Closely Watched DVDs

More so that I can keep track of it than for any other reason, this is an index of everything I’ve written for Sight & Sound to date (including commissioned but not yet published work).

September 2002:

• ‘The Russians Are Coming’ - profile of the Russian Cinema Council’s DVD project

May 2004:

• ‘Cheap Wigs and Arsenic’ - an interview with Guy Maddin
• review of The Saddest Music in the World (d. Guy Maddin, Canada)

January 2005:

• review of Hukkle (d. György Pálfi, Hungary)

February 2005:

• ‘Blood, breasts and beasts’ - review of five DVDs of trashy 1950s Samuel Z Arkoff productions

April 2005:

• review of Darkness (d. Jaume Balagueró, Spain)

July 2005:

• ‘Funny Peculiar’ - a feature on Alastair Sim (available here)
• review of A Dirty Shame (d. John Waters, US)

September 2005:

• review of Primer (d. Shane Carruth, US)

October 2005:

• review of The Jealous God (d. Stephen Woodcock, UK)

November 2005:

• news item on the rediscovery of Michelangelo Antonioni’s The Passenger
• review of Out on a Limb (d. Robert Heath, UK)

February 2006:

• review of Drink-Drank-Drunk (d. Derek Yee, Hong Kong)

March 2006:

• brief profile of the Brothers Quay
• review of Song of Songs (d. Josh Appignanesi, UK)
• review of The World’s Fastest Indian (d. Roger Donaldson, New Zealand)

April 2006:

• obituary of Walerian Borowczyk (1923-2006)
• letter about digital projection subtitle glitches

May 2006:

• article on The Open Road (d. Claude Friese-Greene, 1924-6)
• review of Pierrepoint (d. Adrian Shergold, UK)

June 2006

• review of Fateless (d. Lajos Koltai, Hungary)
• short DVD review of The Night of the Shooting Stars (d. Paolo & Vittorio Taviani, Italy, 1981)
• short DVD review of The Red and the White (d. Miklós Jancsó, Hungary, 1967)
• long DVD review of The Cremator (d. Juraj Herz, Czechoslovakia, 1968) (available here)
• book review of Los Olvidados by Mark Polizzotti (BFI Film Classics, 2006)

July 2006

• review of Pusher 3: I’m the Angel of Death (d. Nicolas Winding Refn, Denmark)

August 2006

• review of The Death of Mr Lazarescu (d. Christi Puiu, Romania) (available here)
• letter about star ratings

September 2006

• review of Wilderness (d. Michael J. Bassett, UK)
• book review of Accidental Genius: How John Cassavetes Invented the American Independent Film by Marshall Fine (Miramax Books, 2006)

October 2006

• review of Johanna (d. Kornél Mundruczó, Hungary)
• DVD review of Fantastic Planet (d. René Laloux, France/Czechoslovakia, 1973)

November 2006

• review of Life & Lyrics (d. Richard Laxton, UK)
• review of The Queen (d. Stephen Frears, UK)

December 2006

• report from the Sarajevo Film Festival
• review of London to Brighton (d. Paul Andrew Williams, UK) (available here)
• short DVD review of Passenger (d. Andrzej Munk, 1961, Poland)

January 2007

• short DVD review of Avenge But One of My Two Eyes (d. Avi Mograbi, Israel/France, 2005)

February 2007

• comparative DVD review of films by Sergei Paradjanov
• review of Esma’s Secret (d. Jasmila Žbanić, Bosnia/Austria/Croatia/Germany)
• review of Lives of the Saints (d. Rankin/Chris Cottam, UK) - available here
• short DVD review of Blind Husbands (d. Erich von Stroheim, US, 1919)
• short DVD review of The Cranes Are Flying (d. Mikhail Kalatozov, USSR, 1957)
• short DVD review of Ballad of a Soldier (d. Grigori Chukhrai, USSR, 1959)
• short DVD review of The Star (d. Nikolai Lebedev, Russia, 2002)

