Tag: movies
The gun against the sword: Why Kurosawa remakes miss the point
The biggest trap directors fall into when remaking Kurosawa films is putting the gun centre stage. I’m going to admit something: I’m biased. I love Akira Kurosawa’s movies – though I tend to prefer the jidai-geki flicks to the ones set in the present day. Yet there’s an inherent issue unrelated to quality that precludes…
Seeing with the ear: Meditations on the use of sound in the films of Dario Argento
It may seem odd to make an argument about the supremacy of sound in the films of Dario Argento, which bear such a recognisable visual flair. While it’s impossible to discount Argento’s expressive imagery, his creative use of sound is an often overlooked element of his style. This isn’t too surprising, since I believe sound…
Moving with the Beats: Words on the big screen
How do you portray on film a movement as influential, radical and ground breaking as that of the Beat Generation? It seems hard to fathom now, but what the Beats did for the literary world was akin to what the Beatles did for music. The Beats were a crazed frenzy of creativity that came kicking…
Interviewing Beverly Ross and Ferris Butler: Skits, films and rock ’n’ roll
To me, they’ve always been Uncle Ferris and Aunt Beverly, yet Ferris Butler and Beverly Ross have much more to them than merely a personal relationship. Ferris, a former film-school student of Martin Scorsese’s at New York University who went on to create the cult cable show Waste Meat News before writing for Saturday Night…
Reviewing “Inside Llewyn Davis”
Enter The Gaslight Poetry Café 1961, smoky and atmospheric lighting highlights a dim stage and a singer under spotlight. The surrounding audience is still except for some bar staff in the background and a few draughts of smoke barely taken in. The onstage performer is giving it his all, completely heartfelt and eerily resonate. The…