Playback provides a fascinating document of the making of Hard To Be A God
There’s a fine line between madness and genius in filmmaking, and the truly great, hard-to-believe-they exist-films have often perched on that line. And nothing has brought this more into focus than a making of documentary for such a film. Documentaries like Hearts of Darkness and Burden of Dreams give a way to understand the extraordinary story behind Apocalypse … Read more
Steven ‘The Butcher’ Soderbergh Part 4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Welcome to the fourth and final part of a series on Steven ‘The Butcher’ Soderbergh, wherein I take a look at Steven Soderbergh‘s online video releases. Throughout these features I will not only look at the way in which these films do, or do not, work but also try to understand Soderbergh’s possible motivations. As with his re-cut of Heaven’s Gate, Steven … Read more
Cannes: Mad Max and modern technology, modern action and modern storytelling
The big budget cinema of spectacle should be better than it used to be. These films should improve with every passing year, as new technologies are developed and filmmakers are given a whole range of cutting-edge toys for their toolbox and, at the same time, the rich history of cinematic ideas and images they can draw … Read more
Cannes: Orson Welles – Shadows & Light and The Third Man
The first of two documentaries on Orson Welles to premiere at Cannes this year, each produced to coincide with the centenary of his birth, Orson Welles: Shadows & Light is a short and rather flimsy investigation into the great filmmaker that seeks to draw parallels between his work and his personal life. This isn’t a particularly new approach, and … Read more