After having quite a prolific career in both Europe and the United States, and having made films quite late into his life, it’s tough to imagine that Jean Renoir, one of cinema’s finest directors, had many instances of projects that didn’t manifest as he intended them to, most of his work being well-crafted and very…
We Live in Time (2024)
We tend to view life as a single stream of events, occurring in linear time and aiming to reach a particular destination – and the fact that we are obsessed with chronology to the point where we tend to focus on every unit of time. The great irony of this universal tendency is that in…
Gladiator II (2024)
They tend to say that once you’ve achieved perfection, it’s best to leave it alone. However, the same principle doesn’t necessarily apply when you’ve made something perfectly decent and solid enough to withstand the test of time, but perhaps not necessarily redefine a particular genre or style of filmmaking. Ridley Scott has made many films…
Hot Saturday (1932)
Discussions about the Pre-Code era are certainly not elusive around these parts. This period of Hollywood history is one of the most fascinating, since that brief period between the silent era and the implementation of the Hays Code was home to some of the most boundary-pushing, daring works, the likes of which we wouldn’t see…
Emilia Pérez (2024)
When given the opportunity to change your life, every one of us would take it, whether it means small alterations or an entire reinvention of our existence. However, those who make such a decision to completely abandon their identity and take on a new life tend to find that it is impossible to run away…
Rumours (2024)
There has never been a more appropriate time to be sceptical of our global leaders than now – the world is in tatters. It seems like every nation is working to ensure its survival, even if it comes at the expense of its allies, which is not a new concept but one that goes against…
Foreign Correspondent (1940)
While we all recognize his extraordinary gifts as a filmmaker across many different genres, we don’t often appreciate Alfred Hitchcock’s prowess as a wartime filmmaker, a fact that has been surprisingly erased from a lot of celebratory praises that have been heaped on him in his capacity as possibly the finest director in the history…
Heretic (2024)
It is generally considered an unspoken rule of polite society that one should steer away from discussing politics and religion, especially with those who you don’t know since it can run the risk of offending the beliefs of others. However, both are subjects that are not only topics of conversation in just about every situation,…
Memoir of a Snail (2024)
“Life is full of misery, loneliness, and suffering, and it’s all over much too soon.” The above quote is one of the most well-known pieces of writing in film history, appearing towards the start of Woody Allen’s masterpiece Annie Hall, and which has in turn come to be definitive of a very specific kind of…
Two-Way Stretch (1960)
From a linguistic perspective, few places breed innovation in how language develops and is used than prisons – these institutions tend to provide fascinating insights into how people change meanings of words ascribe entirely new definitions to existing terms, or even just outright create new phrases, all of which is usually done to establish some…
The Postmodern Pelican 