Le Bonheur (1965)

I didn’t know much about Agnes Varda’s Le Bonheur (1965; title translates as “Happiness”) before I started watching it except for the title credit image of the hetreosexual nuclear family blurred in the distance while a sunflower is in the foreground and noted comparisons to The Stepford Wives. It’s all about Francois (Jean-Claude Drouot) who […]

Uncle Yanco (1967)

Thank you to Mubi’s ‘Voila Varda’ segment, which sadly expired on their Library feature, and to Lyndon Blue for recommending Uncle Yanco (1967), a short film that Agnes Varda made while she was in San Francisco (while her husband Jacques Demy was making Model Shop). It’s basically a colourful, warm tribute to Agnes connecting with […]

After Hours (1985)

During the mid-1980s, director Martin Scorsese’s career was stuck after the lack of box office success for The King Of Comedy and his frustration trying to get The Last Temptation Of Christ financed by a major studio. Connecting with an independent production by actor Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson (who acted in Mean Streets), they […]

Salesman (1969)

Ten minutes into the documentary Salesman (1969), I had to say out loud, “What a miserable business.” Filmed in the cinema verite style, just following real people without any talking heads interviews or narration, filmmakers Albert and David Maysles and Charlotte Zwerin pioneered the narrative non-fiction film with Salesman, their attempt to do for cinema […]

In My Blood It Runs (2019)

After being available to rent online, the documentary, In My Blood It Runs (2019) is being screened at some reopened cinemas across Australia in June. I was able to stream it on Kanopy (through UWA Library membership) but it will also be broadcast on ABC in July then available on iView. Directed by Maya Newell, […]