According to Artaud’s essay Cinema and Distraction, he thanks Germaine Dulac (director of The Seashell and the Clergyman) “… who was able to appreciate a screenplay that seeks to penetrate the very essence of the cinema and is not concerned with any allusion either to art or to life.” Other reports claim that Artaud (who wrote The […]
Author Archives: lisathatcher
December
19
The Seashell and the Clergyman – Antonin Artaud, cinema and abstraction. (Film review / analysis)
posted by lisathatcher
December
12
Martha – Fassbinder takes us to the darkest place. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
The 720 degree shot shown above becomes a favorite of Fassinders after Martha, and he will go on to use it many times, particularly in Berlin Alexanderplatz. It left me breathless when I first saw it, right at the start of this long film. These are two people who do not know each other, but will become terrifyingly important […]
December
12
Ben Brooks and The Kasahara School of Nihilism – Youth for youth’s sake. (book review)
posted by lisathatcher
How is it possible to read the work of the unashamedly young when you have left that club and are happy to have done so? When reading Ben Brooks I had the sense that another young man was calling for attention. Not mine. Not the attention of the generations that have gone before – except […]
December
08
Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize Lecture
posted by lisathatcher
I just had a lovely moment reading Mo Yan’s Nobel Prize Lecture. There are moments like this: “I am a storyteller, so I am going to tell you some stories. When I was a third-grade student in the 1960s, my school organized a field trip to an exhibit of suffering, where, under the direction of […]
December
06
Magnolia – Falling frogs and coincidence, Paul Thomas Anderson Style. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
After being so impressed with Paul Thoms Anderson’s film The Master, I decided to plonk myself down in front of his previous works. I already reviewed Punch Drunk Love, which I enjoyed a great deal. The next film for me in the list was Magnolia. Magnolia is a complex film packed with symbolism and imagery that for a freudian […]
December
03
Into the Mirror – Shelly Wall makes us look deeper into what appears to be there. (Theatre Review)
posted by lisathatcher
“I hate it. I hate that mirror; it has tormented me since childhood. Each night I would kneel before it and pray. Do you know what its like to be haunted by an image you know is there, you can feel it, but you can’t see it? I would stand in front of the mirror […]
December
03
Ali: Fear Eats the Soul – Older Woman Younger Man Fassbinder style (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
Since the dawn of time older chicks and younger dudes have been gettin’ it on, but it’s remained a societal taboo despite its ubiquity. There’s definitely something about it that offends us – misogynistic mythology will be at the heart of the offence and there are probably countless decent books on the subject. However, film […]
December
01
Call for Submissions: I’d like to review your self published literary novel.
posted by lisathatcher
Hello there all my dear readers and fellow writers, This blog has grown quite dramatically in the last twelve months. It has become a respected review source, so much so that my name is now added to media and press events listings for music, theatre and film – which means in the future I will […]
November
30
Skyfall – how to do Bond for over 50 years (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
So what is it about James Bond? It’s difficult to ignore the stats. We’ve been in love with this misogynistic ‘blunt instrument’ for fifty years now. That beats any spotty teen wizard or teen vampire, any re-birthing of a Bourne, and any Batman, Superman, Spiderman style film and remake you can name. As if it’s […]
November
20
Is Genre Fiction Art? Pt 3: Genre as morality and defender of truth.
posted by lisathatcher
This post has multiple parts. For part one, please go here. Before I launch into my defence of the strange suggestion that genre fiction is the defender of truth and morality and therefore the very opposite of what art is meant to be, let me make a quick statement. By genre fiction, I mean fiction […]
Lisa Thatcher 