Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance 1962

  ★★★★ Watched 14 Mar 2025

  Pure American mythology. Starts in nostalgic mode for an era that probably never existed and suddenly turns into quite the current story. But alas, there's no James Stewart anymore, no John Wayne either, to take out Liberty Valance. Superbly shot and a very patient story. From 1962 but feels much older.

• 

  Mahler 1974

  ★★★½ Watched 07 Mar 2025

  Mahler is an admirable attempt at doing the biographical film differently, although in the end, Russell runs out of steam and gets caught in the "greatest hits" trap. Nevertheless, it's a film filled with beautiful imagery and shots that plunge the viewer into the Mahlerian vibe. It's also a film that's far less mad than expected (Cosima interlude and cremation scene excepted), whereas it could have used more strange and uncanny scenes like the one with the shadow, a dream…

Popular reviews

• 

  Possession 1981

  ★★★★★ Added 10

  Renée Jeanne Falconetti’s performance in La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc (1928) is often held up as a touchstone of acting. Fair enough, but Isabelle Adjani in Possession (1981) has to be placed in the same league. The French actress gives the most physical and intense performance ever captured on film, full of mood swings, glares, hysterics, tears and a host of other bodily fluids (Adjani was rightly named best actress at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival.)

  Andrzej Żuławski's dark film…

• 

  Blade Runner 1982

  ★★★★★ Added 3

  Here we have one of the few examples of a director’s cut that actually improves a film. Or should we say finishes the film? I first saw Blade Runner on VHS (woozy from having my wisdom teeth pulled) in the version that was taken away from Ridley Scott and sort of tanked at the box office. Now this version to my young eyes, who didn’t know anything about the film and the surrounding production, was already amazing. Actually, when I…

Following