I recently wrote an essay regarding political representations of TV news in film by comparing Network (1976) with Christine (2016). The essay focuses on the political ideology of TV news, attempting to work out what value such media holds in communatating truths to mass audiences, while asking if this is even possible when situated within…
Category: All Films
Timbuktu: Sequence Analysis
This is an unpublished essay completed for my BA Film Studies course a little under a year and a half ago. The piece is a little less polished than my recent work, but I hope is a interesting read none the less.
Close Analysis: Peter Watkins’s The War Game (1965)
Sequence Timecode: (00:04:10 – 00:08:20) Based on an estimated projection of how Britain might cope with the escalation, events, and aftermath of global nuclear war in the 1960s, Peter Watkins’s The War Game (1965) shocks and disarms its viewers with the distressing realities of educational facts blended potently with visual enactments of possible future scenarios…
Mulholland Drive (2001) Eric Norcross
When I first saw Mulholland Drive at a second-run theater in downtown Portland, Maine, I hated it. I was angry that it existed. How could anyone finance this thing? I was right out of film school and as a result I had been blinded by the false idea that films had to flow at a…
YOU DON’T KNOW ME – An Original Film Treatment
I recently completed an original film treatment centred on a story of an innocent young girl caught amidst a firestorm of bad media attention that sees her wrongly accused of a brutal murder. The subject matter is one close to my heart – our relationship to the media we digest, and the power of that media…
A World of Film’s Top 10 of 2016
2016 was jam-packed with controversy and conflict. No matter what side of anything you were on, I think the year could most appropriately be described as a never-ending fight between ‘hope’ and’ regret’. This, I feel, is reflected within my list of favourite films from 2016; some hold a deeply troubling vision of the future,…
It Follows and Musically Uncanny
“This thing … it’s gonna follow you.” As Hugh speaks these unnerving words to Jay during the first act of David Robert Mitchell’s, It Follows (2014), we could be mistaken in thinking these words refer to the film’s music as well as its plot. The film is an effective horror film, taking many visual and…
Two Sides of the Same Coin: Images and Power
For art historian and theorist Hans Belting, our understanding of images has, throughout the history of art and media theory, greatly undervalued our perception of images as distinctive from the media they live within, thus underestimating the power and influence they hold in shaping human history and the human body. Belting states that, “we are…
Video Work
Venue Hire This short film was made to promote the venue hire of the PESGB and the area that the charity is located. Evening Lecture This video was made to encourage more members to attend the PESGB London Evening Lecture. Council Election Interviews The next few videos are a series of interviews made…
A Film to Remember, by Darrell Tuffs
Already an established contemporary video artist and filmmaker, Omer Fast has directed a range of short films challenging the conventions of storytelling, particularly focusing on the concept of reality, representation, and the fragile line between the two. For this reason, Fast would seem the perfect candidate to tackle Tom McCarthy’s mind-bender of a novel, Remainder;…
Does ‘the Phantom of the Auteur’ Haunt French Cinema?
The haunting presence of the auteur has long loomed over the French film industry; it was in France itself that the auteur theory as a major film discussion was first established. Because of this, a long tradition dating back farther than (but popularized by) the French new wave had firmly placed the auteur at the…
The Matrix: Entering the Rabbit Hole of the Human Mind
When beginning to experience film philosophy as a serious form of artistic and academic discussion, there is arguably no film more important or influential as the Wachowski’s 1999 film, The Matrix. The Matrix is tightly packed with philosophical ideas, which, through theme and aesthetic, reference theorists such as Descartes, Baudrillard, and Marx, while simultaneously doing…
Why Am I Still Watching This? By Darrell Tuffs
Michael Haneke’s Benny’s Video (1992) provides a rich array of moral and ethical questions to its viewer via both narrative and aesthetic, yet its key ethical significance is not established in answering these questions with any great conclusion, but rather, in successfully forcing its audience to actively contemplate and debate such questions; to ask, but…
A Tale of One City: Cinematic London in Contemporary British Cinema
From the expressionistic and bold portrait of London in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1927 film, The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog, through to the modern metropolis of scenic icons and vast scale depicted in Sam Mendes’s 2012 film, Skyfall, London has forever been an important cinematic city, holding centuries of history, cultural style, and filmic…
Film Note: Edge of Tomorrow (Live. Die. Repeat.)
