“We live in the flicker”, Joseph Conrad famously wrote, referring to the breathless speed of technological advancement in the crossover from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. In addressing the same historical period, Ildikó Enyedi’s debut film My 20th Century – released on DVD and Blu-Ray by Second Run – […]
Graham Williamson
Senior Contributor
Story of Sin (1975) the standard by which all other Blu-Ray and DVD releases should now be judged (Review)
Story of Sin begins with a quintessentially Walerian Borowczyk image; the doors of a church confessional booth being opened. Already, we can see so many things that fascinate this director, from what’s on-screen (the frame-within-a-frame, the old-fashioned handmade props and sets) to the implicit (the unlocking of secrets, the critical attitude towards […]
Alice (1990) Woody Allen, stepping out of the shadow of his comedy (Review)
In his book Crackpot, John Waters devotes a chapter to his guilty pleasure movies – the joke being that the trash cinema most people would describe as a guilty pleasure is exactly what you’d expect Waters to unashamedly love. Instead, the chapter is devoted to achingly sincere, existential art films which Waters […]
Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989) Woody Allen’s narrative pleasures are worth the wait (Review)
No matter how many times actors, writers and directors repeat that old saw about dying being easier than comedy, critics are still more likely to go into raptures about hard-hitting Oscar-season dramas than summer comedies. One rare exception, enshrined as a great living American director despite an almost entirely comic […]
The Glass Shield (1994) underneath the popcorn-movie surface is a nuanced, astute neo-noir (Review)
African-American cinema’s relationship to the American mainstream is kind of like Halley’s comet; it’s always there, it’s just not always visible. Charles Burnett’s career has lasted long enough to intersect with two major movements in black cinema; he may yet connect with the ongoing one. After all, a lot of the […]
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) the first horror film ever that truly chills (Review)
The film with the wonky sets? Yes, the film with the wonky sets – but Robert Wiene’s silent horror landmark has so much more to offer, and that’s never been as apparent as it will be when you watch Eureka Masters of Cinema’s new loaded-up Blu-Ray. As well as a […]
The Emigrants (1971) / The New Land (1972) (Review)
In its native America, the Criterion Collection earned its reputation for desirable, extras-packed editions of arthouse classics over whole decades, disc by disc. When it expanded to Region 2 in April this year, it wasn’t an unknown quantity – cinephiles with region-free players had been spreading the word for years. […]
The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) Wes Anderson at his profoundly sad, moving and redemptive best (Review)
Reputations are a slippery thing, and directors sometimes start their career with one that completely contradicts the one they get later. The French critics who would come to damn Spielberg as the McDonalds of cinema had previously swooned over the existential spareness of Duel. Likewise, after works like O Brother, […]
In Defence Of – Invincible
Director: Werner Herzog Content: Film Studio: Werner Herzog Filmproduktion Synopsis: Zishe Breitbart moves to Berlin to seek his fortune as a strongman, and comes under the management of the hypnotist and fraudulent mystic Hanussen. But this is 1932, and the Jewish Breitbart is increasingly disturbed when he realises what Germany’s […]
The Hired Hand (1971) A Long Lost-Masterpiece from Peter Fonda (Review)
Following the industry-reshaping success of Easy Rider, the film’s three stars Dennis Hopper, Jack Nicholson and Peter Fonda took the opportunity to direct personal projects on a studio budget. In the end, all three of them flopped, though they each have plenty of interest for students of those actors’ screen […]