Directors I Admire Part I

It’s no secret that I love films. I think everyone I have ever encountered in my life knows this, I love watching them and I love talking about them. I would even love to be a director myself one day. So who are the filmmakers that fuel my fervent desire to consume movie after movie? I’ll break it down for you…

Stanley Kubrick

It all started with 2001: A Space Odyssey, I watched it one night, many nights ago on my 13 inch laptop screen (not ideal conditions, but it was either that or an equally tiny HD ready tv) and I was blown away. I love Science Fiction, but Kubrick made this film more than just a genre piece, its an epic tale of human ambition that highlights our desperate need for knowledge to affirm our place in the universe.

Since then I have watched many more of Kubrick’s films and I have to attest that he may just be the greatest filmmaker of all time. What do you think?

Park Chan Wook

Everyone has heard of Oldboy (I think? If not, are you even alive?) it is probably the most famous Korean movie due to its ultra violence and oedipal twist (sorry for the spoiler, you should have watched it already!). But I actually started my Park Chan Wook journey with Stoker (his first and only (to this date) English language film) and then I’m a Cyborg But That’s OK , a quirky comedy set in a mental institution. Since those two movies I have watched the rest of his films (that have been released here in England anyway) and I am utterly obsessed with his style. I think he is a master of cinematography, just look at The Handmaiden for example, I mean even the trailer for the film made me gush at how beautiful it looks!

Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve is a wizard and one of the only directors making solid smart sci-fi films in Hollywood right now! I first came across his work with his film Enemy starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a man who discovers he has a Doppelgänger, what transpires is a Kafkaesque psychological thriller. It’s a very intriguing watch.

But for me Arrival and Blade Runner 2049 have cemented his status as one of the most formidable directors of the moment and I’m sure his re-imaging of the cult classic film and book Dune is only going to confirm that status.

Wes Anderson

Quirky indie director Anderson may have the most iconic film aesthetics in the industry, you can spot his films in an instant due to the colour palettes, symmetrical framing, attention to detail and many other things that this video does a great job of pinpointing. I discovered Rushmore on TV one afternoon many many years ago and lets just say I have never looked back. In terms of his entire filmography I would have to say that my favourites have to be The Royal Tenenbaums and The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Lars Von Trier

Von Trier has to be one of the most notorious filmmakers in the world, his films are shocking and often polarise audiences. I discovered Von Trier through Melancholia, a gem of a film that I feel not enough people have watched. It’s rather depressing seeing as it concerns the end of the world but the execution is simply wonderful and Kirsten Dunst and Charlotte Gainsbourg are phenomenal in the film. It’s a must see, as is the highly controversial Nymphomanic Part I & II, which once again stars Gainsbourg who plays a self-diagnosed Nymphomanic who retells her sexual odyssey to a random stranger after he finds her beaten up on a street one night. It’s weird, it hilarious, a little (ok very) graphic but ultimately its an intriguing portrait of human sexuality at its extreme.

Sofia Coppola

Natural light, muted colour palettes, lost melancholic characters, complex female stories - this is what makes Coppola’s work so distinctive and compelling. Lost in Translation was one of the first movies I remember watching and obsessing over, before that I was just your casual movie watcher aged 10, afterwards I emerged enlightened in the art of cinematography and subtle storytelling.

Another one of Coppola’s films that I adore is Marie Antoinette, it was progressive, post punk music in a period piece? Converses in the Palais de Versailles? The film is ultimately a Candy coloured aesthetic dream and I am all for it. But behind the seemingly sugar sweet and vapid visuals lies a story about a young girl coming to terms with womanhood and the responsibility that comes with it. A universal theme that unites all women together. And that’s where the power of the film lies, that and its unapologetic stance on the seeking of beauty for beauty’s sake (as a Libra this speaks to my soul).

Spike Jonze

Full disclosure I have only ever watched one of Spike Jonze’s films and that film would be, Her. But I feel like I still have enough reasons to include him as one of the many directors that I admire. I just find everything about this film inspiring, the visuals, the story, the music, the acting. I't’s perfect. I feel like it is one of my favourite movies of all time and it will continue to be for a very very long time. Her feels like such a timely film as it deals with dating and isolation in a technology focused society. Although to be honest I wouldn’t mind inhabiting this soft pastel coloured world where the world is seemingly not sinister.

Jean-Luc Godard

Godard and his films will always go down in History as some of the most influential pieces of Cinema. Breathless is a masterpiece, but my favourite Godard movie has to be Une Femme est Une Femme. Anna Karina as Angela is iconic: the makeup, the fashion, the hair. The scene where they insult each other using book titles is genius and I just love the quirkiness of the direction.

Terrence Malick

Malick is a poetic filmmaker, the visuals are never not sumptuous and beautiful and its particularly (but not limited to) his work with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki that I am in awe of. I feel so inspired watching his movies, they make me want to make art and understand human nature on an even deeper level. I can’t wait to check out his newest film A Hidden Life which debuted and won two prizes at Cannes this year!

