Shohei Imamura

"I want to capture this new reality," says the filmmaker behind the camera, Shohei Imamura, in his cunning 1967 riddle "A Man Vanishes." Imamura, who devoted his creative life to both fiction features and documentaries (he died in 2006), is the subject of...

Oscar-winning director Ang Lee and producer James Schamus will be on hand at the Film Independent at LACMA screening Thursday evening at the Leo S. Bing Theater of their seminal 2005 drama "Brokeback Mountain."...

Friday September 18, 1998      In the pre-credit sequence of Shohei Imamura's unpredictable and captivating "The Eel" ("Unagi") a perfectly ordinary-looking Japanese office worker ("Shall We Dance?'s" Koji Yakusho, ideally cast) receives anonymous...

Friday April 9, 1999      Shohei Imamura's masterful, deceptively mellow "Dr. Akagi" takes its title from a physician whose dedication reminded Imamura of his own father. Based on a novel by the late Ango Sakaguchi, the film is set in a seaside island...

Not long after 9/11, a French producer named Alain Brigand asked 11 very different directors from across the world to make short films about the catastrophe. Some of Brigand's choices were real head-scratchers: No matter how great Sean Penn can be as an...

MOVIES CHICAGO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL The 37th annual festival swings into full gear this week with a strong schedule at several venues, including the Music Box Theatre (3733 N. Southport Ave.) and the Landmark Century Centre Cinema (2828 N....