White of the Origins: ‘Liberté, la nuit’ (Philippe Garrel, 1984)

Blown by the wind, a white sheet enters the frame, like a candle swelling and shrinking. Its hypnotic and unpredictable movements obliterate (sometimes partially, other times entirely) the action in the background. It is a spectacle of heightened, Epsteinian poetry that demands to be read under the lens of Jacques Rancière's “thwarted fable”...

The Geometry Lesson: ‘The Book of Mary’ (Anne-Marie Miéville, 1985)

The triangle is an important figure in Anne-Marie Miéville's 'The Book of Mary'. This short film chronicles the separation of a couple focussing on the effects it has on their 11-year-old daughter, Marie. This sudden mutation of the stable family triangle is abstracted in a geometry lesson – a scene between father and daughter, happening halfway into the film...