Bleak Britain

Mrs Ross (Edith Evans) lives in a world beset by forces beyond her control in Bryan Forbes' The Whisperers (1967)

The British have a tendency to indulge in miserablism, a characteristic that filmmakers have been turning into powerful dramatic art for decades. Bryan Forbes’ The Whisperers (1967) and Ray Davies’ Return to Waterloo (1984) approach it from very different directions, but both create powerful portraits of people living depressing lives.

Seeing in the New Year

Baron Samedi (Don Pedro Colley) finds setting zombies on gangsters enormously amusing in Paul Maslansky's Sugar Hill (1974)

This year’s New Year’s Eve movie binge with my friend Steve spanned from ’50s 3D Red Menace sci-fi to ’70s blaxploitation horror to a political thriller about right-wing apocalyptic political paranoia which, while dating from 1972, suggested the atmosphere of the coming 2020 presidential election year.

Alan Pakula’s Klute (1971): Criterion Blu-ray review

Darkness encroaches on Bree Daniels (Jane Fonda)'s existence in Alan Pakula's Klute (1971)

Criterion’s exemplary Blu-ray release of Alan Pakula’s second feature, Klute (1971), offers a superb 4K scan from the original negative and extensive extras which highlight the film’s importance in the evolution of American cinema at a particularly turbulent time in both politics and popular culture, with a particular emphasis on Jane Fonda’s development as both actor and activist.

Elia Kazan’s A Face in the Crowd (1957): Criterion Blu-ray review

Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith performs in a smalltown Arkansas jail in Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd (1957)

The Criterion Collection presents a new 4K restoration of Elia Kazan’s best film, A Face in the Crowd (1957). The excellent image showcases two of the finest performances of the 1950s: Andy Griffith in his screen debut as the countryboy-turned-demagogue Lonesome Rhodes and Patricia Neal as the smalltown radio reporter who discovers him and facilitates his rise to national stardom.

Blasts from the past

Genre On Disk, part one

More genre viewing – late Fall 2018

From the department of “what the hell?!”

A Terence Stamp double-bill

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