Legendary film producer Dino De Laurentiis has passed away today aged 91. Born in Italy in 1919, Laurentiis served in World War II before establishing himself as a producer with Italian offerings such as Giuseppe De Santis’ 1949 classic Bitter Rice and later efforts such as Federico Fellini’s La Strada (1954) – which won the […]

Coverage of the Q&A for The King’s Speech from the London Film Festival… In attendance: Tom Hooper (Director) Colin Firth (Prince Albert/King George) Geoffrey Rush (Lionel) Helena Bonham Carter (Elizabeth I). Did you have concerns with representing characters in this film, the main concern being that some of the people are still alive? Tom: Yeah. […]

Trevor Hogg profiles the career of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola in the second of a five-part feature… read part one here. “There had been a movie a year or so before The Godfather [1972] based on the novel called the The Brotherhood [1968], starring Kirk Douglas [Paths of Glory],” remembered American director Francis Ford […]

The Killer Inside Me, 2010. Directed by Michael Winterbottom. Starring Casey Affleck, Jessica Alba, Kate Hudson and Bill Pullman. SYNOPSIS: An unassuming small town sheriff leads a double life as a psychotic serial killer. British director Michael Winterbottom’s latest project The Trip, a “semi-real” comedy starring Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan as loose versions of […]

Surviving Life (Theory and Practice), 2010. Written and Directed by Jan Svankmajer. Starring Václav Helšus and Klára Issová. SYNOPSIS: A married man, bored of his job retreats into his dreams to live a double life with a beautiful woman. He becomes addicted to these dreams, quitting his job and renting a private room so that […]

Tom Jolliffe with a retrospective on the career of cult actor Rutger Hauer… In a career that has encompassed indie, cult, mainstream, and cinema from a range of different countries, Rutger Hauer has offered movie audiences a vast array of characters, in an eclectic grouping of genres. Born in Holland, Hauer was something of a […]

Trevor Hogg reviews The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back… Carrying on the tradition he established with the original Star Wars, and the Indiana Jones franchise, author J.W. Rinzler delves once again into the Lucasfilm archives to assemble a detailed history on “one of the milestones of cinema”. Dividing his research over eleven […]

Luke Owen reports on a special Halloween screening of An American Werewolf in London courtesy of Volkswagen’s “See Film Differently”… Last Sunday, on Halloween, I was invited to the first instalment of Volkswagen’s ‘See Film Differently’ programme – a project that aims to “turns the camera on the locations” by screening films in the places […]

An American Werewolf in London, 1981. Directed by John Landis. Starring David Naughton, Griffin Dunne and Jenny Agutter. SYNOPSIS: After being attacked on the moors by a lycanthrope, an American student finds himself afflicted by the curse of the werewolf. [Note – this review is from the Halloween screening held at London Zoo as part […]

Up in the Air, 2009. Directed by Jason Reitman. Starring George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman, Melanie Lynskey, Zach Galifianakis, J. K. Simmons and Sam Elliott. SYNOPSIS: An airborne corporate downsizer discovers that life on the move can be a lonely business. There are basically two George Clooneys. There’s the lovable, charming, cocky […]