A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Walerian Borowczyk and Jan Lenica, “The House / Dom” (1958) Rather odd film in which a woman (Ligia Branice), seemingly trapped and bored in an apartment…
Jan Lenica, “The Labyrinth / Labirynt” (1963) Superficially this looks like a Terry Gilliam / Monty Python animated cartoon and it is indeed very funny and…
Andrew S Allen, “The Thomas Beale Cipher” (2010) Unusual collage-type animated film that’s based on the legend about the three cypher-texts that supposedly reveal the location…
French and French-language Films
Philippe Grammaticopoulos, “The Bellies / Les Ventres” (2009) Delightful short film inspired in part by Rene Laloux’s animated work, “The Bellies” features a simple story about…
Piotr Dumala, “Franz Kafka” (1992) A 15-minute film of various episodes in the life of early 20th century Czech writer Franz Kafka, this is remarkable mainly…
Jan Svankmajer, “A Quiet Week in the House / Tichy tyden v dome” (1969) A strange little film even by my standards of strangeness, this combines live…
Mikhail Kalatozov, “The Cranes are Flying / Letyat zhuravli” (1957) A soulful film of hope and optimism amid the cruelties of war, this story of a…
French and French-language Films
Marie-Monique Robin, “The World According to Monsanto / Le Monde selon Monsanto” (2008) At issue in this informative documentary directed by the investigative journalist Marie-Monique Robin is…
Marina Zenovich, “Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired” (2009) On the surface this film is about Polish-French director Roman Polanski’s conviction for having sex with an underage…
Jindrich Polak, “Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea / Zitra vstanu a oparim se cajem” (1977) One of a number of comic science…