The Quarantine Film List: Week 2 | Zafira

Hey, I hope you’re all well!

So as promised, I’m back this week with another round of some amazing films to watch whilst in quarantine. I’ve tried to mix it up a bit more and put a wide range of films in here and I’ve quite badly attempted to illustrate my own version of the film posters so I hope you enjoy those (pls enjoy them i spent too long doing them).

1. American Beauty

I feel like a few people won’t be happy that I’ve put this here considering Kevin Spacey is quite the disgusting person however, his character meets a bit of an unfortunate but well deserved ending in this so in my eyes, I feel like it’s justified a little.

A timeless classic, that’s what American Beauty is. I know that one day I’ll be old and grey and still feel like watching this. It’s about Lester, a middle aged man who has a bit of mid life crisis. He hates his wife, has a daughter he barely knows and hates his job. He ends up becoming infatuated with his teenage daughter’s best friend which causes Lester to completely change his life.

I think you have to at least watch this film once in your life. It’s definitely an experience and will make you think plastic carrier bags are pretty.

2. the killing of a sacred deer

Starring the lovely Nicole Kidman and Collin Farrell, The Killing of Sacred Deer fits into that whole weird psychological horror/thriller genre like Midsommar and Hereditary. It’s one of those films that makes you feel not scared but incredibly uncomfortable afterwards.

Steven, a successful surgeon with a perfect life and family, takes a 16 year old boy named Martin under his wing after his father dies on his operating table. They form a bond and Martin is treated almost like Steven’s adopted son. However, as their bond grows, Martin’s malicious intent becomes clear as he seeks a very messed up sense of justice by punishing Steven and his family. He believes a ‘pure soul’ must be sacrificed in order to set some sort of balance.

Visually, this is stunning. Each frame feels so clean and well structured. It’s easy on the eyes.

3. penelope

I remember the first time I had watched this was during wet play in primary school and even then at like 8 years old, I knew this would be a film I’d think about for the rest of my life.

Christina Ricci stars as a aristocratic heiress named Penelope who was born affected by the Wilhern spell which was put on her family many years ago and gives her the misfortune of being born with the nose of a pig. The only way to break the spell is quite unique and unbelievable. It’s … true love.

Her family bring countless suitors to the house since she’s hidden away at her family’s estate at their attempt to try and break the spell. A tabloid reporter however is eager to get a photograph of the mysterious Penelope and enlists the help of Max (played by the dreamy James McAvoy) who poses as a prospective suitor and ends up slowly falling in love with her.

It’s a great early 00’s rom com. One of the best in my opinion.

4. Queen

After going to Asian wedding event to Asian wedding event, there’s one song that’s always playing at a Mehndi and that is London Thumakda. A few months ago, I saw that this was on Netflix so I ended up watching it and was quite thoroughly surprised at how much I liked it.

Rani, a girl from Dehli is about to marry who she thinks is the perfect man, Vijay. It’s beautiful watching the scenes leading up to her wedding day, seeing her family so happy, seeing all the traditional wedding stuff play out and it’s so colourful and pretty. This all changes when Vijay calls the wedding off the day before leaving her heart broken.

Rani decides to venture out and go on their honeymoon alone to Paris where she makes new friends, meets new people, tries out new experiences and most importantly, discovers herself.

This is so different than most Bollywood movies that I’ve seen, it’s really refreshing actually and I loved every moment of this film.

5. Perfect Blue

Now we’re all suffering from a bit of headache from being inside too long and Perfect Blue will extenuate that headache and leave you feeling quite confused. But in a good way of course. I don’t think even after watching this a handful of times, I’m still exactly sure what happened in this.

I haven’t ventured into the world of anime at all but from what I’ve heard, Satoshi Kon (director of Perfect Blue) is wonderful. So wonderful in fact that his films have inspired films such as Requiem for a Dream and Black Swan. These are both films that are so so so amazing.

Perfect Blue is about a retired pop singer who decides to pursue her dream of becoming an actress. Her sense of reality however becomes a little disturbing when a fan from her past begins stalking her and Mima finds it difficult to separate what is real and what isn’t.

This is animated beautifully, every little detail is done perfectly whether that’s little objects in Mima’s room or what she’s wearing.

