If you like your cinema to be of the passionate spectacle variety, then the BFI’s new digitally restored version of Abel Gance’s 1927 5½ hour epic Napoleon is definitely for you. It may be ninety years old, but there is still a vibrancy that makes Gance’s masterpiece weather the tides […]
Movies & Documentaries
Jamaica Inn (1939) “Lesser Hitchcock” is more patronizing than it deserves (Review)
Given that he directed some of the finest American films of all time, it’s easy to overlook Alfred Hitchcock’s status as a British filmmaker. Famously characterized as the Master of Suspense, Hitchcock’s work defined much of the 1940s and 50s, back home though most of his work came in the […]
A Special Day (1977) A beautiful study of two souls lost in plain sight (Review)
To see a film open with 10 minutes of historical footage of Hitler and his pre-World War II rallies, without a hint of irony or lazy short-hand, is a little disconcerting. It’s unconventional to see such a villain of modern history portrayed without any filter, perhaps, but there is a […]
Kes (1969) Despite approaching its 50th anniversary, it has barely dated a day (Review)
It may have only been his second feature, but Ken Loach’s 1969 film Kes remains one of the veteran director’s most distinctive and fondly recalled works. Perhaps this is the case because the signature working style we now associate with Loach was arguably first set here. Gone are some of […]
Pool of London (1951) Blazing a Trail for Black British Cinema (Review)
Studio Canal’s latest presentation of London’s finest cinema exponent, Ealing studios, defied all expectations for what one of their films should be. Basil Dearden’s Pool of London evokes the charm associated with an Ealing film whilst also including a complexity beyond the studio’s typical relationship with criminality. An approach to […]
Stella Cadente (2014) Shakespeare’s Richard II as a Peter Greenaway film (Review)
Anybody wondering whether Stella Cadente is a traditional royal costume drama will have their questions answered about twenty-six minutes in, when the King’s assistant goes out to the woods to have sex with a melon while an aria from Madame Butterfly plays. As confident in its own eccentricities as you’d […]
Odds Against Tomorrow (1959) Harry Belafonte and the overlooked birth of the Neo-Noir (Review)
Don’t you just get sick of the auteur theory at times? Granted, of course, the theory established some big-name directors on the map and helped film-goers spot and narrow down an auteur’s visual style and recurring themes. But over and over again, you can’t help but wince at the sight […]
Looking for Richard (1996) Al Pacino of the creative process and Shakespeare (Review)
“It has always been a dream of mine to communicate how I feel about Shakespeare to other people”, Al Pacino says early on in Looking for Richard. Most actors probably feel the same way, and they communicate it through acting. Pacino wanted to do something bigger. Stepping behind the camera, he […]
Body Double (1984) Misogyny and the self satirising artist? (Review)
Indicator Series has launched this Monday with a wonderful statement of intent, elsewhere on the site you can read our review of John Carpenter’s Christine, a release supplemented with the most definitive roster of extras one could hope for. The same is true of their other debut release, Brian De […]
Christine (1983) The “Ugly-Duckling” of Carpenter’s 80s run gets the respect it deserves (Review)
As culture becomes more fixated on nostalgia, we’re going to have to spend a lot of time reassessing what happened two or three decades ago. At the moment that means the Eighties, with everything from Stranger Things to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles drawing from The Me Decade. Comparing nostalgia for the eighties to […]