Complete with a fiery climax, this film’s slight twist on European folklore films shares the film editor from Gustav Machaty’s Ekstasy and it’s adapted from a writer that inspired Franz Kafka and the film Three Wishes for Cinderella. The unusual blend opens with whispers of witchcraft amidst a storm and skinny-dipping, then launches into rural melodrama surrounding a free-spirited young woman mistreated by locals because they think she’s a witch.

My full piece at inreviewonline.com/2024/12/11/fairy-tale-interrupted-diva-bara/

I interviewed Tokyo Melody director Elizabeth Lennard on the occasion of Japan Society's screening of a rare 16mm print. We discuss the low-budget filmmaking, the Akiko Yano duet, Lennard and Sakamoto's shared love of nonlinear art and how it informs the way the film is edited, and Lennard's photographs of Warhol, Jerry Lewis and Chantal Akerman!

"Shot in 7 days with a small crew, the limited resources did not prevent Lennard from portraying many facets of Sakamoto’s art."

ultradogme.com/2023/07/28/tokyo-melody/

tired: wondering what it was like to be in the audience when Alien (1979) debuted and having no idea about the famed chest-bursting scene coming
wired: wondering what it was like to be in the audience when Ivan the Terrible Pt II debuted and having no warning about the color section coming in near the end

Pedro Costa on Notorious: "Our Man of Desire torturing us again with the cruelest of films."