To understand where Casualty was in 1990, we must first go back in time one year earlier, to 1989. The fourth season of the hit BBC medical drama, which had begun life three years earlier in 1986, saw the show undergo some changes. The original producer, Geraint Morris, had left […]
Mark Cunliffe
Senior Contributor Mark's first cinematic experience was watching the Cannon and Ball vehicle, The Boys in Blue. He hasn't looked back since. Hailing from Lancashire, he is an occasional contributor to Arrow DVD, writing booklet inlay essays on a variety of titles, including Children of Men and The Great Escape. He has also written a chapter for Ste Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's book, Scarred For Life Vol II. He is often found on Letterboxd, has appeared on the Talking Pictures podcast and also writes for We Are Cult, Horrified, America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork, and the fanzine Undefined Boundary: The Journal of Psychick Albion. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series.
Falling Into Place (2023) From Meet-Cute to Ugly Realities
Released to cinemas on 6th June, Falling into Place is the directorial debut from the German actor Aylin Tezel, who has also written the screenplay and takes the lead role of Kira. Set in the urban metropolis of London and the windswept and rural Skye, Tezel’s seemingly personal film is a […]
Outside the Blue Box: The Andrew Cartmel Masterplan of Casualty (BBC, 1990)
You all know Andrew Cartmel, right? He’s the man with the plan. The Cartmel Masterplan to be exact. As script editor on Doctor Who from 1987 to 1989, his Masterplan shaped the final three years of the show’s classic era and would have gone on to set the tone for the series […]
Darling (1965) The New Morality of the 1960s
Celebrating its sixtieth anniversary with a return to selected cinemas from May 30th and a Blu-ray release by Studio Canal’s Vintage Classics label on 16th June, Darling is John Schlesinger’s multi-Bafta and Academy Award winning 1965 starring the impossibly glamourous trio of Julie Christie, Dirk Bogarde, and Laurence Harvey. It […]
The Railroad Man (1956) A Year in the Life of a Working Class Family
The second Radiance release this week is Pietro Germi’s 1956 film The Railroad Man, or Il ferroviere in its native Italian. As well as directing and having a hand in the screenplay, Germi also stars in the lead role of Andrea Marcocci, the train operator of the title and patriarch of a working-class […]
Themroc (1973) The Urban Caveman and the Red Triangle
Released to Radiance this week is Claude Faraldo’s notorious 1973 French satire, Themroc, a film that gained its notoriety here in the UK on account of it being the first film broadcast in Channel 4’s Red Triangle season on 19th September 1986. The Red Triangle season was the informal title […]
Rulers of the City (1976) Light-Hearted Revenge Based Eurocrime
Released on Blu-ray this week by Radiance and Raro Video is Rulers of the City – an Italian Euro Crime/Poliziotteschi offering from 1976 by director Fernando Di Leo. The filmmaker had already provided the genre with staples such as Caliber 9 (1972), The Italian Connection (1972), The Boss (1973), and […]
Drugstore Cowboy (1989) A Cool and Contemplative Study of Addiction
Drugstore Cowboy, Gus Van Sant’s second feature, is released as a dual Blu-Ray and UHD by the Criterion Collection this week. A great success on its release back in 1989, the film is widely regarded as reviving the career of Matt Dillon, who takes the lead here as the charismatic, […]
Chantal Akerman Collection Vol 1(1967-1978) Temporal Boundaries and Liminal Spaces
When it comes to cineastes, the name of Chantal Akerman carries a lot of weight and respect. Despite this, however, up until this month, I had never seen a single film of hers. So, when the BFI announced a limited five-Blu-ray boxset release of fourteen landmark films from her first […]
Golem (1979) “Is This The Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?”
Released to Blu-ray by Second Run this week, Golem was the astonishing debut of Polish sci-fi auteur Piotr Szulkin. Based on the eponymous mythical clay-made creature of Jewish folklore and, specifically, Austrian author Gustav Meyrink’s 1915 novel Der Golem, the film stars Marek Walczewski and Krystyna Janda, Szulkin’s high school […]