Personal Shopper (2014)

Irma Vep might be director Olivier Assayas’ high-point and the first film I saw of his back in the late 1990s. I’m a fan of Assayas when he also skirts with the thriller genre, the films of his that involve tracking characters through geo-political espionage such as Demonlover, Boarding Gate (one of my faves) and […]

Terrorizers (1986)

In Edward Yang’s film Terrorizers (1986) or The Terrorizers, there’s a repeated motif of characters standing near a window. Gazing out as wind blows through the curtains or sitting on the floor looking up at a closed window, characters exist within interiors that are often framed in master shots. There’s something at once beautiful and […]

Knife + Heart (2018)

I was so keen to see Knife + Heart (2018; Un couteau dans le coeur), a queer take on the giallo genre, when it showed at the French Film Festival a few years back. I missed it at cinemas and was meaning to catch up with it – thank the neon-lit heavens for Mubi keeping […]

Cemetery Of Splendour (2015)

What I most want from an art movie is to be taken to somewhere else. Another part of the world, yes, but also taken to another way of seeing. Cemetery Of Splendour (2015; Rak Ti Khon Kaen) is only my second film that I’ve watched from Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul (after Uncle Boonmee Who Can […]

News From Home (1977)

After seeing The Meetings Of Anna for the first time, and really loving it, I wanted to explore more of the filmography of Belgian director Chantal Akerman. News From Home (1977) is a critically acclaimed avant-garde documentary that she directed that I decided to take the plunge on. It’s basically a series of long takes, […]