iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

The glorious BFI Claude Chabrol season continues with LA CÉRÉMONIE (1995). Sandrine Bonnaire (cool and inscrutable) and Isabelle Huppert (charismatic and playful) are sensational as the social outcasts turned revolutionaries in suffocating suburban France: Chabrol called it "the last Marxist film".

Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert, arms around one another, watch television in Bonnaire's bedroom in La Cérémonie.

130

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Ildikó Enyedi's SILENT FRIEND is enchanting: a tender & beautiful story of social change, scientific progress & a search for connection between people & plants across three timelines. Tony Leung Chiu-wai is of course magnificent, but every performance rings true and the photography is breathtaking.

Tony Leung Chiu-wai in SILENT FRIEND: a scientist with close-cropped hair and steel-rimmed glasses with a serene expression and enviable scarf.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 12/09/2026

Chabrol's La Femme Infidèle (1969) is a dazzling dark comic thriller with a superb Michel Bouquet deliquescing from complacent smoothie to sweaty avenger when he discovers his wife Stéphane Audran's affair. Chabrol's swooning glides and ruthless close-ups make every scene unsettling. At BFI now.

Stéphane Audran and Michel Bouquet in La Femme Infidèle

051

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 10/09/2026

Ntozake Shange's for black girls ... has its long overdue London premiere at @theyardtheatre.bsky.social and it's been worth the wait: a searing, sensational symphony of Black women's lives in America that blends horror, humour and heartache in a thrilling celebration of solidarity and sisterhood.

Ibilola Rossi, Nadine Higgin, Cherrelle Skeete, Alex Thomas-Smith and Tatenda Matsvai in for colored girls who have considered suicide / when the rainbow is enuf

031

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 09/09/2026

I was knocked sideways by SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (Bryan Forbes, 1964) at BFI. The title is mild-mannered, but the movie is ruthless: a kidnap thriller that unpeels itself into a horror film about grief. Kim Stanley and Richard Attenborough are superb and Forbes' compositions often Welles-worthy.

Richard Attenborough and Kim Stanley in SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON. She is in the foreground, holding a vial of chloroform in front of a mirror that reflects them both.

150

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Thank you to The Wrap for including HIGH VALUE TARGET in their 50 most anticipated TV shows for autumn. The series is based on the memoirs of CIA agent John Nixon, and premieres on TNT on 13 September. UK launch TBA.

A still from HIGH VALUE TARGET, showing CIA agent John Nixon confronting Saddam Hussein.

"High Value Target: The Hunt For Saddam"
(TNT) - Sept. 13
CIA analyst John Nixon's high-stakes interrogation of dictator Saddam Hussein is getting the Hollywood treatment in TNT's upcoming political thriller "High Value Target: The Hunt for Saddam." Inspired by Nixon's memoir "Debriefing the President," the eight-episode series chronicles the pair's exchanges following the former Iraqi president's capture in December 2003 in the search for weapons of mass destruction. The show also explores the far-reaching consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the ripple effect it would have across the world for decades to come. "High Value Target" will star Joel Kinnaman as Nixon and Waleed Zuaiter as Hussein. Rounding out the cast is Lena Góra, Rebecca Night, Ewan Miller, Tom Berenger, Matt Barr, Paul Ryan, Christopher McDonald, Dar Salim and Talia Balsam. — Lucas Manfredi

010

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 23/08/2026

I just saw this mistake in an email from Curzon and honestly might prefer these two films this way round:

Curzon mixes up the descriptions of Sense & Sensibility and Resident Evil, so that S&S is directed by Zack Creggar and Resident Evil by Georgia Oakley.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Hitchcock said of his two versions (1934 & 1956) that "the first is the work of a talented amateur & the second was made by a professional." But youth gave him such dynamism & originality: '34 is lean, witty, sometimes shockingly violent, and Lorre is unbeatable as its charming but weaselly villain.

Alfred Hitchcock and Peter Lorre on the set of THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH (1934). Lorre smiles slyly, delightedly for the camera while Hitch confronts it warily and looks keen to head off for dinner.

