DVD/Blu-Ray Review
Blu-Ray Review: Eisenstein in Guanajuato
Sergei Eisenstein isn’t a name familiar to many now, but he was responsible for not only creating arguably the greatest Russian cinema of the mid-to-late 1920 but also as a pioneering film-maker. Battleship Potemkin is probably his best-known work, but Strike and October were both highly influential. After increasing criticism regarding his commitment to structure …
Blu-Ray Review: Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia
Sam Peckinpah was one of the most unpredictable enigmas of American cinema. Characterised by their extreme violence and unique visual brush strokes, his films were often brutal and controversial. Whilst he amassed a cult following with the likes of The Wild Bunch, Cross of Iron, Straw Dogs and Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Peckinpah …
Blu-Ray Review: Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari / From Caligari to Hitler
There are a small number of films which are universally accepted as changing cinema forever. Described as “the first true horror film” by the late great Roger Ebert, Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari was the most influential film of German expressionist cinema. The hi-resolution presentation of Robert Wiene’s film from Masters of Cinema breathes new …
DVD Review: Black Society Trilogy
Takashi Miike is a name which became synonymous with Asian Extreme film-making at the turn of the century. He made his name on the international stage with cult films such as Audition, Ichi the Killer and the Dead or Alive trilogy. Starting-out in the often-murky world of Japanese V-Cinema, his work is often punctuated with …
Blu-Ray Review: Metropolis
When Fritz Lang’s Metropolis was released in 1927 it almost single-handedly spawned a whole new genre of film: Science-Fiction. The original silent film spurred Osamu Tezuka to create a Japanese Manga based on the imagery. Arguably, Japan are the country who’ve embraced sci-fi the most whole-heartedly, in all imaginable (and some unimaginable) shapes and sizes. …
Blu-ray Review: His Girl Friday (Criterion Collection)
First produced in 1928, Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur’s Broadway play Front Page revolutionised comedy, both on stage and on the big screen. The intricate plotting and rapid-fire dialogue has influenced countess writers and directors. It has been adapted for cinema audiences on several occasions, both eponymously by Lewis Milestone and Billy Wilder, and in …
Blu-Ray Review: Donnie Darko
Donnie Darko was one of the first films to ride the power of the internet wave to go from a limited opening to becoming one of the most iconic of the decade. Richard Kelly’s 2001 film caught the imagination of a generation and propelled its star into the ‘A’ list of Hollywood celebrities. It’s a …
DVD Review: The Young Pope
There’s possibly only one director working in cinema today who can match Baz Luhrmann in terms of glamour and sumptuous visuals aesthetic. Paolo Sorrentino has an extraordinary eye. He demonstrates this most vividly in The Great Beauty, winning the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 2014. He followed this with the lavish Youth. …
Blu-Ray Review: Indochine
The French’s colonial presence in French Indochina personifies the nation’s haphazard relationship with its colonies. Incorporating the modern territories of three Vietnamese states, Laos and Cambodia, relations within the region were often fraught. With France eying expansion, they came up against China, Japan and Thailand who had aspirations of their own. Régis Wargnier’s epic Indochine …
Blu-Ray Review: Fright Night (1985)
For many young boys (and girls), growing-up watching late night horror shows used to be a ritual. The likes of The Twilight Zone, Tales from the Crypt or The Night Gallery lit up screens and young imaginations alike. This was the case for director Tom Holland, whose childhood love of these kind of shows inspired …