Criterion Collection tagged posts

November 21, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Terry Gilliam

Writer: Terry Gilliam, Charles Alveron (screenplay), Lewis Carroll (poem)

Cast: Michael Palin, Harry H. Corbett, Annette Badland, John Le Mesurier, Warren Mitchell, Max Wall, Bernard Bresslaw, Deborah Fallender, John Bird, Rodney Bewes, Terry Jones, Gordon Kaye

Cert: 12

Running time: 105mins

Year: 1977

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: In a medieval kingdom, the peasant Dennis (Palin) finds himself on a wild adventure that leads him to battle the Jabberwocky, a ferocious beast spreading fear, famine and death.

What’s the verdict: Though based on Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poem, from grimy exterior to fantastical core Jabberwocky is pure Terry Gilliam.

His full directorial debut (Gilliam co-directed Monty Python and the Holy Grail with Terry Jones), this birth...

October 22, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Herk Harvey

Writer: John Clifford

Cast: Candace Hilligoss, Sidney Berger, Frances Feist, Art Ellison

Cert: 12

Running time: 78mins

Year: 1962

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: Young organist Mary is the only survivor when her friend’s car crashes off a bridge into a river. As she attempts to start a new life in a different town, a frightening stranger begins to stalk her.

What’s the verdict: British film fans skirting around the age of 40 are likely to have first encountered Herk Harvey’s Carnival of Souls courtesy of Alex Cox. Cox screened it in the summer of 1991 as part of his essential Moviedrome series (and his intro can be seen here).

Those of us who saw it that Sunday night were still reeling from the recently released The Silence of the Lambs...

August 27, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Peter Brook

Writer: None credited

Cast: Jack Aubrey, Hugh Edwards, Tom Chapin, Tom Gaman

Cert: PG

Running time: 92mins

Year: 1963

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: Young schoolboys, stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash, degenerate into warring beasts. Ralph (Aubrey) and Piggy (Edwards) attempt to maintain order. But, the other boys are more drawn to the violent choirboy Jack (Chapin).

What’s the verdict: Always depressing to declare a film about man’s innate barbarism is as relevant today as when released almost 55-years ago. But, Peter Brook’s Lord of the Flies, adapted from William Golding’s novel published almost 65-years ago, remains a cautionary fable.

The irresistible premise was borne of Golding’s musing to his wife, how would the child characters...

June 17, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Terry Gilliam

Writer: Richard LaGravenese

Cast: Jeff Bridges, Robin Williams, Mercedes Ruehl, Amanda Plummer

Cert: 15

Running time: 137mins

Year: 1991

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: Radio shock jock Jack Lucas (Bridges) falls into suicidal depression after his on-air remarks spark a tragic incident. He seeks redemption in helping Parry (Williams), a manic homeless man caught up in the event Jack inadvertently caused.

What’s the verdict: A welcome Criterion Collection release of Terry Gilliam’s romantic fairytale that doesn’t forget to add a generous pinch of the Grimm stuff.

Wounded by the difficult production of 1988’s The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, the vagaries of Hollywood saw Gilliam returning three years later to Columbia, the studio that unceremoniously d...

June 11, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi (screenplay), René Masson, Frédéric Grendel (collaboration), Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac (novel)

Cast: Vera Clouzot, Simone Signoret, Paul Meurisse

Cert: 12

Running time: 117 mins

Year: 1955

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: Christina (Clouzot), the frail owner of a large French school, lives in fear of her husband, school director M. Delassalle (Meurisse). Together with Delassalle’s mistress Nicole (Signoret), Christina plots her husband’s murder. But, killing him could be the beginning of more trouble…

What’s the verdict: One of cinema’s great shockers, after more than sixty years Les Diaboliques (aka The Fiends or The Devils depending on which print you’re watching) is yet to creak.

May 13, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Sidney Lumet

Writer: Reginald Rose

Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee. J Cobb, E.G. Marshall, Jack Warden, Joseph Sweeney, Ed Begley, George Voskovec, Martin Balsam, John Fielder, Jack Klugman, Edward Binns, Robert Webber

Cert: U (extras PG)

Running time: 96 mins

Year: 1957

Film:
Extras:

What’s the story: 11 men on a jury believe a young man guilty of first degree murder, for which he’ll receive the death penalty. One juror has doubts.

