Dan Conley’s Writing Projects

Wong Kar-Wai manipulates us in numerous ways throughout “In the Mood for Love.” The greatest trick he pulls on us is giving viewers the impression that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan are alone together. Because we never see them with their romantic partners, it feels to us like the connection

This past year has been one of the best for cinema in quite some time, mostly due to the remarkable collection of international films introduced at Cannes in May. American films were also better than they’ve been this decade, even if the number released in theaters remains paltry. The

The next segment features the boy Ignat, alone in his father’s house. Just that detail alone creates an air of sadness. Here is a boy who has been abandoned by his father, seeing him on one of those rare occasions, and he can’t even find time to be

My children bought me a lovely Christmas present — a Criterion box set of Federico Fellini’s films. I haven’t had time to dive into the collection yet, but did begin my journey with a documentary about Fellini that is part of the collection. I was struck by the way

I wish to stop narrating “Mirror,” because it feels like describing someone else’s dream. The characters purposefully blend, father and sons are interchangeable, the mother and ex-wife are played by the same actress. Strange discussions about whether the son should keep living with his mother or go with his

Kieslowski figured out late in his career that audiences respond very powerfully to seeing attractive lonely people. As he explained in a letter to his friend Hanna Krall, when beautiful people are lonely, there’s an injustice to it that makes the suffering seem even more acute. Mrs. Chan and