Category: Films
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Notes from the London Film Festival #2
The festival is over for another year, and I thought that I should conclude my notes about the films I saw this year’s festival. I’ve got to say that I’ve been lucky and there wasn’t a duff film amongst them. I came away very satisfied with all the films I saw, even those that were…
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Notes from the London Film Festival #1
It’s that time of year again, and I’ve bought a selection of tickets to London Film Festival titles. For the most part, I’ve avoided films that are going to get a decent-sized release in the near future, and I’ve also avoided titles that are definitely going to streaming – in the main because I’ll be…
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Can I Watch ‘Une Femme Mariée’?
Spoiler: No, I can’t. Jean-Luc Godard has died, and in The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw writes about the director and in particular his love of 1964’s Une Femme Mariée. While I know and love Breathless and Le Mépris, I’ve never seen this film – also known as A Married Woman. So I decided to seek it…
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Waiting for Top Gun
If you visited Prime Video, Apple TV or Google Play Movies in the last couple of days, you may have noticed that there’s something new available to buy. Top Gun: Maverick has just arrived on digital-to-own streaming services. In the UK, it’s priced at £11.99 for an SD copy (Why would anyone buy a title…
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The Future of Cinema
Sometimes, when you experience shabby service, you just have to call it out. And as someone who loves to see films in a cinema, that’s what I’m doing here. But first some backstory. Where Cinema is in 2022 The global pandemic has hastened something that had already been happening prior to the start of 2020…
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Star on Disney+ is a Shallow Offering
This week Disney began its global rollout of ‘Star’ as part of its Disney+ service. In the US, Disney has a family of packages including Hulu and ESPN+, offering a package deal for all of them. But the rights situation is complicated. Although Hulu is basically owned by Disney now, it was originally a joint…
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It’s Different This Side of the Pond
Yesterday I saw my first TV ad – at least in quite a few months – for Wonder Woman 1984, the next instalment of the blockbuster DC Extended Universe film series. The TV ad tells me that the film is opening in UK cinemas on 16 December. Hmm. Now this is a film who’s release…
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Rebecca
Netflix has a new adaptation of Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca on the service. While this isn’t a review of that film, I can say that it’s probably just “OK” rather than anything special. And that’s a shame because I’m an enormous fan of director Ben Wheatley, and he has a decent cast – with a…
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Vitti and Antonioni
Over the last week or so, I’ve been watching or rewatching the loose trilogy of black and white films that Michelangelo Antonioni made with the actress Monica Vitti released between 1960 and 1962. Each was made in black and white, and each took a profoundly moderning – and sometimes disparing look at the new world.…
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BFI Archives Tour
Note: If any of the images are blurry click through to Flickr. There’s also a much bigger set of photos over there! One of the benefits of being a member of the BFI is that occasionally they do things like have tours. I put my name in the hat for a tour of the BFI’s…
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Getting By Without Cinemas
I go to the cinema a fair amount, and I suspect from the film industry’s perspective, I’m in the top 10 per cent or higher in my frequency of going. I see a film at the cinema probably every fortnight on average – especially during Oscar season, when we’re deluged with quality films at a…
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Final Thoughts on the 2019 London Film Festival
Every year for the London Film Festival, I either see a whole load of films, or I basically don’t see any at all. This year was in the former category, but even then, I only managed 11 films – although that feels like a lot. Especially if you see three films on a single day.…