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Monsters from the Sea
Leviafan (Левиафан), dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev, 2014 Zvyaginstev's earlier 2003 film, Vozvrashcheniye (The Return) impressed for the...
Apr 24, 20208 min read
15 views


Crime and Punishment
Les Quatre Cents Coups, dir. François Truffaut, 1959 The 400 Blows - an odd and misleading English translation - is regarded as one of...
Apr 5, 20207 min read
21 views


Mother and Son
Le souffle au cœur, dir. Louis Malle, 1971 I came across this film as part of a retrospective of the French New Wave - a movement this...
Apr 4, 20209 min read
20 views


A Descent into Madness
El hoyo, dir. Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia, 2019 The "allegory of the long spoons" is a thought experiment which contextualises effortlessly...
Mar 26, 20209 min read
19 views


Passion Ablaze
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu, dir. Céline Sciamma, 2019. Much has been made of the concept of the "male gaze" in the arts,...
Mar 3, 202010 min read
31 views


A Eulogy for Jacques
Jacquot et Nantes, dir. Agnès Varda, 1991 The legendary French auteur, Agnès Varda, passed away in March 2019, aged 90, and what has...
Feb 5, 20205 min read
16 views


Silence is Golden
The Lodger, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 1927. Silent Hitchcock Retrospective, Harvard Film Archive, 2020. I have to confess that my interest...
Feb 1, 20205 min read
13 views


Destructive Necessities
The Souvenir, dir. Joanna Hogg, 2019 Honor Swinton Byrne is Julie, a young sensitive woman raised in a loving and supportive middle-upper...
Jan 26, 20205 min read
12 views


The Power and the Light
The Lighthouse, dir. Robert Eggers, 2019 As a psychological thriller, The Lighthouse crawls under your skin in ways many other films in...
Jan 20, 20203 min read
25 views


Midsummer Madness
Midsommar, dir. Ari Aster, 2019 Hereditary, Aster's previous film, impressed me for its fine sense of characterisation and for what I...
Jan 16, 20205 min read
16 views


Ignorance is Bliss
The Farewell, dir. Lulu Wang, 2019 Lulu Wang's screenplay is perhaps one of the most impeccably crafted pieces of writing I have come...
Jan 12, 20205 min read
17 views


The Devil in a Red Dress
In Fabric, dir. Peter Strictland, 2019 On first viewing, it's tempting to sum up In Fabric as a ludicrous indulgence of horror-noir...
Jan 5, 20203 min read
21 views


Can We Camp-Up Hitler?
JoJo Rabbit, dir. Taika Waititi, 2019 The first thing to say is that it's stupidly outrageous that a 10 year old kid can give such a...
Jan 3, 20204 min read
11 views


Little Women, Big Hearts
Little Women, dir. Greta Gerwig, 2019 If ever we needed film to supply a much-needed tonic for our caustic, worrisome times, Greta...
Dec 27, 20193 min read
18 views


In praise of sight and sound
Pan's Labyrinth, dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006 I saw this on a restored 35mm print: what a revelation. The depth of colours, the rich...
Dec 27, 20191 min read
10 views


Tarantino's Nirvana?
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2019 To watch this new movie is to witness Tarantino not as we’ve come to expect -...
Dec 17, 20195 min read
18 views


Grass, Anyone?
Greener Grass, dir. Jocelyn DeBeer, Dawn Luebbe, 2019 Set in the syrupy world of soccer moms, everyone in this turgid town wears braces...
Nov 22, 20192 min read
9 views
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