There’s something about bicycles in film, isn’t there? Ever since Vittoria de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves, the two-wheeled transport has been used to denote a kind of child’s-eye realism by Ridley Scott (Boy and Bicycle), the Dardenne brothers (The Kid With a Bike) and Haifaa al-Mansour (Wadjda). Even in the more […]
Graham Williamson
Senior Contributor
Story of a Love Affair (1950): lies, PIs and neorealism from Antonioni (Review)
Michelangelo Antonioni’s first feature film begins with a set of photographs being displayed for the camera and a warning that this won’t be the same old story. Already, he’s making promises: promises of narrative innovation, clearly, and promises that the camera – and therefore the viewer – will be active […]
Mr. Vampire (1985) the audacity of hop (Review)
Your correspondent first heard of the Chinese legend of the jiangshi as a child, and found it the most frightening thing he had ever heard in his young life. As an adult, I’m not sure why. Yes, the jianghsi is a reanimated corpse that drains the life of the living, […]
Czechmate – In Search of Jiri Menzel (2018) a love letter to Czech New Wave (Review)
Let’s get the big thing out of the way first – and I mean big. The new Second Run Blu-Ray, CzechMate – In Search of Jíři Menzel, is a 448-minute documentary about Czech and Slovak cinema. It’s been cited as the longest Indian film ever made, and that’s a country […]
Scorsese Shorts (1963-74) supremely confident first steps of a master (Review)
Thanks to sites like Vimeo and YouTube, it’s now easier to see short films than it has been since the days of the supporting feature. In between, the only shorts that were widely distributed were ones by notable directors, as was the case with Scorsese x 4, a VHS compilation […]
John Ford at Columbia 1935-1958: Way outside the West (Review)
“My name’s John Ford. I make Westerns. I don’t think there’s anyone in this room who knows more about what the American public wants than Cecil B. DeMille – and he certainly knows how to give it to them. But I don’t like you, C.B. I don’t like what you […]
Curling: grips in ways a standard Hollywood thriller can’t manage (Review)
So do Second Run have some kind of insider knowledge, or…? Their first all-new release of 2020 (after a welcome Blu-Ray upgrade for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) is Denis Côté’s Curling, a spare, paranoid film about self-isolation, home-schooling and precarious minimum-wage jobs. A rare chance for British audiences […]
The Navigator: still hugely impressive today (Review)
Eureka’s first box set of Blu-Ray Buster Keaton reissues, released in 2017, featured Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr. and The General, the latter being the film that, more than any other, his contemporary auteur reputation rests on. The General was a critical and commercial flop on release; The Navigator, which […]
Antonio Gaudí (1984): pure cinema explores pure imagination (review)
Hiroshi Teshigahara, the first Asian filmmaker to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, is today best remembered for his quartet of collaborations with the novelist Kōbō Abe: Pitfall, The Face of Another, The Ruined Map and Woman in the Dunes, the latter of which got the Academy’s attention. Criterion […]
The Essential Jacques Demy: a constant conveyor belt of delights (Review)
In the wake of the Oscars’ unprecedented decision to award Best Picture to the best film in competition, let’s revisit the film which turned a previous generation on to subtitled cinema: Jacques Demy’s 1964 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It can’t be overstated what a hit it was on release, winning […]