For the first hour or so I was really digging Denis Villeneuve’s stab at bringing ‘Dune’ (2021) to the big screen. It has scale, scope and a muscular sense of where it is going. “Ooh, this is looking good!”, I thought to myself. …
I once described the experience of watching Luchino Visconti’s ‘Death in Venice’ (1971) as being exactly the same as looking at one of those bloody god-awful Jack Vettriano biscuit tins for two hours whilst listening to Classic F.M., and after watching it again for the first time in years last…
I’d fallen so heavily in love with ‘Top Hat’ (1935) when I finally saw it last month that I was left ravenously greedy for more Fred and Ginger, although I can now understand why Greed is a deadly sin because gorging on ‘Swing Time’ (1936) left me almost choking to…
I hadn’t seen ‘633 Squadron’ (1964) in so long that all I could remember about it was the theme tune. You know, the one that goes “Ba ba ba ba ba ba baa baaa, ba ba ba ba ba ba baah!” That one. …
Luchino Visconti’s ‘Bellissima’ (1951) is the director’s only pure “comedy” film and it is a depressing watch. Not because it isn’t any good. In fact, it’s great! But that’s the problem as afterwards all I could think was — “Why couldn’t he have made more films like this?!” Now I’m…
(Warning- contains spoilers from the very first paragraph on)
Did you think Pierce Brosnan’s ’Die Another Day’ (2002) was the silliest Bond film ever made what with its invisible car, CGI surfing and giant space laser? Well how about a Bond movie where there’s a bionic eye, Blofeld has a…
Ken Russell is one of my favourite filmmakers so I was amazed to realise that I had still never seen ‘Tommy’ (1975), although I suspect this was down to me never being that big a fan of The Who (I was more of a Genesis and Yes fan myself). Still…
Why do Leo McCarey’s film always make me cry? Even ‘Duck Soup’ (1933) has me in tears, albeit because I’m howling with laughter. But the rest just emotionally destroy me. But why?
I think it’s for the same reason both Ozu and Kaurismäki (not a surprise as McCarey influenced Ozu…
It’s easy to start reaching for Orson Welles parallels when ‘Enchantment’ (1948) begins as the cinematography is by Gregg Toland and, much like Welles’ ‘Ambersons’, the film starts with a face-fronting view of a family home accompanied by a voice over and an almost crippling nostalgia for the past. …
Warning — I might be about to commit sacrilege several times during this.
You see, producer Sam Katzman’s ‘The Giant Claw’ (1957) was originally to have stop motion special effects provided by the legendary Ray Harryhausen but due to various reasons, possibly budgetary, this never happened so a giant puppet…
