Nosferatu, The Vampyre. Review by Alan Price. For me there are only four vampire films that can be called great. They are Nosferatu (Murnau, 1922), Nosferatu, The Vampyre (Herzog, 1979), Dracula (Badham, 1979) and Dracula (Fisher, 1958) that are both faithful and part loose adaptations of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula. All are successful for different reasons.
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Aguirre, The Wrath of God. Review by Alan Price. The on-location stories of Werner Herzog’s clashes with Klaus Kinski on Aguirre, The Wrath of God, have passed into cinematic legend. The most alarming being Kinski wanting to leave the film after Herzog refused to dismiss one of the technical crew, for at this point Herzog is supposed to have made Kinski act at gunpoint.
The Hidden Fortress. Review by Alan Price. The time is the 16th century. A period of civil wars. Princess Uki with her family and their clan gold are attempting to escape to a peaceful province. The enemy have posted up a reward for her capture. She’s accompanied by her General (Toshiro Mifune, who else could it be!) and two greedy and quarrelsome farmers. Onto this slight (almost formulaic) story Kurosawa has applied great craft and artistry.
Who Wants to Kill Jessie? Review by Alan Price. What makes Who Wants to Kill Jessie such a warm and very entertaining film is its modesty. No colour, wide screen and expensive special effects. Its charms are economical, crisp black and white B picture production values.
Zoltan Huszarik box set. Review by Alan Price. The great pleasure of this box set is to discover the remarkable work of a Hungarian director whose films have sadly slipped off the radar.
New York, New York. Review by Alan Price. The bad bits of New York, New York make you cringe. The good bits have you cheering out loud in praise. It’s flawed, meandering, joyful and downbeat and never quite the sum of all its parts.
The Man Who Would be King. Review by Alan Price. Both the novella and film of The Man Who Would Be King have been described as a ripping yarn but that expression has lost some of its charm and romance.
Birdsong. Review by Barbara Lewis. Flanders, one of the most densely populated areas of Europe, is the birthplace of artist David Claerbout, whose reaction to an excess of human frenzy is a quest to redefine time.
Women in Love. Review by Alan Price. What D. H. Lawrence’s and Ken Russell’s Women in Love have in common is a focussed passion. Both artists produced works that are vibrantly alive.
Billy Wilder & Ernst Lubitsch. Review by Alan Price. Without Ernst Lubitsch we wouldn’t have had a sophisticated American film comedy that drew upon a cosmopolitan culture and in particular a vanishing memory of Viennese society. And therefore maybe a different Billy Wilder style.
Throne of Blood. Review by Alan Price. T.S.Eliot rarely went to the cinema. However in 1957 he did see Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood and called it his favourite film (though I’ve not been able to trace Eliot’s announcement back to any interview, letter or newspaper article).
Tilda Swinton – Ongoing. Review by Barbara Lewis. In 1994, Tilda Swinton at the age of 33 went to 43 funerals, including that of Derek Jarman, the artist who had shaped her way of working that she terms “co-authorship”.
By Barbara Lewis • added recently on London Grip, books, film, philosophy • Tags: Barbara Lewis, books, film, philosophy