The Films of Ingmar Bergman Vol 4. Review by Alan Price. And so we arrive at the 4th BFI Box set of Bergman films. This covers his final films for the cinema and some TV work from 1972 until 1984.
Alan Price
The Aphorisms of Franz Kafka. Review by Alan Price. When you think of the name Franz Kafka those famous and familiar titles, The Trial, The Castle, America, In the Penal Colony and Metamorphosis are the first to be hung round the nervous neck of Franz.
The Glass Pearls by Emeric Pressburger. Review by Alan Price. Emeric Pressburger’s novel The Glass Pearls was originally published in 1966. It barely sold its print run and received one terrible review in the TLS.
The Complete Works of W. H. Auden. Review by Alan Price. I think we all want to be ‘especial.’ Princeton’s authoritative two volume edition of the poetry of W. H. Auden gives you his special lot.
The War Trilogy. Review by Alan Price. The two most famous war trilogies in cinema are still Roberto Rossellini’s (Rome Open City, Paisan, Germany Year Zero) and Andrzej Wajda’s (A Generation, Kanal, Ashes and Diamonds).
Maigret: the complete series. Review by Alan Price. The avuncular detective holds his place high with such other greats like Sherlock Holmes or Philip Marlowe. Network should be highly praised for restoring Maigret. A TV classic returns.
Nil by Mouth. Review by Alan Price. Nil by Mouth makes up for so many old British films that patronised working class characters. It might be dark, raw and depressing but not without humour.
Dersu Uzala, Kurosawa. Review by Alan Price. Dersa Uzala is a minor Kurosawa film with three major virtues: outstanding photography, a direction finely tuned to nature and a wonderfully believable performance from the Tuva actor Maksim Munzuck playing Dersa.
Love (Szerelem) Karoly Makk (1971). Review by Alan Price. Love adapts and merges two short stories Love (1956) and Two Woman (1962) written by the famous Hungarian writer Tibor Dery. It is set in 1953 during the Stalinist period in Hungary and explores two forms of love.
Ingmar Bergman Vol 3. Review by Alan Price. And so, we’ve now reached the third BFI volume of Bergman films. Here we find four masterpieces, one near-masterpiece, one very good under-appreciated work, an interesting failure and (for me) a film that’s Bergman’s worst.
Robert Bresson: L’Argent and The Trial of Joan of Arc. Review by Alan Price. Of all the great film makers of the 20th century Robert Bresson was the most solely spiritual. His camera revealed what was concealed: a cinematic representation, or more subtly an apprehension, of what we would call the soul of his characters.
The Cassandra Cat. Review by Alan Price. There have been many quirky films about cats but I can’t recall a film quite like The Cassandra Cat. The Cassandra Cat is a very different film to Vojtech Jasny’s later masterpiece All My Good Countrymen (1969) but nonetheless an endearing gem.
By Alan Price • film, year 2023 • Tags: Alan Price, film