Category: Year in Film

In 1975, the feminist movement was finally beginning to get results. This movement is often referred to as the ‘second wave’, and is perhaps the…

He broke every rule in the standard cinematographers’ catechism – and caught much flack for it early in his career. Then people began to catch on. This was a new visual language, an impressionistic wash that Zsigmond applied that elevated the films – and the directors he worked for – into a unique category, all their own.

The archetypal figure of the double is cinema’s most often used trope to communicate notions of the uncanny. By definition, the double resembles the familiar…

Costas Ferris’ extraordinary, sinfully under-seen, Rembetiko from 1983, begins and ends with the music. Literally. Your ears are in for a real Greek treat – baglamas,…

The secret to Littman’s film is that there is no proselytizing. We don’t see the bomb explode; we don’t know the political circumstances or which megalomaniac (elected or dictator) started the deluge. We only see things from the point of view of the innocent who pay for the folly with their lives.

Breathless looks music-video slick and drips with style, creating the sense of a heightened reality set on the streets of L.A. This is the nouvelle vague for the MTV generation. The story and characters in both films may seem similar, but to call the 1983 Breathless a remake is a naive assumption.

We all enjoy being stumped by riddles like Why is a raven like a writing desk? A riddle is a mental puzzle, a brain teaser much…

In a time laden with remakes and sequels, today’s filmmakers should take a tip from what happened in 1983, when two cinematic giants showed us how to re-imagine classic tales, and how to forge new and creative pathways into the core of our mythical parables.

A few key moments standout from my experiences with the world of cinema as a child. The first time I saw Jaws and refused to go anywhere…

Heat and Dust was Merchant/Ivory’s biggest hit to date internationally. Britain was in the throes of nostalgia for the period of Raj India – Lean’s A Passage to India was about to break on the big screen and, on TV, The Jewel in the Crown would dominate.

Narration is simple explanation to tell the story. Cinematic language shows that there are many different ways to explain scenes, and create a variety of…

Hot off the success of his now-classic anti-war epic, Peter Weir took on the adaptation of Christopher Koch’s potboiler about a collision between romance, journalistic obligation and revolution, The Year of Living Dangerously, which would become his last purely Australian effort.

You are either in possession of a very new human ability… or a very old one. Dr. Sam Weizak (Herbert Lom) 1983 saw four film…

There is a sweltering heat, shimmering sweat, at the very opening of L’été meurtrier (One Deadly Summer), when Elle steps into the frame. “That girl”…