I'm normally a doomer about modern film technology but the favourite is close to everything I want from movies today. the most obvious difference from its contemporaries: the dark scenes are lit so well, and not only are they very clear, but the candle lighting is beautiful as well. sometimes there's that digital blue that I normally don't like but the contrast works so well with the alternative white shots (examples). and the humour is cynical without being too millenial (vs. mickey 17, everything everywhere all at once)… it also brings me hope that we can make good movies about women that aren't 100 years behind on feminism (vs. the substance, anora)!

watched for Cate Blanchett. something endearing about high budget movies with silly editing -- definitely prefer it over big movies now throwing all their money away at post. and I love anachronisms, we should do them more. the ending made the difference of 3 stars and 4 stars.

maybe lynch movies are confusing or surreal or whatever, but they don't hide anything; his characters don't have the depth to contain any secrets. they don't express, they perform. and I think that's the truest realism that movies as a medium can attain. pete thinks he's above pornography, but sex for him is no less a performance -- either for the detectives, or the scary pale man, or even for the headlights of a car. naturalistic dialogue in film has always been a little alien to me because there's nothing less natural than a human conversation, and David Lynch assures me that that's not something I feel alone.

every shot reminds me of the adjectives an old art teacher of mine would repeat again and again to describe neoclassical paintings: cool and quiet. a lot of the time I have to strain to follow dialogue in Tarkovsky movies only because the visuals alone have my attention. this frame is a favourite.

westerns (or easterns) never really appealed to me but Mikhalkov has too much fun stylistically here that I loved it, even when the plot was hard to follow. this is one shot I particularly liked. the soundtrack is also memorable. and I am very fond of Yuri Bogatyryov...

andrei roublev is of a larger scale than tarkovsky's other movies, yet a special intimacy is maintained with its characters unlike the director's characteristic alienation. part one alone made the strongest impression on me: the man on the balloon, the skomorkh, the pagan ritual, the ants and theophanes' bloated feet... andrei roublev closely competes with mirror as my favourite tarkovsky movie.

I chose to watch the first teacher at random from the mosfilm youtube channel and I've been chasing the feeling since of discovering good movies without having ever heard of them. Konchalovsky really well shows the failure of reform in face of structural issues; it's so frustrating to watch the collective defense of a rapist for the sake of tradition. this poster is also a favourite.

even the most elaborate sci-fi worldbuilding won't interest me as much as being left alone to guess at the logic of tarkovsky's worlds. also, his movies have the best colour grading for trees...

wasn't sure about an over 3 hour epic but I enjoyed it! I was skeptical about lawrence initially as the typical british hero character but the movie caught my interest as early as when he overslept after promising to wake the others in the morning. (hover to view spoilers) the generic orientalist soundtrack is largly disappointing though.

I wanted to watch Hsiao-hsien's a city of sadness but I couldn't find a subtitled version in good quality, so I watched his flowers of shanghai instead. seeing this only grew my disappointment over missing out on his other film; the mood/atmosphere of flowers of shanghai is so beautifully done. I'd describe it as an "impression" -- slow, hazy and vague, but unforgettable. just listen to the soundtrack alone... I need more plotless, small-scale historical movies like this!