Matt Mansfield
@mattmansfield.bsky.social
cinema, mostly
letterboxd.com/mattmansfield_
letterboxd.com/mattmansfield_
watched Amadeus yesterday morning (first time in ~15 years, never a film I held with much reverence) in a cinema filled with old people talking loudly to each other and not turning off their phones — even so, a good time at the movies thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2026/01/amad...
Amadeus | Miloš Forman, 1984
A review of the 1984 Oscar winning film Amadeus, directed by Miloš Forman and starring F. Murray Abraham and Tom Hulce, based on Peter Shaffer's play.
thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com
January 9, 2026 at 12:55 PM
watched Amadeus yesterday morning (first time in ~15 years, never a film I held with much reverence) in a cinema filled with old people talking loudly to each other and not turning off their phones — even so, a good time at the movies thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2026/01/amad...
absolutely wild that this exists
UK: Original and spontaneous, Jacques Rozier’s cinema was attuned to the beauty and heartbreak of chance.
Our box set TIME TO PLAY collects all five of his features (as well as shorts), plus a documentary on Rozier and archival interviews.
Our box set TIME TO PLAY collects all five of his features (as well as shorts), plus a documentary on Rozier and archival interviews.
January 7, 2026 at 2:27 PM
absolutely wild that this exists
Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game (1983), a very funny movie about a family who speak but don't listen, wedged awkwardly around a table facing a camera but never each other
January 2, 2026 at 6:42 PM
Yoshimitsu Morita's The Family Game (1983), a very funny movie about a family who speak but don't listen, wedged awkwardly around a table facing a camera but never each other
another good year of watching movies at home boxd.it/EBS8e
2025 (discoveries)
A list of 25 films compiled on Letterboxd, including The Eel (1997), The Pelican (1974), Rosa la rose, fille publique (1986), Stella Dallas (1937) and Gilsodom (1986).
boxd.it
December 31, 2025 at 1:34 PM
another good year of watching movies at home boxd.it/EBS8e
some A+ secondhand pickups this afternoon
December 29, 2025 at 5:48 PM
some A+ secondhand pickups this afternoon
finished my thirtieth novel of the year this morning, hitting the arbitrary target I set in January — best one, either Paul Auster's Leviathan (1992) or Kurt Vonnegut's Galápagos (1985). Ready to go again in 2026.
December 28, 2025 at 2:00 PM
finished my thirtieth novel of the year this morning, hitting the arbitrary target I set in January — best one, either Paul Auster's Leviathan (1992) or Kurt Vonnegut's Galápagos (1985). Ready to go again in 2026.
it's nice to keep the old traditions alive, so I've written about my 2025 in cinema (and beyond) this Xmas Eve, including fav new films, best discoveries + some stuff about music + novels + other miscellany — have a wonderful festive season! 💫💫💫 thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/12/2025...
2025 in Cinema
A personal roundup of my experience of the year 2025, from film to music to literature and more
thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com
December 24, 2025 at 2:30 PM
it's nice to keep the old traditions alive, so I've written about my 2025 in cinema (and beyond) this Xmas Eve, including fav new films, best discoveries + some stuff about music + novels + other miscellany — have a wonderful festive season! 💫💫💫 thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/12/2025...
Avatar: Fire and Ash (great movie, imo) has got me wanting to revisit Aliens and The Abyss, feel like I've been severely underrating most if not all of the Big Jim Classics and these two have always fared quite poorly in my mind, for reasons I cannot even begin to remember
December 20, 2025 at 9:37 PM
Avatar: Fire and Ash (great movie, imo) has got me wanting to revisit Aliens and The Abyss, feel like I've been severely underrating most if not all of the Big Jim Classics and these two have always fared quite poorly in my mind, for reasons I cannot even begin to remember
Saul Bass's Phase IV (1974) is such a great feel bad movie, and a surprisingly lowkey one considering it's about a plague of superintelligent ants in the Arizona desert — Bass should've directed more movies!
December 10, 2025 at 10:39 PM
Saul Bass's Phase IV (1974) is such a great feel bad movie, and a surprisingly lowkey one considering it's about a plague of superintelligent ants in the Arizona desert — Bass should've directed more movies!
credit where it's due, the Dijon album is a very good soundtrack to making a basa biryani
December 9, 2025 at 7:56 PM
credit where it's due, the Dijon album is a very good soundtrack to making a basa biryani
spent a bit of time writing about my history with Kill Bill, and how extraordinary it was to see it for the first time in more than a decade last week thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/12/kill...
