Cinema has always imitated life, and it finds inspiration for the stories that fill the big screen in those ordinary lives. Et Maintenant? (2025) is another example that supports that idea. Written and directed by Jocelyn Forgues, the film opened the 2026 edition of the Ottawa International Film Festival. With this work, the director offers a reflection on life through adversity, drawing inspiration from his own experience.
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Since 2009, when he made Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi had not stepped so firmly back into the territory of horror. With Send Help (2026), he returns to his roots and crafts a film that uses terror as a vehicle to deliver a harsh critique of the inhuman ferocity of the modern corporate world. As is customary with Raimi, the story is built from very simple premises that require little exposition for the audience to enter the world the protagonists must inhabit.
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Literature and cinema created the legend of the samurai, that mythical warrior who, katana in hand, rises as an almost supernatural hero. In the popular imagination, his bushido code, honor, and bravery seem unmatched by anything earthly. Harakiri (1962), directed by Masaki Kobayashi, shatters that myth with the same force a samurai sword cuts through flesh. Far from glorifying the Japanese warrior, Kobayashi cloaks him in tragedy to deliver a sharp critique of the moral code tradition has long exalted.
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Wim Wenders has a special gift for capturing the human soul in images. Perfect Days (2023) is a visual poem that confirms the German director’s unique ability to explore the depths of the human spirit. From the ordinary, he constructs a story that transcends the triviality of endless repetitive days. He paints pauses and silences with eloquence, creating a mirror in which we see our own reflection and are compelled to reflect deeply.
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With The One-Armed Swordsman (1967), a seismic shift of epic proportions took place. Because it is a martial arts film, its importance in film history is often underestimated. Every so often, films arrive that transform genres and redefine the way cinema is made and understood, and this is one of them. Before its release, martial arts cinema leaned heavily on fantasy and melodrama to tell its stories. With Chang Cheh’s new vision, the tone shifted toward a more physical, violent narrative fueled by the epic of revenge.
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