Frederick Wiseman

Latest Articles

Review: Crazy Horse

Wiseman behind the scenes at a revered dance institution
In La Danse — The Paris Opera Ballet , Frederick Wiseman looked behind the scenes at a revered dance institution. In his new documentary he examines a dance institution of a different sort, the cabaret bar of the title, a Parisian pop-cultural icon and tourist mecca dedicated to artistically ambitious "nude chic" dancing.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 24, 2012

Marwencol and Jafar Panahi star at Boston Society of Film Critics awards

Critical Acclaim Dept.
From Boston to Oscar.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 27, 2011

Review: Boxing Gym

Frederick Wiseman serves up blood, sweat, and hypnotic cadences
Whatever his subject matter, documentarian Frederick Wiseman has always been concerned with blood and sweat.
By TOM MEEK | November 11, 2010

Review: Cyrus

Umbilical discord: The Duplass Brothers get Oedipal
Helicoptering parents and stay-at-home adult children have been popular issues of late, and at first, the Duplass Brothers' third feature (and their first made with a studio) seems poised to exploit them.
By PETER KEOUGH | June 28, 2010

An idyll examined

Frederick Wiseman's four-hour, 1999 documentary about Belfast, Maine
After 36 films and more than 40 years of filmmaking, Frederick Wiseman has probably come as close as any director to capturing this American life in all its breadth and nuance.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | January 27, 2010

Documentary Man

An interview with Frederick Wiseman
If you think the polemic salvos Michael Moore churns out define the modern documentary, you've either succumbed to Moore's manipulative shenanigans or are unfamiliar with the works of Frederick Wiseman. No disrespect to the Roger & Me director, he is what he is — a man with a camera and a handful of pixie dust.
By TOM MEEK | December 09, 2009

Review: La Danse: Le Ballet de L'Opéra de Paris

Tough love from Frederick Wiseman
Frederick Wiseman's documentary is a love letter to Paris, to the Palais Garnier opera house (the Bastille gets a cameo), and the Paris Opera Ballet.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | December 09, 2009

Greater than fiction

Mainers find ideas and connections at a Missouri film festival
The True/False Film Festival, which just wrapped up its sixth year in Columbia, Missouri, presents an encouraging object lesson in how to establish a destination film festival in an unlikely location.
By CHRISTOPHER GRAY | March 04, 2009

Review: The Secret of the Grain

Food for thought
The secret of The Grain is patience
By PETER KEOUGH | February 19, 2009

Review: The Class

Learning curve, part II
Bégaudeau is a real-life teacher who penned a memoir, Entre les murs (the film’s original French title), about his time in the classroom.
By GERALD PEARY | February 04, 2009

Mat city

Aronofsky, Rourke make The Wrestler a champ
Despite the bleak scenario, this is Aronofsky's funniest film.
By PETER KEOUGH | December 24, 2008

Local culler

Paul Sherman’s Big Screen Boston
For peddling some not-for-sale DVDs to a dubious Internet customer, local critic Paul Sherman found himself in the middle of an FBI sting, removed from his reviewing posts at the Boston Herald and the Improper Bostonian , and under voluntary house arrest.
By GERALD PEARY | April 22, 2008

Mexico City abuzz with Beantowners

A report from the International Mexico City Festival of Contemporary Cinema
Where’s New York? Where’s LA?
By GERALD PEARY | April 07, 2008

Armies of the light

Norman Mailer’s primal screen at the HFA
Maybe the trauma of another intractable war has sparked the movies’ recent interest in ’60s headliners.
By PETER KEOUGH | September 18, 2007

Doom, gloom and zoom

A year in film
Given the past year’s headlines, it can’t come as a surprise that some of the best films of 2006 had an edge of darkness to them.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 16, 2007

Crash victim?

Krzysztof Kieslowski at the MFA
I recently saw Alejandro Iñárritu’s Babel , the latest entry in the multi-narrative, pseudo-serendipitous, ain’t-life-ironic genre that reached a highpoint with the Best Picture Oscar last year for Crash , and I asked myself, is this the future of cinema?
By PETER KEOUGH | October 04, 2006

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu(1)

Approaches the mythic
Those dismayed by the state of American medicine might take heart from Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s depressing, fascinating, two-and-a-half-hour death watch. Watch the trailer for The Death of Mr.Lzarescu (QuickTime)
By PETER KEOUGH | July 31, 2006

Prairie state

Altman spins Keillor’s Companion piece
I never listened to more than a few minutes of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion .
By PETER KEOUGH | June 07, 2006

Dixième Chambre: Instants D’Audience | The 10th District Court: Moments of Trial

Rating: 3 stars
The cases heard in the typical court sessions of Raymond Dépardon’s documentary range from drunk-driving charges against middle-class plaintiffs to drug and robbery offenses committed by poor people, minorities, and illegal aliens.
By PETER KEOUGH | February 09, 2006

The Death of Mr. Lazarescu

Those dismayed by the state of American medicine might take heart from Romanian director Cristi Puiu’s depressing, fascinating, two-and-a-half-hour death watch.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 18, 2006