Sight and Sound

Flight of fancy : Birdman sees Alejandro González Iñárritu find a welcome new lightness of touch, argues Paul Julian Smith PLUS Anne Billson looks back over the career of the film's star, Michael Keaton = 28 REGULARS Editorial : More or less about acting = 5 Rushes Michael Brooke on the meeting of jazz and cinema in 1960s Poland = 6 Object Lesson : Hannah McGill on the teapot in cinema = 8 The five key... : Marx brothers scenes = 9 Interview : Nick Bradshaw talks to Julie Bertucelli about School of Babel = 10 Dispatches : Mark Cousins continues mapping his ideal film-school syllabus = 13 The Industry Development Tale : Charles Gant on how Mr. Turner became Mike Leigh’s biggest hit = 14 The Numbers Charles Gant on how Mr. Tumer became Mike Leigh's biggest hit = 15 Brewster : Ben Roberts on the sad death of BFI Film Fund executive Chris Collins = 16 Profile : Geoffrey Macnab talks to Jane Roscoe of the London Film School = 19 Wide Angle Kieron Corless reports from the Viennale = 54 Michael Pattison on Algerian filmmaker Tariq Teguia = 55 Olaf Möller on the 16mm strand at this year’s Viennale = 56 Holly Aylett warns of an impending threat to Europe’s cultural pluralism = 57 Soundings: Pasquela lannone tunes in to Morricone’s work with Pasolini = 58 Primal Screen: Geoff Brown savours the treats on display at Pordenonde = 59 Letters = 111 Endings : Noel Hess on Sunday Bloody Sunday = 112 FEATURES COVER FEATURE The horizontal Wong Kar Wai : Wong Kar Wai’s respect for traditional martial arts is firmly in evidence in The Grandmaster, which explores the life of the legendary Ip Man. But does his narrative lose its way in the battle between style and substance? By Tony Rayns PLUS James Bell talks to Wong about the film’s production and explains his lifelong fascination with martial arts PLUS Leon Hunt on the long tradition of kung fu movies about real-life martial-arts masters like Ip Man = 20 Films of the year : Nick James introduces our survey of the year in film and television, and we print a selection of responses from more than 100 critics polled. PLUS Kim Newman picks the year’s standout horror movies, Nick Pinkerton examines the year’s highlights in action cinema, Pamela Hutchinson looks at what 2014 had to offer fans of silent and archive film, and Jonathan Romney considers whether 2014 demonstrated a steady decline in genuinely adult popular cinema = 36 Some notes about the art of falling : In the century that has passed since The Tramp first strolled into the frame on cinema screens, the world has changed deeply. Yet Charlie Chaplin’s early or humour or bite or illumination, and their relevance now seems more urgent than ever. By John Berger = 50 FILMS OF THE MONTH Enemy = 62 The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 = 64 Interstellar = 66 FILMS Algorithms = 68 The Best of Me = 68 Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) = 69 Black Sea = 70 Bogowie = 70 Bonobo = 71 Bringing Tibet Home = 71 The Circle = 72 Diplomacy = 72 Dumb and Dumber To = 73 Eastern Boys = 74 Electricity = 75 The Face of Love = 76 The Grandmaster = 76 The Green Prince = 77 Hello Carter = 78 Horns = 78 Horrible Bosses 2 = 79 The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness = 80 Kon-Tiki = 80 Manakamana = 81 Mea Culpa = 82 Me, Myself and Mum = 84 Men, Women & Children = 85 Merchants of Doubt = 85 Nativity 3: Dude, Where’s My Donkey?! = 86 Northern Soul = 86 One Rogue Reporter = 87 Open Bethlehem = 88 Ouija = 88 Redirected = 89 School of Babel = 89 St. Vincent = 90 The Theory of Everything = 91 We Are the Giant = 91 The Woman in Black: Angel of Death = 92 HOME CINEMA Bunny Lakes Is Missing, The Day the Earth Caught Fire, The Death Kiss, Diary of a Lost Girl, The Girl Hunters, Mouchette, Style Wars, The Complete Jacques Tati, Unearthly Stranger, Verdun, Looking at History, The Visitor, Welcome to New York = 96 DVD features Nick Pinkerton heads west with Monte Hellman’s The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind = 94 Kate Stables toasts Withnail & I = 98 Neil Sinyard recalls Christine Pascal’s family tragedy Le Petit Prince a dit = 102 Television : The Glittering Prizes, Penny Dreadful = 100 BOOKS Philip French welcomes a study of Terence Davies = 104 Nick Pinkerton browses a collection of writing by and about Amos Vogel = 105 Brad Stevens considers a wide ranging-volume of essays on Hou Hsiao-Hsien = 106 Ginette Vincendeau on an examination of cinema and nationalism in France = 106

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