“It was weird to me how, then, Teddy could care so much about his father, who practically tried to kill him. And I couldn’t give a shit about my old man, and he hadn’t laid a hand on me since I was three! And that was for eating the bleach under the sink.” Two films,…
Land Without Bread (1933) and The House is Black (1963)
“I said, if I had wings of a dove I would fly away and be at rest. I would go far away and take refuge in the desert. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. For I have seen misery and wickedness on Earth.” Two short documentaries from different countries and…
Witchhammer (1970)
There was something in the air in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Witchfinder General (1968) had smuggled elements of realism and noir into the Hammer-esque Gothic horror cycle, and in doing so had spearheaded a run of films preoccupied with the persecution of women in the 17th century, some more salacious than others. Witchhammer, a Czech film…
Heaven and Earth Magic (1956)
There is something viscerally nightmarish about Harry Everett Smith’s animated Heaven and Earth Magic. Watching it now, it’s difficult not to think of Terry Gilliam’s animations for Monty Python, but as Smith’s movie unfolds you slowly get lost in his strange and occult world of cut-out forms, shape-shifting, death imagery and an atmospheric soundtrack made up of…
Hold Me While I’m Naked (1966)
“Hold Me While I’m Naked was a picture I made. It was supposed to be about a mother and a daughter vying for the affections of the same man. Then the star got sick, so I decided to make a picture about a filmmaker who couldn’t make a movie, and that would be me: I couldn’t…
Winter Light (1963)
“This emphasis on physical pain. It couldn’t have been all that bad. It may sound presumptuous of me – but in my humble way, I’ve suffered as much physical pain as Jesus. And his torments were rather brief. Lasting some four hours, I gather? I feel that he was tormented far worse on an other…
Hereditary (2018)
“It’s heartening to see so many strange, new faces here today. I know my mom would be very touched, and probably a little suspicious.” Hereditary, a horror movie compared by many to be this century’s The Exorcist (1973) falls instead somewhere between the crafted and unified terrors of William Freidkin’s movie and the more episodic,…
Nights of Cabiria (1957)
“Guess there’s some justice in the world. You suffer, you go through hell. Then happiness comes along or everyone.” I’d forgotten how much I love Federico Fellini. Since I first saw Amarcord (1973) as part of this pilgrimage through international movies, I’ve been intoxicated by his mixture of colourful comedy, free-wheeling narratives and excoriating religious and…
The Dance of Reality (2013)
The Dance of Reality, directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky in 2013 is a Chilean/French fantasy biopic telling the story of the director’s childhood in the city of Tocopilla. The film opens just before the Second World War. The young Alejandro lives with his parents: his Stalin-obsessed, brutal father Jaime (played by Brontis Jodorowsky) and his buxom…
Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring (2003)
“Didn’t you know beforehand how the world of men is? Sometimes we have to let go of the things we like. What you like, others will also like.” Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring, directed by Kim Ki-duk in 2003, is a South Korean drama set on a floating Buddhist monastery in the middle of…
Tree of Wooden Clogs (1978)
“Haze around the moon, snow is coming soon ” Written and directed by Ermanno Olmi, Tree of Wooden Clogs is an understated and meditative drama set in a small Lombard community in 1898. The film follows the fortunes of four peasant families as they work through the year, raising animals, growing crops and looking after…
Gilda (1946)
“She still didn’t believe I wasn’t coming back. Every night she got all dressed up… and waited. But a girl like Gilda couldn’t stand not knowing the why of things, so she decided to swallow her pride and came to see me. It was wonderful. “ ‘Gilda’, directed by Charles Vidor in 1946, is an…
Lucía (1968)
‘Lucía’, directed by Humberto Solás, is a Cuban drama from 1968. The film contains three stories: the first set in the 1860s, the second set in the 1930s and the third set in the then present day of the 1960s. Each focuses on a woman called Lucía, played by a different woman each time, and follows…
The Best Years of Our Lives (1946)
“You see, Mr. Milton, in the Army I’ve had to be with men when they were stripped of everything in the way of property except what they carried around with them and inside them. I saw them being tested. Now some of them stood up to it and some didn’t. But you got so you…
Wavelength (1967)
‘Wavelength’, directed by Michael Snow in 1967, is an experimental film, 45 minutes long and minimal. The film is one shot: the camera focuses on a room with windows and pictures on the wall opposite – too far away to see clearly. Over the course of the 45 minutes, the camera imperceptibly zooms in on…
The Travelling Players (1975)
