In Virginia Woolf’s outstanding work of literary non-fiction, A Room of One’s Own, she explores the supposed lack of ‘Great Female Artists’. She is not the only one to explore this, and it is also a very Euro - and white - centric argument that is rejected by many. Art Historian Griselda Pollock, for one, … Continue reading Have You Seen… Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce 1080 Bruxelles (1975)?
Tag: European
Josep (Review)
Art can do so much, especially when intersecting with reality. It is so tempting, when presenting reality, to slip into the objective and the strictly realist - thinking it adds reality and truth. Of course, none of us experience the world objectively and art that explores reality is at its best when it takes advantage … Continue reading Josep (Review)
Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Review)
Off-putting name aside, Dogs Don't Wear Pants (DDWP) is a really impressive movie full of excellent decisions. It is a film of real style - and of some substance - that manages to cleverly negotiate disparate tones while always feeling cohesive. From the beginning, DDWP involves a number of tropes that are often off-putting, or … Continue reading Dogs Don’t Wear Pants (Review)
The Whalebone Box (Review)
There's something inherently cinematic about a closed box. Open boxes? They aren't interesting. Closed boxes are instant enigmas full of potential, in which the obfuscation is the appeal. The Whalebone Box relies on this appeal and plays nicely with this idea. On its most basic level, this video collage by Andrew Kotting is about taking … Continue reading The Whalebone Box (Review)
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Review)
I once visited a Jeff Koons exhibition in which reflective spheres had been placed in pieces of art - often classical art. The spheres reflected the art back at itself but also made it so that you could not look at the art without looking at yourself and your surroundings. It was an effective, if … Continue reading Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Review)
A Hidden Life (Review)
Terrence Malick's latest film, a cerebral drama about an Austrian farmer during World War 2, is an engrossing and powerful portrait of idealism. The film centres around a choice that is obviously admirable now but - at the time - brought huge negative consequences on the individual: refusing to fight for the Nazis. The film … Continue reading A Hidden Life (Review)
Atlantics (Review)
David Foster Wallace once wrote that every love story is a ghost story. It’s an evocative statement that cuts to the core of the everyday nature of ghosts - not ethereal beings but the literal past clinging onto the present. Atlantics, the remarkable debut feature from Mati Diop (that scooped the Grand Prix at Cannes), … Continue reading Atlantics (Review)
GUO4 (Review)
As if In Fabric hadn't already established Peter Strickland as one of the most bizarre and challenging directors of the year, along comes his new short film GUO4. GUO4 is part deconstruction of cinema; part male erotica; part exploration of masculinity and part music video - thought the most bizarre music video you'll see (and … Continue reading GUO4 (Review)
Pain and Glory (Review)
Autofiction is a dangerous game. The line between art and reality is often a thin one and drawing from one's life opens up conflict and complication. This is one of the central ideas in Almodovar's brilliant Pain and Glory, yet another enthralling film from one of the masters of cinema. Pain and Glory is not … Continue reading Pain and Glory (Review)
Assorted Opinions 