history of cinema
DVD/Blu-ray: Hitler's HollywoodFriday, 09 November 2018
Apart from Leni Riefenstahl’s insidiously seductive celebrations of Nazism and the propaganda excesses of Veit Harlan’s Jud Süß (1940), the films that were made in Germany during the Hitler period have been air-brushed out of cinema history, almost... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: RedoubtableSunday, 09 September 2018
For viewers challenged by the work of French auteur classic Jean-Luc Godard, Michel Hazanavicius’ Redoubtable catches the moment when Godard himself began to be challenged by Godard. The irony, a considerable one, is that Godard was rejecting... Read more... |
Box office poison? Joan Crawford at BFI SouthbankMonday, 30 July 2018
What’s that? Joan Crawford had no sense of humour? Well, take a look at It's A Great Feeling. It’s a pretty bizarre (and pretty bad) 1949 musical with Jack Carson and Dennis Morgan playing themselves running round the Warner Brothers lot... Read more... |
DVD: Mansfield 66/67Tuesday, 26 June 2018
There’s long been a fascination with the death of busty, blonde, Marilyn-alike Hollywood star Jayne Mansfield. The fact that it supposedly resulted from a curse by the occult showman and head of the Church of Satan, Anton LaVey, builds in an element... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: An Actor's RevengeSaturday, 07 April 2018
Japanese director Kon Ichikawa’s An Actor’s Revenge is something of a one-off. Even in the context of the prolific director’s career variety, it’s an unusually stylised and visually captivating story of high artifice – there’s rich melodrama in its... Read more... |
Score review - breathless dash through music and filmThursday, 05 April 2018
The crucial yet almost indefinable role of music in film – it’s a subject ripe for exploration and celebration, from the musicological technicalities of leitmotifs and ostinatos, through to the colourful characters working to bring directors’... Read more... |
Early Man review - delight for football fans and kids alikeThursday, 25 January 2018
Nick Park’s utterly charming new animation channels the spirits of so many cinema and comedy ghosts that its originality can be overlooked – but it shouldn’t be. This is a fresh narrative in an era where films aimed at young audiences are dominated... Read more... |
DVD: A Journey Through French CinemaTuesday, 12 December 2017
Bertrand Tavernier’s trip through French cinema is shot through with the love of someone who has grown up with cinema and knows how to communicate his passion in a way that is totally engaging. The three hours-plus that he delivers make you want to... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: One-Eyed JacksTuesday, 13 June 2017
One-Eyed Jacks, the only film Marlon Brando ever directed, is a masterpiece by any reckoning, a classic western about love and treachery, as well as a startling and boundary-breaking re-invention of the genre.The tragedy unfolds, through many twists... Read more... |
The Kid Stays in the Picture, Royal Court, review – ‘sad, bad and sprawling’Friday, 24 March 2017
The beauty of fiction is that its stories have both compelling shape and deep meaning – they are dramas where things feel right and true and real. The trouble with real life is that it’s the opposite: it is messy, frequently shapeless and often... Read more... |
Blu-ray: Multiple ManiacsTuesday, 21 March 2017
The two words cut to the chase. The cast play, or actually are, maniacs. There are lots of them. Multiple Maniacs also nods to the title of Herschell Gordon Lewis’ 1964 proto-gore movie Two Thousand Maniacs! John Waters’ 1970 second full-length film... Read more... |
Arena: Nicolas Roeg – It's About Time, BBC FourMonday, 29 June 2015
Rumour has it that there's a proposal floating around Hollywood to remake Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now, his enthralling 1973 masterpiece of love, grief and death foretold. Anyone foolish enough to contemplate such a move should be made to watch... Read more... |
