• SEASON 5
    Metamorphosis

    Cinema, more than any other other form, makes metamorphosis possible; its superpower, the ability to transform before your eyes. For TANKtv’s fifth season, we look at how directors have taken the theme of metamorphosis to new territories – through original storytelling and formal experimentation – turning individual moments into broader revelations about the human condition. Each express something of humanity's capacity for change, adaption and renewal, as much a picture of our past as it is a blueprint for our future. We are pleased to be showing you 10 films spanning seven decades from the greatest names in cinema, including Andrei Tarkovsky, Wim Wenders, Paolo Sorrentino, Agnès Varda, Béla Tarr, Paweł Pawlikowski, Gabriel Axel, Robert Bresson, Olivier Assayas and Atom Egoyan.

  • The Great Beauty

    Paolo Sorrentino | 2013

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    The Great Beauty

    Paolo Sorrentino | 2013

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    The Great Beauty is a study in sumptuousness which both ridicules and revels in the hedonism of Rome’s elite. Jep Gambardella is the king of the high life; he is a flâneur in a world of ageing socialites and brittle beauty. But when a poignant revelation disrupts the easy thrills of his party lifestyle, Jep has to confront the consequences of a life spent pursuing pleasure over purpose.

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    Alessandra Facchinetti is an Italian fashion designer and currently creative director at Harlan + Holden. She previously held leading roles at Gucci, Moncler, Valentino and Tod’s and in 2018, designed over 90 unique costumes for a production of Verdi’s 1867 opera, Don Carlos, at Theatre St. Gallen, Switzerland. Masoud Golsorkhi is editor-in-chief at TANK. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on The Great Beauty.

  • A Man Escaped

    Robert Bresson | 1956

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    A Man Escaped

    Robert Bresson | 1956

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    During World War II, 7000 men were killed by Nazis at Montluc prison camp. André Devigny was nearly one of them, and A Man Escaped is based on his post-war memoir. Unshackled by clichéd depictions of prison life, the narrative follows Fontaine – a member of the Resistance sentenced to die – as he methodically orchestrates his escape. With an unwavering attention to detail, Robert Bresson’s film is a paean to patience, perseverance and trust.

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    Guy Mackinnon-Little is assistant editor at TANK. Nasreen Osman is TANK’s project coordinator. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on A Man Escaped.

  • Babette’s Feast

    Gabriel Axel | 1987

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    Babette’s Feast

    Gabriel Axel | 1987

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    Adapted from a short story by Karen Blixen, Babette’s Feast is a delight for the senses. In a puritanical village in 19th-century Denmark, Babette is a French chef working as a housekeeper to two elderly sisters. After a momentous change in fortune, she decides to lay on an exquisite banquet for the curmudgeonly locals, providing an unshakeable reminder that culinary skill is a powerful and pleasurable art.

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    Matthew Janney is managing editor at TANK. Jaleh Brazell is TANK’s editorial intern. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on Babette’s Feast.  

  • Faces Places

    Agnès Varda & JR | 2017

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    Faces Places

    Agnès Varda & JR | 2017

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    Part comedy, part photo-essay, and part road trip, Faces Places is a charming and poignant celebration of life in France’s overlooked villages and towns. Nonagenarian director Agnès Varda and street artist JR, an unlikely duo, travel around the country, transposing huge portraits of local workers onto buildings. Complemented by the pair’s warmth and wisdom, it’s an act of monumentalisation that both heroises and eulogises a declining way of life.

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    Nasreen Osman is TANK’s project coordinator. Jaleh Brazell is an editorial intern. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on Faces Places.

  • Andrei Rublev

    Andrei Tarkovsky | 1966

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    Andrei Rublev

    Andrei Tarkovsky | 1966

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    The great 15th-century painter and Russian icon Andrei Rublev is the eponymous hero of Andrei Tarkovsky’s masterpiece. Through an episodic structure, the film explores the brutal and the bizarre in medieval Russia. Censored in the USSR for decades upon release, Andrei Rublev offers an allegory for how art can offer consolation in tumultuous times.

