Éric Rohmer's third moral tale is his first of four features in the series, and despite an increase in runtime following the same "format" of the moral tales prior to this, La Collectionneuse is inexplicably entertaining. It's not a fast film, in fact its calm and reflective. Many of its discussions and emotions are of things that aren't even directly involved in the narrative, and the mood set is of a slow and beautiful but dull and uneventful passing of…

In just over a week, Hell to Eternity will no longer be on Filmstruck. This review is my attempt at getting all of you to watch it before it leaves. Despite receiving my rating reserved often for good but non-essential films, Hell to Eternity is a surprisingly skilled and obscure war film that deserves greater attention for the things it does incredibly well.

Director Phil Karlson is a name you may best recognize for his work in gritty crime noirs,…

Tarkovsky is a bit different from other slow cinema artists that dominate other parts of the world. Like filmmakers such as Bela Tarr and Lav Diaz, Tarkovsky holds shots for long periods of time, perhaps with more camera movement than the others, yet when Tarr and Diaz move their shots, they match the mood out of necessity. Their films are slow, so their camera movements are slow as well, makes sense, and they do it spectacularly. Tarkovsky moves his camera…

Sátántangó may be this film's only rival in terms of quality, yet they are near polar opposites, with Sátántangó achieving mood through slow, sprawling, dense story-telling, and Marketa Lazarová punching with every scene of action and dialogue; as flashy and bombastic as possible.

Of course this is all a personal perspective, but if I were to visualize a potential "peak" of film perfection, Sátántangó and Marketa Lazarová are the only films that seemed to attempt that jump. Neither film is…