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therewillbeblus wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 1:25 am I was absolutely blown away by this- which may be Assayas' best use of his signature guerrilla camerawork to date. The chaotic 'action' scenes in the labyrinthine grey space of the underground prison in Hong Kong destroyed all sense of grounding markers in time, place, person via film grammar, eroding the action in a thriller down to the murky, isolating sensationalism of a beating heart in darkness. While there's a lot being said here about conduits, per usual with Assayas, these moments read loudest as surrenders of existential disintegration-meets-urgent acute declarations of empowered agency in fight/flight mode, as found in his greatest work, demonlover, of which this film is of a piece. There's also a lot being expressed about globalization and how, on a micro-level, we often find sublimation in submissive behavior, here doubling reflexively as sexual games. But there's also that switch-play occurring, that uses variable mechanisms to engage in predatory survivalism within transactional interfaces, be they drug-running, sexual dynamics, spying, business ventures, violence, etc. Everything's occurring on the surface, because that's where the currency lies, but Assayas understands that this is where we've constructed meaning and depressingly the only avenues where we can truly actualize, locate, share, or steal back our identities.

The film seems to cop out in its last act by design, but the more I reflect on the ending, the more it feels like an ascension of these rules toward a higher revelation of 'self': One that refuses to play the game anymore and maybe, just maybe, can find happiness outside of transactional relationships that are unpredictable in delivering expected outcomes, but in a broad sense are predictably untrustworthy, dangerous, and irreparably self-destructive.

beamish14 wrote:KimStim is doing great work with Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay

denti alligator wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2026 5:16 pm

beamish14 wrote:KimStim is doing great work with Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay

What Quays are they doing/have they done?

diamonds wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:26 pm The screens for Boarding Gate look like they're from the same dated master that has been around, no? (I'm a bit weary of long-awaited titles finally arriving on Blu-ray this late in the cycle that end up looking slightly better than DVDs. See also: the stills for the copy of The Marquise of O… also available through Vinegar Syndrome, the recent Eureka Charisma release)

criterionsnob wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2026 5:30 pm I thought the new Quays might come via OCN this month with a slipcover, but seems like KimStim are just releasing it on their own on April 7.

ianthemovie wrote: Honestly these releases are more exciting to me for what they indicate will be/might be coming later, namely… Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

dwk wrote: Wed Apr 01, 2026 4:13 pm Any one have any opinions on the films contained in the Ténèbres Françaises set?

swo17 wrote:Say what you want about Dracula, this is 3 months in a row of a new Radu Jude film on Blu-ray!

Any thoughts on Mabel Cheung's Illegal Immigrant?