A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Annabel Gillings, “Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe?” (2011) Eminently likeable scientist-presenter Jim al-Khalili goes on a trip to Fukushima – the infamous site where three nuclear reactors suffered…
Dear USE Readers, As of 1 March 2012, over 300 films have been seen and remarked upon by Yours Truly. Quite some feat! The majority of…
Jan Svankmajer, “Jabberwocky / Zvahlav aneb Saticky Slameneho Huberta” (1971) Inspired by the Lewis Carroll poem of the same name, and which it dispenses with early…
Bahman Ghobadi, “No-one Knows About Persian Cats” (2009) An ingenious film that uses a fiction plot to structure and showcase the Iranian pop music scene and…
Latin American Films (Spanish language)
Luis Buñuel, “Simon of the Desert / Simón del Desierto” (1965) Buñuel skewers again institutional religion and sanctimonious belief, this time in a satire based on the…
French and French-language Films
Walerian Borowczyk, “L’Amour Monstre de tous les temps: Portrait de Ljuba” (1977) Borowczyk gave up directing animation films in the late 1960s and turned to live-action…
Latin American Films (Spanish language)
Luis Buñuel, “The Exterminating Angel / El ángel exterminador” (1962) So far everything I have seen of Luis Buñuel has been supremely first class and “The Exterminating…
Alexander Petrov, “Rusalka” (1996) Often referred to as “The Mermaid” in English, though mermaids and Russian rusalki are quite different creatures, this is a very beautiful…
Jan Svankmajer, “Dimensions in Dialogue / Moznosti Dialogu” (1982) Hilarious three-part stop-motion animated film that investigates communication breakdown in its various forms, “Dimensions in Dialogue” is…
Sadaf Foroughi, “Sara in 10 Minutes / Sara Dar Dah Daghighe-h” (2007) This is a charming documentary about a young orphan Sara, living in an orphanage…