Bickle’s Got Talent? The King Of Comedy
In this age of television wannabes and quick fix celebs, it is fitting to look back at The King Of Comedy, Martin Scorsese’s prescient examination of the modern age’s obsession with fame, and a film he himself acknowledges as a sequel of sorts to Taxi Driver, another classic misfit story. Both have similar, oddly named protagonists (Taxi Driver’s Travis Bickle, Comedy’s Rupert … Read more
Don’t Turn Me Home Again – Cutter’s Way
My first encounter with Ivan Passer’s Cutter’s Way was a fairly unusual one. Introduced to the character of Maureen Cutter in David Thomson’s legendary Suspects, Cutter’s on-screen appearance was soon sought out. For those unfamiliar with Suspects, its a novel-come-autobiography of various characters from the movies. Thomson weaves the lives of the fictional likes of … Read more
Kubrick’s Metamorphosis – Full Metal Jacket
With Paths Of Glory, Stanley Kubrick laid bare the absurdity and cruelty of war through the callousness of French Generals treatment of their own men. With Full Metal Jacket, he sought to specifically deal with the transformation of young men into killing machines, as exemplified by Sergeant Hartmann: “Your rifle is only a tool. It is a hard heart … Read more
Surviving In a World of Shit – Full Metal Jacket
At 13 features over a 50 year career, Stanley Kubrick may not have one of the lengthiest filmographies as a director, but there’s some of his films that I choose to go back to whilst others barely get a look in. Looking at a snapshot of his most memorable and highly regarded titles, I viewed … Read more
The Space Odyssey Is Worth Continuing in Peter Hyams’ 2010
Let’s get this out of the way up front: 2010 is not 2001. It just isn’t. It’s not an artistic experience that challenges the mind while painting for people an amazing future that never before felt so real and raised questions about existence and creation and why are we here and what else is waiting … Read more
The Sound of The Shining
When John Williams first read the screenplay for Schindler’s List, he expressed his doubts to Steven Spielberg: “You need a better composer,” he said. “I know,” the director replied, “but they’re all dead.” Spielberg’s approach was normal of film directors – to get the best film composer he could find to write an original … Read more
“Marriage Is An Adventure, Like Going To War” – The Untouchables
Brian De Palma’s most successful film is one charting the lives of two very different men to the backdrop of the alcohol prohibition of 1930’s America. A film about justice, faith and conscience, The Untouchables is a work tied together by some very unlikely themes, wrapping a typical Hollywood blockbuster around a core that is … Read more
Eastern Premise #1 – Tetsuo : The Iron Man
Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Seconds welcomes Jason Julier, our newest contributor with this retrospective piece on Shinya Tsukamoto’s Tetsuo : The Iron Man. Cited as a major influence on Darren Aronofsky’s debut film π, this seemed like the perfect film to mark Black Swan Week at Hope Lies at 24 Frames Per Second. … Read more
Back To The Future – Blu-ray
It wasn’t simply theatrical releases that we missed out on upon initial release this year, there were major Blu-ray and DVD releases that passed us by too. Released on the same day as the heavily lauded Alien Anthology, the high definition bow of Back To The Future was met with much criticism from a highly … Read more
Chronolynchical #4 – Dune
Dune, 1986. David Lynch. US. David Lynch’s first, and to date only step into the relative mainstream came in 1984 with Dune, a hugely ambitious adaptation of Frank Herbert’s iconic science fiction series of novels. It’s safe to say that both Lynch and Dune as an intellectual property were wounded creatures at the time of … Read more
