Deep Time

Underland (2025) - Petit Caves, underground waterways, mines, catacombs, scientific labs are some of the locations featured in Robert Macfarlane's bestselling non-fiction book, Underland. His prose, at once scientific, lyrical and philosophical, has been an open invitation and demystification of 'the awful darkness inside the world'. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic time, the book is a revelatory dive into deep time, a contemplation of our fear of the dark void, reflection of a paralleled world underneath, the myths and memories and our deep connections to the unseen environment.

Underland happens to be one of my all-time favorite books. So, when it was announced that Robert Petit, a visual collaborator of MacFarlane - they did a short film, Upstream together, which features an aerial view of the Cairngorms Mountains and River Dee of Scotland, is directing it, it became one of my most anticipated films to see this year.

Narrated by actress Sandra Hüller whose clear and calm voice is a great match for the material, and voiced by archeologists, urban explorers and scientists, the film takes liberty from the book and sets this visual poem in 3 different locations in 5 chapters: a cenote and its labyrinthine cave systems in Mexico, Underground storm drains in Las Vegas and a science laboratory 2 kilometers underneath Canadian Rockies, each invoking heady metaphors, myth and human connection with our surroundings.

It starts in a black and white grainy pictures of an ancient ash tree, just like how the book starts. The ash tree is located in Mendip Hills of Somerset, where Macfarlane's childhood was spent. Beneath the tree presents the subterraneous passage into the underworld cavern.

Following Fatima Tec Pool, a Mexican archeologist and her team, into the 'entrance to the underworld', - an elaborate cave system where her Mayan ancestors congregated, Petit and his team - cinematographer Ruben Woodin Dechamps and producer Lauren Greenwood, crawl through the rocky, slimy, dark limestone caverns. With all their modern equipment, the archeologists wonder aloud how it must have been with Mayan explorers with only torches some thousands of years ago. For Pool, it's a personal journey to connect with her Mayan ancestors who treated the caves as a sacred place.

We are introduced to an urban explorer Bradley Garrett, who descends into the storm drain system under Vegas Strip. He explains the smell and texture of the system, a distinct sensory experience in an Anthropocene age. All these will be future caves, the remnants from our current civilization, he muses. There's a cryptic note on the concrete wall, warning the rise of water level when it rains.

Garrett witnesses the remnants of life in the drain system. People live down there: the undesirable, unseen people above ground making their way down to escape from the elements, even if that means risking drowning when flooded. It's not only humans, but underland is also filled with discarded materials - cars, washing machines, everything our modern world want to get rid of and make it out of sight.

Then there is Mariangela Lisanti, a theoretical physicist who is in search for Dark Matter, an unseen material that consists of 65 percent of all of our universe. It was her musings as a child looking up at the starry sky, wondering what we are made of. She and her colleagues find the suitable space to test, in which dark-matter particles bump into target material and scatter off atomic nuclei, resulting in a measurable nuclear recoil, 2 kilometers down in an underground laboratory, away from elements and noises. She knows well that her experiments might not result in finding the existence of Dark Matter in her lifetime. Nevertheless, she perseveres, with her childlike curiosity and wonder intact.

Petit and his team capture some glorious images of the subterranean world, conjuring not only physical but spiritual side of our understanding of the hidden world. The past, present and future mingle seamlessly as a sensory experience. As Pool's team reaches the end of the cave, they discover the ancient palm prints left on the wall by Maya people thousands of years ago. She stretches her hand to meet the old palm prints and, in that stillness and silence, deep down underground, we experience deep time.

Underland might be short on the political urgency in nature preservation of Macfarlane's book, but it is at once sensorial, philosophical experience to be had, preferably in a darkened theater.

Underland had its world premiere at Tribeca Film Festival and will also play at DC/Dox on 6/12.

Dispicable in the Making

The Apprentice (2023) - Abbasi Unlike the all the drama and embellishment of political biopics - aka. Oliver Stone style filmmaking, Ali Abbasi's The Apprentice is just as brutal and succinct as the subject it is depicting in its lean, two-hour running time. At their early meeting the mentor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong) tells the young, ambitious New York real estate heir Donald Trump (Sebastian Stan), the three rules to live by - ATTACK, ATTACK, ATTACK, DENY EVERYTHING, ADMIT NOTHING, AND NEVER ADMIT DEFEAT, ALWAYS WIN NO MATTER WHAT THE COST. Roy Cohn, the prosecutor of the Rosenberg Trial and later became a notorious lawyer/fixer of all the shady and powerful people in New York, shaped Trump's world view, whether Trump admits it or not - the pattern has been quite clear now for everyone to see.

Much of the criticism of the film comes from the dislike of its subject. Why do we need to see this piece of shit on screen and give him even more attention than he deserves? - which is understandable. But if anything, The Apprentice is the reaffirmation of our hatred of this callous, disgusting man. The film just gives more insights on how Trump has become what he has become - a homophobe, germaphobe, sexist, cruel and vindictive, cheap human trash. And Cohn and Trump deserved each other.

