Tag: bleeding

The Ice Tower
(La Tour de Glace)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 21 November 2025
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(La Tour de Glace)
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Director – Lucile Hadzihalilovic – 2025 – France, Germany, Italy – Cert. 15 – 117m

*****

Midwinter. A homeless girl stumbles onto a film set where a notoriously difficult actress is shooting an adaptation of The Snow Queen – out in UK cinemas on Friday, November 21st

Opening with microscopic images of of snowflakes and more abstract visuals of refracted light, this swiftly delivers a female voiceover (by Aurélia Petit from Saint Omer, Alice Diop, 2022; By the Grace of God, François Ozon, 2018; Happy End, Michael Haneke, 2017; Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas, 2016; The Science of Sleep, Michel Gondry, 2006) in French with English subtitles for those of us in the UK, in which the word ‘neige’ (snow) is seemingly, endlessly repeated. Then images of a girl wandering snow covered mountainsides gives way to night time small town streets before Jeanne (newcomer Clara Pacini) is told off for arriving late at the supper table. “I was afraid you’d gone”, says one of the younger girls (Cassandre Louis Urbain).

At night, Jeanne surreptitiously reads a postcard from a friend picturing Alpenaille skating rink addressed to her at the Bon Secours (Good Rescue) Foster Home.

The little girl from earlier comes into her room complaining of a nightmare.… Read the rest

Tags abusive, actress, adaptation, August Diehl, Aurélia Petit, bauble, bedtime story, bereavement, bleeding, blue bead, break-in, Cassandre Louis Urbain, catering table, cave, Christmas tree, Clara Pacini, costumes, cut, danger, dead mother, drink, drugs, enchantment, fairytale, film set, film shoot, foster home, France, Gaspar Noé, Germany, handbag, head wound, Hitch, hitch-hike, homeless, hotel, hotel lobby, ice, ice rink, icicles, ID card, identity, imposter, Italy, kiss, labyrinth, ledge, lift, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Marine Gesbert, Marion Cotillard, Midwinter, miniature set, mountain, mountainsides, mulled wine, necklace, nightmare, P.A., playing a role, postcard, precipice, predator, prism, projection box, rape, raven, realm, refracted light, rushes, screening room, skating rink, sleep, snow, snowflakes, stand-in, stranded, streets, succubus, supper table, sustenance, tantrum, The Ice Tower, The Snow Queen, torchlight, tower, Valentina Vezzoso, wandering, warehouse

Features Live Action Movies

New Life

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 17 June 2024
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Director – John Rosman – 2023 – US – 85m

***1/2

Neither the widow nor the assassin pursuing her towards the Canadian border are quite what they seem – genre-bending thriller is out on digital in the UK

The sound of a distressed woman. Now we see her (Hayley Erin) – her head is bleeding as she walks. Away from – what? She makes it down the street in a very normal-looking, small town somewhere in Middle America, into her very ordinary, well-kept, no frills, suburban house. She washes the blood off her head, switches a hoodie for a sweater. Constantly checking around her, she sees the armed men in the hallway and exits through a window.

Another woman (Sonya Walger) puts down her handgun on the edge of a bathroom sink. She looks tired. The yellow post-it notes on her mirror read “I have unlimited opportunities to succeed” and “I am in the process of becoming the best version of myself”. She takes a pill from the ‘M’ compartment of a little circular dispenser marked in letters for days of the week. On her mobile, she hits Play on Bob Dylan’s Highway 61 Revisited, specifically the song Like a Rolling Stone.… Read the rest

Tags a facility somewhere, a place to stay, accommodation, ALS, armed men, Ayanna Berkshire, bar, bathroom sink, been in contact, Betty Moyer, Blaine Palmer, bleeding, blood, Bob Dylan, border crossing, bottle of wine, breakfast, campfire, Canada, care professional, cat and mouse, change appearance, change clothes, chaos, chase, client, computer nerd, contract, dependent, dispenser, distress, escape, genre bender, glove compartment, guns, handgun, Hayley Erin, hayloft, Highway 61 Revisited, hit-man, hit-woman, incarcerated, incurable, Jeb Berrier, John Rosman, Kevin-Michael Moore, last known position, lift, Like a Rolling Stone, Lisa Cross, medical condition, medication, medicine, Middle America, mirror, mortality, Nick George, normal-looking, normality, on the run, out of control, outrun, patient, personal freedom, personal hell, personal nightmare, pickup truck, pill, pity, post-it notes, prey, prisoner in your own body, pursuer, pursuit, rely on others, rucksack, small town, Sonya Walger, stowaway, stray dog, street, suburban, supplies, survival, target, temporary work, theft, tired, Tony Amendola), tracking, US, videolink, walking stick, washes, woman, woods

Animation Features Live Action Movies

Eraserhead

Director – David Lynch – 1977 – US – Cert. 15 – 89 mins

*****

A look at where Eraserhead came from – and where its weirdness led. First published in 1996.

The current vogue for Special Editions and Director’s Cuts prompts David Lynch to rerelease Eraserhead with a Dolby Stereo sound remix.

The pre-existing gem of a soundtrack was textured by Lynch and collaborating sound designer Alan Splet to incorporate a host of industrial noises alongside such unforgettable effects as the hero’s girlfriend’s mother gargling during a dinner table fit. Eraserhead remains arguably the most original and innovative vision the last twenty years of American cinema have produced.

Not that film or director came from the mainstream. Abandoning painting as an art student, Lynch began making animation / live action films with the brief loop Six Men Getting Sick (1967) with the four minute The Alphabet (1969) and the half hour The Grandmother (1970) funded by American Film Institute grants. The AFI then funded Eraserhead, which mushroomed to feature length and required completion finance from elsewhere. Reactions to the result vary between boredom, revulsion, or admiration (this writer aligns with the latter).

Invited to his girlfriend Mary’s (Charlotte Stewart) for dinner, “Printer – on vacation” Henry (Lynch regular Jack Nance) learns she is pregnant.… Read the rest

Features Live Action Movies

The Innocents
(De Uskyldige)

Post author By Jeremy Clarke
Post date 19 May 2022
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(De Uskyldige)

Director – Eskil Vogt – 2021 – Norway – Cert. 15 – 117m

***

A small group of pre-teen children begin to explore their supernatural powers with devastating results – out in cinemas on Friday, May 20th

Two children live with their parents on a very ordinary housing estate near woodlands leading to a footbridge over a nearby motorway. Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) enjoys going outside to play with other kids of her own age, seven or eight. Often, though, her mum will ask her to take her autistic, older sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), 11, with her, which Ida doesn’t really like having to do.

Anna is autistic and lives largely in her own internal world. When Ida goes outside to play, knowing Anna will likely sit happily in the same place for several hours if left to her own devices, Ida will leave Anna on her own while Ida plays with other kids her own age – Ben (Sam Ashraf) or Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim). Ida assumes that Anna will still be there when she comes back.

Ben is troubled by a strange ability he possesses which he doesn’t understand. He can control people. Alone in the woods with Ida, he explains this to her.… Read the rest