050

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

Dazzled all over again by Bergman's PERSONA (1966) at BFI yesterday, on gorgeous 35mm. It's a film that rewards rewatching more than almost any other: every scene shimmers with ambiguity, every action provokes and rebukes interpretation, while remaining a gripping, sensual psychological thriller.

Bibi Andersson and Liv Ullmann in Ingmar Bergman's PERSONA, their faces in close-up, challenging the lens.

110

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 04/08/2026

Chloë Moss's THE GUILTY at @donmarwarehouse.bsky.social, directed by Felix Barrett, is a haunting, harrowing thriller played out in real time with a riveting central performance by Russell Tovey as a troubled cop on a night shift where nothing is quite what it seems. I was spellbound & shaken by it.

Russell Tovey as an emergency response officer in THE GUILTY: a man in shadow speaking into a telephone headset.

010

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 28/07/2026

"Calling Dick Tracy ... calling Dick Tracy ... "

Beautifully coloured nighttime cityscape in Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)

The bad guys assemble in Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)

Tracy fires his machine gun towards the lens as Breathless Mahoney sings behind him in Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)

Tracy stands in front of his car, dressed in his iconic yellow hat and coat, in Dick Tracy (Warren Beatty, 1990)

011

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung would like a word …

Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Maggie Cheung in In The Mood for Love

1101

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

Hofesh Shechter’s In The Brain is a dance party staged on the edge of apocalypse. Gorgeously lit and thrillingly scored, it's a stunning showcase for his young company, Schecter II, with a rare tenderness in its solo sections, finding solidarity in chaos. www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/hof...

Eight young dancers in street clothing caught in a fierce beam of light in Hofesh Schecter's In The Brain.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

In Bed With My Brother's Philosophy of the World is a blazing, brilliant remix of the story of The Shaggs co-starring theatre's secret weapon Nigel Barrett. Funny, fiery, furious, it's a perfect first show for the gorgeous new @theyardtheatre.bsky.social: same radical spirit, slightly comfier seats.

In Bed With My Brother (Nora Alexander, Dora Lynn and Kat Cory) in costume as The Shaggs for Philosophy of the World. Playing at the Yard to 1st August: https://www.theyardtheatre.co.uk/events/philosophy-of-the-world

071

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

I'm very much looking forward to Dandelions and Poppy, a queer coming-of-age comedy about two girls and a horny gay dog called Dandelion by @artsemergency.bsky.social graduate Hosanna Johnson. Catch it at @thehopetheatre.bsky.social on 1-3 September: www.thehopetheatre.com/dandelionsan...

Two schoolgirls sit on a park bench in the sunshine. They are flirting awkwardly. One is holding a dog lead.

030

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 09/07/2026

I'm the grim reaper of television: any show that I love is immediately cancelled (RIP to LOVECRAFT COUNTRY, I LOVE DICK, THE CHAIR). So farewell, PONIES: Haley Lu Richardson & Emilia Clarke were an absolute joy as unlikely spies in 70s Moscow, with terrific scripts by David Iserson & Susanna Fogel.

Haley Lu Richardson & Emilia Clarke as unlikely spies in 1970s Moscow

040

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/07/2026

What Is the Definitive Movie About America? www.nytimes.com/2026/07/01/m...

The Woodsman in Twin Peaks The Return: a dark monochrome image of a bearded man in a hunter's cap, a cigarette in his mouth.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 01/07/2026

I hugely enjoyed Curry Barker's OBSESSION, despite being a horror film coward. Inde Navarrette is sensational: her storytelling scene matches Naomi Watts' audition in MULHOLLAND DR. as a sequence that transforms both performance & character. Also the most unsettling phone call since LOST HIGHWAY.

Inde Navarette in OBSESSION dir. Curry Barker. She's smiling nervously at a party, two boys in the background behind her.

020

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Spielberg's DISCLOSURE DAY is less like ET & CLOSE ENCOUNTERS than a fusion of TINTIN & THE POST. It's also as much of a personal portrait of his parents as THE FABELMANS, and his most 70s movie since — well — the 70s. So as a lover of Pakula & Pollack's conspiracy thrillers I had a wonderful time.

