Classic Movie Reviews

DVD Movie Review: Annie Hall (1977)

Feb

2013

Woody becomes Allen It was one of the proudest days of my life when a family friend told me, in my teens, that I looked ‘a bit like’ Woody Allen, as well as having a similar sense of humour. Well, I was a fan anyway, albeit of what were accurately and deathlessly dubbed the cineast’s ...

Cinema Movie Review: Les Miserables (2012) 3

Jan

2013

‘Who am I? 24601!’ And so, I can now die a happy man – not only was Skyfall (2012) released last year and is clearly the best Bond ever, 2013 has begun with the big-screen musical adaptation of Claude-Michel Schönberg, Alain Boublil and Cameron Mackintosh‘s amazing, world-beating show Les Miserables, with The King’s Speech (2010) ...

Belle de Jour (1967)

Jan

2012

Not quite the ‘happy hooker’ Earlier critics of this surprisingly accessible piece by Luis Buñuel have been guilty of referring to the film as a whole as ‘sexy’, even ‘erotic’ and to the quite lovely Catherine Deneuve as ‘an icy beauty’, ‘frigid’ or a ‘steely beauty’. It may be just me but I think they ...

The Sheltering Sky (1990) 2

Jan

2012

Sky blues We always welcome new blood at Picturenose – our good friend Marc Bacon casts his eye over Bernardo Bertolucci‘s The Sheltering Sky (1990). Take it away, Marc! Bernardo Bertolucci’s noble effort to preserve in celluloid the fantasia of what was in Paul Bowles’s mind was always going to be an ambitious project. The ...

L’année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (1961) (Re-release)

Jul

2011

This year, last year, some time, never? The vague, frequently irritating and pretentious but nevertheless awe-inspiring L’année dernière à Marienbad (Last Year at Marienbad) (1961) by Alain Resnais is 50 this year, hence its commemorative re-release in the UK this week. So, should you go? Well, if you want to even pretend that you know ...

Robert Rossen’s The Hustler (1961)

May

2011

‘I loved her, Bert. I traded her in on a pool game.’ I was feeling sorry for myself over the past few days, go easy on me will you, it happens to the best of us. And what better film to accompany a long, dark weekend of the soul than the sublime The Hustler (1961), ...

12 Angry Men (1957)

Apr

2011

‘I just want to talk’ This review is dedicated to legendary director Sidney Lumet, who passed away on 9 April 2011, aged 86 – the end of a great career spanning 50 years of sublime cinema. This electrifying court-room drama was his first feature, and his work also included Picturenose favourites such as Equus (1997), ...

Seconds (1966) 4

Mar

2011

Second to none Now then – this is one that I have really meant to write about for some time, and those who have seen it will know only too well why. John Frankenheimer, who made the similarly disturbing The Manchurian Candidate (1962) prior to Seconds (1966), takes us into a Faustian nightmare that is ...

Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

Jul

2010

‘I swear, if you existed, I’d divorce you!’ I was lucky enough, during my university days, to have the chance to act in my class’s adaptation of Edward Albee’s theatrical journey into the heart of emotional and marital anguish; I played George (Richard Burton in the film), the long-suffering husband of Martha (Elizabeth Taylor), who’s ...

The Pianist (2002)

Jul

2010

Playing for his life One that I have been meaning to do for some time – without doubt, one of the finest films ever made about the Holocaust and one that, in differing its approach from the similarly superb Schindler’s List (1993), manages to convey the unique horrors of those anti-human times in a way ...

William Wyler’s The Collector (1965)

Jul

2010

‘Is that what you love? Death?’ John Fowles’s debut novel, released in 1963, raised more than a few eyebrows and, for this reviewer, William Wyler’s 1965 film is simply one of the very best movie adaptations ever made, to be spoken of in the same breath as Rosemary’s Baby (1968) or Schindler’s List (1993), with ...