Tiia Kelly

Jan 21, 2025 | sensesofcinema.com | Tiia Kelly

There are certain reverent labels attached to great artists that have historically, in use and by association, foregrounded the work of men: the genius, the auteur, and – as argued in Dr Janice Loreck’s latest book – the provocateur. In Loreck’s formulation, the cinematic provocateur (or less generously, the “rabble-rouser”) is one whose work invites the spectatorial experience of provocation, an “author-recipient relation” characterised by unwanted negative emotions or affects (p. 5).

Oct 21, 2024 | australianbookreview.com.au | Tiia Kelly |Arts Highlights

The first act set-up of a biopic is almost always laborious. Grandiose voiceover and lines of dialogue are laden with the knowing weight of history; various conflicting images of the subject and their ‘truth’ are forced, often boringly, into narrative harmony. Lee, the feature début from respected cinematographer Ellen Kuras (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, [2004]) and long-time passion project of its star, Kate Winslet, is quick to fall prey to these generic obligations.

Jun 16, 2024 | killyourdarlings.com.au | Tiia Kelly

In his influential 1957 book, The Poetics of Space, Gaston Bachelard merged philosophy and architecture to propose that inhabited space is more than just geometrics. Living in a residence is an existential matter; it’s where our consciousness and dreams unfurl and are nurtured. The ‘chief benefit of the house,’ Bachelard writes, is that it ‘allows one to dream in peace’.

Apr 15, 2024 | australianbookreview.com.au | Tiia Kelly |Arts Highlights

Something illusory lurks in the films of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi. Characters encounter each other under false and mistaken pretences; layers of performance mount and interact; memory intrudes and falters. In the Japanese director’s latest, an environmental fable that won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2023 Venice Film Festival, the ecosystem of a small village is threatened by a Tokyo business’s plan to establish a ‘glamping’ site in the region.

Mar 11, 2024 | roughcutfilm.com | Donnalyn Xu |Talleyn A. Burch |Tiia Kelly

In the grainy VHS opening scenes of Bye Bye Tiberias, a sparse country road leads to another, separated by unmarked time. The shifting landscape cuts to a scene of a woman and child swimming in Lake Tiberias, over which French-Palestinian-Algerian director Lina Soualem narrates, “As a child, my mother took me swimming in this lake.