Britta Hanson, Author at Critic Speak

Review: “Embrace of the Serpent”

Britta Hanson — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 22:00:55 +0000

To be declared a “daring” film in the year of Gaspar Noé’s 3-D ejaculation and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Planet Hoth-inspired horse carcass sleeping bag is a difficult feat. By these standards, Ciro Guerra’s “Embrace of the Serpent” is not particularly flashy: its most shocking moment involves a temporary switch out of black-and-white. Even Dorothy would […]

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AFI Fest 2013: “The Marriage of Maria Braun” (1979)

Britta Hanson — Sun, 24 Nov 2013 00:00:53 +0000

When a film festival includes previously released films on its schedule, especially older films, they are usually great achievements in cinematic history or straight-up crowd-pleasers. AFI did a gala presentation of “Mary Poppins” this year to coincide with its Opening Night Film, “Saving Mr. Banks,” the New York Film Festival debuted a restoration of “The […]

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AFI Fest 2013: “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974)

Britta Hanson — Wed, 20 Nov 2013 04:07:19 +0000

Agnès Varda, Grand Dame of the film world, descended upon AFI Fest 2013 as Guest Artistic Director. In this role, she chose several canonical films to be screened with her own personal introductions. For Sunday morning she picked John Cassavetes’ “A Woman Under the Influence” (1974), a kinetic and disturbing film that Varda, appearing in […]

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