This year’s Deauville American Film Festival is going less for the Hollywood glitz and more for subversive, independent voices with tributes to documentary maker extraordinaire Michael Moore and actor-director-producer James Franco. There are of course lots of stars on the red carpet at Deauville, but Moore and Franco show another side of American cinema. Michael … Continue reading “Michael Moore and James Franco at Deauville”
Rebels, hedonists, social critics… eternal outsiders who have influenced generations of writers and artists that followed. The Beat Generation exhibition at the Paris Pompidou Centre looks at the legacy of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs, and many more. The Beat poetry movement was born in the wake of World War Two. But its influence … Continue reading “The Beat Generation: On the Road”
What more fitting way to celebrate Roald Dahl’s centenary than a film adaptation of his favourite of his children’s stories by Steven Spielberg? The BFG (Big Friendly Giant) was published in 1982, the same year as Spielberg was making a name for himself with E.T. It was Dahl’s favourite of his own books, and contains … Continue reading “A Big Friendly Giant of a Film”
The Suffragette campaign was one of the major civil-rights movements of 20th century Britain. It’s amazing that 100 years after women finally got the vote, there had never been a film made about it! Suffragette, starring Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby, An Education), Helena Bonham Carter and Meryl Streep, finally puts the Suffragettes centre stage. … Continue reading “Suffragettes on Screen”
It’s not often that you get two national treasures, a lot of laughs and a genuine social debate in one film. The Lady in the Van stars Dame Maggie Smith as a homeless woman who installs herself and her van uninvited in the driveway of playwright Alan Bennett. The Lady in the Van does what … Continue reading “Maggie Smith: The Lady in the Van”
If there was a prize for the best film title of the year, it would definitely go to Race, the story of Jesse Owens’ victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. That single word manages to embody the many facets of a story which encompasses sport, politics and the triumph of the human spirit. The film … Continue reading “Race”
In honour of the Roald Dahl’s centenary, and Steven Spielberg adaptation of Dahl’s book The BFG, London and other British cities is playing host to fifty “Dream Jars” representing the dreams of well-known personalities. In The BFG, the titular Big Friendly Giant collects and mixes dreams, which he blows into children’s bedrooms. Celebrities from Steven … Continue reading “Giant Dreams”
