Calum Marsh

Hazlitt talks to the Academy Award-winning director of A Separation, about his latest film, The Past, and the moral crises at the heart of his work.

Joel and Ethan Coen don’t just challenge their characters—they punish them, humiliate them, are even accused of hating them. But just because they put their creations through the wringer, doesn’t mean they delight in their despair.

From The Fly and Videodrome to A History of Violence, the director has long regarded the body with equal parts fascination and fear. His approach has changed, but as a new exhibition of his props and artifacts shows, his focus on the flesh remains.

This month TIFF celebrates the work of the ever rigorous and challenging French director, whose Beau Travail was a fixture on just about every "Best of" list of the 2000s. Here follows a cheat sheet to the one director everybody ought to know.

From his early crime pictures such as Little Odessa to the more understated romance of Two Lovers, the literary genius of Gray’s films isn’t found in the building of sweeping, epic stories, but rather in how perfectly he captures the mundanities of real life.

Most of Paul Verhoeven’s films have developed cult followings over time, even if only for their laughable dialogue and campy plotlines. Why has Hollow Man escaped this nostalgic treatment and remained a deeply disliked film?

The late filmmaker Chris Marker’s fascination with the recurring graffiti of a grinning yellow cat on the streets of Paris sheds surprising light on the human condition.