Turn Your Gaze Upon This Wretched Thing: The Schismatic Spectacle of Brian DePalma’s Hi, Mom!

A white man waving at the camera, with the image cut off horizontally and mirrored at the middle

|Courtney Kowalke| I cannot escape the reach of Ancient Greek theater. The last piece I wrote for Perisphere was about Mai Zetterling’s The Girls and a fictional production of Aristophanes’ comedy Lysistrata. It turns out a large part of director Brian DePalma’s inspiration for… Continue reading

The Ruling Class: Arrogance in Aristocracy

Two men walk through a botanical garden. The one on the left is dressed in black, while the one on the right is wearing a white suit.

|Yuval Klein| The Ruling Class portrays England as a shallow, decadent, and incorrigible institution hiding behind the facade of modernization. Oscillating between a traditional narrative and a musical, the theatrical film satirizes British aristocracy and Christianity in… Continue reading