history

There are a lot of film-related press releases that I ignore, because I tend to stick to horror and skip over much else. I try to venture out, but horror is where my heart is. When I received an email titled “ONLY for Serious Fans of…

“Now the reason the enlightened prince and the wise general conquer the enemy whenever they move and their achievements surpass those of ordinary men is foreknowledge" – Sun Tzu, The Art of War One day shortly after World War II, Winston…

There was a time in the mid 20th when Europe cornered the market in batty anthropologists. Swiss fraudster Erich von Däniken theorised that the Incas came from space, or communed with those who did, and Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl theorised…

The word sumptuous must have been printed across German-Turkish director Fatih Akin’s camera during the making of The Cut. It’s a description he does all he can to own in a film that crosses countries, continents, deserts, mountains and…

As harmless and inoffensive as they come, Castles In The Sky is also an undeniably entertaining movie, anchored by a fine performance from Eddie Izzard, wobbly Scottish accent aside. It's set in some fine British countryside, utilises some…

Michael Kohlhaas is, originally, a celebrated German novella from 1810 by Heinrich von Kleist, which has however never been adapted to film until now. Michael Kohlhaas, portrayed by Mads Mikkelsen, is a well-to-do horse merchant in 16th…

 Homophobe serves gays because he's got the gay disease Dallas Buyers Club is an uneven but worthwhile film about the early days of AIDS. It dramatises the true story of Ron Woodroof, played by Matthew McConaughey in another in his long…

One day in the in the mid-1800’s, a musician by the name of Solomon Northrup, a free-born African American living in New York was abducted while traveling, and transported into the Antebellum South where he was drugged and sold into…

Most know Martin Scorsese for his work concerning violence or crime, often following gangsters, criminals or outcasts into compelling stories of conflict and downfall. A director with a body of work as large as Martin Scorsese's is, often…