By David D'Arcy

"They're not ironic," Guillermo Del Toro says of his films. "Not even a thing like Blade II, not even a thing like Hellboy. I believe in these things. I love these things. I'm not being postmodern about it." David D'Arcy's conversation with the director of Pan's Labyrinth touches on the Spanish Civil War, Mexican film today, the books Del Toro reads (and rereads), the art he collects and the filmmakers he admires.

Pan's Labyrinth is now available on DVD. Don't overlook the bonus disc packed with some fantastic special features, including a Charlie Rose interview with del Toro and his creative parnters in crime Alfonso Cuaróa> and Alejandro Gonzáz Iñitu.

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 Cathleen Rountree

Upon first meeting one of the great humanist filmmakers, Hirokazu Kore-eda, last September at the Toronto International Film Festival, I was struck by his modesty and peacefulness, characteristics embodied also by Soza (Junichi Okada), the reluctant swordsman/hero in Kore-eda.s most recent film Hana, screening this week at SFIFF. An aficionada of his four previous films: Maborosi (1996), After Life (1999), Distance (2002), and Nobody Knows (2004), I was ecstatic at the opportunity to meet and speak with this foremost world cinema director, who, as far as I.m concerned, should be considered one of Japan.s Living Treasures.

By Jonathan Marlow

With the release of Hypothesis of the Stolen Painting on DVD, the vast and vital oeuvre of Raúiz, seemingly so far out of reach for most of us, is brought one small but welcome step closer. Jonathan Marlow met the Chilean director in Rotterdam. Also: A talk with Elsa Zylberstein about working with Ruiz on Time Regained and That Day.