Emily Blunt in Disclosure Day, tears in her eyes, in her childhood bedroom.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Sophy Romvari's BLUE HERON has haunted me for a week now. It's a powerful, intimate story of childhood, memory and a quest for closure that takes dazzling leaps in focus and form. As her troubled brother Jeremy, Edik Beddoes barely speaks but gives one of the strongest performances of the year.

Edik Beddoes as Jeremy in BLUE HERON: a pale, angular teenager with thick glasses and long hair, shot in sunlight against a blue sea.

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

My reading of it was that the ... er ... guests in Margaret's childhood home knew she loved animals (the butterfly wallpaper) and chose to appear as a child's imagined version of animals so she'd trust them and feel safe following them. It was a deliberate act of empathy. What did you guys think?

From the trailer for DISCLOSURE DAY: a fox, a deer and a raccoon appear in Margaret's childhood bedroom at night.

120

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 23/06/2026

"If you’re making movies at the same time as Steven Spielberg, it’s hard not to feel like Salieri." Terrific interview with Steven Soderbergh about Spielberg, his own most challenging productions and his new app detailing the making of JAWS. deadline.com/2026/06/stev...

Roy Scheider in JAWS (1975) He's in close-up, front right, cigarette in his mouth, the shark rearing behind him from the left.

100

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Beautiful, perfectly parodic children’s book covers from The Royal Tenenbaums, each illustrated by a different artist (including Wes Anderson’s wife on the far right). Also, check the second from left: did Wes Anderson inspire Weapons?!

010

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/06/2026

Wes Anderson's Archive at the Design Museum is an enchanting tribute to human imagination, packed with exquisite work by hundreds of artists. As well as iconic costumes & models there's huge joy in finding book covers, menus etc. that you may have missed on screen: designmuseum.org/exhibitions/...

Costumes and props from Wes Anderson's movie RUSHMORE, now on display at the Design Museum in London UK.

100

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Quote with a fictional band that isn't Spinal Tap.

The band from WE ARE THE BEST! (Lukas Moodysson, 2013). Three teenaged girls sit in a recording studio, draped over each other, awkwardly facing the camera.

030

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 10/04/2026

Anya Reiss is one of our best playwrights: funny, fierce & ruthless, propelled by love & rage. Her new version of A Doll's House at the Almeida is scalpel sharp & pindrop tense, wrenching the play into the present, almost to the hour, with Romola Garai as a glorious, dangerous Nora.

Tom Mothersdale, Romola Garai and Olivier Huband in A Doll's House. They are hugging and dancing in a chilly blue light, with Garai in the centre: a dance that looks like a disaster. Photo by Marc Brenner

000

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

François Ozon's haunting, timely adaptation of L'ETRANGER is a masterclass in directing. The first half is almost silent, told in striking, sensual imagery, the second driven by two dramatic set pieces. Benjamin Voisin is a charismatic, unsettling Meursault and Rebecca Marder a heartbreaking Marie.

Benjamin Voisin as Meursault and Rebecca Marder as Marie in L'ETRANGER. They are shot from above, in monochrome, lying on a beach in fierce sunlight, his head on her stomach.

220

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 03/04/2026

If you can't get to the real seaside this Easter, Seurat and the Sea at the Courtauld Gallery is a holiday in 26 paintings. I found it very moving: Seurat sold only 3 pictures in his lifetime before dying at just 31, making these shimmering summertime seascapes feel as fragile as they are beautiful.

Georges Seurat (1859-1891), Seascape at Port-en-Bessin, Normandy, 1888, oil on canvas. A canvas divided diagonally, with a grassy cliff on the left side and a shimmering sea on the right, not long before sunset.

2212

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 02/04/2026

Tim Crouch's The Tempest at the Globe is spellbinding, combining his characteristic playfulness and thoughtfulness to create an original, beautiful version that confronts the play's problems while enhancing its magic. Sophie Steer is, of course, a marvel as Miranda, and the whole cast is a delight.

Tim Crouch as Prospero in The Tempest at the Globe: a bearded magician standing in front of a backdrop that includes a model ship, a feathered wing and relics from many cultures.

