A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
British Films, Russian and Soviet Films
John Pilger, “Secret World of the US Election: Julian Assange Talks to John Pilger” (RT.com, October 2016) One famous Australian journalist talking to another famous Australian…
Tadashi Imai, “Yuki: Snow Fairy” (1981) In the hands of Tadashi Imai, notable as a director of social realist films in Japan in the 1950s /…
British Films, French and French-language Films
Christian Volckman, “Paris 2054: Renaissance” (2006) A glossy animated style of minimal black-and-white presentation, emphasising detail, mood and atmosphere in a future Paris governed by corporations…
Essays, Multi-media Presentations
Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Speech at the XIII Meeting (Final Plenary Session) of the Valdai International Discussion Club (Sochi, October 2016) As is his usual custom, Russian…
Lars von Trier, “Breaking the Waves” (1996) For the most part this often nihilistic film is excruciating in its slow and exacting pace, and its drama…
Middle Eastern Films, Russian and Soviet Films
Channel 24 (Russia) Interview with First Lady of Syria Asma al Assad (18 October 2016) In contrast to so many female politicians and spouses of world leaders, the wife of…
Yony Leyser, “William Burroughs: Man Within” (2010) An obvious labour of love for Yony Leyser, this documentary on subversive US experimental novelist and artist William S…
Kaneto Shindo, “Onibaba” (1964) An old Japanese Buddhist tale of a woman who uses a mask to frighten her daughter from visiting a temple becomes in…
French and French-language Films
Frédéric Doazan, “Supervenus” (2013) This 3-minute debut effort for writer / director Frédéric Doazan is a devastatingly critical comment on modern standards of female beauty as they have…
Guy Maddin, “My Winnipeg” (2007) An unusual blend of memoir, documentary and dark fantasy, Guy Maddin’s “My Winnipeg” probably does more to promote his home city,…