Classic Cinema
Blu-Ray Review: Ikarie XB-1
Space, the final frontier. Man’s imagination has been turned upwards for centuries. Dreaming of boldly going where no man has gone before. The thought of travelling beyond the stars has driven the creative juices of generations of writers and film-makers. Intergalactic adventures aren’t just about space racoons and exterminating dustbins. The thought of exploring the …
Blu-ray Review: The Triple Echo
The art of disguise is one of the elements which has made cinema so popular. This doesn’t just stop with film-makers keeping their cards close to their chest and throwing in twists which awe, inspire and enrage. It’s also a key element in those characters who stay with us. Taken literally, that could be Tony …
Blu-Ray Review: Irma La Douce
Last month we lost one of the greatest composers of the modern era. Although André Previn had huge success working in jazz and classical music, aside from an appearance in a hilarious Morecambe and Wise sketch, he’s probably best remembered for his work on films. In a glittering career he received thirteen Oscar nominations, including …
Blu-Ray Review: Sink the Bismarck!
Named after the former German chancellor, the Bismark was one of a pair of fast battleships which were the largest and most powerful built under the Third Reich. It was the pride of the German fleet and became a focal point of nationalistic fervour. However, despite its formidable reputation it wasn’t destined to play a …
Blu-Ray Review: Phantom Lady
Robert Siodmak was just one of many film directors and actors who fled to America to escape the tyranny of Hitler’s Germany. This migration included such eminent figures as Ernst Lubitsch, Billy Wilder, Fritz Lang, Peter Lorre, Hedy Lamarr, Max Ophuls and Marlene Dietrich. Siodmak’s first decade in Hollywood produced some impressive results, most notably …
Blu-Ray Review: My Name is Julia Ross
For almost two decades, between the beginning of the 1940s and the end of the 1950s, film noir played an integral role in Hollywood’s output. It was a genre which contained a raft of familiar tropes, most notably the femme fatale and the hardened gumshoe. It wasn’t always strong on originality; one success could rapidly …
Blu-Ray Review: The Boys in the Band
When you mention the name William Friedkin the most likely reaction you’ll receive is a comment about The Exorcist. Whilst the American director is most famous for the seminal 1973 horror, he has a rich and varied career behind him. The French Connection is almost as equally well-known but the likes of Sorcerer, To Live …
Blu-Ray Review: Human Desire
Gloria Grahame was not your usual Hollywood star. Despite being obsessed by her looks later on in her career (to a worrying degree) her contract was sold by MGM to RKO because she ‘hadn’t what it takes’ to be successful. She had four husbands, one was the son of another (who she was caught in …
Blu-ray Review: Orphée
In a career which spanned four tumultuous decades of French history, few men can claim to have been more influential or culturally important than Jean Cocteau. He began as a poet and that influence remained throughout his career as a writer, playwright and film director. As a key player of the avant garde he was …
Blu-Ray Review: Diamonds of the Night
In a period blighted by massacres, brutality and war, without doubt the lowest point in human history was the Holocaust. Looking back through time it seems almost unimaginable that human beings could stoop so low. Whilst Hollywood has tackled the subject in high profile films such as The Pianist, Schindler’s List and Sophie’s Choice, there …