Anime has become a popular form of animation despite the many misconceptions that people have of it. If I had never watched any anime (and I have watched very little), I would be left with nothing …

La Grande Illusion is a war movie that is largely unknown to the general public, and yet adored by serious film critics. Perhaps this is because the average audience member looks for punctuation in…

I am neither a nationalist nor a regionalist. I feel no particular national or civic pride for the place of my birth. Nonetheless, I identify with my country and hometown, and it is hard not to fee…

This is part of a four-part examination of three Martin Scorsese gangster films: For an overview, click here. For a review of Casino, click here. For a review of The Irishman, click here. The openi…

While the spaghetti western had a brief flare of popularity in the 1960s, it was always something of a guilty pleasure – a chance for audiences to enjoy a new kind of western that pushed the bounda…

1939 was an important year in American cinema history. A number of significant films were made that would establish the direction of the medium for the next few decades. This was the year in which …

The Golem was arguably one of the first truly cinematic movies, where story, sets, camerawork and direction were all integrated together to create a fully cohesive story.  The images may seem flick…

The 1930s may well be the only decade in history when being a gold digger was something that could be regarded sympathetically. Even 1980s films such as Wall Street which had a character declare th…

If you were a famous comic act in the first half of the twentieth century, you probably made a comedy western. Charlie Chaplin (if you count The Gold Rush), Harold Lloyd, Bob Hope, Abbot and Costel…

During the 1940s and 1950s there were three novelists whose thrillers were often cinema gold when adapted for the big screen. These were Graham Greene, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Alan L…

There are many reasons to love Gilda – the lush photography and set designs, the beautiful costumes, the tense film noir acting, and the radiant loveliness of Rita Hayworth. I could not include the…

Buster Keaton’s movies have always been viewed in the same league as those of Charlie Chaplin, but the man himself has made less impression. Chaplin knew how to exaggerate his physical traits to dr…