398. Rome, Open City
Rome Open City began filming as Auschwitz was liberated and Roberto Rossellini’s film marks a crucial step in the creation of art in the wake of the Holocaust.
Tag Archives: Roman Polanski
390. Cléo from 5 to 7
In Agnes Varda’s classic, Corrine Marchand plays one woman; happy Cléo and anxious Florence, walking about Paris in real time awaiting her medical results.
357. The Shining
In adapting Stephen King’s best-seller, Stanley Kubrick drew on a genre other than horror and used a new motif that he would repeat for the rest of his career.
354. Let The Right One In
The vampire genre is ripe with themes; sexuality, feminism, xenophobia, disease, yet Let The Right One In broke new ground.
Persona – After and Before
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.
333. Zodiac
When a film breaks with tradition, it is often rejected by audiences. Which may be why Zodiac was not initially recognised as the groundbreaking masterpiece it is.
296. Un Chien Andalou
This film lasts seventeen minutes, features mutilation, insects and dismemberment. Yet it is one of the most influential ever made.
284. Belle de Jour
Long thought to be a satire on bourgeoise marriage, Luis Buñuel’s masterpiece is really a study of the traumas suffered by a sexual assault victim.
246. Dreams
If the dream sequence is a crutch for many dull thrillers, horrors and mysteries, what makes a good one? One that challenges and stretches cinematic language.
243. Great Sounds – Part Two
The world is so noisy, we unconsciously filter out all that we don’t want to hear. Much of film sound operates in the same way.
238. Great Shots – Part Three
What makes for a great shot? Beauty? The lens? Lighting? Combine them and you have more than just an image.
230. Chinatown
Roman Polanski’s masterpiece is often called film noir. But lacking a dark look and a femme fatale, it’s not. It’s a very rare Hollywood breed; a true tragedy.
223. Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro says he is “in love with monsters.” In Pan’s Labyrinth, set in the Spanish Civil War, he uses them to navigate history and the world.
203. Son of Saul
While cinema has a moral duty to bear witness to history, the problem is that to witness something you have to see it. How can you show the Holocaust?
199. Se7en
Mention Se7en and chances are talk will lead to the head in the box. But while that makes the ending so unforgettable, it’s also the film’s biggest problem.
196. Blue Velvet
David Lynch’s shocking and mesmerising look at suburbia’s underbelly also showed he could turn popular music into a nightmare.
182. Gaslight
Made in 1944, Gaslight is an Oscar-winning melodrama concerning madness and murder. The film itself is guilty of attempted homicide.
173. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
How do you make a film about a character who can neither move nor speak, but can only blink his left eye?
139. Repulsion
Repulsion was Roman Polanski’s first film he made after defecting from communist Poland. Its depiction of mental disintegration is also his first masterpiece.
Fifty Shades of Hate
This video-essay addresses the abuse inflicted by men against women in cinema. The films are critically acclaimed, Oscar winners and box-office hits. WARNING: It features scenes of extreme graphic violence.
117. Good Will Hunting
Written by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon to launch their acting careers, the studio wanted Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt.
56. Surrealism in Cinema
Originally, surrealism set out to shock. But it has become such a normal element in cinema, has it lost its original power?
20. Rosemary’s Baby
Rosemary’s Baby was controversial before it was made. Inspired by a real-life Satanist, a sinister aura has hung around it ever since its release in 1968.
8. The Innocents
This adaptation of Henry James’s novella has influenced a host of chillers from Rosemary’s Baby and The Shining, to The Others and Shutter Island.
