Thomas Mozden 38 posts 0 comments

There are signposts in the critical appreciation of South Korean filmmaker Hong Sang-Soo. In reading about his films, you are likely to stumble over his encounter with Paul Cézanne, into a much-thumbed copy of Notes sur le cinématographe,…

A lobster lies atop a skillet while kettles of boiling water are poured over it. Its limbs stop writhing and it is split in preparation. Han Jiangyu (Lee Kang-Sheng) later asks his boss, Chen Kai (Ren Ke), if he thinks lobsters have souls.…

On 3 November 1970, Salvador Allende, a Marxist physician, took office as the president of Chile. He would lead the Popular Unity coalition of Socialist, Communist, Radical and Social-Democratic parties with the support of other dissident…

Mark Cousins discovers History in The March on Rome. His most cited work concerns the ever-expanding chronology and development of cinema, but I seldom come away from his work with an improved understanding of the milieu from of which our…

Ciné-Guerrillas suffers from a dearth of guerrillas. Director Mila Turajlic presents, as the film’s subtitle indicates, Scenes from the Labudovic Reels. Stevan Labudovic was a newsreel cameraman for Filmske novosti (Yugoslav Newsreels),…

Much is revealed about How the West Was Won in the title alone. “The West” about which we are concerned is less a place than a way of thinking. With locations in Utah and California, we are geographically in recognisable terrain. What is…

Embedded throughout Tár is the idea of interpretation in time. Lydia Tár (Cate Blanchett) often evokes these conceptual tools, both in her enunciations and in her practice. The conditions of these terms are laid out in the first two…

Pacification has the markers of a taut political thriller. There is an exotic setting, a colonial possession, and a white linen suit. One can image a well-intentioned Yves Montand playing the martyr for Costas-Gavras. Albert Serra,…

There is instability in Something in the Dirt. Smoke billows from the Los Angeles desertscape, the foundation of which quakes intermittently. The central relationship, between John and Levi (Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, both of whom…

King Crimson awaits in perpetual potentiality. All one has to do, according to Bill Rieflin, is play the right note at the right time. If this makes being in the band sound easy, allow me to recount a short anecdote. Bill Bruford, who…