Army of Shadows – 1969

2018/07/15

Jean-Pierre Melville was a cool, meticulous filmmaker, and that style makes this razor-sharp treatment of resistance fighters in Nazi-occupied France all the more powerful. From the wearing tension these men and women bore everyday, to a botched rescue and how to deal with traitors, it would be suffocatingly intense or ridiculously bombastic in lesser hands. Melville’s detached fascination makes it completely spellbinding.

eXistenZ – 1999

2018/06/15

This one came out at the worst possible time, right ahead of the much-anticipated Matrix. Looking back today, it deserves to be rediscovered, because under that unnerving layer of Cronenbergian body horror is a much more pertinent, probable and urgent discussion about the very nature of reality.

The Man Who Would Be King – 1975

2018/05/16

John Huston tried for ages to get his Kipling adaptation off the ground, first with Clark Gable and Humphrey Bogart as the two leads, ex-military British ruffians who con their way into ruling over an isolated Central Asian kingdom. In the end, all his stars alined for the better, and we were treated to this widescreen bonanza, with Sean Connery and Michael Cain topping the credits. Loads of fun!

Shadow of the Vampire – 2000

2018/05/06

This unlikely team-up of John Malkovich, Willem Dafoe, Eddie Izzard and Nicolas Cage (as producer) explores the myth behind the silent German classic Nosferatu, wherein maverick filmmaker F.W. Murnau hired an actual vampire as the star of his horror masterpiece. Dafoe chews scenery as the titular fiend, but the real monster on display is Malkovich. Do yourself a favor and check this one out!

Blade Runner 2049 – 2017

2018/04/25

Our favorite film of 2017, a sequel that work both on its own and as a successor to the revolutionary original, BR2049 is less showy than that classic but arguably has more emotion, pathos and visual splendor. If you are patient with it, the rewards are innumerable.

Cabiria – 1914

2018/04/15

If you ever have one of those days that never end and pile indignity upon failure, spare a thought to Cabiria’s protagonists. Outside of Shakespeare’s Pericles and Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, this is as far as you can push the notion of « being in the wrong place at the wrong time » is such a concentrated time frame. It is also one of the most spectacular epics of silent cinema, and its sheer scale could give many modern movies a run for their money.

For All Mankind – 1989

2017/12/12

Composed exclusively of amazing archive shots charting the entire moon program, and using astronauts’ voices to tell the story, Al Reinert’s landmark film is less a documentary and more a visual tone-poem about humanity’s most awe-inspiring endeavor. If you’re feeling a bit down about our performance as a species lately, feast your eyes on this: it packs more wonder in every grainy frame than can be found in all of 2001 or Interstellar.

Paris, Texas – 1984

2017/05/11

If you had to define melancholy, you’d be hard pressed to do any better than simply mention Wim Wenders’ classic. Shooting American landscapes like only a foreigner could and conducting his wonderful cast like a master, he creates a film graced with intangible poetry and profound heartache. None of this sounds like fun viewing, but the result is spellbinding stuff, all to the sound of Ry Cooder’s unforgettable score.

Elmer Gantry – 1960

2017/04/11

Our film of the week, scandalous and Oscar-winning in its time, is Elmer Gantry, a scathing examination of Evangelism and religious charlatans that is a proud descendant of Molière’s Tartufe. Except Molière never had Burt Lancaster to unleash on the public

Titus – 1998

2017/03/11

Imagine this: you’re a theater prodigy with a recent monster hit under your belt (the Lion King musical, a triumph of design) and a love of movies. What do you do next? It’s obvious: you take Shakespeare’s messiest – and goriest – play, Sir Anthony Hopkins and a killer supporting cast, and do the kind of time displacement that makes Baz Luhrman’s Romeo and Juliet seem tame. Yes, it’s 1998’s mad, mad, Titus. Feast your eyes and ears on it!