“This very afternoon, I was approached with a sugarcoated proposition…a bribe offered me by this corrupt officialdom. $100,000 for the building and equipment of a recreation centre in my parish if I would agree to refrain from further attacks…if I would sabotage this campaign…if I would shut my eyes, stop my ears and hold my…
Month: September 2019
Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932)
“The man who spits in Balzac’s “Physiology of Marriage” is less than nothing to me.” Directed by Jean Renoir, Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) is a satirical comedy starring Michel Simon as the title character, a tramp in Paris who, after being rescued from the river following a suicide attempt, insinuates himself into a bourgeois household….
The Five Obstructions (2003)
The Five Obstructions (2003) is a Danish documentary directed by Lars von Trier and Jørgen Leth. Inspired by Leth’s 1968 short movie The Perfect Human, von Trier decides to test his fellow director’s skills by setting a series of challenges. Leth is asked to remake The Perfect Human but with a series of imposed limitations or obstructions. Firstly,…
Judge Priest (1934)
“Hey, hey boy, wake up there. Sheriff, wake him up there. If anybody’s going to sleep in this court, it’ll be me.” Judge Priest (1934), directed by John Ford and starring Will Rogers as the titular character, is a pastoral comedy set in a small town Kentucky town decades after the American Civil War. Priest is…
Cairo Station (1958)
“Chahine fans out from a sweaty, realist base towards social observation, florid melodrama and dark suspense. It’s a strikingly controlled, confident, bitingly effective display, which leaves you wondering where this film has been all our lives.” Cairo Station (1958), directed by and starring Youssef Chahine, is a tense, noirish thriller set in the main train…
I Know Where I’m Going! (1945)
I Know Where I’m Going! (1945), directed by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, is a romantic comedy starring Wendy Hiller as Joan Webster, a focused and aspirational woman who heads from urban Manchester to the wild west coast islands of Scotland to marry a businessman. She becomes stranded on the island of Isle of Mull,…
Film Ark 