Film

Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP John Berger, the author of many a book I have picked up in a bookshop only to put down again, has always looked like an intriguing and interesting figure, if albeit from afar. The highly regarded author, critic, and artist – who died earlier this year – has always seemed like a charismatic and thoughtful character more than worthy of an affectionate documentary like the one that has been produced. Consisting of four short films about...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain @WyndhamHP It is hard not to admire stand-up comedians who night after night seemingly achieve the impossible and manage to hold audiences in wonder as they stand on stage and tell jokes. At the same time there are films and television programs that despite their large budgets and vast crews struggle to keep people’s attention half as effectively. It can be amazing that comedians can achieve so much with seemingly so little. Dying Laughing keeps things very...

By Michael McNulty Mark Cousins’ Stockholm My Love is an exercise in patience. A frustratingly dull film with the pretentions of a film school graduate, who has gorged on likes of filmmakers such as Terrence Malick, then picked up a camera and disappeared down a rabbit hole of contemplation, exploring themes of urbanism, love, loss and the human spirit. Alva (Neneh Cheery), an architect, has been struggling to come to terms with accidently hitting and killing an elderly man with...

By Michael McNulty Henri-Georges Clouzot’s 1955 horror thriller Les Diaboliques was based on the novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, (more commonly recognized by their nom de plume Boileau-Narcejac) Celle qui n’etait pas. One of two of their novels that was snapped up and turned into a film, the other, D’entre les morts, was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock and became the basis for one of his masterpieces, Vertigo. Much of Les Diaboliques’ power comes from the film’s twists and...

  My Cousin Rachel is in cinemas from Friday 9th June. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bx0lY2HOWMA&feature=youtu.be   Review by Linda Marric Daphne du Maurier's timeless classic My Cousin Rachel gets a timely adaptation in this dark and beautifully atmospheric production from legendary British director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Buddha of Suburbia). First adapted to the screen in the 1950s and staring Olivia de Havilland in the central role, My Cousin Rachel remains to this day one of the writer’s most cherished novels, so...

By Linda Marric Daphne du Maurier's timeless classic My Cousin Rachel gets a timely adaptation in this dark and beautifully atmospheric production from legendary British director Roger Michell (Notting Hill, The Buddha of Suburbia). First adapted to the screen in the 1950s and staring Olivia de Havilland in the central role, My Cousin Rachel remains to this day one of the writer’s most cherished novels, so it is a great relief to be able to finally say that this recent...

By Stephen Mayne Political campaigns are about expressing the ideas, and the way in which a person/party plans to govern, aiming to buy trust in the process. They’re also about winning. The two are closely linked but come with a fair degree of tension, as 1972 political satire The Candidate so ably demonstrates. If you’re wondering what a four-and-a-half-decade old American film that sees Robert Redford’s political ingenue running for senate in California has to do with the UK election, the...

Clare (Teresa Palmer) travelled to Berlin in search of an unforgettable life experience, but one suspects that such plans didn’t involve being held captive in an airless apartment by a mentally unhinged local (played here with a sinister twitch by German actor Max Riemelt). Unfortunately for her, that’s exactly the situation she finds herself in during Berlin Syndrome, Aussie director Cate Shortland’s effectively chilly psycho-thriller. When Clare first meets Andi (Riemelt), however, she can’t help but be seduced by his...

By Wyndham Hacket Pain Chile had already had 15 years of military dictatorship when in 1988 Augusto Pinochet asked the public to vote on whether he should stay in power or whether there should be a general election the following year. In an unprecedented move the No campaign, which wanted to rid Chile of Pinochet, approached advertiser René Saavedra (Gael García Bernal) to consult them on the direction of the campaign. Much to the dismay of the campaign’s political leaders, Saavedra...