Author Archives: lisathatcher

Archelon Ranch – Garrett Cook A review

Buy your copy now from LegumeMan books Bernard may or may not exist. He’s the victim of a series of cruel experiments conducted on him by his father and a scientist who are trying to cure an ‘illness’ (in an age when all that exists is illness) that inflicts those called ‘Suburbanites’ that has rendered them all revolting, flesh-eating […]

The Babylonian Trilogy – Sebastien Doubinsky A Review

The Babylonian Trilogy, as the title suggests, is a book divided into three parts.  Each of the three parts deals with the large themes of existence: Life, death, poetry and the pieces in between. Each novel is different from the others in essence, although the reoccurring ideas and the intense characterisation give access to the […]

Enigmatic Pilot – Kris Saknussemm A Review

It is through the study and practice of illusion that we learn the art and science of the truth, and this philosophy has proved immensely effective. It suddenly struck him, for instance, that the definition of a complex machine was one that was five-dimensional—time defining the fourth, psychology the fifth. Mind transcended time, the same […]

In a year with 13 moons – Fassbinder and the desperation of love

“Every seventh year is a moon year. People whose lives are strongly influenced by their emotions suffer more intensely from depression in these years. To a lesser degree this is also true of years with 13 moons. When a moon year also has 13 new moons, inescapable personal tragedies may occur. In the 20th Century […]

Diary of a Chambermaid: Bunuel at his best.

Honestly, there are times in my life (so many times seeing as ‘all’ I need is great art to propel me into ecstasy) when I am thrilled to be alive, and watching this glorious film was one of those. I am a fan of surrealism, though most of the reasons I like it are better […]

The Lighthouse – Maria Saakyan shows us Armenia as a dream

At the start of Maria Saakyan’s The Lighthouse (Mayak) our heroine, Lena (Anna Kapaleva) puts on an old records of the soundtrack to Efrem Pruxhanski’s animated adaptation of Alive in Wonderland.  Like Alive, Lena has crossed a border into a place she doesn’t recognise.  She is not even sure what she is doing there. And […]

Love in the Afternoon: Rohmer and the end of Six moral tales.

I’ve had reason to pop back and watch some Eric Rohmer lately, a joy and a pleasure I hardly have the words for. The first time I saw this film it sparked a wonderful conversation I remember very well that I will draw on when writing this review. I love this film so much. The […]

My Night at Maud’s – Eric Rohmer and the spirit of the Nouvelle Vague

In  François Truffaut’s famously scathing essay about the state of the French Film in 1954 entitled “A certain tendency of French Cinema”  published in Cahiers du Cinéma, Truffaut writes about the unoriginality of the high prestige  “tradition of quality” films produced in France. He points out they are usually plodding adaptations with formulaic, anti-clerical and anti-bourgeois messages, […]

The Firemen’s Ball: Controversy in the Prague Spring.

The Czech New Wave was a period movement in cinema in Czechoslovakia that evolved out of the Devetsil movement of the 1930’s The Devetsil movement was an association of Czech avant guard artists founded mostly in Prague. The artistic output of its members was varied, but typically focused on magic realism, proletkult, and, beginning in 1923, Poetism, an artistic […]

Mouchette: The Muses never talk to each other, but sometimes they dance.

“For me the order and position of characters and the framing of the shot are the essence of cinema. They’re much more important than simple dramatic action which is only revealed through the form the shot takes. In cinema what matters is the form, and this must be given priority.”  Robert Bresson And so Mouchette begins with […]