You can say quite a lot about Derek Jarman. You can accuse him of being a reckless cinematic provocateur, as well as hailing him as an artistic stalwart, a filmmaker and visual artist that approached tricky subjects such as human sexuality in relation to society in a time when it wasn’t entirely easy to get…

“In the end, people are emotions. Emotions are gullible and forceful. Precious, cheap and alluring. And I long for them now“ These are the words appearing, via voice-over narration, towards the end of Hong Sang-soo’s Grass (Korean: 풀잎들), a subtle, meditative film that sees the South Korean maestro revisiting many common themes in his distinctive…

Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) leaves his Brooklyn home behind in 1953, heading to Greenwich Village, which (according to our protagonist) harbours “fame and fortune”, with his perceived destiny to become an actor. Over the course of a few months, the young man finds himself hopelessly out of his depth, but nonetheless resilient and resourceful, doing…

A woman on the verge of a complete breakdown takes the stage every night, and battles her personal demons, channelling her trauma into her performance, hoping that somehow she will be able to convey some iota of truth. John Cassavetes certainly knew how to construct a compelling story from the most simple of premises, as…

“Their friendship was very sound. True, they were different – one sang. the other didn’t. Yet, they were alike” These words are some of the final spoken by Agnès Varda in her role as narrator. We have previously followed the life of two women. The one who sings is Pauline (Valérie Mairesse), otherwise known as…

Giovanni Vivaldi (Alberto Sordi) has worked for the government for over thirty years, running the pension office, making his impending retirement bittersweet. However, his son, Marion (Vincenzo Crocitti) is about to enter the work-force, and both his father and mother (Shelley Winters) believe it would be a good idea for their intelligent but meek son…

Claud Langham (Dirk Bogarde) is an extremely unlikable man – a ferocious prosecution lawyer, his latest case is that of Kevin Woodford (David Warner), a young ex-soldier discharged and put on trial for a mercy killing of an older man, asserting that it was an act of compassion. Claud’s personal life seems to be just…

Somewhere towards the end of I Am Easy To Find, we are presented with a stark image, accompanied by the following words: “She wondered how she became this person, not others” It is a deeply complex question, and one that isn’t offered any answer, or at least not one that can be readily indicated. There…

Alex Ross Perry makes films that linger with you long after they’ve ended. Whether it be his quasi-Pynchon adaptation Impolex, the gloriously minimalistic The Color Wheel, the gorgeous Upper West Side epic Golden Exits the hilarious Listen Up Phillip or the Cassavetes-inspired psychological thriller Queen of Earth, he has always been a filmmaker capable of…

Charles Burnett, for lack of a better word, changed cinema. It is rare that a cinematic movement can be traced back to a single source, but it is evident that despite being relatively unknown outside of cinephile circles, Burnett revolutionized cinema in his own way by making Killer of Sheep. Along with John Cassavetes, who…