The latest Sight & Sound is out, complete with the following pieces by me:

• brilliantlove (p. 56) – review of Ashley Horner’s paean to youthful erotic obsession: a very promising first half leads to a second without much to say;
• Red & White (p. 73) – review of Yadi Sugandi’s slick, not unenjoyable but terminally clichéd Indonesian war movie;
• Last Night (p. 86) – review of Park Circus’ DVD of Don McKellar’s very Canadian comedy of manners as assorted people contemplate the planet’s imminent but unexplained demise;
• Films by Claudia Llosa (p. 86) – review of Dogwoof’s double-bill DVD of the first two features by the Peruvian director, over which the twin spirits of Luis Buñuel and Werner Herzog loom large;
• Morgiana (p. 87) – review of Second Run’s DVD of Juraj Herz’s delirious Gainsborough-on-acid Gothic melodrama;
• Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (p. 89) – review of Masters of Cinema’s excellent Blu-ray edition of Frank Tashlin’s 1950s consumerist satire;
• The World (p. 90) – review of Masters of Cinema’s superlative Blu-ray edition of Jia Zhangke’s unsettling blend of documentary and fiction, filmed in a genuine theme park.

The latest Sight & Sound is out, complete with the following pieces by me:

• The Arbor – review of Clio Barnard’s alarmingly original take on the concept of drama-documentary;
• Involuntary – review of Ruben Östlund’s agreeably off-kilter study of Swedish social foibles;
• Possession – review of Second Sight’s excellent DVD of Andrzej Żuławski’s ferociously confrontational study of marital breakdown: probably the most complex and intelligent of the films that made the DPP’s “video nasties” list;
• The Burmese Harp – review of Masters of Cinema’s Blu-ray-only edition of Kon Ichikawa’s anti-war masterpiece;
• Compulsion – review of Second Sight’s DVD of Richard Fleischer’s widescreen treatment of the Leopold and Loeb murder case that also inspired Rope and Swoon;
• Satyajit Ray Volume 3 – review of Artificial Eye’s latest box set, containing the revelatory Deliverance, the masterly Tagore adaptation The Home and the World, and the disappointing Ibsen adaptation An Enemy of the People;
• While the City Sleeps – review of Fritz Lang’s wickedly funny thriller about media priorities when faced with a life-or-death drama.

The latest Sight & Sound is out, complete with the following pieces by me:

• ‘Something wild’ (p. 84) – review of Criterion’s Eclipse box of three early features by Dušan Makavejev;
• Beaufort (p. 85) – review of Trinity’s Blu-ray of Joseph Cedar’s hard-hitting war movie, set in southern Lebanon just before the Israeli pull-out;
• Beyond the Clouds (p. 85) – review of Second Sight’s DVD edition of Michelangelo Antonioni’s last feature;
• Cherche toujours (p. 85) – review of Doriane Films’ DVD of an engaging French documentary about physicists carrying out pure “what if?” research;
• Phantom/The Grand Duke’s Finances (p. 88) – review of Masters of Cinema’s DVD double-bill of two of F.W. Murnau’s more obscure (but still worthwhile) early films;
• Two Daughters (p. 89) – review of Mr Bongo’s DVD of Satyajit Ray’s lovely Tagore diptych – sadly, not the original triptych.

The latest Sight & Sound is out, complete with the following pieces by me:

• Social construct (p. 12) – interview with Lithuanian sculptor-turned-video artist Deimantas Narkevičius on the eve of the BFI Southbank unveiling of his latest installation;
• Colin (p. 52) – review of Marc Price’s unavoidably rough-edged (the reported budget was £45!) but rather impressive zombie film;
• Katalin Varga (p. 69) – review of Peter Strickland’s very promising directorial debut, filmed in Transylvania in languages that he didn’t actually speak at the time;
• Diary for My Children (p. 85) – review of Second Run’s excellent DVD of the first part of Márta Mészáros’s autobiographical trilogy;
• Films by Tony Richardson (p. 89) – namely Look Back in Anger, Mademoiselle and Joseph Andrews, all out on Optimum DVDs;
• Films by Jacques Rivette (p. 89) – namely Jeanne la Pucelle and Secret Défense, all out on Artificial Eye DVDs.

The February 2009 issue of Sight & Sound is out now, complete with the following contributions by me:

• cinema review of Boogie (d. Radu Muntean, Romania)
• short Blu-ray review of Baraka (d. Ron Fricke, 1992, US)

plus short DVD reviews of:

• I Was A Soldier (d. Michael Grigsby, 1970, UK)
• Of Love and Eggs (d. Garin Nugroho, 2004, Indonesia)
• Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow (d. Vittorio de Sica, 1963, Italy)
• The Ruling Class (d. Peter Medak, 1972, UK)
• Winter Soldier (d. Fred Aronow et al, 1972, US)
• Legend of the Surami Fortress (d. Sergo Paradjanov, 1984, USSR)
• Ashik Kerib (d. Sergo Paradjanov, 1988, USSR)

The Paradjanov reviews are a follow-up to a full-page feature that I wrote exactly two years earlier, which looked at all DVD releases of his films to date. Happily, both these new Artificial Eye discs turned out to be a clear first choice for those titles (the one for Legend of the Surami Fortress restores most of the original Georgian soundtrack, missing from the Russian-dubbed Ruscico edition), even if an ideal version of The Colour of Pomegranates still remains a pipe dream.

