A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
James Vanderbilt, “Truth” (2015) An ambitious film for James Vanderbilt’s directorial debut, though he is well known in Hollywood as a script-writer, “Truth” is a fictional…
Charles Chaplin, “The Great Dictator” (1940) It’s over-long and the slapstick comedy is laid on very thickly but film legend Charlie Chaplin’s “The Great Dictator” is…
“Let Your Life Be A Friction To Stop The Machine” (Class War Films, 2012) It’s a modestly made film – just a series of linked visual…
Italian and Italian-language Films
Pier Paolo Pasolini, “The Gospel According to St Matthew / Il Vangelo Secondo Matteo” (1964) Perhaps more historically accurate or Biblically faithful films – or even…
Volker Schlöndorff, “The Handmaid’s Tale” (1990) Based on the dystopian novel by Canadian writer Margaret Atwood, “The Handmaid’s Tale” as realised by Volker Schlöndorff is a…
Alexander Korobko, “Through Sherlock’s Eyes: The Case of Alexander Litvinenko” (2015) Not only does this 23-minute documentary present an intriguing scenario of the death of the Russian spy…
Masato Harada, “Kakekomi Onna to Kakedashi Otoko” (2015) A light-hearted historical drama set in Japan during the early 1840s, “Kakekomi …” combines comedy with some social…
Takashi Koizumi, “A Samurai Chronicle” (2014) I’m afraid that these days the Japanese just don’t make samurai dramas the way they used to, with devil-may-care flair…
Stanley Kubrick, “Fear and Desire” (1953) Stanley Kubrick’s debut feature film may be an awkward and clumsy beast in many ways but for its time (at…
Essays, Multi-media Presentations
Vladimir Putin’s Valdai Speech at the XII Meeting (Final Plenary Session) of the Valdai International Discussion Club (October 2015) Compared to his speech at XI Meeting…