041

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 31/03/2026

I hugely enjoyed Georgi M. Unkovski's DJ AHMET (Диџеј Ахмет) a coming-of-age tale with teeth about a young Macedonian shepherd who loves dance music and his beautiful neighbour Aya, but whose conservative community seeks to deny him both. Wonderfully acted & beautifully shot, it's in UK cinemas now.

Arif Jakup as Ahmet and Agush Agushev as his younger brother Naim: two boys, one standing and one sitting on a blue tractor, set against Macedonian farmland in DJ AHMET.

031

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 20/03/2026

THE DEVIL'S HAND (Maurice Tourneur, 1943) is a Faustian tale about a struggling artist who sells his soul for wealth & renown. Made under German occupation, it's also a powerful & enduring warning about the perils of collaboration, with a truly unsettling performance by Pierre Palau as the devil.

Pierre Palau as the devil in The Devil's Hand: a smallish, balding man in a dark suit and hat with a deeply un-nerving expression, sitting in front of a ticking clock ...

718336

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 19/03/2026

Julien Duvivier’s PANIQUE (1946), adapted from Simenon's Les Fiançailles de M. Hire, really shook me. It's Duvivier's first French film after WW2 & its portrayal of mob justice in a paranoid society is timely & chilling today. Stunningly shot, with a heartbreaking lead performance by Michel Simon.

Michel Simon in PANIQUE (1946): a bearded man, shot from below, set against a corner house with a woman peering down from above.

1729653

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 11/02/2026

RIP the great Bud Cort, b. 1948 and one of cinema's most distinctive and original actors. We commissioned this poster for a LOCO screening of Hal Ashby's HAROLD AND MAUDE (1971) co-starring Ruth Gordon, one of the most magical, mischievous, melancholic movies ever made.

A poster for HAROLD AND MAUDE (Hal Ashby, 1971) designed by Sam Ashby with art by Paul Slater. It shows a young man and an older woman standing beneath a yellow umbrella as perilous objects fall from the sky.

082

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 06/02/2026

Peter Lorre’s THE LOST ONE (1951), his only film as director, is the darkest of noirs. A Nazi doctor kills his lover for her treachery, has his crime covered up by the state and, crazed with guilt, kills again. A powerful portrait of how authoritarianism corrupts, from @filmsradiance.bsky.social.

Peter Lorre in THE LOST ONE, lighting a cigarette in the darkness, his face sallow, his eyes hollow.

091

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 29/01/2026

Peter Weir's WITNESS (1985) is not just a great thriller but a great love story: Ford and McGillis's wit, warmth & chemistry burn through the screen. And watching it this week the title felt like an exhortation: that we must all, for the good of all, bear witness and keep our eyes open to the truth.

Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis kiss passionately against a stormy blue sky in WITNESS (Peter Weir, 1985)

0112

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 28/01/2026

Wonderful to see David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN at BFI. It's a masterclass in cinematic empathy, gliding between the POVs of John Merrick's exploiters, spectators and doctors, and of Merrick himself. It dares us to look away, and asks us to keep looking, not just at John but into our own hearts.

Freddie Jones as Bytes kidnaps John Hurt as John Merrick from his hospital room in THE ELEPHANT MAN (1980) directed by David Lynch.

1020614

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 22/01/2026

I've never felt such silence & stillness in a cinema as I did last night at BFI's FIRE WALK WITH ME. Denounced & dismissed by many critics in 1992, it's clear now that they hated & feared it because David Lynch dared tell the truth. A powerful, beautiful, achingly sad masterpiece of domestic horror.

Sheryl Lee as Laura Palmer in TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME. She's a young blonde woman, lit by red light, her eyes brimming with tears.

0111

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

The great cinematographer Allen Daviau (E.T., Bugsy, Empire of the Sun) shot FEARLESS with a mission from Weir to "photograph souls". Some more of his breathtaking images here:

Jeff Bridges and Isabella Rossellini in FEARLESS

Jeff Bridges in FEARLESS, bathed in light inside the crashed plane

Jeff Bridges in FEARLESS, standing on the roof of a tower block, exhilarated

Isabella Rossellini in FEARLESS, smoking a cigarette with great style.

