Eureka’s Masters of Cinema series was formative in developing my knowledge and love of cinema. I glance over at my collection and think of how Eureka introduced me to F.W Murnau’s Tabu, Douglas Sirk’s The Tarnished Angels and a host of lesser seen Billy Wilder films. I associate that Masters […]
Masters of Cinema
Pandora’s Box (1929) Dare You Open, or Will You Pabst? (Review)
Achieving its UK Blu-ray debut this week courtesy of Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series is G.W. Pabst’s 1929 classic Pandora’s Box. Arguably one of Weimer German cinema’s – if not silent cinema in general’s – greatest masterpieces, Pandora’s Box is the film that catapulted the Kansas-born, twenty-two-year-old, one-time chorus […]
Andrzej Żuławski: Three Films (1971-1988): A Triptych of Trauma (Review)
Samurai Reincarnation (1981) – Theatrical bombast meets relevant messages (Review)
Adapting Futaro Yamada’s 1967 novel, Samurai Reincarnation, writer/director Kinji Fukasaku crafts a historical fantasy which begins over 350 years ago following the Shimabara Rebellion. A revolt led to thousands of Christians being slaughtered by the Tokugawa regime, as horrifically conveyed within a display of severed heads – with many split […]
Revenge (1964) A True Masterpiece of Japanese Cinema (Review)
How does one win when the chips are stacked so very high against you? In a society where social standing and face mean everything, the slightest disagreement or misunderstanding can escalate to unfathomable levels of violence, heaping consequence upon consequence. When does it end? And just how far does it […]
Run Man Run (1968): A Picaresque Shaggy Dog Tale of a Tortilla Western (Review)
Receiving its Blu-ray world premiere from Eureka Entertainment’s Masters of Cinema series this week is the third and final Western from director Sergio Sollima, 1968’s Run, Man, Run. Set against the backdrop of the Mexican Revolution, this ‘Zapata’ or ‘Tortilla’ Western (the names commonly given to these Italian-made oaters of […]
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) One of the earliest and purest examples of cinematic dread (4K Blu-Ray Review)
Few cinematic movements have been as influential to the formation and development of cinema as German Expressionism. Its intricate and fantastical set design, emphasis on close-ups and fantastic use of dynamic lighting to craft deep shadows have gone on to influence a wide range of Hollywood genres from gothic horror […]
Son of the White Mare (1981): a one-man mission to demonstrate animation’s possibilities (Review)
If Eureka Masters of Cinema’s new Blu-Ray release just contained Marcell Jankovics’s 1981 film Son of the White Mare, that would be enough for an unqualified recommendation. Revered in his native Hungary after making the nation’s first animated feature – of which more later – Jankovics’s work has not always […]
The Most Dangerous Game (1932) Ripe for critical re-evaluation… not to mention rediscovery and celebration (Blu-Ray Review)
The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) The Original Universal Monster makes his UK debut (Blu-Ray Review)
It’s a strange, spellbinding experience to witness Lon Chaney’s titular disfigured bell-ringer appear on-screen for the first time, knowing in hindsight that this film, in many ways, was the beginning of blockbuster cinema as we know it today. The first adaptation of many of Victor Hugo’s classic novel, Wallace Worsley’s […]