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.
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…
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?
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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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!
Park Chan Wook’s most famous film, Oldboy, is an epic tale of revenge adapted from the Japanese manga of the same name. The film follows a man wrongfully imprisoned for 15 years until he is released seemingly unexpectedly one day and his subsequent path of vengeance.
Park Chan Wook is a very visual director, his films are so immersive and beautifully shot. In Oldboy, the juxtaposition of ultra-violence with smaller more tender moments makes the film a rather emotional affair. It’s a movie not for the faint-hearted as the violence is rather graphic and the shock Oedipal twist is rather demented.
Park himself hinted that he was very much inspired by Sophocles’ tragedy Oedipus Rex. He gave his protagonist the name Oh Dae-su to be evocative of the incestuous King and elevated antagonist Woo-jin through a rather striking and preternatural yoga pose which was designed to represent Apollo, the god that gave Oedipus the prophecy. Moreover, the fact that Woo-jin guided most of the events in the film and lived in a swanky high tech penthouse (a metaphor for Olympus) only furthered that image of Godlike power over Dae-su the lowly mortal man unable to fight against the guiding hand of fate. It’s rather intriguing to view the film as a modern take on the Greek Tragedy as it adds a whole layer of meaning to the already complex and intriguing storyline.
Park Chan Wook is undeniably one of the greatest filmmakers in modern cinema whose work only goes from strength to strength. I am currently working my way through his filmography, so far I have seen (in order) Stoker, I’m a Cyborg but that’s OK, The Handmaiden, Thirst and now Oldboy. Chan Wook’s trademark violence, lush cinematography and wit really is an intriguing combination that’s hard to find elsewhere in Cinema.
I’m a Cyborg, but that’s OK released in 2006 is Park Chan-Wook‘s 7th film as director and is a romantic comedy set in a mental institution.
The film follows Cha Young-Goon (Im Soo-Jung) a young woman who believes she is a Cyborg, she wanders around talking to machines and licking batteries to charge and Park Il Soon (Rain) a young man who to his belief can steal people’s skills and traits, he himself wanders around often wearing homemade cardboard rabbit masks spying on people to find possessions he wants to steal from them.
I’m a Cyborg is a fundamentally a love story at it’s heart, a totally oddball, disturbing yet endearing one and the nearest comparisons I can make in western cinema would be Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s Amélie and possibly Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind by Michel Gondry but even these films aren’t a great comparison when you take a look at the film a little deeper. And I must say I fell in love with the tone of the film almost immediately due to its curious mix of cuteness and darkness, at one point Cha goes homicidal and shoots all the doctors at the institution, while this is, of course, a delusion it’s still quite a bloody and jarring moment in the film and the way she transforms into this cyborg killing machine with fingers as guns is quite disturbing yet amusing at the same time. Then in contrast in another scene Park Il-Soon pretends to fit a device into Cha’s back to help her digest food (as she has been starving herself due to her belief that she is a cyborg) it’s perhaps the cutest moment of the film as us viewers get to see a kind and empathetic side to Park who delicately draws a door on her back with a pencil while pretending that he is actually using a knife to cut her open so he can fit the device , It’s just such a beautiful and sweet moment that melted my heart.
Another great thing about I’m a Cyborg is the cinematography and how lovely the colour palette is, in a way the film feels like an enchanting fairy tale (albeit with a dark undertone) due to the sweeping camera movements, high-key lighting and the airy colours of the sets make the film seem a lot more light-hearted than it actually is. This contrast in theme – an antisocial kleptomaniac & a delusional woman who is trying to find a way to kill orderlies to find her purpose in life find love and codependency in a mental institution – and presentation – pastel colours, bright lighting, quirky humour and cuteness abound – forms something of an oxymoron which in itself is representative of the film which is actually really clever.
Basically, Park Chan Wook is a genius and you’re doing yourself an injustice if you don’t watch this film.
ps. let me know your thoughts on the film in the comment section below I would love to know what you thought of this little gem.
