“One is starved for Technicolor up there.”
- Conductor 71

They made crazy-inventive movies back in 1946.

Wow. So many scenes took my breath away... the scene at the lake perhaps most off all... until the final 20 minutes, during which I’m not sure I breathed at all.

First viewing in seven years and the first for my 10 year-old daughter. While some of the CGI has naturally aged quite poorly, it’s still nothing short of magnificent how perfect a job Peter Jackson did with these movies... especially in the context of the disaster that was to come with the Hobbit.

I still remember seeing this for the very first time on the big screen and, as a complete Lord of the Rings geek, I couldn’t believe I had just seen such a perfect encapsulation of Tolkien’s original story. It left me breathless.

Second viewing in a week, this time on the big screen (I’m lucky enough to have that option). The cinematography of the closing act, ‘The Lighthouse’, from the shot of Natalie Portman standing on the deserted beach, is perfection. It’s a masterpiece of sci-fi moviemaking and absolutely my favourite film of the year so far.