On 7 November New Wave Films are releasing Cemetery of Splendour, directed by Apichatpong Weeresethakul, who won the Palme d’Or with his earlier film Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives. Continue reading Cemetery of Splendour
Category Archives: World Cinema
Dare to Be Wild
The problem with a film based on a real story is that you always know how it is going to end.
Mary Reynolds (Emma Greenwell) wants to enter the Chelsea Flower Show with her wild Celtic garden and win the gold medal. To do this she needs the help of reluctant botanist Christy Collard (Tom Hughes), £250,000 in sponsorship, and to convince the show to accept her entry. Continue reading Dare to Be Wild
El Sur (The South)
Susan Patterson watches Victor Erice’s Spanish classic
“Can it be that an unfinished film is one of the best in Spanish cinema history? Yes it can… 95 minutes of emotions so intense that you’re left breathless. I cry every time I watch it.” Pedro Almodóvar
Estrella (Icíar Bollaín), is close to her doctor father, Agustin (Omero Antonutti) but mystified by his past, and how it has made him the slightly distant man he has become.
The Samurai Trilogy
Spank The Monkey looks at Criterion’s new release of a neglected landmark in Japanese cinema.
Musashi Miyamoto is the Samurai. No, scratch that: Musashi Miyamoto is the Samurai. For generations of Japanese, this 17th century wandering swordsman has been the ideal representation of the country’s warrior class. A painter, an author, and a swordsman who won over sixty duels: if he didn’t already exist, someone would have had to invent him. And even though he did exist, people have been inventing him anyway: for centuries Japanese culture has repeatedly taken the bare bones of his story and manufactured new myths out of it. Continue reading The Samurai Trilogy
Departure
Sarah Slade looks at a beautiful retread of an old theme.
There isn’t much that is new about Departure. An English family rattle around their French holiday home, replete with colour-washed walls, Le Creuset everything and a lovely collection of china. An enigmatic stranger appears and there is a sexual awakening. Everybody goes home, wiser, sadder and ready to face the future. It’s a theme that has been explored in many ways, by many film makers over many years. You could even say that middle-class angst in Aude is quite a safe topic for first-time director Andrew Steggall, but that would detract from what is a rather beautiful, sensitively acted film. Continue reading Departure
A Tingling In The Spine
Paul Duane on the late Andrzej Żuławski’s final film, Cosmos, which comes to cinemas next week.
Il Cinema Ritrovato 2016
Philip Concannon went treasure hunting at Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato festival, and here’s what he discovered.
Monoglot Movie Club: The Mexican Scand-off
Part of an occasional series in which Spank The Monkey travels to foreign countries, watches films in unfamiliar languages, and then complains about not understanding them. This episode: Norway, Finland and Sweden, June 2016.
Y Tu, Ma Ma?
Laura Morgan is both dazzled and underwhelmed by Penelope Cruz’s latest film.
Disguises du Cinema
Philip Concannon on a new biography of Eric Rohmer that attempts to penetrate the secrets of the intensely private New Wave director.
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