This review of Phantom Thread was co-written with Maria Hafez. Hafez is a senior in English Literature at the American University of Beirut. She dabbles in European cinema and has attended a summer course on Italian cinema in Milan. She hopes to pursue a career in film. Her favorite directors include Wes Anderson, Xavier Dolan, Federico Fellini,… Read More ‘Phantom Thread’: on the trials of loving an artist
Set amid rising tensions with the Russians in the 1960s, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water follows a relationship that buds between Elisa Esposito, a mute janitor at an American Research facility, and an amphibious creature held in captivity by the facility’s head, Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). Risking their lives, Elisa and her friends… Read More ‘The Shape of Water’: on love that roars in silence
It is in his restriction, his unwavering refusal to break his strong front, that the performance is so resoundingly moving. And it is something to behold. If for any reason you decide to watch Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool, it should be for Jamie Bell’s performance.… Read More ‘Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool’: on stars that refuse to fade
Set against the backdrop of a charming town ‘somewhere in northern Italy,’ Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino’s newest film Call Me By Your Name tells the story of a romance that buds over a period of six weeks in the summer of 1983 between Elio Perlman (Timothée Chalamet), a precocious, 17-year-old musical prodigy and bookworm; and Oliver… Read More ‘Call Me By Your Name’: on the unforgiving pain of first love
When I saw the trailer for Call Me By Your Name, the newest film by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, a car scene popped up that seemed all too familiar: a woman caresses the hair of her teary-eyed son, and they drive in silence as he whimpers. It immediately became clear to me that this was… Read More ‘Call Me By Your Name’: on the unforgiving pain of first love
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