Films

The revolution introduced me to art, and art, in its own turn, brought me to the revolution.

Sergei Eisenstein

Monday, 14 August 2017 11:17

Dunkirk - a visceral account of the Allied retreat

Written by Michael Roberts

in Films

Michael Roberts reviews the recently released Dunkirk. Taught to children in schools up and down the country, the evacuation of Dunkirk is ingrained into the very culture of Great Britain. Images, paintings and newspaper clippings which tell the story of 400,000 British troops attempting to retreat from France with the…

Dunkirk World War II Christopher Nolan

Monday, 26 June 2017 19:49

'The most important of the arts': film after the Russian Revolution

Written by John Green

in Films

John Green outlines the role of film in the Bolshevik Revolution, and the profound and lasting influence of Russian revolutionary film-makers on cinema not only in the Soviet Union but across the world. According to the Bolshevik government’s first Commissar for Education, Anatoly Lunacharsky, Lenin remarked that, ‘Film for us…

Russian Revolution Eisenstein Vertov

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Thursday, 22 June 2017 19:50

Not the Feelies

in Films

Written by Jenny Farrell

Jenny Farrell explains how Leviathan reveals the nature of capitalism. The dystopias of the mid-20th century, Brave New World (1932) and Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), described with astonishing accuracy the world we live in today: thought police, news speak, genetic engineering, escapist drugs and a cinema that conditions people not to…

Leviathan capitalism Modern Russia

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 18 March 2017 15:37

Hypernormalisation

in Films

Written by Chris Jury

Chris Jury finds Adam Curtis's latest film to be memorable and compelling, but also irritatingly obscure. The term "hypernormalisation" is taken from Alexei Yurchak's 2006 book Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation, in which Yurchak argues that for many decades everyone had known the…

Hypernormalisation Adam Curtis fake news

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Saturday, 10 December 2016 16:01

Horror, horror everywhere - and not just the election result

in Films

Written by Dennis Broe

Dennis Broe discerns a renewal of energy in the tired old formulae of the horror film, as film-makers draw on the horrors of everyday life under an ever more destructive, greedier capitalism. Any assessment of the best films of 2016, as critics around this time of the year are wont…

horror films neoliberal capitalism last train to busan

K2_PUBLISHED_ON Wednesday, 02 November 2016 15:35

I, Daniel Blake demands a political response

in Films

Written by Mark Stephens

Professor Mark Stephens argues that the underlying solution to the misery inflicted on the characters portrayed in David Loach’s film lies in reforming policy, not charity. Ken Loach’s Palme d’Or winning film, I, Daniel Blake, has publicised the way in which the social security system is administered and, in particular,…

Daniel Blake Ken Loach DWP

Thursday, 13 October 2016 14:53

‘Bomb the river’: space, class, and masculinity in Shane Meadows' films

Written by Steve Presence

in Films

Steve Presence looks at the way space, class and masculinity are represented in two films directed by Shane Meadows. Introducing his book Cinematic Countrysides (2007), Robert Fish emphasises the ‘rich and diverse spatial imagery’ evoked when considering cinematic representations of rural space. Exploring representations of the countryside on film also,…

Shane Meadows Twentyfourseven A Room for Romeo Brass

Saturday, 17 September 2016 14:14

'If we stop fighting, the world will die': a review of Casablanca

Written by Phil Brett

in Films

Phil Brett draws some lessons for today's refugee crisis from Casablanca. Casablanca often features in lists of favourite films, and often receives highbrow scoffing. The novelist and critic Umberto Eco, for example, says of the movie, 'To make a good story, a single archetype is usually good enough. But Casablanca…

Friday, 19 August 2016 15:58

Films for Corbyn

Written by Andrew Warburton

in Films

Andrew Warburton interviews one of the organisers of screenings of some socialist films at the islington Mill, Salford. One proof of Jeremy Corbyn’s ability to inspire grassroots action among Labour members and in the community as a whole is the ever-expanding list of cultural projects and activities bearing the name…

jeremy corbyn Momentum Islington Mill

Sunday, 19 June 2016 17:36

Once Upon a Time this West was full of Radicals: Sergio Leone, Revolution and Religion

Written by James Crossley

in Films

James Crossley analyses Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns, unearthing their twin discourses of a materialist explanation of American capitalism and an expression of a revolutionary Christianity. Even if someone has somehow not seen Sergio Leone’s Westerns, the poncho-wearing, cigar-smoking, gun-toting, stubble-growing image of its breakout star, Clint Eastwood, as well as…

Sergio Leone Clint Eastwood Ennio Morricone Fistful of Dollars The Good the bad and the ugly once upon a time in the west