La Vérité is the penultimate feature by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who was already starting to be seen as old hat by the French New Wave filmmakers. It stars everybody's favourite pouting French blonde bombshell fascist who "only cares about the animals," Brigitte Bardot. The film was hotly anticipated when it came out in 1960 because it was … Continue reading La Vérité – Blu-Ray Review
Month: February 2019
Class of 1999 – Blu-Ray Review
A sort of quasi-sequel/reboot of Class of 1984, Class of 1999 is centred on a school where violence has continued to rise. The chosen solution is to ‘demilitarise’ the school with killer robots instead of teachers, all part of a fascist police state on a massive scale. Electronic signs flash slogans like OBEY, no doubt … Continue reading Class of 1999 – Blu-Ray Review
Class of 1984 – Blu-Ray Review
Class of 1984 came out in 1982, when the director, Mark L. Lester, and co-writer Tom Holland wanted to an update of Blackboard Jungle with a bit of Lester’s favourite film, A Clockwork Orange, thrown in. It’s set in some kind of just slightly into the future—not so futuristic as its reboot, Class of 1999, … Continue reading Class of 1984 – Blu-Ray Review
Parents – Blu-Ray Review
Parents is a film directed by Bob Balaban—his first feature after a long acting career. It’s a very twisted black comedy about child neglect, cannibalism and possibly paedophilia, all set against the background of suburban America. The son is played by Bryan Madorsky, and this was his final starring role. That’s strange, because it’s a … Continue reading Parents – Blu-Ray Review
Arrow Joseph H. Lewis Double Bill – Blu-Ray Review
Joseph H. Lewis was a great noir director, best known for Gun Crazy (one of the greatest movies made ever) and The Big Combo. There was a big retrospective of his films at the Scala in London in the late 70s or early 80s, during which I believe Time Out tagged The Big Combo as … Continue reading Arrow Joseph H. Lewis Double Bill – Blu-Ray Review