Slow cinema done right. Hypnotic, quietly funny, deeply unsettling. Hamaguchi lets the landscape do as much of the storytelling as the dialogue, making that final devastating sequence feel both inevitable and impossible to process. I’ll be thinking about it for a while.
Poetic and mysterious. What does it all mean? I don’t know. I loved it.
A cozy slow burn beginning that absolutely pays off for the rest of the film.
Moving to the woods in Japan asap.
A film completely driven by its beautiful score and thought-provoking title. One of the coolest titles a film could have and it's for this slow methodical thinkpiece about humanity's role in nature, and how we deal when we're reminded of how small we are.
If Bong Joon Ho and Kelly Reichardt made a movie together, it would be this film...
A film about power and leadership, and a rare real-time insight into where these qualities truly reside. A must-see for anyone working within institutions.
Not hugely cinematic but pretty engrossing picture of Aotearoa New Zealand bureaucracy trying to work out how to be now. Would love to see similar places in as much detai, but they probably won’t let you in now. Great reminder of how awesome the exhibition in Auckland was too.
Fund the arts!!!
What an insightful view into a world I am not familiar with. It was so striking to observe the kōrero emerging between the artworks in their spaces within the gallery. To hear the voices of artists no longer with us was a privilege. I wonder what the footage not shown looked like and sounded like too.
Amazing!
TOITŪ,clearly saw the contradiction of advocating for decolonisation from within a colonial institution. Wow, and Nigel Borell, the curator resigning towards opening of exhibition demonstrating the true meaning of self determination.
A very engaging film. Not an especially remarkable one out of context, but knowing a little of the circumstances in which it was made makes it that much more entrancing.
There are scenes from this film that will stay in my mind's eye for a while. The shot of the lit grave in the darkness was sublime.
The humanity, the dust, the lack of choices. I loved this.
Jafar Panahi is the chillest dude to take on a woozy trip to purgatory where people come out of doorways to offer hospitality only to disappear into the shadows of a village that time forgot. Also perhaps the best ending payoff to an earlier gag in ages.
Definitely asking my Iranian colleague tomorrow about the statute of limitations for godfatherly obligations in the rural northwestern provinces
From an historical perspective the film is very important and must have caused riots on its first screenings in Europe. To me the actors were still trying to get their heads around performing on film with sound so very quirky, but still, the anticipation of Lola Lola's main song was palpable.
I really enjoyed it although I couldn’t for the life of me work out why she married him. Cockadoodle Do!
A truly sensational film, revealing both a magnetic new star of the silver screen, and the unexpectedly brutal apprenticeships of sad clowns.
"Aw, honey, I know you wanted a cabaret romp, but all they had was this sad German man. It's okay, we can chip away at his self-esteem until he dies; that's just as good, right?"
For a self-purported strongman, Mazeppa doesn't seem particularly adept at restraining a deranged, elderly professor
All of the Hong Kong iconography made me so happy, especially down to the iconic Mobile Softee truck bit, whose soft serve I’ve definitely dreamed of being force fed until sick.
Loved the imagery, constant darkness and intense characters, however the intertwined stories didn’t really click together for me… maybe that was the point.
Don't drink expired pineapple juice.
Best enjoyed alone, around 2am, smoking cigarettes and eating plenty of ice cream.
A film where you don't merely watch it. You feel it. Watch it on a rainy night like tonight and follow it up with KC Cafe for that authentic Hong Kong flavour. Pairs well with the prior companion film, Chungking Express.
In which Brian De Palma theatrically savages the music industry with the assistance of a satanic record producer, some killer music and an iconic one-eyed, tin-headed budgie monster. Yikes!
Beef! Beef! Beef! Beef!
Fabulous and bonkers - entertaining escapism, perfect film to enjoy in these dark times.
I love Jessica Harper so much, I too would consider murdering someone on stage with a lightning bolt to hear her sing melancholy love songs I had written for her while imprisoned and drugged by the devil.
Did the moviegoing public of 1974 have no taste? No whimsy? No love of camp excess? No appreciation for a soundtrack of absolute bangers? This is one of the few movies I've ever wished was just a little bit longer, if only so it could pack in one more musical number before the end.
