The Phenomenal A Ghost Story Is Hauntingly Ambitious And Beautiful

Let it be said right up front; A Ghost Story will not be for everyone. It's a blatantly unconventional borderline experimental movie with little in the way of actual dialogue and even less in the way of onscreen explanations for how various parts of its story function. I honestly can't believe it's playing at my local Cinemark a venue where I'm sure it'll be received with plenty of audiences going "What the hell was that?" once the lights go up. But for me personally, A Ghost Story almost feels like it was tailor made for me and my sensibilities, particularly my mind and the way it constantly obsesses over wistfulness for locations and memories of the past. I'm fascinated by those elements of yesteryear and how they impact me and those are the kind of ideas A Ghost Story, as a film, is fixated on too.

Satantango Is Challenging Cinema That Shatters Conventions As Often As It Makes Powerful Imagery

Sight & Sound Voyage Entry #21
Placement On Sight & Sound Top 50 Movies List: #35 (tied with Metropolis, Psycho and Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles)

"Pushing the envelope" feels like an ill-suited descriptor for what director Bela Tarr is doing with his filmmaking in Satantango, the dude's practically challenging every convention known in the artform to fit his creative vision. While Satantango is my first time watching a movie from the Hungarian filmmaker, it's obvious this guy has got more ambition in his finger than many other directors have in their entire bodies. Now, to be perfectly frank here, that ambition does result in a movie that's frustrating in some aspects (and outright painful in one extended sequence) but actually becomes quite haunting in a way few movies could hope to be in its best moments. It's a give and take scenario, I suppose, when it comes to Bela Tarr's unique style of filmmaking.