A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Adam Curtis, “The Century of the Self (Episode 2: The Engineering of Consent)” (2002) This episode continues Curtis’s investigation of the ways in which Freudian psychoanalysis…
Ralph Fiennes, “Coriolanus” (2011) When I was 28 years of age, a mysterious Shakespeare-reading frenzy seized me and before I knew what I was doing, I had…
Jason Russell, “Kony 2012” (2012) Having heard about nothing else but this 30-minute feature going viral across Youtube and various social networking sites, I determined to…
French and French-language Films
Georges Méliès, “Le Voyage dans la Lune” (1902) Delightful short film, the first science fiction film and the first film to feature animation as well as…
Adam Curtis, “The Century of the Self (Episode 1: Happiness Machines)” (2002) Finally after much nagging by a friend in London, I got around to watching…
Ivan Maximov, “Provincial School” (1992) Amusing little animated short, running at under five minutes, about a most unusual country school where the kids resemble foetuses of…
Asghar Farhadi, “A Separation / Jodái-e Náder az Simin” (2011) A tragic story about how good intentions can start off a snowball that turns into an…
French and French-language Films
Louis Feuillade, “Les Vampires (Part 5: L’évasion du Mort)” (1916) This time in the serial, the crooked businessman Juan José Moreno (Fernand Herrmann) plays the leading role…
French and French-language Films
Louis Feuillade, “Les Vampires (Part 2: La Bague qui tue)” (1915), “Les Vampires (Part 4: Le Spectre)” (1916) Here be two further episodes in which investigative…
French and French-language Films
Louis Feuillade, “Les Vampires (Part 1: La tête coupée)” (1915) First episode in a ten-part serial about a gang of criminals called Les Vampires and the…