Montage Pictures (a subsidiary of Eureka) debuted with two unheard titles from the outer reaches of world cinema last year; Argyis Papadimitropoulis’s slow-burning drama, ‘Suntan’, and Attila Till’s wheelchair-bound hitman movie, ‘Kills on Wheels’. Following in a similar vein is Árpád Sopsits’s downbeat thriller, ‘Strangled’. Based on real-life events, ‘Strangled’ […]
Aidan Fatkin
The Cremator (1968) an absolute essential to watch for all Czech New Wave Fans (Review)
Opening on extreme close-ups of a leopard trapped within a cage, Juraj Herz’s ‘The Cremator’ is the cinematic equivalent of a black hole, it sucks the audience into the warped imagination of Karl Kopfrkingl (Rudolf Hrušínský), who is out on a day trip with his family. On paper, that doesn’t […]
The Tree of the Wooden Clogs (1978) A Classic Example of the Critics Film (Review)
Ermanno Olmi’s 1978 Palme d’Or winner, ‘The Tree of the Wooden Clogs’, has garnered a reputation for being one of the most underrated Italian films ever made, as well as one of the final films of the Neo-Realist movement. Clocking in at just over 3 hours, the audience needs a […]
Edward and Caroline (1951) A progenitor of the romantic comedy formula (Review)
Out of all the titan directors of French cinema who operated between the 1940s and the late 1950s, Jacques Becker is perhaps the least well-known. He cut his teeth working as an assistant to Jean Renoir during many of his projects including the famed war movie, ‘La Grande Illusion’ before […]
Heal the Living (2016) An admirable but soul-crushing medical drama (Review)
For some, Katell Quillévéré’s third feature film, ‘Heal the Living’, has slotted itself nicely in the honourable mentions for a film of the year in 2017. As of writing, Mark Kermode just put out his annual mid-term report of his favourite films from January – June where ‘Heal the Living’ […]
Westfront 1918 & Kameradschaft (1930/1) One of Germany’s best at the peak of his powers (Review)
During the late 1920’s to the early 1930’s, G. W. Pabst’s directorial career was on fire. In 1929, he crafted three films. The two Louise Brooks movies that made him synonymous with silent film, ‘Pandora’s Box’ and ‘Diary of a Lost Girl’, and the mountaineering movie starring Leni [Yes, THAT […]
The Sorrow and the Pity (1969) A gruelling and essential World War II documentary (Review)
We British have a very simple way of boiling down WWII in our school history lessons. We were the good-hearted nation prone to stop any violent conflict. The Nazis showed up and did evil things, we went to war with them and we won. But for the documentary filmmaker, Marcel […]
Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans (2017) For fans of Formula One and “the King of Cool” (Review)
If you read the stories surrounding the production of the film Le Mans, the ill-fated Steve McQueen racing passion project, then it sounds like the production of Coppola’s Apocalypse Now. Both films went massively over budget and over schedule, accidents occurred, cast and crew members dropped out by the day etc. But […]
Film / NotFilm (1965/2015) Samuel Beckett only foray and Buster Keaton’s final one (Review)
Playwright Samuel Beckett’s only foray into filmmaking, the aptly titled Film is a 1965 silent short starring the famed movie clown, Buster Keaton. Before anyone makes any assumptions, no, this is not a comedy that made Keaton famous during the golden age of silent cinema along with Charlie Chaplin and […]
12 Angry Men (1957) Endlessly influential and one of the most parodied films of all time (Review
Does 12 Angry Men really need an introduction? The short answer would be no, but Sidney Lumet’s first feature has gone down in history as not only one of the greatest directorial debuts of all-time but also as one of the most important one location movies ever created. But critics […]