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Ken Loach's Kes - A few thoughts on Billy Casper

A chance encounter with a sparrowhawk while reading J.A. Baker's book The Peregrine led to a viewing of Ken Loach's 1969 film, Kes. Graeme Hobbs shares his thoughts on the film and its protagonist.

A chance encounter with a sparrowhawk while reading J.A. Baker's book The Peregrine led to a viewing of Ken Loach's 1969 film, Kes. Graeme Hobbs shares his thoughts on the film and its protagonist.

 

L'Argent (Money) - a timely tale from 1928 of bankers and greed

The tale of an innocent man getting caught up in the wreckage created by the speculations of rival bankers is an apposite one for our times. This week Graeme considers Marcel L'Herbier's 1928 film L'Argent - Money.

The tale of an innocent man getting caught up in the wreckage created by the speculations of rival bankers is an apposite one for our times. This week Graeme considers Marcel L'Herbier's 1928 film L'Argent - Money...

 

Rivers and Tides - Andy Goldsworthy and the forms and rhythms of nature

Graeme Hobbs takes inspiration from last week's surprise snowfall and looks at Rivers and Tides - a portrait of artist Andy Goldsworthy, who uses the materials of the natural world to create sculptures

The recent heavy snowfall in Britain, and the unselfconscious wonder it provoked in many people, put me in mind of a lovely film portrait of an artist who spends his life trying to understand the forms and rhythms...

 

Podcast: A Film for Winter - Alexander Sokurov's A Humble Life

Graeme Hobbs finds a hidden winter treasure in Sokurov's 1997 work A Humble Life, a bonus film on Artificial Eye's DVD of Mother and Son.

In Sokurov's 1997 film A Humble Life (which is a bonus film on Artificial Eye's DVD of Mother and Son), he shares with us a few all too brief and enticing moments in the life of a Japanese woman, Umeno Matshueshi,...

 

Podcast: A Spooky Tale for Christmas - Ancient Lights

With the nights dark and Christmas just around the corner, this is a traditional time for ghost stories and tales of the supernatural. So, in a special edition of our normally film-centric podcast, Graeme reads Algernon Blackwood's 1914 story, Ancient Lig

With the nights dark and Christmas just around the corner, this is a traditional time for ghost stories and tales of the supernatural. So, in a special edition of our normally film-centric podcast, Graeme reads Al...

 

Podcast - I Served the King of England

"Good comedy should be about serious things" - Graeme's latest podcast examines Jiri Menzel's (Closely Observed Trains) latest film, I Served the King of England.

Graeme takes a look at Jiri Menzel's (Closely Observed Trains) latest film, adapted from Bohumil Hrabal's novel, I Served the King of England and considers how time and familiarity with the original material have ...

 

Podcast - Son of Man and La Vie de Jesus

Graeme looks at two very different films that take as their starting point the life of Jesus.

This week, Graeme looks at two very different films that take as their starting point the life of Jesus. The first, Mark Dornford-May's Son of Man, transposes Jesus's life to a re-imagined contemporary southern Af...

 

The Weight of Western Living

Graeme takes a look at two recent documentaries that consider the mechanisms and processes that make the habits of western life possible.

This week, Graeme takes a look at two recent documentaries that consider the mechanisms and processes that make the habits of western life possible. They are Our Daily Bread, about industrial food processing i...

 

Fever Dreams

Graeme takes a look at two films from Second Run that both feature fevered imaginings...

Graeme takes a look at two dvds from the Second Run cataogue, both of which feature fevered imaginings as part of their stories. The two films are Adoor Gopalakrishnan's 1981 tense film of familial breakdown, Rat-...

 

New Filmcast on Artists' Films from Lux

Lux films release high-quality dvds featuring the work of British artist-filmmakers.

This week, Graeme considers the selected films of two artists, both published on dvd in the UK by Lux. There's Guy Sherwin's Optical Sound Films, 1971-2007, which create a primal link between what we see and what ...

 

The Phantom Carriage: Silent Dread

Victor Sjostrom's The Phantom Carriage is one of the great films of the silent era, marrying a morality tale about the perils of drunkenness with outstanding camerawork and technical innovation on a ghostly theme....

 

I, Pierre Riviere, having slaughtered my mother, my sister and my brother...

I, Pierre Riviere... is a remarkable French film from 1976 that takes its title from Pierre Riviere's first person testimony about his actions from 1835. Director Rene Allio recreated Pierre Riviere's world in the...