It’s a very brave move to make a spiritualist film in this day and age – particularly one that is well made and treated with great respect. This isn’t some new-agey guff like The Tree of Life, this is an approach at that hard-core naked spirituality. You know, Christianity and reincarnation. While the tree of […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
La Belle Noiseuse – Jaques Rivette toys with artistic temperament.
posted by lisathatcher
In the hands of such a deft film maker as Jaques Rivette, one assumes every feeling, every idea existent during the film was planted there by the master. Given this assumption and its likely accuracy, what is the most surprising about La Belle Noiseuse is the conflicting inner response to the artists methods experienced while […]
À bout de souffle – At breaths End – Breathless 52 years on.
posted by lisathatcher
I watched Breathless (again) last week. I know – lucky lucky me. Of course it inspired me to buy myself a New York Herald Tribune T-shirt. I vowed to only ever wear stripes again. I almost cut all my hair and went back to being a blonde – Almost. So what is there to say […]
Last year at Marienbad Results in an Amorous Event – Detail from seiminar by Alex Ling
posted by lisathatcher
The following blog post is my own notes as taken from Alex Ling’s lecture which is available on the Philosophy at UWS website. Alex Ling is Research Lecturer in Communication and Media Studies at the University of Western Sydney. He is the author of Badiou and Cinema (Edinburgh UP, 2011) and the co-editor and translator of […]
The Bakery Girl of Monceau – Eric Rhomer comes alive!
posted by lisathatcher
Eric Rhomer is a complete enigma for me. I can’t make him out, which inevitably makes him one of my favourite directors. No film maker is more ambiguous. No film maker can slip in the wisp of wind between complete opposing view points with such a devils twinkle in the eye. I think I have […]
Les Cousins – Chabrol takes the French New Wave on a descent to Hell.
posted by lisathatcher
Backed with money inherited by his wife, Chabrol wrote, produced and directed Le Beau Serge in 1958, a film often cited as the first New Wave feature. Shot over nine weeks in Sardent, using natural light and real locations, the film portrays a detailed picture of working class life in a bleak provincial village. Reflecting the influence of both […]
Happy Birthday Samuel Beckett – The great John Hurt Performs Krapp’s Last Tape
posted by lisathatcher
Krapp’s Last Tape is a one-act play, written in English, by Samuel Beckett. Consisting of a cast of one man, it was originally written for Northern Irish actor Patrick Magee and first titled “Mageemonologue”. It was inspired by Beckett’s experience of listening to Magee reading extracts from Molloy and From an Abandoned Work on the BBC Third Programme in December 1957. The play, which premiered as a curtain […]
Diamonds of the Night – Heartbreaking beauty by Jan Němec in his first film.
posted by lisathatcher
I just don’t know where to start with this beautiful beautiful film. I’ve actually owned this film for a few months and hadn’t gotten around to watching it yet. It was on my ‘list’ for a couple of weeks then I sat down to focus this week finally – and as usual, I was stunned […]
Film – Samuel Beckett takes to the flicks.
posted by lisathatcher
I watched a wonderful short film tonight. A man is running through the streets. he is spotted by a couple and recoils at the sight of them, running on past. The couple are shocked to see him. he runs on, till finally he reaches the door of a room. At the door he takes his […]
Céline and Julie go boating – The quiet achiever of the French new wave goes epic.
posted by lisathatcher
How does one describe a film that encompasses the entire world in its enormity? This is easily one of my all time favourite films. I love it for nostalgic reasons and I love it for itself. It is a holy epic, pure in its revelations, uncompromising in its commitment to its own depth. There is so much to say […]
Lisa Thatcher 