The January 2009 issue of Sight & Sound has been delivered, and includes the following pieces under my byline:

• ‘The weight of the world’ – this month’s lead review, of Béla Tarr’s The Man From London (pages 54-55, and also online)

plus these individual DVD reviews:

• Cinema 16: World Cinema Shorts (page 93)
• Fighters/Real Money (pages 93-4)
• Mad Detective (page 94)
• Wim Wenders Documentaries (page 95)
• Missing (page 97)
• The Hourglass Sanatorium (page 98)

The December 2008 issue of Sight & Sound has just landed on my desk, and includes the following self-penned pieces:

• ‘That loving feeling’ – this month’s lead review, of Djamshed Usmonov’s To Get To Heaven First You Have To Die (pages 48-49, and online)
• Book review of Peter Hames’ (ed) The Cinema of Jan Svankmajer: Dark Alchemy (page 93)

plus these individual DVD reviews:

• Eureka (page 85)
• The GPO Film Unit Volume 1: Addressing the Nation (page 85)
• The Living End (page 86)
• Films by Max Ophuls: Caught and La Ronde (page 87)
• Pleasures of the Flesh (page 87)
• Red Desert (page 87)
• Tigrero – A Film That Was Never Made (page 87)
• J’Accuse (page 89)

The November 2008 issue of Sight & Sound has arrived from the printers, and features ten pieces with my byline, namely:

• ‘South by Southeast’ – a report from the Sarajevo Film Festival (page 8 )
• Love Letters and Live Wires – Highlights from the GPO Film Unit’ – film review (page 64, and also online)
• ‘Dark Days of Salò’ – a look at the various new editions of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s last film (page 84)

plus these individual DVD reviews:

• King of New York (page 85)
• Kings of the Road (page 85)
• Love is the Devil (page 86)
• Films by Maurice Pialat: L’Enfance nue and Police (page 86)
• Uniform (page 87)
• Violence at High Noon (page 87)
• Brand Upon the Brain! (page 88)

The latest Sight & Sound is out, complete with the following pieces by me:

• Ex Drummer (p. 61) – review of Koen Mortier’s would-be transgressive Belgian drama, which tries a little too hard to offend everybody;
• The Extras (p. 62) – review of Michał Kwieciński’s enjoyable if formulaic Polish-Chinese culture-clash romantic comedy;
• ‘Gods and monsters (p. 100) – review of Masters of Cinema’s latest F.W. Murnau DVDs: Nosferatu and Tabu;
• Bamako (p. 101) – review of Artificial Eye’s DVD of Abderrahmane Sissako’s politically adventurous Malian drama;
• The Brides of Dracula (p. 101) – review of Showbox’s DVD of Hammer’s sequel to their groundbreaking Dracula, without Christopher Lee but Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing is ample compensation;
• Gabrielle (p. 102) – review of Artificial Eye’s DVD of Patrice Chéreau’s deliberately stifling adaptation of Joseph Conrad’s The Return;
• Golden Door (p. 102) – review of Optimum’s DVD of Emanuele Crialese’s sumptuously mounted drama about Sicilian immigrants to the New World;
• It’s Winter (p. 102) – review of Artificial Eye’s DVD of Rafi Pitts’ appropriately chilly portrait of an unemployed Iranian man;
• Films by René Laloux (p. 102) – reviews of Masters of Cinema’s separate DVD editions of Les Maîtres du temps and Gandahar, lesser-known sci-fi animated features by the maker of Fantastic Planet;
• Theorem (p. 103) – review of the BFI’s excellent edition of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s perennially perplexing film-puzzle;
• I Even Met Happy Gypsies (p. 105) – review of Delta Video’s DVD of Aleksandar Petrović’s Yugoslav cinema milestone: forgotten in the West but a clear influence on Emir Kusturica and Tony Gatlif’s gypsy films;
• Ten Bad Dates with De Niro – A Book of Alternative Movie Lists (p. 109) – review of Richard Kelly’s entertaining compilation, including such delights as ‘Ten of the Unlikeliest Films Ever Judged the Best of All Time’, ‘Ten Films That Traumatised Me When I Was Younger’ and ‘Manicure Madness’ (‘Ten Shining Examples of Notable Nail Varnish’).