What’s the verdict: When weather turned bad on location for She Wore A Yellow Ribbon, an assistant to director John Ford asked what could they shoot now. Ford replied, “…the most interesting and exciting thing in the world: a human face.”

12 Angry Men boasts a gallery of interesting, exciting faces. And not just the jurors’...

April 29, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: No comments

Director: Jûzô Itami

Writer: Jûzô Itami

Cast: Tsutomo Yamazaki, Nobuko Miyamoto, Ken Watanabe, Kôji Yakusho, Kinzô Sakura, Rikiya Yasuoka, Yoshi Katô

Cert: 15

Running time: 114 minutes

Year: 1985

Film:
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What’s the story: Timid Tokyo ramen shop owner Tampopo (Miyamoto) begins a journey of culinary and self discovery when the gruff Goro (Yamazaki) teaches her how to make the perfect bowl of noodles.

What’s the verdict: Oh, what torture reviewing one of cinema’s greatest food movies. How tasty look those clichés. The urge to call it “flavourful”, “a feast for the eyes” or “a banquet for the cinematic palate, presented with Michelin-star worthy élan”.

We quite like that last one…

Ah, shame be flambéed...

April 16, 2017, Posted in  Cinematic Greens, Reviews Comments: No comments

Welcome to Cinematic Greens

Director: Kenji Mizoguchi

Writer: Kenji Mizoguchi, Yoshikata Yoda (screenplay), Saikaku Ihara (novel)

Cast: Kinuyo Tanaka, Toshiro Mifune

Cert: PG

Running time: 137 mins

Year: 1952

Accolades:
1952 Venice Film Festival
International Award

Electric Shadows rating:
Criterion Extras:

What’s the story: In 17^th century Japan, noblewoman Oharu is exiled from Kyoto for the crime of loving someone belonging to a lower caste, beginning a lifelong struggle against misfortune.

What’s the verdict: Winner of the International Award at 1952’s Venice Film Festival, The Life of Oharu proved Japanese cinema did not start and stop with Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, grand prize winner at Venice a year before.

Where Rashomon was kinetic and visceral, The Life of Oharu was c...

March 19, 2017, Posted in  Reviews Comments: One comment

Director: Kenji Misumi (films 1-3 & 5), Buichi Saito (film 4), Yoshiyuki Kuroda (film 6)

Writer: Kazuo Koike (screenplay), Kazuo Koike, Goseki Kojima (manga)

Cast: Tomisaburô Wakayama, Tokio Oki, Minoru Ôki, Tatsuo Endo, Go Kato, Isao Kimura, Yuko Hamada, Michi Azuma, Tomomi Sato, Akihiro Tomikawa

Cert: 18

Running time: 506 minutes (6 films)

Year: 1972-1974

• Sword of Vengeance (1972)
• Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
  
• Baby Cart to Hades (1972)
  
• Baby Cart in Peril (1972)
  
• Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
• White Heaven in Hell (1974)

Films:
Extras:

What’s the story: A ronin, a masterless samurai, pushes his three-year-old son around Japan in a wooden baby cart, seeking vengeance on those who killed his wife and clan.

What’s the verdict: We’re talking six films here (and spi...

March 18, 2017, Posted in  Cinematic Greens, Reviews Comments: No comments

Welcome to Cinematic Greens

#6 – Multiple Maniacs (1970)

Director: John Waters

Writer: John Waters

Cast: Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce, Cookie Mueller

Cert: 18

Running time: 96 minutes

Year: 1970

Contemporary review:
“Even the garbage is too good a place for it.” –
Mary Avara, Maryland Board of Censors

“(Print) Destroyed” – Canadian Censor report

Film: 

Extras: 

What’s the story: A couple who front a bizarre traveling circus become murderous when their relationship collapses.

What’s the verdict: “A CELLULOID ATROCITY!” pants the original, hand drawn promotional material for John Waters’ sophomore feature. And it ain’t lying.

47 years may have tempered Multiple Maniacs’ shock value, but trace echoes remain of just how bizarre and vile it must have...