6. Frank

I actually watched this a few days ago and shared this on my Instagram stories because I absolutely loved this.

Jon, a young man who is an aspiring musician with a bit of boring life, decides to take the plunge and join an eccentric pop band led by Frank. Frank is a very mysterious and strange man who always wears this freakish fake head that he never takes off (as illustrated above).

I think this film is a bit of everything. It explores mental illness but at the same time, it’s also a very bittersweet comedy about friendship and identity. It’s one of the most unpredictable films you could ever watch. Everything I anticipated didn’t happen, the film had a life of its own.

I also love all the songs they sing in this, as strange as they are, they’re pretty good.

7. the darjeeling limited

I had to try and restrain myself from filling these lists with Wes Anderson films because I adore them so much but the Darjeeling Limited is something I think everyone will truly like.

Three brothers come together after a year of not seeing or speaking to each other since their father’s funeral decide to set off on a train voyage across Indian to try and reconnect with each other.

All three of them of so different, one of them is obnoxiously wealthy, the other is heartbroken over a break up (watch Hotel Chevalier please this is who it’s about and most importantly Natalie Portman is in it!) and the last, who enjoys taking things from his family without asking and is about to become a father.

It’s a story about family and grief, it’s hilarious and obviously, aesthetically the most beautiful thing I’ll see. Even the train itself is set up in the most visually stunning way and hello? They’re in India. The most colourful and wonderful place you could possibly be.

8. i lost my body

This felt like what I can only describe as a fever dream. It was so weird and dark and just so incredibly sad but with hints of upliftingness?

The story focuses on the character Naoufel, or rather Naoufel’s hand who is roaming the streets of Paris trying to find the rest of it’s body and we through Naoufel’s memories slowly unravel how his hand became severed from it’s body. It’s about self exploration but it’s also about love and life and death. It’s a strange watch but a good watch.

I hope you enjoyed this second round of films! I’ll post my third series sometime next week so make sure you follow me on my socials to know when that’s up.

Thanks for reading,

The Quarantine Film List: Week 1 | Zafira

Hi,

So, a lot of things have changed since I last posted. It feels like the world has completely flipped and it’s been a roller coaster of a month trying to adjust to all these changes. I hope we’re all staying inside, keeping not only ourselves safe and healthy but others too.

On the brighter side, a lot of us have plenty of spare time on our hands now and I’ve spending mine finally getting through my big fat hefty film list. I thought what better way to stay occupied than with some great cinematic masterpieces so every week for the next month or so, I’ll be sharing a few of my personal fave films with you!

1. Her

I feel like I’ve already talked about this so much on here and you’re all probably bored of me talking about this but I literally could not care because this film is so embedded into my life, my DNA and a good 30% of my entire personality at this point.

This is the perfect film for this current state of everyone’s life because it screams loneliness. Like the entire 126 minutes will make you feel so alone but in the most aesthetically pleasing and well -written way.

Her focuses on the character of Theodore who’s in a not so distant weird future and as you can guess, is very lonely. He gets his hands on a new operating system that’s pretty similar to Siri but so much more lifelike and human and they fall in love. It’s very bittersweet and every frame in the film is done so beautifully.

Also Joaquin Phoenix is this is actually the prettiest human of all time.

2. A Death in the Gunj

I haven’t really ventured out in the South Asian world of films yet but I found this gem on Prime a few months back because my dad was actually watching it. He’ll watch anything on Prime but this is the first Indian movie I’ve watched that falls into the whole weird eerie indie thriller genre. It feels incredibly Western compared to a lot of Indian films that I’m used to.

A Death in the Gunj is about a young man called Shutu, a failing student who is on a family trip away. The entire film focuses mainly on him. He’s a really lonely and grief stricken character (i promise all the films in this list won’t make you feel like you’re going to die alone) and as the film progresses, Shutu learns what’s accepted in society, his family and questions his place in the world. I think it’s such a realistic and blunt take on the whole ‘coming of age’ genre of films.

I read in a review somewhere that this film echos “emotional violence” and the way “society inflicts it upon others and causes destruction” and the film illustrates this so well.

It’s set in 70s in a place called McCluskieganj, Bihar which is a small hilly town in India that was once known for it’s vast Anglo-Indian population. The scenery really brings out the overall theme of loneliness but it’s also just so incredibly stunning.

