A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
French and French-language Films
Eric Darmon, Franck Mallet, “Pierre Henry, or the Art of Sounds” (2006) A so-so documentary about the French experimental music pioneer, Pierre Henry, who with his mentor…
Matt O’Casey, “Queen: Days of our Lives (Part 2)” Contrary to my expectations, knowing something of the band’s history, I found the second part of the…
Matt O’Casey, “Queen: Days of our Lives (Part 1)” (2011) To mark the 40th anniversary of a beloved British rock music institution, the BBC made this…
Kenneth Anger, “Rabbit’s Moon” (started 1950: long version 1972, short version 1979) Based on a Japanese myth about a rabbit on the moon, this film comes…
Kenneth Anger, “Fireworks” (1947) Quite a remarkable debut film this is from a 17-year-old Kenneth Anger which is a coming-of-age piece recreating a dream he had:…
David M Edwards, “Sprawling from Grace, Driven to Madness” (2008) Stumbled across this very pertinent documentary on the consequences of Western societies’ dependence on cars as…
Mats Lundberg, “Black Metal Satanica” (2008) This documentary promised initially to be a fairly in-depth investigation of the Scandinavian black metal music scene and its agenda…
Pål Aasdal, Martin Ledang “Once upon a time in Norway” (2007) This one-hour film is a straightforward blow-by-blow chronological account of the early career of Mayhem,…
Kenneth Anger, “Lucifer Rising” (1981) Begun some time in the 1960s but not fully completed until 1981, with the music soundtrack having to be revamped completely,…
Paul Verhoeven, “Starship Troopers” (1997) Loosely adapted from the Robert Heinlein novel of the same name, this film can be read as a caricature on several…