Film

By Michael McNulty Sex, Lies, and Videotape was supposedly showing at a West Berlin cinema when the wall fell and residents from the East descended on the cinema expecting to see a pornographic film. Those who stuck around to watch the film, once they realized it wasn’t a skin flick, will surely have left the cinema all the more satisfied. Steven Soderbergh wrote Sex, Lies, and Videotape in 8 days and secured a budget of 1.2 million (a bigger budget...

The Italian Job has been named the greatest British film ever made. A survey of 2,000 Brits put Peter Collinson's stylish 1969 crime caper in top spot - with fans fondly remembering its famous Mini Cooper chases and cliffhanger ending. The film tells the story of a gang of English crooks who plot to rob $4million worth of gold bullion from under the noses of the mob and the police in Turin. Sir Michael Caine, who played lead character Charlie...

Those who have been charmed by the wily confidence of George Blagden’s libidinous King Louis XIV in Versailles may find themselves taken aback by Jean-Pierre Léaud’s frail and reclusive incarnation of the Sun King, whom we are introduced to at the start of The Death of Louis XIV: Albert Serra’s solemn chronicle of the monarch’s final days. The palace of Versailles is no longer the buzzing hive of royal intrigue it once was, but an eerily quiet fortress from where...

Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP David Lynch is one of film’s most striking and unique directors. In the 40 years since his debut feature Eraserhead he has created some of the most singular works in modern American film. It is therefore a real challenge for a documentary about such a figure to live up to the person they are trying to depict. It is a pleasure then to say that David Lynch: The Art Life, the latest documentary about him, tries...

By Michael McNulty Paris and New York are more often the cities romanticized on the silver screen, from the gritty streets of the Bronx to the arty cafes of Montemarte. But let’s not forget about the island that sits in the middle and the city at its centre, London. Here are our top five London set films. 1. Attack the Block To kick things off, let’s travel south of the river, down Brixton way. Joe Cornish’s directorial debut, a thrill...

By Michael McNulty Murder, sex, and a little cannibalism thrown in, that’s what Eating Raoul, Paul Bartel’s 1982 film, has on offer. For some it will be too outrageous, for others it will feel like a played down John Water flick, never quite committing to the true nature of its outrageous plot. But, the film strikes a perfect balance that works completely for what it’s set out to achieve. Its black, deadpan comedy with a slapstick slant, is not only...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain It is easy to get caught up in the annual awards coverage and forget that entries are films, and not just news stories. Articles surrounding Hidden Figures have placed a large emphasis on its diverse cast and how it is somehow an antidote to the failings of last year’s nominations. All this attention seems rather unfair, as it ignores the merits and qualities that are on display in this film. Set in 1960s Virginia, where racism...

By Anna Power An intergenerational female friendship flick with some nice ideas at its core but like so many others panders to schmaltz in its execution, though not unenjoyably so. Octogenarian Harriet Lauler (Shirley MacLaine) lives a loveless life. Her days roll on relentlessly; her pristine home a prison of sorts and you get a disturbing sense of the vacuum around her routine of lonely meals and frustrated gazing out the window over lengthy lawns at life. Filling the void...

Terrence Malick has seemingly become so committed to his own self-aggrandising brand of philosophically indulgent, freeform filmmaking that one could arguably be justified in calling him the Michael Bay of arthouse auteurism. Granted, it’s impossible not to be intrigued by the output of a director who’s driven solely by his own artistic vision, but contrary to popular belief, Malick is not some sort of celestial, cinematic being: his earlier works – Badlands and The Thin Red Lines – may have...