Capturing Emotion: The Making of “Living the Light – Robby Müller”

The highly respected Dutch cinematographer Robby Müller died in July 2018, after living with vascular dementia for several years. Just two months later, Living the Light – Robby Müller, a film essay tribute to the man and his work, premiered at the Venice Film Festival.

Having worked on over 70 feature films, it is Müller’s cinematography with the likes of Wim Wenders, Jim Jarmusch, and Lars von Trier that most influenced a generation of filmmakers in terms of his framing, evocation of emotion in his shots, and his use of light. Living the Light intertwines clips from Müller’s oeuvre with footage and images from his extensive personal archives. With the blessing of Andrea Müller, Living the Light director Claire Pijman — a friend of the couple and a cinematographer of nearly 30 years herself — was granted access to thousands of H8 video diaries, set photos, Polaroids, and more that were shot throughout his career; from his earliest days with Wenders to the final few films on his resume…

Full interview for Kinoscope

A Keanu Reeves film festival promises a most excellent adventure

With the third John Wick due in cinemas soon, a new event on the film calendar shines a spotlight on the multifaceted career of its star, Keanu Reeves. Taking place at Glasgow’s CCA, KeanuCon is Europe’s first Keanu Reeves film festival. It comes via Matchbox Cineclub, an independent exhibitor that’s already had success with the actor-focused festival format across two instalments of Cage-a-rama, alongside cult film festival Weird Weekend last year…

Full feature for Little White Lies

Loro (Paolo Sorrentino, 2018)

A partially fictionalised portrait of Silvio Berlusconi in the years leading into his final stint as Italy’s Prime Minister, Paolo Sorrentino’s latest project was released in his home country as two separate features, with a truncated mash-up version making its way to the UK.

About an hour of material is lost in this combined cut, and while this review comes from a place of having only experienced the shorter edit, it is very evident after a certain point that many storylines and arcs established early in Loro will receive next to no pay off…

Full review for Little White Lies