The 1970s Crime Season!

In one of the many well deserved tributes that were paid to Sidney Lumet just after his death in 2011, Woody Allen said that Lumet was "The quintessential New York filmmaker."

I have no wish to argue with that in terms of the level of praise that Allen was handing out to Lumet by saying this, but Lumet was much more than a 'New York filmmaker'. He made a number of films in the UK, for instance, and clearly enjoyed working here on numerous different levels. Throughout film history there has been a tendency for American directors to make 'British films' that don't feel British at all, but that was never the case with Lumet.

Case…

Can we all just pause for a minute to reflect on what an immense genius Sidney Lumet was? This is the tenth of his films I've seen, and with each new one I watch he continues to amaze me. The hugely stylised opening to The Offence grabs us in an embrace of chilled curiosity, the imposing figure of a menacing Sean Connery stood over a pile of crumpled bodies exactly what we need to get us interested in a long series of chatty discourses to follow. Lumet's camera swoops and glides in confined spaces, recalling 12 Angry Men in the way he manages to use a room as a character, as important to the storytelling as any of his actors.…

Wow. This one just blew me away. Based on John Hopkins' play, Lumet tells the story of a used up and burned-out cop and he does this superbly.

The signs of it being based on a play hardly show in the first 20 minutes. It takes on the guise of yet another serial killer film. It is not, however, which becomes apparent soon enough.

This film is about how much a man can take before he snaps. Usually, we get to see the reasons for why a character reaches breaking point. Here, we don't, we get to see snippets. But it's mainly about the breaking point itself and the resulting aftermath. Lumet does show us bits and pieces of the…

Sean Connery has never been a very good actor but Lumet has always managed to get the best out of him (the other film they worked on was the equally excellent The Hill). Here he plays a no nonsense cop on the trail of a pervert. But this isn't a typical crime film, in fact it isn't a crime film at all, as the suspect is caught easily with little fanfare. Instead the film is about the detective's emotional unravelling. Based on a stage play the film keeps its theatrical roots for all to see as the film plays out over four double-header scenes. Connery is in every single one of them and is a real magnetic presence (although he…

This is my first film as part of Phip's Adapted April Challenge.

The Offence is a film that doesn't hold anything back. The acting and dialogue are full-throttle here. While Connery may be known for his role as 007, he most certainly gives his best performance here, large in part to the direction of Sidney Lumet.

Connery plays a no bullshit cop; who after some time with his perverted suspect, comes to realize just how much of monster he himself is. While he accuses Bannen of the molestations, Lumet uses a keen sense of direction by showing us Connery's thought process. While at first the audience thinks that he's imagining what Bannen did, they soon realize that it's really Connery's…

This is my first film as part of Phip's Adapted April Challenge.

The Offence is a film that doesn't hold anything back. The acting and dialogue are full-throttle here. While Connery may be known for his role as 007, he most certainly gives his best performance here, large in part to the direction of Sidney Lumet.

Connery plays a no bullshit cop; who after some time with his perverted suspect, comes to realize just how much of monster he himself is. While he accuses Bannen of the molestations, Lumet uses a keen sense of direction by showing us Connery's thought process. While at first the audience thinks that he's imagining what Bannen did, they soon realize that it's really Connery's…

The 1970s Crime Season!

In one of the many well deserved tributes that were paid to Sidney Lumet just after his death in 2011, Woody Allen said that Lumet was "The quintessential New York filmmaker."

I have no wish to argue with that in terms of the level of praise that Allen was handing out to Lumet by saying this, but Lumet was much more than a 'New York filmmaker'. He made a number of films in the UK, for instance, and clearly enjoyed working here on numerous different levels. Throughout film history there has been a tendency for American directors to make 'British films' that don't feel British at all, but that was never the case with Lumet.

Case…

Uno de los mayores placeres que puede haber para un aficionado al cine es encontrarse con una película desconocida que resulta ser una pequeña joya, escondida entre miles de títulos y esperando a ser redescubierta. La sorpresa es aún mayor cuando el director de la película es alguien consagrado en la industria y reverenciado por varias generaciones de cineastas y cinéfilos, y el actor principal una de las mayores estrellas del cine de las últimas cuatro décadas. El director Sidney Lumet estuvo más de 50 años detrás de las cámaras y en su filmografía se encuentran obras que son piedras angulares de la historia del cine, como 12 hombres sin piedad (1957), Tarde de perros (1975), Serpico (1973) o Network…