397. Mulholland Dr.
Puzzling audiences ever since it premiered at Cannes in 2001, David Lynch’s dark masterpiece seems to address the abuse of women in the film industry.
Tag Archives: Alain Resnais
396. L’Avventura
With this modernist masterpiece, Michelangelo Antonioni told a story that abandoned its initial plot. Booed at Cannes, it paved the way for a new cinematic form.
395. The Conversation
It is said a film is made three times; writing, filming and editing. In which case, editor Walter Murch deserves enormous credit for this masterpiece.
379. Midnight Cowboy
This 60s’ American classic mixes avant-garde with mythology to examine male identity, intimacy, sexuality and trauma.
375. sex, lies, and videotape
With his Palme d’Or winning debut, Steven Soderbergh made a modern classic as well as a how-to manual for film students.
363. Arrival
No matter how cinematic, all films are nothing more than a form of writing that borrows from other forms of writing. Which is why Arrival comes in code.
360. Waltz with Bashir
Ari Folman’s animated documentary is different from many other films about trauma. But it is only in its final moments that it reveal its most telling truth.
317. The Cook the Thief his Wife & her Lover
First seen as a critique of Thatcherism, this now lives in the era of MeToo and Time’s Up.
303. Blowup
Originally titled A Girl, a Photographer and a Beautiful April Morning, Michelangelo Antonioni’s Palme d’Or winner is still as enigmatic fifty years on.
190. Groundhog Day
One of the most original screenplays to ever emerge from Hollywood, this seriously funny comedy ponders the very meaning of our existence.
189. Genocide in Cinema
Blighted with massacres since Biblical times, the word genocide was not coined until 1944. How has cinema faired in depicting it?
167. Sexy Beast
Jonathan Glazer’s film is one of the most assured debuts in cinema history. But the film has another entrance that also stands with the best of them.
166. The Killing Fields
When it comes to America’s military intervention in South East Asia, David Puttnam’s Oscar winner is the anomaly. Less a war picture, it’s more a love story.
153. Memento
Christopher Nolan’s time-warping mind-bending classic left many audiences very confused. But the director left more than enough clues to make sense of it.
Inception
This video-essay on Christopher Nolan’s Inception examines the themes of time and memory which serve as twin anchors to the film’s plot. These elements are also central to surrealism and the way it depicts dreams.
