Black Angel is a little-known noir based on a Cornell Woolrich novel. Woolrich’s work was adapted for film a lot: Phantom Lady and Rear Window were two such adaptations, and even Truffaut made a couple of films based on Woolrich’s books. One of his short stories was used for the under-rated noir The Window, one … Continue reading Blu-Ray Review – Black Angel →

Sanshō the Bailiff is a film by Kenji Mizoguchi, one of the most respected Japanese directors of all time. At the time, he was rated higher in France than Kurosawa, as he was seen as being more “Japanese” than Western. He made 90 films, but only lived to be 58—and was of course an influence on Kurosawa, … Continue reading Blu-Ray Review – Sansho the Bailiff →

Cloak and Dagger is one of Fritz Lang’s anti-Nazi spy thrillers . It was also his first post-WW2 film, but it feels more like Man Hunt or Hangmen Also Die! than the fantastic string of noirs that he made not long after the war and on up to the mid '50s. Lang emigrated very soon after he had a meeting … Continue reading Blu-Ray Review – Cloak and Dagger →

Brad Pitt has some serious daddy issues! Kidding aside, Ad Astra is the latest film from one of France's favourite American auteurs from the past couple decades, James Gray. This is by far Gray’s biggest-budget film to date, in fact, its final $87.5 million budget isn't that far off from the entirety of his previous six films … Continue reading Blu-Ray Review – Ad Astra →

Night Tide was Curtis Harrington’s debut feature after spending the entire '40s and '50s in the burgeoning underground/avant-garde/experimental/whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it film world—Harrington seems fairly dismissive of all the various terms in interviews. He was a lifelong friend and sometimes antagonist of Kenneth Anger: they collaborated, with Harrington acting as cinematographer on Anger's Puce Moment and acting in Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome. He … Continue reading Blu-Ray Review – Night Tide →