One of the most fascinating details when discussing the French New Wave is that, despite being mostly known for their work during this brief but highly influential period, many of the most influential directors continued to make films well into the 21st century, which often deviated from the foundation set during their earlier career, but…

As far as being definitive of an entire generation of French filmmakers, you would struggle to find someone more adept at his craft than Alain Resnais, whose work spans over half a century, and saw the esteemed director producing a number of artistically-resonant, deeply provocative works that are both insightful and cutting edge, making him…

One of my favourite dinner party questions to ask, especially when in the company of those who are more artistically inclined, is around the hypothetical scenario where we each have to choose a piece of art to preserve for future generations, or perhaps provide to those from another dimension, that we best feel encompasses the…

We have recently spoken about the effortless brilliance of Elia Suleiman, specifically in the context of Divine Intervention, his revolutionary and deeply profound film that consists of a series of interconnected vignettes that aim to show a different side of his native Palestine. A director with a small but meaningful body of work, every time…

Every filmmaker tends to be driven by a different motivation for the stories they tell, and even those with the most diverse and versatile careers tend to have specific themes or ideas that flow through their body of work, establishing a very clear understanding of what they represent as artists. In the case of Elia…

Two people caught in a moment of quiet reflection, their bodies united in some eternal dance of pure eroticism which contrasts sharply with their psychological state, which is somewhere in between numb ennui and unhinged psychological despair – and their only method of working through these issues come in the form of movement, whether those…

Culturally, we are usually predisposed to categorize absolutely everything, with our tendency to compartmentalize absolutely every work we come across being one of the many universal quirks that we find throughout the history of art, and something that has driven us to the point where everything has to be considered aligned with a specific set…

Let’s just start with a wise word of warning – Yule Log is a film that depends entirely on the element of surprise. It isn’t often that I advocate for someone to enter into a film without any prior knowledge, since the experience is so much more compelling if you don’t know what to expect…

Despite running at a diminutive duration of 26 minutes, Un chant d’amour remains one of the most important films in the history of experimental cinema. The only official directorial effort by esteemed French author and playwright Jean Genet, who undertook an impressive but dangerous challenge of telling a story centred around queer issues, it is…

Something that you learn when expanding your horizons is that you can often open doors to some of the most extraordinary art. The global interest in films from beyond Europe and North America has gradually improved, and we’ve seen some truly exceptional works from around the world being widely celebrated, many of them formative texts…