Once upon a time New Left Review was in the vanguard of UK film culture, and once in a while it’s still capable of engaging. This piece on cultural tensions in Taiwan includes an interview with Hou Hsiao-Hsien which helps illuminate the backgro[…]

Misery, complaints, self-pity, injustice — the utter joy of Soft Cell’s Non-Stop Exotic Video Show, just rereleased for the first time on DVD, lies in its naivete. Which is a trite thing to say on the one hand and something perfectly apt […]

COMPLETE CONTROL: Pete’s away again boys and girls, and I believe he was silly enough to hand over the reins for Do You See to me whilst he’s away for the week. THEREFORE I will try and crack on with the Top 100 Films in his absence and s[…]

All hail Deems Taylor! — so Fantasia is one of those weird what-ifs of film history, archpopulist Walt Disney figuring ‘why not?’ and aiming for abstract within representation and getting a slew of talented characters and artists to[…]

FT Top 100 Films
47: GOLDFINGER
Best James Bond film ever! This may well be contentious but when you think of all the scenes in it, you have to admit it has it all:
The jet-pack!
Pussy Galore
The attack on Fort Knox
The fight on the Cable Car with Ja[…]

Digital Spy’s BB Forum is an unpleasant place to spend any time, but this large post on Jason – Grand Architect of BB5 was worth a read, if only because everyone I know is stunned that he managed to get this far. There’s even a chan[…]

The problem is not that there is no magic in King Arthur. It is that there is no King. By all means do your spurious archeology nonsense and to the wilds of the borders, though the Scottish scenes seem to be taking place in the Alps. No, King Arthur&[…]

It’s a hot day. Perhaps I should not be in the cinema at all. After all, dehydration does not exactly lead to heightened attention, and the choice of a Japanese Yakuza flick might also be dispiriting. Of course I should have noticed the words T[…]

“KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!!!” — last night was the first night I ever saw Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan in a theater, thanks to some bemusing local weekly film fest. Every other film I caught onscreen shortly after its […]

FT Top 100 Films
48: TIME BANDITS
Okay. Confession time. I stole the Time Bandits script from Borehamwood library. It was a nice big hardback which had the entire script with plenty of on set photo’s and scrawlings on by Gilliam, including prod[…]