It was always going to be an iconic moment – the first public post-wedding kiss between Prince William and his blushing bride, Kate Middleton – but somehow this classic Royal Wedding image is made even more memorable by the blonde-haired tot in the far left hand corner. The baby bridesmaid with hands clamped firmly over [...]
Archive for the ‘Watching’ Category
Cutie van Cutsem goes to the Royal Wedding
Posted in Watching, tagged Grace van Cutsem, Prince William, Royal Wedding, Wills and Kate on April 29, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Annals of great TV drama: The Killing, BBC4
Posted in Watching, tagged danish drama, review of the killing, sarah lund, the killing, TV drama on February 21, 2011 | 10 Comments »
If you’re not already watching The Killing, the stylish Danish police thriller showing on BBC4, you’ve got a treat in store. Head down to the iPlayer where you’ve got a month to catch-up on the 10 episodes you’ve missed so far – episodes 11 and 12 are on Saturday night. The plot may tread familiar [...]
Trailer of the Week: Somewhere
Posted in Watching, tagged Elle Fanning, sofia coppola, somewhere, Stephen Dorff, trailer of the week, venice film festival on October 17, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Sofia Coppola‘s latest film, Somewhere, won the Golden Lion for best feature at this year’s Venice Film Festival. The trailer – true to form – looks ravishing. And the song that accompanies it, ‘I’ll try anything once’ (the Strokes’ haunting demo version of ‘You only live once’) is a perfect complement. But while I’m a [...]
Trailer of the Week: Inception
Posted in Watching, tagged christopher nolan, Inception, Leonardo DiCaprio, trailer of the week on July 20, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Christopher Nolan‘s first film to hit the big time was Memento, a dark, genre-bending piece of cinema starring Guy Pearce, the script for which Nolan co-wrote with his brother Jonathan. He followed that up with Insomnia, which pitted Al Pacino against a villainous Robin Williams in a perpetually light Alaska. Though somewhat less original than [...]
Trailer of the Week: Babies
Posted in Watching on June 16, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
Is it just my hormones or is this the cutest trailer ever? French filmmaker Thomas Balmes has made a documentary starring four babies, born and being raised in four very different locations: Mongolia, Namibia, San Francisco and Tokyo. Look out for ace Namibian baby balancing a pot on head while walking. [P.S. I know it's [...]
Trailer of the Week: Lorna’s Silence
Posted in Watching, tagged Dardennes, L'Enfant, Lorna's Silence, poverty in film on August 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Very few directors make successful films about poverty, or about the people whose lives are spun out in its shadow. It’s not only that Hollywood producers have little interest in the subject, the blame also rests with us, the audience. It’s rare that we feel inclined to watch truth in all its hopeless chaotic injustice. [...]
Pre-pre-pre trailer: Fair Game
Posted in Watching, tagged fair game, judith miller, naomi watts and sean penn, valerie plame on July 22, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
In terms of telling complex stories to mass audiences, film is the most effective communication medium we have. So I’m pretty excited about this new film: Fair Game will document the Valerie Plame affair. It’s a story that truly deserves to be immortalised on celluloid, providing an astonishing insight into the depth of iniquity reached [...]
Trailer of the Week: The Hurt Locker
Posted in Watching, tagged jeremy renner, kathryn bigelow, the hurt locker, trailer of the week on July 3, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Bomb disposal scenes are a surefire shortcut to suspense. Doom-laden while at the same time full of hope; engrossing but maddeningly tense. The pared-down simplicity of the narrative – after all, there are only two possible endings when a bomb is within inches of your protagonist – is easy for audiences to grasp and even [...]
Home by Yann Arthus Bertrand
Posted in acclimatizing, Watching, tagged climate change, home, yann arthus-bertrand on June 5, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is an incredibly beautiful film. You can see it, all 90 minutes of it, on youtube, for free. It took 2 and a half years to make, with 500 hours of footage filmed across 54 countries. It may make you cry. In 50 years, in a single lifetime, the earth has been more radically [...]
