GFF 15: 'A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night'

March 01, 2015 in Erika Sella, cinema, review

Ana Lily Amirpour’s A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night has been described with the alluring ‘feminist Iranian vampire Western’ tagline. The description only partially fits this stylish, Jim Jarmusch-inspired feature. The protagonist (known as The Girl) is a vampire that wears a chador that looks like a superhero cape; she also wears a Breton top that recalls Godard's Jean Seberg, and favours a skateboard as her means on transportation.

*Photo courtesy of Roy Andersson FIlm Produktion AB.*

GFF 15 : 'A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Contemplating Existence'

February 27, 2015 in Andrew R. Hill, cinema, review

The tag that’s stuck assiduously to Roy Andersson since it was first applied to him is ‘the slapstick Bergman’ and it’s not wildly inaccurate. There’s an undeniable existentialist bent to his post-millennial trilogy of films, of which A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Contemplating Existence is the final part, and is, as the opening title tells us, ‘the final part of a trilogy about being a human being’. But this also rather sells Andersson short. ‘Slapstick’ undersells the deftness (if not the daftness) of his black humour, and its warmth.

GFF 15: 'The Wonders'

February 23, 2015 in Erika Sella, cinema, review

Alice Rohrwacher makes me feel proud of my Italian origins - born in Tuscany to a German father and an Italian mother, she is a young director that matches Blasted favourite Lukas Moodysson with her ability to subtly depict female protagonists on the brink of adolescence: if you haven't seen her debut feature Corpo Celeste, we recommend you do at the earliest opportunity.