Like so many of the great horror films, Don't Look Now is grounded by harrowingly plausible events, and performances which make you feel them in your guts. Beautiful, raw, and unnerving.
The misty, labryinthine Venice has never looked so creepy. It's the perfect backdrop for a character caught between trauma and the subliminal, barreling toward a fate that could have been avoided had he listened to his wife. The editing really takes it home and gave me chills despite this being the 2nd watch - brava, absolutely brava
Remarkable how unsettling this remains even when the final scene is already lodged in film history. Roeg’s sense of rhythm and disorientation is unmatched.
A portrait of grief and the effect it has on a relationship with an overarching glaze of psychic horror.
On the Sad/Horny/Occult venn diagram, this sits smack bang in the centre. Innovative? Sure. Enjoyable? No.
Knew almost nothing going in and that was 100% the right call. Quietly masterful and genuinely moving. First Kore-eda, definitely not the last. That widescreen framing was stunning.
One of my favourite films so far this year. What a beautiful soundtrack.
How can a film be both gently reassuring of the power of friendship and utterly devastating at the same time? A masterclass in using shifting POVs in film.
To follow up Shoplifters with another gem like Monster is what makes Kore-eda the best working director nobody talks about.
Absolutely brilliant. The three different perspectives make it so interesting to try and piece together the film like a puzzle, and slowly understand that no one was really ever in the wrong as initially shown.
Basically silly, but quite entertaining and some good chase sequences.
Bonkers but brilliant, the literal sparkle on the screen, the score, the movement, the shots. It was all such fun.
I too would lock Alain Delon in my attic and live my solo life in a waterfront villa.
Sleazy, sun-drenched and just a little delirious, Joy House turns Alain Delon into the world’s most beautiful bad decision. A pulp thriller where everyone seems vaguely overdressed for the amount of betrayal underway.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch a film scored by Lalo Schifrin without tapping your foot so enthusiastically as to incur a glare from the man beside you.
Great to see this on the only screen in the city big enough for Al Pacino's performance.
The gunfight centrepiece is still as great as it was when I first saw it 30 years ago. It opens the far better second half when everyone’s skin in the game crystallises. Al Pacino is a true original.
Only De Niro and Pacino could make me love a three-hour long boy movie
Showing its age, but still non stop entertaining.
It's a perfectly old-fashioned crime drama - cat-and-mouse with some acting heavyweights, solid stuff. What makes it special is that Michael Mann films Los Angeles like Evgeny Sedukhin painted Soviet blast furnaces. Look at this industrial edifice that fills the horizon. Now look at the tiny figures standing in its sparks.
Only too often the term "Masterpiece" gets thrown about willy nilly, but in respect of "The Cranes are Flying" it is absolutely deserved. Superb storytelling, stunning editing, cinematography and locations, but it's the director's crowd work and pace that gripped me throughout Monday's screening.
What a moving, beautifully shot film. A stark illustration of the horrors of war for those at the front and those left behind. The final, anti-war speech should be played to all world leaders.
Breathtaking, dizzying, amazingly contemporary cinematography. Glorious on the big screen.
Beautiful and haunting. I love the contrast between the absurd comedic moments and the gut wrenching montages when our characters experience their world falling down around them. Images and sequences from this will be burned into my memory for the foreseeable future
Mesmerising, heartbreaking, devastating, but beautiful through and through. A masterpiece.
Tonally quite different to Western horror. The ghosts aren't vindictive but surprisingly human. I loved the use of noise/silence throughout -- it was very haunting to suddenly hear the strings of a biwa or the resonance of a flute, or for the only noise to be the sudden stirring of the wind or rain. Gorgeous set design! And the whole painting sequence in the Hoichi story felt strangely emotive despite using nothing more than a camera pan over still images.
Epic and beautiful - a perfect fit for the Embassy screen. Impressive visual effects for its age and filled with ambitious, theatrical flair.
Who doesn't love a good ghost story, and this time it's four to give you the chills. Each had their own unique aspect, but i will look twice when I take my next sip of water...
I went in with a dread of a 3-hour screening. BUT the set design, the costumes, the lighting and cinematography truly got me immersed and kept me wanting to know what the next story was going to do!
