Currently Watching

Currently watching – Taste of Cherry, directed by Abbas Kiarostami, 1997. Born in 1940, Kiarostami was an Iranian filmmaker and pivotal member of the Iranian New Wave of the 60s and 70s, examining political and philosophical issues in poetic, allegorical films. Taste of Cherry is a bit of a cult movie, and tells the story of a man looking for someone to bury him after he commits suicide. It won the Palme d’Or at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, and I have read multiple essays gushing about the performance of the film’s star, Homayoun Ershadi, who apparently burns up the screen in this complex, enigmatic role.

Currently Watching.

Currently watching – Marie Antoinette, directed by Sofia Coppola, 2006. Born in 1971, Coppola is the daughter of revered director Francis Ford Coppola, and quite a filmmaker herself.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – Paris, Texas – directed by Wim Wenders, 1984. Born in 1945, Wenders is a German filmmaker, author, and photographer, and one of the most renown independent directors of the last four decades.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – Señorita, directed by Isabel Sandoval, 2011. Born in 1982, Sandoval is a Filipina filmmaker. This was her award-winning directorial debut.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – She’s Gotta Have It, directed by Spike Lee, 1986. Born in 1957, Lee is one of the most important directors of the last forty years. This movie, about a young black woman juggling three boyfriends she refuses to commit to despite their pressures, was his debut feature. I watched this before many, many, many years ago.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – Nomadland, directed by Chloé Zhao, 2020. Zhao is a Chinese-American filmmaker born in 1982.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – The Killing Floor, directed by Bill Duke, 1984. Born in 1943, Duke is an American actor and filmmaker famous for his supporting roles in crime and action movies. This film depicts the struggles of an African-American migrant as he tries to start a interracial union in Chicago after WW1.

Currently Watching.

Currently watching – All These Creatures, directed by Charles Williams, 2018. Williams is an Australian filmmaker. This film won the Short Film Palme d’Or at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – Desert Hearts, directed by Donna Deitch, 1985. Born in 1945, Deitch is an American television and film director. This film was one of the first American features to depict a lesbian relationship in a positive light.

Currently watching.

Currently watching – The Exterminating Angel, directed by Luis Buñuel, 1962. Born in Spain in 1900, Buñuel was an iconoclastic filmmaker who later became a naturalized Mexican citizen. This film depicts a high society dinner party that gets weird when the guests realize they can’t leave.