Karlovy Vary 2015: Norwegians – what are they good for? At the international premiere of Bobbie Peers’s debut feature The Disappearing Illusionist I found the answer and – trust me – it’s not what you think!
David Robert Mitchell’s It Follows inspires awe far outside the ranks of horror film aficionados. This first entry in a series of three articles looks at 10 possible ways into the film, trying to put into words and pictures what makes the film so special.
David Robert Mitchell offers an intelligent and deeply deliberate use of motifs. We reveal how sleep, water and the colour red create an “invisible”, parallel trajectory to the surface story of It Follows.
David Robert Mitchell unites art film and genre movie in It Follows. Its staging and aesthetics is explored in the last of three analytical articles about the film.
Montages is running an analysis project about M. Night Shyamalan entire production, originating from studies of his early works from 1999 to 2006: The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004) and Lady in the Water (2006).
Cannes 2015: Louder Than Bombs refuses to dole out easy answers, but is pregnant with an inquisitiveness about existence and human psychology. It’s such a rich film that it’s difficult to amply parse in a single sitting.
«What gives a work the kind of mark of authenticity that can prompt the sophisticated cinephile to nod with approval and self-satisfaction at being able to appreciate such a difficult but worthwhile film?»
In Signs scenes do not only exist to drive the plot forward. Their formally distinctive staging creates additional layers, encouraging meanings and symbols, often enigmatic.
Signs offers rich allegorical subtexts of dreams, magic and the aliens as metaphors for the characters’ inner demons. We also chart references to The Birds, and analyse the masterful cellar sequence and the film’s ending.
M. Night Shyamalan is particularly adept at creating a set of hidden motifs that govern the film. We look at circles, water, doors, houses, the sky and how they operate in two brilliant horror set pieces.
M. Night Shyamalan has created a Signs fiction film about alien invasion, with powerful horror set pieces and comedic touches. An analysis of its dreamlike opening sequence peels away complex layers of motifs and echoes.
TIFF 2015: Gabe Polsky’s documentary Red Army casts new light on the Soviet conquest of the world – of hockey.