DEAD MAN
As its title implies, Jim Jarmusch’s existential Western is preoccupied with death, an event which a Native-American character describes as ‘passing through the mirror’.
Review by John Berra
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THE MAN FROM LONDON
Béla Tarr’s latest film is an adaptation of a French crime novel latest film that treads into film noir territory.
Review by John Berra
The Designated Victim
Maurizio Lucidi’s The Designated Victim is an unofficial 1971 giallo adaptation of Strangers on a Train, and due to its emphasis on psychology as opposed to suspense, and the material obsessions of the nouveaux riches, perhaps has more in common with Highsmith’s cynical world view.
Review by John Berra
THE WALTER HILL COLLECTION
Minimalism is the key characteristic of the early films of Walter Hill, as exemplified by his car chase classic The Driver (1978), in which the characters are simply referred to as The Driver, The Detective and The Girl.
Review by John Berra
THE FUKASAKU COLLECTION
The Japanese filmmaker Kinji Fukasaku is arguably best known in the West for Battle Royale (2000), his controversial depiction of civil unrest which re-imagined Lord of the Flies with high-tech weapons and Nintendo generation teenagers.
Review by John Berra
SPIDER FOREST
The central protagonist of Spider Forest is not the luckiest of souls. When we first encounter Kang Min, he is awakening in the titular forest, having been knocked unconscious, only to wander into a remote cabin where his girlfriend and his boss have been brutally hacked to death.
Review by John Berra
VIOLENCE AT HIGH NOON
Based on the true story of the rapist and serial murderer Eisuke, Violence at High Noon is a detached and disturbing portrait of post-war Japan that owes much to the films of Alain Resnais and Robert Bresson in terms of its non-linear structure and its fascination with the amoral activity of the social outsider.
Review by John Berra