Shadow of a doubt is an early Hitchcock piece of masterful film making (1943) primarily around the theme of doubles, or twos, a theme Hitchcock would re visit many times over in future films. In this film no one is singular, everyone comes in a pair. Two detectives, sisters and brothers husbands and wives, uncles and nieces, two […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
8 Femmes – Francois Ozon alludes to anything and everything.
posted by lisathatcher
I’m not the only film viewer to see a nod to Comte de Lautréamont’s Les Chants de Maldoror as well as the more obvious ode to Technicolor, musicals, and of course to the Georges Cukor’s The Women. IN fact I would have to say this film shines in paradoy more than it does in the watching. I enjoyed […]
Melancholia Non Grata: Lars von Trier and the Infinite Sadness
posted by lisathatcher
I attended a seminar last night completely devoted to Lars von triers film Melancholia. I wrote my own review of this film when I saw it, and I confess my response to it was mixed. While I adored aspects of the film, there were certain responses to it that turned me off parts of the […]
Rope – Hitchcock tricking you into seeing what’s “there” when it’s the unspeakable “there.”
posted by lisathatcher
I’ve had to watch a slew of Hitchcock in the last few weeks for work, and although I have seen so many of them I confess to having a marvellous time. I can’t really pin point a very favourite Hitchcock film, but I will say Spellbound, Rebecca and Rope are the front-runners at this point. […]
The Fourth Dimension – Korine, Fedorchenko and Kwiecinski take us to another place. (Sydney Underground Film Festival)
posted by lisathatcher
As I’m saying this forget I’m saying this but then do it. When Grolsch Film Works and VICE Films took it upon themselves to produce a film about The Fourth Dimension, they decided the best way to do this was administer the request to three film makers in the form a set of rules they were to follow […]
Keyhole – Guy Maddin dreams of Ulysses (Sydney Underground Film Festival)
posted by lisathatcher
The official site for Guy Maddin’s Keyhole has this to say about the film: After a long absence, gangster and father Ulysses Pick (Jason Patric) arrives home to a house haunted with memories, towing the body of a teenaged girl and a bound and gagged young man. His gang waits inside his house, having shot […]
The Lady Vanishes – Hitchcock makes something out of nothing
posted by lisathatcher
There is no reason why The Lady Vanishes should be the success it is. I’ve heard the film referenced in pop culture for years and have never watched it till last weekend. My reason for watching, without ever having seen the film, is that I am working on a novel, and the film is central […]
Cosmopolis – A film and a book.
posted by lisathatcher
“Your genius and your animus have always ben fully linked,” she said. “Your mind thrives on ill will toward others. So does your body, I think. Bad blood makes for long life. He was a rival in some sense, yes? He was physically strong perhaps. He had a large personality. Filthy rich this chap. Women […]
Va Savoir – Jacques Rivette and the subtle pleasures of the Nouvelle Vague
posted by lisathatcher
Va savoir begins in total blackness. A spotlight pierces the dark. A leg steps into the beam, and then full illumination reveals the enigmatic Camille (Jeanne Balibar), an actress performing in Paris as a member of a traveling theater group. She fled the city a few years earlier to escape from her philosopher boyfriend Pierre (Jacques Bonnaffé). He, […]
Lisa Thatcher 
Francopherenia – James Franco on the complexities of being James Franco (Sydney underground Film Festival)
posted by lisathatcher
At any other time in the history of television, trying to convince the world your guest starring appearances on General Hospital are a work of art would be impossible. However we live in a time of tolerance when it comes to pulp media. There is a new cultural fascination for what was once derided and […]