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    Guy Mackinnon-Little is assistant editor at TANK. Matthew Janney is TANK’s managing editor. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on Andrei Rublev.  

  • The Clouds of Sils Maria

    Olivier Assayas | 2014

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    The Clouds of Sils Maria

    Olivier Assayas | 2014

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    Taking its title from a meteorological phenomenon in the Swiss mountains, The Clouds of Sils Maria is interested in the blurring of boundaries – both natural and interpersonal. As an actress and her assistant practise lines from a play, their relationship is moulded by the undercurrents of the script. Exploring how art seeps into life, Olivier Assayas layers his work with observations on celebrity, ageing and the vicissitudes of the acting industry.

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    Nasreen Osman is TANK’s project coordinator. Jaleh Brazell is an editorial intern. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on The Clouds of Sils Maria.

  • Ida

    Paweł Pawlikowski | 2013

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    Ida

    Paweł Pawlikowski | 2013

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    In 1960s Poland, a country decimated by war and the terror of the secret police, Ida follows an orphaned novice nun as she seeks the truth of her identity. After reconnecting with her hard-drinking aunt, her path to self-discovery becomes interwoven with the ghosts of Poland’s past. A tightly composed, melancholic masterpiece, Paweł Pawlikowski’s film melds the personal and the political against an austere backdrop.

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    Guy Mackinnon-Little is assistant editor at TANK. Matthew Janney is TANK’s managing editor. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on Ida.  

  • The Sweet Hereafter

    Atom Egoyan | 1997

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    The Sweet Hereafter

    Atom Egoyan | 1997

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    The Sweet Hereafter delves into the transformative impact of grief. In a small snowy town in Canada, 14 children are killed in a school bus crash. Years later – the community still reeling from this collective trauma – a lawyer arrives whose own personal sorrow is mirrored by the town’s bereaved parents. Based on the novel by Russell Banks, the film is a humane drama that delivers a quiet but compelling catharsis. 

     

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    Atom Egoyan is one of the most celebrated filmmakers on the contemporary scene, whose work has earned him numerous awards at international film festivals, as well as two Academy Award nominations. Raised in Canada, Egoyan’s nuanced films draw heavily on his Armenian heritage as well as themes of trauma, displacement and power. Nadifa Mohamed was born in Somalia and moved to Britain in 1986. She is the author of the award-winning novels Black Mamba Boy and The Orchard of Lost Souls and was counted among Granta’s Best of Young British Novelists in 2013. Her latest book, The Fortune Men, is out with Penguin in May. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions on The Sweet Hereafter, the creative limits of literature and film, and translating stories for new mediums.  

  • Turin Horse

    Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky | 2011

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    Turin Horse

    Béla Tarr & Ágnes Hranitzky | 2011

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    Inspired by an anecdote involving Nietzsche and a recalcitrant horse, The Turin Horse traces a stark and desolate descent into a nihilistic void. The film follows the daily monotony of a poor old man and his daughter, who live in an isolated farmhouse struck by a grim and unending gale. With an unflinching gaze, Béla Tarr and Ágnes Hranitzky’s storytelling inches ever closer to total, existential despair. 

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    Matthew Janney is managing editor at TANK. Carmen Gray is a freelance journalist, film critic, and programmer from New Zealand who now lives in Berlin. Publications she has written for include The New York Times, The Guardian, The Observer, Art Review, Sight & Sound and The Calvert Journal, often focusing on the art and culture of Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on The Turin Horse.  

  • Pina

    Wim Wenders | 2011

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    Pina

    Wim Wenders | 2011

    WATCH NOW AFTERTHOUGHTS

    Wim Wenders’ documentary is an exhilarating tribute to the modern dance choreographer Pina Bausch, who passed away in 2009. In elegiac voiceovers, the woman and her work are described with reverent awe. Mediated through shots of dancers performing her pieces – on stages, streets and in the wilderness – Pina is an engrossing film which showcases the vigour of Bausch’s choreography and the passionate devotion of her dancers. 

