Thursday, Sep 2nd 2010
Cosmopolitan citizenship in the Middle East | openDemocracy
Superb piece by Sami Zubaida on Ottoman Cosmopolitanism and its sad decline.
'In the popular mind, international relations were conceived in communalist terms: European powers are Christian and in league with local Christians against Islam and Muslims. This communalist model, with umma nationalism at its core has been revived [...]
Endgame - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News
Noam Sheizaf on the burgeoning support among the Israeli right and settlers for a one-state solution in the West Bank (though not Gaza). Though it doesn't quite converge with the binational state desired by Palestinians and sections of the Israeli left, there are similarities, particularly discontent with the [...]
CIA Man Retracts Claim on Waterboarding | Foreign Policy
John Kiriakou, the former CIA operative who affirmed claims that waterboarding quickly unloosed the tongues of hard-core terrorists, says he didn't know what he was talking about.
www.Syberberg.de
Hans-Jürgen Syberberg's work, including his masterpiece Hitler: A Film from Germany, available free to stream or download. A superb collection.
Is aviation security mostly for show?
Bruce Schneier is the United States' foremost security expert and also a voice of sanity and reason in the debate on anti-terrorism measures. Here he correctly argues that terrorism is rare while conceding the value of 'security theatre' in reassuring a concerned public. Schneier is also convinced that the best [...]
The top ten for the decade - or, as the more observant will notice, a top 12 - a miscalculation resulted in there being more left at the end than I originally thought. But none of these films could be left out and there’s no obligation to stick too closely to the rules. So here [...]
The Man Without a Past (Aki Kaurismäki - Finland, 2002)
Kaurismäki narrowly missed out on both the Palme d’Or and Best Foreign Language Film Oscar for this film in 2002 but it deservedly made him known to a wider international audience. A man is brutally beaten in a mugging and wakes up with no recollection of [...]
Part 3 of the 100 Best Films of the Decade. Part 1 and Part 2 have already appeared. Only two to go.
The Life Aquatic…With Steve Zissou (Wes Anderson – USA, 2004)
People either love or hate Wes Anderson, though I find I have a foot in either camp. I initially detested The Royal Tennenbaums before [...]
The much anticipated second installment of the 100 films of the decade. Part 1 can be found here.
Man on the Moon (Milos Forman – USA, 2000)
Milos Forman followed up his Larry Flynt biopic with one of another American curio, comedian Andy Kaufman. You don’t have to think Kaufman was an undisputed comic genius [...]
The past decade presented both new challenges and new opportunities to cinema. While on the one hand new technology freed filmmakers from the shackles of financing, a greater homogenisation of taste and lack of adventure among distributors and producers has made it harder to get interesting films seen. The internet has made it possible for [...]