What an odd film! I’m not sure which side of the fence to fall on after watching Hitchcock. For a film I thought would be terrible, I had a rather good time. I was compelled to go home directly and watch Psycho, currently shown for free all over the net – something I think is […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
January
21
Hitchcock – A Wikipedia guide to Psycho from Sasha Gervasi. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
January
18
Time of the Wolf – Haneke and the start of all things at the end of the World. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
If you ever catch yourself wondering how the first full realized (as we know it today) human creatures “decided” to bring religion and politics into their lives, Time of the Wolf is the film for you. A truly underrated Haneke masterpiece, Time of the Wolf is a typically complicated tale of desperation in human beings […]
January
17
Private Fears in Public Places – Alain Resnais shows us our naked human heart. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
The man who made Last Year at Marienbad (one of the greatest films of all time – no argument) was eighty-four years old when he made “Coeurs” (“Hearts” is the French Title), an adaptation from Alan Ayckbourn’s play Private Fears in Public Places. The film won several awards, including a Silver Lion at the Venice […]
January
16
The Soft Skin – Truffaut recommends fidelity in marraige – or else. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
In a rather lovely interview with Francoise Truffaut about The Soft Skin, he speaks of the creation of several of the scenes. The elevator scene, when a bourgeois male and female flirt, he describes as the most important scene in the film. Immediately following the elevator flirt scene, Pierre goes to his room. As he […]
January
15
Django Unchained – Tarantino and the Spaghetti Western (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
“Ever with grief and all too long Are men and women born in the world; But yet we shall live our lives together, Sigurth and I. Sink down, Giantess!” Helreið Brynhildar (Broom-Hilda’s ride to Hell) Exploitation films have this wonderful retro look now that we’re all PC’d-past and grown our brains to incorporate awareness. In […]
January
14
Fear of Fear – Fassbinder predicts the medicated society. (Film Review)
posted by lisathatcher
One of Fassbinder’s very favorite places to play out madness and violence (besides supermarkets) is the family and suburban dynamic. Fear of Fear is a perfect example of a housewife, who starts to recognize severe anxiety and panic attacks while she is pregnant and perfectly situated within a ‘happy home’. She knows something is wrong, […]
January
13
God’s of the Plague – Fassbinder and the haunted power of the image (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
God’s of the Plague is a very underrated film (so many of Fassbinder’s are) and one of Fassbinder’s favorite that he made. It has a thin plot, and is the second in the gangster trilogy, coming in An American Soldier and after Love is Colder than Death. We are following Fanz Walsch now that he […]
January
10
Land of Plenty – Wim Wenders as a friend of America (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
It probably wasn’t the best place to begin my march through Wim Wender’s, but DVD rental doesn’t always let me choose the films – sometimes they choose me. Land of Plenty carries many of the trade mark Wender’s moments, particularly his ability to make everyday landscapes seems so beautiful. But this was an odd film for me – a little too preachy and […]
January
09
Gangster Squad – Ruben Fleischer’s good v’s evil. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
Next year it will be thirty years since Brian de Palma made The Untouchables (I know! I know!) one of the many rough parodies of Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin, which was made sixty-two years earlier. Gangster Squad is our latest incarnation in the long running homage (we even have the all-important massacre on the steps scene) to a […]
January
08
Querelle – Fassbinder does Genet. (film review)
posted by lisathatcher
“Objectivity is the partner of total power.” How does one value the quality of a film? If film is art, then like all art, it’s value can’t necessarily be measured in as pure quantifiable logic but must be felt. And yet those “feelings” need to be of a certain quality. It needs to challenge, have […]
Lisa Thatcher 