Senses of Cinema

Senses of Cinema is a quarterly digital magazine focused on film, established in 1999 by filmmaker Bill Mousoulis. Located in Melbourne, Australia, this publication features contributions from film critics around the globe. It includes critical essays, detailed explorations of notable directors' careers, and reports on various international film festivals.

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Looking for liberation: 68th London Film Festival

Jan 21, 2025 | sensesofcinema.com | Nasheed Qamar Faruqi

To attend the London Film Festival (LFF) in October 2024 is to witness the expression of a world out of joint and to be urgently in search of new and liberatory stories that also engage with cinema in compelling ways. The genocide in Palestine; imperialist war in Ukraine and the fragile state of U.S. democracy featured in the program, reflecting the ways in which our world is out of joint.
57th Sitges Film Festival: Audience First

Jan 21, 2025 | sensesofcinema.com | Olivia Popp

As a self-proclaimed “longtime genre film fan”, it felt fortuitous to end up at Spain’s 57th Sitges Film Festival (or in its extended form, the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival of Catalonia, running 3–13 October) as my very first genre cinema event.
Unsettling Relations in Janice Loreck’s Provocations in Women’s Filmmaking

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).
Sadie and Her Sisters: Tracking a Classic Hollywood Character Type

Nov 10, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Rob Nixon

Judging by films produced in Hollywood’s Classic period, from roughly the early 1930s to the late 1950s, there was a time when, on just about any remote tropical island or port of call, particularly in the South Pacific, you were likely to run into a very specific type of woman. Provocative in her looks and brash in her behaviour, she was usually on the run from the authorities, often looking for “work,” and apt to disturb the peace wherever she landed.
An Interview with Pia Marais

Nov 10, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Gary M. Kramer

South African writer/director Pia Marais travels deep into the Brazilian jungle for Transamazonia, her hypnotic fourth feature. Rebecca (Helena Zengel) is a teenager who has been practicing faith healing with her missionary father, Lawrence (Jeremy Xido), in the Amazon. As a young child, she survived a plane crash in the rainforest (her mother didn’t), which reunited her with Lawrence. Rebecca is seen performing miracles, like helping a woman in a wheelchair walk.
An Interview with Francesco Costabile

Nov 10, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Gary M. Kramer

Director and cowriter Francesco Costabile’s Familia, which premiered at this year’s Venice Film Festival, is an intense drama inspired by true events. Licia (Barbara Ronchi) lives with her two young sons, Ale (Stefano Valentini), short for Alesandro, and Gigi (Francesco de Lucia) short for Luigi. The boys’ father, Franco (Francisco Di Leva), is away serving time. However, shortly after Franco is released from prison, he pays a visit to his kids.
On Nikos Koudouros’ 1922

Oct 15, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Vrasidas Karalis

When in 1978, Nikos Koundouros released his visual meditation on the events of 1922 in what Greeks call the Asia Minor catastrophe, the country was going through a profound historical transition. The 1967 dictatorship had collapsed several years earlier, Cyprus was invaded and divided by Turkey, the political system was trying to re-assert its authority and re-articulate its hegemony.
An Interview with Graham Swon

Aug 2, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Joshua Bogatin

There could hardly be a less auspicious way to start a filmmaking career than as a producer on a Matías Piñeiro film, and it wasn’t long after producing Hermia and Helena (2016) that Graham Swon began to clearly emerge as a major voice on the American independent film scene. Primarily working out of New York, he has made a name for himself over the past ten years while working with cinephile-minded directors like Ricky D’Ambrose, Ted Fendt, Dan Sallitt, and Gina Telaroli.
Film’s Struggle Through the Ages: The 8th Annual Nitrate Picture Show

Aug 2, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Joshua Bogatin

The only thing to discover at The Nitrate Picture Show is the past. With an entire slate of programming consisting of nothing besides rare nitrate prints, the festival is, by design, prohibited from showing any film made after 1952, the year nitrate film stock was discontinued in favour of acetate film stock. Hosted yearly by the George Eastman Museum in Rochester, New York, the festival is one of the few places where curious cinephiles can still feast their eyes on this discontinued medium.
White People Have Work to Do: Ellen E. Jones’ Screen Deep: How film and TV Can Solve Racism and Save the World

May 23, 2024 | sensesofcinema.com | Tara Judah

In her entertaining and thoroughly engaging whistle-stop tour through 20th century popular film and TV narratives, film critic and journalist Ellen E. Jones convincingly makes the case for the potential of film and TV to disseminate and influence the way we, as individuals and societies, understand and interact with race.