Antonioni’s first English-language film sees him in peak form, delivering a countercultural classic that is a masterclass in exploring the art and enigma of seeing, creating and deconstructing images.
Seemingly existing outside of time, Rivette’s performative revenge tale featuring women pirates and sorceresses is one of his boldest experiments in film form, culminating in an occult-like finale of dancing bodies in trance.
Probably Miyazaki’s most epic film inasmuch as it is a pure fantasy-adventure with strong themes of peaceful co-existence as battles are waged among humans, animals and spirits.
Antonioni plays with colour and sound design, creating a hypnotic take on the perils of human alienation amid technological progress.
The unresolved childhood grief of losing one’s mother is given a quiet, sentimental treatment by Bellocchio whose film is polished enough though it falls short of being truly insightful.
‘Exploring’ features the filmographies of filmmakers that I’ve largely completed and celebrates them on the week of their birthdays.
A more wistful film than usual by Anderson, who is back in fine form as we enter the world of a fictional play populated by a range of eccentric characters.
Gritty, downbeat and cynical, Seidl’s provocative first fiction feature uses the camera like a privacy-intruding one-way mirror as it observes several women and their exploits with cheap modelling, perverted men and toxic relationships.
Mankiewicz’s enduring classic about the glamour of showbiz, warts and all, marked by loyal friendships and diabolical schemes, remains one of the wittiest and spriteliest of Classical Hollywood dramas.
Two celestial beings battle for a magical diamond in the underbelly of Paris in Rivette’s peculiar anti-fantasy, one that is drenched in a noir-ish atmosphere of shadowy interiors.
Eternality Tan 