PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews director Charlie Siskel, who talks about his new film American Anarchist from the 73rd Venice Film Festival.
AMERICAN ANARCHIST. In 1970 William Powell wanted to help build a new society, so he taught the world how to blow up the old one. As the heady days of the late 1960s’ counterculture and political upheaval turned darker, Powell, at age 19, wrote one of the most infamous books ever published: The Anarchist Cookbook. Part manifesto and part bomb making manual, it went on to sell over 2 million copies. Since then, theCookbook has been associated with decades of violent anti-government attacks, abortion clinic bombings, school shootings and homegrown domestic terrorism. Now 65, Powell is a man haunted by his own creation, struggling to make sense of the damage it has done. After writing the book, Powell left the US and has lead an itinerant life ever since. He has traversed the globe teaching kids with special needs—committed, ironically, to the kinds of kids who in some cases have turned to violence and the Cookbook. American Anarchist tells a cautionary tale of youthful rebellion and unforeseen consequences, a universal, all-too-human story of a man at the end of his life wrestling with his past, his identity, and coming to terms with who he really is.
For the first time in its history, the Cannes Film Festival reveals two official posters for its 78th edition, inspired by Claude Lelouch’s 1966 Palme d’Or-winning masterpiece A Man and a Woman.
Alice Rohrwacher has been appointed President of the Caméra d’or Jury at Cannes 2025. Known for her poetic and visionary cinema, Rohrwacher will award the best first feature at the festival’s closing ceremony on May 24.