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 …

Cambridge Film Festival 2012

And so another successful Cambridge Film Festival drew to a close yesterday. I'm already missing it... Here are some very quick thoughts on this year's experience. Lead by the inspirational director Tony Jones and his team of programmers, this important, ambitious festival prides itself on bringing a wide-range of quality films to Cambridge. What is …

A Cube Of Sugar

Here is my review of this film published in Take One magazine:- Iranian cinema has given us so many great films – including those made by Abbas Kiarostami, Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Jafar Panahi, and last year’s fantastic A SEPARATION by Asghar Farhadi – that expectations are always raised when you come across another Iranian contribution. Thankfully, …

More on A Separation winning an Oscar…

A previous post concerned itself with the possible wider effects arising from Iranian film A Separation winning an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language category. The main argument I was exploring is forcefully set out in this article from The Independent by Catherine Butler, titled: 'See this film and then say that bombing Iran is …

Oh, yes, the Oscars…

That there is a category for Foreign Language Film tells you everything you need to know about the Oscars. Still, a few things about this year's cinematic fashion show have managed to get past my old codger's cynicism... I'm pleased that The Artist and Hugo have done well. I love the former and I hear …

Too Many Cinematic Masterpieces?

This short piece by Geoff Andrew caught my eye: O masterpiece, where art thou? [no longer available]. Between a couple of Berlin’s press screenings, Nick James and I found ourselves discussing the overuse of ‘masterpiece’, a word apparently as vulnerable to abuse as ‘classic’. I felt uncomfortable on reading this, since I'm probably guilty of …

The danger of the single story…

It's thanks to Rich Pollett on Google+ that I watched the TED talk given by novelist Chimamanda Adichie. It is an eloquent and moving account of the power of stories. Adichie sets the scene by illustrating the power of stories in her childhood:- I was an early reader, and what I read were British and …

My Favourite Films of 2011

The usual caveats apply: a) there are many important 2011 films which I haven't yet seen; b) I tend to change my mind about films, so this is a snap shot of my opinions at this point in time; c) I find it almost impossible to rank films in any great detail, so I tend …