My Favourite Films of 2017

It's been a pretty awful year in politics, so I find looking back at my year in film is a pleasant diversion. The following is a list of my current 2017 favourites, but before I go through them, there are a few special film-related highlights to mention: In January I hosted a Q&A with producer …

Special screening of Abbas Kiarostami’s THE TRAVELLER (1974)

This Bank Holiday Monday, 29th May 2017, we have a real treat in Cambridge. The Arts Picturehouse cinema, in conjunction with ourscreen.com, is presenting a screening of THE TRAVELLER, the debut feature of the great Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami. The event will take place at 9 pm and tickets are only £5. Ehsan Khoshbakht, the film critic …

My Favourite Films of 2016

I have a love/hate relationship with top film lists. Of course, their contents are dependent on the films actually seen, contingent on mood and atmosphere when seen, influenced by how others reacted, and much more. Yet, they hold an irresistible fascination, and often provide a useful opportunity to spot films which I need to check out, or …

Mania Akbari and some special Cambridge screenings

There is a scene in the film ONE.TWO.ONE which is so brilliant in its conception and execution that it takes my breath away. I wish that every film student would carefully examine its construction and try to understand how an apparently simple static camera shot can be so richly textured, so simple yet full of elegance and poetry. Mark Cousins …

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 …

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, …

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie…

Bunuel's classic 1972 film has been re-released, and comes to the Arts Picturehouse in Cambridge this week. Having recently re-watched it on DVD, I found it as strange and compelling as ever; it doesn't seem to lose its potency, if anything I find it more intriguing as I get older. Even though on the surface …

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 …

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 …

Lynch and Kiarostami

Two interesting articles with perhaps only a tenuous connection: they both feature critics talking about the cinema which excites them. In this Guardian piece Peter Bradshaw talks about Blue Velvet, and why 25 years after first seeing the film it still captivates him. There is much I admire in David Lynch's work (though certainly not …