There Is No Approach, No Recipe. Each Thing Has To Be Done Differently.

Only God Forgives (2013) | dir. Nicolas Winding Refn

Cinematography by Larry Smith

The Virgin Suicides (1999) | dir. Sofia Coppola | USA

Cinematography by Edward Lachman

Of Freaks and Men (1998) | dir. Alexei Balabanov

When evil triumphs, humour turns black. Glimpses of turn-of-the-century porn has an uncomfortable, humiliating look to it. Balabanov massages human nature's ugly heart. The film is so original and startling, it appears playful, when really it concerns an abuse of power that feeds off trust and decency, perverting both.

The film is shot as a pastiche of silent cinema, without Chaplin's famous fast motion. In old St Petersburg the bourgeoisie live innocent and privileged lives, while in the basement of an abandoned building tight-lipped Johan (Sergei Makovetsky), with his smirking, sinister sidekick (Victor Sukhorukov), organises nude spanking sessions

which are photographed and sold to sado-masochistic postcard collectors, when not purloined by their naughty maids.

There are moments in this deliciously subversive film when you suspect Alexei Balabanov is being satirical and those scenes of pornographers taking over the grand houses, only to corrupt them with their nasty habits, refer to organised crime's stranglehold on the Russian economy, not to mention the state of the nation.

For someone who was never meant for this world, I must confess I’m suddenly having a hard time leaving it. Of course, they say every atom in our bodies was once part of a star. Maybe I’m not leaving… maybe I’m going home.

Gattaca (1997)

Hansel and Gretel (2007) | dir. Pil-sung Yim | South Korea

Cinematography by Ji-yong Kim

Robert De Niro photographed by Santi Visalli in NYC, 1973

A Clockwork Orange (1971) | dir. Stanley Kubrick

I like you to be exactly the way that you are, because in all my experience, I have never known anyone like you.

Tennessee Williams,A Streetcar Named Desire (via thelovejournals)

Murder on the Orient Express (2017) | dir. Kenneth Branagh | USA

DoP:  Haris Zambarloukos

Daido Moriyama