DVD/Blu-Ray Review
DVD Review: Sacrifice
As Andrei Tarkovsky reached the end of his career, a combination of voluntary exile from his Motherland and a growing degree of introspection had a profound influence on his filmmaking. He shot Sacrifice, which was to be his final film, in Sweden. Using many of Ingmar Bergman’s collaborators, it’s a film which shares much with …
DVD Review: Fedora
Billy Wilder was one of the greatest directors working during the Hollywood golden age. The list of credits to his name, over a career which spanned fifty years, is mind-boggling. He was such a versatile film-maker and a brilliant screenwriter. Wilder’s credits include Some Like It Hot, Sunset Boulevard, The Apartment, Sabrina and Double Indemnity. …
DVD Review: Nostalgia
As human beings we’ve never been very good at living in the present; nostalgia is never too far away. Whether that’s for the Classics or the Spice Girls; Plato or Pulp. However, dwelling-on, or pining for, the past is never really any good for you. Despite leaving his native Russia in order to avoid the …
Blu-Ray Review: Scene at the Sea
Takeshi Kitano is one of the most famous faces in Japan. Actor, director, screenwriter, author, comedian and TV personality, he’s a man of many talents. Whilst violent films such as Hana-bi, Violent Cop and Sonatine made his name as a director, it is perhaps more considered outings like Dolls and Kikujiro where he excels. Scene …
DVD Review: Matinee
Joe Dante has had a long and varied career behind the camera despite not exactly being prolific when it comes to feature films. Whilst he’ll always be best known for the Gremlins films, it’s unfortunate that the rest of his back catalogue are often overlooked. With The Howling, Hollywood Boulevard, Piranha and The Explorers in …
Blu-Ray Review: Flight of the Phoenix
Disaster movies are big box office these days. Every summer you’ll see a smattering in your local multiplex. The current vogue is for natural disasters. Big budget Studio films such as The Day After Tomorrow, Twister, Armageddon, The Core and Deep Impact may boast incredible visuals but there’s often less care and attention taken over …
DVD Review: People of the Mountains
In this fast paced age of modern technology, global telecommunications and a dizzying array of multi-media platforms, it can be easy to forget that less than a hundred years ago life was very different. The quiet life of living in the wilderness still appeals to many. Whilst the opportunities to do so in a developed …
DVD Review: The Bloodstained Butterfly
Giallo, as a genre, doesn’t have the best reputation for producing films that are either coherent or make a great amount of sense. Much of the dialogue would normally make Jordan’s publisher blush, and whilst there’s usually a strong seam of style running through them, the plots are often largely nonsensical. Duccio Tessari’s The Bloodstained …
DVD Review: Sweet Bean (Masters of Cinema)
We live in an ageing society, and as the EU referendum demonstrated, you ignore the grey vote at your peril. However, the way societies treat their elderly differs around the world. The same can be said for those with traditionally infectious diseases and disabilities. In Naomi Kawase’s latest film, Sweet Bean, she takes a meditative …
DVD Review: The Shop on the High Street
Voted as one of the greatest works of Czechoslovakian cinema by critics at the end of the last century, The Shop on the High Street was one of the first films to tackle the Holocaust. Directed by Ján Kadár and Elmar Klos, the Slovakian film covers an area of World War II history not widely …