It can be daunting watching a film with a Mouchette-sized reputation. Robert Bresson’s second adaptation of a novel by Georges Bernanos (after 1951’s Diary of a Country Priest) is one of the most acclaimed works from one of France’s most heavyweight directors; it’s been cited as a favourite by everyone […]
Graham Williamson
Senior Contributor
How You Live Your Story: Selected Works by Kevin Jerome Everson (2005-2020)(Review)
If I had to choose one film from Second Run’s new double-disc Blu-Ray of Kevin Jerome Everson’s work to sum up his appeal to the uninitiated, it would probably be the 2015 short Grand Finale. That’s not to say it’s the best thing on offer, merely that it offers the […]
Sweet Charity (1969): a musical for its time and ours (Review)
Put yourself in the mind of a moviegoer in 1969. At the time, it seemed like Hollywood was dying, struggling to compete with new, disruptive home-entertainment innovations. Even if they didn’t exist, though, the industry would be in trouble. Studios were ruinously focused on spectacle-driven tentpole films that were often […]
Eraserhead (1976) A Treasure Trove Release for Fans of David Lynch (Review)
“It’s like a guy with a hunchback growth, and you meet a pretty good surgeon who takes it off, cleans it up, hardly any scars, and you go away. And you’re very thankful that that’s gone.“ That’s David Lynch – what am I talking about, of course, it’s David Lynch […]
Real (2019): breezy but uneven cycle through working-class romance (Review)
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 […]
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 […]