There are not many films set in Luxembourg. But films about a cadaverous hitman who gets a sudden attack of conscience and sets out to rescue an innocent teenage girl from her fate as a vampire’s child bride…set in Luxembourg? Well, they’re even rarer. Welcome to Dreamland. Bruce McDonald, the […]
Reviews
Curling: grips in ways a standard Hollywood thriller can’t manage (Review)
So do Second Run have some kind of insider knowledge, or…? Their first all-new release of 2020 (after a welcome Blu-Ray upgrade for Valerie and Her Week of Wonders) is Denis Côté’s Curling, a spare, paranoid film about self-isolation, home-schooling and precarious minimum-wage jobs. A rare chance for British audiences […]
Nights of Cabiria: Tragedy shall never defeat Hope (Review)
Tragedy as a theme is often contained in subtle nods or hidden messages throughout much of cinema. For a film to interact with such a negative narrative concept for its entire running time is to take on a sincerely upsetting story. Fellini does so with Nights of Cabiria, his 1957 classic. […]
The Navigator: still hugely impressive today (Review)
Eureka’s first box set of Blu-Ray Buster Keaton reissues, released in 2017, featured Steamboat Bill Jr., Sherlock Jr. and The General, the latter being the film that, more than any other, his contemporary auteur reputation rests on. The General was a critical and commercial flop on release; The Navigator, which […]
The White Sheik – The humble beginnings of an Italian Titan (Review)
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 […]
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 […]