Archive for the ‘Cultural issues’ Category
A review of the new film “Munich: The Edge Of War”
February 9th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Before I saw this film, I had read the novel by Robert Harris on which it is based [for review click here] and I had read (twice) a detailed examination of the Munich Agreement of September 1938 by Robert Kee [for review click here], so I was very familiar with the subject material. Nevertheless, I found it […]
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The 10 Academy Award nominations for Best Picture and my reviews of six of them
February 8th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
“The Power Of The Dog” – my review here “West Side Story” “Belfast” – my review here “Dune” – my review here “Licorice Pizza” – my review here “King Richard” – my review here “CODA” “Don’t Look Up” – my review here “Drive My Car” “Nightmare Alley” My main disappointment? Only one nomination for “House […]
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A review of the new film “The Power Of The Dog”
February 6th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
In a career of 30 odd years, New Zealander Jane Campion has only directed eight feature films and one of them was the wonderful “The Piano”. There has been a period of 12 years between “Bright Star” and “The Power Of The Dog”. This latest work, which she both wrote and directed, is a kind […]
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Word of the day: diegesis
February 1st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This is a narrative or plot, typically in a film. The only place that I’ve heard the word is on my film course.
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A review of the new film “Belfast”
January 31st, 2022 by Roger Darlington
My first visit to Belfast was the week after the troops were put on the streets in August 1969. Subsequently my work in the House of Commons and the Northern Ireland Office took me there some 30 times and I met all the leading local politicians from Ian Paisley to John Hume. As a result, […]
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A review of the film “Personal Shopper”
January 30th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
I much admired “Clouds Of Sils Maria” which was both written and directed by the French Olivier Assayas with the American Kristen Stewart in an important support role. In “Personal Shopper”, again Assayas is both writer and director and this time Stewart is the leading actress. The story is set largely in Paris although, in […]
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A review of the 1944 classic “Double Indemnity”
January 25th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Based on James Cain’s novel of the same name, this classic film noir was written by Raymond Chandler and Billy Wilder and directed by Wilder. The term ‘double indemnity’ refers to a clause in certain life insurance policies that doubles the payout when the death is accidental. This invitation to murder is seized upon by a femme fatale played […]
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A review of the 2016 film “The Take”
January 22nd, 2022 by Roger Darlington
This heist movie looks a bit like a French film: it is set in Paris with some great shooting of the city, many of the subsidiary characters are French actors playing French characters, and there is even a fair bit of French spoken – all of which won it French funding. Or it might be […]
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A review of the new art house film “The Souvenir Part II”
January 18th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Writer and director Joanna Hogg always intended her story to be in two parts and originally wanted to film both segments back-to-back. However, there were funding issues, so the first film was released in late 2019 but we had to wait until early 2022 for the second. While the first part was an account of […]
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A review of the new coming-of-age movie “Licorice Pizza”
January 16th, 2022 by Roger Darlington
Paul Thomas Anderson has both written and directed a film set in California’s San Fernando Valley in the early 1970s and everything about the work – the clothes, the decor, the music, the television, the politics, even the style of the graphics – is redolent of the period. At its heart – and the movie […]
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