Floating Weeds – 1959

2019/05/15

Gentle scholar of the human condition Yasujiro Ozu made many memorable films, and this is one of his most visually accomplished ones, and perhaps one of the most touching. If you’re new to the Japanese master, this is as good an entry-point as any.

Ordet – 1955

2019/04/15

Dreyer is a Danish legend and a hero of firebrand Lars von Trier. Whatever expectations such a preamble might create are no match for the experience that is this unique story of faith and redemption.

Zigeneurwisen – 1980

2019/03/15

Bless you! This tongue-twisting mind-bender is the kick-off chapter to wildcard filmmaker Seijun Suzuki’s Taisho Trilogy, and probably what David Lynch might have produced had he been born in Japan. Is it a dream, a nightmare? Spellbinding stuff!

The Mystery of Picasso – 1956

2019/02/15

Imagine you could sit with one of the defining artists of our times and push them to create whatever came to mind in real time. That is just the palyful exercise put to screen by legendary director Henri-George Clouzot and icon Pablo Picasso. It’s as interesting as you’d expect, but also far more entertaining and visually compelling.

A Matter of Life and Death – 1946

2019/01/15

Powell and Pressburger films all have that special something, like fairytales without the saccharine. Of all their output, this one – the story of a downed airman bargaining for more time on this Earth to live out a romantic encounter – teeters closest to melodrama, but it’s just so irresistible you can’t help but love it.

Jubal – 1956

2018/12/15

Love them or hate them, Westerns offer a unique canvas with the potential to make even the most intimate tale biblical in scope. Such is the case with this lesser-known gem featuring amazing turns from Ernest Borgnine, Rod Steiger, Glen Ford and Valerie French.

Satyricon – 1969

2018/11/15

Also known as the time Fellini went too far, Satyricon is divisive, vulgar, monumental, unforgettable… it is also tedious and needlessly weird in parts, but few films have an ounce of this one’s inventiveness or ambition, and that’s something to be truly treasured.

Death of Stalin – 2017

2018/10/15

We like a hearty dose of Armando Iannucci-penned vitriol, and this satire of the behind-the-scenes fight for power following the death of Joseph Stalin is his crown jewel. What a cast, what cheek… who could have imagined totalitarianism could be this much mean-spirited fun? Our favorite film of 2017.

Bringing out the Dead – 1999

2018/09/15

This overlooked Scorsese gem features no gangsters, and regular collaborators Robert De Niro and Leonardo Di Caprio are nowhere to be found, yet it still marks a kind of purifying return to his earliest hit, marking his fourth and last collaboration with screenwriter and tormented soul Paul Schrader. It’s an acid trip, following a series of nights in the life of a slowly mentally disintegrating paramedic (Nicolas Cage on at the top of his Cage-ness), brought to sizzling life by kaleidoscopic cinematography and a dark sense of humor, and very much worth (re)discovering.

Naked Island – 1960

2018/08/15

We owe Kaneto Shindo some incredibly atmospheric horror films, making it easy to overlook this unusual classic. There’s barely a story – or even dialogue – in this slice of life of a family living alone on a mostly barren island, going through their routine, combatting the elements. Shindo finds compelling drama in the smallest moments, and when tragedy strikes, it kicks the wind out of you. Minimalism at its very best.