The Woman of the Snow horizon stares not unlike the WFS eye projected huge and staring at all of us just before the movie starts—wooing—hypnotising—brainwashing—a cinematic experience.
If I had a dollar for every time I discovered Hollywood's new weird-but-compelling director made their name with an incest-based psychological horror, I'd have two dollars. Which isn't a lot but it's weird it happened twice. (Sorry, Ari Aster, you have company!)
I felt a horror that is also present in the dark, against big dogs, and while suffocating. One of the few times I must remind myself that these are fictional characters, this is fiction; they are actors. Amazing.
A disgustingly uncomfortable watch, only heightened by the theatrical experience. Lanthimos creates a world of bleak absurdity, at times comical, and at others a nightmare. There's two very different films here, almost defined entirely by whether the people around you are laughing at the incorrect use of words and the strange games they play. Ultimately, the nightmare wins out.
Is it all a big metaphor or just a nasty unpleasant watch? Might depend how empathetic the viewer is. Count me out.
A black and white cat gave me a jumpscare walking home from this film and that's how I know it entered my psyche.
Original and inventive representation of Hotere and his art. Very good!!!
I love how this documentary and how it's filmed is just as unique as Hotere's paintings, and how the film is a piece of art in itself. I was very pleasantly surprised and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.
Loved it! My first screening as a filmsoc member -- what an incredible debut.
Ko te mea pai o tēnei whakaaturanga ki ahau, ko te puoro, tautito, Māori, rakapioi hoki me te hononga ki ngā mahi toi e tītohu. Ataahua rawa atu.
A wonderful documentary that is as much about the general creative process and spirit as it is about the subject of Ralph Hotere. His lack of interest in speaking about his work, or in fronting the camera, no doubt forced the director’s hand. And we’re all very lucky about that as a result
Funny and sweet with enough underlying darkness to really leave an impression. The lighting looked absolutely stunning on the big screen - romance works so much better in black and white.
An excellent thoughtful and well crafted film. And a great example of the joy of shared viewing in a cinema - awesome to be part of the collective gasps and chuckles.
One of the most entertaining scripts ever written, I wasn’t bored for a second! Billy Wilder never misses and Jack Lemmon is hilarious with his delivery. A perfect movie.
5 stars for being a perfect film but, more importantly, 5 stars for any film where the moral is 'don't trust HR or senior leadership'
Wow! What a romp! The pace of the action, and the quality and humour of the dialogue was head spinning. The cool guys were the baddest of baddies. Hong Kong looked sexy and scuzzy all at once. The brotherhood between the gangsters and undercover cop, Ko Chow, was more loving than his relationship with Hung. Imagine how many cigarettes she has smoked while she waits for him in Hawaii.
A christmas movie ahead of next week's new years movie (The Apartment)! Lovely programme sequencing.
I really like a movie that pretends to be dumb when, really, it is brutally profound.
Chow Yun-Fat is more expressive with a cigarette than many actors are with their entire bodies.
Neon lights? Smooth jazz? Moral ambiguity? Wildly irresponsible police work leading to the unnecessarily violent deaths of crooks, cops, and bystanders? Christmas (Michael Mann's Heat) has come early. What a movie.
Thank you! As stunning, sensory and mysterious as when I first experienced the film as a kid decades ago. Supremely spellbinding and disturbing, it keeps opening new pathways of meaning each time I visit. Wonderful to see those Aussie actors toward the beginning of their careers on the big screen again and sure enough, I am still in the thrall of Rachel Roberts.
Breathtaking. The sequences on the Rock, especially those swirling, disorienting camera pans designed to envelope the viewer in the monolithic forms, were stunning. The pan pipes will ring in my ears all week!
A great opening night film - very glad to have my first viewing of it be in a full Embassy theatre (with thanks to the WFS staff for managing the large numbers so well!)
The gothic atmosphere, the cosmic pull of nature, the institutional rot ... instant all-time favourite.
Like a Merchant/Ivory production got lost in the Australian bush. There is undeniable romanticism, here, gauzy and pre-Raphaelite, but it is obvious how much it doesn't belong in the country it has invaded.
