Category Archives: DVD

Russian silent classic of special interest to film buffs, historians and photographers. Alexander Dovzhenko’s film of the civil war in the Ukraine in 1918 is a series of powerful images, stunningly composed and framed, and the craggy faces in enormous … Continue reading →

Don’t bother with the new and updated version of Graham Greene’s novel. See instead the original 1947 film, which is so much better and so much seedier. There are brilliant performances by the young Richard Attenborough as Pinkie Brown, the … Continue reading →

This Japanese double-bill by Yasujiro Ozo, formal and static, always beautifully designed, is notable for its restraint and subtle observations of Japanese life. In the first a father is determined to choose a husband for his daughter. Directed and acted … Continue reading →

Mike Leigh’s slice of middle-class British life observes the haves and the havenots in his characteristic improvised manner. Jim Broadbent and Ruth Sheen are cast as a happily married middle-aged couple whose kindness and patience is tested to the limit … Continue reading →

OF GODS AND MEN is based on the true story of the French monks in a remote village in Algeria in 1996 who were murdered by fundamentalist terrorists. Xavier Beauvois’s film explores why they remained when they were given an … Continue reading →

Social status in the Edwardian era was as important downstairs with the servants as it was upstairs with the aristocracy. The villains are just a bit too villainous and the story-lines are often melodramatic; but Julian Fellowes provides a rich … Continue reading →

The Jacques Tati 1953 classic is one of the great all-but silent films and still as funny as ever in its quiet, subtle and gentle way.

A doctor and a housewife, both happily married with children, meet by accident in a railway refreshment room. They fall in love and feel terribly guilt. The final scene, in which the unexpected arrival of a talkative acquaintance interrupts their … Continue reading →