Sebastian Stan is outstanding in portraying Trump with his mannerisms and facial expressions, but not as a caricature. But it's Jeremy Strong's Roy Cohn who steals the show. A ruthless, closeted gay man with the McCarthy era patriotism, who later died of AIDS. His ghostly stares and monotonous delivery depict a truly ghoulish man. Maria Bakalova plays Ivana Trump, giving the Trump's first wife a little bit of humanity, who supposedly fell down the stairs and died, and buried in a Trump golf course. It shows the pattern of Trump's disgusting views on women over the years.

The Apprentice doesn't explain how we got here. As we are experiencing the second term of this human garbage in the White House. The thorough reexamination on the validity of The American Dream, manifest destiny, just when America was great, and to whom? should be in order.

Hardboiled Wonderland

The Big Combo (1955) - Lewis Here is the setup: The hardboiled detective, Diamond (Cornel Wilde) is on the trail of a blonde mob girl, Susan (Jean Wallace), in order to get to the ruthless mob boss Mr. Brown (Richard Conte). But Mr. Brown is a cautious and methodical man to pin down of any wrong doing. Also, our detective is falling for the blonde. With no evidence of crimes, his police captain is pressuring him to let go of the Brown case. But Diamond is relentless.

With Mr. Brown's henchmen Fante (young Lee Van Cleef) and Mingo (Earl Holliman) knocking off any witness or associates one by one, including Diamond's brunette burlesque girl, Rita (Helene Stanton), things are getting personal....

The Big Combo is all about John Alton the cinematographer. Jean Wallace glimmers. Lee Van Cleef's never been this angular under the dim overhead lighting. The smokes, rapid machine gun fire, and shadows, those shadows. It's all too damn gorgeous. Who cares about the morality tale if you got those shadows?

Act of Remembering

A Useful Ghost (2025) - Boonbunchachoke Cinema, capturing moving images in time and space, projecting them and promising endless reanimation, is the ghostliest of all media. Ghosts, in literature and films, in large part, have been staple stand-ins for the unfinished businesses. With that in mind, Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke's feature debut, A Useful Ghost tells a very queer ghost story within a story about the importance of remembering. Set in modern day Thailand, the layered film takes the traditional Asian vengeful ghost story horror trope, but told with a great deal of deadpan humor. It suggests that remembering the dead, in our exploitative neoliberal world on the brink of environmental catastrophe, can be an act of resistance.

A Useful Ghost starts with our protagonist (Wisarut Homhuan) introducing themselves only as an 'academic ladyboy', having trouble with their vacuum cleaner. A handsome repairman shows up at their doorstep and starts telling an enchanting ghost story. His yarn unfolds in a factory which makes household appliances. A worker dies of an illness at the job and his ghost haunts the place, by taking over various machines and appliances. The owner, Suman (Apasiri Nitibhon), who inherited the factory from her dead husband, has to shut down the factory until the place is exorcized.

In the meantime, Suman's son March (Wisarut Himmarat), a grieving widower, is visited by the ghost of his dead wife, Nat (Davika Hoorne), who died of air pollution related illness, in the form of a red vacuum cleaner. It's not a good sight as March makes out with a vacuum cleaner while the company elders tour the haunted factory. Suman and the elders try to stop this unholy relationship in various ways (including electroshock therapy). They only tolerate their reunion when she becomes useful in driving out other pesky ghosts, just like Suman’s first born gay son whom they accepted- only, when his Australian born husband turns out to be useful as business liaison.

Soon the rich and powerful friends of Suman seek Nat's exorcising service, as they are haunted by the ghosts of people who died in government crackdown under military dictatorship, industrial accident, etc. In turn, they will grant Nat and March to conceive a child through artificial insemination - because ghosts have no legal rights.

At this point of storytelling, our ladyboy protagonist is furious. “Nat is a traitor to the other ghosts!” He only relents at the charm of the handsome repairman as the story continues.

A Useful Ghost speaks volumes about how the neoliberal society operates: the rich and powerful trying to erase inconvenient truths and their misdeeds while only feigning tolerance when it's financially beneficial to them. The electroshock therapy scenes are both hilarious in its absurdity and frightening-- frightening because they are reminders of the sex-conversion therapy pressed upon the young LGBTQ community and also the frequent torture tactics under a military dictatorship.

Boonbunchachoke not only takes the Asian horror trope of a vengeful ghost, but plays with the concept of ghosts both physically and metaphorically to get his message across. He understands the ghostliness of the film medium, as many transition shots resemble overexposed burnt out last frames of a film as they roll out of the film gate of the camera leaving the ghostly image.

The cold, urban liminal spaces mise-en-scene, as well as retro design of appliances, practical effects and deadpan delivery of the actors, all add to the success of this absurdist, yet poignant comedy. Great mix of humor and messaging, A Useful Ghost is an accomplished debut film by a promising director.

A Useful Ghost makes a world premiere in Critics Week section of Cannes 2025.

Existential Angst in Animated Feature

La mort n'existe pas/Death Does Not Exist (2025) - Dufour-Laperriére A group of young activists are about to embark on their plan to kill an industrialist in her remote mansion in the forest. Their aim is to shock the status-quo of powers that be, as the rich and powerful destroy nature without any repercussions. Their actions will make ripples.

