John Bleasdale
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Cannes 2014: ‘Party Girl’ review
★★★☆☆ Cannes’ Un Certain Regard strand opened this year with Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq, Claire Burger and Samuel Theis’ Party Girl (2014), a well-made if unambitious social drama which asks whether an aging, leopard skin-clad nightclub hostess can really change her spots. Sixty-year-old Angélique (played by Sonia Theis-Litzemburger) is an old-fashioned good-time girl: a hostess who loves…
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Cannes 2014: Our picks of the Competition programme
The finishing touches are now underway on the world famous Croisette and the Palais du Cinema in preparation for the 67th Cannes Film Festival, which opens tomorrow (14 April) with Nicole Kidman’s geographically apposite Grace Kelly biopic, Grace of Monaco. Co-starring Frank Langella, Robert Lindsay and Tim Roth, and directed by French director Olivier Dahan…
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DVD Review: ’47 Ronin’
★★☆☆☆ The scene in the first (and what should have been only) Matrix film, where Keanu Reeves – plugged into a training programme – opens his eyes wide and gasps “I know kung fu,” is probably one of the most iconic and promising of his career. With Carl Rinsch’s 47 Ronin (2013), and after his…
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Film Review: ‘Willow Creek’
★★☆☆☆ In Bobcat Goldthwait’s God Save America follow-up Willow Creek (2013), Alexie Gilmore and Bryce Johnson play Kelly and Jim, a young couple heading out into the great outdoors to look for the legendary figure of Bigfoot. Kelly is an aspiring actress and wryly sceptical about the expedition, while Jim is a goofy enthusiast pursuing…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Winter Sleep’ preview
Unquestionably one of the most eagerly awaited films set to screen at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Winter Sleep (2014) is also one of those most shrouded in mystery. Very little is known about the new offering from acclaimed Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Uzak, Three Monkeys, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia), who makes…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Mr. Turner’ preview
Along with fellow British veteran Ken Loach’s Jimmy’s Hall, Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner (2014) will be in the running for the coveted Palme d’Or in the next fortnight. A biopic of Victorian painter J.M.W. Turner, the film stars Timothy Spall as the famed painter alongside Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey and Paul Jesson. Leigh’s previous foray…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Maps to the Stars’ preview
Acolytes of body horror master David Cronenberg will be hoping for a late career revival when his new film, 2014’s Maps to the Stars, has its grand unveiling at Cannes this May, particularly after the joint disappointment of 2011 psychoanalysis drama A Dangerous Method and the overly faithful Cosmopolis (2012). Enlisting A-List stars Mia Wasikowska,…
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Cannes 2014: ‘Jimmy’s Hall’ preview
Whether or not it turns out to be Ken Loach’s final narrative film, Jimmy’s Hall (2014) looks like being a favourite when it lands on the Croisette in competition at this year’s 67th Cannes Film Festival. Cannes has commonly been a home from home for British director Loach where – despite the glam, the frocks…
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Cannes 2014: ‘The Homesman’ preview
Fresh from the dusty plains, American actor Tommy Lee Jones will present his second directorial offering, The Homesman (2014), in competition at the 67th Cannes Film Festival. Following on from Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff (2011) and anticipating Gavin O’Connor’s much troubled Jane Got a Gun (2015) (both Lynne Ramsay and Michael Fassbender were once attached), The…
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Blu-ray Review: ‘Sisters’
★★★☆☆ Made in 1973, a whole three years before his breakthrough Stephen King adaptation Carrie, Brian De Palma’s Sisters (previously released as Blood Sisters in the UK and now available on DVD and Blu-ray through Arrow Video) begins with a mock quiz show called ‘Peeping Tom’, in which a female participant wins a set of…