Forget the totalitarian terror: Merkulova and Chupov’s Captain Volkonogov Escaped
Forget the totalitarian terror – this is worse – and here lies the true genius of Merkulova and Chupov’s Captain Volkonogov Escaped.
This Peculiarly Human Preoccupation, Love: Nicolas Roeg’s Bitter Counterculture Classics
Nicolas Roeg was one of the few British filmmakers who was willing to risk it all; and while sometimes the shots didn’t land, how extraordinary it is, still to this day, to see a film that refuses to cater to the caprices of the industry.
The Holy Ideology and its misogynistic treatise: Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider
Holy Spider portrays threats and terrors rising from “holy” ideologies with their claims of supremacy. It portrays a narcissistic narrative about a hegemonic ideology that ensures its persistence by masquerading as holy, whereas, in truth, it threatens humankind.
Rinse & Repeat: the Time of Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
What is the appeal of Jeanne Dielman for the viewers and critics in 2022? Is it possible that its influence stretches far beyond our immediate understanding, and is enveloped by external forces that wreak havoc on the film industry?
The man-child as mass murderer: Justin Kurzel’s Nitram
Without showing any violence, this emotionally stunning descent from pathetic misfit into merciless killer is utterly striking, convincing and instructive.
Just make something up! Tales of tall tales and parables for our times (KVIFF 2022)
Karlovy Vary 2020: We live in an age of creative awakening. This is the flipside, the upside of ‘post-truth times.’ We know not where this leads but it behoves us to make the best of the journey. The alternative is dystopia – and we all know what that is like!
Girls on film: Nina Menkes’ Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power (KVIFF 2022)
KVIFF 2022: The truth about ‘girls on film’ according to director Nina Menkes.
The luxury of awfulness: Kristoffer Borgli’s Sick of Myself
Cannes 2022: It feels so apt that Norwegian director Kristoffer Borgli, on stage in a crisp suit at Cannes and wresting the spotlight away from Thierry Fremaux himself, called his feature debut Sick of Myself a ”toast to the assholes”.
The Unsparing Judgement of Oneself: the Life and Work of Larisa Shepitko
Today, as we watch in awe her fellow Ukrainians’ bravery and refusal to relent, The Ascent, and Shepitko’s life, may give us a clue as to what is worth fighting for.
Focus of faith: Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person in the World
A film of wanderings and street-level epiphanies, a romantic comedy ending in stripped-down tragedy, a portrait of the future artist as a young woman.
Is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) modern?
Is Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush (1925) modern? Who cares! Like any true masterpiece, it transcends the confines of any epoch.
Berlinale 2022 – Returning home, only to find it different
«Europe has a tendency to wake up and find itself different in the immediate aftermath of the Berlinale, from all the way back in 2014 with the Maidan protests, and indelibly more so now with a full-blown invasion and war in Ukraine. Through no fault of the films themselves, history is speeding up and finding us responding to constantly outdated upheavals.»
M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit, Part II: Shit happens, but with precision
Although not strictly a found footage film itself, The Visit is commenting upon, and at times even satirising, the ingredients of the genre. Bonus: references to other Shyamalan films.