David Bonneville’s latest feature, THE LAST BATH, is a distorted, unnerving story that unites a nephew and aunt under unfortunate circumstances and plunges the pair into an intense, and surprisingly close relationship that clears the hurdle of being dysfunctional. The nephew Alexandre (Martim Canavarro) arrives on our screens in a flurry of road dust and … Continue reading The Last Bath
Ainhoa Rodriguez’s feature film debut is committed to the unsaid. We see a man talking about a woman’s disappearance in a television interview; we do not see a woman just offscreen, muttering expletives at his falsehoods. Minutes later, we see another woman unable – or unwilling – to answer whether she has been married, begging … Continue reading Destello Bravio
In 1962, the Soviet Union violently suppressed a strike in the southern Russian city of Novocherkassk, shooting directly into protestors. Details did not come out to the public until the 1990s. In his latest drama, Andrei Konchalovskiy places the viewer at the centre of these restless few days, following local communist party operative Lyuda (Julia … Continue reading Dear Comrades!
This stymied exploration of identity politics still drives home the enormity of Gritt’s desired subject: are good intentions and hard work enough to make meaningful art?
Surveillance and found-footage films have been used for scares, for reflections on the digital age, and purely for the fun of piecing together a story from many everyday viewpoints. Jonathan Ogilvie’s LONE WOLF takes Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent into a near-future Australia, where the surveillance state can see – and access – every waking … Continue reading Lone Wolf
“Something happened to the men’s blood. They remained children.” Thus speaks Margarita, the matriarch of her family. She is convinced that someday her family curse will be broken – their winter stagnation will come to an end, her love will return to her, and perhaps, at the magical thirteenth hour, they will defeat death itself. … Continue reading The North Wind
While impossible to epitomise French cinema’s various movements and themes, Benoît Jacquot’s domestic drama – adapted from a play by Marguerite Duras – certainly captures many popularly held ideas of French stories, at least on the surface. Suzanna (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is married to a philandering millionaire; she does not know where he is. She appears … Continue reading Suzanna Andler
ARISTOCRATS is an anti-romcom decked out in the trappings of a romance film. The action is set in a city of opportunity, where two women chase their dreams against societal and family expectation. Carmen Paddock at IFFR.
A beautifully shot film, THE DOG WHO WOULDN’T BE QUIET is a cinematic ballad to how humans are tested (often unfairly), how we adapt to even absurd circumstances and how we develop connections – or, indeed, do not – with those around us.
Fran Kranz’s intense chamber piece is a devastating and formally accomplished story on the nature of forgiveness, guilt and vindictiveness. Jim Ross reviews at Sundance 2021.
