Tag: Film Review

Film

The Blue Angel – Josef Von Sternberg (1930, Masters of Cinema)

This review contains spoilers. For a filmmaker who was supposedly uninterested in visual allegory, Josef Von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel (1930) is full of potential for visuals readings if wanted.  One of the first sound films to come out of Germany, it is astonishing how the medium’s relative newness seems to have had little negative effect on the visuals of this pioneering film.  However it … Continue reading The Blue Angel – Josef Von Sternberg (1930, Masters of Cinema)

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Film, Film Music and Sound

Maya Deren And The Scores Of Teiji Ito (Meshes Of The Afternoon + Others)

Time past and time future, What might have been and what has been, Point to one end, which is always present. – T.S Eliot (Four Quartets) There’s a clash often present in the films of Maya Deren but especially in the ones that incorporate music into their styling.  From her most famous short Meshes Of The Afternoon (1943 or 1952 with music) to other titles such as … Continue reading Maya Deren And The Scores Of Teiji Ito (Meshes Of The Afternoon + Others)

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Film, Folk Horror

Cry Of The Banshee – Gordon Hessler (1970)

Cry of the Banshee (1970) makes no qualms as to what its aims are.  Looking at its promotional poster, it would be natural to associate it with Roger Corman’s Poe films; it’s emblazoned with Edgar Allen Poe references, its main star is Vincent Price and its design is a technocolour nightmare.  The film itself is about as far from Corman’s dreamlike fantasies as possible in … Continue reading Cry Of The Banshee – Gordon Hessler (1970)

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Film, Film Music and Sound

The Horror Score Rebellion – Part 3 (Rosemary’s Baby And Popular Music In Horror)

Though 1968 may best be remembered for Romero’s zombies, another film released that same year had a similar impact to the way horror films in the subsequent decade were scored. Rosemary’s Baby, directed by Polish émigré Roman Polanski, has a legacy of imitators that developed from its scoring techniques. Polanski’s tale of the occult in a Manhattan apartment block primarily employs a classical score but large … Continue reading The Horror Score Rebellion – Part 3 (Rosemary’s Baby And Popular Music In Horror)

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Film

BFI Fairy Tales – Early Colour Stencil Films From Pathé (1901 – 1908)

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)

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Film, Interview, Landscape

Interview with Ben Rivers

Originally published in ACE Magazine. Ben Rivers is one of Britain’s leading experimental filmmakers, broaching the ground between narrative and documentary film. He has been making short films since 2003 but has recently risen in popularity due to the release of his first feature length film Two Years At Sea in 2011. Rivers is famed not just for creating haunting visuals but also for using … Continue reading Interview with Ben Rivers

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Film, Folk Horror, Landscape, Television

A Brief History of Occult and Folk Horror

Article originally published in New Empress Magazine. Being old and feeling almost excavated from some grainy piece of earth, silent horror has the unnerving sense of being a genuine piece of documentation. No doubt unaware of it at the time, Benjamin Christensen’s Häxan: Witchcraft Through The Ages (1922) is a film that so embodies this accidental aspect that viewing it recalls the feeling of Ash’s … Continue reading A Brief History of Occult and Folk Horror

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Film, Film Music and Sound

Avant Godard! – Part 2, Musical Subversion (Bande à Part and Pierrot Le Fou)

Part 1. Ideas In Later Films By Godard. Godard would continue to subvert the role of record players in his work to similar but more extreme effects. It seems odd that the connecting factor to all the scenes mentioned is the presence of his, then wife, Anna Karina.  Godard is capable of presenting her dancing and singing with a relatively normal relationship between the visual … Continue reading Avant Godard! – Part 2, Musical Subversion (Bande à Part and Pierrot Le Fou)

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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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