253. Walkabout
If you need three things to make a good film; a good script, a good script and a good script, how did Nicolas Roeg make a masterpiece from just fourteen pages?
Tag Archives: adaptation
249. All About My Mother
Once dismissed as The King of Kitsch, this masterpiece proved Pedro Almodovar was really a laureate of liberalism.
248. Writers
All films begin at a keyboard. But whether the film is about screenwriters, journalists, novelists or composers, how does cinema depict the art of writing?
245. Touch of Evil
Orson Welles is often referred to as a glistening talent who wasted his early promise. Touch of Evil, the last film he made in America, proves otherwise.
241. The Man in the High Castle
Philip K Dick was haunted by many dark visions of the future. None more frightening than his alternate-history from 1962.
227. Blue is the Warmest Color
Blue is the Warmest Color generated controversy with its love scenes. But at three hours long, there’s more to it than that.
225. Diva
Like many other cult classics, the French thriller Diva was almost still born. Rejected by the French critics and public, it only got a second lease of life in the US.
223. Pan’s Labyrinth
Guillermo del Toro says he is “in love with monsters.” In Pan’s Labyrinth, set in the Spanish Civil War, he uses them to navigate history and the world.
221. Children of Men
Science-fiction sometimes predicts the future. Released a decade ago, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men grows more prophetic as the years go by.
220. City of God
Adapted from Paolo Lin’s non-fiction novel, director Fernando Meirelles cast non-actors to capture life, death and everything in-between in Rio’s favelas.
218. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
An unknown author, a director not known for action, and only one actor fluent in the language. How did this film succeed?
217. Great Scenes – Part Three
What makes for a great scene? Performance? Conflict? Dialogue? Visuals? Music? Combine them and you have atomic weight.
215. Great Scenes – Part One
What makes for a great scene? Performance? Conflict? Dialogue? Visuals? Music? Combine them and you have atomic weight.
213. Cinema Sex
Orson Welles was one of cinema’s true geniuses but was he correct in claiming that two things cinema couldn’t honestly depict were prayer and sex?
211. Dangerous Liaisons
Chodleros De Laclos’ novel has inspired plays, operas and ballets. But none match the debauched panache of Stephen Frears’ film.
210. Adaptation.
If writers are told to write from experience, is Charlie Kaufman’s adaptation of Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book not really Kaufman’s autobiography?
208. The French Connection
William Friedkin’s Oscar-winner may be a gritty thriller but it owes an enormous debt to a classic of 19th century American literature.
205. Fargo
When released in 1996, Fargo was seen as the Coen brothers’ breakthrough film. As the years roll by it has increasingly become a lynch pin in their canon.
202. #Shakespeare400
He died in 1616 but the fact that over four hundred films have been made from his plays shows how much The Bard knew about human nature.
195. Minority Report
Critics often chide Steven Spielberg for inappropriate optimism and not knowing when to end his films. They should reconsider Minority Report.
194. All The President’s Men
This Oscar winning adaptation of Woodward and Bernstein’s book is one of the great masterpieces of American cinema.
192. Wuthering Heights
Emily Brontë’s novel has been filmed over 25 times. Is there a line between radical interpretation and reckless desecration?
187. The Revenant
Originally pitched as a simple story of revenge, under Alejandro Inarritu’s direction The Revenant became a journey of spiritual release.
185. In the Name of the Father
The story of Gerry and Giuseppe Conlon is one of injustice, but it is also a unique retelling of Carlo Collodi’s Pinocchio.
