Kevin Lally on Film

Interviews and more from the former executive editor of Film Journal International and Boxoffice Pro

‘Lord of the Ants’ and ‘Strangeness’ Are Two Highlights at Lincoln Center’s Annual ‘Open Roads’ Italian Series

Every spring, Film at Lincoln Center’s “Open Roads” series brings proof that Italian cinema is alive and well. The 22nd edition, running June 1-8, presents 11 new Italian features, plus a three-film salute to director Mario Martone. The opening-night selection is Francesca Archibugi’s The Hummingbird, adapted from the decades-spanning, Strega Prize-winning novel by Sandro Veronisi and…

gkevinlally

May 30, 2023

Film Appreciation
For Clint Eastwood’s 93rd Birthday, A Look Back at ‘Million Dollar Baby’

Clint Eastwood turns 93 on May 31, 2023—and he’s still at it, in pre-production on his 40th feature, Juror #2. I was lucky to get him on the phone in 2004 to discuss one of his two Best Picture Oscar winners, Million Dollar Baby. A last-minute addition to that year’s release schedule, Million Dollar Baby…

gkevinlally

May 26, 2023

Eastwood, Clint, Filmmakers
Polish Master Andrzej Wajda, Five Years Before Solidarity’s Triumph

I’m eternally grateful that early in my Film Journal career, thanks to the late, great publicist Renee Furst, I got to sit down with legends of the international film world like Alain Resnais and Andrzej Wajda. This fall 1984 interview with arguably Poland’s most acclaimed director is especially compelling to revisit, since Wajda had been forced to…

gkevinlally

May 8, 2023

Filmmakers, Wajda, Andrzej
Paul Schrader Encounters a Japanese Icon in ‘Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters’

Paul Schrader made an auspicious directing debut 45 years ago with Blue Collar, a hard-hitting drama about three struggling Michigan auto workers who turn to crime. Already celebrated as the screenwriter of the landmark Taxi Driver, Schrader continued to pursue parallel tracks as writer-director (Hardcore, American Gigolo, Cat People, The Comfort of Strangers, Light Sleeper, Affliction, Auto…

gkevinlally

April 22, 2023

Filmmakers, Schrader, Paul
Thirty-five Years Ago, Costa-Gavras Made a Film About White Supremacists in America

The great Greek-French filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras turned 90 on February 12, 2023. Best known for his Oscar-winning 1969 classic Z, the director seldom made a film that wasn’t fueled by political urgency. That certainly applies to the movie that was the subject of our 1988 conversation, Betrayed. His third English-language film, it stars Debra Winger as an…

gkevinlally

March 26, 2023

Costa-Gavras, Constantin, Filmmakers
Ben Affleck’s ‘Air’ Chronicles Nike’s Groundbreaking Pursuit of Michael Jordan

With the exception of his 2016 misstep Live by Night, actor and sometime tabloid target Ben Affleck has an enviable track record as a director. Gone Baby Gone, his adaptation of a Dennis Lehane crime tale, was an auspicious debut; his follow-up, The Town, was equally gritty and gripping, and Argo won the Oscar for best picture. (And let’s…

gkevinlally

March 24, 2023

Film Appreciation