film poster showing a person in a hat carrying a suitcase surrounded by a blue radiating ringed haze and the pale figure of a person carrying a gun

five film stills showing locations in Melbourne including an arched foyer, rooms with white discs on the windows, a stone arched passageway, and a park bench with buildings

#Beamafilm Predestination, 2014. Although extremely cleverly thought out, it’s a pretty dull affair that should have been tense and exciting; try ‘Looper’ instead. The Melbourne locations are a nice Easter egg, eg 333 #CollinsSt, #RMIT Design Hub #B100, #UniMelb Law Quad, #Abbotsford Convent.

two frames from an animated film showing a man slipping over and a green monster looking aghast

poster for an animated film showing a green monster and a red one with tiny people along the bottom edge

#Beamafilm Grendel Grendel Grendel, 1981. Australia’s 2nd animated feature, from Alexander ‘Life. Be in it.’ Still. Characterful retelling of Beowulf from pov of the monster, an urbane, philosophical viewer of man’s idiotic exploits. Many songs, but constantly fascinating and, ultimately, sad.

four film stills showing a man not coping with colonial conditions

four film stills showing women in colonial situations

film poster showing a man posturing on a beach

#Beamafilm Zama, 2017. Inspired by Jorge I finally watched Lucrecia Martel’s 4th feature, a slyly anti-colonialist tale of colonial decay & disappointment: flawed Magistrate Zama gets stuck in C18th Kafkaesque situations & goes downhill from there. Exquisitely filmed and with astonishing sequences.

documentary poster image looking up into a strange shaped dome with geometrical lines drawn over it

#Beamafilm Borromini and Bernini, The Challenge for Perfection, 2023. Doco focussing on maverick genius Borromini in C17th Rome (Bernini only appears as his wiley rival). Great images and interesting interviews, if you ignore the toe-curlingly awful (but seemingly compulsory) “personifications” 🤮

detail from a painting showing two women’s heads and their hands interlocked, under the words “Botticelli’s Primavera’

#Beamafilm Botticelli’s Primavera, 2025. Howard Burton has a close look at this magnificent painting, gathering diverse research and abundant imagery to build a convincing portrait of what it is and why. Amazing analyses and closeups in an OK doco (unless you’re a fan of this masterpiece!)

three paintings of men and one old photograph of another, nothing seems to link them physically; one has music paper as a background

#Beamafilm Austrian Composers, 2017. In no-nonsense style Malcolm Hossick recounts the lives of Haydn, Mozart, Schubert & Mahler, with some pointers to their most representative composition highlights. Extremely no frills but great if you’re a fan of these stupendous composers.

two photos of an actor in a television film, one old but flamboyant, the other decrepitly aged

#Beamafilm An Englishman in New York, 2009. Fascinating depiction of Quentin Crisp’s final decades from his fame after The Naked Civil Servant, living and pontificating in the US. Bravura performance by John Hurt but let down by rote storytelling and old-fashioned TV feel.

two film stills, one of a woman lifting a large black veiling garment, the other of a seated man looking at us out of the darkness

#Beamafilm A Hero, 2021. Asghar Farhadi shows how no good turn remains unpunished. In a dusty town near reminders of Iran’s glorious past, an ordinary man’s feeble attempts to be decent rebound in a series of setbacks, especially when he’s unwillingly pushed into being the hero he isn’t.

part of an expressive painting of a man’s head, with the text “Art & Culture / Van Gogh”

#Beamafilm Van Gogh, An Artist and his Work, 2018. Nice little doco where Malcolm Hossick recounts the painter’s life, makes gentle but astute comment on his art, and reads excerpts from his letters.

a woman scapes a wall while holding a book in her other hand

#Beamafilm The Art of Preserving Art 1:1 Revealing our Memory, 2009. Spanish doco (in various Madrid galleries) where an omnipotent narrator drones on, mansplaining about restoration principles, making it very, very boring. I didn’t bother with eps 2+3.

two film stills, one from the beginning of the film showing a young man staring sternly, the other showing a young g woman looking gently

#Beamafilm Orlando, 1992. Lovely film with refreshingly unfussy gender blending. Sally Potter was influenced by Peter Greenaway’s lush & idiosyncratic period films and Derek Jarman’s low budget creative anachronisms. Tilda Swinton is mesmerising with her 4th wall-breaking glances & asides.