I also read this amazing review on IMDB that sounds like it’s excerpt of the greatest novel of all time that summarises this film the best way possible.

3. The Emperors New Groove

Amazing. Stunning. A classic piece of cinematic gloriousness honestly.

This is top tier Disney stuff. Like forget Frozen or Moana (ok this was actually pretty good), this is what we 90/00s kids thrived off back in the day and what essentially shaped us into the people that we are today.

If you haven’t already seen this then please get a move on and do so. The Emperors New Groove is about Kuzco, a self centred, bratty Emperor who is mean and cruel to everyone. His adviser Yzma, our long eye lashed evil wannabe queen, attempts to try and kill him off but in the process, her and her dummy but oh so hilarious side kick, Kronk, end up turning the Emperor into a llama.

I’m sorry but if that doesn’t immediately take you off my website and onto watching this then there’s something totally wrong with you.

This was easily one of the best things Disney has ever done.

4. Before Sunrise

When I think about love and what it is, I always think of this film.

Staring everyone’s heartthrob Ethan Hawke and Julie Deply, our 90s French crush, Before Sunrise is possibly the purest form of young love I think you’ll ever see. The shocking thing is that this is all set in the space of the day and accumulates more love than most of us will get in a lifetime.

Jesse, an American on his way to Vienna meets Celine who is a student returning to Paris. They end up talking and Jesse convinces Celine to get off the train in Vienna with him where they spend the rest of their day wandering the heavenly city of Vienna before Jesse has to fly back home to the US.

It’s probably one of the most romantic films you’ll ever watch. Everything from their subtle glances at each other to the way their conversations feel so effortless and authentic will make your heart skip a beat.

You’ll be very glad to know there’s trilogy of the whole ‘Before’ films. So when you’re done with this one you can watch Before Sunset and Before Midnight which should keep you occupied and all loved up for half a day.

5. The Silences of the Palace

I can’t exactly remember how I found this film but I do remember vividly seeing screen grabs somewhere of some scenes and was immediately sold.

Alia, a 25 year old singer, returns to her childhood home which is a palace where her mother Khedjia worked as not only a house servant but a mistress of Prince Sid’ Ali. Sid’ Ali’s death brings her back and as she goes to pay her respects, she roams through the palace remembering her childhood. Her childhood was riddled with sexism, exploitation and spent questioning her father’s identity as well as the French conquest of Tunisia going on in the background.

It’s definitely not an easy watch but it covers a lot of issues still relevant to this day.

6. The Lobster

This entire film was completely ???

This was so weird. Good weird. It’s set in the strangest dystopian future where by law, it’s compulsory to have a romantic partner. Singles are taken to this place literally called The Hotel where they have 45 days to either find themselves a partner or be turned into an animal and set off into the woods.

Despite making me feel a little uncomfortable, I loved every minute of this. It has Colin Farrell and Rachel Weisz who surprisingly work together better than butter on toast.

It’s got a lot of dark humour which personally I love accompanied by so much awkward silence and just general awkwardness. It’s great.

7. Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

I had no choice but to throw a cringey Bollywood hit in here. The best thing about this is not only was it made in the 90s but it features everyone’s favourite duo, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.

Simran who by the way has a * chef’s kiss * sense of style all throughout this, persuades her father to let her go on a one month inter-rail holiday all over Europe where she ends up meeting the one and only Raj. Now Raj is a complete douche but as the days pass, their love blossoms and when Simran goes back to India for her arranged marriage, Raj decides to go after her and win her back.

It’s like your typical Bollywood film story line but it’s so good and is one of my all time favourites.

8. The Florida Project

I don’t think I’ll ever watch anything that will capture the true essence of being a carefree kid more than this film.

Set in a rundown garish pink motel filled with people who can’t afford proper homes, the Florida Project focuses on the life of a 6 year old called Moonee who is the most mischievous and wild kid you’ll ever see. The whole film is pretty much about her and her life with her mum Halley and her little group of friends who get up to no good in and around the motel.

It’s aesthetically one of the prettiest films I’ve watched. The entire thing was shot on 35mm film which as a fellow film lover, I obviously couldn’t help but adore.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed this first list! I’ll post another one around the same time next week so follow me on my socials to know when that’s up.