Other Writing
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Saturday, September 15th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,This is a week that restores one’s faith in contemporary cinema. Left gasping by Monsieur Lazhar, I was completely floored by Beasts of the Southern Wild, the debut feature by young American director, Benh Zeitlin. This is a film that has everything: consummate story-telling, great performances from a largely non-professional group of actors, drama, pathos, […]
Monsieur Lazhar
Saturday, September 15th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,One approaches Monsieur Lazhar with the knowledge it has won numerous awards and gathered plaudits all over the world. If this wasn’t enough to raise one’s suspicions, the fact that the film was made in Canada is another cause for alarm. I don’t think any country is more adept at producing movies that promise so […]
Film Festivals
Saturday, September 1st, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,National film festivals are one of the lesser-known growth industries in Australia. The big attraction is still the French Film Festival, but every year the German, the Italian, the Japanese and the Spanish seem to grow a little larger. Coming up quickly are those festivals devoted to films from Korea, Russia, Israel, Mexico, India, Iran, […]
Total Recall
Saturday, September 1st, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,Philip K. Dick’s brief science fiction story, We Can Remember It for You Wholesale (1965) has travelled a long way since it was adapted for Paul Verhoeven’s film, Total Recall in 1990. In Dick’s original version, Doug Quail visits a business called Rekall that promises to provide its clients with a false memory superior to […]
Holy Motors
Saturday, August 25th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,It has been an excellent year for French cinema, but Holy Motors brings back memories of the brittle, self-consciously ‘poetic’ malaise that has infected so many gallic directors of the past. How alarming for all red-blooded Aussies that Our Kylie should be embedded in this piece of Parisian pastry. Kylie Minogue’s appearance comes at the […]
The Bourne Legacy
Saturday, August 25th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,One wonders what a cultural theorist such as Slavoj Zizek would make of the Bourne films? Beyond the lashings of action, suspense and skullduggery they are textbook lessons in the repressive power of the state, guaranteed to appeal to conspiracy theorists of both left and right persuasions. The world in which Jason Bourne, and new […]
The Door
Saturday, July 21st, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing,For Helen Mirren fans, please note: this is one of those rare movies in which she gets to keep her clothes on. In the part of Emerenc, a grumpy old cleaning lady, she is rarely seen without a headscarf and all the woolies required to withstand a winter in Budapest. This film suggests that for […]
I Am Eleven, The Curse of the Gothic Symphony
Saturday, July 21st, 2012 Art Essays, Film Reviews, Other Writing,Screening opportunities are limited for Australian filmmakers, let alone documentary makers who may only expect to recoup their costs through TV and DVD sales. Two new efforts, I Am Eleven and The Curse of the Gothic Symphony, are currently enjoying the novelty of limited releases in cinemas around Australia. I Am Eleven by rookie film-maker, […]
Hysteria
Saturday, July 14th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing, Uncategorized,For centuries hysteria was one of the most mysterious conditions known to medical science. The ailment was exclusive to women, and is believed to have been first diagnosed by the ancient Greeks. Plato echoed the belief that its diverse symptoms were due to a “wandering womb” that floated throughout the body causing all sorts of […]
Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
Saturday, July 14th, 2012 Film Reviews, Other Writing, Uncategorized,Once upon a time in Anatolia… a minute passed. And then another minute passed, and another. Finally, after two –and-a-half hours, the film was over. Nuri Birge Ceylan’s Once Upon a Time in Anatolia is not for those with a low threshold of boredom, but like many slow films it has a mesmeric quality. The […]