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 […]
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 St Helens, 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 is a reviewer with IndieMDB and has also written a chapter for Ste Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence's book, Scarred For Life Vol II. Other sites he has written for include We Are Cult, Horrified, and America's left-leaning news outlet ZNetwork. Publications he has written articles for include Stat Magazine 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, and he can be found on Letterboxd.
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 […]
The Cat (1988) An Impressive Heist Thriller From 80s Germany (Review)
Coming to Blu-ray this week is Die Katze aka The Cat, an extremely impressive, tense heist thriller from 1988 starring Götz George as a criminal mastermind who, from a hotel room across the street, not only orchestrates a bank robbery conducted by two colleagues but also monitors the police’s investigation, […]
Il Posto + I Fidanzati (1961/1963) Love and Work; the Original Four Letter Words
Following Weak Spot, Radiance’s second release of the week is a double bill from the acclaimed Italian neorealist filmmaker Ermanno Olmi. The set comprises two of his earliest features, 1961’s Il Posto and 1963’s I Fidanzati, each of whose themes are the original four-letter words—love and work—and Italy’s post-war industrialization […]
Weak Spot (1975) Part paranoid thriller, part curious buddy movie
Radiance once again does admirable work this week, salvaging yet another classic piece of 70s European cinema from unfair obscurity. The Blu-ray release in question is Weak Spot, a 1975 co-production between France, Italy, and Germany, shot in Greece by director Peter Fleischmann. The film is based on a 1965 […]
Mikey and Nicky (1976): Little Boys in Big Boys Games
Coming to Blu-ray courtesy of the Criterion Collection from 13th January is Elaine May’s 1976 gangster movie Mikey and Nicky. Starring regular collaborators John Cassavetes and Peter Falk, May’s movie capitalises on the pair’s natural chemistry, lending great authenticity to their roles of lifelong friends. Set over the course of […]
The Man from Majorca (1984) Buddy Cops, Scandi Style
Coming to Blu-ray this week, Radiance follows up last year’s release of Bo Widerberg’s 1976 cult classic Man on the Roof with another masculine-sounding policier from the director: 1984’s The Man from Majorca. Like the previous effort, it’s a distinctly Scandinavian take on gritty New Hollywood cop movies, such as […]
Funny Girl (1968): A Star So Big the World Had to Sit Up and Take Notice
The Criterion Collection know what they’re doing releasing Funny Girl to Blu-ray in December. As the chill winds buffet outside and the rain lashes against the window, what better time is there to snuggle up with a film so warming and lengthy that it has an intermission? Better still, it’s […]
The Hop-Pickers (1964): When Prague Summer Turned to Spring
Last week, Second Run continued on their mission to rediscover seemingly forgotten cinematic gems from late twentieth century Eastern Europe and present them to our modern day Western eyes with the release of The Hop-Pickers (known as Starci na chmelu in its Czechoslovakia), a film that has been labelled the […]
Juggernaut (1974): Possibly the Most Accurate Film of Life in 70s Britain
To mark it’s fiftieth anniversary, Eureka Entertainment released Richard Lester’s 1974 movie Juggernaut (aka Terror on the Britannic) for the first time on Blu-ray last week. Featuring a stacked cast headed by Richard Harris and Omar Sharif, with David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, Shirley Knight, Ian Holm and Roy Kinnear in […]