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Such a curious and fascinating film - it’s a real joy to see what happens when a film-maker as deeply proficient as Nolan takes on such an ambitious narrative Read the rest of this entry »
I don’t know what it was like to live in the 40’s, but that period sure looks great in film. It was the decade cinema came of age, after all, so perhaps its an appeal based in a sort of borrowed nostalgia. All the men wear hats, all the women have shoulder pads, and everyone speaks so elegantly to each other. There’s something to be said, too, for the value of the cigarette as a dramatic device. It’s an intimate prop actors can use to convey meaning, and nothing adds more atmosphere to a night scene than a miasma of cigarette smoke. But Married Life uses its 40’s setting as more than just window dressing - its mixture of social sophistication and personal restraint is a key driver in the story’s premise, involving love and passion, betrayal and murder. Read the rest of this entry »
Ever since a bloke named Moses came down a hill carrying a stone with the words “Thou shalt not kill” engraved upon it (among other, more nit-picking directives), we have been obsessed with the concept of murder. It permeates every form of art and entertainment that European-based cultures have indulged in, from painting, to music, to literature, to film, to boardgames. Let’s face it: we love it. It’s so much fun! Which means that films like Jonathan Lynn’s Clue are probably going to be enjoyable for most of us regardless of whether or not they’re really very good films. Read the rest of this entry »
The time immediately after World War II is a bit of a murky one for most of us who didn’t live through it. We get taught lots about how the war started and how it was conducted, but very little about how it was wrapped up. This is significant when you consider that many of the world’s conflict zones exist today as a result of decisions made by the victorious Allies as to how the world would be divided up politically. Set in Berlin immediately after its capture by Allied troops, The Good German turns its focus on one particularly significant episode in recent human history by throwing its protagonists into the middle of the conflicting forces that had already started to fill the vacuum left by the Axis’ defeat.
