Portrait of a Lady on Fire

Since the release of a Portrait of a Lady on Fire a lot of discussion has been generated about the differences between the male and female gaze. Portrait of a Lady on Fire is directed by Celine Sciamma who is female and also a lesbian. What this does is give the film an entirely different feel and gaze to the likes of Blue is the Warmest Colour and The Handmaiden, both of which were directed by men. Even having not seen Blue is the Warmest Colour I know it’s quite famous (or infamous) for a very long sex scene whilst The Handmaiden was more graphic than your usual period drama.

Underwater

 

A few people have been a little sarcastic about this much delayed underwater creature feature by calling it The Abyssmal. A little harsh on a decent, if perfunctory, film but you can’t really deny the obvious parallels between this and the likes of Alien and The Abyss. Set seven miles below the ocean surface, a ragtag team of survivors fight for their lives following a deadly explosion at an underwater station. It’s believed that an earthquake caused the explosion, but it appears human activity 20000 fathoms under the sea has awakened something unknown to humanity.

Bombshell

 

“Liberal Hollywood is racist” “They are the elite” “They are very bad for our country” proclaims Donald Trump in a series of tweets. Its fair to say that Donald Trump and his supporters dont take to kindly to lefty, snowflakey Hollywood. So it was somewhat of a surprise that a film pops up depicting the main anchors of Trump’s leading supporting newswork as the heroines. Based on the 2016 sexual harassment scandal that plagued Fox news, Bombshell stars as Charlize Theron as Megyn Kelly who becomes part of a scandal that ousts Roger Ailes.

1917

 

There was a lot of media hubbub about how 1917 was shot in one continuous take. In fact that seemed to be the main selling point of the movie even though its not entirely uncommon. When thinking about films made like this most people’s minds go as far back as Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope which, rather than being a single take, was several long takes that have been subtly edited to appear as though its a single take (this is how 1917 was filmed rather than being one take). Even previous films about war have seen long takes make a great impact such as the Dunkirk scene in Atonement and the trench sequences in Stanley Kubrick’s anti-war film Paths of Glory.