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. […]

Stars At Noon (2022)

One thing I love about Claire Denis as a director is her relationship with the band Tindersticks – they score most of her movies. To the point that the two movies she directed in 2022 – Stars At Noon and Both Sides Of The Blade – both featured a similar moment in their trailers where […]

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 […]

The Aviator’s Wife (1981)

It’s a testament to the directing and writing of Eric Rohmer, and the performances of the actors, that the characters in The Aviator’s Wife (1981) come off as understandable and empathetic, even as they’re wrapped up in their own emotional problems and romantic overthinking. Then again, Rohmer’s talky, French serio-comic catalogue is not for everyone […]

Un Flic (1972)

Grey buildings standing imposingly on a French coastline. An incoming storm whips the ocean and rain washes over deserted streets. A car moves slowly with four men in trench-coats and hats. They stop on a street corner and through the mist is a bank with its lights on, just about to close for the day, […]