I wanted to make a film about human nature and its innate reaction against repression and laws which are imposed on it. Jerzy kawalerowicz In the history of films about demonic possession, probably the three most important are The Exorcist, The Devils and Mother Joan of the Angels. Interestingly, both The Devils and Mother Joan […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
March
27
Mother Joan of the Angels – Jerzy Kawalerowicz and repression in “Devil Possession” films. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
March
26
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard’s film on Melodrama. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Jacques Audiard and Thomas Bidegain decided to make a film based on Craig Davidson’s book of short stories Rust and Bone, it wasn’t for the plot, or even the characters. It was for the intensity of lives blown out of proportion by drama and accident. There was a complex relationship between hard lives and […]
March
24
Katzelmacher – Fassbinder makes his first “bourgeois” film. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Fassbinder called Katzelmacher his frist “bourgeois” film (it was made in August 1969 over nine days and is his second feature ever made) word has it he called it that because it is a film conceived against real life rather than other films. The first film he made, Love is Colder than Death (a […]
March
20
Farewell My Queen – Benoît Jacquot and the object of desire between women. (French Film Festival film review)
posted by lisathatcher
I enjoyed this film much more than I expected to, but because it was capped off with a wonderful chance to chat with Benoît Jacquot who is a very charming man, it somehow turned a night at the cinema into an event. Farewell My Queen is billed as the final days of Marie Antoinette’s reign, but it is also a […]
March
16
Performance (A Late Quartet) – Yaron Zilberman’s astonishing debut. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
It is so interesting that I saw The Paperboy a week or so ago, and I put the writing problems of that film down to inexperience. Then I go to see Performance (titled A Late Quartet in the States) and it is easily one of the best films of 2012, coming from a first time […]
March
12
Camille Rewinds – Noémie Lvovsky realises sometimes bad things happen for good reasons. (film review from the French Film Fest)
posted by lisathatcher
Noémie Lvovsky has had quite a year. With a leading role in the uber french hit Farewell my Queen, she also released to much critical acclaim, her project (with HER stamped all over it – she directs, writes and stars in this) Camille Redouble, or Camille Rewinds in English. No wonder she’s the name on […]
March
11
A trick of the Light – Wim Wenders reminds us the German’s did it first. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
When Martin Scorcese’s Hugo came out at the end of 2011, we were all re-entranced with the Lumier brothers again, and the birth of cinema. The interest sparked a kind of revival of sorts, with the rocket in the eye of the moon motif suddenly being found all over the place. However Wim Wenders charming […]
March
05
The Paperboy – Lee Daniels and the question of what went wrong with a butchered script. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve said on this blog before that I don’t review works I don’t like, but The Paperboy is such a mess, that to review it feels like a necessary act of catharsis. It’s an enormous shame, because in the hands of a director with more experience I think it had the makings of a truly […]
March
04
La Belle et la bête – Jean Cocteau re-imagines fairytales. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve always wondered at the Beauty and the Beast story – even as a girl – that the rewards for seeing through ugliness to the beauty within are… well, a beautiful husband. It’s a little like the ugly duckling story. If you’re picked on by the ducks that are prettier, stronger and better than you […]
March
03
Roman Polanski: A film Memoir – Laurent Bouzereau let’s the camera roll. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve always felt conflicted about loving Roman Polanski films. It was a Polanski film (Death and the Maiden) that first left me spellbound in a cinema, staring at the film in disbelief immediately hungry for m0re cinema. Once I got hold of Cul-de-sac, Revulsion and The Tennant, I couldn’t help but admit he was one […]
Lisa Thatcher 