Very beautiful film, Similar themes and tone to Erice's 'Spirit of the Beehive' but with a bit more depth to character relationships. It's a sad film but the striking use of light and shadows, in an almost Caravaggio type way (as with 'Beehive') is just mesmerizing. A Spanish classic.
Stunning film. Scratchy eerie score. So atmospheric. The sexual tension is palpable. The images are jaw dropping. Extreme close ups, imaginative wide angles. The changing state of Japanese society as it arrives into the modern world is melded with personal existentialism and relationship trauma.
Simply one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
Lovely understated South American drama about a man who tries to reconnect with society after picking up a woman and child, during one of his long distance lorry journeys.
Powerful, disturbing, epic, challenging, surreal, absurd and captivating. This tale of Yugolsavia's history from the 1940s to the 1990s is a monumental achievement in cinema. A modern masterpiece.
Decent noir-ish film inspired by a true crime spree. Must watch more Ida Lupino.
I'm not particularly sure what this film was about (time? memory? lost love?) but it looked beautiful.
Early Roberto Rossellini Italian neo realism, set in ruined Berlin just after the fall of the Third Reich. Devastating.
I'm finding it difficult to find any faults with this film. It's exceptional. The lighting, the performances, the eerie atmospheric sounds. An absolute tour de force in folk horror.
Extraordinary debut film from Jayro Bustamante, who took a bunch of street performers in Guatemala and turned them into very good actors. 19 year old María Mercedes Coroy is Maria - the girl who has an arranged marriage ahead, and who's thirst for another life is about to erupt.
There is beauty, a wonderful script and some shocks. I'll have to check out Bustamante's other two features because this was extremely good.
8.6/10
I prefer this to Fellini's La Dolce Vita and 8 1/2. Maybe it's because it's more of a tragedy in the neo-realist sense, maybe it's because the narrative is a little more succinct and flows more smoothly.
Giulietta Masina (Fellini's real life wife) is brilliant as the down trodden central figure, and the ending is as tense as it is magical. Great film.
So good to tick another Bergman off the list. Existential dread and guilt turning into sweet closure. Great stuff. 7.7/10
Extraordinary Noe debut about a Travis Bickle like character imploding in a rage of hatred against everyone. The inner monologue is written brilliantly. The ending is ambiguous as is much of the film. Great cinema.
Typical Fassbinder heavy dialogue and elegant camerawork. The film deconstructs female relationships through a mesmerizing performance by Margit Carstensen. The framing and focus pulls are exceptional considering it's a 2 hour film shot in one room. von Kant spirals into despair as certain relationships explode, but the final scene is beautiful.
A very lovely film about belonging.
Didn't quite click with me. Some really chilling moments but overall it plays out like a week in the life of Ed Gein, with no real backstory, closure, beginning, ending, or structure. Maybe that was the point, but it wasn't a point made very well.
Although it's a somewhat difficult film to analyse (folk horror, love, spiritual, pagan, fairy tale surrealist fable) it is worth watching if only for the black and white visuals. It's one of the most beautifully photographed films I've ever seen.
I'd already decided this film was a masterpiece by the half way point. There have been many films that cover the horrors of Europe during WW2. But very few have done it as well as this. It does surely contain some of the most harrowing scenes in cinema, but it's also utterly astonishing in terms of the quality of film-making, the casting, the consistency of shot composition etc. It's just stunning. There are indelible images left on my brain whether I want them there or not. Anybody who appreciates films like Come and See, The White Ribbon and Ivan's Childhood might want to give this a go. There's a huge nod to Come and See regarding one of the cast members. And the performance by the young lad is brilliant. There's even a little nod to the cinema of Mikhail Kalatozov. Films like these don't come around very often.
9.7 out of 10
Absolutely astonishing
Scottish cult makes sacrifices on an island. A British classic.
Now I see why this was completely ripped off my a famous filmmaker.
