Criterion Collection
Blu-Ray Review: Taste of Cherry
They say cinema flourishes in adversity and nowhere is that more apparent than in Iran. Since the revolution in 1979, the now Islamic republic has produced some of the best cinema in the world. It’s a remarkable accomplishment under often severe restrictions. Arguably the greatest director of this era was the late Abbas Kiarostami. Whilst …
Blu-Ray Review: Lady Eve
Barbara Stanwyck was one of the most iconic actors of her generation. In a glittering career which spanned five decades, she won five Academy Awards and became one of the most recognisable faces of Hollywood. A favourite of the likes of Fritz Lang and Cecil B. DeMille, she was noted for her confident and striking …
Blu-Ray Review: Three Outlaw Samurai
In many ways, the western and samurai genres are often intrinsically linked. Indeed, tales of wandering Ronin and revenge didn’t become popular in Japan until after American boots were occupying the land of the rising sun. By far and away the most famous example of this symmetry is the Seven Samurai/The Magnificent Seven film. A …
Blu-ray review: Eating Raoul
After the prudish post-war years and the stifled ‘50s, America was rocked by the sexual revolution. Which coincided with the free love movement and the emancipation of women from their sexual chains. What reached its height at Woodstock gradually evolved and eventually rotted. By the early 1980s, swingers were more likely to be viewed as …
Blu-Ray Review: Shock Corridor
It has been a long time coming but, in the West at least, mental illness is finally being treated as seriously as physical conditions. The brain is an incredibly complex organ. So labyrinthine that we are still far from understanding how it works. This ‘grey’ area makes mental institutions rich pickings for film-makers. One Flew …
Blu-ray Review: Do The Right Thing
Spike Lee is one of the most powerful political voices in black American film-making. During the late 1980s and early 1990s he released a string of films which either challenged or amused. Often both. The likes of Malcolm X, She’s Gotta Have It, Mo’ Better Blues and Jungle Fever made him a household name. However, …
Blu-Ray Review: Klute
It should probably come as no surprise to anyone but when people discuss the greatest actors of the 1960s and 1970s they almost always talk about men. Whilst the patriarchal system is still going strong, we’ve come a long way over the proceeding decades. Jane Fonda is a prime example of an actress not generally …
Blu-ray Review: Kiss Me Deadly
It would be a severe understatement to say that Robert Aldrich was a bit of a maverick. As well as making some extraordinary cinema the American director was entirely skilled at getting on the wrong side of studios. He was a prolific risk taker and didn’t care who he pissed-off in the process. Aldrich was …
Blu-Ray Review: Hedwig and the Angry Inch
The current vogue with Hollywood studios seems to be music films, whether they are biopics or films based around a famous artist or band. In the last year we’ve been ‘treated to’ Bohemian Rhapsody, Rocketman, Yesterday and Blinded by the Light. All huge box office smashes which seemed to resonate with people of a certain …
Blu-Ray Review: Lord of the Flies (Criterion Collection)
One of the most perverse aspects of the National Curriculum is the fact that generations of children throughout the UK grew up reading many of the same books. Animal Farm, An Inspector Calls and Blood Brothers have proved popular, but it’s probably William Golding’s Lord of the Flies which has had the most resonance. In …