Trailer of the Week: Terminator Salvation
Posted in Watching, tagged christian bale, terminator salvation, trailer of the week on May 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Sometimes trailers don’t do justice to a film. Other times, they showcase a certain magic that the actual movie sadly never attains. I have a feeling that might be the case with Terminator: Salvation, which has been notching up some pretty miserable reviews since it was released on May 21st in the US. Stephanie Zacharek [...]
Trailer of the Week: Coraline
Posted in Watching, tagged coraline, neil gaiman, stop motion animation, the uncanny, trailer of the week on April 21, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
If this wasn’t stop motion I might actually find it too scary to see. Then again I am a bit of a wimp when it comes to the uncanny, even when featured in a children’s film, and this one looks so full of Freudian dissonance it practically redefines das unheimliche. Coraline is a little girl [...]
Presidential Pets
Posted in Watching, tagged bo, feller truman, obama pet, portuguese water dog on April 14, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The news we’ve all been waiting for. Bo, the portuguese water dog, has finally landed at the White House. If the shot on the left isn’t enough to sate your understandable curiosity, the Guardian has a mini-gallery collating all available photos of the fluffy hound. All five photos! Including one when he was just six [...]
In the Valley of Elah
Posted in Watching, tagged david and goliath, in the valley of elah, iraq war films, paul haggis, tommy lee jones on March 23, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
We all know the story of David and Goliath. David was the brave messenger boy who used a tiny catapult to defeat a giant that no-one else dared fight. The place where the fight occurred is probably less familiar. According to 1 Samuel 17: Saul and the Israelites assembled and camped in the Valley of [...]
Coal and the Coens
Posted in acclimatizing, Watching, tagged clean coal, coen brothers, this is reality on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Joel and Ethan Coen have made a fun little film about clean coal. Enjoyable. Watch it here:
Trailer of the week: State of Play
Posted in Watching, tagged paul abbott, russell crowe, state of play, state of play bbc, trailer of the week on February 23, 2009 | 3 Comments »
Much as I like this poster, I need you not to see the film without first watching the original tv series. It’s for your own good, trust me. David Yates directed the six part thriller for the BBC back in 2003, from a script by the legendary Paul Abbott, the writer of Cracker, Shameless and [...]
Kubrick competition winner!
Posted in Watching, tagged best film of 2008, BFI, gomorrah, kubrick competition on February 20, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Thankyou to everyone who entered the competition for tickets to the BFI’s Kubrick season! I’ve got to say it was an absolute pleasure to read every single entry and I thought I’d post excerpts from the best below, since they highlight some pretty interesting films and even if you didn’t enter, you might get an [...]
Kubrick tickets, a little treat just for you
Posted in Watching, tagged BFI, BFI Kubrick season, british film institute, free cinema tickets, stanley kubrick on January 29, 2009 | 1 Comment »
The British Film Institute is running a season of Stanley Kubrick films to mark the fact that it’s ten years since he died. To my great excitement, I’ve got 2 free tickets to see any film featured in the season, just for YOU. That’s right. You get to go to the lovely BFI building which [...]
Trailer of the week: Watchmen
Posted in Watching, tagged alan moore, heroes and superheroes, trailer of the week, watchmen on January 25, 2009 | 1 Comment »
I saw the first trailer for this last year and wasn’t particularly excited. But at that point I knew nothing about Watchmen (I know, apologies to all comic-enthusiasts). I think I then filed it away in my brain alongside Night Watch and subsequently came to think of them as one and the same. Oops. Thank [...]
Trailer of the week: Gran Torino
Posted in Watching, tagged clint eastwood, clint eastwood and sergio leone, gran torino on January 21, 2009 | 1 Comment »
For seven years at the start of his career, Clint Eastwood played a cattle drover in the CBS television series Rawhide. Between 1959 and 1965, he completed a total of 217 episodes, more than any other actor in the entire series. Maybe that record stint is a lesson in patience. Almost half a century later, [...]
So many films, so little time
Posted in Watching, tagged frost/nixon, milk, rachel getting married, trailer of the week on January 20, 2009 | 1 Comment »
On Friday a cluster of films come out that have each been trailers of the week: Milk, Frost/Nixon and Rachel Getting Married. A cause for celebration but simultaneously, a teeny bit frustrating; why did they have to schedule them all at once? Couldn’t the distributors have sprinkled the good stuff more evenly through those arid [...]
