I wonder what audiences thought to themselves after the initial release of The White Sheik. Perhaps they thought this “Fellini” guy would fizzle out and make a handful of comedy films here and there. His first solo directing venture, The White Sheik marks Fellini’s early foray into the genre of comedy. The Italian […]
Movies & Documentaries
The French Lieutenant’s Woman: Parallel Lives, Parallel Loves (Review)
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, […]
Antonio Gaudí (1984): pure cinema explores pure imagination (review)
Hiroshi Teshigahara, the first Asian filmmaker to be nominated for a Best Director Oscar, is today best remembered for his quartet of collaborations with the novelist Kōbō Abe: Pitfall, The Face of Another, The Ruined Map and Woman in the Dunes, the latter of which got the Academy’s attention. Criterion […]
Raining in the Mountain (1979) King Hu’s Spiritual Heist (Review)
When you hear stories of directors using the same sets, locations and actors for two movies on the bounce, the sort of names that would fit the bill belong in the same conversation as Roger Corman and his peers. This is not what you expect to hear about King Hu. […]
Secret Friends (1991): Dennis Potter’s maelstrom of fantasy and memory
I’m too young to know Dennis Potter, a name that is synonymous with British television thanks to his critically acclaimed and very strange reputation born from his series The Singing Detective. He was prominent in the 1980s, I grew up in the 1990s, as such he was always a name […]
The Essential Jacques Demy: a constant conveyor belt of delights (Review)
In the wake of the Oscars’ unprecedented decision to award Best Picture to the best film in competition, let’s revisit the film which turned a previous generation on to subtitled cinema: Jacques Demy’s 1964 The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. It can’t be overstated what a hit it was on release, winning […]
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 […]
First Love (2019) Miike’s Fountain of Gonzo Youth (Review)
First Love is film number 103. Back in 1991, however, Takashi Miike directed a film called “Toppuu! Minipato tai – Aikyacchi Jankushon“, a comedy about a daring policewoman dressed in a leotard who defeats criminals using gymnastics. An odd subject for a debut but such is the Japanese studio system. […]
The Winslow Boy: remarkably empathetic and genuine (Review)
“Does Magna Carta mean nothing to you?” asks Tony Hancock in Hancock’s Half Hour. “Did she die in vain?” Those in need of a refresher as to what the thirteenth-century bill of rights – the closest thing Britain has to a Constitution – actually means are encouraged to watch The […]
Fail Safe – A tension fuelled analysis of Cold War hysteria (Review)
Regardless of era, generation, class or political leaning, the premise of nuclear war is a truly terrifying thought. The idea that we could all be blown away in a moment, crushed by a cloud of radiation and be no more in a matter of seconds is rather terrifying. There have […]