Letterboxd — Your life in film

Often mentioned among Bergman’s greatest achievements, Through A Glass Darkly takes place in a remote island and chronicles the life of a young woman and her family, as they attempt to deal with her declining mental health.

In conventional Bergman style, this film evokes great philosophical questioning on various topics, such as the existence of God and the ethical treatment of the mentally ill. While this is certainly the film’s main focus, Bergman’s masterpiece also touches on themes of love,…

Frequently cited as Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest work, Spirited Away tells the story of Chihiro (or Sen as she is later renamed), a young girl who, while moving to a new neighbourhood, enters a strange world where she must find a way to free herself and her parents, after they were mutated into pigs by a powerful witch.

Earning Miyazaki his first (and only) Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, Spirited Away is a typically beautiful and poignant offering from…

Based on the 1948 novel by the Polish writer Jerzy Andrzejewski, Ashes and Diamonds, set during the last day of World War 2, focuses on a young Home Army soldier, who has been assigned to assassinate an incoming commissar, but his efforts are delayed when he meets a beautiful barmaid, who makes him question his role in life.

Brimming with Marxist undertones and biblical symbolism, Ashes and Diamonds is an unbelievably detailed piece, which garners some phenomenal lead performances and…

A political satire which broke new ground in comedy (in terms of its narrative focus), Duck Soup concerns Rufus T. Firefly, who is named president/dictator of the bankrupt Freedonia and declares war on neighbouring nation Sylvania over the love of wealthy Mrs. Teasdale.

Reminiscent of the visual gags derived from vaudeville entertainment, the Marx brothers manage to blend comedy and a strong political narrative to create an hilarious satire. Made during the Pre-Code Hollywood era (a brief period in the American film…

Amidst the emerging American counter culture, two rebellious teens meet in Death Valley and start off an unrestrained romance.

Capturing American society during a period of great change and ideological conflict, Zabriskie Point is a phenomenal piece, which, while very divisive, examines the late 1960’s/1970’s just as well as many of its contemporaries, such as The Graduate and Easy Rider. This is a feat, which is even greater, when discovering Antonioni was merely a foreign observer at the time. Even…

Favouring an entirely different approach in comparison to its predecessor, this action-orientated sequel from James Cameron follows on from the events of the last film, with Ripley returning to earth, where she retells the events of her first encounter with the infamous alien, but her accounts are received with great skeptism, leading her and a group of colonial marines to investigate the planet in search of answers.

While Alien was a masterpiece in tension and atmosphere, Aliens sees the franchise…

An animated film of vast complexity and immense beauty, Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell concerns  a cyborg agent called Motoko and her partner (Batou), who are assigned to hunt a mysterious hacker called the Puppet Master.

A powerful reflection of the capabilities of Japanese animation, Ghost in the Shell is an utterly mind-boggling experience: full of thought-provoking subtexts and incredible visual prestige. In typical Oshii style, Ghost in the Shell examines themes of a really complex nature. The whole story…

Jia Zhang’s powerful minimalist drama Still Life focuses on a town in Fengjie, which is gradually being demolished to make way for the Three Gorges Dam. The narrative also concerns a man and woman who visit the town in order to locate their estranged partners, and in the process, become witness to immense political and societal changes.

A filmmaker of great prowess, Zhang is confident in his direction and does an excellent job at capturing China's political and economic transformations, aswell…

Set in 1940, Forbidden Games tells the tragic story of a young French girl, who is befriended by the son of a poor farmer and taken in by his family, after she was left orphaned in a Nazi air attack.

Featuring vastly mature showings from the two central performers (Brigitte Fossey and Georges Pourjouly), Clément manages to extract outstanding performances from the youthful central cast, which sees them exceed a level of performance that is often a typical of actors…

Based on Roderick Thorp’s thriller novel: Nothing Lasts Forever, John McTiernan’s Die Hard tells the story of a New York cop, who visits his estranged wife in an office building in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve. However the reunion is short lived when the building is taken over by German terrorists, who seek to to steal $640 million which is locked in the building’s vault.

Grossing over $140 million theatrically worldwide, Die Hard was an immense success internationally, with the film boosting Bruce Willis…

An immensely engaging and very ambitious film, Being John Malkovich is about a young puppeteer who (to his amazement) discovers a mystical portal into the mind of John Malkovich. 

Featuring a profoundly surreal narrative (courtesy of Kaufman’s ambitious script), Being John Malkovich is a film of disbelief and dream-like sentiment, as it explores the depths of the human psyche and one’s desire to be something else. Themes of homosexuality and transsexuality are also touched upon, aswell as man’s yearning for immortality.…

Frequently regarded as the greatest example of German expressionalism, Robert Wiene’s The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari is an eerie and haunting tale about an evil hypnotist who uses a somnambulist to commit murders.

You don’t need to have a quality understanding of history to understand that Germany were not in a stable financial situation by the early 1920’s. This meant little money was being used to finance films, which caused directors to use alternative methods of filmmaking that were cost-effective…