In 2003 a swords and cannon, swash-buckling epic was released into the cinema. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl made the pirate movie popular again in a way that it hadn’t been since Errol Flynn in Captain Blood (1935) and The Sea Hawk (1940). Pirates of the Caribbean owed at least … Continue reading Lost in the Fog: Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
*Please Note: depending on where the reviewer watched them, some of these films were only subject to release in 2017 despite having premiered at film festivals in 2016. Reviews by JJ McDermott Paterson (2016, directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani) A delightfully unexceptional film typical of Jarmusch's minimalist autuership. Set in … Continue reading JJ, Robin and Alan’s Round-up of the Year in Film…So Far
There are certain rules, known only to a select few, by which it is possible to predict the quality of movies. The origin of these rules is often obscure and difficult to explain. One of the less well known is Rule 47: Never remake a movie which previously starred Michael York. The veracity of this … Continue reading Rule 47: Never remake a movie which has previously starred Michael York
Many of you will obviously have differing opinions on this list but please be mindful it is not meant to be definitive. It is just a snapshot of my own favourite composed film scores from memory (non-original soundtracks excluded). Please share a few comments of your own favorites below if you so wish. In the … Continue reading The Settling of Scores: 7 of the Greatest Musical Compositions in Film
Paris in the twenties, it can offer plenty, To a young man with a vision, so they say. With a friend named, Fitzgerald, I was headed for the old world, On a merchant steamer bound for Biscay Bay. From Mickey Newbury's 'Heaven Help the Child' (1973) I remember first absorbing myself in F. Scott Fitzgerald's … Continue reading Adaptations Part 2: The Great Catastrophe of Adapting Gatsby
Blade Runner 2049 is due for release October 2017 - a sequel, 35 years in the making, to Blade Runner (1982). It is commonly known that this is part of a spate of remakes and sequels which Hollywood has produced in the last two decades in an attempt to draw declining audiences back into cinemas, … Continue reading Fear for the Future: Blade Runner 2049 Preview
With Asghar Fashidi's recent (and second) triumph at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film with The Salesman (which I have yet to watch), I thought it would be a nicety nice idea to check out some of the great movies that have come out from that troubled land - The Middle East (and no, … Continue reading Films from The Middle East: A Short Selection
Jean-Luc Godard began his career in the 1950s with the inspired idea of bringing French cinema into a new era; in the direction of becoming a higher art form. He was born in Switzerland but grew up in Paris where he developed a major interest in the films of his adopted country. The early years … Continue reading Godard et La Nouvelle Vague: A Collision of American and European Cultures
When examining the history of cinema and its road to where it is now, it can sometimes be illuminated by focusing on the huge role that Italy has played in it. Since the astonishingly filmed epic, Cabiria by Giovanni Pastrone from 1914, which Scorsese cites as one of the most important early films of cinema, … Continue reading The European Masterpieces Part 2: L’Avventura, La Notte and L’Eclisse
In an increasingly bewildering modern world, where any means of engagement with it likely leads to further bewilderment and short-term depression (possibly long-term too), the populist fervor for escape could not be greater. Whether that escape may be to sit by a babbling brook and read Fifty Shades of Grey, or to climb to the … Continue reading Escaping This World Through Film
Momentary Cinema 