Playback provides a fascinating document of the making of Hard To Be A God
There’s a fine line between madness and genius in filmmaking, and the truly great, hard-to-believe-they exist-films have often perched on that line. And nothing has brought this more into focus than a making of documentary for such a film. Documentaries like Hearts of Darkness and Burden of Dreams give a way to understand the extraordinary story behind Apocalypse … Read more
Steven ‘The Butcher’ Soderbergh Part 4 – 2001: A Space Odyssey
Welcome to the fourth and final part of a series on Steven ‘The Butcher’ Soderbergh, wherein I take a look at Steven Soderbergh‘s online video releases. Throughout these features I will not only look at the way in which these films do, or do not, work but also try to understand Soderbergh’s possible motivations. As with his re-cut of Heaven’s Gate, Steven … Read more
An Open Secret review
Amy Berg previously took a look at institutionalised paedophilia within the catholic church for her 2006 documentary Deliver Us from Evil. Now she has turned her attention to the similar abuse of children in Hollywood. And based on what we see in her new film, An Open Secret, these crimes seem to be continuing with little opposition. The film opens with … Read more
Cannes: Dheepan review
Jacques Audiard has taken a somewhat surprising change of direction after the melodramtic romance of Rust and Bone, opting for a largely Tamil-language immigrant drama for his follow up. More surprising is how the film reaches towards social realism, before ultimately spinning out of control into something more akin to Death Wish 3. The film, named after its … Read more