Foods For Thoughts

I have always preferred the British school of film criticism and analysis over most of what is going on over here. When given a choice between a film book published here or in the UK, even if the subject is North American in origin I will always choose the British option. American film journalism is either exclusively intellectual or vapidly gossipy, and Canadian film journalism either apes American examples to the point of parody (because the fact is no one cares what Nicholas Campbell ate for breakfast, if they're even aware of who he is), or only appeals to the 200 people the constitute the Canadian "industry". However, in the UK even the fluffy "entertainment" sections of British newspapers include numerous intelligent, well researched and intriguing articles. I found a great one recently from The Independent about the new trend of transgressive sex and violence in contemporary French film. It is a very good primer on the subject and is able to put the trend in the context of both French film history and French art in general.

While I was searching for the article to link to, I stumbled across The Guardian film section which also includes some intriguing articles, especially in the context of re-examining Hollywood and American celebrities that we take for granted in North America as being "stars". I recommend checking them both out as I hope to do so more in the future.