I have loved movies for as long as I can remember. Growing up, there was something about the experience of going to the cinema that I found magical. Watching movies at home on my parents’ old, small, black and white TV was all well and good, but it couldn’t compete with the immersive experience of sitting…
A Fistful Of Dynamite
A Fistful Of Dynamite tends to be the forgotten Sergio Leone spaghetti western, compared to the Dollars trilogy and Once Upon A Time In The West…which is a pity, as its a lot of fun, with great chemistry between stars James Coburn and Rod Steiger. The movie was made at a time when the ideals…
Badlands
“La Balade Sauvage” is the French title for Terrence Malick’s 1973 classic neo-noir Badlands, and is arguably a more evocative description of the film itself. Badlands was director Malick’s feature debut, and shares a lyrical tone, leisurely pace and strong use of imagery with much of his later works. Much of the movie’s enduring strength…
Rollerball
“In the not too distant future, wars will no longer exist. But there will be Rollerball.” That I remember was the tag-line on the UK poster for this 1975 sci-fi classic. This French poster doesn’t bother with any of that, instead relying on a powerful graphic image which pretty well sums up the movie! The…
French movie poster books
In addition to collecting movie posters themselves, I have also amassed a number of books about movie posters. Whilst some of these are in English, an equal number I have found in France, where I live. Some of these are translations of books that are available elsewhere in English, but others are more specifically about…
Network
“I’m as mad as hell and I’m not going to take this any more.” If you remember nothing else of Network, you probably remember that line. Sidney Lumet’s 1976 classic satire is perhaps still the greatest movie ever made about television. Peter Finch’s unhinged TV newscaster is about to be fired, and announces he intends…
Diamonds Are Forever
In the James Bond poster collecting world, rarity almost always equates to price. I have a number of original Bond posters from around the world framed and up on my walls. I’ve also had an equal number pass through my hands, many of which I sold years ago for what in retrospect were very low…
Spirit Of St Louis
This is a movie I feel I should have seen, but if so I remember nothing about it. It is a biopic of aviator Charles Lindbergh, and specifically his history-making 33 hour transatlantic flight in the plane of the title. The great Billy Wilder directs, and the 25 year-old Lindbergh is played by the 47…
The Satanic Rites Of Dracula
1973’s The Satanic Rites Of Dracula is the last of the Hammer Dracula series. It gets something of a bad rep, but I rather enjoyed it. Having brought Dracula into the twentieth century with the previous Dracula AD72, which had a striking title but little else to recommend it, the producers gave Dracula rather more…
The Killing Fields
Uniquely, I saw The Killing Fields in the presence of the producer, director and writer! Back when I was reviewing movies for my university newspaper, the producers of The Killing Fields hit upon what I still think was a clever marketing ploy: they invited student journalists from universities and colleges around the country to a…