cosmopolis

July 2012, originally uploaded by Sight&Soundmagazine.

On newsstands 12 June.

Thirty years ago, explosive body parts were what the directors of Alien and Scanners had in common. But while Ridley Scott reaches for the stars with his ‘origin of everything’ epic Prometheus, David Cronenberg has gone the other way, shrinking his universe to the inside of a limousine in Cosmopolis.

The latter was a star attraction – and one of a cavalcade of auto-themed works – at this years Cannes Film Festival, from which our editor Nick James and Geoff Andrew report. And while that round-up looks forward to 20 films that’ll be coming the way of our arthouse screens over the next 12 months, we’re also looking back this month: over the careers of the late, great Japanese director Shindo Kaneto and the redoubtable Hollywood comedienne Shirley MacLaine, to Hugh Hudson’s 1980s epic Revolution and to the greatest of all British silents, Hitchcock’s Blackmail.

• Cover feature: A WOMB WITH A VIEW
With his new film Cosmopolis, largely confined to the interior of a stretch limo, David Cronenberg has transformed Don DeLillo’s 2003 zeitgeist novel into something altogether stranger. The director talks to Jonathan Romney

• CRUISE CONTROL
Despite a cavalcade of car, road and even caravan movies, this year’s Cannes seemed to be stuck in neutral, finds Nick James

+ Geoff Andrew pays his respects to Michael Haneke’s Amour, and other cinematic responses to death

• PROMETHEUS UNBOUND
Whether or not it’s officially billed as a prequel, Ridley Scott’s Prometheus will inevitably be seen in the light of his 1979 film Alien. Kim Newman unravels the connections

• WORKING WITH HITCH
Writing a score for the restored version of Alfred Hitchcock’s last silent film, 1929’s Blackmail, gave composer Neil Brand new insight into the master’s techniques

• IN THE LINE OF FIRE
Hugh Hudson’s 1985 epic Revolution became a byword for the hubris of the British film industry in the big-spending Goldcrest era. But, he tells Jack Watkins, a new director’s cut has finally done it justice

• CLASSICAL VIRTUES
Japanese director Shindo Kaneto, fêted for his ghost classic Onibaba, died in May at the age of 100. To mark a BFI season, Alexander Jacoby pays tribute to him and his frequent collaborator Yoshimura Kozaburo

• A DAME FOR ALL SEASONS
Over half a century in the public eye, Shirley MacLaine may have spread her eccentric charm thin, but in a handful of roles she is unforgettable, says Dan Callahan

PLUS

Nick Bradshaw talks to director Penny Woolcock about scouring the archives for From the Sea to the Land Beyond

Kieron Corless reports from the Oberhausen Short Film Festival

Charles Gant on how The Raid broke out of the fanboy ghetto

Ryan Gilbey salutes the comic genius of Elaine May and A New Leaf

Nick Roddick finds an installation inspired by Hangover Square takes him to the heart of film theory

FILM OF THE MONTH

Kosmos
With its enigmatic tale of a stranger shaking up a small town on the fringes of Turkey, Kosmos confirms Reha Erdem as a director of mysterious vision, whose characters move beyond language. By Trevor Johnston.

+ 39 other film releases reviewed

DVD FEATURES

James Bell raises a glass to two Billy Wilder classics

Michael Atkinson rediscovers the Czech New Wave

Tim Lucas celebrates the studio movie John Cassavetes disowned

+ 18 other releases reviewed

BOOK REVIEWS

Michael Brooke is absorbed by a comprehensive study of Hitchcock’s penultimate film Frenzy

Kim Newman is tantalised by Ken Russell’s unproduced Dracula

Tony Rayns appreciates a wide-ranging dictionary of Japanese cinema

Jez Stewart savours a guide to the unsung art of animation layout

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