Flesh + Blood (1985)

Flesh + Blood (1985) as a title has always felt like the best summary of Paul Verhoeven as a director. This is what marks his greatness, a keen study of “flesh and blood,” all the ways it can be shown and conceptualised. How moments can stick in your mind through the filmmaker’s capacity to make […]

Soldier Of Orange (1977)

Tuxedos and tails are a recurring item of clothing. Initially worn by the group of male uni students at parties, signifying their upper class status. Later as World War II leads to Holland being invaded and occupied by Nazi Germany, the tuxedo is used by resistance members reentering their own country, passing themselves as members […]

Benediction (2021)

Benediction (2021) was British director Terence Davies’ final film before he died in 2023. Experiencing it after recently seeing his first film, Distant Voices, Still Lives, was very interesting with their intersections. Distant Voices, Still Lives is an autobiography by Davies of his family growing up in working class Liverpool. In contrast, Benediction is a […]

White Material (2009)

The workers have reluctantly agreed to help. Five days at a coffee plantation as violent conflict happens. An unnamed African country. Rebel soldiers and the military fighting. The French colonialists have withdrawn, only Isabelle Huppert’s character stubbornly staying behind for a business that she married into. One more yield before they pack up and leave. […]

I Do Not Care If We Go Down In History As Barbarians (2018)

I was a fan of Romanian director Radu Jude’s Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, and was reading recent interviews with him about his next film doing the festival rounds. This compelled me to track down some of his earlier films, and the only one available on SBS On Demand is I Do Not Care […]