Castle Keep (1969)

While the posters might make Castle Keep (1969) look like a World War II action movie, it’s actually a very strange, oddball experience. Right from the opening sequence where a jeep of tired soldiers travelling through a forest is cross-cut in the editing with two stately people – a Count (Jean-Pierre Aumont) and a Countess […]

La Notte (1961)

La Notte (1961; aka The Night) is the middle of Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni’s trilogy including L’Aventura and L’Eclisse, and the one I’d always wanted to see. Antonioni’s slow, dispassionate style is intentionally alienating and difficult to wrestle with; I completely understand those who get bored by his work. Yet I do find something of […]

Hard Times (1975)

On a Walter Hill kick, I revisited his directorial debut, Hard Times (1975; aka The Streetfighter), which I remember as being very decent and on rewatch, remains very decent. Set in Depression-era New Orleans, Chainey (Charles Bronson) steps off the train looking for work. Coming across a bare-knuckled boxing match in a warehouse, Chainey throws […]

The Last Of Sheila (1973)

When Rian Johnson was doing the press rounds for Knives Out and discussing “Whodunnit” influences, one title he would offer, which I’d never even heard of before, was The Last Of Sheila (1973). It has the distinction of being written by actor Anthony Perkins and musical composer Stephen Sondheim, and apparently based on Sondheim’s love […]

Lux Aeterna (2019)

I really loved Gaspar Noe’s Climax, a movie I watched on NYE 2018 and clicked with me more than Noe’s previous provocations like Irreversible or Enter The Void. His most recent production is a short art film, Lux Aeterna (2019), was produced by fashion line Saint Laurent, which exists I guess as corporate synergy to […]