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Near the conclusion of The Bourne Identity (2002), we find our hero, Jason Bourne (Matt Damon), taking refuge in a country farmhouse belonging to Eamon, the ex-boyfriend of Bourne’s hostage/lover/sexy barber Marie (Franke Potente). Bourne’s shadowy employers have dispatched a rival Treadstone assassin – known only as The Professor (Clive Owen) – to eliminate the threat posed by their malfunctioning asset. When Eamon’s son notices the family dog has gone missing, Bourne (preternaturally perceptive, as always) recognizes the portent.
Though documentaries have been around as long as cinema itself, it is only within the past decade or so that they have started to really gain widespread acceptance. Traditionally marginalized as “academic” or “high-brow” filmmaking, the humble documentary has found a home in an age where authenticity and accessibility have grown to be core cultural values. Also, a core cultural value in this modern age are lists:
Breaking the boarders with transnational themes and making people cry and laugh in the same way? Genre as a global system? Why not!
Having recovered from the shock upon discovering that summer 1990 was a quarter of a century ago, I recently reacquainted myself with one or two of the cinematic treats that I first enjoyed at the tender age of 15. Darkman got a repeat viewing, as did the sorely underappreciated Quick Change with Bill Murray. I was especially pleased to find that my personal favourite alumni from the class of ’90 had aged so well:
Reviews of Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Inherent Vice and The Diary of a Teenage Girl, an essay on music in film, and a list of Youtube channels everyone passionate about film should follow: just a small collection of the great articles that we published last month!
Over at our official Facebook page , we are currently posting daily Film Recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! Last week’s theme is Film-Related Documentaries, films which highlight the utter chaos and hard work which goes behind all the movies we love.
In the previous two instalments of my speculative trilogy pondering the future of British cinema, I’ve explored how innovative, non-mainstream films will continue to get funded and whether or not filmmakers will change their style in order to get their films made. In this final article, the concluding chapter of this epic trilogy, I aim to explore how British films can get into British cinemas. If British films aren’t being funded due to worry about a lack of box office returns, is there any possible way for a business model that allows all British films the same wide releases as blockbusters in their home country?
Over at our official Facebook page , we are currently posting daily Film Recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! Last week’s theme is Insane Films, films which push the envelope in outrageous ways with entertaining, yet crazy results.
Over at our official Facebook page, we are currently posting daily Film Recommendations, with each week being a different theme. This is a collection of those recommendations! This week’s theme is John Frankenheimer films.
Over at our official Facebook page , we are currently posting daily Film Recommendations, with each week being a different theme. The first theme is Stylish Gangster Films, crime films which are elevated by aesthetically appealing visuals and great alternative takes on the usual gangster film tropes. 1.
As a film fan, I think it’s hugely important to have deep and insightful conversations about what we’re seeing on the silver screen. Whether it be with your family, a group of friends or even an online forum, talking about films is the best way to know and learn about the art of filmmaking. It doesn’t matter where you get your material from, as long as you personally learn something from it, and I believe YouTube is a medium that can help you do that.
Cinematographers, or directors of photography (DP’s), handle what many think the directors accomplish in their films when it comes to visual techniques and style. However, the distinctive look many movies have has more to do with the “real” eye behind the camera, and that is usually the cinematographer. Over the years, cinematography has evolved from a craft to an art, although to be successful in the business there is a delicate balance of both.
Have you ever found yourself loving the bad guy in a movie? Villains come in many different forms, whether it’s the combined protagonist/antagonist situation like Mickey and Mallory Knox in Natural Born Killers, or the complete polar opposite of the hero, a dark and vicious villain like Heath Ledger’s astounding role as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. And with the recent trailer release of the movie Suicide Squad (a team of DC comic villains coming together to take on the missions deemed too horrific for the heroes), it provokes the question:
The film Ida by Pawel Pawlikowski is admired by critics and viewers around the world. The movie won awards at important international festivals and it was nominated for an Academy Award in the category for Best Foreign Language Film. A glimmer of hope woke in the Poles after winning a golden statue:
In the last instalment of this series, I examined how British movies would get funded and released when faced with extensive government cuts. Now it is time to ask an even more important question: with those cuts in place, will it affect the types of film that are getting produced?