Wrote this piece on Watching Bertolucci's 1900 for the MostlyFilm blog.
Amusingly, it consistently remained in the top three Most Read posts on the blog because of the dodgy search terms.
Anyway, this was one of the all-time great cinema experiences.
The following write-up originally appeared as a blog post on ViewLondon.
Last weekend I watched thirteen straight hours (from 7.25pm on Saturday through to 8.25am on Sunday) of Christian Marclay's The Clock at the Purcell Room in the Hayward Gallery. I then slept, on and off, between 8.22 and 11.45 (I saw 10am, for example) because I wanted to see mid-day and I eventually left at 12.15pm on Sunday. I also live-tweeted the experience from 9.39pm until 8.26pm (when my…
The following notes were originally scribbled in the Film Notebook I kept between 1989 and 1997.
“Saw it again. To elaborate on the comments of 3/7/92 (see previous Letterboxd entry), I spotted more this time round because I could relax with it. It’s still brilliant though – it’s got *everything* in it. References to Casablanca, direct uses of Sunset Boulevard, lots of winks to Hitchcock (including a close-up of his portrait) and loads of great tense, yet comic scenes (the conference, the police station, the line-up etc). Great innovative sex scene too. I could watch this again and *still* pick up more.”
The following notes were originally scribbled in the Film Notebook I kept between 1989 and 1997.
“Not bad. Day-Lewis is *excellent*, as is, er…the woman.* Lots of excellent ‘running scenes’ (which are great in movies, as Don Siegel knew). Glorification of violence and loving slow pans along long rifles courtesy of Mann, the creator of Miami Vice. Some great scenes (the waterfall, the fights, the end), but ultimately uninvolving.**”
2022 Footnotes
*No disrespect to Madeleine Stowe intended. That’s what happened…
You know when you come out of a movie and you go, “God DAMN, that was really fucking great”? That.
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Reviewed for Hero Collector.
Really enjoyed Boiling Point, a terrific single-take thriller, starring Stephen Graham as the highly pressurised head chef of a busy restaurant. Great ensemble cast, gripping script, excellent deployment of Chekhov’s Nut Allergy.
