389. The Insider
Whether it be ethically, legally, politically, geographically or even chemically, Michael Mann’s multi-Oscar nominated picture is about crossing the line.
Whether it be ethically, legally, politically, geographically or even chemically, Michael Mann’s multi-Oscar nominated picture is about crossing the line.
This video essay examines the films that influenced Stanley Kubrick (silent cinema, European arthouse, avant-garde etc.,) as well as the many films his work has since influenced.
This short video-essay position Ingmar Bergman’s Persona in terms of what came after it and what went before. It shows how Bergman visualised his central theme of identity.
Krzysztof Kieślowski avoids all the clichés of doppelgängers, doubles and lookalikes to deliver a meditation on freedom.
Is Hitchcock’s Vertigo really the greatest film ever made? Certainly, it is a compilation of his many themes and tropes, as well as a critique on cinema itself.
In a career that spanned over sixty years, forty films and a dozen masterpieces, Persona is the most unusual film in Ingmar Bergman’s canon.
When released in 1996, Fargo was seen as the Coen brothers’ breakthrough film. As the years roll by it has increasingly become a lynch pin in their canon.
Out of Sight is about second chances and it helped the three main players; Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez to relaunch their careers.
Adapted from Gillian Flynn’s best-selling thriller, David Fincher’s film keeps its most surprising twist until the final shot. And it’s not what you think.
Neil Jordan won an Oscar for his script, but only after every studio had turned him down saying his story was uncommercial, offensive and the characters unsympathetic.
Gravity was one of last year’s biggest hits ($650m). But how much of that is due to critics giving it 98% approval? Is word of mouth more valuable?
Ken Kesey’s story of social oppression was inspired by the CIA program, MKUltra. Did the film retain the novel’s rage?
Brazil is Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece. But when he first showed it to the studio, they didn’t know what to make of it. So they decided not to release it.
LA Confidential is adapted from James Ellroy’s highly regarded crime novel that spans seven scandalous years in the life of Los Angeles.
Voice-over is often used to seal up the cracks in a story. But used well, it can enhance a story and make sure that it is told in a way that is uniquely cinematic.
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