But Hélène, a young member of the group, is having second thoughts about the terrorist act she is about to be part of. Their plan plays out with many casualties on both sides, with Hélène, frozen in fear, witnessing all the carnage, especially the graphic death of a young man who professed his love for her.

Before their attack, he hands her a letter in an envelope and she says she would read it after their deeds. As the film progresses, this unopened letter becomes a portal to Hélène gaining her second chance.

The rest of the film is Hélène's internal struggle/dialog that's taking place over idealism, identity and morality. Her opposition is in the form of Manon, one of her fellow activists friends, who might or might not have perished in the attack, to chastise Hélène's indecisions and inaction. With the armed guards as well as wolves on their trail, they hike deeper into the woods.

Artistry in Death Does Not Exist by Canadian-French animator Félix Dufour-Laperriére's is unique and striking. Unlike the multiple animation techniques he deployed in his last film Archipelago (2021), that included some live action sequences and still photos, Death features simply drawn - outlines of the facial features and bodies without any discernible details, except for hairstyles - characters in monochrome (uniformly yellow, green in different tones, etc), and nature and buildings with some other muted colors just to distinguish from one another. There's an elegance in his minimalist aesthetics, and it all serves to showcase the inner turmoil of Hélène and its time bending, dream-like narrative.

The most visually exciting parts are the statues of wolves in the greenhouse of the industrialist's mansion that starts the film with, as their snarling facial expressiones change in the lighting from different angles and and the sequences of cataclysmic event, as Hélène imagines the nature - the waves of vegetation taking over the human civilization, which reminded me of a ferocity and fluidity of many nature themed Miyazaki films.

As the ghost of Manon and Hélène's younger self push Hélène toward the second chance at participating in the assassination and in turn saving the young man she loves, Death Does Not Exist reverts back to the scene of a crime multiple times, with Hélène being still not sure if her action is the right thing to do.

The philosophical implication of a young idealistic woman in the face of violence and remorse at its center, Death Does Not Exist explores hefty subjects in an intriguing and unique way.

My Winnipeg

Universal Language (2024) - Rankin A missing case of the prize-winning turkey, a mistaken identity and money frozen in ice consist of Matthew Rankin's droll and absurd comedy, Universal Language. The surburbs of snowy, drab Winnipeg as its backdrop, Rankin pays tribute to the world of Abbas Kiarostami, from school kids and their quests to provide for their friend's missing pair of glasses, to the static, wide landscape shots. But unlike Kiarostami's Iranian countryside, we are presented with mundane brutalist architecture of none-discript, baige and grey brick and mortar buildings and highway over-passes of Winnipeg.

Rankin's visual comedy resembles that of Jacques Tati and Roy Andersson. The main characters, played by Rankin (Matthew) and co-writer Pirouz Nemati (Massoud), expressionlessly go about their very specific businesses - one reluctantly returning home by abandoning his city life and government job in Montreal, to see his mother, and the other, acting as a tour guide of made-up mundane history of Winnipeg - "This is a bench and a brief case left by someone who might have been waiting for bus in 1989," "this is Tim Hortons," "this dried up water fountain in an abandoned mall might one day shoot up gaysers once more, one would hope," etc, etc.

The nearsighted boy will get his glasses back, the beauty pageant turkey will be found, the frozen money in ice will be thawed, then put back into the ice in the ground again, the mistaken identity will turn out to be not mistaken at all. Rankin and co, create a deadpan comedy that is not only an ode to Iranian cinema, but a unique cross-cultural netherworld that feels consciously dour and less hipsterly yet familiar. Universal Language is a truly unique comedy that will put a smile on your face.

Unlikable

Hard Truths (2024) - Leigh Like many of Mike Leigh protagonists, Pansy (played by Marianne Jean Baptiste) is not a likable character. She thinks the world is out to get her, so long become bitter and confrontational in any human interactions, both family and strangers. Her contractor husband, Curtley (David Webber) and her slacker, grown up son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett) get the brunt of Pansy's fury daily. With years of her abuse while living under the same roof, they have simply given up dealing with her. The only person who is still sympathetic to Pansy is her sister Chantelle (Michele Austin) who is a down-to-earth, neighborly hairdresser. To Pansy's discomfort, Chantelle keeps on pushing her to show up for the fifth anniversary of their mother's death.

We know a person like that in real life, you'd think something bad must have happened to her in her early life, because she is so angry and anxious all the time. Not that Hard Truth gives you all the answers as to what happened to Pansy. No, that's not what Leigh is after. He and his collaborators, this time, the great Marianne Jean Baptiste as the lead, dig deeper into prevailing humanity underneath all the bitterness and hate. And it's a sight to see. Pansy is a very hard to like character. But by the end, we see a glimpse of her humanity peeking through here and there, that not all is lost. And with Curtley, despite his hurting back and Moses finding friends in unexpected places, that they are going to be all right.

Marianne Jean Baptiste deserves all the accolades for this performance. By far the best performance by any actor I've seen in a while.

