Classic Cinema
Blu-Ray Review Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Along with H.G. Wells, Jules Verne was a pioneer in science fiction writing. Both men were active in the late 19th Century and their books have been widely adapted to film. Due to the expiration of copyright on his work, Verne’s novels were regularly brought to the big screen as part of the huge burst …
Blu-Ray Review: The Big Knife
Narcissism and film-making are often happy bedfellows. Indeed, the theme of Hollywood and the film industry have proved to be fertile ground for screenwriters, directors and producers. There has been a lot of hatred and bile aimed squarely at the studio system. Great directors such as David Lynch (Mulholland Drive), David Cronenberg (Map to the …
Blu-Ray Review: Le Trou
When discussion turns to the greats of French film-making, the name Jacques Becker isn’t one which instantly springs to mind. Whilst Truffaut, Godard, Malle, Melville et al all attract swathes of devotees, Becker struggled to escape the shadow of his mentor, Jean Renoir. Whilst his peers established their own visual signatures, Becker preferred to focus …
Blu-Ray Review: The Saga of Anatahan (Masters of Cinema)
After his family emigrated to the United States when he was in his teens, Josef von Sternberg set out on a path to becoming one of the most iconic, difficult and dominating film-makers of the Golden Age of Hollywood. He discovered and ‘made’ Marlene Dietrich, working together with her seven times; most successfully on Blue …
Blu-Ray Review: The Music Room (Criterion Collection)
Whilst Bollywood dominates the Indian film industry, there’s much more to Bharata’s cinema than merely the conveyor belt of love, loss, song and satire. The greatest Indian film-maker of all time, is without doubt, Satyajit Ray. His masterpiece is indubitably The Apu Trilogy. The story of a young Bengali boy growing up in the early …
Blu-Ray Review: Stalker (Criterion Collection)
In today’s effect driven film market, most science fiction cinema is reliant on green screens and CGI. However, as films such as Primer and Coherence demonstrate, more cerebral fare can be done well without relying on visual effects. Many consider Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey as the greatest sci-fi film ever made. However, a …
Blu-Ray Review: Mickey One
Whilst it’s fair to say that film noir inspired much of the French new wave, the favour was undeniably repaid. Arthur Penn, whose seminal Bonnie and Clyde marked the beginning of a more ambitious/risk-taking era in Hollywood, was an avid devotee of le nouvelle vague. Two years earlier, Penn directed a rather peculiar and surreal …
Blu-Ray Review: Death in the Garden (Masters of Cinema)
Luis Buñuel is arguably the most influential and innovative Spanish director ever to work in cinema. The father of surrealism, he made films in France, Spain, Mexico and the USA. Working with Salvador Dali, he released his first short (Un Chien Andalou) in 1929. His last feature was That Obscure Object of Desire in 1977. …
Blu-Ray Review: Bakumatsu Taiyō-Den
Today, there appears to be an increasing desire to rekindle some kind of mythical Golden Age. Nostalgia has risen as a way of combatting the depressing times we’re living in. It’s not a new phenomenon though. Indeed, man has seemingly been striving for something better for centuries. During the 1950s, Japan society despaired at their …
Blu-Ray Review: The Murderer Lives at Number 21
Whilst Henri-Georges Clouzot may have built up a reputation of being difficult to work with and temperamental, there’s no denying the quality of his films. With The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, he made two of the best films of the 1950s. His speciality was thrillers. However, his first film, The Murderer Lives at …