Archive for the 'Reviews' Category
Ken Loach’s latest is a simple social realist film in a style not much different to what Vittorio De Sica was pulling out sixty years ago. The conflict is moral and economic, the characters humble but not necessarily noble. It is Loach’s gift for storytelling and rhythm that allow this well-run formula to evade cliché […]
When people think of Swedish cinema they tend, depending on their tendencies, to think either of steamy sauna porn or the collected works of the recently departed Ingmar Bergman. But between these opposite poles of cinematic expression lie a whole range of movies that range from the compelling tragedies of Lukas Moodysson to the sweet […]
How does the authenticity of a story affect our reception of it? Consider that novelists in time gone by referred to their fictions as “histories”, even “true histories”. Meanwhile, today, fraudulent memoirs are held up for bitter condemnation and their authors made into pariahs. In Un Secret, we have a story based on fact — […]
Jacques Demy’s classic film from 1964 launched Catherine Deneuve into that heady stratosphere of aesthetic canonisation that the French do so well. In many ways, Deneuve’s career and name have eclipsed Demy’s, but watching his films reminds you of how bright his penumbra can be.
The Nouvelle Vague pin-ups Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut made their […]
Alegranza is an album remarkable in its ability to simultaneously invite and dismiss comparison. El Guincho is Pablo Diaz-Reixa and he’s managed to sample half a planet worth of music without it coalescing into a lazy homogeneity. His beats oscillate with wild abandon and yet the album feels tightly sprung, like a jack-in-the-box that’s been […]
The WOMAD festival shows off some very fine musicians from around the world who would otherwise slip well under the radar of commercial radio and media here in Australia. At the same time, it doesn’t forget that the Occident is part of that very same world and from The Cruel Sea to the Kronos Quartet, […]
Film and theatre are tempestuous bedfellows. For every spirited success (take Louis Malle’s Vanya on 42nd Street) there are five flaccid failures. In Benedict Andrews’ production of Patrick White’s The Season at Sarsaparilla the semiotics of cinema step firmly on to the boards.
This is a remarkable work of theatre. The direction is fluid and graceful […]
Warriors of Art: A Guide to Contemporary Japanese Artists
by Yumi Yamaguch
published by Kodansha International, distributed by Bookwise International
RRP $49.95
Perhaps the most surprising aspect of this elegantly presented survey is that much of the artwork seems startlingly familiar. Certainly part of this familiarity might come about through the Yankeephile integration of Western tropes into Japanese life […]
Gillian Armstrong’s latest directorial outing, Death Defying Acts, is a glossy cage of cinematic feints signifying nothing. The story is a pretty typical contrivance — a rich man offers a reward and a pair of likely aspirants try to con their way into a fortune. The twist is that the rich man is Harry Houdini […]
Take several established directors.
Add a handful of legendary actors (with a sprinkle of fashionable ones).
Fold in some cobble stones and avenues.
Add it to a well-greased pan, splash it with Pernod and put it into a fan-forced oven.
Remove it before it’s fully baked and serve with 4kg of icing sugar.
If you like the sound of that, […]