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Cagey Films

Melodrama

2020: Year-End Thoughts

Posted on December 30, 2020December 29, 2020 by Kenneth George Godwin
The cost of security and comfort is high in George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978)

It’s that time of year again. How to decide what’s “best” out of the six-hundred-plus movies I watched in 2020? It’s an impossible task, so here’s a fairly random selection of things which may not be best, but certainly appealed to me and stuck in my memory.

William Wyler’s The Heiress (1949): Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on June 5, 2019June 12, 2019 by Kenneth George Godwin
In finally achieving independence Catherine (Olivia de Havilland) also accepts the prospect of loneliness in William Wyler's The Heiress (1949)

Criterion’s new Blu-ray offers a superb presentation of William Wyler’s greatest film, The Heiress (1949), a subtle yet scathing dissection of the ways in which money distorts and destroys human relationships.

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day:
Criterion Blu-ray review

Posted on November 14, 2018November 13, 2018 by Kenneth George Godwin
Jochen (Gottfried John) and Marion (Hanna Schygulla), the couple at the centre of Rainer Werner Fassbinder's Eight Hours Don't Make a Day (1972-3)

Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s early television series Eight Hours Don’t Make a Day (1972-73) is a real discovery, a warm, funny, richly layered melodrama depicting the lives of a working class family navigating personal relationships in the context of economic and political constraints in post-war capitalist Germany.

Melodrama from Twilight Time

Posted on January 17, 2018January 2, 2020 by Kenneth George Godwin
Kate Nelligan as a woman forced to assert herself in Richard Marquand's Eye of the Needle (1981)

Some recent Twilight Time releases showcase the value of melodrama as social critique and character study.

Notes on melodrama and film history

Posted on October 12, 2016March 25, 2019 by Kenneth George Godwin
Anne Welles (Barbara Parkins) hits bottom in Mark Robson's Valley of the Dolls (1967)

Criterion releases some high-end trash with an extras-packed edition of Valley of the Dolls, and a collection of journalistic reviews by Graham Greene offers interesting insights into movies in the ’30s.

The art of silent film: Anthony Asquith’s Shooting Stars (1928)

Posted on May 11, 2016October 5, 2018 by Kenneth George Godwin
Annette Benson as movie star Mae Feather on the set of a western melodrama in Anthony Asquith's Shooting Stars (1928)

It’s remarkable that it’s still possible to discover a previously unknown yet major film from the silent era, but the BFI’s new release of Anthony Asquith’s first feature, Shooting Stars (1928) is a revelation; a fresh, self-aware film about filmmaking and the intersection of real and imaginary lives.

Steamy Screen: The Melodramas of Gainsborough Pictures

Posted on December 26, 2012March 26, 2016 by Kenneth George Godwin

One of the things I like about Criterion’s Eclipse series is the lack of snobbery in their choices. Yes, there are serious selections like the early Ozu films and Naruse’s silent works, Louis Malle’s documentaries, Jean-Pierre Gorin’s trilogy of essay films and the early Bergmans … but the people behind the line have shown a […] Read More

Recent viewing, part 2

Posted on December 3, 2011March 27, 2016 by Kenneth George Godwin

You could make an interesting double bill out of Daniel Barber’s Harry Brown (2009) and Joe Cornish’s Attack the Block (2011). Both are set in crime-ridden British housing estates where residents are terrorized by youth gangs, both have a gritty tone which strives to create a sense of relevance and immediacy. But while they have […] Read More

George Godwin, Filmmaker
Photo: Janine Tschuncky

Kenneth George Godwin, Film Editor
I have been editing a wide range of film and video projects, both documentary and drama, for two-and-a-half decades. I started at the Winnipeg Film Group, cutting on Steenbeck 16mm flatbeds, adopted Avid in 1995, and have used FinalCut Pro quite extensively over the past ten years. Projects I have worked on have screened – and won awards – at festivals around the world.read more >>

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