Classical Period (2018)

The main reason I watched Classical Period (2018) was that its running time was 60 minutes and it was available to stream on Mubi. After watching Classical Period, I grew to appreciate it more thinking about it, particularly after reading a few interviews with the director-writer Ted Fendt, a film projectionist who self-funds his movies, […]

Portrait Of A Young Girl At The End Of The 60s In Brussels (1994)

Shot for French TV during the nineties, Portrait Of A Young Girl At The End Of The 60s In Brussels (1994) is directed and written by Chantal Akerman, and feels semi-autobiographical. As the title indicates, Akerman sets the story in 1968 but isn’t too concerned about fidelity to the era; you can see CDs in […]

Late Spring (1949)

Ozu – Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu – is a weighty name in arthouse auteur circles, often referenced by Paul Schrader, Mike Leigh, Jim Jarmusch, Claire Denis, Koganda, amongst others. A weighty name even though the reputation of his films is that they are quiet, patient, and delicate. I was intending to begin 2023 on a […]

Return To Seoul (2022)

A character study whose style mirrors the push-and-pull of its protagonist, Return To Seoul (2022) follows a young French woman, Freddie (Park Ji-Min), who was adopted from South Korea. Visiting the home of her birth parents on a spur-of-the-moment deal, she also decides to track them down, and is completely unprepared for the emotional consequences. […]

The Iron Rose (1973)

The Iron Rose (1973; La Rose de Fer) is the third film I’ve seen from French director Jean Rollin, and along with Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco, their names represent a quintessential arty Euro-horror milieu. Rollin is known for low-budget genre flicks, usually concerning vampires, where there’s nudity and blood, and actors wandering around castles and […]