Second Run DVD
Blu-ray Review: Invention for Destruction
Whilst Karel Zeman may have only made six full length ‘live action’ films, every one of them is a meticulously crafted work of art. Between 1955 and 1970, emancipated by the imagination of Jules Verne and his fantastical worlds, he melded his masterpieces with animation to create tales which thrill and beguile. He inspired the …
Blu-ray Review: Daisies
I’m a miserable bastard when it comes down to it but one film which will always make me a little giddy is Daisies. Věra Chytilová’s punk masterpiece is brimming with verve, creativity and panache. It also never fails to make me feel incredibly hungry. A genuine pioneer, she was one of the leading lights of …
Blu-Ray Review: The Cremator
For a species which specialises in horrendous acts of depravity, the lowest point (so far) in human history was unquestionably The Holocaust. The true horror has been documented many times in literature and on the big screen. This has been done in many ways, most famously on film by Steven Spielberg in Schindler’s List. However, …
Blu-Ray Review: Witchhammer
Co-founder of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, whilst Otakar Vávra was a highly prolific film-maker over a number of decades, he’s not well-known outside of his native Czech Republic. One of the reasons for this was possibly because he was considered a sell-out by many of his peers due to his willingness to …
DVD Review: Three Wishes For Cinderella
One of the universal things all cultures hare, regardless of where we are in the world, is the love of fairy tales. It’s a subject entrenched in Disney films such as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or Beauty and the Beat. Or in writing, the works of The Brothers Grimm and Hans …
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 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 …
DVD Review: All My Good Countrymen
Politics and Eastern European film-making went hand in hand for many decades. This was sometimes at the behest of the authorities but the best examples are when film makers use their voice to criticise. Often considered to be the ‘most Czech’ of his contemporaries in terms of inward focus and one of the main influences …
DVD Review: Dragon’s Return
Nationalism demands strong heroic (normally male) characters and Eastern European under the post-war regimes were full of ‘men of the people’. Polish cinema in particular is teeming with examples of hard working men who lived off the land and rose to glory for the good of the nation. Not to be outdone, Czechoslovakia had a …
DVD Review: War and Peace
The story of Frank Oppenheimer and The Manhattan Project has been widely covered in film and on television. The race to build the first atomic bomb may have been the most important chapter in the history of the deadly weapon but its role in shaping the world has not diminished. Though The Cold War and …