Bijou Blog
Creative and critical movie writing from the Ped Mall to the moon!
Regular features on the Bijou Blog include reviews, personal and critical essays, creative work, coverage of the True/False film festival, our Youtube Cine-Club, and more! Open to the public for submissions! Submit to bijoubloggers@gmail.com using the format:
Submission title / author name + bio / piece (uploaded as a Doc)
Listen in to Bijou Banter on iTunes, bijou.uiowa.edu, or live on KRUI Fridays at 3pm (FM 89.7)!
Promare: Flames of Empathy
Tuesday, March 22, 2022
In one of the most striking scenes of Promare (2019), the first feature-length film from Japanese studio Trigger, the city of Promepolis is under attack. The city’s dull gray buildings, reduced to lifeless shapes under a moon-and-starless night, have suddenly erupted into eye-burning neon fire.
Thelma and Louise
Saturday, March 5, 2022
As a lesbian who aspires to be a filmmaker, I have always questioned my relationship with film.
Chungking Express
Friday, February 25, 2022
In Wong Kar Wai’s Chungking Express, the unpredictability and vastness of love are visualized through two interconnected relationships. In the first story, Cop 223 marks the expiration of his past relationship with the purchasing of pineapple cans.
Punch-Drunk Love
Friday, February 4, 2022
Paul Thomas Anderson is one of my favorite directors in the industry. Within his slightly-off characters and sweeping California landscapes is an exploration of what makes us human. Part of our experience as people is falling in love.
Bijou's Best of 2021
Friday, January 28, 2022
Members of the Bijou Film Board share their favorite new releases, first watches and film-related experiences of 2021. Did any of your favorites make the lists? Read on to find out...
Mixtape Archive
Friday, February 5, 2021
Hey there folks! Bijou Banter has had to, unfortunately, take down our very popular and ever so fantastic Mixtape episodes due to copyright concerns on our platforms. Shucks, we know, but we thought it would be a shame for them to go to waste.
It's Only Flowers [THE BITTER TEARS OF PETRA VON KANT]
Saturday, December 19, 2020
A long, green candle burns down to a final nub and sputters in the surrounding wax. Hiss… and a smoke trail rises in curly tendrils, reaching, grasping, searching for an exit from the room. There is no exit. The sickly black smoke pools at the ceiling, poisoning the air.
Sacha Baron Cohen Fools No One With BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM (2020)
Monday, November 23, 2020
Sacha Baron Cohen could justifiably be called the comedian of the millennial generation. He’s become something of a hero for people in the age-group with his righteous pranking of stodgy politicians and bigoted americans.
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO (Peter Strickland, 2012)
Sunday, October 11, 2020
In anticipation of Bijou After Hours' upcoming virtual screening of In Fabric on the weekend of October 17th, we look back at Peter Strickland's second feature.
Occultism and Cutural Crisis: An Interview with Andrew Owens
Thursday, September 24, 2020
Lee Sailor: In your class, you mentioned early filmmakers, German expressionists, I think, who were interested in occultism and the occult. I was wondering if you could elaborate on that. Like, were they worshiping the devil or something?
Andrew Owens: No, no, at least not that I'm aware of.