Escaping Time

Le cinquième plan de La Jetée (2024) - Cabrera Chris Marker's photo roman La Jetée is regarded as one of the best and most influential Sci-Fi films ever made. Made in 1962, just as Algeria was declaring its independence from France, the film reflects on the colonialism and history repeating itself. The premise of The Fifth Shot of La Jetée is an intriguing one. Henri, a cousin of Dominique Cabrera the director, recognized himself and his parents in Marker's film, the still of a family, back to the camera, looking at the planes landing from the balcony of the Orly airport. The boy is the one who witnesses his own death. In those days, watching planes taking off and landing was a family pastime activity, and because of that, Marker was able to capture many candid shots for the film. The Fifth Shot is a cinematic detective story and how we, as an audience, have a claim in telling these stories in cinema.

As Cabrera digs through the archives and interviews with people from Marker's inner circle and her own family, it becomes very plausible that the shot is of Henri and his parents. Also, interesting coincidences come to life: Henri, like most Cabreras who were French citizens living in Algeria grew up in the same town as the actor, Davos Hanish, who played the main character in La Jetée. And Henri's mother had gone out with a Hanish boy, according to an old relative. And their resemblance is remarkable.

Cabrera weaves intriguing stories around Marker, who was a very private man, and his work, along with her family history and French colonial past. She reflects on how history repeat itself that we are all slaves to time. The Fifth Shot is a great contemplation on our relationship to cinema.

Marriage Counselor

Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer (2024) - Karaçelik Keane (John Magaro, First Cow) is a struggling writer who has been toiling on a book about a love story set in prehistoric time, for the last 4 years. His somewhat successful previous book was about Mongolians, which he had no knowledge about, just like the Cro-Magnons and Neandertals. His publisher is not crazy about the concept. It's not sexy enough - Keane should write about what he knows, he suggests. It is pretty obvious that his interior designer wife Suzie (Britt Lower, Severance) is not happy with having been a sole bread-winner of the house, and can't stand listening to his idiotic idea for the book that he will never finish, at dinner parties with friends. Her glacial expression and silence speaks volumes. She wants a divorce.

Everything changes when Keane is approached by Kollmick (Steve Buscemi), who says he's a fan and seems to know a lot about the author, at a bar. Kollmick has a proposition - 'write about a serial killer and I will tell you everything I know about serial killers.' Because he himself is a retired serial killer. He will show Keane the ropes. But after getting caught by Suzie, sneaking into the house in the middle of the night with Kollmick, Keane tells Suzie that Kollmick is a marriage counselor. So starts an unusual, funny dark comedy with the incredibly long title: Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer.

Suzie is not convinced that Kollmick is what he says he is. His method- bringing his stuffed dead cat with a doll's arm and telling the couple to talk to each other while looking only at the cat, doesn't really help to quell Suzie's suspicions. Also, she is suspecting that Keane is trying to kill her, based on all the books he's been reading - about serial killers and poisoning, which were given to him by Kollmick. But strangely, the counselling sessions, however unorthodox they seem, are proving to be helpful in their marriage.

Kollmick's idea- kidnapping Keane's publisher to get first-hand experience of the serial killer's process, doesn't sit well with Keane even with Kollmick's assurance- "He will understand, if it's for a sexy bestseller." But the plan, involving an Albanian gun dealer and a bottle of chloroform, doesn't go the way they expected, of course. To make matters worse, Suzie is on their trail, watching all the absurd situations that Keane and Kollmick find themselves in.

Psycho Therapy plays out like a dark indie noir comedy from the 90s, which we don't see often nowadays. Tolga Karaçelik's writing is brimming with absurdist humor and keeping unnecessary expositions to a minimum. With his-high pitched cracking voice, John Magaro is perfect for a bumbling poseur writer. Britt Lower's glacial Suzie with killer instincts had me cackling. Buscemi, who executive produced the film, chews up the scenes with that disdainful stare he is known for. The film ends abruptly, but rightfully after the night of kidnapping(s) gone wrong, where true natures of the couple are revealed. Psycho Therapy is a wildly entertaining black comedy with a pitch perfect cast.

Psycho Therapy: The Shallow Tale of a Writer Who Decided to Write about a Serial Killer will be in New York Theaters on April 4th with a Theatrical Expansion and On Demand April 11.

Elevated Pinku Movie

Love Hotel (1985) - Sômai Sômai Shinji , known for his idiosyncratic, delicate coming-of-age films, such as Sailor Suit and Machine Gun (1981), P.P. Rider (1983), Typhoon Club (1985) and Moving (1989), recently had his work re-evaluated and subsequently restored, then released in physical media and in theaters, thanks largely to a recent retrospective of his work, Rites of Passage: The films of Shinji Sômai at Japan Society here in New York. With plenty of admirers in contemporary Japanese directors (Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Kurosawa Kiyoshi among them), Sômai is now regarded as the unsung hero of 1980's Japanese cinema.

