Author: VHS Tracking

  • The Last Dragon (1985)

    My favourite moment in Motown producer Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon (1985) is when a packed movie theatre showing Enter The Dragon is interrupted randomly by two break-dancers and a boom-box, who are then shouted down and told to leave. Right before the unforgettable Sho’nuff (played by Julius J. Carry III in an indomitable performance)… Read.

  • Blow The Man Down (2019)

    Acquired by Amazon Studios and streaming now on Amazon Prime is the film, Blow The Man Down (2019). Beginning with a stirring rendition of the title sea shanty by several fisherman on the docks (who function as a type of Greek Chorus throughout the film), it’s a stylish way of announcing its setting – a… Read.

  • The Shout (1978)

    This was an odd one and I knew it was going to be. The Shout (1978) is a British horror film directed by Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski. All I knew about the film was that it was about a man – named Crossley and played by Alan Bates – who can kill by shouting. Based… Read.

  • Winter Light (1963)

    Winter Light (1963)

    Continuing my education into the work of director Ingmar Bergman, I picked Winter Light (1963; Nattvardsgästerna) to watch next. Mostly on the basis that it’s one of the big inspirations for Paul Schrader’s First Reformed. In that movie, it was a struggling priest dealing with a suicidal parishoner obsessed with climate change apocalypse – here,… Read.

  • Elevator To The Gallows (1958)

    Elevator to the Gallows (1958; Ascenseur pour l’echafaud) is a French film noir directed by Louis Malle that doesn’t waste any time, introducing its adulterous lovers – Julien (Maurice Ronet) and Florence (Jeanne Moreau) – on the phone in gorgeous close ups plotting the murder of her husband, his boss. Getting straight into this carefully… Read.