Tag: Movie
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What the F**kland.
“We have a long and proud history of recognising the right of others to determine their own destiny.” – Margaret Thatcher on the Falkland Islands. (1982) In 1995 Danish directors Lars Von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg created Dogma 95. A film-making movement that revolved around a specific manifesto, Dogma 95 created a way for unknown…
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The Man Who Knew Too Much. (1956)
Alfred Hitchcock once discussed both of his versions of The Man Who Knew Too Much with François Truffaut, in a very lengthy interview that Truffaut claimed lasted for 50 hours. Hitchcock describes his first imagining of the film, from 1934, as the work of a “talented amateur” and the remake, which he himself created over two decades…
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The Man Who Knew Too Much. (1934)
Alfred Hitchcock’s earlier work is sometimes sadly overlooked. He is known by many for his American films, and too right; Rear Window, Vertigo, Psycho and Rope are just some of his exceptional later films. Still, Alfred Hitchcock was an Essex boy. He began work in silent cinema with respected films such as The Lodger. Hitchcock’s work in the 1930s remains quintessentially British. The…
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Lolita. (1997)
Lolita is the story of a British professor, Humbert, and his infatuation with his teenage step-daughter. We watch their love affair begin and quickly unravel around them as Humbert desperately tries to keep them together. Stanley Kubrick had major issues with censorship when he adapted Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov’s novel, to the screen. On reflection, the director stated that if…
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Lolita. (1962)
Adapted from Vladimir Nabokov’s quirky novel, Kubrick’s Lolita was highly restricted by censorship laws but still remained an incredibly controversial movie. Humbert Humbert, a middle-aged British professor, develops an obsession with the teenage daughter of his land lady during his summer lodgings. The film deals with his predicament of being in love with his step daughter, after…
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Burn After Reading.
The Coen brothers know how to do so many things. They know how to tell a steady and suspenseful story like Fargo and they know exactly how to poetically linger on loneliness and whimsy, demonstrated in Inside Llewyn Davis. Perhaps what they do best of all is chaos; the madness and genius we find in Burn After Reading would certainly…
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Muppets Most Wanted.
I grew up watching The Muppet movies. They often seemed a little dated and a little isolating because of just how darn American they were, but that was all part of the charm. I have fond memories of The Great Muppet Caper and The Muppets Take Manhattan. I recall being mesmerised and impressed by the glamorous musical sequences…
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A Story of Children and Film.
I was fortunate enough to meet Mark Cousins less than two months ago. We were very grateful to have him visit our University, giving a talk on the art of the video essay. Video essays are becoming a more and more popular form for visually expressing and presenting academic research and discussion. The video essay…
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The Act of Killing.
I have finally gotten around to watching Joshua Oppenheimer’s The Act of Killing, only a few days ago. A lot of the film reviews I write are written hours after seeing the films; I like to capture my gut reaction as much as possible. Yet, The Act of Killing has taken a while to sink in. I felt…
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Under the Skin.
Under the Skin is a highly ambitious film. It impresses so much in its opening half hour, setting up expectations that it ultimately struggles to live up to. True ambition is an admirable and rare quality to find in contemporary cinema and there is no denying the ambitious nature of Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin. Despite the…
Hannah McHaffie 