Artiste
"A man's made by patience and the odds against him." - Phil Burbank, The Power of the Dog The Power of the Dog is a 2021 Western psychological drama film written and directed by Jane Campion. It is based on Thomas Savage's 1967 novel of the same title. The film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Shot mostly within rural Otago, the film [...]
Carnival of Souls (Herk Harvey, 1962) is a strange, atmospheric and unforgettable low-budget horror film. Source A young woman (Candace Hilligoss) in a small Kansas town survives a drag race accident, then agrees to take a job as a church organist in Salt Lake City. En route, she is haunted by a bizarre apparition that compels [...]
"When we love someone, who do we love? That person, or our idea of that person?" Roger Ebert Solaris is a 1972 Soviet science fiction art film based on Stanisław Lem's 1961 novel of the same name. The film was co-written and directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, and stars Donatas Banionis and Natalya Bondarchuk. The electronic music score was performed by Eduard Artemyev and features J.S. Bach chorale prelude for organ Ich [...]
“when i sleep, i know no fear, no, trouble no bliss. blessing on him who invented sleep. the common coin that purchases all things, the balance that levels shepherd and king, fool and wise man. there is only one bad thing about sound sleep. they say it closely resembles death.” Mirror is a 1975 art film directed by Andrei [...]
“Mirrors are the doors through which Death comes; look long enough in a mirror and you will see Death at work.” Orpheus a 1950 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. It is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet (1930), Orpheus (1950), and Testament of Orpheus (1960). Over the course of thirty years, [...]
“Faith is a torment, did you know that? It is like loving someone who is out there in the darkness but never appears, no matter how loudly you call.” The Seventh Seal is a 1957 Swedish historical fantasy film written and directed by Ingmar Bergman. It is considered a classic of world cinema, as well as one of the greatest [...]
“To be immortal and then die” Jean-Luc Godard Jean-Luc Godard has always considered himself as much a critic as a filmmaker -indeed, the two functions are inseparable for him- and in both areas he has made it his mission to shake up established formulas as radically as possible. "We have to fight the audience," he told [...]
“And then, one day, my love, you come out of eternity.” Hiroshima mon amour is a 1959 French New Wave romantic drama film directed by French film director Alain Resnais with a screenplay by Marguerite Duras. Resnais' first feature-length work, the film is a co-production between France and Japan, and documents a series of intensely personal nonlinear conversations over a 36-hour long period between a [...]
“I am the man whose life and soul are torment” The Color of Pomegranates is a 1969 Soviet Armenian art film written and directed by Sergei Parajanov. The film is a breathtaking fusion of poetry, ethnography, and cinema that tells of the life of 18th-century Armenian poet and troubadour Sayat-Nova. Sergei Parajanov’s masterwork overflows with [...]
I read this article in Literary Hub about the Coen brothers film, The Tragedy of Macbeth. The article starts like this: In the flawless, stainless neo-noir Blood Simple, the 1984 directorial debut of Joel and Ethan Coen and the acting debut of Joel’s soon-to-be wife Frances McDormand, a character clandestinely commits a murder in the back [...]
https://videopress.com/v/rm0oJqax?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata In the mood for love | Trailer of the 20th anniversary restoration I watched Wong Par-Wai's In the mood for love a couple of nights ago on the Criterion channel. The 2000 romantic-drama is a co-production between Hong Kong and France, it portrays a man (Tony Leung) and a woman (Maggie Cheung) whose spouses have [...]
Over the Christmas Holidays I watched a 1934 movie called the Black Cat by Edgar G. Ulmer. I had seen a couple of months before a short clip of the movie where I recognized Schumann’s Quintet second movement. Needless to say that my curiosity was triggered. The movie actually has a great soundtrack with pieces [...]