Sight and Sound: the June 2022 issue

“Bergman Island may be named after the Swedish director,” writes Beatrice Loayza about cover star Mia Hansen-Løve’s latest film, “but it is an ode to the struggles of female artists.” The film may be set on Fårö, Bergman’s idyllic home for much of his life, but the terrain it most keenly explores is the psyche of its lead, a filmmaker played by Vicky Krieps. We hear from the French director about her first film in the English language.

Digital cinema may now be ubiquitous, but it was only twenty years ago that the first blockbuster went fully digital. To mark this occasion, we speak to a host of early adopters, including David Lynch, Miranda July, Pedro Costa, Jia Zhangke and Michael Mann.

Also in this issue: we hear from The Worst Person in the World director Joachim Trier about his filmmaking influences; Terence Davies introduces Benediction, his biopic of Siegfried Sassoon; a new novel and show give John Waters reason to talk trash; and the Black Film Bulletin returns.

Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island offers a very personal exploration of what it is to be a female artist striving to create in a world dominated by the cult of ‘male genius’. Words by Beatrice Loayza.

Twenty years after the release of the world’s first digitally shot blockbuster, George Lucas’s Attack of the Clones, Sam Wigley talks to the early adopters who delighted in the opportunity to experiment with a medium that would reinvent the industry.

David Lynch, Miranda July, Michael Mann, Jiă Zhangke and Pedro Costa explain the rewards – and risks – of digital filmmaking.

The director of The Worst Person in the World recalls inspiring encounters with Stephen Frears, Nicolas Roeg and Robert Altman, and outlines his fascination with Alain Resnais and Andrei Tarkovsky. Introduction and interview by Lillian Crawford.

Terence Davies’ portrait of the poet Siegfried Sassoon is a poignant study of a gay man, scarred by war, who is never able to find true peace. Here the director discusses love, sex and the cruelty of homophobia. By Ben Walters.

With a new novel, a spoken-word show and an exhibition at home in Baltimore, the godfather of trash culture shows no signs of slowing down. He talks to Hannah McGill.

Shortly before the release of what was to be his final film, Rio Lobo, legendary Hollywood director Howard Hawks regaled an appreciative crowd with anecdotes and advice from more than five decades working in film.

As Ngozi Onwurah’s incendiary 2006 exploration of Black Britain finds a new generation of viewers on Blu-ray, its visionary director talks to Leila Latif about the film’s enduring themes.

The latest exciting entry in the expanding canon of Black feminist cinema, Freda has struck a powerful chord with audiences worldwide. Its director, Gessica Geneus, talks to Black Film Festival Wales founder Yvonne Connikie.

The dynamic MD of the Lenny Henry-founded production house Douglas Road looks back over her dazzling career and plots a future committed to improving the colour balance of British broadcasting. Interview by Jan Asante.

With interest and investment both increasing rapidly in Irish-, Welsh- and Cornish-language films, it feels like a breakthrough moment. By Derek O’Connor.

Recommendations from the Sight and Sound team.

Thomas Flew hears the latest on Alice Rohrwacher’s Tuscany-set La Chimera.

New films from David Cronenberg, Koreeda Hirokazu, Ruben Östlund, Kelly Reichardt and Park Chan-wook will premiere on the Croisette. By Thomas Flew.

The director of Chopper and Killing Them Softly on Nick Cave and his Monroe admiration. Interview by James Mottram.

Sean Baker, the director of Red Rocket and The Florida Project, may live in Los Angeles and hail from New Jersey, but you can bet your bottom dollar he’ll lose the blues in Chicago’s best cinema. Interview by Lou Thomas.

Space is the place for the acclaimed artist, who tells us about Tim Peake and 80s synths. Interview by Ben Nicholson.

Best known on screen for the debased and self-serving characters he played in Claude Chabrol thrillers, Bouquet was also one of France’s most distinguished stage and radio stars. By Ginette Vincendeau.

The Danish documentary festival has charted new frontiers on its return to physical screenings, with films that tread on dangerous political ground and a story of love and tragedy in a volcano. By Nick Bradshaw.

