Reality is often much stranger than fiction, which is an adage that no one seems to know better than Mia Hansen-Løve, who has steadily ascended to the status of being one of the most fascinating and essential voices in contemporary European cinema. Her English-language debut is Bergman Island, which (as the title suggests) takes place…
Author: The Postmodern Pelican
Wuthering Heights (1954)
Looking through Luis Buñuel’s extensive filmography, one might be shocked to discover that he directed an adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights (under the Spanish title Abismos de pasión), which stands as one of the more unheralded films in the director’s long career. A long-gestating passion project for the esteemed filmmaker, going back to the…
tick, tick…BOOM! (2021)
For most, the name Jonathan Larson may not be entirely familiar, since he is mostly associated with the stage, having been the creative mind behind Rent, the cultural sensation that swept the world asunder and presented audiences with one of the most raw and visceral documents of the experience of simply being alive in a…
Sullivan’s Travels (1941)
There were many great filmmakers that defined the screwball film, which dominated the comedy genre in the 1930s and 1940s, but two in particular redefined what these films meant. The first is Ernst Lubitsch, arguably the finest comedic director to ever work in the medium, and the other is Preston Sturges, whose work reflects a…
The Mule (2018)
There are two ways to look at The Mule – the first is as one of the many forgettable dramas Clint Eastwood churns out every year, taking advantage of his ability to pull together a film in only a matter of months. The second is as one of the most unintentionally fascinating comedies of the…
Hobson’s Choice (1954)
Seeing the great British comedy Hobson’s Choice labelled as “a David Lean film” is peculiar, since we’ve become so culturally conditioned to thinking of the esteemed filmmaker as one who made enormous historical epics, where their visual scope was only matched by their length and ability to venture deep into particular periods in history. Taken…
The French Dispatch (2021)
I have had a difficult relationship with Wes Anderson, which is something that I believe has been made very evident through my writing. No one would be more willing to put together a passionate response to the underrated genius that is The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, or rave about the brilliance of Bottle Rocket…
Modern Romance (1981)
You have to admire the candour with which Albert Brooks made his films over the years – his debut feature film Real Life was all about reality, while his masterpiece Defending Your Life was exactly what it promised based on the premise. Modern Romance is one of the few times we’ve been misled by the…
Passing (2021)
We often see in the world of art, the most difficult periods in terms of social or cultural obstacles often serve to be the foundation for some of the most incredible works. The Harlem Renaissance was one such period, where many African-American artists used their experiences to push the boundaries of every conceivable medium, telling…
Senso (1954)
In the vast landscape of romantic cinema, no one did it better than Luchino Visconti, whose career was populated by achingly beautiful stories of love, usually set to the backdrop of fascinating historical events, making his films multilayered explorations of the human spirit in its various forms. One of his finest achievements, albeit one that…
The Postmodern Pelican 