395. The Conversation
It is said a film is made three times; writing, filming and editing. In which case, editor Walter Murch deserves enormous credit for this masterpiece.
Tag Archives: Sound
393. City Lights
Four years after the advent of sound in cinema, Charlie Chaplin insisted on making a silent movie the entire plot for which hinged on not being able to see.
386. Ten
Master auteur, Abbas Kiarostami forged his career by defying conventional film grammar to successfully find new ways of presenting the human condition.
381. Singin’ in the Rain
Almost seventy years young, this masterpiece offers up for our modern age unexpected and pertinent meaning.
376. The Passion of Joan of Arc
In Carl Theodor Dreyer’s silent masterpiece, the story isn’t so much told through the Saint’s eyes as it is read on her face.
371. The Right Stuff
Tom Wolfe’s superb account about the early days of NASA’s space program needed filmmakers who shared a daring similar to the maverick pilots.
363. Arrival
No matter how cinematic, all films are nothing more than a form of writing that borrows from other forms of writing. Which is why Arrival comes in code.
340. Mon Oncle
Writing, producing, directing and starring in his own films Jacques Tati was a true auteur, influencing the likes of David Lynch, Tim Burton and Wes Anderson.
322. Yi Yi
As the title to Edward Yang’s masterpiece indicates, Yi Yi is a series of doubles; narrative, thematic, visual and aural, that deliver a subtle family portrait.
321. Die Hard
What makes a classic film? The plot’s originality, director’s vision, or the star’s magnetism? Paradoxically, any, all, yet none of the above. It’s the audience.
318. Battleship Potemkin
Sergei Eisenstein devised montage for black and white and silent film. How have sound, colour and digital extended his theories?
305. Blow Out
Rear Window, Vertigo, Blowup, Weekend, the Zapruder film and The Conversation are all to be seen and heard in Brian De Palma’s Blow Out.
270. Bonnie and Clyde
When great art heralds great change, it often experiences a difficult birth. Bonnie and Clyde is a seminal moment in American film that almost never happened.
265. Great Openings – Part One
What makes for a great opening? Character? Conflict? Poetry? Hopefully, more than something we’re supposed to just look at.
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.
244. Great Sounds – Part Three
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.
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.
242. Great Sounds – Part One
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.
233. “M”
In terms of genre, few films are as influential film as Fritz Lang’s M. Where would The French Connection, LA Confidential and Se7en be without it?
224. Citizen Kane
Orson Welles’ debut feature is now a quarter of a century old. Have we been taking its greatness for granted or is it time for reappraisal?
222. The Night Of
In adapting Peter Moffat’s original BBC series, Criminal Justice how did Steven Zaillian and Richard Price turn it from a legal thriller into a social drama?
204. The Most Influential Films Ever Made – Part Two
The films that really changed the course of cinema are often ones few people have seen.
197. Reel Space/Time – Part One
In his Poetics, Aristotle wrote that drama needs a unity of space, time and action. How does cinema deal with such restrictions?
194. All The President’s Men
This Oscar winning adaptation of Woodward and Bernstein’s book is one of the great masterpieces of American cinema.
