Salt Of The Earth (1954)

There are many different reasons why a movie is a ‘cult movie’. I haven’t read Danny Peary’s write up of the film Salt Of The Earth (1954) in his book Cult Movies 2. I presume it has to do with the fact that it was pulled from release and difficult to see for a long […]

Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987)

After seeing one or two Abbas Kiarostami directed films, friends had recommended the Koker Trilogy – not an official trilogy but three films shot in the Iranian village of Koker. Where Is The Friend’s Home? (1987; Khane-ye dust kojast) was added to Mubi recently and I was very keen to see it. Whenever I see […]

Vagabond (1985)

Every time I watch an Agnes Varda movie that is new to me – though already heralded a great one by critics and friends – I’m left thinking, “Why am I not watching more of Varda’s movies all the time?” Vagabond (1985; the French title is Sans toit ni loi, which translates to “with neither […]

The Basilisks (1963)

I’ve only seen one Lina Wertmuller movie and that was Love And Anarchy, which was great. Wertmuller’s debut film The Basilisks (1963; I basilischi aka The Lizards) was featured in the Mubi library in a remastered new edition. One sleepy Saturday morning, I decided to take a gamble on it and after the five minutes, […]

Pather Panchali (1955)

The images in Pather Panchali (1955) directed by Satyajit Ray, have a quality like classic silent cinema – there’s something so luminescent and glowing about them, helped by the remastering and restoration of the film in 2015. A beautiful and quietly devastating movie, it focuses on a family living in rural Bengal during 1910. The […]