Kill Bill | Quentin Tarantino, 2003
A personal history of a writer's experience with Quentin Tarantino's film Kill Bill, starring Uma Thurman
thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com
December 8, 2025 at 7:17 PM
spent a bit of time writing about my history with Kill Bill, and how extraordinary it was to see it for the first time in more than a decade last week thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/12/kill...
so so fun to see Kill Bill in its entirety last night, and wild how much of it I remembered word-for-word, shot-for-shot — I guess that's what happens when you watch a movie 20+ times as a teenager (see also: Face/Off, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Goldeneye etc etc)
December 6, 2025 at 11:48 AM
so so fun to see Kill Bill in its entirety last night, and wild how much of it I remembered word-for-word, shot-for-shot — I guess that's what happens when you watch a movie 20+ times as a teenager (see also: Face/Off, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Goldeneye etc etc)
watched Jun Ichikawa's Kaisha monogatari: Memories of You (1988) this afternoon, a lovely film about lost time and the sad anonymity of a decades-long corporate career coming to an end — and how, sometimes, the joy of starting a jazz band with the boys is enough to make up for everything else.
November 18, 2025 at 3:30 PM
watched Jun Ichikawa's Kaisha monogatari: Memories of You (1988) this afternoon, a lovely film about lost time and the sad anonymity of a decades-long corporate career coming to an end — and how, sometimes, the joy of starting a jazz band with the boys is enough to make up for everything else.
I spent a few days at the Viennale a couple of weeks ago and I've (finally) written about some of the films I saw — a good festival! thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/11/vien...
November 7, 2025 at 4:50 PM
I spent a few days at the Viennale a couple of weeks ago and I've (finally) written about some of the films I saw — a good festival! thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/11/vien...
the two-year anniversary issue of Strange Days has just been sent to subscribers — on Annie Ernaux, Claire Simon, and Yasunari Kawabata. Read it here if the algorithm makes it visible, subscribe if you haven't already etc thistheaterishaunted.substack.com/p/strange-da...
Strange Days #25
October 2025 | Turbulence
thistheaterishaunted.substack.com
November 4, 2025 at 8:08 PM
the two-year anniversary issue of Strange Days has just been sent to subscribers — on Annie Ernaux, Claire Simon, and Yasunari Kawabata. Read it here if the algorithm makes it visible, subscribe if you haven't already etc thistheaterishaunted.substack.com/p/strange-da...
The Vanishing is such an evil movie
October 31, 2025 at 5:29 PM
The Vanishing is such an evil movie
Vienna is a fun city to watch movies in, I gotta say. Good festival! 16 films in 5 days, five great cinemas, lots of good food / coffee, only a mild sense of fear and danger when attempting to cross roads. Hard to fault it!
October 28, 2025 at 11:28 AM
Vienna is a fun city to watch movies in, I gotta say. Good festival! 16 films in 5 days, five great cinemas, lots of good food / coffee, only a mild sense of fear and danger when attempting to cross roads. Hard to fault it!
wrote about the four films I managed to see at this year's London Film Festival (all of which are fascinating in very different ways) thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/10/lond...
October 20, 2025 at 5:50 PM
wrote about the four films I managed to see at this year's London Film Festival (all of which are fascinating in very different ways) thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/10/lond...
it's amazing how much the theatricality of The Fence works in its favour, just two horrendous men standing in spotlights and monologuing deafly to an audience, only for it all to fall apart when the lights come up.
October 18, 2025 at 9:05 PM
it's amazing how much the theatricality of The Fence works in its favour, just two horrendous men standing in spotlights and monologuing deafly to an audience, only for it all to fall apart when the lights come up.
i've written some capsules on the three Sho Miyake films I've been able to track down and watch over the past week or so — an excellent filmmaker! thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/09/sho-...
September 21, 2025 at 4:46 PM
i've written some capsules on the three Sho Miyake films I've been able to track down and watch over the past week or so — an excellent filmmaker! thistheaterishaunted.blogspot.com/2025/09/sho-...
The Housemaid (Kim Ki-young, 1960)
August 16, 2025 at 12:03 PM
The Housemaid (Kim Ki-young, 1960)
watched Rosa la rose, fille publique (1986) tonight, which is such a great, beautiful, devastatingly sad movie, and the best thing I've seen all year — need to see more Vecchiali ASAP
August 15, 2025 at 8:06 PM
watched Rosa la rose, fille publique (1986) tonight, which is such a great, beautiful, devastatingly sad movie, and the best thing I've seen all year — need to see more Vecchiali ASAP
i have never pre-ordered anything faster in my life
UK: Considered one of the most vital and celebrated bodies of work in cinema history, RADICAL JAPAN: CINEMA AND STATE presents 9 films by the great Nagisa Oshima over 7 discs
This world premiere release showcases 7 features, an experimental short and the filmmaker’s 1995 doc plus a 160-page book
This world premiere release showcases 7 features, an experimental short and the filmmaker’s 1995 doc plus a 160-page book
August 8, 2025 at 10:38 AM
i have never pre-ordered anything faster in my life
v late to this, but caroline 2 is such a great, strange album that i haven't been able to stop listening to all day caroline.bandcamp.com/album/caroli...
caroline 2, by caroline
8 track album
caroline.bandcamp.com
August 4, 2025 at 2:13 PM
v late to this, but caroline 2 is such a great, strange album that i haven't been able to stop listening to all day caroline.bandcamp.com/album/caroli...