Category: Arthouse Cinema
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Distant (2002)
I associate Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan with long takes of expansive landscape from the couple of movies I’ve seen of his. And the opening shot of Distant (2002; aka Uzak) fulfils that association, as a solitary figure trudges across a field, a small town in the distance and a road in the foreground from… Read.
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The Lorry (1977)
Though I don’t remember much of the details in the story told within Le Navire Night, directed by Margeurite Duras, I remember the feeling of the film and how it blurred into the experience of watching it alone on a laptop in the dead of a sleepless night. Duras’ words on the narration, the movement… Read.
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Chess Of The Wind (1976)
The Iranian film, Chess Of The Wind (1976) is initially reminiscent of a Anton Chekov short story, as it observes the fall-out from a matriarch’s death and the remaining family members in the one house, circling around the prospect of her inheritance. The daughter Lady Aghdas (Fakhri Khorvash) is in a wooden wheelchair, looks pale… Read.
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Kaili Blues (2015)
When it comes to slow cinema, there can sometimes be a split inside myself during the experience. Like in Kaili Blues (2015), there’s a beautiful long take of the camera watching Chen Shen (Yongzhong Chen) on the back of a motorbike as it winds around mountain roads, greenery and mist in the landscape behind them.… Read.
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Fascination (1979)
There’s something prototypical about a Jean Rollin film, in that it can be classified as what people would think of when it comes to ‘Euro-horror’ (nude women, vampires, castles). And yet, there’s something distinct, which probably helps when you’ve seen a few other 1970s exploitation movies. That there’s something slow and atmospheric, which feels very… Read.