Now, as usual, some of these films had been transmitted by the time we got the page away. But it’s the modern world and you can find them online if you want them. I recommend JustWatch. There’s a search function and that will show you all the options for downloading or streaming. Don’t bother making… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (11/12)           01:25   Film4    Sputnik (2020) Russian science fiction horror about a Soviet-era astronaut who returns from a planet with an alien life form installed as a parasite. Generic on the face of it, but – do you need me to tell you this? – there’s a subtext.… [continues]

World Cinema Wednesday (23/11)       01:25   Film4    Two of Us (2019) Well, this is the film we saw at Cheltenham Film Society the other week. I had seen it before but didn’t remember it. I got much more from it the second time. A couple of ladies in mature life are in love… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (31/10)      01:55   Film4   Savage (Xue bao) (2018 ) A straightforward but visually sumptuous action movie set on a frozen mountain in northeastern China. Two detectives are drinking in a bar and vying for the affections of a local doctor when three hoodlums arrive and kill one of the buddies. The other,… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (22/10)        00:30    Film4 & All4             Deerskin (2019)  This very black (or possibly beige) comedy is another weird and wonderful triumph for maverick auteur Quentin Dupieux, whose follow up movie Mandibles, is the most original French film I’ve seen for years. As in Mandibles,… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (17/10)   01:35   Film4             Night of the Kings (2020) MACA (Maison d’Arrêt et de Correction d’Abijan) is the main prison of the Ivory Coast’s capital and a world unto itself. Philippe Lacôte’s second feature follows Roman (Bakary Koné), a new arrival, who is forced to entertain fellow… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (8/10)       23:20   Film4                    Memories of Murder (2003) This early crime drama from Bong Joon Ho (of Parasite fame) broke box office records at home. Based on historical events, it shows two dim and crude cops sent to investigate a double murder… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (25/9)          23:50   Film4   The Handmaiden (2016) I’ve written about this lots of times, and I’m not really that big a fan. So I’ll reprint approximately what I wrote before: ‘Park Chan-Wook’s glossy period thriller, set during Japan’s long occupation of Korea: a crime story with lesbian trimmings, or… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (21/8)        00:30    BBC2      Foxtrot (2017) Directed by Israeli filmmaker Samuel Munoz and winner of the Grand Jury prize at Venice. Tel Aviv couple Michael (Lior Ashkenazi) and Dafna (Sarah Adler) receive a visit from Israeli Defence Force officials to tell them their son Jonathan has been… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (15/8)          01:10   Film4    120 BPM (2017) A young gay activist in 1980s Paris joins a group to campaign for action against the rising tide of AIDS deaths and finds that, like many such organisations, it rather accommodates the industry it is supposed to be challenging. At the… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (8/8)           00:15    Channel 4    Bombay (1995) This week I’ve found myself writing about a lot of films I haven’t seen, and this is one of them. It sounds good. A Tamil-language drama with songs, by Mani Rathnam, it was one of the first subcontinental films to… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (23/7)        23:15    Film4    Sputnik (2020). Not seen this, but I want to. I like Russian science fiction. One of my little projects is to acquire the film of Zamyatin’s extraordinary We, which was the first book censored by Lenin after the Revolution. Sadly, the cultural boycott has made doing business with Russia… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (16/7)        23:15   Film4    Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes (2020). A delightful Japanese micro-budget time-travelling comedy about a young bloke who is suddenly addressed by a face on his iMac. It’s himself, two minutes into the future. He shows his friends in the cafe where he works (above). A… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (11/7)         00:50   Film4           Blade of the Immortal (2017) (pictured) Ultra-violent Japanese nasty. ‘It’s a stylish slash fest, which delivers visceral thrills along with quietly striking moments of beauty,’ said Wendy Ide in the Observer. Well, good for Wendy. I hate these films. The Japanese people… [continues]

World Cinema Monday (4/7)      01:05    Film4   Custody (2017). Xavier Legrand’s debut film begins In a courtroom in northern France. Antoine (Denis Ménochet), a hospital security guard, seeks joint custody of his 11-year-old son Julien, after the acrimonious break-up of his marriage. But is Antoine the model citizen and caring father he seems?… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (19/6)      01:50     BBC2            Young Ahmed (2019). I wrote about this film in October 2021. I haven’t changed my views, which won’t surprise anyone, but this is a shorter version. ‘This simple story (in French) seems to have divided critics. A schoolboy in Belgium offends… [continues]

World Cinema Saturday (11/6)    21:00    BBC4          Tove (2020)  Biographical drama by Zaida Bergroth (The Good Son), about the versatile and unconventional Finnish author, illustrator and artist Tove Jansson. Jansson, played by Alma Pöysti (pictured doing what writers mostly do, which is stare into space) was mostly known for the Moomin… [continues]

World Cinema Sunday (29/5)        23:25    ITV4                A Fistful of Dynamite (1971)   Sergio Leone’s spaghetti Mexican, the second in his Once Upon A Time trilogy, starring Rod Steiger, James Coburn and Romolo Valli, but not Clint Eastwood. It is set during the Mexican Revolution and centres on the… [continues]