Slow, slow, slow. That is the word, the descriptor, that has been repeated over and over in reviews of Argentinian director Lisandro Alonso’s masterpiece, reoccurring with fevered intensity even in those most positive of responses, and usually attached to a warning that the audience will need to recalibrate their expectations. […]
Billy Stanton
Tchaikovsky’s Wife (2023) Biopic Anchored by the brilliant Alyona Mikhaylova (Review)
Tchaikovsky’s Wife – at first it may seem incongruous that Kirill Serebrennikov (Petrov’s Flu & LETO) – a parodist of contemporary Russia and two-year victim of a politically motivated house arrest who now lives in exile, would tackle an iconic Russian figure who’s central to understanding the nation’s cultural identity. […]
World Noir Vol. 1 (1957-59) Long May These Radiance Boxsets Continue (Review)
It was the French critic Nino Frank who famously first applied the term ‘film noir’ to the series of hardboiled Hollywood crime pictures that finally appeared in France after the Occupation. He was acting under the influence of the acclaimed, and rightfully famous, Gallimard crime fiction imprint Série noire – […]
A Forgotten Man (2022) The Seperation of Established History from Story (Review)
First things first. A Forgotten Man, despite its stage inspirations (Thomas Hürlimann’s Der Gesandte [The Envoy]), is a film made by a cinephile. The clue is the use of black-and-white, in most films now shot in monochrome, the art is often that of a below-average collagist. The awkward and unintended incongruity of […]