“Nothing could touch me less than your affection.” ‘The Match Factory Girl’, directed by Aki Kaurismäki in 1990, is a Finnish drama that completes the ‘Proletariat Trilogy’ that included the director’s 1988 movie ‘Ariel’. In this film, Kati Outinen plays Iris, a factory worker who is supporting her stepfather and mother. She works, brings home…

“Life is a hospital where every patient is obsessed by the desire of changing beds. One would like to supper opposite the stove another is sure he’d get well beside the window.” ‘London’, directed by Patrick Keiller in 1992, is the first of a trilogy of documentary films that include ‘Robinson in Space’ and ‘Robinson…

This review of ‘The Almodóvar Collection’ DVD boxset first appeared on We Are Cult on the 21st of September 2016 The critical success of ‘Julieta’, released this summer, makes this boxset of newly restored versions of Pedro Almodóvar’s early movies all the more timely. The collection, available on DVD and Blu-Ray from StudioCanal, includes six…

“If you analyse it too much, life becomes almost meaningless.” ‘Fast, Cheap & Out of Control’, directed by Errol Morris in 1997, is an American documentary that contrasts the occupations of four men: a lion tamer, a creator of topiaries, an expert in the hairless mole-rat and a scientist working in the field of robotics….

“Man… probably the most mysterious species on our planet. A mystery of unanswered questions. Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going? How do we know what we think we know? Why do we believe anything at all? Countless questions in search of an answer… an answer that will give rise…

My experience of the films of Akira Kurosawa before I started this journey through international cinema was limited. I’d seen ‘Rashomon’, bits of ‘Seven Samurai’ and, because of the film’s connection with ‘Star Wars’, the beginning of ‘The Hidden Fortress’. As with Andrei Tarkovsy, it took a few films to adjust my expectations to what…

“You must have patience, even while people die. Only thus can the whole evil be destroyed. You must let it grow.” I’m a happy member of the ‘Folk Horror Revival’ Facebook group. I bought the ‘Folk Horror Revival: Field Studies’ book and I’ve contributed a poem to the up-coming ‘Corpse Roads’ anthology, but I have…

I’d watched very few Czechoslovakian movies before I started on this, frankly ill-advised, journey in January. I’d seen the American films of Miloš Forman, including the great ‘Amadeus‘ and disturbed myself silly with Jan Švankmajer’s short animations, hunted down his adaptation of ‘Faust’ on VHS, and watched his 2000 fantasy ‘Little Otik’ at the cinema….

“If it weren’t for fornication and blood, we wouldn’t be here.” ‘Beau Travail’, directed by Claire Denis in 1999, is a French drama set in the Republic of Djibouti. Denis Lavant stars as Galoup, a veteran soldier in the French Foreign Legion. We first meet him in retirement in Marseille, and in flashback he recalls…

“Life is colour; love is colour” ‘Gabbeh’, directed by Mohsen Makhmalbaf in 1996, is an Iranian movie that, whilst short, manages to create an entirely distinct and magical cinematic universe all of its own. It begins with a fractious elderly couple who go to the river to wash their rug. When they unfurl it, a…

“In issue 141 of the Fantastic Four, published in November, 1973, Reed Richards had to use his anti-matter weapon on his own son, who Aannihilus has turn into the Human Atom Bomb. It was a typical predicament for the Fantastic Four, because they weren’t like other superheroes. They were more like a family. And the…

“One hundred tomans! You want to pay one hundred tomans for a goldfish. You can watch two films with that money. You’re nuts.” ‘The White Balloon’, directed by Jafar Panahi and written by Abbas Kiarostami in 1995, is an Iranian movie. It follows a small girl, Razieh, played by Aida Mohammadkhani, in the hours leading…

“Do you believe in God?” ‘Open Your Eyes’, directed by Alejandro Amenábar in 1997, is a Spanish fantasy thriller that was later remade in America by Cameron Crowe as ‘Vanilla Sky’. It’s a puzzle box movie. A wealthy playboy, César, played by Eduardo Noriega falls in love with Sofía, the girlfriend of his best friend,…

“The sight of London to my exiled eyes is as Elysium to a new-come soul.” ‘Edward II’, directed by Derek Jarman in 1991, is an historical movie based on the play by Christopher Marlowe. As with Jarman’s earlier ‘Caravaggio’, ‘Edward II’ mixes period detail and events with modern, anachronistic dress, fashions and dialogue. The king…

