are not likely to see anywhere else. The range of films from the US, Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean and Iberia is outstanding and the programmers always do an […]

Richard Linklater Introduces & Discusses THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE (1984)

At Austin Film Society our Jewels In The Wasteland series continues through the first week of June. Here, AFS Artistic Director Richard Linklater joins me to discuss 1984’s THE POPE OF GREENWICH VILLAGE, a film that with its intense, method performances and emphasis on deep characterization was very much out of step with a Hollywood […]

60 Years Ago: Soviet & US Filmed Visions of Space

Sixty years ago the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States was just gearing up. The scientists and laboratories were in place, funding was prioritized and test programs commenced. The psychological and propaganda advantages to establishing a foothold in space seemed evident to all. Here are a pair of films from the […]

Resource Alert: Watch Dozens of Interviews with Important Contemporary Filmmakers

There’s nothing like a good interview to get a sense of a filmmaker’s personality, priorities, sense of humor, etc. Some of the best interviews out there right now are from a Toronto-based site called The Seventh Art. Recently they have featured interviews with the likes of Andrew Bujalski (RESULTS, COMPUTER CHESS), The Safdie Brothers (HEAVEN […]

Sam Peckinpah On Movie Violence

Critical impressions of filmmaker Sam Peckinpah have grown more complex over time, but during his lifetime, at least post-WILD BUNCH, he was THE avatar of cinematic violence for most everyone who knew his name. This was probably a bit unfair, considering that movies had become more violent across the board, but you get the sense […]

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