Sight and Sound

Taipei tang : The Assassin – Taiwanese master Hou Hsiao-Hsein’s shot at wuxia – defies expectations at every turn. What’s really going on behind the film’s sumptuous veil? By Tony Rayns = 28 REGULARS Editorial : Manufacturing consensus = 5 Rushes Pamela Hutchinson salutes a season of British films that captured the Blitz spirit = 6 Object Lesson: Hannah McGill unfurls the significance of the umbrella = 8 The Five Key…: newspaper films = 9 Wendy Ide meets Denmark’s Tobias Lindholm, whose A War examines an apparent war crime in Afghanistan = 11 Dispatches: Mark Cousins in living colour = 13 The Industry Development Tale: Charles Gant uncovers the tribulations of Trumbo = 14 The Numbers: Charles Gant tots up a mixed year for arthouse film = 15 Festivals : Nick Bradshaw rounds up the past year in documentary festivals = 16 Wide Angle Kieron Corless at the Viennale = 52 Andréa Picard on the raw super 8 diaries of Anne Charlotte Robertson = 54 Tony Rayns cheer on Tokyo’s smaller, smarter festival, FILMeX = 55 Soundings: Sam Davies listens to the darkness in the music of David Lynch = 56 Primal Screen: Bryony Dixon finds a new way to track down old cinemas = 57 Letters = 111 Endings : Pamela Hutchinson on Edwin S. Porter’s The Great Train Robbery = 112 FEATURES THE S&S INTERVIEW: Quentin Tarantino : In an exclusive interview, in which the director’s garrulous enthusiasm for fils of all stripes remains undimmed, he discusses the influences on his new western The Hateful Eight, and recalls the early works that made his name. By Kim Morgan = 18 A world apart : Though Lenny Abrahamson’s Room was partly inspired by Josef Fritzl, it is less a study of evil than a fable allowing us to relive the innocence of childhood. By Trevor Johnston = 34 Notes on a scandal : Tom McCarthy´s gripping Spotlight, about the Boston Globe’s exposé of child abuse in the Catholic Church, eschews theatrics and stylistic frills for a detailed examination of journalistic processes. By Philip Concannon = 38 Close encounters : For all the pleasures of The X-Files’ labyrinthine narrative, the key to the show’s success is Muder and Scully’s relationship. By Keith Uhlich = 42 Jean-Luc Godard: A man of the 60s : Whether or not Godard, as some claim, disappeared into self-imposed obscurantist exile at the end of the 1960s, for the best part of that decade has was in glorious alignment with the spirit of the time, his films earning acclaim by perfectly capturing its atmosphere. By Kent Jones = 46 FILM OF THE MONTH Innocence of Memories: Orhan Pamuk’s museum & Istanbul = 60 Joy = 62 Sisters = 64 Star Wars: The Force Awakens = 66 FILMS The Assassin = 68 Attacking the Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime = 69 Being AP = 69 Belle and Sebastian: The Adventure Continues = 70 The Big Short = 71 Bolshoi Babylon = 71 Creed = 72 The Crow’s Egg = 73 Daddy’s Home = 74 Essex Boys: The Truth = 74 Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD = 75 The Good Dinosaur = 75 Goosebumps = 76 The Hateful Eight = 77 In the Heart of the Sea = 78 Janis: Little Girl Blue = 78 Krampus = 80 The Last Diamond = 81 Lee Scratch Perry’s Vision of Paradise = 81 Lost in Karastan = 82 The Night Before = 83 Rams = 83 The Revenant = 84 Rise of the Footsoldier Part II = 85 Room = 85 Sherpa = 86 Spotlight = 87 Swung = 88 The 33 = 89 Trumbo = 89 Victor Frankenstein = 90 A War = 91 Youth = 92 HOME CINEMA Aaaaaaaah!, All My Good Countrymen, The Angry Silence, The Birth of a Nation, Bob Roberts, Dangerous Game, Dragon Inn, A New Leaf, The Reflecting Skin, Robinson Crusoe on Mars, Thieves’ Highway, Walden/Lost Lost Lost = 95 DVD Features Robert Hanks watches the Master display his mastery of the small screen in Alfred Hitchcock Presents… = 94 Nock Pinkerton relishes Fukasaku Kinji’s Battles Without Honour and Humanity yakuza series = 97 Jasper Sharp examines the challenging, elliptical work of Yoshida Kiju = 98 Lost and Found: Daniel Bird is possessed by Michal Waszynski’s Yiddish masterpiece the Dybbuk = 102 BOOKS B. Ruby Rich hails a groundbreaking study of feminist cinema = 104 Edward Buscombe chews over a life of Walter Brennan = 105 Anne Billson sinks her teeth into zombies = 106 Nathalie Morris on a ‘life’ of quintessential screen Englishmen Charters and Caldicott = 106 Nick Pinkerton enters the crazy world of Suzuki Seijun = 107

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