A pulsating jazz score accompanies shots of a police car speeding through urban streets at night. Hell is a City brassily announces itself as a classic slice of 50s Hollywood film noir, but this co-production from the legendary Hammer Studios… Continue Reading →
It’s not often I watch a film that bores me from the first minute to the last. That dubious distinction belongs to Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly, a blood-spattered, expletive-ridden act of cinematic onanism that (inexplicably) has earned five-star reviews… Continue Reading →
Films about singers and musicians often chart a predictable course from youthful hedonism into addiction, overindulgence, heartbreak and early death. So it’s a relief to report that Cloclo, the stylish biopic of French chanteur Claude François, is not your run-of-the-mill… Continue Reading →
A decade ago Sandrine Kiberlain starred as the bereaved mother at the centre of a bizarre kidnap plot in Claude Miller’s thriller Alias Betty. Her character in Yves Caumon’s The Bird (L’Oiseau) has also lost a child, but this is… Continue Reading →
“You work like a horse but you never seem to get anywhere.” After decades in the cinematic wilderness, director J Lee Thompson’s Woman in a Dressing Gown returns to cinemas this week, reminding us how tough it was to be… Continue Reading →
The Dark Knight Rises will no doubt bury Todd Solondz’s Dark Horse at the box office this summer. But a lack of CGI and 3D is no reason to ignore the genius behind this painfully funny tragicomedy. Being balding and… Continue Reading →
Another washout British summer is well under way, bringing with it the familiar procession of rained-off sporting events, damp barbecues and hand-wringing editorials. Yes, the only thing that sets my teeth on edge more than our bloody awful weather is… Continue Reading →
No previous knowledge of equestrian gymnastics is required to enjoy Lisa Aschan’s impressive feature debut, She-Monkeys. Sport is the backdrop for the simmering rivalry and powerful attraction between Swedish teenagers Emma (Mathilda Paradeiser) and Cassandra (Linda Molin). But this ambiguous… Continue Reading →
Beware teachers who come brandishing the works of Balzac. When I was at school we gave short shrift to the mild-mannered French mistress who tried to make us plough through Eugénie Grandet. The 11- and 12-year-old pupils at a Montreal… Continue Reading →
© 2024 Notreallyworking — Words by Susannah Straughan
