«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 Through no fault of the films themselves, history is speeding up and finding us responding to constantly outdated upheavals.»
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.
“You have to laugh to keep the deep darkies in a cave.” Shyamalan’s most audacious film presents a bizarre mix of knowing irony, youthful naivete, mental illness, comedic horror and tonal shifts, yet everything seamlessly works.
Lana Wachowski’s solo Matrix effort is very uneven, but especially the first act is hugely impressive, marked by precision-point filmmaking and mirror poetry.
«The images, the sounds, and the emotions of this film are all in me, mind and body, and will stay with me, not just as a favourite among Trier’s films, but as a favourite film.»
Joachim Trier’s second film is more realistic and less playful than his debut Reprise. This exploration of the film’s form still reveals many memorable devices and discreet touches.
With The Worst Person in the World winning acclaim from critics and audiences, we welcome you to an image-based journey into the recurring visual motifs and devices in Joachim Trier’s cinema, with an emphasis on focus and gestures.
Movies on War 2021: Baby Fingers won the Nordic short-film competition in Elverum, squeezing out plenty of longer and more ‘weighty’ rivals, because it has the capacity to make us think and even to see ourselves with new eyes.
Sciamma’s fifth feature film is immediately striking in its gentleness as well as emotional and visual beauty, but what lies beneath the apparent simplicity are rich layers of structural echoes and quiet metaphors.
«Movies on war may tell us much about war, but especially the exit plan, the path to a genuine peace.»
This heartbreaking, immersive film about the lead-up to the 1995 massacre in Srebrenica, Bosnia is a story of self-preservation and humiliation, with an epilogue that is a great work of art in itself.
Few films in world cinema history owe their existence to as many unlikely coincidences as Jean Renoir’s celebrated La Grande Illusion (1938). In fact, its story and survival may be said to be nothing short of a miracle.