Favorite films

Recent reviews

• 

  Washington Story 1952

  ★★ Watched 06 Dec 2023

  Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, but dull.

• 

  Pandora's Box 1929

  ★★★★½ Rewatched 05 Dec 2023

  Lulu's back in town.
  
  Louise Brooks is now as much a legend as Pandora's Box. A performance and look of the twenties, but utterly modern, timeless.
  An astonishing and astonishingly daring film, beautiful and beautifully directed.

Popular reviews

• 

  Two Women 1960

  ★★★★ Watched 09 Feb 2019

  Two Women could have been a very different film. Originally envisioned as an Italian/ American co-production to star Anna Magnani as the mother and 26 year old Sophia Loren as the daughter it was to have been directed by Hollywood legend George Cukor. However Magnani dropped out (possibly as she felt she was too young to play Loren's mother) as did Cukor and Paramount. Former Italian neorealist Vittorio de Sica (he of Bicycle Thieves) took over the direction, gave Loren…

• 

  The Big Heat 1953

  ★★★★ Watched 03 Jan 2016 4

  Fritz Lang is undoubtedly one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, but whereas he was a god in his early years in Germany, he was rather consumed by the machine when he made the move to Hollywood. His Hollywood films aren't as individual, as visual, as idiosyncratic, as big or as mad, but he was still more than capable of making a highly effective movie and this sure is that. The Big Heat is probably his last…

Following