March 2007

• short introduction to the films of Luis Buñuel
• review of 9th Company (d. Fyodor Bondarchuk, Russia)
• short DVD review of A Long Weekend in Pest and Buda (d. Károly Makk, Hungary, 2003)
• medium-length DVD review of Buster Keaton: The Complete Short Films (1917-1923)
• medium-length DVD review of Naruse Vol.1 (Repast, Sound of the Mountain, Flowing) (d. Mikio Naruse, Japan, 1951/4/6)

April 2007

• short DVD review of Ozu Volume 4 (Late Autumn/An Autumn Afternoon, d. Yasujiro Ozu, Japan, 1960/62)
• short DVD review of The Bridesmaid (d. Claude Chabrol, France, 2004)
• short DVD review of The Conformist (d. Bernardo Bertolucci, Italy, 1970)
• medium-length DVD review of three Hungarian Film Classics titles: Anna (d. Zoltán Fábri, 1958), The Corporal and the Others (d. Márton Keleti, 1965) and Budapest Tales (d. István Szabó, 1976)
• review of Richard Taylor’s new translation of Vsevolod Pudovkin’s Selected Essays

May 2007

• introduction to the films of Roberto Rossellini
• brief introduction to the films of David and Albert Maysles
• short DVD review of F For Fake (d. Orson Welles, 1974)
• short DVD review of Pasolini Volume 1 (Tartan)
• short DVD review of Peeping Tom (d. Michael Powell, 1960)
• short DVD review of Romeo, Juliet and Darkness (d. Jiří Weiss, 1960)

June 2007

• capsule review of The Cranes Are Flying (d. Mikhail Kalatozov, 1957, USSR)
• capsule review of Man of Iron (d. Andrzej Wajda, 1981, Poland)
• short DVD review of The Commissar (d. Alexander Askoldov, USSR, 1967)
• short DVD review of Daughters of Darkness (d. Harry Kümel, Belgium/Italy/France/West Germany, 1971)
• short DVD review of Malpertuis (d. Harry Kümel, France/Belgium/West Germany, 1971)
• short DVD review of The Arrival of Joachim Stiller (d. Harry Kümel, Belgium/Netherlands, 1976)

July 2007

• review of Taxidermia (d. György Pálfi, Hungary, 2006)
• review of Lunacy (d. Jan Švankmajer, Czech Republic, 2005)
• short interview with long-term Švankmajer associate Keith Griffiths
• short overview of John Cassavetes’ career
• short DVD review of Bad Timing (d. Nicolas Roeg, UK, 1980)
• short DVD review of Diary of a Lost Girl (d. G.W. Pabst, Germany, 1929)
• short DVD review of Droopy The Complete Collection (d. Tex Avery, US)
• short DVD review of General Idi Amin Dada (d. Barbet Schroeder, France 1976)
• short DVD review of Grey Gardens (d. David & Albert Maysles, US, 1975)
• short DVD review of Insignificance (d. Nicolas Roeg, UK, 1985)
• short DVD review of Salesman (d. David & Albert Maysles, US, 1968)

Currently working on:

• review of Tough Enough (d. Detlev Buck, Germany, 2006)
• review of Transylvania (d. Tony Gatlif, France, 2006)
• review of 12:08 East of Bucharest (d. Corneliu Porumboiu, Romania, 2006)
• short piece on Szindbad (d. Zoltán Huszárik, Hungary, 1971)
• short DVD review of The Andrei Tarkovsky Companion (Artificial Eye)
• short DVD review of Nuri Bilge Ceylan: The Early Works (Artificial Eye)
• short DVD review of Erotikon (d. Gustav Machaty, Czechoslovakia, 1929)
• short DVD review of Elegy of a Voyage/Hubert Robert - A Fortunate Life (d. Alexander Sokurov, Russia, 1996/2002)
• short DVD review of Elegy of the Land (d. Alexander Sokurov, USSR, 1977/1988)
• short DVD review of Seven Songs from the Tundra (d. Anastasia Lapsui & Markku Lehmuskallio, Finland, 1999)