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Welcome to my blog, if you are looking for reviews of the latest releases then I would suggest taking a look at some of the other excellent blogs mentioned to the right of this blog, for I review an eclectic mix of films from any era and any country and have sadly little time for the latest film news.
Enjoy my blog and don't hesitate to comment, I will answer without delay!

Friday 7 January 2011

7th of January!

Today,Friday the 7th of January 2011, is my birthday. I have reached the "venerable" age of 17!

I won't bore you all with a list of presents I received (but if you really want to know then check this out!) and what food I ate and what I did in general.

Instead I would like to point out that today is also the birthday of actor Nicolas Cage (47 years old).

Thursday 6 January 2011

The Proposition - 2005: Short Review

Directed by John Hillcoat who has since directed The Road, this film is often labelled a Western but if it really is a Western, then it's a very peculiar one. The one thing that all Westerns are supposed share is the location, The Wild West of the USA, this film however takes place entirely in the Australian outback.
It is a British-Australian co-production with very limited US involvement and it has a cast made up almost entirely of British, Australians and Aborigines. The film includes the always fantastic John Hurt, the underrated Guy Pearce, surprisingly talented tough guy Ray Winstone, often overlooked David Wenham and extremely talented Emily Watson, the only American I can recall is Danny Huston who gave an excellent performance.

But despite what one might think, this film is still very similar in themes and in tone to the more familiar Westerns.

Wednesday 5 January 2011

Signs Of Life - 1968

 Introduction:

Werner Herzog is one of the greatest directors in history and surely one of the best or even the best living director.

The quantity of his work combined with the consistent quality makes him a truly daunting figure in the Cinematic world.
Over the course of 5 decades he has directed 17 feature length films all of which are highly acclaimed, 7 short films and around 30 documentaries, some feature length, some made for TV and others short.

So he's not one of the most prolific directors, when it comes to feature films anyway, but his films very rarely disappoint in terms of quality.

Herzogs' films are great examples of art in film instead of being empty-headed entertainment. They are sensitive, often beautiful works that deal with fascinating subjects that really show mankind in a different light than what we are used to seeing in film.

As well as being fascinating and sometimes illuminating stories of Man and Nature, Herzogs' film are always extremely well made, he just has a natural talent behind the camera and can make any scene however seemingly banal into something wonderful to experience.

Now I could go on for a considerable length of time discussing Herzog's merits as a director, but this is after all a review of his first feature film, Signs Of Life.

 
Strange poster to a strange film...