Ingmar Bergman’s complete filmography so it’s unlikely that we’ll ever watch everything. This one is an out and out horror film and I have to say that it’s one of rare ones that I found truly scary. Like Bergman’s other films, it’s full of symbolism and I struggled to make sense of everything. The great thing about this one however is that it’s possible to view it simply as a film about literal demons and monsters and it’s still effective. That the main character in it is an alter ego of Bergman himself and that at the time he left his own wife and son for the lead actress here Liv Ullman makes it especially disturbing. I’m not a fan of the tortured artist trope but this is one instance of it that is exceptional.
I had such a tough time deciding if I liked this film or not. At first I was all over it, enthused at the prospect of a critical dissection of sexual relationships. But then the character of Susan disappeared and I realized that it really only cares about the male side of the equation and that’s a bummer. Even so, it’s so bold in its treatment of sex, so modern in its analysis, and features so much understated star power that it’s undeniably a film of substance. It’s no masterpiece as it feels abbreviated and incomplete but it is still a film well worth watching.
I suspect that like many others, I first took notice of this show from short clips shared on social media showing the titular presenter saying outrageous things. That she is so blatantly copying the style of BBC documentaries makes it hilarious. This parody series has an actress play a clueless presenter who takes us on a tour of human history, making a horrible mess of it. As full of errors as her deadpan delivery is, this mockumentary surprisingly does have some educational value. I wouldn’t care for too much of this so I don’t think I’ll be watching the second season, but this was good for some laughs for me.
Satisfactory took way too much of my time so for a follow-up, I wanted something short and chill. This potion brewing game almost fit that bill except that it’s a tad too long as there is some grinding towards the end. It’s another crafting game but the crafting part is more than just selecting an option from a list. Here you brew potions by actually grinding ingredients and dropping them into the cauldron. The concept is clever and it uses familiar mechanics in a novel way to simulate the process of brewing a potion. It’s not a deep game but it’s not bad at all.
I don’t think I even have a single film starring Brigitte Bardot in this blog though she’s an icon of French cinema. Here she appears in a film by Jean-Luc Godard which also includes Hollywood star Jack Palance and the famous German director Fritz Lang. This isn’t considered one of Godard’s best films but it is interesting in some ways and is easy to comprehend. As it is a film set during the filming of an adaptation of the Odyssey, the characters’ debates about their work applies directly to itself. Apart from this, there are no tricks with form and structure and so this is a relatively conventional film.
Again, venturing out of my usual habit of reading only fiction, I decided to read this so-called fictionalized biography which has been making the rounds. It supposedly recounts the life of the legendary polymath John von Neumann but is really more general than that. It’s full of anecdotes about the circle of genius scientists around von Neumann and most significantly traces how his ideas led to what is today called AI. It’s not really a popular science book as it’s very thin in terms of scientific facts and most of that is common knowledge. What it does offer is the inside perspective of many of these famous personalities, at least as imagined by author Benjamin Labatut. It’s debatable how authentic these stories are true in spirit according to what we know about them and that has to be good enough.
This is a tiny independent film that is its director Francis Galluppi’s debut and won over all the critics. It’s easy to see why from the get go with its charm, warm visuals and even the simple story is used to its advantage. It’s such an ode to cinema, wearing its influences on its sleeve, that it sometimes feels like an audition tape but it all comes together very nicely. Unfortunately it runs a little longer than necessary as it keeps piling on layer after layer of plot complications when it should have ended much earlier and that only exposes the thinness of its messaging.
