So Howard Ingham and I don our Parking Inspector brassards and channel our inner hoons as we investigate The Cars That Ate Paris. You can listen to the Podcast above or here but by way of introduction a quick word about rural Australia on film. Director Peter Weir is probably the first among equals for … Continue reading M4 Death Trip #4: The Cars That Ate Paris (1974)
Adaptations are curious beasts, they can bring a story to a far greater audience yet are subject to the demands of their new medium. While this can often necessitate simplifying the story, it isn't always to the adaptation's detriment. Are there many people who prefer Peter Benchley's novel Jaws (1974) to Stephen Spielberg's 1975 film? … Continue reading Foreign Countries #15: Night Voices: The Hospice (1987)*
“History is full of darkness.” It’s a pompous line in a fairly pompous (if enjoyable) film, yet outside of the confines of Gore Verbinski’s beautiful and grotesque flop, A Cure for Wellness (2017) the line certainly holds true, and the history of witches and witch hunters shows us the devastating effects of human hysteria and … Continue reading The Man from Another Place #3: Doctor Who: The Witch Hunters (1998)
Spin off TV programmes can be a difficult sell, they rely on the success of their parent programme to be born but must serve a different purpose to survive on their own. Secondary characters need to be capable of stepping up to lead and like any other programme the central premise must be strong enough. … Continue reading Foreign Countries Christmas Special: K-9 and Company: A Girl’s Best Friend (1981)
Paddy Russell's death on 2 November saw the end of one of television's true pioneers, the first female floor manager at the BBC and the first woman to direct Doctor Who. You can read Toby Hadoke's obituary for Paddy in The Guardian here. She cut her teeth under legendary television producer and director Rudolph Cartier on … Continue reading Foreign Countries #14: Late Night Horror: The Corpse Can’t Play (1968)
Visiting a cinema's rubbish these days isn't it? By 'cinema' I of course mean the 'civilian cinema' of a multiplex or similar. This rather snobbish observation reflects the barrage of adverts and mind draining trailers one sits through before the film starts and having to share the auditorium with any number of patrons who display … Continue reading Foreign Countries #13: The Orchard End Murder (1980)
Early on in this blog I remarked that short form is probably the best way to tell a ghost story, it spares the need for an explanation that always seems to disappoint, but of course a short film is not so much of an attractive proposition for film distributors and cinemas. Thus the portmanteau … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #2: Ghost Stories (2017)
Sure, Flash Gordon (1980) and Morons from Outer Space (1985) may only ever been seen as cult favourites but when you mention Mike Hodges, there's usually one film you think of, and it stars Michael Caine........ Get Carter's uncompromising style and informal camera work betrays Hodges' background in TV documentary. But when it comes to … Continue reading Foreign Countries #11: The Frighteners: The Manipulators (1972)
First in an occasional series looking at forthcoming British films, starting here with Francis Lee's debut feature, God's Own Country. The British farming industry's certainly going though a purple patch at the moment, although sadly only on film. There's Clio Barnard's forthcoming Dark River to look foward to and Hope Dickson Leach's superb recent feature … Continue reading Land of weather forecasts and breakfasts that set in #1: God’s Own Country (2017)
Another in the series of podcasts where Howard Ingham and I watch a film we’d not previously seen and then have a chat about it. This time it’s latter day Johnny Depp enabler Gore Verbinski’s box office bomb A Cure for Wellness (2017). You can stream the podcast here: A Cure for Wellness borrows liberally … Continue reading M4 Death Trip #3: A Cure for Wellness (2017)
Views From A Hill 