‘The Travelling Players’, directed by Theodoros Angelopoulos in 1975, is an epic Greek historical drama following a troupe of actors as they perform a play through the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. The film moves from the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas, through the Second World War and the occupation by the Nazis, to the post-war occupation…
Amour (2012)
“Things will go on, and then one day it will all be over. ” ‘Amour’, directed by Michael Haneke in 2012, is a French drama following the story of an elderly couple whose lives are turned upside down when one of them suffers from a debilitating stroke. Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva play Georges and…
The Captive (2000)
“I prefer the truth even if it hurts. Yet all you give me are half-truths when you know I’ll find out anyway. ” ‘The Captive’, directed by Chantal Akerman in 2000, is a French psychodrama starring Stanislas Merhar and Sylvie Testud as a pair of lovers with an abusive and toxic relationship. Testud plays Ariane,…
Meshes of the Afternoon (1943)
‘Meshes of the Afternoon’, directed by Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid in 1943, is a short American experimental film following the strange adventures of a woman who dreams. Deren plays a woman who returns home and falls asleep. In her dream she chases a hooded figure with a mirror for a face but is unable…
Stranger than Paradise (1984)
“Here, let me tell you a joke, all right? There’s three guys, and they’re walking down the street. One guy says to the other one, “Hey, your shoe’s untied.” He says, “I know that.” And they walk… No… There’s two guys, they’re walking down the street, and one of them says to the other one,…
The Puppetmaster (1993)
‘The Puppetmaster’, directed by Hou Hsiao-hsien in 1993, is a Taiwanese biopic focusing on the life of Li Tian-lu, a celebrated puppeteer, from his birth in 1909 to the end of the Japanese occupation of the island in 1945. The film combines interviews with the real Tian-lu, in his eighties, whilst flashing back to events…
Wadjda (2012)
“If you set your mind to something, no one can stop you.” ‘Wadjda’, directed by Haifaa al-Mansour in 2012, is a Saudi Arabian drama depicting the life of an eleven year old year in Riyadh. The girl, Wadjda, played by Waad Mohammed, is headstrong and rebellious. She decides she want a bike so she can…
All That Heaven Allows (1955)
“Cary, let’s face it: you were ready for a love affair, but not for love.” ‘All That Heaven Allows’, directed by Douglas Sirk in 1955, is an American melodrama set in a small town in New England. Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, an affluent widow who falls in love with her free-spirited gardener, Ron Kirby,…
The Sound of Music (1965)
“You brought music back into the house. I had forgotten.” ‘The Sound of Music’, directed by Robert Wise in 1965, is an American musical drama starring Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. Andrews plays Maria, a novice nun in Austria. Maria is a free-spirited and, at times, disobedient, so her superiors decide she should spend time…
The Red Turtle (2016)
‘The Red Turtle’, directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit in 2016, is a French animated fantasy. A man is shipwrecked on an island. He finds wood and makes a raft to escape, but his raft is destroyed by a creature in the sea. After this happens a number of times, the man discovers the creature…
The Handmaiden (2016)
“You’re asking me about how I think? You think that all I’m interested in is your body? Is that so? You definitely have been reading too many of those erotic writings! If there’s anything I do want from you it’s not your eyes, hands, or ass, but your money. You having the first is money….
Closely Observed Trains (1966)
“I’m Milos Hrma. I’ve tried to kill myself because I’m suffering from premature ejaculation. But that’s really not so. Even though I flop every time, I’m a real man.” ‘Closely Observed Trains’, directed by Jiří Menzel in 1966, is a Czechoslovak drama set in a small town during the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia in the…
The Last Metro (1980)
“It takes two to love, as it takes two to hate. And I will keep loving you, in spite of yourself. My heart beats faster when I think of you. Nothing else matters. ‘The Last Metro’, directed by François Truffaut in 1980, is a French historical drama starring Catherine Deneuve and Gérard Depardieu. Deneuve plays…
Close-Up (1990)
“This is a film that made itself” ‘Close-Up’, directed by Abbas Kiarostami in 1990, is an Iranian drama based on the real life story of a man who posed as the notable Iranian director Mohsen Makhmalbaf (the man who made ‘Gabbeh’) and was arrested and charged with fraud. Kiarostami follows the story by using the…
Man of Marble (1976)
‘Man of Marble’, directed by Andrzej Wajda in 1976, is a Polish drama. Jerzy Radziwiłowicz plays Mateusz Birkut, a bricklayer working on Nowa Huta, a socialist realist settlement near Kraków. When he breaks a record laying 30,000 bricks in one shift, Birkut becomes a socialist legend but rapidly loses faith in the system when he…
Film Ark 