Doug Liman’s first big break onto the Hollywood directing scene was the low-budget comedy, Swingers (1996). The film cost just $200,000 to make, and saw a domestic US box office return of $4.6m, a fairly successful amount for such a small-scale production. (1) A few years later, Liman would begin to dip his toes into…
Cinematic Histories: The Hybridity of the Heritage Genre in Contemporary French Cinema
Artistic historical representations of French national identity have long been an important cultural element when it comes to the French cinema exploring its own sense of self. Indeed, the very core essence of art and art-house cinema has permanently been linked to French identity as a passionately vital and essential pastime. Within the French ‘heritage’…
Subverting the Traditional Techniques of the Natural History Film: The Relationship Between Humans and Animals in Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: The Conquest
The theatrical poster for Mark Lewis’s Cane Toads: The Conquest (2010) shows a large image of a cane toad as it stares directly into the viewer’s gaze from a low-angled close-up. The toad appears huge, taking up much of the frame. Its eyes are wide and soulful, working with the emotional backdrop of the sky…
The 2016 Bafta Challenge!
The Challenge: It’s awards season! (whether you like it or not) And this year, A World of Film is hosting ‘The Bafta Challenge’. I’d really love for everyone reading this post right now to take part; it will be fun, and I’d love to get to know some of my readers a little more. Every…
My Top 10 of 2015!
CLICK HERE to see my list of favourite films from 2015! Note: I go by the official US release dates. Thus, some of these film may be 2016 releases in some countries.
The Hateful Eight
While viewing Tarantino’s eagerly awaited 8th feature film, The Hateful Eight, two conflicting opinions were passionately arguing within my brain. The first was telling me, “This film is absolutely beautiful; a real cinematic treat!” Indeed, as one might expect from Tarantino, The Hateful Eight is a gorgeously crisp film. Shot on celluloid, and set within…
The Last Metro: A Sequence Analysis
Click HERE to read by new essay, The Last Metro: A Sequence Analysis. The essay is posted to the great film site, Battleship Pretension.
Binaries of the Mind: The Relationship between Humans and Nature in Cast Away
Click HERE to read by new essay, Binaries of the Mind: The Relationship between Humans and Nature in Cast Away. The essay looks at the film, Cast Away, as a work of ecocinema; the essay is posted to the great film site, Battleship Pretension.
Steamboat Bill Jr. (1928)
Buster Keaton, like Chaplin, will forever be respected as the most basic and fundamental pioneer of the comedy genre in film. But rarely mentioned with Keaton is how wonderfully composed and experimental he was with regard to creating action cinema, as well as a real and serious sense of physical vulnerability. And no, we’re not…
Smile Power Day: Our top 5 cinematic reasons to smile
We all know the feeling. Every year, Smile Power Day comes around once more, bringing with it happiness and joy equal to a thousand laughing babies, or a field of smiling kittens – everyone in the world seems to have successfully embraced the power of the smile, that is, apart from you. Yes, we’re talking…
5 Cinematic Uses for Hot Air Balloons
To celebrate everybody’s favourite day of the year (hot air balloon day), my first ever article for The Metropolist has been posted, and is about the top 5 cinematic uses for hot air balloons. Please give it a read, I promise it’s not just hot air. http://www.themetropolist.com/film/latest-film/top-5-hot-air-balloons-in-film-cinema/
Recreating History: Applying Postmodernism and Queer Theory to Cheryl Dunye’s, The Watermelon Woman
Cheryl Dunye’s The Watermelon Woman (1996) follows a young, black lesbian filmmaker named Cheryl, desperate to find and discover an original and interesting subject on which to base her new documentary film, that is, until she discovers Fae Richards, a black lesbian actress from the 1940s, of whom Cheryl is immediately captivated by. The aesthetic…
A Movie is a Movie, by Darrell Ron Tuffs
Jean-Luc Godard’s A Woman is a Woman (1961) opens like a grand theatre production, as we, the audience, are sat surrounded by darkness, in anticipation for the show to begin. An orchestra is heard warming up, a conductor is heard preparing, and huge blocks of one word text engulf the screen itself, quickly flashing relevant…
Sex and Death, by Darrell Tuffs
CLICK HERE to read my review of the wonderfully effective new horror film, It Follows, over at Battleship Pretension. Thank you!
