A personal journal of film and documentary reviews, and reviews of anything else that intrigues me.
Lev Kuleshov, “The Death Ray / Luch Smerti” (1925) A silent Soviet action thriller that starts with a workers’ revolt in a factory which is crushed…
“Tea and Conversation with David Lyons: Black Tea” at The Tea Centre, Sydney, 10 November 2012 After that talk on green tea back in September, I was…
Derren Brown and Benjamin Caron, “Derren Brown – The Heist” (2006) Under the pretence of training a group of middle-level managers in a corporate workshop on…
Derren Brown and Simon Dinsell, “Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 2)” (2012) Second and final part of a mini-series in which Brown conducts an experiment on…
Derren Brown and Simon Dinsell, “Derren Brown – Apocalypse (Part 1)” (2012) A cleverly staged if at times daft and rather too cinematic experiment in which…
French and French-language Films
Georges Franju,” Thérèse Desqueyroux” (1962) A remake of this film with Audrey Tautou as the titular character was shown at the Cannes Film Festival in 2012…
French and French-language Films
Georges Franju, “Judex” (1963) A remake of the Louis Feuillade 1916 mini-series about the mystery masked crusader Judex (Latin for “judge”), Georges Franju’s film is said…
Hanneke van Ravenswaay and Ben Jurna, “Moral Dilemma … Can Ethics Help?” (1998) This episode of “The Examined Life” investigates a moral dilemma faced by a…
French and French-language Films
Jean-Pierre Melville, “Le Samouraï” (1967) A beautiful and seductive film that spawned many imitators, of which some like John Woo’s “The Killer” also became cult flicks,…
D Zyuz’kov, Natalia Yurchenko documentary (1984) A curious little 20-minute gem on Youtube, this Soviet television documentary about the gymnast Natalia Yurchenko, made about the time…