“I am not at all against modern architecture but I believe it should come with not only a building but also a living permit.” ‘Mon Oncle’, my second Jacques Tati movie from 1958, like ‘Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot’ follows the adventures of Tati’s bumbling man-child as he fails to engage with modern life. In…

“At the end of ‘Ugetsu,’ aware we have seen a fable, we also feel curiously as if we have witnessed true lives and fates.” ‘Ugetsu Monogatari’ is a 1953 Japanese movie directed by Kenji Mizoguchi. It’s an historical ghost story set in the 16th century about two couples in a small village, the two men,…

 “This is my hand. I can turn it. The blood is still running in it. The sun is still in the sky and the wind is blowing. And I, Antonius Block, play chess with Death.” ‘The Seventh Seal’, directed by Ingmar Bergman in 1957, feels timeless. It’s the story of a medieval knight who journeys…

“Unhappiness is our own invention. At times I’m sad that I lack the imagination for it.” ‘Madame de…’, directed by Max Ophüls in 1953, follows an unnamed aristocrat as she becomes involved in a love triangle during the Belle Époque in Paris. The shifting allegiances of her marriage and affair is charted through the journey…

“Thank you, thank you. Now, to do this feat, I must fill myself up like a tire. If a blood vessel should break, I would spit blood. For instance, in Milan a man weighing 240 pounds lost his eyesight doing this trick. That is because the optical nerves take a beating, and once you lose…

“Krystyna: So often, are you as a blazing torch with flames, of burning rags falling about you flaming, you know not if flames bring freedom or death. Consuming all that you must cherish if ashes only will be left, and want Chaos and tempest… Chelmicki: …Or will the ashes hold the glory of a starlike…