-
Review: The Pleasures of the Continent - the BBC Maigrets
15 October 2021
How wonderful that all four of the BBC’s 1960s Maigret series are finally available. For many years, with the exception of a few pirated episodes, it has only been possible to view a limited number of episodes and fragments through the British Film Institute archive, although the BBC Written Archives hold very extensive documentation on… continue reading.
-
Review: Sebastiane – Derek Jarman & Paul Humfress
14 May 2019
Sebastiane has a special place in the history of British cinema as a commercially distributed feature-length film which was funded entirely from private sources (‘crowd funded’ would be the term used today), as a film made in Latin (with English subtitles), and as a film which included numerous explicit images of male same-sex desire. It… continue reading.
-
Review: Candyman – Jon Towlson
14 May 2019
The Devil's Advocates series is an imprint of Auteur Publishing – a UK-based press dedicated to championing research in film and television studies – and provides a space for genre scholars to engage with a single horror film in roughly a hundred pages, give or take. Since the publication of Anne Billson's monograph on Let… continue reading.
-
Review: Rod Serling: His Life, Work, and Imagination - Nicholas Parisi
14 May 2019
Of the screenwriters who emerged on American television in the 1950s, Rod Serling remains by far the most famous and the most written about. Known initially for his intense dramas with a strong social conscience and a marked political edge, he ultimately became a star in his own right. Although already something of a celebrity… continue reading.
-
Review: Frenzy – Ian Cooper
14 May 2019
It’s a brave man who takes on yet another book about the work of Alfred Hitchcock, whose every frame has been dissected by critics and historians over the last 50 plus years. Yet in his second contribution to the ‘Devil’s Advocate’ series (the first being on Witchfinder General), Ian Cooper has chosen to shine a… continue reading.
-
Review: Men Taking Care of Each Other – The Caretaker
10 May 2019
In the late 1950s, Harold Pinter struggled to establish himself as a playwright after the commercial flop of the first West End production of one of his plays, The Birthday Party. His talent found refuge in writing for radio and television until the incredible success, in 1960, of The Caretaker at the Arts Theatre, starring… continue reading.
-
Michael Curtiz: A Life in Film By Alan K Rode
22 January 2019
‘I don’t know why Michael Curtiz is not a household name but he should be’ – Steven Spielberg I have been waiting 40 years for this book. I first came across Michael Curtiz’ name on Christmas Day 1979, on what would have been his 93rd birthday. It was in the pages of Clive Hirschhorn’s monumental… continue reading.
-
The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks
22 January 2019
It is difficult to think of a film that has lived in the shadow of its predecessor more than Geoffrey H. Malins’ The Battle of the Ancre and the Advance of the Tanks (1917). Malins’ The Battle of the Somme (1916) had been a major critical and commercial success on its release and has been… continue reading.
-
Minute Bodies
8 March 2018
Prof Ian Christie examines the fascinating fusion of Smith's time-lapse photomicrography modern music. … continue reading.
-
Live Cinema and its Techniques
9 January 2018
John Wyver of Illuminations reviews Francis Ford Coppola's reflections on live cinema.… continue reading.