Film, Film Music and Sound

Avant Godard! Musical Subversion In The Films Of Jean-Luc Godard. (Part 1)

Avant Godard! Musical Subversion And Fictional Interaction With Non-Diegetic Music In The Films Of Jean-Luc Godard. Introduction – French New Wave As Avant Garde. When discussing Avant Garde cinema, the most obvious choices of cinematic subject would no doubt be linked to the likes of Dali, Buñuel and Cocteau.  However, the gradual movement from Avant Garde to Art House cinema presents a more interesting case for Avant Garde … Continue reading Avant Godard! Musical Subversion In The Films Of Jean-Luc Godard. (Part 1)

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Film, Folk Horror

Kuroneko – Kaneto Shindo (1968)

Despite the horrific elements contained within, Kuroneko is ill served by being pigeon holed into the genre of horror.  The genre as a whole has a huge spectrum of intelligence and allegory but there’s more to Kaneto Shindo’s film than this, quite malleable, label.  It of course gives scares, and Japanese “horror” is well ahead of the western game in terms of sheer scare value but its … Continue reading Kuroneko – Kaneto Shindo (1968)

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Art, Film, Landscape

Herzog + Postgate = Fischli and Weiss? (Art Shaped Liverpool)

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to be involved with a new project company in Liverpool called Art Shaped.  The article below is a response to viewing The Right Way by Fischli and Weiss which was especially imported from a gallery in Switzerland.  The project produced a zine which is where this article can be originally found and was given out at the screening.  Along with other articles, … Continue reading Herzog + Postgate = Fischli and Weiss? (Art Shaped Liverpool)

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Folk Horror, Literature, Television

BBC Ghost Stories – Volume 5 (A View From A Hill, Number 13) BFI.

This review contains minor spoilers. The final instalment of the BBC Ghost Stories sees a return to form from the haphazard final days of the original 1970s specials.  Though, as previously discussed in the review of Volume 1’s 2012 adaptation of Whistle And I’ll Come To You, recent attempts to carry on the tradition is automatically up against a monumental past whose shadow is hard … Continue reading BBC Ghost Stories – Volume 5 (A View From A Hill, Number 13) BFI.

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Folk Horror, Landscape, Literature, Television

BBC Ghost Story Location Visits – A Warning To The Curious.

Recently I’ve been lucky enough to travel to one of the most beautiful parts of the United Kingdom; the north Norfolk coast.  I’ve been coming here since I was little but only recently it has taken on a new light and ethos in terms of filming potential.  In the last few months, I’ve been lucky enough to preview all five discs of the BBC Ghost … Continue reading BBC Ghost Story Location Visits – A Warning To The Curious.

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Folk Horror, Literature, Television

BBC Ghost Stories Volume 4 (The Signalman, Stigma, The Ice House) – BFI

Volume 4 of the BBC Ghost Stories At Christmas is a mixed bag of the eerie and the spooky.  Housing the last three instalments of the classic series before it ceased until its revival in 2005, it’s a must buy for one of the stories but its other two instalments wobble its consistency.  The most appealing aspect of this release is that it contains possibly … Continue reading BBC Ghost Stories Volume 4 (The Signalman, Stigma, The Ice House) – BFI

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Folk Horror, Literature, Television

BBC Ghost Stories Volume 3 (Lost Hearts, The Ash Tree, The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas) – BFI

The third volume of the BBC Ghost Stories, restored and released by the BFI, is perhaps the darkest set of stories to come out of television adaptations yet.  This release sees the last of Lawrence Gordon Clark’s screen transformations of the stories of M.R James before the director went on to adapt stories by the likes of Charles Dickens and even commission entirely new tales … Continue reading BBC Ghost Stories Volume 3 (Lost Hearts, The Ash Tree, The Treasure Of Abbot Thomas) – BFI

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Film, Folk Horror

Night Of The Eagle – Sidney Hayers (1962)

If Alfred Hitchcock were to have made an occult horror film, it’s not beyond the realms of fantasy to believe that it would look something like Sidney Hayers’ 1962 film Night of the Eagle.  Mixing up all sorts of clean cut imagery and marvellously juicy language, the film is one of the more Freudian in the horror canon and a far more subtle affair than … Continue reading Night Of The Eagle – Sidney Hayers (1962)

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Film

X The Unknown – Leslie Norman (1956)

Following on from Hammer’s The Quatermass Xperiment, the company continued their desire for rating incorporated titles with 1956’s X The Unknown. It may perhaps hold the most unimaginative of Hammer’s titles but the film itself has some surprisingly good moments. The story follows an extremely similar route to its predecessor but certain tweaks allow more paranoia to build specifically around the radiation that clearly obsessed … Continue reading X The Unknown – Leslie Norman (1956)

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Folk Horror, Literature, Television

BBC Ghost Stories – The Stalls of Barchester/A Warning To The Curious (1971/1972)

This review contains spoilers. The second release of the BBC Christmas ghost stories finds the real birth of it as a staple of the wintery Christmas nights of the 1970s and showcases the first two of five serials by Lawrence Gordon Clark.  Though both of the stories are again M.R James adaptations the connecting factor here, apart from being chronologically accurate, is the inclusion in … Continue reading BBC Ghost Stories – The Stalls of Barchester/A Warning To The Curious (1971/1972)

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