Radiance continues its reliable run of ’70s Italian cinema with the release this week of 1973’s Tony Arzenta (aka Big Guns, aka No Way Out) an action packed and dour crime thriller from director Duccio Tessari (A Pistol for Ringo, The Return of Ringo) and starring Alain Delon, who also […]
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.
Room at the Top (1959): The Birth of British New Wave Cinema (Review)
Released to Blu-ray this week by Studio Canal’s Vintage Classics label is the feature that effectively gave birth to the British film industry’s New Wave period of the 1960s, Jack Clayton’s 1959 movie Room at the Top, starring Laurence Harvey and Simone Signoret. The opening shot of Harvey’s threadbare socks […]
The Village Detective: A Song Cycle (2021) The Ocean Gives Up Its Mysteries (Review)
In 2016, a crew of Icelandic fishermen operating in the North Atlantic Ocean, dredged up something surprising from the seabed – four decaying reels of film, semi-preserved by the ocean’s natural resources of hydrogen sulphide, that set innovative documentarian Bill Morrison, of Dawson City: Frozen Time fame, on a fascinating […]
Allonsanfàn (1974) Mastroianni Dons The Mask of Anarchy (Review)
Once again, Radiance have uncovered another gem from 1970s Italian Cinema. They’ve dusted it down, smartened it up and packed it with extras and released it to Blu-ray this week. But this one isn’t a poliziotteschi or a giallo, this is Allonsanfàn, a classy period drama writer/director siblings Paulo and […]
Goodbye and Amen (1977): Diplomacy and Dirty Tricks (Review)
Released to Blu-ray by Radiance films this week, Goodbye and Amen is director Damiano Damiani’s 1977 political thriller-cum-hostage drama, starring American actor Tony Musante of The Bird with the Crystal Plumage fame and Italian screen icon Claudia Cardinale, and featuring support from prolific Italian filoni star John Steiner and a […]
La Bamba (1987): Exuberant Music Biopic of a Life and Career Cut Tragically Short (Review)
It’s back to 1987 for this week’s Criterion Collection release and a time when everyone began to kid themselves that they could speak Spanish for a summer thanks to the chart-topping hit from Los Lobos of the same name – La Bamba A rock and roll biopic, La Bamba tells […]
Savage Guns – Four Classic Westerns (1968-1975) A Quartet of Bleak and Gritty Late Period Spaghetti Westerns (Review)
Four of the Italian western’s hardest, cruelest, bloodiest classics are released to Blu-ray this week in Arrow’s ongoing limited edition series of Spaghetti Western boxsets. Under the umbrella title Savage Guns, this third volume brings four unsung classics of the genre aficionados of heavily dubbed, violent and sun-baked horse operas: Paolo […]
Gang War in Milan (1973): Violence, Misogyny and Political Commentary (Review)
If you’re looking for a film about a gang war, one that just so happens to take place in Milan, then Radiance Films (through partner label Raro Video UK), has got you covered with their latest release – Umberto Lenzi’s 1973 debut into Italy’s contemporary urban crime genre (or ‘Eurocrime’ […]
Worlds: Selected Works by Ben Rivers (2003-2022): Ghosts in the Machine (Review)
Released on Blu-ray by Second Run this week, Worlds: Selected Works by Ben Rivers is a collection of short films – some twenty-four of varying length across two discs – by the internationally renowned British artist and filmmaker, whose experimental work often focuses on subjects that have separated themselves from […]
Pandora’s Box (1929) Dare You Open, or Will You Pabst? (Review)
Achieving its UK Blu-ray debut this week courtesy of Eureka Entertainment’s “Masters of Cinema” series is G.W. Pabst’s 1929 classic Pandora’s Box. Arguably one of Weimer German cinema’s – if not silent cinema in general’s – greatest masterpieces, Pandora’s Box is the film that catapulted the Kansas-born, twenty-two-year-old, one-time chorus […]