Sam WM

‘people with […] pay are rubbish’ — J. H. Prynne

The Diagonale Archipelago New quarterly film magazine Narrow Margin centres its second issue on Diagonale, the French alternative film production company created by ...

New Serge Daney translation: The Diagonale Archipelago. From the 2nd issue of new quarterly film magazine Narrow Margin.

sergedaney.blogspot.com/2026/01/the-...

Guy Clark – Better Days

Stellan Skarsgård looks more like my late father than he looked like himself

commiserations to all the people who, being British, for some reason have to have a conversation about ‘the trans issue’ around the dinner table today

diagonale et co. Christmas canon A list of 43 films compiled on Letterboxd, including The Blue Bird (1918), The Little Match Girl (1928), The Thin Man (1934), Merlusse (1935) and Grand Illusion (1937).

letterboxd.com/samwm/list/d... Christmas films!

I encountered Silkworm young enough for their music to be my first exposure to aft, retsina, rapacious, hauteur, recidivist, contrite, obfuscate, and more I’m forgetting.

It’s completely normal English.

‘Aesthetics must not play at delivering graveside sermons, certifying the end, savoring the past, and abdicating in favor of a sort of barbarism that is no better than the culture that has earned barbarism as recompense for its own monstrosity.’

At least this year (going theatrically) there were new films by two of the only filmmakers who are in touch with any kind of reality: Kiyoshi Kurosawa and Alain Guiraudie.

In case any of you missed it on the other platforms, here's what's what www.narrowmarginquarterly.com/shop

it’s I need you to be so serious right now november and hardly any of you are being so serious right now

I agree that trailers that are completely their own film are the best kind. I wish there were more examples!

out of interest, and because I've just started making trailers for retrospective series, do any trailers come to mind for you as particularly good examples of the form?

Wow, the BFI pre-film ad for itself is exactly like this, same music and everything. They must have hired the same guy.

Wikipedia article for Calybute Downing (1605–1643)

one thing I like to learn about is 17th century guys with non binary rock climbing enthusiast names

you should watch the other Fishers

It's all in the eyes RIP to Tatsuya Nakadai

RIP Tatsuya Nakadai

nnmore.substack.com/p/its-all-in...

More very soon

2) NARROW MARGIN #1 is now available for purchase at the BFI shop and ICA bookstore. Ask for NARROW MARGIN. Accept no substitutes.

ICA | In Focus: Luc Moullet The Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) is London’s leading space for contemporary culture. We commission, produce and present new work in film, music, performance and the visual arts by today’s most...

TWO NARROW MARGIN ANNOUNCEMENTS: 1) I have curated a three night programme of some of Luc Moullet’s films and shorts at the ICA next month: www.ica.art/films/in-foc...

NM is for the mothers

a GREAT READ for FILM BUFFS in their EARLY FORTIES

^

hell of a picture!

since it's the season I asked on the film discord for ‘something genuinely scary’, and someone replied ‘finding yourself to be identical in certain ways to your parents’

It’s the law in the UK and possibly the anglophone world in general that you can only have good taste in literature or in films, not both at the same time, which is why I no longer check whether I know what a good book is

We wanted to show a Dino Risi film at one point and the distributor said €800, then when we tried to negotiate said the closest thing you can to ‘fuck off’ in professional email language

I tried to program _Caro Diario_ and the rights holder never got back to me. For some reason this, along with or prohibitive prices, seems to be a recurring problem with Italian distributors, and I wonder how much it has caused Italian directors not to have the repertory exposure they should have.

Here’s two