“And we are here as on a darkling plain Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, Where ignorant armies clash by night.” ‘Archangel’, directed by Guy Maddin in 1990, is a low budget Canadian film set during the aftermath of the First World War in Russia. In 1919, a Canadian soldier, Boles, mourning the…

‘A Tale of Winter’, directed by Éric Rohmer in 1992, is the second of the French directors’ quartet of season themed films that include ‘A Tale of Springtime’ and ‘Autumn Tale’. As with those, this movie focuses on the tangled love life of a woman. Félicie meets a chef called Charles whilst on holiday and,…

“First of all, I call this whole movie the Idiodyssey. None of my tools, none of my tricks, none of my ways of doing things works for this ending. I have tried so many times that I know I can’t do it. It might be a big victory to know that I can’t do it….

“Let me get this straight. You know her. She knows you. But she wants to eat him. And everybody’s okay with this?” ‘The Lion King’, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff in 1994, is an animated musical from Walt Disney Pictures. The story is a relocation of Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ to the savannah of an…

“Tactile wooden spoons, pot lids, rolling pins and boards are alchemistic tools and our bodies are the crucible for the Magnum Opus of tactilism.” ‘Conspirators of Pleasure’, directed by Jan Švankmajer in 1996, is a darkly surreal comedy that focuses on the paraphilic fetishism of a group of suburban Czechs. It’s a movie with very…

“Come, Jacquot, it’s the end” ‘Jacquot de Nantes’, directed by Agnès Varda in 1991, is a biopic of filmmaker Jacques Demy that uses contemporary documentary footage and scenes from his movies to illustrate a dramatic presentation of his childhood during and after the Second World War. It’s a multi-layered film that says a great deal…

“I like desiring and being desired… especially when it’s unspoken… even if it goes nowhere.” ‘A Tale of Springtime’, directed by Éric Rohmer in 1990, is the opening film in a quartet that includes ‘Autumn Tale’. It’s the gentle story of a teacher, played by Anne Teyssèdre, who befriends a younger woman at a party….

“My name is Angela. They’re going to kill me.” ‘Tesis’, directed by Alejandro Amenábar in 1996, is a Spanish thriller set in modern day Madrid. Angela, played by Ana Torrent (the young girl from ‘Spirit of the Beehives’, is studying video nasties for a project at university. In the course of her studies she discovers…

It is now five months since I finished watching Mark Cousins’ ‘Story of Film’ and decided to increase my knowledge of and exposure to more interesting movies (I’m aware all this makes it sound like a prison sentence). I’ve watched, thought about and written about 133 movies watched which means around 30,000 words or a…

“You really fooled me. I was ready for anything but this. You see, in a way, I’m relieved: Something was fishy, but I couldn’t figure it out. But I’m disappointed, too. Very much so. I was already more than interested in you. I don’t want to shock you, but I wanted to love you, and…

“There are countless ingredients that make up the human body and mind, like all the components that make up me as an individual with my own personality. Sure I have a face and voice to distinguish myself from others, but my thoughts and memories are unique only to me, and I carry a sense of…

“I hate L.A. All they do is snort coke and talk.” ‘Short Cuts’, directed by Robert Altman in 1993, is a comedy drama formed from nine interlacing short stories. It’s set in modern day Los Angeles and Altman focuses our attention on the grotesque nature of the inhabitants, the tragedies that befall normal people and…

“This wire can cut through meat and bone easily.” ‘Audition’, directed by Takashi Miike in 1999, is part of a cycle of Japanese horror movies, but one that is less supernatural and, until the final scenes, more subtle than some of its counterparts. It tells the story of a widower, Shigeharu Aoyama, who is persuaded…

“Well, as I was saying, it costs a lot to be authentic, ma’am. And one can’t be stingy with these things because you are more authentic the more you resemble what you’ve dreamed of being.” ‘All About My Mother’, directed by Pedro Almodóvar in 1999, is a melodrama set in Madrid and Barcelona. The central…

“You’re not going to lose me. You’ve given me a taste for life. I wanna be happy. Sleep in a bed, have roots. And you’ll never be alone again, Mathilda. Please, go now, baby, go. Calm down, I’ll meet you at Tony’s in an hour, I love you, now go, go now.” ‘Léon’, directed by…

“My words fly up, my thoughts remain below: Words without thoughts never to heaven go.” ‘Hamlet’, directed by Kenneth Branagh in 1996, is a sumptuous and complete adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. It’s not the most interesting version, in many ways Olivier’s 1948 movie is more inventive with dark, labyrinthine sets and roaming cameras mirroring the…