The Drama of a Single Banknote To understand the genius of the Iranian New Wave, one must look at how it treats the small, the ordinary, and the seemingly trivial. Where Western narrative cinema so…
Lost Reel Posts
Sailing the Cosmic Ether: A Critical Appreciation of Treasure Island in Outer Space (1987) To transpose Robert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure Island into the celestial void is a conceit that sounds, on paper, like the fever dream of a commercial…
The Balcony (1963) centers on Madame Irma (Shelley Winters), who operates a high-end brothel that serves as a theater for erotic role-playing. While the outside world crumbles, Irma’s clients—including a bishop, a judge, and a general—indulge in their deepest fantasies of authority and power.
Jan Kounen’s Blueberry (2004) – Explore the film’s integration of Moebius’s visual legacy, shamanic consciousness, and the subversion of traditional Western tropes.
Jun Miyazaki’s 1996 short ‘Rapid Fire’ maps the unpopulated allure of nocturnal Japan through light trails and ambient electronic cool.
E. Elias Merhige’s 1990 silent film Begotten uses heavily degraded black-and-white optical printing to craft a visceral, Gnostic myth of creation.
Shūji Terayama’s 1977 film ‘The Eraser’ literalizes memory loss by physically rubbing out characters and seaside scenes on the film emulsion.
Nigel Wingrove’s 1988 avant-garde debut ‘Axel’ is a wordless, symbolist exploration of desire, ritual, and decadent aesthetics.
Richard C. Sarafian’s 1971 revisionist Western, Man in the Wilderness—a gritty, poetic survival masterpiece starring Richard Harris.