The Aesthetic Elements of Kracauer’s Theory of Cinematic Realism Present Within Pawel Pawlikowski’s My Summer of Love, by Darrell Tuffs
Siegfried Kracauer – born February 8th, 1889 – was a landmark film theorist, who in 1960, released his expansive book on film, Theory of Film. The book outlines and explores cinema as, “The Redemption of Physical Reality,” as described in the book’s subtitle. Kracauer, like Andre Bazin, was interested in viewing cinema from a realist…
The 39 Steps (1935) – Alfred Hitchcock (Niall McArdle)
Summary: An innocent man is wanted for murder and drawn into a web of intrigue after foreign spies try to smuggle military secrets out of the country. Spoilers, naturally, but really, you don’t watch a Hitchcock film for the plot (and the plot of The 39 Steps is rather silly and full of holes); rather…
Documenting Truth: The Reinvention of Voice-over and Success of Style in Marina Goldovskaya’s Solovki Power (posted to Battleship Pretension)
CLICK HERE to read my new essay on Marina Goldovskaya’s wonderful 1998 documentary, Solovki Power, at Battleship Pretension. (and while you are there, take a look at their great site) Thank you!
Surrealism: Dreams and the Unconscious (Freud and Dreams That Money Can Buy)
Important note: Here is an essay that I wrote for university; within it, I apply some psychoanalytical aspects of Freud’s theory of dreams to the 1947 surrealist film, Dreams That Money Can Buy. However, I first explain the theory and concept in some detail, which may be quite tiresome to readers only interested in approaching this essay by way of the film….
Rocco and His Brothers: A Sequence Analysis (posted to Battleship Pretension)
CLICK HERE to read my sequence analysis essay on the classic Visconti film, Rocco and His Brothers, at Battleship Pretension. (and while you are there, take a look at their great site) Thank you!
Smoke (1995) by Leila Murseljevic
I was asked the other day to, in just 5 seconds, name the first movie that pops on my mind, which fulfils the criteria of both simplicity and effectiveness at the same time. And let me tell you, for someone who takes the art of moving pictures very seriously, this was one of the toughest…
L’Eclisse – One Hour, One Sequence Analysis, by Darrell Tuffs
Recently, I was given a short assignment to write a sequence analysis within one hour for an unknown film clip. I found out just before starting that this clip was to be the first few minutes of L’Eclisse (see video). I had never seen the film before, but had one hour to draw out any…
Paths of Glory (1957) Stanley Kubrick
Summary: During the First World War, the French military orders a court-martial accusing soldiers of cowardice after an attack on an enemy position fails. Spoilers It is a truism in the Army that shit rolls downhill, and in Paths of Glory Stanley Kubrick doesn’t argue with it; he just presents it for the nonsense it…
JFK (1991) – Oliver Stone (Eric Norcross)
A review of JFK (1991) – Oliver Stone, by Eric Norcross
Everlasting Moments (2008) – Jan Troell (Pete Johnson)
As well as a lifetime romance with cinema and films, I have also had an interest in photography for the last thirty years. My favourite films are almost always foreign language productions, latterly known as ‘World Cinema’. There have been films made about photographers, and others featuring significant characters who happen to be photographers. These…
12 Angry Men (1957) – Sidney Lumet (Niall McArdle)
Summary: A jury deliberates in a murder trial of a teenager accused of killing his father. Sidney Lumet’s 12 Angry Men is a remarkable piece of cinema in spite of itself. It’s a sudsy liberal social drama and it telegraphs its emotions, and it’s talky as hell, but it’s a riveting 90 minutes, all the…
It Happened One Night (1934) | Frank Capra (Eric Norcross)
