If you know anything about the German director Max Ophüls, you probably know Stanley Kubrick’s famous quote to the effect that his camera could pass through walls. Watching the BFI’s new sumptuous restoration of 1953’s Madame de…, one of his final films, it’s easy to see what Stanley meant. James […]
Reviews
Destiny (DER MÜDE TOD)(1921) The Pathway to Fritz Lang’s Landmark Achievements (Review)
In what is already unarguably an eclectic and impressive body of work, Fritz Lang’s 1921 silent epic Destiny (or Der müde Tod as it is known in its native tongue) ranks as one of the legendary filmmaker’s stranger productions. Written by his wife, Thea von Harbou, Destiny tells the story of […]
Film / NotFilm (1965/2015) Samuel Beckett only foray and Buster Keaton’s final one (Review)
Playwright Samuel Beckett’s only foray into filmmaking, the aptly titled Film is a 1965 silent short starring the famed movie clown, Buster Keaton. Before anyone makes any assumptions, no, this is not a comedy that made Keaton famous during the golden age of silent cinema along with Charlie Chaplin and […]
12 Angry Men (1957) Endlessly influential and one of the most parodied films of all time (Review
Does 12 Angry Men really need an introduction? The short answer would be no, but Sidney Lumet’s first feature has gone down in history as not only one of the greatest directorial debuts of all-time but also as one of the most important one location movies ever created. But critics […]
Melody (1971) Proto-Moonrise Kingdom in the British School System (Review)
Also known as S.W.A.L.K., Waris Hussein’s adaptation of Alan Parker’s script, Melody is a film that belongs to a tradition of films that are just ripe for cheap jokes from film critics. It has been seen countless times before when films have a title that allows a cut-rate swipe at […]
Taskafa, Stories of the Street/Estate, a Reverie: Two Films by Andrea Luka Zimmerman
This DVD from Second Run features two wonderfully satisfying and symbiotic documentary features from filmmaker and creative artist Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Taskafa, Stories of the Street from 2013, and Estate, a Reverie from 2015. On initial inspection you may think there is very little thematically in common between Taskafa, an […]
Phantasm (1979-2016) Don Coscarelli’s endlessly inventive horror saga (Review)
There is a loathable and inescapable truth in discussing the legacy of the horror franchise. Those titles with a tangible look, whether it is the pallid white mask of Michael Myers, the grotesquery of the Cenobites or the red and black sweater/bladed glove combo of Freddy Krueger, they are all […]
The Informer (1929) 90-year-old silent political thriller feels timeless (Review)
There are features on the disc and in the booklet accompanying the BFI’s new dual-format release of Arthur Robison’s 1929 thriller The Informer describing how long and careful the restoration process was. Just as well; anyone under the delusion that a silent film could be restored in a couple of weeks […]
Letter to Brezhnev (1985) A tough, rough and influential British Rom-Com (Review)
Call me a sentimental old northerner, but the opening to Letter to Brezhnev remains one of my favourite moments of celluloid. Whilst budgetary constraints mean that it may not be as epic as it clearly wants to be, it nevertheless understands that Liverpool is a British city to be mythologised; […]
Drunken Master (1978) Jackie Chan at his physical peak (Review)
After the demise of Hong Kong Legends, British fans of martial arts classics were left wanting if they wanted to advance their collection or discover new favourites. Terracotta and 88 films picked up some of the slack but never enough to fill the void left by one of the kings […]