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Image description: A poster for one of Godard’s films on the walls of an underground station Even at the age of 89, Jean-Luc Godard hasn’t stopped being revolutionary. Whilst many directors would have quietly retreated to some mansion far away from the world of film-making, Godard continues to make films which challenge the watcher even […]
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You can’t just go to the cinema to watch a film. You need to sample the upcoming releases that play before the big event. Whether that be the trailer for the next Marvel movie or a long-awaited sequel, you’ve got to let the flavours dance on your palate before consuming the main meal. Although we’ve […]
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With the chills of British winter in full force, the cinema should have a prime position in your weekly schedule. Our love for the cinema has frequently translated into the worlds of movies themselves, with main characters attending the pictures during their journeys. The closed-off space has been utilised to create sinister, tense and foreboding […]
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This winter, the museum world and the world of cinema are set to collide in a highly anticipated exhibition at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Earlier this year, the Museum announced a new exhibition that will be unveiled in November called ‘The Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and Other Treasures from the Kunsthistorisches Museum’. Equally as […]
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For those unfamiliar with the concept, concert films are film screenings with live orchestral accompaniment. Though the popularity of concert film has rocketed in recent years, they are by no means a recent development. The earliest known concert film was Concert Magic which premiered at the Charlie Chaplin Studios in 1947. Featuring the renowned violinist […]
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In the 2012 World Cities Culture Report – an international survey examining the cultural offerings of twelve cities – it was revealed that Paris had the highest number of cinemas in the world at 302; almost three times that of London. This hardly comes as a surprise – France is widely considered the birthplace of […]
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In the town of Derry, Maine, 1988, a series of children go missing. After his brother vanishes, Bill (Jaeden Lieberher) and a group of kids known as the ‘Losers Club’ try to investigate the murders, eventually coming face to face with the demonic clown Pennywise (Bill Skarsgård). IT is not a horror movie. Well, I […]
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Well, at least it’s over now. Yes, 2016 is finally at an end and to put it diplomatically it’s been an interesting year, or to put it undiplomatically it’s been the silently screaming prologue to the apocalypse. And before you start swanning into the new year thinking that 2017’s going to be any better, let’s […]
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The Girl on the Train is a thriller centred on three women: Rachel (Emily Blunt), Megan (Haley Bennett) and Anna (Rebecca Ferguson), as well as the men and children who orbit around them. The entanglement of these various players is not overly complex but the casting of actors who are physically similar to each other […]
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Amidst news of Scarlett Johansson’s casting as Major Motoko in Ghost in the Shell, many news outlets took an opportunity to begin a productive discussion about the problem of whitewashing in Hollywood. Less discussed, however, is Hollywood’s similar problem with ‘straightwashing’. The old adage holds that to make it in Hollywood, one has to ‘play […]
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After the fun breath of fresh air that was First Class and the madcap time-travel antics of Days of Future Past, X-Men: Apocalypse is competent but ultimately disappointing, content to spin its wheels rather than moving the franchise forward in any discernible way, repeating what we’ve already seen before and falling back onto weightless CGI […]
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Sheltering from the midday sun, I was grateful for the shade provided by the Phoenix Picturehouse’s second screen. I sank down into the seat and felt my shirt cling to the upholstery. Two became one, as I did my best Comic Book Guy impression, minus oversized beverage and ponytail. Collecting my thoughts before the Oxford […]
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Just three weeks into Trinity term and the BBC has once again decided to make it virtually impossible for me to meet my Friday morning essay deadline, by scheduling the new season of Peaky Blinders at a critical stage in the essay-crisis panic. Procrastination is a cruel mistress and, of course, every week I’m easily […]
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Super soldier. Moral compass. When Captain America declares “Sorry Tony, if I see a situation pointing South I can’t ignore it. Sometimes I wish I could,” the audience watching Captain American: Civil War is almost intrinsically inclined to trust, and ultimately side with, the Cap. The power of the Russo’s new film, however, is that […]
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In a world which seems to want to move away from using gender to understand identity, artist Grayson Perry’s All Man is a fascinating look at the complexities and contradictions that make up modern masculinity, studying the extremes of society to get to the root of the “vortex of male dysfunction” he sees in Britain […]
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What would you do, if you had the telepathic power to read and control minds across the globe? Complete a P.H.D in Anthropology and take up a two-year residence at Pembroke College Oxford? No, that wasn’t going to be my answer either. But that’s what Charles Xavier aka Professor X did. Before he became a […]
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Eddie The Eagle may not have flown in real life, but there are moments when he soars on-screen. Dexter Fletcher’s feel-good romp avoids the saccharine tones which have undermined other takes on the genre, and makes you forget that you actually know the ending. Latent nods to Billy Elliot and Cool Runnings make this a […]
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Against CGI – Felix Grainger When I first saw the Thing (1982) it blew my mind. I was only 13 and was never a fan of ‘older’ horror movies due to them often being cheesy and not scary enough for my adrenaline seeking younger self. This was different. The effects were incredible, gory, slimy, plastic […]
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If you’ve heard anything about Zootropolis (Zootopia in the U.S.), you’ve probably heard how ‘timely’ it is. In the wake of #BlackLivesMatter, Disney has released a kid-friendly film addressing racial profiling, pseudo-scientific racism and other issues of racial – or ‘species-ist’ – bias. Although I’m not sure what these critics would call an ‘untimely’ time […]
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