An unemployed reporter helps a runaway heiress get back to New York without being discovered by the authorities. It Happened One Night is a road trip romantic comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and was directed by Hollywood legend Frank Capra. Written by Robert Riskin and based off of Samuel Hopkins Adams’ short story,…
Seven (1995) – David Fincher (Niall McArdle)
SPOILERS! I was living in Korea when I first saw Seven (or Se7en, as it is sometimes pretentiously stylised). The print was dark so I couldn’t make out very much, and the sound in the cinema was appalling. I could barely hear the dialogue over the noise of incessant rain. My initial thought was that…
Le Week-End (2013) DVD review, by Darrell Ron Tuffs
Please take a look at my new DVD review of Le Week-End for Battleship Pretension. Thank you http://battleshippretension.com/home-video-hovel-le-week-end-by-darrell-tuffs/#more-15107
Shadows (1959) – Living in the Shadows, by Darrell Ron Tuffs
The first film to be directed by John Cassavetes, Shadows, was perhaps the start of what we now know as American independent cinema. Shadows was groundbreaking at the time of its release, although not particularly financially successful, it was critically acclaimed, despite being made for less than the average television programme. Filmed during the same…
Filth (2013) Jon S. Baird (Maria Tudosescu)
Rating: 4.5/5 My friend told me a while ago that I would like this movie, especially following my recent obsession with James McAvoy; I am so glad I took her advice. For quite a while, I have been interested in finding out more and more about the Scottish actor, and while I knew he was…
Dredd (2012) – Pete Travis (Niall McArdle)
Summary: Mega-City One vetran cop Judge Dredd (Karl Urban) and rookie Anderson (Olivia Thirlby) are trapped in Mega-Block Peach Trees, and have to fend off a vicious drug gang run by the ruthless Ma Ma (Lena Headey). It is impossible to think of the British comic 2000 AD without thinking of its most famous character,…
White Dog (1982) – The Four-Legged Time Bomb, by Darrell Ron Tuffs
Samuel Fuller’s last American film, White Dog, was, not surprisingly, a financial failure, and was never given a wide American release. Also not surprising, was the critical success this failure came with. The film is almost perfectly constructed, and is extremely forceful and frank in delivering its underlining cultural themes. This is to the film’s…
The Shawshank Redemption (1994) Frank Darabont (Niall McArdle)
Massive Spoilers for the three people on the planet who haven`t seen it. “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” It’s fitting that The Shawshank Redemption was made for Warner Bros. The studio pretty much invented the prison picture, and Warner pen epics like Twenty Thousand Years in Sing Sing, San Quentin, and Each Dawn…
Lunch Hour (1962) – Time to Get Alone, by Darrell Ron Tuffs
The story started its life as a radio play on the BBC Third Programme, and was later brought to the London stage in 1961. But, none of these portrays where as interesting or original as James Hill’s film version of Lunch Hour in 1962. This version, produced by Eyeline Films, was not a huge success…
Les Bicyclettes de Belsize (1969) Douglas Hickox (Darrell Ron Tuffs)
Short films can often become overlooked while searching for hidden cinematic gems from the past. This is particularly true of the 1969 Douglas Hickox short film, Les Bicyclettes de Belsize. The film is itself, a mini trip to, or back to, the heart of swinging 60s London. With its new wave vibe and strong sense…
Reservoir Dogs (1992) – Quentin Tarantino (Niall McArdle)
Has it really been more than twenty years since Quentin Tarantino shocked and thrilled audiences with his audacious, breezily confident debut film, Reservoir Dogs? The Sundance darling – it was one of the films that put ‘indie cinema’ squarely in the eye of the mainstream – put off many filmgoers because of its violence and…
