Tesfa reviews

03/01/2026

My year in film:

29/12/2025

RIP Brigitte Bardot.

Brigitte Bardot's ionic (at the time controversial) dance scene from "Et Dieu... Créa La Femme" - And God Created Woman 1956.https://girlsdofilm.wordpress.co...

18/12/2025

I watched some great films recently.

16/12/2025

Watching Nouvelle Vague (2025) felt less like seeing a film and more like remembering a life I never lived.

Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960) has long been my cinematic north star—not simply because of what it did to film grammar, but because of the attitude it smuggled into the medium. Its jump cuts, handheld restlessness, and casual defiance weren’t aesthetic tricks; they were a worldview. Cinema could be improvised, insolent, intimate. It could flirt with collapse and call it freedom. That spirit is what makes Breathless feel eternally young, even as it ages.

Nouvelle Vague (2025) doesn’t imitate Breathless so much as it communes with it. Technically, the film is alive with intention: loose framing that feels overheard rather than staged, editing that breathes instead of obeying rhythm, performances that seem to exist half a second before and after the camera notices them. Like Godard’s early work, it treats cinema as a living conversation—between actors, between shots, between the past and the present. The camera isn’t authoritative; it’s curious. Sometimes even unsure. That uncertainty is its honesty.

Artistically, the film understands that the French New Wave was never just a look—it was a stance. Nouvelle Vague embraces digression, contradiction, and emotional incompleteness. It allows scenes to end too early or too late. It trusts silence as much as dialogue. In doing so, it resurrects something Breathless mastered: the feeling that life is happening faster than meaning can catch up, and that cinema’s job is not to tidy it, but to witness it.

What floored me most, however, was not recognition but nostalgia for an impossible belonging. Watching Nouvelle Vague, I felt pulled toward a time and place I never knew and would likely never be welcomed into—a Paris of cafés, ci******es, arguments about art, and the belief that films could still invent themselves every morning. That ache mirrors what Breathless has always stirred in me: the longing to exist inside a moment when rules were optional and sincerity was dangerous but necessary.

This is where the film’s achievement becomes personal. Nouvelle Vague reminded me why I fell in love with cinema in the first place—not as spectacle, but as rebellion; not as comfort, but as risk. It doesn’t ask whether the New Wave can be repeated. It understands that it can’t. Instead, it asks something more radical: whether its spirit can still be felt. For me, the answer was overwhelming.

If Breathless taught cinema how to move, Nouvelle Vague teaches it how to remember—without embalming the past, without turning rebellion into museum glass. It is a love letter written in pencil, slightly smudged, unfinished. And like the best films, it leaves you not with closure, but with desire: to watch, to argue, to live a little more recklessly—if only for the length of a reel.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

11/12/2025

In the late half of the year I have slacked in my TV and Movie watching but I blame these,

08/12/2025

All the movies I watched in November

16/09/2025

My recent Activities...

12/05/2025

what I've been watching

14/03/2025

I’m Still Here 2024

A profound cinematic journey that delves into the resilience of the human spirit amidst Brazil's turbulent 1970s military dictatorship. Directed by Walter Salles, the film intricately portrays the true story of the Paiva family, focusing on Eunice Paiva's unwavering quest for justice following the disappearance of her husband, Rubens Paiva.

Fernanda Torres delivers a phenomenal performance as Eunice, capturing the essence of a mother and wife who transforms her anguish into relentless determination. Her portrayal encapsulates the profound sorrow and resolve of a woman fighting for closure over four decades, making it one of the most compelling representations of motherhood on screen.

The film's authenticity is further enhanced by its meticulous recreation of 1970s Rio de Janeiro, immersing viewers in the era's ambiance. The production team's dedication to authenticity, including shooting in real locations like the family's beach-facing home, enriches the narrative's depth and connection to Brazil's cultural heritage.

"I'm Still Here" not only sheds light on a dark chapter of Brazil's history but also serves as a universal testament to the enduring power of love and justice. It's a poignant reminder of the strength found within familial bonds and the relentless pursuit of truth, resonating deeply with audiences worldwide.

★★★★½

03/03/2025

Our 2025 Best Picture

03/03/2025

Yay. This probably is the happiest I have been tonight at this ceremony.
2025

03/03/2025

It is Sean Baker's night.
2025 for best director