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Civil War (2024)
It is necessary for any photojournalist to maintain a level of remote objectivity in the face of visceral trauma, and yet as Alex Garland sets media crew on a gruelling odyssey across a dystopian, divided America in Civil War, it seems that the camera lens is but a fragile filter keeping them from total psychological…
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La Strada (1954)
Federico Fellini may hold deep affection for the clowns of commedia dell’arte, but just as integral to La Strada’s tale of survival and wonder is the hardship that haunts a post-war Europe, extinguishing the laughter which only barely lingers in the childlike joy of one tragically naïve circus performer.
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The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988)
Whether Terry Gilliam’s mischievous storyteller in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a hero, a liar, or both, he is undoubtedly a man who can reach the hearts of those who listen, constructing magnificently surreal worlds of aliens and gods that place him right alongside history’s greatest mythical figures.
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I Vitelloni (1953)
The young, juvenile men of I Vitelloni’s coastal town are frozen in an eternal youth of idle recreation, lazily hoping for the day that the world might finally give their lives greater purpose, and playfully pursuing empty pleasures that Federico Fellini strings into nostalgic vignettes of celebration and struggle.
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Monkey Man (2024)
It is a rare thing to witness a first-time director meld such handsomely stylised action with mystical symbolism, yet Monkey Man proves Dev Patel to be just as skilled behind the camera as he is in front of it, crafting a Hindu allegory that envisions one underground fighter’s righteous delivery of divine justice upon India’s…
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Love Lies Bleeding (2024)
As a string of bodies stacks up in the sordid rustic town of Love Lies Bleeding, Rose Glass sinks us into a twisted rural noir of drug abuse, bodybuilding, and gun smuggling, following the uncontrollable careening of queer lovers Lou and Jackie into a seedy underworld of treachery and murder.
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Perfect Days (2023)
Wim Wenders’s smooth weaving of one toilet cleaner’s daily routine into the narrative structure of Perfect Days is not only a testament to his own formal attentiveness, but also warmly invites audiences into a collective meditation, finding contentment within the unassuming patterns and details of a modest, dutiful life.
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The White Sheik (1952)
The marriage between flighty romantic Wanda and the overly practical Ivan was never going to be an easy one, though at least the wild romp across Rome that emerges from their odd mismatch brings both newlyweds down to earth, as Federico Fellini offers divine redemption in The White Sheik to those who seek it out…
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Possession (1981)
As married couple Anna and Mark stand on the precipice of divorce in Possession, a simmering mixture of revulsion, self-loathing, and cruelty boils over into public displays of insanity, exposing the depraved souls at the heart of Andrzej Żuławski’s terrifying allegory for divorce.
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Variety Lights (1950)
Federico Fellini’s love of theatre would take on great symbolic meaning in his later films, but it emerges quite directly here as the setting of his directorial debut Variety Lights, fuelling the drama between the flighty members of a travelling troupe dreaming of fame, money, and love.
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Red Desert (1964)
The industrial Italian town that the psychologically troubled Giuliana wanders in Red Desert is an alien landscape of steel beams and suffocating smog, and yet Michelangelo Antonioni’s punctuations of vibrant colour among desaturated greys offer a complex humanity to these daunting structures, painting out a world striving for growth through its own sickness.
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Nimona (2023)
By subverting the archaic legends that pass down prejudices from one generation to the next, Nimona recognises the freedom that lies in open-minded acceptance, uniting a fugitive knight and a chaotic shapeshifter against a conspiracy that threatens to destabilise their futuristic, medieval kingdom.
