Everyone has that one artistic hero, the person who inspires, moves and motivates them, and has helped them through the most difficult times in their lives. Often, this individual takes the form of a musician, a figure that makes use of the universal language of music to tell their story and inspire the lives of…
Non-Fiction (2019)
Léonard (Vincent Macaigne) is a writer who is amassing a small but dedicated group of supporters due to his unconventional “fictional autobiographies”, which chronicle the life and times of a man also named Léonard who just so happens to be a writer himself. His latest book, Final Point, is one that is stirring quite a…
The Night Porter (1974)
The 1940s, Hungary, during the height of the Holocaust. Maximilian Theo Adolfer (Dirk Bogarde) is a Nazi prison guard stationed at one of the notorious extermination camps, where he masquerades as a doctor, as a way of satiating his perverted desire for voyeuristic dominance by invading the personal space of the prisoners by photographing them…
Céline and Julie Go Boating (1974)
Where could we possibly hope to start with Céline and Julie Go Boating? It wouldn’t be an uncommon occurrence to be left utterly bewildered by this film, and it doesn’t really matter if it is a loss for words out of sheer amazement, or through perplexed anger towards whatever this almost inconceivably strange film put…
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia (1974)
When it came to finding the intersections between intelligence and mindless action, Sam Peckinpah was one of the best to ever live. A director whose career consisted of some of the most brutal but fascinating portrayals of violence ever produced, his status as one of the most controversial filmmakers of his generation is not ill-earned….
Pastoral: To Die in the Country (1974)
“The whole past is just fiction” I don’t think we’ll ever understand exactly what was going on in the gloriously twisted mind of Shūji Terayama, whose groundbreaking work spans a few decades and looked at growing up in a way very few artists ever managed to. Perhaps his most beloved film is Pastoral: To Die…
The Souvenir (2019)
Memory is a powerful tool when telling a story. Joanna Hogg knew this, even though she has admitted that she didn’t trust her own memories, hence why her autobiographical feature film, The Souvenir, was gestating for over thirty years, and only came into palpable existence this year. What specific impetus lead her to portray her…
Missing Link (2019)
The late nineteenth century was a time of great scientific interest, with explorers and theorists from all around the world, specifically Europe, staking their claim to greatness by being the first person to make some enormous discovery that would doubtlessly see them enter the hallowed halls of history. One of the most significant theories of…
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
“Mabel’s not crazy. She’s just…unusual” These words come on behalf of Nick Longhetti (Peter Falk) after one of his co-workers provokes him on a very sensitive subject. Mabel, of course, refers to Nick’s wife (Gena Rowlands), a housewife who does her very best to provide for her hard-working husband and three children, despite the fact…
Lenny (1974)
Lenny Bruce was an influential individual. Without him, there would not have been the likes of George Carlin, Richard Pryor or Bill Hicks, which in turn would mean comedy would have been very different, and probably far less important a force than it is now. Don’t let the preoccupation with jokes mislead you – comedy,…
The Postmodern Pelican 