City of God [2002] Read More
It was a mythical masterpiece – never completed, never seen and seemingly lost forever.
Now imagine you are Serge Bromberg, a film preservationist who spends 2 hours in an elevator with an elderly French lady. Elevator encounters are rarely memorable but Serge was soon to discover that the French lady standing beside him was none other than Ines Clouzot, wife of legendary film director Henri-Georges Clouzot, often nicknamed ‘the French Hitchcock.’
And now as film preservationist Bromberg, imagine your reaction when Madame Clouzot reveals that 185 cans of film still exist of the unseen, incomplete ‘Inferno.’ Read More
The Great British Summer is upon us. The pavements and buildings seem to crackle from the heat, there’s the insistent drone of popular songs distorted through the speakers of ice cream vans and there’s the traditional sight of office workers crammed together on any piece of greenery they can spot, ripping their shirts off whilst they attempt to obtain a St Barts tan during their lunch break. Beautiful weather is lethal; it makes us irrational and drains all our energy. We end up as beached whales in parks unable to summon the strength to return home. So let me offer you an antidote to this lethargy with Krzysztof Kieslowski’s ‘Three Colours: Blue‘, a film that will have the same effect as plunging into a pool on a hot summer’s day. It will refresh, revitalise and make all your nerve-endings tingle. Read More
Amélie [2001] Read More
Rob: Just come on! What would it mean to you, that sentence: ‘I haven’t seen Evil Dead II yet?’
Barry: Well to me it would mean that you’re a liar. You’ve seen it twice. Once with Laura – oops – and once with me and Dick, remember? We had that conversation about the guy making Beretta shotgun ammo off-screen in the 14th century.
Rob: Right. All right, but let’s just say that I hadn’t seen it…and I said to you ‘I haven’t seen Evil Dead II yet,’ what would you think?
Barry: I’d think that you’re a cinematic idiot and I’d feel sorry for you.
A Nos Amours [1983]
Here’s to the most important man in our life. Whether a dominant father or an absent one, his being and actions impact on us deeply and makes us the person we are today. He is the template of all the qualities we expect in a man and no-one ever comes close to matching him. Shared characteristics and physical features are born with pride – and yet when we reflect his lesser pleasing traits, our fight to eradicate them is futile. We are his and we are blood, forever and inextricably linked. Read More
Marie Antoinette [2006] Read More
Michelangelo Antonioni & Monica Vitti
A thought occurred to me as I was writing my recent post Agent Provocateur. I had focused on two films starring Anna Karina (Pierrot Le Fou) and Harriet Andersson (Summer with Monika), in which both had played characters who were unsympathetic on paper and yet were transformed into charismatic roles on film. These challenging roles had been written specifically for them and directed by their respective lovers – and this is when the thought occurred to me. The most memorable female roles that I have seen committed to film, the best work and performances by actresses, have all been created and directed by their lovers. I am aware that this is a sweeping generalisation but does anyone remember any of the films Anna Karina starred in which weren’t directed by her husband, Jean-Luc Godard? Read More
David Huxley: Now it isn’t that I don’t like you Susan because after all in moments of quiet I’m strangely drawn toward you, but well, there haven’t been any quiet moments. Our relationship has been a series of misadventures from beginning to end. So if you don’t mind, I’ll see Mr Peabody alone and unarmed!
Susan Vance: Without me?
David Huxley: Yes! Without you and definitely without YOU! Now Susan, I’m gonna say goodnight and I hope that I never set eyes on you again. Goodnight!
He asks if she’ll ever leave him. She replies ‘Of course not’ as she lifts her downward gaze and turns her blue eyes towards us the audience. Staring defiantly at us, she repeats ‘Of course not.’ By the time ‘Fin’ appears at the end of the film Anna Karina has betrayed her lover, Jean-Paul Belmondo and as revenge he kills her before blowing himself up with dynamite wrapped round his head in Jean-Luc Godard’s ‘Pierrot le Fou.’ Read More
A brilliant semi-documentary film following the underworld of rock groups in Iran. A very humorous film, with incredible real musicians desperate to escape the censorship of their country and perform the music they love without fear of arrest. The youth of Bahrain are truly charismatic, rebellious and hint at a pro-democratic Iran for the future.
