Gandahar (aka Light Years) first published by Film4 Summary: René Laloux’s third and final feature is a time-travelling science fantasy with a lot of brain to match its bizarreness. Review: If René Laloux will always be best known for his feature debut Fantastic Planet (1973), his final feature Gandahar (1988) – also known as Light Years1Gandahar was…
Mothra first published by Little White Lies, as the 116th entry in my Cinema Psychotronicum column In 1954, director Ishiro Honda released his black-and-white Godzilla, which was to be Japan’s first kaiju, or ‘monster’, film. Unleashed from the ocean floor by nuclear testing in the Pacific, this gigantic radiation-breathing lizard would become an embodiment of…
The Last Days of Capitalism begins with a moment of intimacy: impressionistic, soft-focus close-ups of a couple in the bliss of sexual congress, their two bodies become one. Yet in keeping with the title of Adam Mervis’ feature debut, this relationship is also entirely transactional, and doomed to come to an end. Not that…
Gwendoline first published by Film4 Summary: Just (Emmanuelle) Jaeckin’s final film, a comedy adventure romp based on a bondage cartoon strip from the 1940s, is surprisingly coy about its sex, if entirely unreserved about its B-grade status. Review: ‘The Adventures of Sweet Gwendoline’ was one of four adult comic series written by John Willie (real name…
Inflatable Sex Doll Of The Wasteland (Kôya no Dacchi waifu) first published by Little White Lies, as teh 99th instalment of my Cinema Psychotronicum column Atsushi Yamatoya had previously co-directed the pink film Season of Betrayal (Uragiri no kisetsu, 1966) with Koji Wakamatsu, but his first feature as solo director, originally released under the title…
The text that opens The Wanting Mare tells of the city of Whithren, which once a year exports wild horses, hunted down on its outskirts, to a perpetually wintry city across the sea on the northern continent of Levithen. These opposed cities, and the world of Anmaere that contains them, are spaces of pure invention,…
Fantastic Planet (La planète sauvage) first published by EyeforFilm (13 Sept 2006) The best thing about Tarsem Singh’s The Cell (2000) was not its manic cut and dash, nor its psychological sadism – rather, it was a quiet, largely incidental scene in which Jennifer Lopez’s protagonist was shown lying back in her bed, smoking a joint and…
Terminal first published by RealCrime Magazine “There is a place like no other on Earth, a land full of wonder, mystery and danger. Some say, to survive it, you need to be as mad as a Hatter – which luckily, I am.” Writer/director Vaughn Stein’s feature debut Terminal opens with these words, uttered in a…
Mandy first published by Sight & Sound, Nov 2018 Review: It is hard to define what constitutes a cult film, as the label typically refers not so much to content as to the kind of niche yet devoted audience that a film has acquired over time: adoring hipsters who happily return to the scene of…
Mirai reviewed exclusively for Projected Figures Aged just four, and keen to be like the bigger boys, Kun (voiced by Moka Kamishiraishi) has removed the training wheels from his brand new pushbike, and after a couple of abortive attempts, has learnt to ride unaided. “Children are incredible!” exclaims Kun’s amazed father (Gen Hoshino) to his wife…
Images first published by Little White Lies, as the 54th instalment in my Cinema Psychotrunicum column “In Search of Unicorns – a book for children,” intones author Cathryn (Susannah York) in voiceover at the beginning of Robert Altman’s Images (the title appearing in modest lower case), before narrating the events of the latest fiction that she…