| Place of Residence | Belfast |
| Favourite Musician | Nick Cave |
| Favourite Writer | Thomas Pynchon |
| Favourite Filmmaker | Andrei Tarkovsky |
Watched this at the QFT Belfast today and was blown away by it. Yang was a master and this is right up there with his finest work. Gorgeously layered filmmaking that regularly explores themes like family loyalties; modernity as it clashes with tradition; capitalism versus paternalism; and toxic masculinity. Artful framing alongside genuinely stirring innovation in the visual iconography on display make ‘Taipei Story’ a thrilling tour de force.
It’s trash but it’s righteous trash. London and its denizens are caricatured crudely but the film is not intended to be a history lesson, so why expect realism? Part farce, part horror conspiracy, Murder By Decree is weirdly compulsive viewing. In the main, this is due to Christopher Plummer’s surprisingly affecting and humane portrayal of Sherlock Holmes. The Ripper mythology has been depicted far more viscerally elsewhere but this is still a diverting attempt at the infamous legend (whilst still being painfully superficial).
Pared down Wes, for sure, but given the budget and the fact that it’s a debut feature, ‘Bottle Rocket’ is a great slice of lo-fi comedy. There is an identifiable aesthetic but the acting is more naturally posed than in later efforts. It’s touching and invigorating filmmaking, in a manner that recent Wes has failed to achieve sadly.
There is so much to love about ‘The Long Farewell’. Let me count the ways… The second and third takes that cascade into each other as Muratova gives us subtly different perspectives on certain scenes…the finely expressed performances (Muratova always elicits fine performances from her actors), from coquettish teenage sirens to dour adolescent males through to eccentric maternal love…the playful approach to sound and the experimental uses of sound (particularly when the sound is absent from the scene)…the seesaw shifts between dramatic angst and comic familial espionage…the beautiful compositional architecture of Muratova’s shots…to do all this whilst maintaining such light
AmiW Streetart ❄️
Anna Spanner 👩🏫🇪🇺🧪