Blu-ray essentials – Paper Moon
What’s Up Doc? was one of the highest grossing films of 1972 and running hot from its success, director Peter Bogdanovich chose to make another movie just as influenced by the older Hollywood that he has always heaped with praise and adoration. The leads of the picture were real life father and daughter Ryan and Tatum O’Neal as Moses, a depression … Read more
Cannes: The Assassin review
Hou Hsiao-hsien’s The Assassin is set during the Tang Dynasty of China, the period from 618 AD to 690 AD and then from 705 AD to 907 AD. The break in the dynasty was the result of the seizing of the throne by Empress Wu Zeitan, China’s only Chinese empress regnant. Whilst the interruption of the dynasty … Read more
Cannes: Hithcock/Truffaut review
It seems fitting that Kent Jones’ Hitchcock/Truffaut documentary premièred in France, the country whose cineaste culture first embraced Alfred Hitchcock as an artist and not simply an entertainer. Pivotal to this reputation spreading around the world and onto future generations, was Francois Truffaut’s book, Hitchock/Truffaut, a key text for film students, filmmakers and cinephiles in general. The book takes the form … Read more
Cannes: Youth review
Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth is a gorgeous bauble of a movie: shining, beguiling, hollow. The film takes place in a luxury Swiss resort in the foothills of the Alps. Staying in this magnificent hotel, which is so extravagant it almost made me gag, are Fred (Michael Caine) and Mick (Harvey Keitel). These two old friends are well … Read more