That Ealing touch

At Screen St Ives we recently showed the 1942 classic WENT THE DAY WELL?, to a packed and extremely enthusiastic audience. It is a testament to Ealing, the relatively small, independent studio that produced this film, that their output is still delighting audiences some 70 years later. Perhaps part of what still captivates us in …

Reminded of Laugharne

Last year my wife and I had a very enjoyable holiday in the Welsh town most famous for its association with the great poet Dylan Thomas: Laugharne. I was reminded of this when I came across two items related to Thomas. Firstly, I was reminded by this short article that Stan Tracey's quartet are playing …

Alan Clarke’s Elephant (1989)

By chance, I found that someone had uploaded this gem to YouTube, in its entirety [update: unfortunately the video has been removed from YouTube]. If you've never seen Alan Clarke's ELEPHANT before, I would strongly recommend you watch it now, in one sitting, with no preconceptions. It's 40 minutes long. It's not exactly a pleasant …

About Elly

My 2012 Cambridge Film Festival experience began on a real high this September when I saw ABOUT ELLY. I recently saw this Iranian film a second time and it made an even bigger impression. Director Asghar Farhadi is better known for his more recent film A SEPARATION, which won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language …

Nik Bärtsch’s Ronin – Live

The first time I heard a Nik Bärtsch's Ronin track was in one of Sid Smith's (always enjoyable) podcasts. I was working on something, casually listening to Sid's selection in the background. At first the Ronin track made little impression, it seemed rather repetitive and harmonically bland. Gradually, though, it began to tug at my …

A few observations on Ozu’s ‘Late Spring’…

The more I watch the exquisitely crafted, understated, finely balanced films of Yasujiro Ozu, the more enchanted I become. Mark Cousins recently hosted a live messaging session on Twitter as Film 4 screened Ozu's 1949 classic LATE SPRING. I unfortunately missed it, but managed to capture the chain of tweets here. Reading all the comments …

A quick look at Monsoon Wedding…

It was a pleasure to see Monsoon Wedding (2001) again on the big screen, courtesy of this month's Screen St Ives presentation, particularly when the audience reaction was so warm and enthusiastic (average audience rating a very strong 4.3 out of 5). In preparation for my brief introduction to the film I checked out the …