Plenty of directors have started with a great film or ended with one. But which directors had a stunning debut and an immense final film? We take a look at four contenders… Every director starts somewhere, and most undoubtedly strive to stand out in their field. Many an iconic director has begun in earnest and […]
4K Ultra HD Review – The Sacrifice (1986)
The Sacrifice, 1986. Directed by Andrei Tarkovsky. Starring Erland Josephson, Susan Fleetwood, Allan Edwall, Guðrún S. Gísladóttir, Sven Wollter, Valérie Mairesse, Filippa Franzen, Tommy Kjellqvist. SYNOPSIS: Andrei Tarkovsky’s final movie, the hauntingly meditative The Sacrifice, arrives on 4K Ultra HD courtesy of Kino Lorber. This is my first experience with the film, but I believe […]
A Celebration of Janus Films
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at Janus Films, the iconic distributors of arthouse and World Cinema… It’s not often we as film goers pay much focus on film distributors. We all know the biggies. Those images that precede the big tent pole blockbusters almost seep into our synapses without much notice. Warner Bros., Universal, Disney, […]
A Beginner’s Guide To Andrei Tarkovsky
Tom Jolliffe continues our series of director beginner’s guides with Andrei Tarkovsky… Some directors have an important impact on cinema. It doesn’t always tie in with box office results, or widespread audience appeal. If you’re in the States or the UK, chances are your predominant cinematic experience revolves around American or British films. As far […]
Films That DEMAND Multiple Viewings
It’s time to take a look at those layered films you might not get the first time, and therefore demand multiple viewings… Cinema is a beautiful thing and depending on your mood, there is every kind of film out there to give you what you need. Some films hit every mark on the first viewing […]
Crisis of Faith in Cinema
Tom Jolliffe takes a look at films about crisis of faith… The subject of faith in cinema has been around since the beginning. Whether this is faith in a religious sense, or spiritual, or of the self, it is in that test, or crisis of faith which sees a character put through a quest to […]
The Greatest Director of All Time?
Tom Jolliffe ponders the question: who is the greatest director of all time? One of the toughest of tough film related questions. Who is the greatest director ever? Think over all the icons throughout history. There have been countless, many who crossed from silent to sound, such as Fritz Lang, Carl Theodore Dreyer, D.W Griffith […]
The Joy of a Loving 4K Restoration
Tom Jolliffe on the joy of a loving 4K restoration… In cinema, there’s a progressive fascination with new fangled technology. With every passing year, new tech and new kit is released leaving those with a technological fascination slobbering in anticipation. If you’re a filmmaker with any passing eye upon breaking Netflix you know that the […]
The Art of Ambiguity in Cinema
Tom Jolliffe looks at the finest in ambiguous cinema, and asks ‘how do you pull it off?’… Often in the law books of screenwriting there’s a section which might tell the studious aspiring writer that a film must have clarity. Plot threads must lead to resolution. Each act and your central character arcs should be […]
The 1970s – The Best Era In Cinema History?
Tom Jolliffe on the 1970s and why it is the best era in cinema history… There will always be a great deal of debate about the best era for cinema. For my two cents I’ll say with a great deal of assurance that the best period in cinema history was the 1970’s. There was most […]
