“All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players”; these were the words that sprang to mind as I watched Leo Carax’s Holy Motors on Friday afternoon. After a veritable silence of thirteen years, Holy Motors is a two-hour excursion into the utterly bizarre. After drumming up considerable conversation at Cannes, Read More
No One But Me is a deeply personal and yet easily accessible documentary from filmmaker Brian Ross, telling the life story of Scottish-born Jazz sensation Annie Ross. Annie was born in Glasgow but moved to New York at the age of four to live with her aunt Ella Logan, a successful singer. Annie describes the Read More
For those familiar with director Andrew Dominik and Brad Pitt’s last collaboration, 2007’s The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, Killing Them Softly may surprise. Whilst the former revels in the beauty of its location, the latter ratchets up the violence, so much so that any beauty present is mixed with sheer Read More
Directed by Hungarian filmmaker Béla Tarr and co-directed by his wife, Ágnes Hranitzky, The Turin Horse stands triumphantly alongside Sátántangó (1994) and Werckmeister Harmonies (2000), two of his films widely regarded as cinematic masterpieces. Although Tarr and László Krasznahorkai (his long-time screenwriter) discussed the idea for The Turin Horse around 1990, its production was postponed Read More
The introduction to The Queen of Versailles comprises a collage of pictures and interviews, and these opening scenes establish the tone of Lauren Greenfield’s documentary. Two main players of the piece are introduced: David Siegel is the king of Westgate, the largest and most lucrative timeshare company in the world; Jackie Siegel is his estranged Read More
Hysteria is Jane Austen without inhibitions. It looks like an Austen adaption but is more “racy”. Director Tanya Wexler’s debut film, based on the true story of the invention of the vibrator in the 1880’s, blends passion, scandal and medical advancement into a hilarious and informative story. At a time when leeches were used to Read More
Pete Travis’ work as a TV and film director tends to focus on violent political histories; his films have told the story of the Omagh bombing, the attempted assassination of a US President, and the last days of apartheid in South Africa. Those who have followed Travis’ work may have been surprised at his decision Read More
In Swandown, Andrew Kötting, the film’s director, aimed to create “[a] poetic film-diary about landscape and culture.” In that it seems he succeeded, but whether the end-result is worth watching is debatable. The film follows Kötting as he peddles 160 miles along the Thames in a swan pedalo, alongside co-writer Iain Sinclair. Unfortunately, their journey Read More
This little French film with a strong social conscience is reminiscent of the work of Marcel Pagnol and Jean Renoir for the fragile and tender portrayals of Southern French life that it offers. In The Snows of Kilimanjaro, Marseille-inspired Robert Guédiguian returns to the source of his original creativity. The story is shot on the Read More
In The Flowers of War, director Zhang Yimou revisits the Sino-Japanese war of Nanking to tell the “true life” account of an unlikely group of individuals trying to survive the war in the sanctuary of a church. The film sees Academy Award Winner Christian Bale (The Dark Knight Rises, The Fighter) take the lead role Read More