greek cinema

iphigenia

I’m a big fan of Radiance Films. They put out really cool releases of relatively obscure films. My understanding is that one of the guys who used to run Arrow Video now runs Radiance, and that checks out. Arrow made a name for themselves by doing some very nice restorations of low-budget cult films and giving them loads of cool extras. Radiance is doing the same but with obscure arthouse European films.

I try to get as many of them as I can, and I’m never disappointed.

Iphigenia is based on a Greek legend about Agamemnon having to sacrifice his firstborn child in order to win the war with Troy. It is a really beautiful, wonderfully made film, and I’m so glad I watched it. You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

dogtooth

Yorgos Lanthimos is one of the most creative, strange, and incredible directors working today. Dogtooth was his second feature film, and it might be his strangest.

It is about a man and a woman with three adult children. The children have never been let out of the house/garden. They are regularly taught false meanings to everyday words. They believe they have a fourth sibling, whom was bad and thus was sent to live outside of the yard and to whom they regularly talk to and throw gifts (but who doesn’t actually exist.) Etc. Basically the parents had children to experiment on them.

It gets even weirder but that would spoil the film. It is utterly bizarre but like all Lanthimos films there is something deeper going on behind the strangeness. I loved it, but I don’t know that I’ll ever want to watch it again.

You can read my full review here.