Carrie by William Wyler. Review by Alan Price. Carrie, William Wyler’s 1950 adaptation of Theodore Dreiser’s 1900 novel Sister Carrie, has been out of full circulation for some years now: hard to see on TV and only available as a cut DVD until Imprint’s restored Blu-Ray release.
film
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.
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.
Empire of Light. Review by Graham Buchan. A very reliable rule in most film-making is that an excellent script can still be turned into a bad film, but a poor script will never be turned into a good film.
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).
Tár. Review by Graham Buchan. Tár is a mesmerizing and complex tale of a jet-setting star orchestral conductor, Lydia Tár, and her past transgressions, her failings and her fall from grace.
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.
Poetry review – MY HOLLYWOOD AND OTHER POEMS: P W Bridgman admires the humanity and discernment in this collection by Boris Dralyuk
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.
EO. Directed by Jerzy Skolomowski. Review by Alan Price. EO is the story of the tribulations of a Sardinian donkey: very attractively grey with white spots round its melancholic eyes.
By Alan Price • film, year 2023 • Tags: Alan Price, film