samwm

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The Secret Child 1979

Added 3

For someone who is often accused (by morons) of being ‘too French’, Garrel is very Germanic in his sensibility. Not just Murnau (though him too). In the work of this period he isn’t too evasive or ‘artistic’ for narrative, but too blunt, too ‘crude’. He is challenging because of how directly he addresses you. His portraiture comes from an unbounded regard for what always exists already in the surface of the human creature, the idea that every effect of narrative…
The Kegelstatt Trio 2022

Added

Possibly the best film ever made about a man who is "on good terms with his ex" in scare quotes.

Also, you can't put Adolfo Arrieta flamboyantly spying on people behind thick vegetation in a film and it not be great.

Popular reviews

Longlegs 2024

Added 5

By the 50th consecutive centre-framed composition I wanted to go home.
Incidentally, you probably couldn’t make a film less in the spirit of Kiyoshi Kurosawa if that was your intention. Not only the camera (KK is about the least restricted, most versatile director of the camera working today, the one most invested in the possibilities of lateral and projective space) but the lead-footed telegraphing mistaken for oppressive consistency. If you could reduce Kurosawa to one principle, it would be the…
The Zone of Interest 2023

★ Added 6

An essay on the problems with this film. I put this on Medium because I can't see anyone wanting to run it, but if you would or know anyone who might, let me know.

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