I have created a video with all the best romance movies to watch while in lockdown this Valentine's Day. There’s classic romances, French gems such as the always charming Amelie and one of the most tragic love stories I have ever watched.
Let me know in the comments section what your favourite romance movies are.
In a year of unparalleled weirdness and chaos, at least we had movies. I find that films are the best kind of distraction and while I didn’t get to see many films in the Cinema I did still get to watch a few new releases thanks to services like Mubi, BFI Player and of course Netflix. So here are my top films of 2020.
Yes, I am fully aware that this film came out in 2019 for most people, but here in the UK, we got Parasite in cinemas at the beginning of 2020 before the world went to shit. And it’s literally a masterpiece. Hilariously dark and with a biting social commentary Parasite is Bong at his best. If you haven’t seen this film yet you most definitely should, it broke records and has made people think twice about subtitle prejudice finally! Look out for a full review on here soon.
Portrait of a Lady on Fire may be the most beautiful and heartfelt love story I have seen in ages, I was sobbing throughout the last 20 or so minutes, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I even wrote a gushing review earlier this year because I loved it so much. Read the full review: Portrait of a Lady on Fire Review
Stylish, aesthetic and thoroughly good fun Autumn de Wilde’s Emma. is a delight to behold. I found myself just utterly enamoured by this whole film, and I think a rewatch may be on the horizon as it’s buoyancy and frivolity would be the most welcome distraction from lockdown 3.0.
Hong Sang-soo's latest film is a smart and witty look at female relationships and troublesome men. The thing I absolutely love about Hong’s films is that they always feel like the lives on display exist in reality, that if the camera weren’t rolling, everything would happen that way regardless. Read the full film review: The Woman Who Ran Review.
DNA explores the void left by losing a loved one and how grief can bring out the worst in you or bring you back in touch with your roots. Neige clings to her grandfather through the things he left behind and her connection to Algeria through him. Filled with drama and some necessary injection of humour, this is a compelling film that will leave you questioning the fabric of your own familial bonds.
Honourable mentions: Swallow, Little Joe, The Lighthouse.
I love Steve McQueen’s work, but his films are emotionally brutal. Small Axe is an anthology series that focuses on Black lives in moments in modern British history and looks to be some of his most powerful work yet. I will be watching these important films imminently.
I missed this film at the 2019 London East Asian Film Festival to my annoyance, and then the film became available on MUBI, and I missed it again. I really should have watched it when I had the chance.
I am learning French, love social realism films, and films loosely inspired by literary works…don’t even get me started! As to why I haven’t watched this film yet, I don’t know the answer. I keep going to put it on, and then I decide to watch something else, I think it’s because there is just too much choice. Also, on some platforms like Mubi or All4, you only have a limited time to watch certain movies, whereas Netflix seems to keep titles in its library for much longer. But as I am trying to get fluent in French by the end of 2020, I will most definitely be watching this one ASAP!
I was so excited about this film, the trailers looked great, the cast is phenomenal, and normally, Nolan delivers a smart and intelligent blockbuster. But with Tenet I think Nolan tried to be clever for the sake of being clever. If you strip away all the time stuff then it’s a just another spy movie, complete with a bad caricature villain and the usual underdeveloped female character. But what made this film the most infuriating to watch was the sound engineering! I like to hear what characters say, especially in a film when 90% of the dialogue is exposition! For anyone in a non-English speaking country, they undoubtedly benefited from the inclusion of subtitles so perhaps after a re-watch (with subtitles) I might go a little easier on this film. But then again probably not.
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu is a historical drama directed by Céline Sciamma.
The film tells the story of a forbidden love affair between an aristocrat and a painter; being both women in 18th-century France, the romance between Marianne (Noémie Merlant) and Héloïse (Adèle Haenel) is deemed by society just as much a social taboo as it is a sexual one.
The film competed at Cannes for the Palme d'Or but instead won the Queer Palm, a significant achievement as Céline Sciamma is the first woman to win the prize.
I love how female-orientated this film is: Céline Sciamma, the director is a lesbian woman, the cast is literally just women (except a few male extras here and there), the cinematographer, yes, you guessed it is a woman, Claire Mathon, to be precise and I am fast becoming a fan of her work. And this shows big time in how the film feels. There is no male gaze, and there are difficult issues such as abortion present.
Moreover, through Marianne, a female artist, the art world and its restrictions on women are challenged; traditionally, the woman is the muse but here, she can play both roles, the painter and the muse.
And at the very crux of the story is the beautiful, passionate and poetic love that Marianne and Héloïse have for each other. It’s safe to say that the ending of the film broke my heart, I sobbed and ugly cried long after the credits rolled. Even thinking about page number 28 or the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice chokes me up, and ‘Summer’ from Vivaldi's Four Seasons will never be the same.
This film is exquisitely shot, the cinematography feels like a painting and the stolen looks and glances between Marianne and Héloïse are shown in beautifully framed close-ups. Portrait de la jeune fille en feu feels like a love letter to love, to Queer love and to the poetry of the soulmate.
The symbolism in Orpheus and Eurydice is heartbreaking, and when Héloïse calls for Marianne to turn around and look at her one last time, you can’t help but feel a dagger in your heart. It’s almost criminal that this film did not get nominated for Best International Feature Film at the Oscars, as it quite clearly could have won.
Portrait de la jeune fille en feu is a masterpiece of cinema. And like Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight, and a plethora of other exquisitely shot LGBTQ+ films, Portrait de la jeune fille en feu proves that love outside of heteronormativity is beautiful and worthy of a place in cinema and should be celebrated all year round and not just in Pride Month.
