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Ran (1985)
In a mad world, only the mad are sane.
Filmmaker(s): Akira Kurosawa

With Ran, legendary director Akira Kurosawa reimagines Shakespeare's King Lear as a singular historical epic set in sixteenth-century Japan. Majestic in scope, the film is Kurosawa's late-life masterpiece, a profound examination of the folly of war and the crumbling of one family under the weight of betrayal, greed, and the insatiable thirst for power.

Noh Lear This is Noh Lear This is Noh Lear a wonderfully varied medium film can be! Here we have a film that is both truly great and in a different way a clumsy mistake. By now you know that this was made by a master...


Published December 9, 2024
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The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (2019)
Filmmaker(s): Chiwetel Ejiofor

Against all the odds, a thirteen year old boy in Malawi invents an unconventional way to save his family and village from famine.

Stealing Energy is well enough made to hide its nature, what we used to call Hallmark movies. These are films that tell a story without irony, narrative elaboration or recognition of its cinematic conveyance. The closer to reality and the fewer theatrics the better. Ideally,...


Published January 18, 2024
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The Saragossa Manuscript (1965)
Filmmaker(s): Wojciech Jerzy Has

During the Napoleonic wars, a Spanish officer and an opposing officer find a book written by the former's grandfather.

Geometric Cosmology now, you already know that this is a collection of stories and what makes it novel is the relationship among those stories. Many stories have stories within them. Many stories are mirrored. Characters and sets in one story appear in another, sometimes in...


Published December 9, 2024
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Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Nothing is written.
Filmmaker(s): David Lean

The story of British officer T.E. Lawrence's mission to aid the Arab tribes in their revolt against the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Lawrence becomes a flamboyant, messianic figure in the cause of Arab unity but his psychological instability threatens to undermine his achievements.

A Vision that Defines Itself man has an inner drive that makes him peculiar and intense. He goes to the desert and falls in love with it and its people. Gaining powerful sponsors, he has a grand vision that he accomplishes by inspiring and directing...


Published December 10, 2024
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Andrei Rublev (1966)
Filmmaker(s): Andrei Tarkovsky

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

Knowledge as an Impediment follow several threads of fine films. Most of these concern intelligent notions of structure, of architecture. Welles, Greenaway, Eisenstein, Kurosawa. These mend sense and intellect enhancing both. But there is another thread, one that eschews selfaware structure -- where idea is anathema....


Published December 11, 2024
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Harakiri (1962)
Who can fathom the depths of another man's heart?
Filmmaker(s): Masaki Kobayashi

Down-on-his-luck veteran Tsugumo Hanshirō enters the courtyard of the prosperous House of Iyi. Unemployed, and with no family, he hopes to find a place to commit seppuku—and a worthy second to deliver the coup de grâce in his suicide ritual. The senior counselor for the Iyi clan questions the ronin’s resolve and integrity, suspecting Hanshirō of seeking charity rather than an honorable end. What follows is a pair of interlocking stories which lay bare the difference between honor and respect, and promises to examine the legendary foundations of the Samurai code.

Layered Stories in Conflict has to be the best movie I have seen in a while. Good luck to me that I would like to pass on to you. We have two warring narrators. The first begins the film as an entry in his journal as...


Published December 17, 2024
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Lee (2023)
Some wounds you cannot see.

The true story of photographer Elizabeth 'Lee' Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue magazine during World War II.

Sons, Girls been an admirer of Kate for as long as she has been acting. Her style is consistent across projects, regardless of their quality. Spotless Mind and her Ophelia alone score a justified life. A woman like this wants better roles than the tide...


Published December 21, 2024
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Nightwatch (2007)
Murder, Conspiracy and the Masterpiece that Revealed the Truth
Filmmaker(s): Peter Greenaway

An extravagant, exotic and moving look at Rembrandt's romantic and professional life, and the controversy he created by the identification of a murderer in the painting The Night Watch.

The Inner Eye and the Lover's Lens a way, Greenaway is my touchstone for deep film experience. It was with him that I first studied the things that have since become part of every viewing experience, from "Godzilla versus the Sea Monster" to the more...


Published December 30, 2024
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The Baby of Mâcon (1993)
Exploring thoroughly modern taboos
Filmmaker(s): Peter Greenaway

Set halfway through the 17th century, a church play is performed for the benefit of the young aristocrat Cosimo. In the play, a grotesque old woman gives birth to a beautiful baby boy. The child's older sister is quick to exploit the situation, selling blessings from the baby, and even claiming she's the true mother by virgin birth. However, when she attempts to seduce the bishop's son, the Church exacts a terrible revenge.

Tapestry of Self-reference art to be real, worthwhile, it has to be more than a mere political statement. It has to be ‘open,' producing rewards beyond what the artist might have had in mind. Greenaway is the richest artist working in film and this film...


Published December 30, 2024
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Darkest Hour (2017)
Never never never surrender
Filmmaker(s): Joe Wright

In May 1940, the fate of World War II hangs on Winston Churchill, who must decide whether to negotiate with Adolf Hitler or fight on knowing that it could mean the end of the British Empire.

Tunnels, Crossings a scene in this, where Churchill takes ‘the tube’ so that he can meet the citizens. It is the turning point in this story where he is emboldened to fight the Germans agains the odds. It is — if to be lived —...


Published January 29, 2025
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