The 10th Victim (1965)

When a film depicts the future, it’s not just a vision of the future but a document of the time. Case in point, The 10th Victim (1965) which is set in the year 2079 and based on the short story by Robert Sheckley, and yet, it is completely a time capsule of 1960s pop-art, comic-book […]

X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963)

You’ve gotta respect a medical scientist who lights a cigarette with a bunson burner. I remember one of my mother’s old film books featuring a black-and-white still from X: The Man With The X-Ray Eyes (1963) depicting Don Rickles pulling at Ray Milland’s arm – Milland wearing dark shades – and Rickles bearing a big smile. […]

The Creatures (1966)

I had a cursory understanding of what The Creatures (1966), written and directed by Agnes Varda, was about. The film opens with a couple – Edgar (Michel Piccoli) and Mylene (Catherine Deneuve) – driving together, Mylene warning Edgar not to drive too fast, and upon that, they inevitably crash. What I was taken aback by […]

Last Year At Marienbad (1961)

Guests in suits and evening dresses. A palace repurposed as a hotel. Refinement that feels like another time, another place. The camera tracks through the hallways, taking in the space, the high ceilings, the ornate interior decoration. In the hotel, people often stand still, pausing as if waiting for direction. Like actors in the small […]

Boom! (1968)

“What’s human or inhuman is not for human decision!” I love Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and have always been curious about the other movies they made together, particularly when their tabloid exploits as a movie star couple overshadowed them. Most of them I’ve heard are not so hot […]