One of the finest – and certainly my favourite – non-narrative films ever made, Godfrey Reggio’s beautiful work examines mankind’s relationship with the natural world through a kaleidoscope of juxtaposed images, edited into a grand visual opera and accompanied by a majestic score from minimalist composer, Phillip Glass. From deserted, crumbling cities to exploding rockets, […] Read more »
Rock Hudson stars as Tony Wilson, the newly rejuvenated version of tired businessman Arthur Hamilton, who enlisted the services of a secret organisation to give him a “second chance” at life. No sooner did he make the decision, however, “the company” becomes increasingly manipulative and controlling, while Tony finds his new life, friends, home and […] Read more »
An undisputed classic of American Silent Cinema and one of the very best examples of physical comedy committed to screen, Safety Last! remains the best-known film of Harold Lloyd, despite the fact he made many more than his contemporaries Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Essentially the story of a simple country boy looking for love […] Read more »
There are some epic displays of sleight of hand in Robert Bresson’s tale of crime through desperation, but it’s not much of a thrill ride. Many great filmmakers of crime cinema reference Pickpocket as a genre classic and an enduring influence, but it struggles to maintain that impact today. Read more »
Pasolini’s films are challenging but I like to challenge myself from time to time, and his body of work has become one of my go-to selections when I’m looking to push myself outside of my comfort zone. That said, his adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is probably the most fun and unreservedly entertaining […] Read more »
One of the most eccentric and distinctive voices of the New Hollywood movement, Hal Ashby created some of the most interesting and unique American films of the period. None more so than Harold and Maue, the hilarious, shocking, bizarre yet somehow rather beautiful story of a young disillusioned man’s relationship with an elderly woman clinging […] Read more »
On this week’s podcast, our 40th in fact, we discuss R100, the new, slightly out there comedy from Japanese director Hitoshi Matsumoto. We then take some time to review Ernst Lubitsch’s 1942 classic, To Be Or Not To Be. Finally, we cast our eyes forward to the upcoming Tokyo International Film Festival. Podcast: Play in […] Read more »
For this month’s Full Disclosure over at Twitch, my July entry on the list of shame was Kurosawa Akira’s 1965 drama, Red Beard – his last collaboration with actor Mifune Toshiro. You can check out what I thought of the film by following the link below: Click here to read my thoughts on Red Beard Read more »
I’m ashamed to say that I’ve largely allowed the films of Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong to pass me by until now. I did catch Poetry (although I much preferred Bong Joon-ho’s similarly-themed Mother) but that’s it, despite having both Peppermint Candy and this award-winning effort on my shelves for quite some time. While I will […] Read more »
It has been a very long time since I have seen this, but was definitely a highlight when it first arrived back in 1995. An incredible debut from Danny Boyle, and the first film from Ewan McGregor too. I remember at the time all the buzz was about Christopher Eccleston becoming the next big thing, […] Read more »
Probably Wong Kar Wai’s best film and certainly his most visually accomplished, this is a delicate, ornate study of social mores, forbidden love and loyalty in the face of infidelity. Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung are immaculate and stunning as they loiter around each other’s apartments, share clandestine meetings in the back alleys of 1960s […] Read more »
An intriguing little oddity from the Criterion Collection that rarely seems to get talked about much. Shot low budget on the streets of New York at Christmas, it’s the story of a solitary hit man who comes to the Big Apple for a job, and was written, directed by and starred Allen Baron. The film […] Read more »
I first saw Repo Man (1984) on its original cinematic release. I was in the high school at the time and can still remember walking out in the street after the screening, feeling invigorated and challenged. Repo Man felt like the perfect portrait of what it meant to be a confused youth entering the hollow […] Read more »
I continue my sporadic exploration of the films of Pier Paolo Pasolini with this first part of his Trilogy of Life. Lighter in tone yet no less subversive than the other films of his I’ve seen to-date, The Decameron adapts nine stories from Giovanni Boccaccio’s medieval text. These include randy nuns, duplicitous beauties, bountiful toilet […] Read more »
Pretty much epitomises what Abbas Kiarostami does so well – taking the mundane and making it profound. Homayoun Ershadi stars as a seemingly ordinary man driving around the hillsides on the outskirts of Tehran. He stops and engages with almost every individual he encounters – is he lost? is he in need of help? Slowly […] Read more »
Belonging to a period of extraordinarily sharp and daring US Political drama, from the late 60s and early 70s, Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool (1969) is a unique and truly adventurous piece of work. Set during the ill-fated and conflict ridden 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, Medium Cool intersperses fictional storytelling with real-life scenes all shot […] Read more »
Can’t say that I was especially blown away by Haskell Wexler’s docudrama that follows Robert Forster’s Chicago TV cameraman as he surveys the turbulent climate that builds to the 1968 Democratic National Convention riots. Forster is engaging, as is Verna Bloom as a struggling single parent whom he is drawn to, and there’s no denying […] Read more »
Fritz Lang’s moody, expressionistic film-noir adaptation of the a War-Time novel by Graham Greene is filled with Kafakasque paranoia and is, in every way a compelling marriage of German and American styles of film-making from the early 20th century. The Criterion Collection Blu-Ray edition is magnificent, restoring the picture to it’s original sheen and giving […] Read more »
My favourite Kurosawa film, and quite possibly my favourite Asian film of all-time, this masterful morality play changed the language of cinema forever. Its revelation that narrators, performances, even the film itself can lie to its audience, undermines the medium itself, while simultaneously becoming a seminal example of how it can best be employed. Beyond […] Read more »
This week we discuss two very different films. First we compare notes on the second instalment of the rebooted Star Trek franchise. Then we take a look at acclaimed Soviet director Andrei Tarkovsky's first feature film, Ivan's Childhood, which was recently re-released as part of the Criterion Collection. Read more »