Cinema Guild, which has released the 4K restored version of Typhoon Club on disc, and Moving in theaters, is set to release the restored version of Sômai's foray into pinku genre, Love Hotel- the only Roman Porno film he ever directed for Nikkatsu Studio. And the film, besides the obvious sex scenes and nudity that are required in pinku genre, retains all the Sômai signatures and that's what makes Love Hotel rise beyond its genre trappings.

Love Hotel tells a story of two broken people and their fateful encounter. Muraki (Terada Midori), a small-time publisher owing money to yakuza loan sharks, finds his wife having sex with one of the yakuza men, while others look on, when he comes back to his squalid office. And by the looks of it, she is enjoying it. He decides to end it all.

Muraki goes to the eponymous hotel room of the title written in green neon light on the wall. With dark glasses on, he waits for a prostitute he hired from the escort service. Unsuspecting Nami (Hayami Noriko) shows up for some fun. Muraki attacks Nami, violently ripping her clothes off with a knife with an intention to kill her and then off himself as well. But it's the expression on her face- agony and extacy, that changes his mind.

Two years later, Muraki is a cab driver and Nami works at a fashion designer agency. Still reeling from his destitution and guilt, he wants to reconnect with Nami, after he spots her on the street. She on the other hand, while keeping her past life secret, is carrying out unhappy affairs with a married man (her boss).

Muraki gives Nami, who doesn’t recognize him, a ride to the Yokohama pier. She is going there to commit suicide. But he prevents her attempt at the pier and confesses his past transgression. At first, paranoid Nami suspects Muraki of blackmailing her about her past. But soon she sees his sincerity that there is no ulterior motive in his actions and learns to trust him. As they grow closer, she feels understood and loved. Now they try to finish what they started, at the same love hotel where they first met.

Sômai elevates the typical pinku melodrama premise into a heartfelt tale of two sad, lost souls in need of salvation in each other’s company. His signature long takes are there, so are his always moving crane shots. Also present are neon and rain soaked cramped tokyo interiors and lonely, empty liminal urban spaces at night. Accompanied by sultry pop ballads, with strong, natural performances by both Hayami and Terada, Love Hotel sits comfortably along the echelon of Sômai's impressive filmography.

Love Hotel opens 4/4 at Metrograph, NYC.

Strange Desires

Misericordia (2024) - Guiraudie Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), comes back to a rural mountain town to attend his childhood friend, Vincent (Jean Baptiste Durand)'s father's funeral. He hadn't been to the village in ages. Aimless and recently unemployed in Beaudoux where he lives now, Jérémie decides to stay at the kind widow Martine (Catherine Frot)'s home and sleeping in Vincent's old room (Vincent is married, has a kid and lives nearby). There's some kind of past between two men, as they tussle in the woods like schoolboys. There's also a tinge of jealousy in Vincent as Jérémie surreptitiously invites himself into his life (first his mom, then his friends). There surely must be some sinister motives. Is he trying to take over the dead father's bakery? Is he trying to sleep with mom?

Things get complicated when Jérémie tries to seduce a local schlub and friend of Vincent, Walter (David Ayala) and Walter rebuffs his drunken advances with a shotgun. Soon after, things get boiled over and Jérémie ends up killing Vincent, after another violent tussle in the woods. The rest of the film is a police thriller of sort, Guiraudie style.

Guiaudie's a master at absurdist humor that is still very much down to earth. Think Misericordia as stripped down, depoliticized, working class Teorema where one person seduces everyone around him willingly or unwillingly. Jérémie is not a Godot, or American Uncle or your ideal manifest in a human form. He is full flesh and blood with his own desires and people somehow love him back. The police is on his track because of his shaky alibi, but it's the local priest who give him cover. Love works in stange ways. Misericordia is a delightful, absurdist comedy that says a lot about strange human desires and attractions.

Tango Lesson

Being Maria (2024) - Palud French film industry's going through a full #MeToo reckoning with the case of Christophe Ruggia, a director convicted of sexual abuse of actress Adèle Haenel when she was underage. Staple names in French cinema, such as directors Jacques Doillon and Beonoît Jacquot have also been accused of rape and sexual offenses, and actor Gerard Depardieu is facing a trial for rape. In this climate, Jessica Palud's Being Maria revisits Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film ]Last Tango in Paris and tells the untold story from the perspective of its co-star Maria Schneider and the film's life-long effect on the actress. Schneider, star of many memorable films such as Michelangelo Antonioni's Passenger, Jacques Rivette's Merry-Go-Round, later became an outspoken activist against sexism in the French film industry.

Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening, Empire, Mickey 17), plays Schneider, a young, unknown actress chosen by Bertolucci (Giuseppe Marggio), to star opposite Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) in sexually charged Last Tango, at age 19. Growing up with a single mother who has very low opinion on men and the entertainment industry - Maria's deadbeat father, Gelin (Yvan Attal) is an actor. Against her mother's wishes with her teenage rebellious spirit, Maria seeks advice from Gelin and way in the film industry. It was the 70s and if you are an established auteur like Bertolucci (who had directed Conformist two years prior), it was 'anything goes' for art. The premise of the film is two strangers meeting by chance and carrying out a strictly physical relationship, baring their bodies and souls to each other. There will be a lot of nudity, so it will be controversial, Bertolucci warns. But you get to work with Brando and your career will be launched. Maria knows what she is signing up for.

