It’s been a while since we’ve watched a film by Luis Buñuel and here he is directing Catherine Deneuve who I of course adore from Jacques Demy’s musicals. As you might expect from Buñuel, this is a very different kind of film, charged as it is with sexual fantasies, sado-masochism and obvious references to Freudian psychology.

I added this to my list when BlacKkKlansman put Spike Lee back into the spotlight and many people pointed to this as the director’s best work. I found the newer film to be enjoyable but not all that great. This one however is fantastic and, no doubt as the director intended, is an amazing piece for sparking conversations about as everyone debates who in the film, if anyone, actually did the right thing and what the director really intended to convey.

We’ve watched nearly every film directed by Jiang Wen due to recommendations from our cinephile and probably because he’s one of the most interesting mainstream Chinese directors. After watching this latest one, I’m not sure I’m interested in seeing more of his work however as his recent films all share the same style. While they are visually exciting, they all seem thematically empty to me and make no sense in terms of plot.

We’re now up to date with all three seasons of this modest but very creative television show. It has picked up numerous awards, notably science-fiction ones, which it definitely counts as. I love it as a crazy, quirky shows that seems silly on the surface but is surprisingly serious about having intellectual depth.

This one has been sitting in my list for a while now but it was quite difficult to find a copy of it. With a running time of more than five hours, it’s also easily the longest film we’ve ever watched. It’s not an experimental film either so its long running time isn’t a gimmick. It’s legitimately a drama about four middle-aged women and justifies every minute of its time. However we did need to watch it over several days.