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desistfilm

STANLEY KUBRICK SPENT A CAREER DISSECTING HUMANITY: EYES WIDE SHUT

By Lexx Che

Stanley Kubrick spent his career examining human beings inside systems of control: technology, violence, military institutions, social hierarchy, sexuality, marriage and power. From 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange to The Shining, Full Metal Jacket and Eyes Wide Shut, the article examines how Kubrick used cinema to expose the unstable relationship between individual agency and the structures surrounding it, ending with the accidental final word of his filmography: “Fuck.”

2026.10.09

Eng

A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE FILM PROGRAM “AFTER THE IMAGE IS THE PRESENT” AND ABOUNADDARA’S REFLECTIONS

By Ivonne Sheen* In their essay Waiting for Resurrection[1], the Syrian anonymous collective Abounaddara rethinks image-making from the perspective of the land they come from,

2026.10.09

Artículos

WOVEN DREAMS FROM TICINO: ON A TAPESTRY (ISA HESSE, 1972)

By Libertad Gills

Uber einen Teppich is a film about what is possible when we dream awake and when we allow our eyes to believe that things can actually be beautiful and good. In other words, it’s a film about a utopia which exists in a tapestry, and because it exists there, it ceases to be a utopia and becomes a reality.

2026.08.31

Críticas

LOCARNO 2026. INTERVIEW WITH EDGAR PÊRA: “WE DO NOT WANT TO PRODUCE ANOTHER ALGORITHM OF ART”

by Martin Kudlác

Portuguese underground filmmaker Edgar Pêra presented his latest work, Asphalt Guerrilla, at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. A regular presence at the Swiss festival, Pêra returned after showcasing Telepathic Letters there in 2024. While that film stages a fictional dialogue between Fernando Pessoa and H. P. Lovecraft through generative AI, Asphalt Guerrilla resists such a straightforward description.

2026.08.31

Eng

ALICE IN ILLNESS: ON THE PORTRAYAL OF ‘SICK’ WOMEN IN FEATURE FILMS

by Claudia Siefen-Leitich

I own a black notebook. During the last five years, movements, scenes, cuts, camera pans, acting tricks and even pure noises have found their way into it after each of my visits to the cinema. Over the course of time, sub-orders have been found in this book, for example “lifting an apron”. From this I was able to make my experimental film Been Waiting for you so long in 2012.

2026.08.07

Eng

THE PATH AND THE RAVE: ON OLIVER LAXE’S SIRAT

by Kasra Bordbar and Arash Monadi

Sirat (Oliver Laxe, 2025) begins from this overlooked possibility. The film opens in a landscape shaped by war, where military presence, checkpoints, and a lingering sense of instability define the world. Against this background, Laxe stages a massive rave in the Moroccan desert, where towering sound systems have been assembled and bodies move together in circles around them.

2026.08.05

Eng

IL CINEMA RITROVATO 2026: RITWIK GHATAK & SANGHITA SEN WERE HERE

By Libertad Gills

The Cineteca Bologna’s Il Cinema Ritrovato celebrated its 40th anniversary this June. A cinephile’s paradise, the festival showcases “found”, re-discovered and restored films, from all over the world, projected in eight indoor cinema theaters across the town center and with public screenings taking place every night in the Piazza Maggiore. As a XL festival, there were more films than usual this year -about 500 between shorts and features, compared to last year’s 400+ film program. The heat was also XL, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The heatwave did not deter viewers, however, as the festival reported its largest attendance yet, with over 145,000 attendees.

2026.07.07

Eng

HOW TO DISAPPEAR COMPLETELY: CINEMATIC EXPLORATIONS OF SELF-OBLITERATION IN YAYOI KUSAMA’S EXPERIMENTAL FILM WORKS

By Libertad Gills

The Beyeler Foundation has recently opened the first major retrospective of the renowned Japanese artist’s work in Switzerland, who is 96 years old. The exhibition will next travel to the Museum Ludwig in Cologne (14 March 2026-2 August 2026) and the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (11 September 2026-17 January 2027). Organized in close collaboration with Kusama and her studio, the exhibition features many of her most iconic works, and also features works never before seen in Europe, including several pieces from her personal collection.

2025.11.29

Eng

TUTTAUNANOTTE. AN ITALIAN CINEMATIC SHOWCASE

By Finn Jubak

The haunted nature of Italian history, and the uncertain future, circle around and through Tuttaunanotte, a cinematic showcase curated by Francesco Urbano Ragazzi (actually a pair of curators, Francesco Ragazzi and Francesco Urbano), which screened in-person at e-flux on November 13. Tuttaunanotte will also have four iterations screening online through e-flux screening room throughout November. The program is the first public output of the Altérité Italienne project that Francesco Urbano Ragazzi have initiated with a group of artists and filmmakers, based in Italy or otherwise related to Italy, whose work makes up these screenings, and is within the framework of the inaugural Italian Fellowship for Curatorial Research at the American Academy in Rome.

2025.11.28

Eng

WHAT DO WOMEN WANT? REFLECTIONS ON THE THOUGHTS AND DESIRES OF SIX WOMEN IN THE LOCARNO FILM FESTIVAL PROGRAM

By Libertad Gills

In The Passionate Friends (David Lean, 1949), Mary (Ann Todd) is torn between two men: the boring husband (Claude Rains) and the exciting lover (Trevor Howard). She goes back and forth between them, undecided. What does she want? Lean explores cinematic ways of conveying what characters are thinking, with a special emphasis on the female protagonist. Even though she doesn’t voice it herself, the men tell her what she wants and why she cannot have it: her problem is that she “wants to belong to herself” and that’s why she cannot give herself over to romantic love. She will have a “failed life”, warns her lover, and this thought comes back to haunt her leading her to suicidal thoughts and eventually back to her husband’s secure arms.

2025.08.20