Films for Wintering

Blueish Cinema (2)

I love films & to share films. Playlists for friends & mixtapes for crushes have long been a love language of mine.

So without further drawl, here’s some film recommendations for this season of wintering, from mine heart unto yours.


1. Train Dreams (2025)
file under: slow, sylvan, sadcore

A film about memory, oneness, loss & grace.
It follows a stoic logger named Robert in early 20th century America, arriving as an orphan with seemingly no history, focusing mostly on his later life and the stark, poetic reality of it.

It’s almost on the verge of too simple, but I love a film with the confidence for breathing room. Some of my favourite cinematography in recent years & poignant, sparse dialogue. Tragic. But a deeply beautiful film, for lovers of Mother Earthy.

2. Brokeback Mountain (2005)
file under: tender, yearning, spacious

I only saw this recently for the first time & I feel it’s been represented somewhat strangely, so if you somehow haven’t seen it either, this here’s for you.

Brokeback is all about spaciousness & reading in-between the lines. It’s quietly complicated & slow moving.
Two proper type cowboys are hired to herd sheep through the summer of 1963 in the desolately lush mountains of Wyoming. What transpires ends up having a knock on effect of devastating proportions throughout the rest of their lives.

It’s a gorgeous, if painful watch & doesn’t shy away from looking at the homophobic chokehold the patriarchy has on the masculine. Jake Gyllenhaal gives a sweet performance as Jack Twist, but really the reason to watch is for heart-wrenching Ennis Del Mar played by forever-crush, the late Heath Ledger.

3. TÁR (2022)
   file under: cerebral, tense, polished
   
   A study of power, narcissism & self-mythologising.
   
   Cate Blanchett plays an intimidating a conductor / composer / EGOT who you kind of root for until the cracks begin to show.
   The film refuses moral conclusions, having you sit in the uncomfortable space between admiration and revulsion instead.
   It’s chilly, eerie and slick, & I love Mahler’s 5th so much.

   

   

   

   

   4. Fire Of Love (2022)

   file under: elemental, romantic, quirky
   
   A document to two kind of gawky, hipster volcanologists, whose devotion to each other is inseparable from their shared obsession.
   The archival footage is stunning, nature at it’s most indifferent.
   Maurice & Katia Krafft are such interesting subjects & people.
   
   There’s something here that feels like a lost Wes Anderson film, and what better to keep you warm than trance inducing lava.

   

   

   

   

   5. La Jetée (1962)
   file under: poetic, hypnotic, unique
   
   Told entirely through still photographs, yet somehow manages to be one of the most emotionally resonant time-travel stories ever.
   
   It follows a man who’s chosen for a dire series of time travel experiments because of a vivid childhood memory he can’t shake.
   
   It’s part love story, part philosophical riddle, and melancholic in a way that sneaks up on you.
   Short and stark.

   

   

   

   

   6. The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
   file under: mythic, moody, epic
   
   This might be my favourite movie, if there is such a thing.
   
   Most of all I love the painted backgrounds, the sweeping romantic score, the city in the clouds, the mysticism, the animism, the eerie swamp fog, the dark revelations, the cinematography that lives somewhere between The Godfather and The Dark Crystal…
   

   The heroes just can’t catch a break in this one. It’s running, it’s hiding, magic, betrayal.
   The two quests inevitably collide in one of my favourite movie endings ever… twisted, delicious cinema.

   

   

   

   

   7. 3-Iron (2004)
   file under: romantic, strange, gentle
   
   The first of my two submissions for your Valentine’s film this year.
   
   Tae-suk is a quiet drifter who rides around on his motorbike breaking into homes of people who are away. But he’s not a burglar, he just wants to wash clothes, take pictures with people’s things, briefly inhabit other people’s lives before disappearing again.

   On one of these break-ins he’s spotted by a woman and a wordless bond forms between the two, quite literally behind her husband’s back.
   

   It’s romantic, bizarre and unique, with almost no dialogue.
   In fact, I don’t think either of the two main characters say a single word.

   

   

   

   

   8. In Bruges (2008)

   file under: gritty, fun, dark
   
   A comfort movie of mine for some reason.
   Dark, punchy, strangely profound.
   Come here to see a weird amount of Harry Potter alumni running around Belgium acting their asses off.
   

