If Volver is anything, it is a triumphant celebration of life and the breathy, heaving joys in humanity. Volver (from the Spanish “to come back”) is a 2006 Spanish thriller style film writtern and directed by Pedro Almodóvar. Headed by actress Penélope Cruz, the film features an ensemble cast starring Carmen Maura, Lola Dueñas, Blanca Portillo,Yohana Cobo, and Chus Lampreave. Revolving around an […]
Category Archives: Film Reviews
Persona: Bergman’s film of obsession and control.
posted by lisathatcher
Never in my life have I responded so powerfully to a film as I did when I first watched Persona. Even Vivre Sa Vie (currently my favorite film of all those I have seen) didn’t move me in the same way Persona did. I found Persona shocking. At the same time I was flawed by […]
The Hour of the Wolf: The decent into madness at Bergman’s behest.
posted by lisathatcher
“It is the hour when most people die, when sleep is deepest, when nightmares are more real. It is the hour when the sleepless are haunted by their deepest fear, when ghosts and demons are most powerful. The Hour of the Wolf is also the hour when most children are born.” I watched Bergman’s The Hour of […]
The Valley of the Bees – František Vláčil tells a tale of obsessive horror.
posted by lisathatcher
In a survey of Czech film critics held in 1998 František Vláčil‘s film Marketa Lazarova (I’ll be watching this in the next 8 days) as teh best Czech film ever made and its director recieved a lifetime achievement awarded at the Karlovy Vary film festival in the same year. Údolí včel (The Valley of the Bees) was […]
Last Year at Marienbad – One of the great art works of 20th Century.
posted by lisathatcher
You will notice by the title of this post that I am not one of those who think Last Year at Marienbad is the perfect modernist example of the morality tale the emperors new clothes. In defining myself by what I am not, I am letting you know, in part, what you are in for […]
Paris vu Par: Godard gathers up his friends to show us Paris.
posted by lisathatcher
With all my cinematic meanderings my inner boomerang (it’s an Aussie thing) will always bring me back to my beloved French New Wave. Despite my passion for Bergman and my adoration of the Czech New Wave, Godard ‘does it for me’ in every conceivable way. He is the right balance of all things a film […]
Le Corbeau: The Raven – Clouzot teaches us the power of gossip
posted by lisathatcher
Le Corbeau (The Raven) is a 1943 French film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The film was notable for causing serious trouble to its director after World War II because it had been produced by Continental Films, a German production company established in France in the early months of the war, and because the film had been perceived by the underground and the communist press as […]
Loves of a Blonde: Miloš Forman knows it’s difficult to be ‘normal’
posted by lisathatcher
What happened yesterday Doesn’t happen often That you meet a girl As beautiful as a dream And I love her so much (Of yeah yeah yeah) And I love her so much (Oh Yeah yeah yeah) My love for her was so great It turned me into a hooligan Loves of a Blonde (Czech: Lásky jedné plavovlásky) […]
Eyes Without a Face: Georges Franju teaches us about horror
posted by lisathatcher
I am not one of those ubiquitous ‘female-horror-film-buffs’ that seems to be the latest trend. My interest is in film and I am interested in any film if it is well made and excites me creatively. Completely coincidentaly, I have watched a lot of horror style or type films in the last couple of weeks. […]
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy: Tomas Alfredson does the 1970’s with understated flair
posted by lisathatcher
I almost didn’t see this film. I have a bunch of freebies at the moment, and to collect on this one I couldn’t go local – which for me meant leaving my bohemian nest and that is not something I enjoy doing. However, a trip to Sydney harbour to see a film so many people […]
Lisa Thatcher 