Tag Archives: Woody Allen

The Gordon Willis Frame

Gordon Willis was one of cinema’s greatest artists. Regardless of genre, his style and technique were so singular he should be regarded as a cinematrograph-auteur.

396. L’Avventura

With this modernist masterpiece, Michelangelo Antonioni told a story that abandoned its initial plot. Booed at Cannes, it paved the way for a new cinematic form.

394. Amarcord

Like many Fellini films, Amarcord is a contradiction; an account of his youth yet a complete fabrication, a vivid realisation of the past, but also a dream.

382. A Separation

Asghar Farhadi’s Oscar-winning divorce drama delivers a story that is specific to a particular time and place yet also manages to resonate on a universal level.

352. Roma

Alfonso Cuarón has long flirted with the neorealist style. His latest masterpiece, Roma illustrates cinema is not about what you show, but how you show it.

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.

285. Hannah and her Sisters

Woody Allen’s romantic drama draws from unusual sources; the Great American Songbook, Italian opera and Russian literature.

278. The Rules of the Game

Reviled and banned upon its release, then feared lost forever, Jean Renoir’s masterpiece stands today as a victory for liberalism.

272. 8 1/2

Fellini’s masterpiece is often described as a film about not being able to make a film. But really it is about responsibility, liability, lying, loving and living.

271. Great Openings – Part Four

What makes for a great opening? Character? Conflict? Poetry? Hopefully, more than something we’re supposed to just listen to.

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.

254. Amélie

5 Oscar nominations, 4 Cesar wins, 2 BAFTAs and over $170m at the global box office. So why does Amélie still manage to polarise audiences?

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.

235. Persona

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.

227. Blue is the Warmest Color

Blue is the Warmest Color generated controversy with its love scenes. But at three hours long, there’s more to it than that.

221. Children of Men

Science-fiction sometimes predicts the future. Released a decade ago, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men grows more prophetic as the years go by.

212. American … What?

Beauty, Gangster, Hustle, Psycho, Sniper. With so many films using “American” in their title, is the appellation losing its significance?

206. Blazing Saddles

We like to think of ourselves as modern and sophisticated, but is the humour of Blazing Saddles too outrageous for anyone in Hollywood to make it today?

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.

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.

184. When Harry met Sally…

The rom-com goes back to 300BC. Since then, four major categories have emerged with Ron Reiner’s classic being one of the best.

165. Trainwreck

Is it possible to put a new twist on a formula as old as the rom-com? Getting Amy Schumer to write the script and Judd Apatow to direct certainly gives you a head start.

164. The Parallax View

Adapted from Loren Singer’s poorly reviewed best seller, Alan J. Pakula’s conspiracy thriller is a classic of assured pacing and paranoia.

156. The Apartment

With six Oscars, five WGAs, a DGA and the Palme d’Or, Billy Wilder’s career was so blazing you’d be forgiven for saying, “Well, somebody’s perfect.”

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