His career may have produced a relatively short output, in the form of only having directed four feature-length films over the course of two decades, but no one would ever deny the brilliance of Toshio Matsumoto, one of Japanese cinema’s most fascinating provocateurs, and someone whose work has left a profound impression on post-war Japanese…

We can divide the career of Pier Paolo Pasolini into various eras, based on both the specific stories he was focusing on, and the motivations behind telling them. His adaptations were the most interesting, and regardless of whether the director was making something faithful to the source material, or transposing these themes onto a more…

It would seem almost inappropriate to start this discussion without mentioning my undying belief that Macbeth is the finest work in the history of English literature, a contentious but not entirely uncommon belief. William Shakespeare wrote several works that have remained resonant for centuries, many of them being the subject of countless adaptations, whether it…

If there is one subject that cinema loves more than love or war, it would be the art of filmmaking itself. So many directors from the age of the silent era to those working today, have made films that reflect their admiration and adoration for the medium that has allowed them to explore their own…

At some point earlier in the previous decade, a play appeared on the New York stage that almost immediately become something of a phenomenon. Stephen Karam’s The Humans received widespread acclaim, being seen as one of the finest achievements of the year, and celebrated as a major new entry into the canon of American literature….

Few veteran filmmakers have had a more sudden ascent to acclaim than Joanna Hogg. Most would have come to have known her through her magnificent The Souvenir duology, which won her many new admirers. For those with an ear to the ground in terms of British independent cinema, she would be familiar as the director…

When Tod Browning set out to make Freaks in 1932, he inadvertently started a grassroots movement that would rapidly grow amongst the underground filmmakers that dominated throughout most of the previous century since that revolutionary film started – finally, one didn’t need to fit into the confines of the studio system to be considered an…

Looking at the genesis of any director’s career is always a fascinating endeavour, particularly when dealing with those that you admire – seeing their roots presented in the form of their early work helps us critically judge their evolution as artists, and show their journey to becoming compelling storytellers. Jim Jarmusch is one of the…

Every young filmmaker yearns to get the financing to make their feature directorial debut, and the current cinematic landscape, where many studios and independent financiers are giving these burgeoning talents the resources to realize their dreams, it is easier than ever. It’s rare that the results are anything less than utterly impressive, and many of…

By now, it’s almost undeniable public knowledge that Josephine Decker is a very gifted filmmaker. She has only made a handful of films, but each one of them is well-formed and fascinating, and works of incredible poignancy by a truly talented artist. She has recently started making her way into more high-profile circles, working with…