   The basic premise is that a hitman who has recently fucked up very badly on one of his recent jobs, has to hide out in the city of Bruges whilst things cool down. He’s essentially being babysat by a killer employed by the same boss, but the twist lies in the real reason he’s there.
   
   It’s charming and chilling and messy.

   

   

   

   

   9. Stalker (1979)

   file under: slowcore, poetic, mysterious
   
   If you’re into films as poems, then here’s this for you.
   Excruciatingly slow… so slow in fact that the film is attached to this legend that when Tarkovsky was given feedback by a Russian film board that he needed to trim the fat off the runtime, he infamously made it even longer and slower.
   
   An incredible narrative premise glued together by introspective philosophy and some of the best shots you’ve ever seen, you’ll sort of hold your breath for two and a half hours.

   

   

   

   

   10. The Road (2009)
   file under: sadcore, gritty, spacious
   
   Bleak to the bone. An adaptation of one of my favourite books ever.
   
   A father and son move through a dead world after an unnamed apocalypse, clinging to each other and to the idea of goodness as everything else brutally falls away.
   It’s trudging, grey, and merciless, but I promise, there’s something incredibly tender present at the heart of it.
   
   It’s not zombies here, maybe it’s worse.
   Obviously nothing says wintering like nuclear winter, but it’s more about carrying the fire when there’s no reason left to believe it matters.
   Still, I wouldn’t watch this one alone.

   

   

   

   

   11. Under The Skin (2013)
   file under: eerie, poetic, grisly
   
   Scarlett Johansson plays someone (or something) drifting through Scotland in a van, quietly watching, listening.
   People vanish after meeting her, lured in by curiosity, desire, or just loneliness. What she does to them is strange & disturbing, depicted through sequences that feel otherworldly rather than violent, like a process we’re not meant to see.
   

   The film moves at a glacial pace, attentive to micro expressions, silences, bodies, atmosphere. It’s sympathetic, frigid, dreamlike & I think, unforgettable.

   

   

   

   

   
   12. Harakiri (1962)
   file under: epic, hypnotic, slow-burn
   
   I wish I’d seen this one sooner in life, I think about it all the time.
   It’s a slow burn, but I was on the edge of my seat anyway.
   
   An old rōnin named Hanshirō shows up mysteriously at the manor of a local feudal lord & requests to commit seppuku, the ancient suicide ritual, before an audience of samurai.
   But the story he starts telling unravels everything.
   
   Patience grants an incredible payoff, and the black & white world is enveloping.

   

   

   

   

   13. Chocolat (2000)
   file under: films that don’t hurt, sensual, cosy
   

   A softer kind of wintering. To me there’s always been something faintly magical about that 1997-2006 era of films, like a sweet spot.
   
   In this tiny little repressed French village, a mysterious woman & her daughter glide in on the winds of change & open a chocolate shop during Lent, which if you can believe it, hugely unsettles the social order.
   
   It’s a sensual film about kindness, pleasure and quiet rebellion. Also you will have a crush on Juliette Binoche by the end and that’s okay.

   

   

   

   

   14. Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (2004)
   file under: yearning, crafty, tender
   

   A favourite.
   Joel is a guy who learns that his ex has had him erased from her memory with a new procedure. Inconsolable, he elects to have the same treatment done, but whilst re-living their memories together in reverse chronological order, he starts to panic and regret his decision.
   
   It’s wonky and tender, with a cool score and some of the craziest looking practical effects I’ve ever seen.

   

   

   

   

   15. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
   file under: fever-dream, mythic, dark
   
   As beautiful as it is disturbing.
   
   A delicate fairytale set in 1940’s Spain, in which a little ten-year-old named Ofelia has to balance the brutal reality of the fascist violence around her with a genuinely frightening, mythical underworld that offers no quiet refuge.
   
   Incredibly engaging and magical and downright nightmare fuel, but trust me I mean the good kind.

   

   

   

   

   
   
   honourable mentions: Pig, I’m Thinking Of Ending Things, Phantom Thread, The Grand Budapest Hotel