By Elizabeth Mizon. Why, in our democracy-obsessed society, do we balk at the idea of economic democracy in our workplaces? Why do we – the majority of us wage-reliant labourers, working in organisations we have no influence in – so willingly defend and trust the capitalist business model, “the most […]
(Im)mortal Sherlock: Bill Condon’s Mr. Holmes
July 21, 2015
By Jude Warne. With the recent onslaught of on-screen Sherlocks, one might wonder why a filmmaker would bring another interpretation into the mix. Why indeed. Well, with Bill Condon’s new Mr. Holmes, the why seems to be this: to present Sherlock Holmes as a regular person, i.e. a mortal human […]
Revisiting the ‘Hard to Swallow’ Morality Tale of Tod Browning’s Freaks
July 21, 2015
By Cleaver Patterson. In today’s age of anything goes splatterfests and in-your-face CGI, it’s perhaps hard to appreciate the full effect Tod Browning’s infamous horror classic Freaks (1932) had upon its first release. At the time, the film that was banned in many countries—it would remain unseen in Britain for […]
Tough Talk from the Heart: A Conversation with Joe Mantegna
July 20, 2015
By Matthew Sorrento. Veteran actor Joe Mantegna has all the wisdom that a life before the camera could provide. And yet he possesses an innocence long lost by most in his cadre. Looking back on a varied acting career – “I’ve done it all” from him sounds completely factual and […]
Out of the Clouds (1955): Ealing Headed to Grandeur
July 17, 2015
By Paul Risker. From horror to comedy by way of black humour, this list reads like a roll call of honour that reiterates the importance of the Ealing canon in British cinema: Dead of Night (1945), Passport to Pimlico (1949), Whisky Galore (1949), Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949), The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) […]
Bollywood: Gods, Glamour and Gossip (2012)
July 16, 2015
A Book Review by Alison Frank. It is difficult for a book of just over 100 pages to cover any topic in sufficient detail; a decent overview of one director’s career, perhaps, or an in-depth reading of a single film. Nevertheless, Wallflower’s Short Cuts series has the ambitious aim of […]
Film Scratches: the Surrealist Ritual Dramas of Tzuan Wu
July 15, 2015
Film Scratches focuses on the world of experimental and avant-garde film, especially as practiced by individual artists. It features a mixture of reviews, interviews, and essays. A Review by David Finkelstein. Tzuan Wu is a Taiwanese filmmaker based in New York, and his recent shorts are surrealist ritual dramas in which symbolic […]
American Movies vs European Films: a Review of Leaves of the Tree
By Noah Charney. There are some films that you watch and repeatedly think to yourself, “Wow, that’s beautiful.” The director, cinematographer and often-overlooked location scout mesh their talents to harvest the world around them through the camera’s lens. Leaves of the Tree, the debut feature film by director Ante Novakovic, […]
The Puzzle of Money: getting the economic story right
https://vimeo.com/121445041 By Lee Salter. Four years ago Michael Chanan and I embarked upon an ambitious project to tell the story of the Corporation of the City of London in our documentary film, Secret City. In the midst of the economic crisis, with the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition in the UK […]
A Romcom About Romcoms: The Film Critic (2013)
July 13, 2015
By Jude Warne. Ideal film criticism is that which is as objective as possible. This is to ensure that the reader of the criticism is the recipient of factual information, from which he or she can derive a personal conclusion as to whether or not he or she might like […]