Hong Sang Soo

Hong Sang Soo is a master of realism. His films bring you into the everyday lives of his complex and philosophical characters in such a way that you feel what they feel. You feel the hope, the heartbreak and the aimlessness. He has been heralded as the Korean Woody Allen, which I tend to agree and disagree with. Nonetheless I fell in love with his movies recently thanks to a Selectrospective of his work on MUBI.

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino is the patron saint of ultra violent cinema. His films are hilarious and stylish and he has made quite a number of iconic female characters. The dialogue and how he shoots it in his films is always fascinating to me, one example that I am still fascinated by is the opening scene of Inglorious Basterds and the dialogue between Christoph Waltz’s Hans Landa and the dairy farmer who is harbouring jews. The way Tarantino builds tension is masterful.

Bong Joon Ho

Another South Korean director raising the bar for western filmmakers is Bong Joon Ho. He has quite the eclectic filmography with movies like Okja, Memories of Murder, Snowpiercer, The Host and many more including his new Palme D’Or Winning film Parasite. Snowpiercer like many other film watchers blew me away with its study on social classes and of course any film that has Song Kang Ho in it is going to be phenomenal.

Let me know in the comments section what Director’s work inspires you and also let me know if you like these film posts and want more reviews and recommendations!

The Best Films of 2018

Here is a countdown of The Best Films (IMO, you may think differently) that came out last year. In no particular order they are as follows:

THE SHAPE OF WATER 

Guillermo del Toro’s latest film is a revelation, it’s beautiful, and it harks back to a golden age of cinema. The love story is bizarre but completely heartwarming and feels very much like an adult fairy tale. Sally Hawkins plays Eliza stunningly and if it wasn’t for Frances McDormand’s equally phenomenal performance in Three Billboards (which is also on this list) I’m pretty sure she would have got the Academy Award for Best Actress.  

암수살인 (DARK FIGURE OF CRIME)

This year I finally got a chance to attend LEAFF (the London East Asia Film Festival) and what a film to watch. Dark Figure of Crime is a crime thriller subverted, we know the killer from the beginning, the suspense of the film is from Detective Kim Hyung-min’s challenge of finding evidence for all of Kang Tae-oh’s murders so that he can be kept in prison for life. 

Kim Yoon-seok and Ju Ji-hoon are spectacular as their respective characters and director Kim Tae-kyun expertly paces the film for maximum effect. Also, another factor that made my watching of this film even more spectacular  was the fact that LEAFF hosted a Q&A with the director and main actor of the film! 

ZIMNA WOJNA (COLD WAR)

A beautiful and heart-wrenching romance set in a time of political upheaval. Joanna Kulig is a revelation as Zula, the cinematography is stunning and the story of two star-crossed lovers is fascinating and devastating. This masterpiece is available to watch on Curzon Home Cinema here in the UK.

CRAZY RICH ASIANS 

One of the best Rom-Com’s that come to mind in recent years, Crazy Rich Asians is big and flashy in its presentation but at its core, there is an uplifting romance. Let’s talk about the cast, can you really believe that this is a groundbreaking movie in the fact that it’s the first Hollywood film in 25 years that has had an all Asian cast! Alarming. This year Crazy Rich Asians (and Black Panther) have proved that a lack of diversity is no longer permissible in Hollywood, the world is diverse so we want our movies to be diverse too.

ANNIHILATION

Daring and oh so very disturbing, this film is a modern sci-fi masterpiece. Annihilation follows a group of women who go on an expedition into a biological anomaly, it is both Sci-Fi and Horror along the lines of Alien. A must watch which is on Netflix.

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri sounds like it should be a really boring movie about not much at all. But it is quite the opposite. McDormand’s protagonist Mildred is one of the most fascinating and hilarious characters I’ve seen in a film for quite a while. Her brutal honesty and vulgar language are really quite funny but underneath the bravado lies a woman profoundly broken.

I tried to find ten movies but I think I’ll settle with six. There are loads more movies that I really enjoyed and quite a few that I haven’t gotten around to watching just yet (Roma & The House that Jack Built) and there are quite a few international films like Burning and Shoplifters which have not come out in England yet, and I’m pretty sure they would have made the list (and will most probably make the 2019 list)

Let me know in the comments section what your Best Movies of 2018 list looks like!

Vlog: Isle of Dogs Exhibition in London

Follow us to the Isle of Dogs Exhibition in London at The Store X! The exhibition features 17 original handmade sets complete with some of the 1097 puppets that were used in the film!

This was our first vlog ever!! We are totally amateurs at this but I found it so fun to film, perhaps that’s because I am someone who loves movies and the way they are shot. I’m looking to do more vlogs in the future so that I can improve my Filming and Editing skills so stay tuned.

Anyway, it would be great to get a little feedback in the comments section to let us know what you thought of the video!

Check out our youtube channel. And don’t forget to subscribe if you enjoyed the video!!

High-Rise Review: Brutalist architecture & the fall of society

Ben Wheatley’s cinematic adaption of High-Rise, the iconic J.G Ballard novel of the same name, is nothing short of a heady trip through the decay of society using the thoroughly modern (for its time) high-rise complex as a microcosm.

