I went to see Memoria today, because I have been in my own head too much, these last few days. I have been unable to focus, lacking perspective.
With Memoria, I picked a perfect film. Weerasethakul asks you not to pay attention, but to employ your senses nonetheless. To see, to listen even more. Wide shots linger long enough for you to let go of the lead and wander, so while Tilda Swinton simply sat, my eyes followed a pigeon…
Thirty thousand are left dead, hundreds of villages in complete ruin after a 7.4 magnitude earthquake in rural Iran. It's a situation so bleak and meaningless that of course Abbas Kiarostami had to make a film of it. His trademark quality of identifying life's preciousness is once again apparent here, but rather than rebuilding the many ruins, like most people in Life, and Nothing More..., Kiarostami is just poking through the rubble. Whatever meaning is left after such catastrophe is…
Love this kind of anthology, with my only criticism being that I wish I had more time to process each individual segment. Which, you know, says plenty about how good this is. Especially grateful for the third chapter. Healing stuff.
Accidentally saw this in a theatre in Dutch on 35mm with a completely fucked up aspect ratio and it was, uh, amazing. Shrek was way ahead in its predictions of #MeToo and Trump, but then also suggested a female dragon went shopping to pass the time, so I really don't know what to make of this.
I've been living in Rotterdam for a month now, about a ten minute bike ride from one of my favourite cinemas. When that cinema, KINO, announced they had acquired a 70mm film projector and that they were going to debut it with a screening of Interstellar, I was pretty giddy, naturally. That's one of my favourite sci-fi films, on a format which I realized was perfect for capturing outer space, just a stone's throw away from my new home.
Well,…
