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Marley – Kevin Mcdonald: Purity of heart is to will one thing – Kierkegaard

Tweet      Marley – Kevin Mcdonald Kierkegaard wrote: “Purity of heart is to will one thing.” Again: “Be that self one truly is.” And: “During the first period of a man’s life the greatest danger is not to take the risk.” Having fathered 11 children from 7 different women Robert Nesta Marley, in his […]

SENNA – Man, machine and mastery

Tweet Senna – Asif Kapadia A moving homage to one of the greats of Formula One. Nominated as one of the greatest racing drivers of all time by the most discerning judges, his fellow drivers, Ayrton Senna da Silva was 3-times World champion in 1988, 1990, 1991. His death in the San Marino Grand Prix […]

Oranges, sunshine, Australia, deportation, abuse

Tweet Oranges and Sunshine – Jim Loach Hypocrisy is the besetting vice of the English. Many of our greatest writers, like George Eliot and Dickens knew this and created some of the squirmyest hypocrites in fiction: from the Rev Edward Casaubon and Nicholas Bulstrode in Middlemarch to David Copperfield’s Uriah Heep. Fans of Austen could […]

Heads we win – tails you pay: Bankers’ motto

Tweet Inside Job – Charles Ferguson (Oscar 2011) Angry at Bankers? See this devastating, meticulously researched Oscar winner for best documentary feature 2011 and find out why you, we, are not angry enough. By a long chalk. ‘Heads we win – tails, you pay’ – the Bankers’ motto. Inside Job is no Michael Moore polemic. […]

Motor Cycle Diaries – youth, idealism, fun, adventure, self-discovery

Tweet The Motorcycle Diaries – Walter Salles Friendship, self-awakening, and indignation at injustice, are at the heart of this empathic and deeply felt film. The real journey through fifties South America of Ernesto, later ‘Che’, Guevara and his friend Alberto Grenado is engaging, funny, moving and redolent of a rare sense of humanity. The film […]

The March Of The Penguins – delightful, extraordinary, respect

Tweet March of The Penguins – Luc Jacquet Peerless cinematography (Laurent Chalet, Jerome Maison) and impeccable, sensitive editing (Sabine Emiliani) make this a shoe-in for a documentary Oscar. Every camera shot, every note of Alex Wurman’s lyrical score, breathes a sense of respect for these extraordinary, impossibly endearing creatures. So it is disturbing to read […]

The Pervert’s Guide To The Cinema – great film, dumb title

Tweet The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema – Sophie Fiennes Great film. Dumb title. This is a tour de force of intellectual passion and sheer irrepressible enthusiasm displayed by Slavoj Žižek’s, Slovenian psychoanalyst, sociologist and philosopher. Žižek applies his psychoanalytic concepts to the interpretation of cinema as a serious and cathartic art form. His obvious love […]

United 93 – Superbly crafted docu-drama. But..

Tweet United 93 – Paul Greengrass If this film sets the tone for the many 9/11 related films in the pipeline it will have served a useful purpose. Though necessarily conjectural in detail, in broad terms it tries to tell the nightmare story whose tragic ending we all know, without embellishment. Claustrophobic cinematography, an atmospheric […]

I’m Not There – he’s just everywhere, mostly in our heads

Tweet I’m Not There – Todd Haynes It may depend when you joined the train. Bob Dylan and I are the same age. When we hit our teens in 1954/5 young people all around the world started boarding the music trains, leaving home for ever. We left our parents standing on the platforms shaking their […]

The Fog Of War – MacNamara’s mist

Tweet The Fog of War – Director Errol Morris In Fog Of War ex-US Secretary of State Robert MacNamara, is given enough rope by Director Morris to almost hang himself. Once one of the most hated men in America for his central political role in the Vietnam War, MacNamara graces us with 11 ‘lessons’ or […]