One of the benefits of seeing films at their very earliest screenings, before they’ve even been unveiled to the world at a splashy festival premiere, is being able to experience them truly blind. In the case of The Sun Rises On Us All, the latest film from Chinese auteur Cai Shangjun, which just premiered in…
Tag: movies
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Tereza Nvotová, Director of “Father”
Tereza Nvotová has been an important voice in contemporary European cinema. Her debut feature, Filthy (2017), confronted the taboos around sexual assault and went on to win more than 20 international awards. The same year, her HBO documentary The Lust for Power took aim at corruption in Slovak politics, establishing Nvotová as a filmmaker unafraid…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Silent Friend” Review
Hungarian filmmaker Ildikó Enyedi’s Silent Friend traces three distinct eras – 1908, 1972, and 2020 – through the enduring presence of a single ancient ginkgo tree, connecting lives and histories across time. The film traces how humans have tried to understand the natural world under the witness of an ancient ginkgo tree in the botanic…
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Adam Suzin, DoP of “Father”
Polish cinematographers are among the most talented people behind the camera, shaping European and global cinema. Legends like Sławomir Idziak (Black Hawk Down, Blue), Paweł Edelman (The Pianist, Cold War), Ryszard Lenczewski (Ida, Last Resort), and Janusz Kamiński (Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan) are known for their superb compositions and visual depth. And the new…
82nd Venice Film Festival: In Conversation with Anuparna Roy, Director of “Songs of Forgotten Trees”
At the 82nd Venice Film Festival, Anuparna Roy’s Songs of Forgotten Trees was a rare kind of debut, one that challanges the ways Indian cinema has historically positioned women: not as symbols or accessories to a male narrative, but as living, breathing individuals. Her film places women firmly at the centre and lets them be…
82nd Venice Film Festival: “Father” Review
Tereza Nvotová’s Father (Otec) had its world premiere in the Orizzonti section at this year’s Venice International Film Festival, and from its opening frame, we are in the hands of a filmmaker unwilling to compromise on emotional or cinematic truth. Known for her courageous portraits of trauma in Filthy and Nightsiren, Nvotová turns her attention…
“I’m The Most Beautiful Count”: A Thai BL Drama of Queer Love and Palace Secrets – Review of the First Two Episodes
From its first flashy frame, Thai series I’m The Most Beautiful Count – adapted from the webtoon Chan Ni Lae Than Khun Thi Suai Thi Sut Nai Siam by Yuen Kin Pakka Thi Than Phra – brims with a sense of intrigue. Dropping us into the glamorous world of our protagonist, superstar Prince (Nut Supanut…
78th Locarno Film Festival: “Legend of the Happy Worker” Review
Duwayne Dunham is an artist of seemingly dual identities; both a long-term collaborator of David Lynch – directing several episodes of Twin Peaks, and editing every instalment of The Return – and a filmmaker responsible for several live-action Disney movies, both on the big screen and direct to the Disney Channel. Arriving at this year’s…
78th Locarno Film Festival: Roberto Rossellini’s “ANNO UNO” (Restored) Review
Roberto Rossellini was a key figure in Italian neorealism, known for films like Rome, Open City (1945), Paisan (1946), and Germany, Year Zero (1948). His use of non-professional actors and real locations transformed postwar cinema. Later, his collaborations with Ingrid Bergman – Stromboli (1950), Europe ’51 (1952), and Journey to Italy (1954) – showed how…
78th Locarno Film Festival: In Conversation with Park Syeyoung, Director of “The Fin”
Seoul-based Syeyoung Park is an interesting independent filmmaker. A graduate of the Korea National University of Arts, with a BFA in Film and an MFA in Video Arts, Park made his feature debut with The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra, which earned him awards at the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival, Seoul Independent Film Festival, and Fantasia,…
VIEW OF THE ARTS 