film

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Complete Series. Review by Alan Price. Hitchcock said he had always wanted to work in the short story.  ‘The small simple tale of a single idea building to a turn, a twist at the end.  A little shocker.  The story that’s lost when stretched to the length of a movie.’

Nightmare Alley and The Razor’s Edge. Signal One Blu Rays 2022. Review by Alan Price. Nightmare was violently against the grain and a box office flop. And Razor resolutely conventional yet questioning societal norms was a huge hit.  Both are the film children of Edmund Goulding who on the evidence of these films and others (The Old Maid and Dark Victory) was a fine director. 

The Lighthouse (2006). Review by Alan Price. The opening images of The Lighthouse (2006) set the scene for the film’s reoccurring visual motifs.  Villagers, soon to be refugees, dancing and singing on a railway track.  A badly burnt antiquarian book.  The sleeping face, filmed on a train, of its female protagonist.

The Devil’s Trap – Blu Ray (Second Run). Review by Alan Price. The Devil’s Trap 1961) was directed by Frantisek Vlacil and is considered the first part of a loose trilogy of historical films that includes Marketa Lazarova (1967) and The Valley of the Bees (1967).  All three films display an arresting black and white imagery that recalls Sergei Eisenstein – The Devil’s Trap’s pastoral lyricism evoking The General Line.

Diamonds of the Night (1964) / The Party and The Guests (1966). Review by Alan Price. Both of these Nemec films have been beautifully restored on Second Run. They are essential viewing for an understanding of how brave and uncompromising 60’s Czech cinema dared to be.

Johnny Got His Gun (1971) Imprint Blu Ray. Review by Alan Price. There’s no doubt that writer/director Dalton Trumbo sincerely wanted to convey the futility of WW1 as experienced by a young horribly injured soldier.  In theory he did.  In practise he misfires.

Forbidden Paradise (Lubitsch) 1924. Review by Alan Price. The plot of Forbidden Paradise is a bit of fluff and the politics are a silly adventure.  Yet its comedic mise – en – scene is wonderful.  It’s executed by Ernst Lubitsch, one of Hollywood’s greatest directors.  Billy Wilder so admired Lubitsch that he had a sign on his office wall that said “How would he have done it?”

Coach to Vienna / The Ear (Blu Ray) Second Run 2020 /2022. Review by Alan Price. The creative partnership of director Karel Kachyna and screenwriter Jan Prochazka was one of the most remarkable to have been allowed to operate in communist Czech cinema of the 1960’s.

Cries and Whispers (Ingmar Bergman) 50th anniversary re-release. Review by Alan Price. Whenever people mention Cries and Whispers (1972) they cannot escape talking about its use of the colour red.  Sven Nykvist’s Oscar winning photography saturates, without recourse to red colour filters and employing lighting from one source only, the red interiors, of a period manor house, to create a place with as much soulful character as its three female inhabitants.

South (BFI Blu Ray) 3 disc set 2022. Review by Alan Price. I think “heroism” is an important attribute to highlight whilst watching these fascinating films.  The Antarctic was the last and largest land mass on our planet to be explored.  All that effort, given such harsh conditions, resources and equipment, compared to modern scientific exploration, is extraordinary

The Camera Is Ours – BFI dvd set 2022. Review by Alan Price. The Camera is Ours celebrates the women employed by an earlier, much more conservative, patriarchal and patronising film industry than the present.