Our favourite films often have a habit of making us mute, of striking us dumb (to use a more old-fashioned phrase). Once the lights have come up (or the desktop player window has minimised itself) we are left wondering, with a faint sense of embarrassment and a shrug of the shoulders, whether it is enough … Continue reading Maine Ocean (1985, Jacques Rozier)
Mediterranee (1963, Jean-Daniel Pollet) If the endless circuit of repetitive simulations and duplications continues then we should at least attempt to find some ecstasy, some liberty and some echoes of what we have lost within it. Jean-Daniel Pollet’s essay film is an edifice (strong yet weak, monumental but crumbling, still just together but ready to … Continue reading Round-Up: Pollet, Guitry, Robson/Lewton, Mizoguchi
A reminder, if needed, of how rigorous the film-maker can be (even more so than the theatre director, the musician, the novelist, no matter how unlikely the nature of his medium may make that seem). Moliere’s words are necessarily forsaken in an adaptation of his work during the silent era, but no matter for Murnau … Continue reading Tartuffe (1925, F.W. Murnau)
For all the acclaim he has received, both popular and critical, how can it be that Jacques Tati still features so rarely on lists of, say, the ten greatest film directors? Is the reason as simple as the comedian’s curse, that condition that means that, no matter the greatness of the work itself, it will … Continue reading Trafic (Jacques Tati, 1971)