     

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    Daphne Fernberger is currently a freelance dancer, working variously for the Merce Cunningham Trust and Margie Gillis Legacy Project among others. She has a deep understanding and passion for the body and the body in movement. A graduate of The Juilliard School and American Ballet Theatre’s Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis School, she began her professional career with Cedar Lake Contemporary Ballet, and continued at Dresden Frankfurt Dance Company. She is joined by Christabel Stewart, TANK’s arts editor. Here, they discuss their immediate post-viewing impressions as the credits roll on Pina.

SEASON 11
Forbidden Colour

These kaleidoscopic films by visionaries Bergman, Bidgood, Bakari, Greenaway, Herzog, Pasolini, Ozu, Jarman and Rosso represent the most enchanting, troubling and shocking uses of colour in cinematic history.

SEASON 10
Lives of the Saints

There can be no sainthood without struggle, and for Ingmar Bergman, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Robert Bresson, Margaret Tait, Carl Th. Dreyer, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Christopher Newby, Liv Ullman, Toshio Matsumoto, Timothy Neat, Jamil Dehlavi and Edward Bennett, the divine vision is in the details.

SEASON 9
Conception

TANK’s ninth season, featuring films by John Cassavetes, Jean Cocteau, Terence Davies, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Derek Jarman, Takeshi Kitano, Akira Kurosawa, Ingmar Bergman, Mike Leigh, Laura Mulvey & Peter Wollen and Yasujiro Ozu, show that between the idea and the story there is a universe of possibility.

SEASON 8
Escape

With films by Kryzsztof Kieślowski, Deniz Gamze Egüven, Andrei Tarkovsky, François Ozon, Cristian Mungiu, Hal Hartley, Atom Egoyan, Jean Vigo, Michael Haneke and Louis Malle – offering stories that cross borders, identities and contexts – this season looks at escape anew, not as resignation from our environment, but as re-engagement with it.

SEASON 7
Back to Earth

TANK presents ten films selected by the curators at Serpentine Galleries, as part of their multi-year project Back to Earth. Showing films by Agnès Varda, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Gianfranco Rosi, Charlie Chaplin, Luc Jacquet, Bela Tarr, Thomas Vinterberg, Lars von Trier and Babak Jalali.

SEASON 6
Ritual

This season, we present 10 films spanning six decades by directors who train their lens on this ancient human practice, who, in doing so, capture the often unsaid behaviours and gestures that make us us. Showing films by Andrei Tarkovsky, Andrew Haigh, Andrey Zvyagintsev, Jean-Luc Godard, Michael Haneke, Agnès Varda, Corneliu Porumboiu, Aki Kaurismäki and Atom Egoyan.

SEASON 4
On Versimilitude

This season, we are pleased to be showing 12 films spanning seven decades from the greatest names in cinema, including Andrei Tarkovsky, Michael Haneke, Paolo Sorrentino, Agnès Varda, Louis Malle, Roy Andersson, Andrea Arnold, Hal Hartley, Denis Villeneuve, Peter Strickland, Alejandro Jodorowsky and Mia Hansen-Løve. Through rich storytelling and technical nuance, these directors bring to light cinema's raw power to move and to persuade, and perhaps, to flicker more truthfully than life itself.

SEASON 3
Sculpting in Time

We look at films spanning five decades that approach time in profound ways, featuring Abbas Kiarostami, Paolo Sorrentino, Agnès Varda, Yorgos Lanthimos, Roy Andersson and more. From the hyper-real to the arcane, each provides its own portal into what Tarkovsky described as the “inner, moral qualities essentially inherent in time itself”.

SEASON 2
Growing Pains

Filmmakers return to childhood because while it is universal, it is rarely identical. Whether delving deep into the turbulent experience of our earliest years or tracing their reverberations into adolescence and adulthood, these twelve films journey back to where it all begins.

SEASON 1
Beyond Varda

With director Agnès Varda’s death in 2019, the film world lost a leading (and too-often overlooked) member of the Nouvelle Vague, a cinematic innovator and a pioneering voice. This season of TANKtv marks that legacy with 10 films by female directors for whom Varda laid a cinematic foundation.