120

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Peter Weir's FEARLESS (1993) is a magnificent, daringly spiritual movie, from Rafael Yglesias's script. Jeff Bridges & Rosie Perez are electric as two plane crash survivors who connect as they struggle, in opposite ways, to find new meaning in life, while Isabella Rossellini shines as Bridges' wife.

181

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 19/01/2026

Wonderful to see MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001) again in BFI's David Lynch season. I keep thinking of Naomi Watts reading the script for the first time and discovering what an astonishing, multifaceted, mould-breaking role it would be: a role that darkened and deepened as Lynch expanded it from TV to film.

Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive. A close-up of her face, surrounded by darkness, her red lips and blue eyes shining bright.

7856

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

It's the last week of Kerry James Marshall's marvellous, monumental THE HISTORIES at the Royal Academy of Arts. Do go if you can: it's a thrilling, challenging, beautiful show and the perfect antidote to the bleakness of both the weather and the times.

Past Times by Kerry James Marshall: a group of Black people picnic, play and waterski on a lake in Chicago in summertime.

010

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Here's some more of Néstor Almendros's breathtaking cinematography in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. Every frame of the film vibrates with emotion and meaning.

Marie-Christine Barrault and Jean-Louis Trintignant in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. He's gazing at her intently, she's looking away.

Jean-Louis Trintignant and Françoise Fabian in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S. She's in her nightclothes, pushing him away when he tries to kiss her.

010

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 15/01/2026

Wonderful to see Éric Rohmer's MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S (1969) at BFI last night. Maud (Françoise Fabian) is one of cinema's greatest characters and performances: funny, flirtatious, worldly and wise, giving Rohmer's philosophical dialogue insouciance and swing. A rich, funny, melancholic masterpiece.

Françoise Fabian as Maud in MY NIGHT AT MAUD'S, sitting on her bed smoking a cigarette looking both melancholy and cool.

130

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

One of the joys of revisiting great films is that the brilliance of the directing, acting & writing doesn't change, but their meaning or metaphor can. Peter Weir's filmography is full of films with that quality (PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK, THE MOSQUITO COAST) & THE TRUMAN SHOW is one of his finest.

Jim Carrey in THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) discovering the television light fallen from the sky that provides the first gap in his reality.

020

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 13/01/2026

In 1998 Peter Weir's dazzling THE TRUMAN SHOW (1998) felt like a satire of TV. Rewatching it last night it felt more like a prediction of today's rabbit hole radicalisation: the plausible, paranoid worlds that people can build around themselves, almost wilfully ignoring the clues to the contrary.

Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank climbing a set of steps in an artificial sky, in THE TRUMAN SHOW (Peter Weir, 1998)

100

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

I'm having a Peter Weir rewatch before hosting a screening of WITNESS (1985). I first saw DEAD POETS SOCIETY (1989) as a teenager and thought it was a film to inspire young people. Watching it now, it feels like a prayer to parents, to help their kids to follow their own path, not the expected one.

Robert Sean Leonard playing Puck in a theatre production with a crown of twigs, in DEAD POETS SOCIETY (Peter Weir, 1989)

0153

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 09/01/2026

What a marvel Renate Reinsve is! A reminder that the true subject of cinema is human faces and feelings, which no AI will ever replace. SENTIMENTAL VALUE (Joachim Trier, 2025) is wonderful: such a rich, kind, complex story, rooted in the world of film but with dynamics that are universal & timeless.

Renate Reinsve in SENTIMENTAL VALUE. She's lying on a bed, a little tearful, speaking to her sister. The subtitle reads "Why didn't our childhood ruin you?"

020

Jonathan Wakeham @jonathanwakeham.bsky.social · 01/01/2026

The delightful Oscar-shortlisted short film A FRIEND OF DOROTHY, written and directed by Lee Knight and starring Alistair Nwachukwu and Miriam Margolyes, is now streaming on Disney+. My brilliant friend James Dean produced it so I am entirely biased, but I do recommend it.

Alistair Nwachukwu and Miriam Margolyes, a young Black man and an older white woman, star in A Friend of Dorothy, now streaming on Disney+

031