Lars von Trier’s ‘Dancer in the Dark’ is a strange mix of drama and musical at the same time, that seems to be filmed almost as if it were a documentary. Some reviewers have also classified the genre as crime, whereas others have gone for ‘horror’. I think the film is all of the above.… Continue reading Dancer in the Dark – Lars von Trier

‘Winter’s Bone’ is a film released in 2010 and directed by Debra Granik. The film tells the story of Ree Dolly, a 17 year old girl who lives in the rural Ozark mountains area of Missouri. Ree’s mother is so ill that she is incapable of looking after the family, so this task is left… Continue reading Winter’s Bone

‘Spotlight’ is the 2015 film directed by Tom McCarthy about the Boston Globe newspaper’s investigative team and how they researched and published a series of articles that exposed the systematic involvement of the Catholic Church in protecting priests who molested children. This film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in 2016.… Continue reading Spotlight

Three Colours White is the second film in Krzysztof Kieslowski’s The Three Colours Trilogy. The film is a black comedy which makes the title rather ironic. The main character, Karol, is a Polish hairdresser who has met and married a beautiful French woman. Living in Paris, she decides to divorce him and leave him destitute. Karol… Continue reading Three Colours White

Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia is a story about a woman who has ‘melancholia’and also, rather coincidentally a planet called Melancholia that is approaching Earth. The opening starts with a sequence of slow-motion images that show us what will happen at the end of the film; the planet Melancholia colliding with the Earth. The film… Continue reading Melancholia – Lars von Trier

Lars von Trier’s Nymphomaniac is a five hour movie in two parts that starts with a man, Seligman, finding a woman, Joe, lying in an alleyway near to his apartment. He goes to help and ends up taking her back to his apartment where she tells him the story of her life as a nymphomaniac. As… Continue reading Nymphomaniac – Lars von Trier

I decided to explore some of the New German Cinema films and have started with Paris, Texas, a film directed by Wim Wenders and released in 1984. It follows the story of Travis Henderson who has been wondering around in the desert for four years. When he emerges from the desert he is unable or… Continue reading Paris, Texas – Wim Wenders

Three Colours Blue is part of a trilogy directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski. The full trilogy includes Three Colours Blue, White and Red. The colours are taken from the French flag and also intended to represent the ideals of liberty (blue), equality (white) and fraternity (red). In the case of blue, the main character, Julie, has… Continue reading Three Colours: Blue

Don’t Look Now is a film directed by Nicolas Hoeg. The cover to the DVD of the movie introduced the plot as – “When a little girl is drowned, her parents go to Venice to forget. They meet a strange clairvoyant, who tells them their daughter is still very much alive and gives them ominous… Continue reading Don’t Look Now

I watched Grapes of Wrath directed by John Ford and based on the book written by John Steinbeck. It stars Henry Fonda in the leading role. The main reason that I decided to watch it is because I had read that John Steinbeck had based some of the book on field notes taken by the US Farm Security Administration(FSA)… Continue reading Grapes of Wrath