The tragic sinking of an unsinkable ship still has the power to shock more than a century later. By Pamela Hutchinson.

This flâneur does anything but stroll in a Senegalese drama about colonial legacy. By Phuong Le.

Can you have too much perspective on the S&S poll? Take note of David St. Hubbins’ wise words. By Ashley Clark.

As critics mull their poll moves, which films are going to be fired from the canon? By Mike Williams.

After vanishing for four decades following its premiere, Mohammad Reza Aslani’s masterpiece has been resurrected – a blank gloriously filled in the atlas of world cinema. By Ehsan Khoshbakht.

The BBC’s doubleplusgood 1954 production of Orwell’s totalitarian nightmare is at last available to consult – and not a moment too soon. By Robert Hanks.

Tengiz Abuladze’s film is a grotesque, absurdist fable about the excesses of Stalinism from the Soviet Union’s final decade, and about history’s refusal to stay buried. By Carmen Gray.

The epic gestation of Eduardo Coutinho’s Man Marked for Death, 20 Years Later, about the killing of a peasant leader, only gave it new layers and complexity. By Ben Nicholson.

True Story, the UK’s first subscription doc streamer, offers a welcome home for curated nonfiction from around the world. By Nick Bradshaw.

As Mia Hansen-Løve’s Bergman Island hits cinemas, we head back 40 years to Sight and Sound Summer 1982, when another kind of Bergman pilgrimage was being made.

Barbara Loden’s tough, unsentimental 1970 portrait of a woman adrift in the industrial heartlands of the north-eastern United States rejects the glib comforts of narrative closure. By Becca Voelcker.

• Vortex reviewed by Adam Nayman.
• Benediction reviewed by Alex Ramon.
• The Northman reviewed by Beatrice Loayza.
• Olga reviewed by Carmen Gray.
• This Much I Know to Be True reviewed by Leigh Singer.
• Bergman Island reviewed by Catherine Wheatley.
• Navalny reviewed by Nicolas Rapold.
• The Velvet Queen reviewed by Jonathan Romney.
• A-ha reviewed by Simran Hans.
• Bubble reviewed by Alex Dudok de Wit.
• Between Two Worlds reviewed by Gabrielle Marceau.
• The Drover’s Wife: The Legend of Molly Johnson reviewed by Ben Nicholson.
• The Innocents reviewed by Anton Bitel.
• The Quiet Girl reviewed by Katie McCabe.
• The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent reviewed by Ben Walters.
• We’re All Going to the World’s Fair reviewed by Nicole Flattery.
• Emergency reviewed by Jason Anderson.
• Wild Men reviewed by Philip Kemp.
• All the Old Knives reviewed by Anton Bitel.
• Luzzu reviewed by Nikki Baughan.
• Atabai reviewed by Philip Concannon.

• Shining Girls reviewed by Kate Stables.
• Moon Knight reviewed by Guy Lodge.
• Muhammad Ali reviewed by Nick Bradshaw.
• Gaslit reviewed by Nicolas Rapold.
• Ten Percent reviewed by Elena Lazic.
• Jimmy Savile: A British Horror Story reviewed by Jonathan Romney.

• Found Footage & Collage Films: Selected Works reviewed by Ben Nicholson.
• Faithless reviewed by Rebecca Harrison.
• Mill of the Stone Women reviewed by Kim Newman.
• Mad Love reviewed by Kim Newman.
• Rouge reviewed by Michael Atkinson.
• Boat People reviewed by Trevor Johnston.
• Mad Dog Morgan reviewed by Trevor Johnston.
• Love Affair reviewed by Hannah McGill.
• Written on the Wind reviewed by Nikki Baughan.
• The Wrong Arm of the Law reviewed by Philip Kemp.

• Haunted by Vertigo: Hitchcock’s Masterpiece Then and Now reviewed by David Pirie.
• The Method: How the Twentieth Century Learned to Act reviewed by Hannah McGill.