Director: Jean-Pierre Melville [Exterior. Paris. Grey, grey, grey.] Alain Delon, Gian-Maria Volonté and Yves Montand play an unlikely trio- one was just released from jail, the second fled it, and the third is an ex-cop. The three plan a big coup by breaking into a big jewelry store at Place Vendome and are being chased …
Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny (2003): Who Breaks a Butterfly Upon a Wheel?
Some might be surprised that my prime connection to Vincent Gallo is not established via his films, but through his music- since many don’t even know that this man makes music. Gallo’s 2001 album When is in my all-time Top 10, one of the records I always come back to. A very special, intimate and …
La dernière femme (1976)
Director: Marco Ferreri „If I were asked to characterize the present state of affairs, I would describe it as ‘after the orgy’. The orgy in question was the moment when modernity exploded upon us, the moment of liberation in every sphere. Political liberation, sexual liberation, liberation of the forces of production, liberation of the forces …
A Woman Under the Influence (1974)
A Woman Under the Influence is one of the most famous films directed by John Cassavetes, the father of American independent cinema. Cassavetes used to make his own films behind the back of the big industry and financed them with the earnings of his career as an actor. For this reason, he could afford to …
The Incarnation as Condemnation in Lars von Trier’s ‘Dogville’
Lars von Trier’s Dogville (2003) offers us an alternative interpretation to the mystery of the incarnation than what Christianity has traditionally come to understand in Christ’s humanization. Instead of the possibility of salvation, Dogville suggests Christ’s incarnation as the possibility of a universal condemnation. The story of God-becoming-man remains more or less the same; yet the conclusion reached is …
The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017)
by Octavio Carbajal González “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” , a remarkably gleaming and grotesque film, brought to us by the peculiar and extraordinary Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos, is directly based on the Greek tragedy “Iphigenia in Aulis” by Euripides.We are introduced to Steven Murphy, who is a respected cardiologist and surgeon. His wife …
Memoria (2021)
For the legendary Russian filmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky, reality must be portrayed in all its richness, splendor and complexity. Reality must include our dreams, memories, and projections of the future. The universe of Thai auteur Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a mixture of Tarkovsky’s reasoning elements with some aspects of Thai culture: the belief in reincarnation, the intimate …
Oligarchs, Sex, And Total Hasbara: How The Hell Did Johnny Depp Survive His Past 6 Years?
I tuned in into the public Johnny Depp vs Amber Heard trial because I am done with our hyperreality and cut myself off from reading the news and discourses produced by the mass media for good. Hard to resume the dimension of alienation caused by the many various fatalities of the past two years. I …
Dario Argento’s Tenebrae (1982): Mrs. Berlusconi Learning how to Slash
We must be aware of the superiority of our civilisation. Silvio Berlusconi For some Dario Argento’s best giallo and lesser known masterpiece, the modernistic, cold, and stylish Tenebrae is worth watching for many reasons: bold psycho murders, moonstruck and somnambule acting which adds to the overall delirious suspense, extensive shots of memorably unusual ankles, vivid …
Souvlaki (1993): When Slowdive Touched the Sky
During the exciting first years of the 90s decade, the USA were experiencing the angry and furious fever of grunge bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and Soundgarden. On the other side of the Atlantic ocean, an underground musical genre with a radically opposite sound had been fascinating England for some years: it was a mysterious, …