As the first gorgeous black-and-white scenes unfolded, I thought I had stumbled into a documentary.
Continue readingKayo Kayo Colour (2023)
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Fremont (2023)
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I loved Babak Jalali’s Radio Dreams (2016), and he doesn’t disappoint with the tonally very different but just as meticulous Fremont.
Continue readingThe Goddess (Devi) (1960)
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Satyajit Ray is a master of pared-back social drama that exposes the class and social structure of India.
Continue readingThe Novelist’s Film (소설가의 영화)(2022)
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I find myself wanting to like South Korean auteur Hong Sangsoo’s work. Maybe I’m choosing the wrong ones out of his huge filmography as they seem whimsically pedestrian and self-absorbed, albeit in a way that’s meant to be charming.
Continue readingA Resistance (항거:유관순 이야기) (2019)
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Cho Min-ho gives us a measured exploration of the Korean independence protests of the 20s that thoroughly engages with its focus on one women and her plight.
Continue readingPlaylist (2021)
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Like a black and white Amelie (2001) without the whimsy, French director and graphic novelist Nine Antico’s first feature tracks the travails of hapless Sophie (Sara Forestier) as she searches for love.
Continue readingDear Comrades! (Dorogie tovarishchi) (2020)
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In carefully composed black and white imagery, we watch the Soviet propaganda machine go into overdrive to cover up 1960s labour strikes and a subsequent, ill-advised massacre.
Continue readingLast and First Men (2017)
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This was the first time at MIFF 68.5 that I really missed being in a cinema. Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson directs his only feature, bringing together three distinct and disparate components to create an emotional experience that cries out for sensory immersion.
Continue readingServants (2020)
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For its imagery alone, this bleak and beautiful drama by Ivan Ostrochovský is worth a look, although it’s love of an exquisitely composed frame distances you from the characters.
Continue readingPrayer for a Lost Mitten (Prière pour une Mitaine Perdue) (2020)
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I’m not sure what I was expecting with this low-key Canadian documentary by Jean-François Lesage that uses the lost and found office at the Montreal metro as a jumping off point for a meditation on loss. From the first bleak and beautiful scene of snow falling against a night sky as a clarinet mournfully plays, you know this is going to be about more than a lost mitten.
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