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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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Oedipus Rex (1993)
Oedipus Rex
Filmmaker(s): Julie Taymor

Impressed by Jean Cocteau’s rewrite of Antigone, Stravinsky asked the poet for an adaptation of Oedipus Rex. The resulting libretto brings together the key scenes of Sophocles’s tragedy translated by the Abbé Jean Daniélou into Latin—a language that, according the composer, “is not dead but engraved in stone, and so imposing that it is immune to any popularization”.

Sparse Riches, Sight and Containment was asked recently who my favourite woman filmmaker was. I didn't hesitate in my answer, Julie Taymor. She's not a real filmmaker in the sense I demand, more of a set designer with an eye that understands the effect of camera...


Published December 4, 2024
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Short Cuts (1993)
Short Cuts raises the roof on America.
Filmmaker(s): Robert Altman

Many loosely connected characters cross paths in this film, based on the stories of Raymond Carver. Waitress Doreen Piggot accidentally runs into a boy with her car. Soon after walking away, the child lapses into a coma. While at the hospital, the boy's grandfather tells his son, Howard, about his past affairs. Meanwhile, a baker starts harassing the family when they fail to pick up the boy's birthday cake.

Space Jazz is uneven, and not all of his failures are interesting. But he does one thing better than anyone else. And so far as I know, he invented it. Most filmmakers start with someone else's vision, and then make it real. The better ones...


Published December 4, 2024
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Body of Evidence (1993)
An act of love, or an act of murder?
Filmmaker(s): Uli Edel

When an elderly millionaire is found dead with cocaine in his system, his will leaves $8 million to Rebecca Carlson, who was having an affair with him. District attorney Robert Garrett decides to prosecute Rebecca, arguing that she deliberately engaged in wild sex with the old man to overexcite him and lead to his premature death. Defense attorney Frank Dulaney defends Rebecca in court while getting sucked into a dangerous affair with her.

Whipped often run across movies where the idea of the thing is much richer than the thing itself. In this case, the idea starts with that narrative battleground, the trial. Trial movies are cool, the best solution to the untrusted narrator problem. In this case,...


Published November 23, 2024
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Boxing Helena (1993)
Beyond love, beyond obsession, there hides something beyond reason.
Filmmaker(s): Jennifer Lynch

A top surgeon is besotted with a beautiful woman who once rebuffed him. Unable to come to terms with life without her, he tries to convince her that they need each other. She has other ideas, but a horrific accident leaves her at his mercy.

Children what a problem adult children are. What do you do with children who become people? I’m thinking here are of children of friends who you admire and respect in some way, who are worth living and being with. Who enrich your life so you want...


Published April 20, 2024
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Bodies, Rest & Motion (1993)
Nick is leaving. Beth is staying. Carol is waiting. Sid is painting.
Filmmaker(s): Michael Steinberg

Rebelling against his dreary life in a small Arizona town, salesman Nick abandons his girlfriend, Beth, and strikes out onto the highway in search of... something else. Encouraged by her best friend, Carol, Beth reluctantly accepts the romantic attentions of Sid, a local housepainter.

Drifting Love — and I think it is often with sculptural films — the essence of the movie is concentrated in a few elements. There is a lot of surrounding story here, but it is there for only two things. These are things that need...


Published February 1, 2024
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Three Colors: Blue (1993)
Filmmaker(s): Krzysztof Kieślowski

The wife of a famous composer survives a car accident that kills her husband and daughter. Now alone, she shakes off her old identity and explores her newfound freedom but finds that she is unbreakably bound to other humans, including her husband’s mistress, whose existence she never suspected.

Coloured Noir people are more culturally distinct from their neighbours than the Polish. They know something of pain, and they have a stronger vision of beauty than anyone — one which extends to even pain having beauty. And not just any notion of beauty, but...


Published January 30, 2024
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So I Married an Axe Murderer (1993)
The honeymoon was killer.
Filmmaker(s): Thomas Schlamme

Just after a bad breakup, Charlie MacKenzie falls for lovely butcher Harriet Michaels and introduces her to his parents. But, as voracious consumers of sensational tabloids, his parents soon come to suspect that Harriet is actually a notorious serial killer -- "Mrs. X" -- wanted in connection with a string of bizarre honeymoon killings. Thinking his parents foolish, Charlie proposes to Harriet. But while on his honeymoon with her, he begins to fear they were right.

Green Haggis a movie only develops worth after a subsequent movie worked. I myself disliked “Shrek” because of the underhanded attempt to undermine the Disney/Pixar alliance, and the smarmy Bill Gates strategy. But some people did like it, largely because of the voices and key...


Published July 27, 2023
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Bad Boy Bubby (1993)
All He Needs Is Love.
Filmmaker(s): Rolf de Heer

Bad Boy Bubby is just that: a bad boy. So bad, in fact, that his mother has kept him locked in their house for his entire thirty years, convincing him that the air outside is poisonous. After a visit from his estranged father, circumstances force Bubby into the waiting world, a place which is just as unusual to him as he is to the world.

Circular Breathing knew this filmmaker from “10 Canoes,” which was pretty delicate. I had also heard a variety of things about this film, but still I was not prepared for how deep the adventure would go. Most folks seem to comment on the character and...


Published May 16, 2023
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Iron Monkey (1993)
Unmask the legend.
Filmmaker(s): Yuen Woo-Ping

Iron Monkey is a Hong Kong variation of Robin Hood. Corrupt officials of a Chinese village are robbed by a masked bandit known as "Iron Monkey", named after a benevolent deity. When all else fails, the Governor forces a traveling physician into finding the bandit.

Flight Assembly am not a student of Hong Kong martial arts movies, just someone who dips into the accessible ones. My interest is in the cinematic experience, and that depends to a large extent on how the camera is choreographed. It doesn’t matter to me how...


Published March 5, 2023
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