Tom Jolliffe journeys across the cinematic landscape of the Nordic countries… Every cinematic nation tends to have a particular forte, or a period in time very distinct for creative output that sees them produce work unique to them. Japan had a period of Samurai films and one of ghost stories. Italy have had neo-realism and […]
October Horrors 2020 – Hour of the Wolf (1968)
Hour of the Wolf, 1968. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Starring Max Von Sydow, Liv Ullmann, Gertrud Fridh, George Rydeberg, Erland Josephson and Ingrid Thulin. SYNOPSIS: An artist and his pregnant wife retreat to their home on a small island, where he starts to suffer strange and increasingly vivid nightmares connected to his past and to […]
October Horrors 2020 – Persona (1966)
Persona, 1966. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. Starring Bibi Andersson, Liv Ullman, Margaretha Krook, Gunnar Bjornstrand and Jorgen Lindstrom. SYNOPSIS: Alma, a nurse is assigned to care for actress Elisabet Volger who has suddenly stopped speaking. When the two move to a cottage for treatment, Alma confides in Elisabet and soon struggles to distinguish herself from […]
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 […]
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 […]
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, […]
Filmmaking With No Money and Big Ideas
Tom Jolliffe offers an insight into no budget film-making, and why you should aim as high as those means can reach… I won’t claim to be Steven Spielberg (or even Steven Spielbergo) but aspiring film-makers can learn a lot from not just the industry masters of past and present, but from each other. I’ve spoken […]
A Beginner’s Guide to Ingmar Bergman
Tom Jolliffe offers a beginner’s guide to the work of Ingmar Bergman… To know Ingmar Bergman’s work is to understand a director who has impacted cinema as greatly as anyone. A true master by any measure of directorial influence, he’s a man whose work is iconic, even to the unbeknown who’ve never seen his films. […]
Making the Simple Great: The Power of a Top Director
Tom Jolliffe on the power of a top director… We’ve all seen great directors deliver complex films, perhaps sprawling with ideas and scope. Perhaps an engrossing retelling of an event in history. A director like Christopher Nolan has spent almost his entire career on weaving complex and intricately stranded high concept films. It takes a […]
