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beardy-econ.bsky.social
@beardy-econ.bsky.social
Economist, Academic Unit of Health Economics, University of Leeds. @auhe-leeds.bsky.social
All views my own. https://medicinehealth.leeds.ac.uk/medicine/staff/871/dr-edward-webb #HealthEconomics
#LIFF2025 Best new-to-me films of the festival:

Sirât
Holiday
Bye Bye Brazil
Pixote
It Was Just an Accident
Dandelion's Odyssey
Sentimental Value
A Useful Ghost
Sholay
The Secret Agent
Fwends
Perla
Chronicle of the Years of Fire
A Poet
November 16, 2025 at 9:56 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 69* - The Love that Remains: A real poetic feel, and a good way to round out the festival.

*Nice
November 16, 2025 at 9:48 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 68 - Nouvelle Vague: It's very charming, but that's really my problem with it. It's a very cosy and safe film, and never gives a proper impression of how dangerous and risky that era of filmmaking was. It's like getting Rev Richard Coles to do an account of the making of Fitzcarraldo
November 16, 2025 at 9:46 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 67 - We Believe You: The main body of the film is very powerful, and the use of Academy ratio really made the witness testimonies stand out. I felt the ending slightly undermined the film though.
November 16, 2025 at 9:40 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 66 - If I Had Legs I'd Kick You: Creates a brilliant sense of claustrophobia, and I really liked the interactions with bureaucratic officiousness disguised as help. I didn't feel the ending quite worked though, which was a shame.
November 15, 2025 at 11:13 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 65 - A Poet: A definite festival highlight. I loved the sense of melancholy, and the way that the lead was a schmuck in such an interesting way. Never went for the obvious.
November 15, 2025 at 11:10 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 64 - Chronicle of the Years of Fire: Great sweeping epic. I found it interesting given the revolutionary content that it modelled itself traditional historical epics (though this is not a criticism).
November 15, 2025 at 11:06 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 63 - Ghost Elephants: Herzog's subjects are extremes: dragging a ship over an Amazonian mountain, a volcano about to explode or the fastest talking auctioneers. This film is supposedly about looking for the largest elephants, but as with all his docs, it's really about people
November 14, 2025 at 11:33 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 62 - Mirrors No. 3: I was worried about following what was going on since I hadn't seen the first or second in the series, but that wasn't a problem.

A still, quiet film, but always with a sense of unease.
November 14, 2025 at 11:29 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 61 - Love Letters: Engrossing, I was impressed by the way that the setup lends itself to being episodic, but instead the film had a smooth, continuous narrative. I also liked that Noémie Lvovsky is clearly playing a version of Martha Argerich.
November 14, 2025 at 11:20 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 60 - Perla: What's going happen is clear from a long way out, but that doesn't make the film boring, rather it gives it a real sense of impending doom. Definitely recommended.
November 14, 2025 at 11:14 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 58 - Out of Love: Good, solid drama without being spectacular.
November 14, 2025 at 12:00 AM
#LIFF2025 Film 57 - Game: A man crashes his car and is stuck in the wreck. Tedium ensues.

There's an Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode with a similar premise, directed by Hitch himself and starring Joseph Cotton, that's much more worth watching.
November 13, 2025 at 11:43 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 56 - All You Need Is Kill: Named after Mark Chapman's favourite Beatles song. No substance, but an engaging and entertaining watch, at least until the end when it ran out of impetus.
November 13, 2025 at 11:27 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 55 - The Virgin of the Quarry Lake: Decent, but ultimately a bit bland, and the payoff wasn't really worth it.
November 13, 2025 at 11:19 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 54 - Blue Heron: Good solid film. I found the structure really interesting, with straight drama merging into faux documentary and then a dreamlike section at the end.
November 12, 2025 at 11:39 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 54 - The Green Ray: Absolutely magical film, another one from this festival that I've seen before but is great to see on the big screen.
November 12, 2025 at 11:27 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 53 - Sirens Call: Started fine, great shots and a meditative road movie feel. But then interminable faux-doc interviews started with tedious new age American naval-gazers. The only thing that could've made it bearable was Louis Theroux showing up to say that these people are all nuts
November 12, 2025 at 11:23 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 52 - ChaO: I liked the animation style a lot, interesting without trying to hard to be overly stylised. A couple of narrative mis-steps, but still well worth watching.
November 12, 2025 at 11:15 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 51 - Follies: Probably the most I've laughed at any film this festival. I was most impressed about how it walked a tightrope between falling on the one side of being just silly, and on the other side of being overly sentimental and preachy.
November 11, 2025 at 11:17 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 50 - Vagabond: A real masterpiece. Something I noticed this time is that there's a series of slow tracking shots following the main character throughout the film. They're almost always from right to left, the opposite of Lawrence of Arabia where Peter O'Toole is almost always...
November 11, 2025 at 11:09 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 49 - Fwends: A really impressive two-hander, the sort of film that's very difficult to pull off, but this managed it with ease.

If they make a sequel, I presume it'll be called Fwasier.
November 10, 2025 at 11:50 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 48 - Touki Bouki: A surrealist gem, and great to see it on the big screen. Feels like a garish nightmare most of the time.
November 10, 2025 at 11:48 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 47 - Wanda: A very neorealist film, I like how it drifts into being a crime film for a bit, then undramatically drifts out of it.
November 10, 2025 at 11:46 PM
#LIFF2025 Film 46 - Dog of God: Sometimes gratuitous, and I'm not sure there's much beyond the surface, but still visually arresting and atmospheric.
November 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM