By Jonathan Marlow

On the occasion of the U.S. Premiere of Les Blank.s latest documentary, All in This Tea, at the San Francisco International Film Festival, Jonathan Marlow spoke with the remarkably accomplished filmmaker about his legendary career. What follows is the second of two parts, the first part can be found here.

By Michael Fox

"The murderously genteel Claude Chabrol has been compared to Alfred Hitchcock by so many critics, capsule biographers, trailer producers and pressbook writers that the label "France's master of suspense" is forever stuck to his lapel. The seed was planted back in the '50s when Chabrol co-authored an early book on the then-undervalued British filmmaker with fellow Cahiers du Cinema critic (and soon-to-be fellow Nouvelle Vague instigator) Eric Rohmer."

Two of Claude Chabrol's films starring Isabelle Huppert are now available on DVD; The Comedy of Power (2006), and Violette (1978). Read on as Michael Fox shares an overview of some of the director's most memorable works.

By Shade Rupe

With El Topo and The Holy Mountain seeing a limited theatrical release earlier this year, and now, at long last, official DVD releases as well, most of the well-justified hoopla has focused on these films as cult classics, landmarks in the early history of the pre-video era's "midnight movie" phenomenon. Some of the coverage has gone further, telling the story of the dispute between Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky and Beatles manager Allen Klein, who has owned the rights to these films and kept them out of circulation for three decades.

By Sean Axmaker

"'Everyone has his reasons,' that famous quote from the inexhaustible 1939 masterpiece The Rules of the Game, has been the standard critical stamp on the work of Jean Renoir. Every individual in a Renoir film is a unique person whom Renoir attempts to understand, or at least make understood to us," says Sean Axmaker in his article about the French master's films and characters. A special three disc Collector's Edition featuring some of Renoirs finest works is now available on DVD.