"While I live, I remember"

Alright, I've done it. I've completed Varda's filmography. Every single one of her features, documentaries, and shorts (or at least all the shorts included in the Criterion boxset). I guess it's time to write about her films, the impact they've had on me, and why I think she was the greatest director to ever live.

The first of her films I saw was "Cleo from 5 to 7," right after first downloading the Criterion Channel.…

Recommended by Abby

Back in 2014, when I was 11, I went to the movie theater with my Godmother. I had to decide whether to watch Paddington or the remake of Annie. Being a stupid 11-year-old who liked musicals, I chose the Annie remake. It wasn’t good at all, but I liked it well enough at the time. Still I can’t help but think of the impact it might have had had I chose to watch Paddington instead.

For years, it…

“The Matrix is surely the kind of film about the matrix that the matrix would have been able to produce.”
-Jean Baudrillard

Kinda bugs me how much this movie totally misses the point of Baudrillard’s work despite referencing him constantly (through quotes like “the desert of the real” and a copy of Simulacra and Simulation appearing on screen), and reportedly taking so much influence from him. Sim and Sim was apparently even required reading for all the actors, and yet it…