Film
Films I rewatch, and the specific thing that pulls me back to each one — usually a single shot or a single decision.
I do not fast-forward films, and I do not watch them on a phone.
Ordered by how many times I have rewatched. Each note is the concrete thing that brings me back — a shot, a silence, a choice.
-
In the Mood for Love
Wong Kar-wai · 2000
A film about what did not happen. The heaviest scene in it is two people missing each other on a staircase.
-
Stalker
Andrei Tarkovsky · 1979
Needs a room with no phone in it. The pace is deliberate: either you hand over two hours forty, or you get nothing.
-
Chungking Express
Wong Kar-wai · 1994
The two halves are almost separate films, and that is the point. I have been listening to the second half's California Dreamin' for twenty years.
-
There Will Be Blood
Paul Thomas Anderson · 2007
Not one line of dialogue in the first fifteen minutes, and a third of the story is already told. A textbook opening.
-
Perfect Days
Wim Wenders · 2023
A film about doing ordinary work extremely well, with no lecture attached. The calmest thing I have watched in years.
-
Yi Yi
Edward Yang · 2000
Three hours covering one year in one family. On the second viewing I noticed every character is stuck on the same problem.