A Separation: snapshot of how people survive under grinding pressure in a police state
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
Les Vampires (Part 5: L’évasion du Mort): film shows corruption at the heart of Parisian society
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
Les Vampires (Part 2: La Bague qui tue / Part 4: Le Spectre): microcosm of public paranoia and terror
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
Les Vampires (Part 1: La tête coupée): enthralling early crime drama serial about a sinister gang of criminals
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…
Caution, propaganda at work in “Fukushima: Is Nuclear Power Safe?”
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…
Over 300 reviews as of March 2012
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…
Jabberwocky: meditation on growing up, conforming and assuming adult responsibilities
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…
No-one Knows About Persian Cats: showcase of Iranian pop culture and contemporary society
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)
Simon of the Desert: film of a saint dehumanised by his own self-righteous hypocrisy and pride
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
L’Amour Monstre de tous les temps: threadbare portrait of Serbian-born French painter
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…