film

The Stone Tape. Review by Alan Price. Nigel Kneale is a master at fusing the genres of horror and science fiction.  He often claimed he wasn’t writing genre TV and film drama but simply good drama.  At one level he’s right.

Seven Samurai. Review by Alan Price. Is there anything new that can still be said about Akira Kurosawa’s splendid Seven Samurai? This 1954 epic samurai film is certainly one of the director’s masterpieces.

Days / Afternoon. Review by Alan Price. “The bargain the newer variety of slow films seem to impose on the viewer is simple: it’s up to you to draw on your stoic patience and the fascination in your gaze, in case you miss a masterpiece.” Nick James, Sight and Sound April 2010

Starve Acre. Review by Alan Price. At the beginning of Starve Acre a young boy named Owen cannot sleep.  When his mother speaks to him he says that the whistling has gone now.

The Valley of the Bees. Review by Alan Price. The opening of The Valley of the Bees is assured, startling and unforgettable.  Set in 13th century Bohemia it records a violent and fateful incident.

The Outcasts. Review by Alan Price. Very few films have a genuine Celtic / pagan sensibility were environment and characters possess a mysterious and magical charge that feels authentically rooted in myth and legend.

Pharaoh. Review by Alan Price. In the 1966 advertising campaign for Pharaoh Film Polski promoted Pharaoh as being an “anti-Cleopatra epic” and one commentator even declared it to be “Communism’s answer to Cleopatra.”

Michael Powell: Early Works. Review by Alan Price. In the 1930’s a government directive was issued to the British film industry that there had to be a specific number of films produced for home consumption.  These were known as quota quickies.  Michael Powell directed 23 low budget films over six years.  Only 13 are known to exist. 

Ikiru (Kurosawa). Review by Alan Price. Ikiru has been translated as Living or To Live.  Earlier on in the 1950/60’s it was Living and living with a six month’s only death sentence (The film’s protagonist is terminally ill with stomach cancer).

Floating Clouds. Review by Alan Price. Mikio Naruse’s 1955 film Floating Clouds is held in great esteem in Japan.  It’s at number 3 in a poll of their best films ever made. Hideo Takamine and Masuyuki Mori’s wonderful acting make it a wholly involving, and at times great film.  Unforgettable.

The Music Lovers. Review by Alan Price. Great heroes are the stuff of myth and legend, not facts. Music and facts don’t mix. Tchaikovsky said: ‘My life is in my music.’ And who can deny that the man’s music is not utterly fantastic”

Film Focus Kim Novak. Review by Alan Price. For too many people Kim Novak has been over-associated with one supreme film Vertigo (1958).  Being the luminous blonde icon in what is now universally considered to be one of the greatest films ever made has placed Novak on a Hitchcock-driven goddess pedestal that has tended to eclipse her other intense acting achievements.