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CHE – Part 1 and Part 2 – Soderbergh’s Che: iconic, charismatic, idealistic, but opaque

Tweet Che – Steven Soderbergh The essence of art is selection: and the logic of selection defines what is left out. The collaborative nature of the art of film-making increases the need for such eliminating decisions exponentially – casting, screenplay, lighting, angle, editing, music, sound and thousands of other decisions. The result is not the […]

Gomorra – death as the price of a life you choose

Tweet Gommora – Matteo Garrone Thomas Hobbes, 16th Century English philosopher once described human life without government, state authority, as “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.” Garrone’s award-winning film occupies a Hobbesian world: neither his Direction nor Maurizio Braucchi’s screenplay, based upon Roberto Saviano’s whistle-blowing book Gomorra (2006), make any attempt at a coherent narrative […]

Changeling – touted for the wrong Oscar

Tweet Changeling – Clint Eastwood Cinema, film is a collaborative art. If the director has the integrating artistic conception of the film, he still has to assemble his realisation of that ‘vision’ through the many critical disciplines, each an art in its own right, that provide the warp and weft of the finished film. It […]

Pride and Glory – Obama, ‘5/11’, and ethnic stereotypes in movies

Tweet Pride And Glory – Gavin O’Connor Barack Obama’s election to the Presidency is likely to influence American society in profound but as yet unpredictable ways. It will be fascinating to see how Hollywood embraces the new New World. Which director in which film with whose screenplay will be the first to portray deep racial […]

The Pianist- Essay: aesthetics, ethics and the Holocaust

Tweet The Pianist – Roman Polanski Films with a Holocaust setting pose acute and unique problems for critical and aesthetic analysis. In no other context of human behaviour are important distinctions between moral and aesthetic judgement so disturbingly blurred. The Holocaust stands apart as the most appalling of all examples of man’s inhumanity to man […]

Runaway Jury – 12 psycholically profiled, manipulated, fiddled, not so angry men

Tweet Runaway Jury – Gary Fielder As a novelist John Grisham flatters to deceive: he is a great page-turning writer, but a merely adequate ‘plotter’, whose characters are often buried by the burden of idealism Grisham requires them to carry. The greatest of these qualities, the simple, accessible writing style, is the first thing that […]

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 Terminal – Spielberg’s tribute to Capra

Tweet The Terminal – Stephen Spielberg Consciously or not, this is Spielberg’s homage to Frank Capra, with all the mixed responses that engenders. It is deftly made, with wit, heart-warming humour and charm. It offers a 40’s soft-hearted idealism in a modern setting. The good guys are very good and the bad guys are really […]

Sophie Scholl – courage to celebrate and cherish

Tweet Sophie Scholl – Marc Rothemund True heroism, like martyrdom, must be imposed by fate, not sought. This is a profound moral principle that exercised Joseph Conrad in Lord Jim. Again, Robert Bolt’s Sir Thomas More in A Man For All Seasons does everything he can to avoid his looming martyrdom – except sacrifice his […]

Munich – truth, fact, fiction and art

Tweet Munich – Director Steven Spielberg “Inspired by real events” opens this movie. And it troubles me. Do we owe the 11 Israeli athletes murdered at Munich anything less than the truth? Not the absolute truth, that may not be known to anyone. But if we are to put their story at the heart of […]