Month: August 2002

  • The Response to Tragedy

    Now this could be seen as quite contentious. Am I alone in thinking that the tragic events in Soham have been blown totally out of all proportion? The events are outdoubtedly sad, and one hopes that the guilty people will be prosecuted and imprisoned. But from the moment the girls were announced as missing, right…

  • La R�gle du Jeu

    So here’s another one that I haven’t seen. Some years ago, the film critic David Thomson wrote a piece in The Independent on Sunday Review section explaining why he loved this film so much. I tore out the article, but never read it, because the first line warned that I should watch the film first…

  • Rio Bravo

    Spurred on by the Top Ten List below, I decided it was time to get around to watching a couple of films that I’ve had on video for ages but unbelievably have never gotten around to watching. There’s a game in David Lodge novels where academics in English departments have to name works of literature…

  • Sight and Sound Top Ten Movies

    Sight and Sound magazine, published by the BFI, have just announced their Top Ten Poll 2002. This has been published every ten years since 1952, conducted by polling film critics around the world. An additional poll among directors has also taken place for the last couple of times. There has been some press comment (sorry…

  • Sunshine State

    What can I say – I love John Sayles films. He undoubtedly has his own style of movie (at least the ones he directs himself), but they’re masterpieces that show elements of real world America usually avoided. This film is much like Lone Star in it’s telling a story through several different families and groups…

  • Nine Queens

    Finally got around to seeing Nueve reinas yesterday, as London was being deluged by flash floods. I absolutely love the con-artist film sub-genre. The likes of David Mamet’s House of Games or Stephen Frears’ The Gifters. The sort of film where you know that there’s a scam behind the scam but you’re not sure what…