In essence, the film is Kubrickian in style and Orwellian in prothetic tone; it’s a disturbingly amusing Social Satire that will take you on a diabolically dizzying kaleidoscope of a journey through a society governed by debauchery and opulence.

The film opens at the end with a bedraggled Robert Laing creeping around the ruined High-Rise and tucking into a roasted dog on his balcony. This scene right away sets the tone of the film; it’s surreal and totally bonkers. Moreover, starting the film in a non-chronological order shows the viewers the consequences before they see the actions that got the characters to this disastrous place; thus, a curiosity as to how this happened bubbles.

Cleverly, a stark contrast from the squalor of Laing’s surroundings is made when we jump back three months to when the young Doctor first arrived at the pristine High-Rise building. The complex is in the Brutalist architecture style, which acts as a metaphor to mirror the story; the inhabitants are just as harsh and domineering as the space they occupy.

To be honest, Brutalism was the only architectural style the filmmakers could have used for the story; anything else would have missed the point and being someone who is mildly obsessed with the style, I really liked the building and the symbolism. Laing’s apartment is severe and empty, and the self-contained amenities of the complex, such as the onsite Supermarket, have a Warholian sterileness to them. This is a Retro-Future that is very much a satire of what today’s society is turning into, which is why J.G Ballard’s novel and this movie, in turn, are still so relevant to a modern audience.

The High-Rise is subjected to not-so-subtle class divisions, the poor families at the bottom (although they are still wealthy enough to live in the establishment, unlike most of society), Upper-Class Professionals such as Laing live in the midsection of the building, and the top of the High-Rise belongs to the Super-Rich and the Architect himself.

The Architect is a regal and self-appointed “god” figure named Anthony Royale (played deftly by Jeremy Irons) who sections himself off in the Penthouse suite complete with a gorgeous garden that Laing visits and is surprised to see a horse on the “44th floor”. The sheer arrogance of Royal is ultimately his downfall, demonstrating that those who put themselves above society will sooner or later have to answer to it, no matter how savage or civilised it is.

Everyone seems to get into everyone’s business in the High-Rise, which takes a toll on the usually secluded Laing, who slowly becomes unhinged, and the divide between the top and the bottom of the building intensifies as the manufactured society slowly falls to pieces as everyone gives in to their carnal urges that result in raging parties to rival the bacchanalias of ancient Rome, fistfights and rape.

This, in essence, explores the very idea of how the survival of society depends on control and suppression of our innate animalistic desires and pleasure-seeking and that such a decayed and damaged society is a feasible future.

In conclusion, this film is not for everyone, but for those who long for a return of cerebral and eccentric films that study the human condition then give it a watch and you may just be surprised as to how much you’ll think about it after you leave the cinema, unlike the usual mass-produced popcorn fare that we seem to greedily consume.

A disturbingly amusing Social Satire that will take you on a diabolically dizzying kaleidoscope of a journey through a society governed by debauchery and opulence

Now I’m off to read the novel by J.G Ballard, care to join me?

The Revenant Review

Director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki’s latest team-up is hardly a film and more like a wildly poetic audio-visual experience. From the moment the film begins to when the credits roll The Revenant is an exquisitely engaging affair that transports you into the icy and unforgiving world of a group of fur trappers and hunters trying to navigate the 19th century Louisiana Purchase.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Tom Hardy are exceptional in their roles as Hugh Glass and John Fitzgerald respectively and it is therefore unsurprising that both have received Academy Award nominations for their brutal performances. DiCaprio’s Glass is a man hellbent on exacting his revenge for the unlawful murder of his beloved son and his ferocity and tenacious hold onto his life is somewhat awe-inspiring seeing that he almost dies on several occasions (The superbly shot Bear Mauling, near suffocation, Falling off a cliff, being shot at and stabbed)  and in most cases it would have been easier for him to give in to the cold embrace of death. And it’s through this obsessive determination that sees Glass soldier on through one tortuous ordeal after another that when he finally meets with the cowardly Fitzgerald that one of the most nail-biting scenes take place that I’ve seen in a film for a very long time.

Emmanuel Lubezki’s cinematography is perhaps the greatest thing about this film, sure the performances are superb and the soundtrack by Ryuichi Sakamoto is hauntingly beautiful, and there’s that certain quote “I ain’t afraid to die anymore. I’d done it already” which is surely going to become iconic someday, but its the visuals of this film that really make it as truly sublime as it is. And while watching The Revenant I found myself comparing it to another piece of Lubezki’s work The New World by the illustrious Terrence Malick. And I found that what these two films had in common (apart from Mr Lubezki) was that they were both slow and poetic journeys and what better way to capture these profound films than with long languid lingering shots of action and in doing so I believe that this film is in all its visceral and grisly realism cinematically perfect.

Overall The Revenant is a gloriously bloody tale of one man’s struggle to appease his desire to seek revenge against another man and if you love great (I need a better word!) exceptional, stunning, awe-inspiring, simply sumptuous cinematography and a damn good storyline then go and see The Revenant, yes its 3 hours long but its filmmaking at its finest and those 12 Academy Award nominations just go to prove my point.