At first she finds her experience pleasant and finds Brando gentle. But it's the infamous "butter" scene, an improvised simulated sex scene involving butter, that really breaks Maria. After the scene, she felt violated and humiliated by both Bertolucci and Brando, who never told her what their intentions were for the scene beforehand and never apologized. Her shock and tears captured on screen were real.

Now 60 years old, Matt Dillon has gravitas and hulking physicality to play the Hollywood acting legend Brando. He moves and speaks with confidence and ease with a glimpse of a dark side and arrogance.

Schneider is reprimanded by her manager for speaking out about the incident during the press tour after the film's release. Soon afterwards, she becomes a heroin addict and finds herself branded as 'difficult to work with', by refusing to do a nude scene in most of the roles she is offered. Surely there must be projects that she doesn't have to go topless. Again, this is French film industry in the 70s and 80s where women's roles are limited ('either saints or harlots' Schneider says with a sigh) and her reputation being in Last Tango precedes her. She befriends a college student Noor (Céleste Brunnquell) who is writing her dissertation on women's roles in films and the two become involved. And it is Noor who sees Maria through her drug addiction.

It is understandable that Vartolomei was chosen to play Schneider, even though there's no real physical resemblance. In Happening, she played Anne, a high school student in need of abortion which was still illegal in the 60s France. With all the conservative swing in Europe and especially in France, the film and her performance became a lightning rod for the feminist activism. And she does a great job portraying a principled young Schneider, who saw injustices in French film industry run by men, for men, long before #MeToo caught up with it. Being Maria is a scathing rebuke to unchecked sexism that dominated the film industry for way too long, and a well-deserved portrayal of trailblazing actress/activist.

Preview: First Look 2025 at MoMI

A highlight of the MoMI’s annual film programs, the 14th edition of First Look returns March 12–16 with a diverse lineup—38 films including 4 world premieres and 23 U.S. or North American premieres, representing 21 countries—beginning with the New York premiere of Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse with the director and star Lily McInerny in person. Half of all films in the festival this year, including opening night, are directed by women. The full schedule and advance tickets are available here.

Below are some of the most intriguing titles I was able to sample:

Bonjour Tristesse - Durga Chew-Bose The original 1958 version, a cautious coming-of-age tale directed by Otto Preminger, made a star out of pixie-cut Jean Seberg (later to be immortalized in Godard's Breathless). It seemed Bonjour Tristesse was primed for an update. Durga Chew-Bose, a Canadian filmmaker, makes it her feature debut with Claes Bang as Raymond, a widowed father, Chloe Sevigny as Anne, Raymond's old friend, an elegant fashion designer from Paris and Lily McInerny as Cécile, a wide-eyed seventeen-year-old, trying to fix up her father's love life. In Chew-Bose's hand, this sun-drenched, French Riviera set fairy-tale-gone-wrong plays out like an elegant chamber piece, beautifully shot by Maximilian Pittner. She concentrates on the tender father-daughter relationship with a hint of sadness.

Sevigny, playing against type as an uptight, motherly Anne, with an air of unapproachability, a wounded woman being denied of her long-lost love for the second time. With decidedly old fashioned - costumes, the old parent-trap theme, Bonjour Tristesse doesn't feel like it belongs in 2025, but this reboot is fun, nonetheless. Desert of Namibia (2024) - Yoko Yamanaka Yoko Yamanaka, who made splash with her first low budget feature Amiko (2017) when she was just twenty, is at it again with her second feature, Desert of Namibia. This time, her protagonist is not a High School girl, but a wayward 21-year-old, bouncing from one boyfriend to another, having a hard time fitting into a rigid society, where things are in decline and there's no real prospect for the future, as a young zoomer woman.

Kana (Yuumi Kawai), a gazelle like beauty is first seen wondering around Tokyo, meeting a friend, who informs her the suicide death of one of their friends. But she is distracted by other peoples' conversations spilling in her earshot. The dissociation is a dominant feature in the film. One minute Kana is happy and sunny, the next, she is moody and unresponsive. After leaving a live-in boyfriend in their tiny apartment, she moves in to another crammed one with Hayashi (Daichi Kaneko), an artist. Both men are enamored of her. But she soon finds faults in men and become volatile in her relationships.

There's a scene Kana takes a tumble on the stairs outside their apartment after a heated argument. She is briefly hospitalized with a neck brace. But Kana's anger doesn't stop there. Everyone tells her that she is free to do whatever she wants and choices she makes in life is entirely hers. But it's as if she is watching her daily life (physically fighting with Hayashi) on her phone while on treadmill - which Yamanaka includes later, as a movie within a movie. The general idea of survival and foreignness Kana feels is suggested in the film's title. The handheld camera work and long takes in tiny spaces, Yamanaka captures the intimacy and suffocation that Kana feels expertly.

