Portals to enchanted realms: Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron
In the realm of cinematic farewells, The Boy and the Heron stands as a poignant adieu from the masterful hand of Hayao Miyazaki.
A meticulous exposé of virulent fundamentalism: Tonje Hessen Schei & Michael Rowley’s Praying for Armageddon
Tonje Hessen Schei and Michael Rowley’s Praying for Armageddon (2023) shines a piercing cinematic light on the madness as well as the astonishing influence exercised by this particular brand of religious fundamentalism.
BIFF 2023: Fight the power with documentary film!
BIFF 2023: Bergen International Film Festival is renowned for its documentaries, great vehicles for challenging authority, fighting the good fight. This year Åsmund Hasli’s Ping Pong Family and Sharon Roggio’s 1946: The Mistranslation that Changed Culture were two of the highlights.
Marx, Coca-Cola, and the Postmodern Space in Between: Jean-Luc Godard’s Masculin féminin
By acknowledging itself as spectacle and as the product of an inherent contradiction between a radical message and commodified medium, Masculin féminin cements itself as a thoroughly postmodern work.
Last year at Haugesund: True confessions of a repeat-offence ‘juror’
True confessions of a repeat-offence ‘juror’ for The Norwegian International Film Festival. I might have said ‘You Be the judge!’ but I certainly didn’t mean it!
KVIFF 2023: Norwegian actor Herbert Nordrum hypnotises Czech Republic
KVIFF 2023: Ernst De Geer’s Hypnosen («The Hypnosis») put a spell on audiences at Karlovy Vary last week. It’s hard to think of a more telling and darkly ironical critique of the seldom-questioned, self-satisfied direction of modern society.
KVIFF 2023: Russell Crowe Band invades the ‘East of the West’
KVIFF 2023: Never underestimate the proverbial margin; it’s where new things are born. Karlovy Vary International Film Festival’s (KVIFF) signature programme “East of the West” may be gone but the concept resonates more than ever.
Director Mark Jenkin’s unique “voice” is back with Enys Men – but will he speak to us?
Horror? No. A whole new genre, maybe? Unease, Disquiet, Confusion…? There will be no easy ride in Enys Men.
I think I thought I saw you try: Aftersun, and the reflective property of memory
What lingers after Aftersun is the overarching feeling of love it intricately captures, and the impossibly haunting desire to capture time itself.
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.