Category: Film

Film, Interview, Landscape, Literature, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Interview: Grant Gee + James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker) on W.G. Sebald + Hauntology

For a recent symposium on Hauntology, I gave a paper on the links between the philosophy of hauntological ideas with the work and W.G. Sebald.  The subject had been interesting me for a while, not least because the jump between the style of the former and the thematic ideas of the latter are the amalgamation that I’m currently aiming for in my own fiction writing.  … Continue reading Interview: Grant Gee + James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker) on W.G. Sebald + Hauntology

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Film, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Wanders: Paris & Cinema

I had, for some time, been wanting to dive into the city of Paris but had, for unconscious reasons, always put it off.  I could never figure out truly why the thought of this city had both a powerful draw and a hand pushing on my chest to keep my distance but, after finally visiting this summer, I knew the reason why.  It was because … Continue reading Wanders: Paris & Cinema

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Film, Uncategorized

Politics of Sequence in Code Unknown (2000, Michael Haneke)

Even before the recent events that occurred in Charlottesville, a certain scene from Michael Haneke’s 2000 film, Code Unknown (Code Inconnu), had been repeatedly playing on a loop in my mind’s eye.  I quietly admitted to myself recently that the scene in question is without a doubt the most telling and poignant dramatic escalation I have seen in twenty-first-century cinema and it seems to show … Continue reading Politics of Sequence in Code Unknown (2000, Michael Haneke)

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Film, Psychogeography, Uncategorized

Wanders: Two Notting Hills

For some time now, I’ve been wandering around Notting Hill attempting to get under its skin.  For many years, even before I moved to London, there was something that struck me about both the level of contrasts in the area and how such contrasts were reflected in film history and locations.  Even recently, I have been engaged on a film project set around both Ladbroke … Continue reading Wanders: Two Notting Hills

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Film, Literature, Uncategorized

The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

It was a rather surreal feeling to find that, whilst watching this year’s Eurovision Song Contest in a flat in France, the work of writer and filmmaker, Alain Robbe-Grillet, continually kept coming to mind.  At first I failed to understand what exactly it was that was bringing his typical visual and narrative ploy of human beings frozen, in front of my mind’s eye.  I soon … Continue reading The Frozen Time Of Alain Robbe-Grillet

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Television, Uncategorized

Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

At the time of writing this, my book on Folk Horror is a few weeks away from being printed.  By the time you read this, however, it should be available to buy.  I’ve written about the detail of the book earlier when it was due to be published late last year.  However, I wanted to get a few words down again now that it is … Continue reading Folk Horror: Hours Dreadful and Things Strange

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Film, Psychogeography

The Breeze in the Trees

If asked to choose a particular sound that defined London in cinema, it would not be the bustling noise of traffic or an iconic piece of soundtrack music. It would, in fact, be the very simple but endlessly mysterious sound of the wind rustling through the trees in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966). Having visited all of the locations of the film last summer for the British Film … Continue reading The Breeze in the Trees

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Film, Literature, Psychogeography, Television, Uncategorized

Doomwatch, J.G. Ballard and High-Rise

Having recently finished all of the remaining episodes of the early 1970s BBC series, Doomwatch, I had the strange feeling that I had slipped into a parallel world; one where the BBC had worked closely with the writer, J.G. Ballard, to make a series that addressed his themes.  Though the series largely resembles Ballard’s earlier novels with their constant post-civilisation eco-disasters similar to The Drowned World … Continue reading Doomwatch, J.G. Ballard and High-Rise

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Film, Short Film, Uncategorized

Contentment and Chris Marker’s Chat écoutant la musique (1988)

I remember before I first watched Ben Rivers’ Two Years At Sea (2011) that a certain review quote about the film caught my eye.  It was suggested by a Time Out reviewer that Rivers’ film was “A rare thing in cinema: a vision of true happiness”.  At the time, this idea framed my viewing of Rivers’ film as it rang true; not only was the … Continue reading Contentment and Chris Marker’s Chat écoutant la musique (1988)

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