Made in 1981 from a screenplay by Harold Pinter, The French Lieutenant’s Woman from director Karel Reisz remains to this day a groundbreaking and bold post-modern film that resides upon the cutting edge. Ostensibly it is an adaptation of the novel of the same name by John Fowles novel but, […]
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 Day of the Jackal. 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 and America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork. He is also a regular contributor to the Geek Show's podcasts, including Pop Screen and the Uncut series.
The Son of the Sheik: The Return to Form That Proved to Be Valentino’s Swansong (Review)
In the mid-1920s and the dying days of the silent movie, Rudolph Valentino was in need of a hit. Laden with debt, he had recently walked away from his contract with Famous Players-Lasky following a squabble over money, and his last two movies – which saw him attempt to break […]
Resurrected: Raw War drama from a debuting Greengrass (Review)
The Bourne franchise director Paul Greengrass made his directorial debut in 1989 with Resurrected which is, um, resurrected by Indicator this week in the shape of a rather welcome Blu-ray package. Resurrected tells the story of Kevin Deakin (played by David Thewlis who, like his director, was also making his […]
Orphans (1998): Handles the ugly side of human nature, brilliantly (Review)
Before I start this review, I think it’s important that I give a little background context. 1998’s Orphans came at a time when the British film industry was in love with Scotland, following the success of Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave ad, more importantly in terms of its cultural impact, Trainspotting. […]
Being There: A Film of Endings (Review)
Let’s talk about endings. Being There is the kind of film that conjures up a lot of thought about endings, of one kind or another. For a start (can we really have a start when talking of endings? Oh well) it’s a popular misconception that Being There was the final […]
A Fistful of Dynamite: You Say You Want a Revolution? (Review)
Once upon a time in Paris (on March 22nd, 1968 to be exact) a number of far-left groups comprising of students and artists gathered together to occupy the administration building of Paris Nanterre University to protest against class discrimination and political bureaucracy. The police were subsequently called and the protesters […]
A Good Woman is Hard to Find (2019): But Well Worth Seeking Out (Review)
In a supermarket on a sink estate in Belfast, a young single mother named Sarah is performing the weekly shop with her two small children. In her hand is a shopping list with all the necessities required for the family. However, when they reach the tills, Sarah is mortified to […]
Angel Heart: Dark Intrigue and Sinister Seduction (Review)
It’s a lonely place for someone like me over on Letterboxd just now. Whilst the bulk of the community celebrate the Halloween season with the Hooptober Horror Film Challenge I, never much of a joiner-inner, continue to watch whatever takes my fancy. It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good […]
High Noon: A Story That Still Happens Everywhere, Every Day (Review)
Released for the first time on Blu-ray in the UK this week via the Eureka label, 1952’s High Noon is, as the tagline has it, ‘The story of a man who was too proud to run’. That man is Will Kane, the marshal of Hadleyville, a small town in New […]
The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith: “A Fugitive from Justice…Or from Injustice”?
Often cited as one of the most important Australian films ever made and a key text in the Aussie New Wave movement of the 1970s, Fred Schepisi’s The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith is a beautifully shot yet heart wrenching and savage account of institutionalised racism in colonial Australia at the turn […]