Despite some questionable actions, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Adrian Titieni’s Dr Romeo Aldea in award-winning director Cristian Mungiu’s film Graduation (or Bacalaureat as it is known in its native Romania); weighed down by middle age and with only his good reputation to comfort him and measure his success by, […]
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.
Destiny (DER MÜDE TOD)(1921) The Pathway to Fritz Lang’s Landmark Achievements (Review)
In what is already unarguably an eclectic and impressive body of work, Fritz Lang’s 1921 silent epic Destiny (or Der müde Tod as it is known in its native tongue) ranks as one of the legendary filmmaker’s stranger productions. Written by his wife, Thea von Harbou, Destiny tells the story of […]
Taskafa, Stories of the Street/Estate, a Reverie: Two Films by Andrea Luka Zimmerman
This DVD from Second Run features two wonderfully satisfying and symbiotic documentary features from filmmaker and creative artist Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Taskafa, Stories of the Street from 2013, and Estate, a Reverie from 2015. On initial inspection you may think there is very little thematically in common between Taskafa, an […]
Letter to Brezhnev (1985) A tough, rough and influential British Rom-Com (Review)
Call me a sentimental old northerner, but the opening to Letter to Brezhnev remains one of my favourite moments of celluloid. Whilst budgetary constraints mean that it may not be as epic as it clearly wants to be, it nevertheless understands that Liverpool is a British city to be mythologised; […]
Lost In France (2016) Documenting the Glasgow Indie Rock Scene (Review)
The music industry is full of holy grail moments. A significant, chance meeting that launches a band that goes on to change the world, a landmark album, a legendary gig or the promise of what might have been. It doesn’t matter what band, singer or record label you worship, all […]
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore (1974) From the Exorcist to long-suffering housewife, Ellen Burstyn’s incredible Charismatic Lead (Review)
Ellen Burstyn was riding high off the back of The Exorcist and looking for a prospective project to make with Warner Brothers when Robert Getchell’s script for what was to become Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore fell into her lap. It was the early 1970s and feminism was beginning to […]
Who’s That Knocking At My Door (1968) Right from the off, Scorsese proved himself to be very special (Review)
Who’s That Knocking At My Door, Martin Scorsese’s black and white debut feature film from 1968, originally started out life as his NYU graduation project some three years earlier. Aged just 23, armed with a minuscule budget and relying on numerous favours, Scorsese took to the familiar streets of his […]
Through the Wall (2017) Hasidic Judaism Rom-Com still falls into Rom-Com Traps (Review)
“I have a hall. I have a dress. The apartment is almost ready. It’s a small task for God to find me a groom by the end of Hanukkah” So says Michal, the kooky heroine of writer/director Rama Burshtein’s Through the Wall (alternatively known as Laavor Et Hakir in its […]
The Olive Tree (2016) Spanish Social Realism and the history of our homelands (Review)
The Olive Tree (or El Olivo as it’s known in its native Spanish) is director Icíar Bollaín’s third collaboration with the writer and long-term screenwriting partner of Ken Loach, Paul Laverty. It is an aesthetically beautiful, heartfelt and spiritual film that explores the notions of hope, tradition, history and economic […]
The Unknown Girl (2016) Soap Opera Drama framed as documentary-style Belgian Social Realism (Review)
The Unknown Girl is the latest film from the Belgian Dardenne brothers, those purveyors of social realism who achieved critical and commercial acclaim most recently for their 2014 film Two Days, One Night, which starred Marion Cotillard as Sandra, a young woman who, following an absence from work due to […]