J.G. Ballard was the greatest post-war author Britain has ever known and his relationship to cinema is a curious one. The first cinematic adaptation of his work was Empire of the Sun by Steven Spielberg which remains Spielberg’s crowning achievement but one of his least successful films. The 2nd was Cronenberg’s Crash which relocates the Shepperton set dystopia … Continue reading High Rise – London Film Festival Review
Based on a stage musical by Jack Good, which was a big hit in London, Catch My Soul is a strange melange. The original was set in Piccadilly, but the makers of the film inexplicably shifted the action to a hippie commune in the New Mexico desert. The plot follows Shakespeare’s Othello fairly closely, only … Continue reading Catch My Soul – Blu-Ray Review
Some films are ripe for rediscovery and few are as fitting for a rediscovery than Philip Ridley’s critically acclaimed but rarely seen since it’s Cannes premiere debut film The Reflecting Skin. Ridley has only directed two more films since his debut The Passion of Darkly Noon and Heartless both are equally as good but The … Continue reading The Reflecting Skin – Blu-Ray Review
Closely Observed Trains or Closely Watched Trains as it’s often called as well is one of the best known and well-loved films to come out of the Czechoslovak New Wave of the ’60s. It’s one of only two Czech films to ever win the best foreign language film at the Oscars, the other was The Shop on Main … Continue reading Closely Observed Trains – Blu-Ray Review
Stephen King on cinema is a mixed bag if there ever was one. Truly great films like The Shawshank Redemption, The Shining (well unless you’re King himself of course) or Carrie to name just a few have been made out of his works. Real schlock has come out of these adaptations as well sometimes stuff which … Continue reading Children Of The Corn Trilogy – Blu-Ray Review
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