Silence is godly
After Bergman, it is Scorsese's turn to meditate on God's silence, in his tale of a Jesuit priest enduring persecution in seventeenth century Japan. As Father Rodrigues hides in the undergrowth and watches members of his flock suffer…
Isabelle de jour
Just seen Ozon's Jeune & Jolie, and found it to be as elegant and mixed up as its young heroine, uncertain whether it is offering a comment on the prevalent sexualisation of youngsters' lives leading to frigid wantonness, …
Prête-à-manger?
The Neon Demon, NWR’s latest piece of provocation (he’s like a more genre-motivated Lars Von Trier), begins with one of those visual and aural grand statements, a reclining model/mannequin(?)…
Why can't the U.S. be Moore like us?
Michael Moore's latest film, Where to Invade Next, is a tour of European countries - Italy, France, Germany, Norway, Finland, Slovenia, Iceland - and Tunisia, to see if he can find one thing they have got right, in their welfare system…
The disappointments of Youth
Sorrentino's latest is a riot of sagging flesh and portentous theatrics…
It's Hateful
I am not sure what is worse, the narcissistic assumption that we are as interested in his opus numbers as we might have been in Fellini's, or the unbridled and increasing tendency to defile his models…
A Good Year
Peter Mayle's book, A Year in Provence, was a newstand hit at the same time I spent my own very formative year there, and so I resisted reading it and, for a long time, resisted watching Scott's screen version of it…
The Force Awakens - or is it a recurring nightmare?
Having been drawn by some irresistible force (sic) to visit J. J. Abrams Star Wars reboot, I was underwhelmed by the storytelling, even if some shots, like the last one, attained some sort of mythic greatness…
Close to Heaven
I have seen the best film of 2015 and its name is Carol. It is as close to perfection as anything you could hope to see, short of a re-run of Doctor Zhivago. It's a love story that does not forget the other characters…
The astronaut and the funambulist
Two movies just seen, The Martian and The Walk, exemplify the symbiotic relationship Hollywood now has with CGI. It is hard to conceive of anything that cannot be realized for the screen, with the possible exception of the human face, which still resists digital counterfeiting…
Face of a star
Just saw Face of a Fugitive on Film Four, and what a great B-movie Western it is. But more than that, it caused me to reflect as I watched Fred MacMurray's effortlessly charismatic performance,…
High Noon and Carl Foreman
So The Duke despised it ('Whoever heard of a sheriff running around asking for help against a bunch of gunmen?'), Hawks hated it (not enough action to keep it going),…
Minion morceau
As my French colleague's pronunciation of their name never fails to remind me, the Minions are nothing if not cute (Fr. mignon). And this third film featuring the droll little critters trades heavily on that fact…
All's well that celebrates Wells
It is customary for Ipswich Film Society to hold an end of season event around this time of year, and on 28th April in Ipswich Library lecture hall Sylvia Hardy gave an informed presentation of the career in film of H. G. Wells…
I Am Cubist
I made a discovery a couple of weeks ago from which I am still reeling with surprise and elation. It was Mikhail Kalatozov’s 1964 film, I Am Cuba (Soy Cuba), made as the world recovered from the Bay of Pigs crisis…
Mann-hunter
The arrival of a new film by Michael Mann is an event indeed for any self-respecting male cinephile, particularly of thrillers. Like Howard Hawks and Walter Hill before him, his narratives are ones in which the professional virtues are upheld,…
Straight as a Bullitt
I was taking another look at an old favourite the other week – Peter Yates’s classic police thriller, Bullitt (1968). It is a movie I have seen some nine times – I used to catch it regularly on ITV late-night screenings at one time,…