Andrzej Wajda’s masterpiece Ashes and Diamonds is set in a small provincial Polish town during early May 1945. Specifically on the day that Nazi Germany surrendered to the Allied forces. Here, we find a snapshot of Polish exiles and Soviet army occupants confronting the dawn of a new Poland. The events of the film are … Continue reading The European Masterpieces Part 3: Ashes and Diamonds (1958 Andrzei Wajda)
Sweet Country Directed by Warwick Thornton. Featuring Hamilton Morris, Bryan Brown and Sam Neill "...the scenery of the central Australian outback is not only overwhelmingly beautiful, it is scintillating..." Prior to the ironic use of Johnny Cash’s song 'Peace in the Valley' on the closing credits, the Christian preacher Fred Smith (played by Sam Neill) … Continue reading The Two Reviews: Sweet Country (2018 Warwick Thornton)
Australiana, noun - items relating to or characteristic of Australia. As the Australian film critic Luke Buckmaster pointed out recently, the madly popular 1980s blockbuster Crocodile Dundee not only gave the world a less than flattering impression of Australians, it was also racist, sexist and homophobic. As fun as it may have seemed when I … Continue reading A Slice of Australiana in Five Films
The Emerald Isle has offered a lot to the world (submarines, Samuel Beckett, decent stout, Clonakilty black pudding etc.) but if you were to look at Hollywood films over the years, it would seem that all we have been good for are things like potatoes, leprechauns, excessive drinking and terrorists. Begorrah and bejaysus, a soft … Continue reading Hollywood Fieldtrips to Ireland: The Good, the Bad and the Uafásach*
And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, come and see! And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him John 6. 7-8 (New Testament) Recent events in the US have put the … Continue reading Nazism and the impact of World War II as depicted on Film
‘…full historical disclosure be damned…’ The mastermind behind Memento and those latter day Batman movies, Christopher Nolan, takes on his first significant British-centred film (it’s his country of birth after all) and there is an inescapable tinge, or should I say cringe, of Union Jack waving at work here – very inappropriate timing one must … Continue reading The Three Reviews: Dunkirk (2017 Christopher Nolan)
The Woodstock Festival in the summer of 1969, as many will attest to, marked a landmark in the American post-war social consciousness. Michael Wadleigh’s award winning documentary Woodstock (1970) brilliantly captured the infamous concert in its entirety, not only showcasing the creative musical talent that marked the decade prior but also informing us of a … Continue reading The American Road Movie: Driving Away From the 1960s Counterculture
The second ‘Golden Age of Hollywood’ is sinking under the weight of its own superhero films, multiple shared universes and the need to market toys. On the flipside, one could say that ‘The Golden Age of Television’ has been on the rise for two decades now and showing no sign of abating. Film studios have … Continue reading The Sun Always Shines on TV, Part 1
Momentary Cinema 