Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the 1975 film “Jeanne Dielman 23, Quai du Commerce, 1800 Bruxelles”
March 2nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Every ten years, the prestigious magazine “Sight And Sound” conducts a poll to nominate the top 100 films of all time and, in 2022, the No 1 was “Jeanne Dielman”. In spite of over 60 years of serious film-viewing, I’d never even heard of this work but, when the British Film Institute screened all 100 […]
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A review of the Indian blockbuster “RRR”
February 24th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
This Indian-made Telegu-language movie is one of the craziest that I’ve ever seen but it is immensely entertaining. Let’s start with that enigmatic title which doesn’t appear on screen until 40 minutes into the story. The initials stand for different things in different languages used in India. In English, they mean Rise, Roar, Revolt. But […]
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A review of the classic 1959 French film “The 400 Blows”
February 22nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
This French-language, black and white film was the first made by François Truffaut who both directed it and wrote the screenplay. It is partly autobiographical and tells the story of 13 year old Antoine Doinel played by the only slightly older Jean-Pierre Léaud. Truffaut went on to make a further four films with Léaud, but […]
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Revisiting my review of “All Quiet On The Western Front”
February 21st, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Now that the film remake of “All Quiet On The Western Front” has this week won seven BAFTA Awards, I think it’s a good time to revisit my review of the work to which I’ve now add a footnote. I’ve not read the novel by Erich Maria Remarque (1929) but I have seen the Academy […]
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A review of the important new film “Women Talking”
February 12th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I really enjoyed the 2012 film “Take This Waltz” written and directed by the Canadian Sarah Polley, but we’ve had to wait a decade for her next fiction film “Women Talking”. This is based on a fiction work which in turn was inspired by real events. The fiction work was the best-selling 2018 novel by […]
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A review of the cult movie “Manhunter”
February 5th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
In 1991, “The Silence Of The Lambs” was a massive hit and seemingly introduced the cinematic world to Dr Hannibal Lecter (played by Anthony Hopkins). There was a sequel “Hannibal” (2001) and two prequels “Red Dragon” (2002) and “Hannibal Rising” (2007). However, actually it all started in cinematic terms – the series of four novels […]
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A review of the new Indian film “Gangubai Kathiawdi”
February 2nd, 2023 by Roger Darlington
Non-Indian viewers will initially be mystified by the title of this Hindi-language film, but it refers to a real person on whose life the work is loosely based. She is Ganga Jagjivandas Kathiawadi whose story was documented in the book “Mafia Queens Of Mumbai” written by S. Hussain Zaidi. In spite of this true life […]
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A review of the new movie “The Fabelmans”
January 30th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I can understand why Steven Spielberg – who directed, co-wrote and co-produced this work – regards it with such affection. It is his most personal film to date and largely auto-biographical. I can appreciate why so many critics have supported the movie. A central stream of the narrative is why we love movies and how […]
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Word of the day: EGOT
January 26th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had never heard the term EGOT until recently when I watched the Todd Field “Tar”. The term refers to the top four media awards: the top awards in television (Emmy), music (Grammy), film (Oscar), and theatre (Tony). Some have called it the grand slam of show business and only 17 stars […]
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A review of the controversial new film “Tar”
January 26th, 2023 by Roger Darlington
I confess that I had never heard of the American Todd Field before this work (he has only made two previous films, the last being 16 years ago) but “Tár”, which he wrote, produced and directed, will ensure that every serious cinema-goer will now be familiar with him. His eponymous character is a Lydia Tár, […]
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