Extremely cool film
My first Hong film and although there were lacklustre moments, there's enough here to make me want to explore his filmography. Great concept that made the entire film's narrative and character list change half way through. Difficult to review without spoilers.
Serene, philosophical masterpiece from the brilliant Kiarostami
Lovely weirdness from Leos Carax. Some of the extreme close ups and focus pulls really draws the viewer to ask why the Director is doing what he's doing. Is it a play on how love between 2 people isn't what it used to be? Or is the bizarre virus in the film a more allegorical one for all the plagues sweeping society? Either way, Lavant and Binoche are superb as usual.
A puzzling but brilliant film.
A difficult film to both anaylse and rate. It is obviously inspirational to filmmakers as much of Goddard's work is, but it's also very meta, aloof and almost abstract at times. Some of the story is a film within a film within a film. So with that in mind, we are literally poking into Goddard's head to watch his own take on Greek Mythology / falling out of love / the struggles to keep art-forms relevant and the decline of culture. One segment is literally a 40 minute argument in an appartment, which was verging on repetitive and overlong. That said it's importance in cinema is clear.
Stunning film from Kelly Reichardt. Wendy and Lucy still remains my favourite of hers but this ran it extremely close. The way Reichardt shoots the Oregon landscape and the nature within it is absolutely beautiful.
At it's heart it's a tale of friendship among those that set off for America's West Coast to find their fortune. Not unlike something like There Will be Blood. But it's done with so much grace and compassion that the viewer is floored by the two main characters' affinity with each other.
There's a reveal in the very first segment of the film too, which just reinforces how good a filmmaker Reichardt is to pull this off. John Magaro's performance is also noteworthy. Great film.
The best Dardennes film I've seen to date. Hard hitting and extremely realistic. Two parents are broke and do whatever it takes to make money. But one of them oversteps the mark. Must watch for any Euro film fan.
As a fan of the Gomorra series I had to track it down. It will hopefully bridge the gap between the 4th and 5th seasons. It had the trademark great cinematography and mokadelic score, but the characters' decisions were just too eyebrow raising to push it into greatness territory. Too many moments felt very orchestrated, especially from the Bruno character. 6.3/10
Hyper real look at the mind of a serial killer. Quite terrifying in places, and a bit lacklustre in others. Also delves a bit into the social and class systems of Japan. Great central performance from Ken Ogata.
Astounding beauty from Theo Angelopoulos. A spiritual and emotional journey into a man's psyche when confronted with death. Brilliant.
My 9th Kore-eda and possibly my favourite. One of those where "every frame could be a painting". It's one of the most beautifully shot films I've ever seen. The photography is jaw dropping. We follow a young woman who has just had a tragic event occur - and how she copes with family and the lack of it, is what Kore-eda explores.
There are bikes, cars and trains, signalling journeys to new beginnings. The sound design moves from trains to nature and waves to show us how the young woman is feeling. There are homages to the likes of de Sica. 'Maborosi' means 'trick of the light' in Japanese, there are lots of scenes with shimmering lights and ethereal effects, not unlike those used by Kieslowski to perhaps convey an other worldy presence. There's a shot where a light bulb rocks next to a clock - light and time coexisting together, Kore-eda is showing us the central theme of the film. This is a must watch for all cinephiles, it is one of the greatest films I have ever seen.
Life is just a puzzle. Don't even try and solve it.
Sidney Flanigan is absolutely brilliant in this playing a troubled teen with a secret to keep. It's hyper-real at times. We can feel her pain. Some utterly heartbreaking scenes including one single take piece of quality cinema.
It's downbeat, sombre, melancholic and moody. And those are it's best qualities. The viewer is reminded of British cinema in the vein of Andrea Arnold and perhaps Cristian Mungiu's '4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days'. It's not over scripted, and it has a lovely washed out colour palette to ram home the "realness". Eliza Hittman is an extremely talented film-maker - Beach Rats was good, this is even better.
8.2/10
