Scarlet Diva
A Film That Felt Like a Confession Europe’s film industry in the early twenty-first century did not include Scarlet Diva in the catalog of austere films which is the image it has retained even today. To Asia Argento, creating and wearing all of these different hats in the film at age 25, was an achievement, […]
Miss March
A Comedy Film That Came With a Shock When Miss March was released in 2009, it was not simply dubbed another teenage sex farce. Leading up to it, the talk about the movie was mostly focused on the shocking concept: a boy wakes from a coma to find out that his high school sweetheart is […]
Fifty Shades Freed
The Phenomenon’s Anticipation The release of Fifty Shades Freed in 2018 came with intense cultural significance, extending to all corners of the world. The fanfiction that began as a Twilight spin-off book had reached document publication volumes and even a multi-billion dollar movie franchise. The praise that came with the final chapter of the book […]
Come Undone
Come Undone: When Desire Meets Real Life Shadows Some films don’t require extravagant sets or multi-million dollar advertising campaigns to secure their place in the memories of cinema. Come Undone, or Cosa Voglio di Più, a film by Silvio Soldini, is one of such films. Though it’s an intimate drama which first made its way […]
The Kashmir Files
The Kashmir Files: Cinema as Memory and Reckoning When the trailer of The Kashmir Files dropped in late 2021, it did more than announce a film — it ignited an emotional storm. Social media was set ablaze with hashtags, debates, and raw recollections from Kashmiri Pandits themselves. This wasn’t just another release on the calendar; […]
Nymphomaniac Vol. I & II
Nymphomaniac: When Desire Became a Battlefield of Cinema When Lars von Trier announced Nymphomaniac in 2011, cinephiles knew it wouldn’t be a conventional film. Here was a director infamous for Dogville, Antichrist, and Melancholia, promising a two-part opus about the life of a self-proclaimed sex addict. Before a single frame was released, the title alone […]
Showgirls
Showgirls: From the cinematic flop to the fever dream of pop culture To some, the 1995 release of Showgirls was much more than a film. It was more like a spectacle, a scandal, and later on, a true pop culture phenomenon. It received devastatingly negative reviews and outright contempt from audiences, mockery from the viewers […]
Puri for Rent
A Story That Lingers Beyond Its Walls: The moment a city turns into a character To undertake a phenomenological study of “Puri for Rent” is to begin with the tellingly simple yet haunting premise of a slice-of-life drama: a family renting out part of their home to strangers in the bustling coastal town of Puri. […]
Elevator Lady
Layers of Elevator Lady On and Off the Screen ‘A story that begins in a confined space’ Elevator Lady is a film that begins with what appears to be a very basic premise strangers trapped together in an elevator yet quickly expands far beyond that. At its center is the ‘lady’ in question, an enigmatic […]
Hotel Desire
Desire Hotel captivates and intrigues and so does its director Sergej Moys, not conforming much to the stereotypical European dramatics. It is clear that focus will be on the character ‘Antonia’, and the big gulf that disengages her and the artist is the blinding reality that permeates their the story, which is Episodes Of the […]