Something that has become quite apparent as I’ve worked through the career of Frank Perry in order to shed light on him as one of the most underpraised American masters, is that as he progressed in the industry, he became a better filmmaker. His first films were slightly weaker and far less-interesting that some of…

Yuichi (Yuichi Ishii) is a mild-mannered entrepreneur whose business is gradually becoming quite a formidable force in contemporary Tokyo. His job description is simple: he pretends to be people for a living. He calls his company “Family Romance”, where he and his colleague (Takashi Nakatani) spend their days completing contractual obligations by a variety of…

I’m not quite sure what Jean-Luc Godard was trying to achieve with Contempt (French: Le Mépris), but if it was to make a good film, he didn’t quite reach that goal. My own challenges with Godard are well-documented, but I’ve always admired his gall as a filmmaker, and someone who essentially helped define postwar European…

You can say a great deal about John Ford, but you can’t ever accuse him on not delivering exactly what he promised – when looking into Young Mr. Lincoln, one shouldn’t expect to find anything other than what the title proposes, and for better or worse, Ford’s dramatization of an early chapter in the life…

The Mazumdar family are an ordinary working-class clan living in 1960s Calcutta. The patriarch of the family has always been Subrata (Anil Chatterjee), a banker who has made it his life’s intention to provide for his family, which includes his wife Arati (Madhabi Mukherjee), his younger sister (Jaya Bhaduri), his son (Prosenjit Sarkar) and his…

Immersing yourself in the world of Luchino Visconti is an experience like no other. His films are brimming with an effervescent energy and boisterous grandeur that are simply unprecedented, and go into the almost factual belief that he is one of the finest filmmakers to ever work in the medium. Much like many of the…

“I had this fleeting hope…that everything wouldn’t turn out to be illusions, dreams and lies.” Ingmar Bergman was a director of many different talents, with his prolific career producing countless masterpieces across numerous genres, each one seeing the famed auteur venturing deeper into his own understanding of the human condition. As a result, it is…

Kelly Reichardt’s films are arguably not for everyone – they’re normally glacially-paced, quiet works of introspective analysis set to the background of more working-class, traditional America at different points, and thus may not always appeal to those attuned to more boisterous works. However, if there is a film that will convert the cynics to her…

Fabienne (Catherine Deneuve) is one of France’s finest actresses and has recently written a book about her life, where she purports to tell “the truth”, even titling it as such. The problem is, most of what she writes about are fictions and fantasies about her career and personal life, a fact that only becomes clear…

“Ladybird, ladybird fly away home, Your house is on fire and your children are gone, All except one, and her name is Ann, And she hid under the baking pan.” These words are taken from the classic nursery rhyme which served as the loose inspiration for Ladybug Ladybug, the sophomore effort of director Frank Perry…