The film year during Covid began with a gawk-inducing attempt by Wonder Woman Gal Gadot to bring sunshine into people’s lives affected by lockdown by assembling a star-studded line-up to collectively sing John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’, and it ended with Tom Cruise giving a foul-mouthed tirade to a few people who stood too close to each … Continue reading Film in 2020: Best and Worst in a Year of Few
As is often the case, I don’t always get to see the films I was recommended or wanted to see in the year that they were made and/or released. There are just too many to get to, and anyway, I don’t get paid for reviewing films. I do this stuff for my own pleasure and … Continue reading Film in 2020: Firm Favourites among Last Year’s Late Releases
The cinematic form took on a new and exciting shape for Hollywood in the 1970s. This blog has made reference to it many times. Like the French New Wave, New American film-making borrowed from other times and places too. Home-grown directors took the reins, but sometimes their selected crew were internationally renowned and experienced. Together, … Continue reading Cinematography of the World – Part 3: Terrence Malick’s Vision of an American Heaven
Tenet (2020, Christopher Nolan), despite its many flaws, is a highly polished piece of Hollywood blockbuster machinery that allows us to take a step back and consider what happens when a major cinematic gear isn’t working. Plot The plot of Tenet is a complex intellectual puzzle. If you are really interested in knowing more about … Continue reading Tenet and the Art of the Invisible
There are so many incredible examples of cinematography from around the world. So much so that it can be very difficult to settle on a particular moment or place in cinema history for an appropriate inclusion to this great series that Robin has devised. But I thought it relevant to go back to when cinematography … Continue reading Cinematography of the World – Part 2: Jack Cardiff in 1940s Britain
The Irish Times recently listed out the 50 greatest Irish films ever made. There were controversies of course. Barry Lyndon topping the list confused many, not least because it was directed by an American and based on a novel by a British writer. Sure, the story focuses on an Irishman (albeit an Anglo-Irishman) and much … Continue reading Best Irish Films Ever Made – The Complimentary List
Over time, the Western films of Hollywood expanded outwards. Many were made in Europe by Italian and Spanish directors (Spaghetti Westerns). Some were adaptations of Japanese Samurai films (The Magnificent Seven). Some were set in Mexico and required drugs to understand (El Topo). Even Communist Eastern Europeans were fond of making their own Westerns that … Continue reading The Western Story – Part 2: Beyond the Frontier
Americans like to think Western movies are about their history, and they therefore cherish them greatly. But the Western was in fact an early construct of dramatic motion pictures. Edwin S. Porter directed a short film in 1903 called The Great Train Robbery. This was a milestone in film making because it established action on … Continue reading The Western Story – Part 1: Into the West
“In the movies, I always played the heroic types. But when the stage lights went out, it was time for drugs and stupidity, and the coveting of women. Now it's time. Time to be a little of what I had always fantasised of being: a hero.” Bubba Ho-Tep is not only the best film with … Continue reading Midnight Movies, Part 4 – The King is Alive in Bubba Ho-Tep
In 1827, on a large sandbar near the town of Natchez by the Mississippi River, an organised duel devolved into a brawl between several participants. The initial duel took place as a result of ongoing feuds between various wealthy local families. Specifically the duel was between Samuel L. Wells III and Dr. Thomas H. Maddox. … Continue reading Saturday Afternoon Movies, Part 6 – The Hunted (2003 William Friedkin)
