This 2012 Indonesian documentary, directed by Joshua Oppenheimer, about the people who participated in the mass killings of the 1960s is strange and shocking. The film follows the killers, now revered by right wing politic groups, interviewing them about their memories of their acts and, distinctively, handing over the filming of the documentary to them, allowing…
Month: December 2018
Seven Chances (1925) and It’s a Gift (1934)
Ten years apart these two movies epitomise the careers to two comedy legends. The first, directed by and staring Buster Keaton, is a silent film containing all the stunts and physical excess you’d expect after seeing Sherlock Jr. (1924) and The General (1926). The second is a talkie, directed by Norman Z. McLeod and staring W. C. Fields….
A Throw of Dice (1929)
There is something magical about this silent movie, the third directed by Franz Osten. Simultaneously intimate and spectacular, telling the story of two royal rivals for the heart of a peasant girl and embedding this in the vistas and splendour of Rajasthan, the film moves between personal and emotional and expansive without sacrificing the sharpness of…
Wake in Fright (1971)
“I cannot accept your premise, Socrates. Affectability… progress… are vanities spawned by fear. A vanity spawned by fear. The aim of what you call civilisation is a man in a smokin’ jacket, whiskey and soda, pressing a bottom… button, to destroy a planet a billion miles away, kill a billion people he’s never seen.” There…
Film Ark 