Sight and Sound

Smalltown boy : Shola Amoo discusses his semi-autobiographical The Last Tree, about a British-Nigerian boy who leaves an idyllic life in the English countryside for a London council estate. By Will Massa = 44 REGULARS Editorial : The long goodbye = 5 Rushes On Our Radar: Highlights from the BFI London Film Festival, from Céline Sciamma to Martin Scorsese = 6 Dream Palaces: the director Guy Maddin recalls sticky floors and scary nights at the Gimli Theatre, Manitoba = 8 Global Discovery: Graham Fuller meets the makers of extraordinary Balkan beekeeping documentary Honeyland = 9 Preview: Mark Cousins revisits Neil Jordan’s earth-shattering Angel = 10 The Numbers: Charles Gant goes to work on Quentin Tarantino’s box office = 11 Obituary: Roger Graef explains how D.A. Pennebaker revolutionised documentary film. Plus tributes from Joan Churchill and Nick Broomfield = 12 Wide Angle Nonfiction Film: Jemma Desai pays a brief visit to Utopia, courtesy of the Flaherty Seminar = 14 Primal Screen: Michael Eaton browses the silent versions of David Copperfield = 16 Artist’ Moving Image: Matt Turner on Rainer Kohlberger’s entrancing collaborations with computers = 17 Festivals : Kieron Corless is overexposed in the Aegean, at the Syros film festival = 19 Letters = 95 Endings : Nick James on the alchemy of art in Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterful portrait of medieval Russia, Andrei Rublev = 96 FEATURES COVER FEATURE Faraway, so close : In James Gray’s Ad Astra Brad Pitt plays an astronaut who travels to the furthest reaches of the solar system to track sown his father in a bid to save the Earth. Here the director explains why he created a sci-fi tale tells a myth of man rather than a myth of the gods. By Nick Pinkerton PLUS Anne Billson on the film’s star, whose coronation as Hollywood’s golden boy in the early 1990s was soon complicated by a series of darker, more complex roles that challenged his status as the heir apparent to Robert Redford = 20 Love among the ruins : Filmed as the bombs fell in Aleppo, often with her infant daughter in her arms, Waad al-Kateab’s Fot Sama is an unmissable, harrowing document of the war in Syria from the point of view of those who suffer most. By Jason Burke PLUS Isabel Stevens talks to al-Kateab about the perils of shooting inside Aleppo and why she feared every day might be her last, and her British co-director Edward Watts explains his role in shaping the final film = 32 The man who foresaw cinema : If anyone recognized the true potential of animated photography to become more than a passing novelty, it was Robert Paul, whose visionary role in the history of British cinema – alongside his wife Ellen – remains profoundly undervalued. By Ian Christie = 38 FILMS OF THE MONTH La Flor = 50 Hard Paint = 54 FILMS American Factory = 56 The Art of Racing in the Rain = 56 Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion = 57 The Big Meeting = 58 The Bravest = 58 The Farewell = 59 Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw = 60 For Sama = 60 For the Birds = 61 Good Boys = 62 Good Posture = 63 Hero = 63 Honeyland = 64 Judy = 65 Killer Kate! = 65 Killers Anonymous = 66 Kings = 67 The Kitchen = 67 The Last Tree =68 Mission Mangal = 69 Mother = 70 Neither Wolf nor Dog = 70 Night Hunter = 71 Normal = 72 Ready or not = 72 Rojo = 73 Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark = 74 Sea of Shadows = 75 The Shiny Shrimps = 75 The Shock of the Future = 76 The Sun Is Also a Star = 77 UglyDolls = 77 Werewolf = 78 HOME CINEMA L’Argent, Crime and Punishment, Daïnah la Métisse, The Ear, High Noon, Hold Back the Dawn, Insect. A Kind for Two Farthings, Ida Lupino: Filmmaker Collection – Not Wantds / Never Fear / The Hitch-Hiker / The Bigamist, One Deadly Summer = 81 DVD features : Alex Davidson rewatches William Freidkin´s loathed, prophetic thriller Cruising = 80 Revival: Michael Brooke finds time hasn´t dulled the impact of The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith = 83 Rediscovery: Robert Hanks settles down with Armchair Theatre Archive = 86 Lost and Found: Beatrice Loayza is hooked on the wild romance of Pola X = 88 BOOKS Philip Kemp on Alfred Hitchcock’s cat-and-mouse games with the censors = 90 Ian Mantgani celebrates the genius of Elaine May = 91 Nick Pinkerton applauds a new book that zooms in on camera movement in Hollywood’s Golden Age = 92

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