Israel-Palestine on Swedish TV 1958-1989 - Olsson Göran Hugo Olsson's new, well-timed archive-based documentary once again culls materials exclusively from Swedish Public Broadcasting (SVT), seeing the Israel-Palestine conflict from an as much non-partial point of view. But even with the wealth of footage, Olsson puts in the beginning of the film that 'the archive material doesn't necessarily tell us what really happened but says a lot about how it was told.' What's not shown or omitted holds just as much importance, he seems to suggest. These snapshots of 40 years of footage, with numbers, dates, the producer's names, the original title, and the type of film stock (up until the 80s) on 'archive cards', chronicles the rise of the State of Israel and 'The Palestine Problem'.

It features many of the movers and shakers of the region over the years, all of whom contributed to the downward spiral of the circle of violence and suffering. It illustrates when the powers-that-be lose the sight of the people, even while attempting to solve the Problem. It also suggests that it is unreasonable that a state exists on religious foundation in this day and age. As we go through early reports on Israeli society through 1967 war and tumultuous 70s, Sabra and Shatila Massacre and the collapse of Soviet Union, it shows how the public opinion has shifted as Israel's aggression intensified over the years. If anything, this clear-eyed, 3 1/2-hour documentary gives the historical and political context to what is happening in Gaza right now.

100,000,000,000,000 (2024) - Vernier Taking place in glitzy Monaco near Christmas time, Virgil Vernier's new film focuses on Alfine, an escort who describes himself as having a nice ass, nice lips, nice cock but lacking initiative. Not having a permanent residence, Alfine jumps from one client's luxury home to another and wonders around the port city-state lit up with Christmas decorations and lights, luxury shops, and shorelines filled with million-dollar yachts. He and his escort friends talk about opening an agency and their shallow dreams. Then he gets to babysit Julia, a twelve-year-old Chinese girl whose super rich developer parents are away on holidays. She says that her father is building an offshore island equipped with bunkers. She ominously tells Alfine that something bad is going to happen in the near future and she wants him to be on the island. The society we are living is in many ways incomprehensible. A million, trillion, quadrillion- numbers so big they lose all meaning and don't contribute to anything to our lives.

As usual, Vernier (Mercuriales, Sophia Antipolis), examines the seedy underbelly of our shallow modern society, urban isolation, loneliness, and human connection. Virgil Vernier remains to be one of the most interesting contemporary French directors working today.

Preview: Rendez-vous with French Cinema 2025

This year marks Rendez-Vous with French Cinema, running from March 6 to March 16, celebrates its 30th year at Film at Lincoln Center, NYC. This celebrated festival offers a dynamic showcase of contemporary French filmmaking, featuring an array of 23 films by both emerging voices—some selected as part of Unifrance’s 10 to Watch 2025 Program*, a yearly initiative honoring a new generation of directors and actors who contribute to the vitality of French creation—and seasoned directors that tackle relevant and enduring themes. This selection of North American, U.S., and New York premieres celebrates the energy, innovation, and range of French cinema.

The stellar lineup this year includes Visiting Hours by Patricia Mazuy, about two woman forging an unlikely friendship over their husbands' incacerations, starring indomitable Isabelle Huppert, the 77th Cannes Film Festival opener The Second Act by Quentin Dupieux, a meta-comedy taking place on a film set and featuring a star-studded cast, Wild Diamond, stunning feature debut by Agathe Riedinger, a gripping exploration of 19-year-old Liane’s (Malou Khebizi) fierce pursuit of fame as a reality TV contestant, Meeting with Pol Pot, a searing indictment of Khmer Rouge regime by Rithy Panh, and Jessica Palud’s Being Maria, which premiered at Cannes, an unsparing exploration of Maria Schneider’s (Anamaria Vartolomei) trauma stemming from her experience on the set of Bernardo Bertolucci’s Last Tango in Paris, with Matt Dillon playing Marlon Brando.

Being Maria - Jessica Palud As French film industry's going through a full #MeToo reckoning, Jessica Palud's Being Maria revisits Bernardo Bertolucci's controversial film The Last Tango in Paris and tells the untold story from the perspective of its co-star Maria Schneider and the film's life-long effect on the actress. Schneider, star of many memorable films as Michelangelo Antonioni's Passenger, Jacques Rivette's Merry-Go-Round, later became outspoken activist against sexism in French film industry.

Anamaria Vartolomei of Happening, plays Schneider, a young, unknown actress chosen by Bertolucci (Giuseppe Marggio), to star opposite Marlon Brando (Matt Dillon) in sexually charged The Last Tango, at age 19. It was the 70s and if you are an established auteur like Bertolucci, it was 'anything goes' for art. The premise of the film is two strangers meeting by chance and carrying out a strictly physical relationship, baring their bodies and souls to each other. There will be a lot of nudity, so it will be controversial, the director warns. But you get to work with Brando and your career will be launched. Maria knows what she is signing up for. Yet she needs a consent form (because she is underage) signed by her movie-business disapproving mother. But it's the infamous "butter" scene, an improvised simulated sex scene involving butter, that really breaks Maria. After the scene, she felt violated and humiliated by both Bertolucci and Brando, who never told her what their intentions were for the scene beforehand and never apologized. Her shock and tears captured on screen were real.

