In The White City (1983)

Swiss-German actor Bruno Ganz is popularly identified for two roles – playing the angel in Wings Of Desire and Hitler in Downfall. But I love him in The American Friend and am always keen to discover more of his work in international cinema, particularly in the 70s and 80s. In The White City (1983; aka […]

Army Of Shadows (1969)

Programming the VCR recorder to tape Le Samourai off daytime SBS was my introduction to director Jean-Pierre Meville, mainly because I’d read about him in old classic cinema books as well as knowing that film was an influence on John Woo’s The Killer (as well as Ronin, Ghost Dog, etc). I’ve only slowly caught up […]

Quintet (1979)

I was always intrigued by the existence of Quintet (1979), a poorly-reviewed box office flop and low point in both director Robert Altman and actor Paul Newman’s careers. As a kid leafing through my Mum’s Paul Newman books, the idea of a sci-fi flick about a death game sounded great, but this was before the […]

The Sacrifice (1986)

The Sacrifice (1986; Offret) was one of Nathan Beard’s answers for ‘What movie would you want to watch when the world ends?’ when we held the VHS Tracking – Live event for Blue Room Theatre a year or so ago. I always had it in mind to watch because of that, alongside my ongoing journey […]

Keoma (1976)

I remember seeing a scene from Keoma (1976), a Franco Nero spaghetti western, on SBS Cult Movies a long time ago and hearing some of its discordant, strange soundtrack, and never forgetting it. Scored by Guido and Maurizo De Angelis (who had already made a lasting impression on me recently with their weird theme to […]