The latest release in the BFI Flipside series revels in the social satire of its era with glee. Though of course the main draw of the release will be Saxon Logan’s main feature, Sleepwalker (1984), the release itself is built up to make a whole package of potential double and even triple bills of viewing; some Logan themed, some nocturnal themed. The main feature simply … Continue reading Sleepwalker (1984) – Saxon Logan, BFI Flipside.
It’s an oft repeated dictum that British director, Humphrey Jennings, had a gradual decline of quality within his work towards the end of the Second World War. It’s repeated several times in the booklet of this excellent BFI release but, like many of the others who start with this statement, there is a “but”. That “but” is that Jennings’ weaker work is in fact not … Continue reading The Complete Humphrey Jennings Volume 3 (A Diary for Timothy) – BFI
There are a number of directors associated with the often brash task of dismantling the bourgeoisie through the use of allegory, metaphor and the sheer brutality of the cinematic form. Out of all of these, the likes of which include Luis Buñuel and Michael Haneke, Pier Paolo Pasolini stands tall above them in his consistent despising of the class and its social patriarchy. The late … Continue reading Theorem – Pier Paolo Pasolini (BFI Release).
Though more famous and widely recognised for film restoration and archiving (for which he received an Academy Award for) Kevin Brownlow’s second shared feature film with Andrew Mollo, Winstanley (1975), is a masterpiece of traditional, historic cinema. It not only captures the feel of the era that produced an amalgamation of tradition-based horror cinema but showed that, through using a number of classical cinematic techniques, … Continue reading Winstanley (Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo) – Landscape Politics and Folk Aesthetics.
The BFI have done wonders over the last few years in highlighting and promoting the work of Yasujirô Ozu to potential new viewers in the UK. Their Ozu collection is gradually filling in the many gaps within his work available in Region 2 and he is now perhaps the most represented Japanese director in the Region 2 DVD market outside of Akira Kurosawa. Ozu’s work … Continue reading Yasujiro Ozu Collection – The Gangster Films (BFI)
Roman Polanski’s period films don’t garner the same sort of critical attention that his genre films attain. The likes of Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and Chinatown (1974) no doubt feature more highly in film discussions than the likes of Oliver Twist (2005) or Tess (1979) yet the latter of these films presents an epic expanse that manages to still capture detail and beauty; a rare feat … Continue reading Tess (1979) – Roman Polanski (BFI Release)
There’s something startling about just how inventive cinema was in the early days of its creation. Whereas other artistic mediums have taken hundreds of years to bear fruit, film seemed to have caught on to what it was about mere years after its very conception. Ranging from 1901 to 1908, the films in the BFI Fairy Tales release show a frank endorsement of both storytelling … Continue reading BFI Fairy Tales – Early Colour Stencil Films From Pathé (1901 – 1908)
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.
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.
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
Celluloid Wicker Man 