She is reprimanded by her manager for speaking out about the incident during the press tour after the film's release. Soon afterwards, she becomes a heroin addict and finding herself branded as 'difficult to work with', by refusing to do a nude scene in most of the roles she is offered. She befriends with a college student Noor (Céleste Brunnquell) who is writing her dissertation on women's roles in films and the two become involved. And it is Noor who sees Maria through her drug addiction.

It is understandable that Vartolomei was chosen to play Schneider, even though there's no physical resemblance. In Happening, where she plays Anne, a high school student in need of abortion which was still illegal in the 60s France. With all the conservative swing around the world, her performance became a women's rights symbols. And she does a great job portraying a principled young Schneider who saw injustices in French film industry run by men, for men, long before #metoo caught up with it.

Wild Diamond - Agathe Riedinger 19-year-old Liane (Malou Khebizi), living with her unemployed single mother and a younger sister, lives and dies by her phone, getting followers with her looks and dance moves. Platitude of her fans, spreading across the screen is what she lives for. Her emphasis on her looks - she got a boob job and self-administered Botox on her lips, are all part of getting more followers, so she can be famous. Being rich and powerful are her goals in life. She really wants to get out of her less than perfect surroundings. To her, everyone, including her circle of friends, mom, family counselor, and Dino, a local dirt bike mechanic that she has a sweet for, is beneath her.

She gets a call from a casting director of the popular reality TV show, Miracle Island. And she gets a chance to do an audition. This is the golden ticket she has been waiting for. While obsessing over the callback, all the people around her are getting irritated by her diva behavior. Dino asks her what if she doesn't get the TV role. She sullenly replies that she would kill herself. Would she get a break and show all the naysayers, who tells her that being loved is not a talent? Agathe Riedinger creates great intimacy with documentary style camera work with the help of Malou Khebizi's incredibly natural, vulnerable performance in a soul baring role.

Visiting Hours - Patricia Mazuy Alma (Isabelle Huppert) and Mina (Hafsia Herzi), women from two different backgrounds - one of privilege and the other, working class, meet at the family visiting facility of a prison. Both their husbands are incarcerated. Alma, a former dancer now a bored wife of a neurosurgeon who is serving time for DUI manslaughter, sees Mina in distress and lends a helping hand- she invites her and her two young children to stay at her large empty house, so Mina doesn't have to travel 3 hours by bus to visit her husband in prison. This way, Alma doesn't feel so alone by herself.

A friendship blossoms: Mina takes liking to Alma's directness, biting sense of humor and her generosity. It is revealed that Alma's marriage has been on the fritz for a while, even long before the hit-and-run, whereas Mina still has a passionate love for her incarcerated husband- tears and brief tryst on visits. Mina's husband is in jail for robbing a jewelry store and Yassine, his associate outside, is not liking her new situation, suspecting that she and her husband are stiffing him from some hidden stolen goods.
Things take a turn with the news of Alma's husband's early release and Yassine spying on her. Alma's assessment of her husband's collecting art as an investment gives Mina an idea of a staged break-in where Yassin can take one of the paintings from Alma's house and leave her and her family alone. Alma wouldn't mind and won't call cops on her.

Patricia Mazuy's women's empowerment story has similar dynamics with Claude Chabrol's Hitchcockian thrillers. It even starts with Alma shopping for flowers in visually overloaded flower shop sequence reminiscent of Vertigo. Mazuy is a very competent director and gets great chemistry out of Huppert and Herzi. Visiting Hours may not have the gritty, ultra-violent aspect of her last film, Saturn Bowling, but it's a solid film with great performances and great visuals.

Meeting with Pol Pot - Rithy Panh Based on American journalist Elizabeth Becker's personal experience in Cambodia under the genocidal Khmer Rouge regime, Meeting with Pol Pot tells a three French journalist Lise (Irène Jacob), Alain (Grégoire Colin) and Paul (Cyril Gueï) being invited to interview Pol Pot, known as Brother No.1 in 1978.

But however the welcome party, consists of high ranking officials who were classmates of Alain at Sorbonne, paints the pictures of completely just and egalitarian society that they are shown around, the skeptical journalists can't shake off the feeling that there's something hidden amid tightly controlled the rural work-camp compound. Paul, the photographer, who has tendency to walk off from the carefully guided tour, disappears first after witnessing human remains in the field and his films confiscated. Even though Lise protests of their near imprisonment in the compound and lack of transparency by their AK-45 wielding captors, Alain, who forged the friendship through correspondences with Brother No. 1, is in denial of the rumors of the genocide of 1.5 - 2 million people, and still hoping for a chance to interview him.

Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh is known for his documentary work on atrocities committed by Khmer Rouge regime (S21: Khmer Rouge Killing Machine, A Missing Picture), combines archival footage, rare projections, and dioramas with clay figures, along with scenes with actors to tell the story of what happens when an ideology overtakes its intent. It's a sobering, clear eyed film. Jacob, as she ages, possesses Charlotte Rampling gravitas in her acting.