Birds

Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. 1986

Blue Velvet. Dir. David Lynch. De Laurentiis Entertainment Group. 1986 150 150 Lorna Mooney

Lynch has made a career out of the surreal, exploring the dark and often animalistic nature of human existence. His 1986 neo-noir mystery/psychological horror Blue Velvet centres around college student…

read more

Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012

Ernest and Celestine. Dir. Benjamin Renner. StudioCanal. 2012 150 150 Maya Thomas

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ1rmOYLr2U [1] Ernest and Celestine[2] (2012) is a French animated film that presents the unorthodox relationship between a bear and a mouse. Introduced as a struggling musician, Ernest is starving and on…

read more

American Honey. Dir. Andrea Arnold. 2016.

American Honey. Dir. Andrea Arnold. 2016. 150 150 Ellie Parkinson

Andrea Arnold’s films are renowned for their nuanced focus upon human behaviour. However, as Michael Lawrence recognises in his analysis of her 2011 adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Arnold ‘privileges the…

read more

Howl’s Moving Castle. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2004.

Howl’s Moving Castle. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Studio Ghibli. 2004. 150 150 Hannah Whelan

There is a surprising lack of non-human animal representation in Studio Ghibli’s 2004 film Howl’s Moving Castle, despite an overarching theme which frequently pits an idyllic pastoral version of Japan…

read more

Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Universal Pictures . 1996.

Twelve Monkeys. Dir. Terry Gilliam. Universal Pictures . 1996. 150 150 Alice Connolly

Twelve Monkeys begins: human beings whoop and rattle in cages, buried deep underground. Wild animals roam free in the streets; in the churches, on top of this underground prison. But who…

read more

The Cat Returns. Dir. Hiroyuki Morita. Toho. 2002.

The Cat Returns. Dir. Hiroyuki Morita. Toho. 2002. 150 150 Amelia Ward

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gp-H_YOcYTM&feature=emb_title The Cat Returns (2002) is a Japanese fantasy film animated by Studio Ghibli, which follows dissatisfied schoolgirl Haru Yoshioka, who after saving a cat from a road collision, discovers she…

read more

Arrival. Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Paramount Pictures. 2016.

Arrival. Dir. Denis Villeneuve. Paramount Pictures. 2016. 150 150 Joanna Jenkins

https://youtu.be/tFMo3UJ4B4g When I think of science fiction films, I immediately think of two things: aliens and explosions. Arrival plays with these expectations of the genre, asking the viewer to look at aliens…

read more

Bambi. Dir. David Hand. RKO Radio Pictures. 1942.

Bambi. Dir. David Hand. RKO Radio Pictures. 1942. 150 150 Vivian Sun

The story of Bambi has captured the hearts of many ever since its release back in 1942. The main character, Bambi is a sweet, newborn mule deer when he first…

read more

Cinderella. Dir. Sir Kenneth Branagh . Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2015.

Cinderella. Dir. Sir Kenneth Branagh . Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. 2015. 150 150 Imogen Hooper

During Ella’s journey from a happy, sweet child, to the mourning servant of her stepfamily, to cherished wife of the King, her fundamental characteristics are consistent. Her mother tells her…

read more

The Fox and the Child. Dir. Luc Jacquet. Pathé. 2007.

The Fox and the Child. Dir. Luc Jacquet. Pathé. 2007. 150 150 Christian Townsend

Luc Jacquet’s The Fox and the Child depicts an unnamed girl (Bertille Noël-Bruneau) exploring the French countryside and following its animal inhabitants. She develops an obsession with the titular fox and it…

read more