television programme poster showing the outside of a large building with columns and above it a painting of a girl in a big skirt with two young women fussing around her, a painter in uniform to one side and, in the background, an open doorway with a man silhouetted in it, and a gleaming mirror with two grand figures reflected in it

#Beamafilm The Prado Museum: A Collection of Wonders, 2019. OK doco giving a potted history of the gallery and its collection. But nice to see some of those amazing paintings!

an almost black still from a film with a hideous face emerging from the darkness

#Halloweeny #Beamafilm Nosferatu, A Symphony of Horror, 1922. FW Murnau’s riff on Dracula is a lovely thing, with the all-too worldly couple brought low by their encounters with the mysterious Orlok. Very striking & influential images, and a new contribution to vampire lore: destruction by daylight.

two black and white photographs, one showing a fancy young man and woman in the 1930s smoking, the other showing the same man older, applying his eyebrows

#Beamafilm Mad About the Boy, The Noel Coward Story, 2023. Surprisingly fascinating and even moving portrait of a man who wore studied upper-class flippancy as a mask to his true identities. And always an outsider pretending to be inside, despite his considerable talents.

film poster showing a spiral staircase, two menacing male faces, and a menaced female face

#Beamafilm The Spiral Staircase, 1975. Rather terrible remake in every very mid-70s way. Just watchable if you’re in the mood.

#Beamafilm Tintoretto, A Rebel in Venice, 2019. Surprisingly excellent doco on the artist who, it turns out, was a little bit unscrupulous and scrappy in his jostles for commissions with Titan & Veronese! Great to put his art in perspective.

#Beamafilm Botticelli, Florence and the Medici, 2020. Very good doco building a portrait of that very strange artist and how he reacted to his turbulent times. Fine visuals too (which is, of course, half the point!)

#Beamafilm Road to Utopia, 1946. Bing and Bob and Dorothy get into situations when hunting gold in Alaska, c.1900. Amusing and charming and goofy and… successful enough to get an Oscar nomination!

#Beamafilm National Gallery, 2014. Frederick Wiseman is legendary but 3hrs observing day-to-day operations in London is only for art enthusiasts (but the clips and snatches will frustrate) & little light is shone on the institutional mechanisms that keep it going. I wanted more.

#Beamafilm Top of the Lake, Season 1, 2013. A bit late to Jane Campion & Gerard Lee’s praised NZ daylight-noir series. It does a great job of contrasting the beautiful, harsh landscape with the squalor of human relationships, but otherwise I was never fully convinced, particularly by Elisabeth Moss.

#Beamafilm Road to Bali, 1952. I hadn’t seen a ‘Road’ film before so was much taken aback by the Hellzapoppin’ anythink-goes approach, but it’s enjoyable in its rejection of authenticity & sheer stupidity. Bob Hope’s likeable persona shines through. Most astonishing though, it STARTS IN MELBOURNE!!!

#Beamafilm Oldboy, 2003. Ultra-kinetic mystery-revenge dark comedy-thriller, super fun (if you’ve a strong stomach) from Park Chan-wook. I’d only seen his Thirst at MIFF in 2009; I need to see more!

#Beamafilm Faces Places (French: Visages Villages), 2017. Agnes Varda’s collab with street artist JR has such cutesy titles I nearly turned it off. But their 2nd work was so moving it made me cry. The film shows how artists & communities can produce meaningful work together.

#Beamafilm The Nightingale, 2018. Writer-director Jennifer Kent’s follow up to The Babadook takes out the allegory & fully exposes the horror: 1825 Tasmania in all its brutality with slaves (convicts), military & Indigenous people all utterly traumatised. Beautiful & important but hard to watch.

#Beamafilm Karl Lagerfeld, 2014. Fairly interesting review of the fashion director’s work & life (as he then was). Most fascinating are the vignettes where you watch his hands draw his memories while he describes the people & events depicted. Also his 2 ‘father-son’ relationships.

#Beamafilm Bad Boy Bubby, 1993. I try not to be that person but, catching up on this 30 years late, all I could think was “Why?” Disgusting & harrowing and yet made with huge skill. A question mark without an answer?