Search

MOVIES

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (2014): HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS – By Nick Bradshaw

Hiromasa Yonebayashi’s When Marnie Was There transposes a classic of English children’s literature to modern-day Japan to tell the tale of an orphan discovering the dark secrets of her past, in what might well be the last in-house feature from the great animation house Studio Ghibli

WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE (2014) – Review by Kate Stables

Despite the absence of the kind of imaginative spectacle or battle sequences that galvanised Spirited Away (2001) and Princess Mononoke (1997), When Marnie Was There is expertly atmospheric. Its action is all contained within its emotional ebb and flow, as fierce as the tides that lap at Marsh House.

THE GODFATHER: THE RESURRECTION OF DON BRANDO – Review by Richard Schickel

There’s nothing fun or funny to be found here. It offers us only the absorption of good acting and good storytelling combined with a plausible anthropology of a strange, terribly relevant culture. What more could we possibly want from a movie? How often, these days, do we get anything like all that?

Marlon Brando - Don Vito Corleone

The Godfather: How Brando Brought Don Corleone to Life – by Joseph Gelmis

And then there was Marlon Brando, against all the odds, cast in one of filmdom’s juiciest roles, as mob chief Don Vito Corleone. He was eased in, despite stiff opposition from the studio brass, because of the advocacy of a thirtyish fan, Francis Ford Coppola, an Italian-American who happened to be the director of The Godfather. Once he got the part, Brando in turn helped Coppola maintain camaraderie during the frenzied three-month shooting by kibitzing with the cast and establishing a fatherly relationship.

Blade Runner (1982) Ridley Scott and Harrison Ford on set

Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner: The Making of a Sci-Fi Classic

Interviews with screenwriters Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, industrial designer Syd Mead, production designer Lawrence C. Paull and director Ridley Scott. Articles & Interviews by Randy & Jean-Marc Lofficier for Starlog magazine, November 1992 issue.

GUILTY PLEASURES: THE FILMS OF PAUL SCHRADER – by Neil Sinyard [Cinema Papers]

Paul Schrader is one of the seminal figures of the contemporary American cinema. His success is attributable to the creative use of his critical faculty and a commercial deployment of his Calvinism. The result is a body of work that is a bracing commentary on classic and modern Hollywood, and whose bleak vision would make film noir look like musical comedy.

THE LIFE OF BRIAN (1979) – Review by Dennis Altman [Cinema Papers]

Blasphemy is by no means dead in Britain, as the recent condemnation of Gay News, for publishing a poem portraying Christ as homosexual, reveals. But The Life of Brian has nothing about it as shocking to the faithful as this, and is saved indeed from blasphemy by its sheer vulgarity.

ESCAPE FROM ALCATRAZ (1979) Review by Jack Clancy [Cinema Papers]

Escape from Alcatraz opens with the camera panning across San Francisco Bay and the bridge, and then to the grim, gloomy island of Alcatraz. The first sequence, as the credits come up, shows the arrival, through rain and darkness, of a prisoner for the “Rock”: it is shot in tight, constricted close- up and mostly in shadow.

DISNEY AND FREUD: WALT MEETS THE ID – by David I. Berland M.D.

Studying Freud and other early psychoanalysts can lead to a better understanding of children and consequently to appreciating the effects of some of Disney’s works. Freud’s concept of the mind’s structure can be useful in explaining the appeal of Disney’s characters because many of them (Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Goofy and others) embody universal aspects of the personality: id, ego and superego.

TAXI DRIVER (1976) – Review by Michael Dempsey [Film Quarterly]

In Taxi Driver, New York City is a steaming, polluted cesspool and Travis Bickle’s cab a drifting bathysphere from which he can peer at the “garbage and trash” which obsess him: whores, pimps, junkies, wandering maniacs, maggotty streets, random violence.

POLICE OSCAR: “THE FRENCH CONNECTION”: AND AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM FRIEDKIN – by Michael Shedlin

Since propaganda, whether blatant or subtle, and whether “left” or “right,” works primarily through the emotions and not the intellect, it is not necessarily the explicit or easily recogniz­able elements of a film that produce the strong­est effect on the consciousness of the viewer. Such is the case with a film like The French Connection. The explicit values are evident. The film is exquisitely made.

Il dr. Stranamore – di Enrico Ghezzi [Il Castoro Cinema]

Per molti versi, il film più «erotico» di Kubrick è ‘Il dr. Stranamore’ (1963) (girato anch’esso in Inghilterra), che segna la fine della collaborazione con Harris (il quale vuol passare alla regia ed esordirà due anni dopo con ‘Stato d’allarme’, film che sembra essere la risposta «realistica» a Stranamore).

LOLITA (1962) – di Enrico Ghezzi [Il Castoro Cinema]

Che Kubrick punti molto di più sull’ossessione in sé che sul suo oggetto (Lolita), è dimostrato già dal principale spostamento operato rispetto al romanzo: l’insediamento all’inizio della sequenza dell’uccisione di Quilty, che vedremo ripetuta in coda (come è nel romanzo).

THE SACRED AND THE PROFANE: EXAMINING THE RELIGIOUS SUBTEXT OF RIDLEY SCOTT’S ‘BLADE RUNNER’

Ridley Scott’s film “Blade Runner” is rooted in the myths and legends of Western culture and draws on a number of genres including film noir and science fiction. Central to the plot, though, is the Genesis story of the creation and fall. Gravett examines the religious subtext of the film, and discusses Deckard and Roy Batty’s relationship in terms of the biblical story of Jacob and Esau.

BARRY LYNDON: SETTECENTO – RECENSIONE DI ENZO UNGARI

Lontano dal cinema di formule e procedimenti a cui rimanda soltanto per la sua mole produttiva, Barry Lyndon si situa in quella zona dove il cinema è invenzione, ricerca, esperimento. Ma dove tutti, coraggiosamente e confusamente, cercano, Stanley Kubrick trova. Non domanda, risponde.

Weekly Magazine

Get the best articles once a week directly to your inbox!