This French co-production is another adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s satirical short story – previously filmed as Das Millionenspiel (1970; dir. Tom Toelle) and reviewed here. Taking its cue from crass Hollywood action films of the time, Boisset’s film is more concerned with visceral thrills than it … Read More →
Monthly Archives: November 2009
Born of Fire (1983; dir. Jamil Dehlavi)
This film attempts to marry the symbolic, metaphysical cinema of filmmakers like Alejandro Jodorowsky with the big-budget, religious stupidity of films like The Omen (1976; dir. Richard Donner) or Holocaust 2000 (1977, dir. Alberto De Martino). The outcome is an uneasy mix of Islam, misogyny … Read More →
The Small Back Room (1949; dir. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger)
Conventional film theory and education dictates that information must be ‘shown’ rather than ‘told’ – the gatekeepers of narrative importance insists that exposition be seeded dramatically throughout the unfolding plot, whereas in reality the attitudes behind film production and distribution dictate that every individual narrative … Read More →
Motel Hell (1980; dir. Kevin O’Connor)
With its surreal and disturbing images of devocalised humans buried up to their necks like rows of hissing, spitting cabbages or carrots, ready to be harvested by a deranged good ol’ boy and his obese sister, this film predates the compassion-deficit glut of unsavoury and … Read More →
Desyat negrityat (1987; dir. Stanislav Govorukhin)
This lacklustre adaptation of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None (London: Collins, 1939), retains the original, racist title and general plot structure, but, like most Soviet films, lacks the sense of atmosphere necessary to raise Christie’s work from the merely diverting to the truly … Read More →
Lisa e il diavolo (1974; dir. Mario Bava)
Cinema is necrophilia. The act of desiring now aged or decayed faces, trapped by the illusion of action that seems to exist in the present tense, but were in fact created and forgotten years ago. The sepulchral nature Bava’s masterpiece encapsulates the sentiment precisely: the … Read More →
The Third Secret (1964; dir. Charles Crichton)
The principle that cinema derives power from being unified informs the need for coherent and supportive choices throughout the creative process on a symbolic or even superficial level. Too often, films are haphazard affairs that hold themselves up on poor, unimaginative production design and easy … Read More →
Das Millionenspiel (1970; dir. Tom Toelle)
This adaptation of Robert Sheckley’s 1958 short story “The Prize of Peril” perfectly captures the inane and shallow manipulations of television producers and personalities, whilst also commenting on the fraudulent nature of most documentary film production. The film shows vain presenters ad-libbing to cover unscripted … Read More →
Alex and Her Arse Truck (2007; dir. Sean Conway)
This film offers little of substance, preferring to revel in the its glib portraiture of lower middle class under-25s than examine the social implications of the issues it raises. Produced by Film Four – a subsidiary of UK broadcaster Channel 4, who produce the similar … Read More →
A Prize of Arms (1962; dir. Cliff Owen)
This tense, nervous film succeeds in creating a threatening, silent world where its main protagonists are watched, suspected and hindered in their attempts to steal a lucrative payroll from within the confines of an army base. Lead and held together by the indomitable yet fragile … Read More →
Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984; dir. Ray Cameron)
The transition from television to cinema should not be a complicated process but a sensible pulling back of TV’s excesses in support of cinema’s need for pace and scope. Various small screen programmes and personalities have made the leap successfully – understanding the changes necessitated … Read More →
Mr. Freedom (1969; dir. William Klein)
Following on from his popular Qui êtes-vous, Polly Maggoo? (1966), helmer Klein attempts to marry his broad, pop-art satire to world affairs, taking as his primary target US political expansionism and cultural redundancy, typified by Harry Truman’s oft-quoted belief that the USA should “police the … Read More →