Varda’s first feature in colour, one that screams vibrant, cheery optimism from the get-go, becomes an ironic, if unsettling, take on happiness, set against gender inequality, as a husband in a truly happy marriage begins an extramarital affair.
Ichikawa’s marvellous coverage of the 1964 Olympic Games is one of the all-time finest sports documentaries, at times poetic and abstract, and always interested in the bodies, faces and movements of athletes and spectators rather than who wins or loses.
A sprawling historical epic set during China’s Warring States period as one king oppresses another king and his people—there’s a sense of tragic grandiosity to the overwrought melodrama while this shorter restored version is still too long.
A man falls in love with the portrait of a lady but refuses to be romantically involved with the real person in this incredibly gorgeous Turkish film, though it does rely too much on repetition and fatalism to work.
Could have been a definitive samurai picture if it wasn’t too exposition heavy, but still quite a solid entry by Okamoto-Mifune.
A con-man who pretends to be an all-powerful spiritual guru is at the centre of Ray’s modest if stinging social commentary on the naivety of succumbing to blind faith.
Kurosawa’s final collab with Mifune yields a near masterpiece about humanity that is beautiful, poetic and enlightening.
Part of Ghatak’s ‘Partition’ trilogy, this rarely-seen film is a strong melodrama about suffering, loss and psychological turmoil as a man, his younger sister and an adopted orphan navigate the harsh socio-economic realities in postwar India.
Parajanov’s free-wheeling breakthrough film is a remarkable sensorial work that could hardly contain its dizzying energy—a showcase of a filmmaker at the height of his artistic expression.
There may not be much action, but this quite solid 12th instalment takes its time to give us well-developed characters in a narrative about strategic one-upmanship.
Eternality Tan 