Browse films by title with CW new film archive.

The wrong kind of freedom

The Trap: What Happened to our Dream of Freedom?, by Adam Curtis (first shown on BBC2, March 2007)

The conclusion of Adam Curtis’ three-part BBC series is that liberal democracies have diminished our humanity, not by deliberately setting out as the Communists did to make a perfect society, but simply by organising around an impoverished notion of freedom.

How Music Works

Written and presented by Howard Goodall, Channel 4 (UK)

Connoisseurs can probably nail down what makes Stevie Wonder’s songs and Bach’s cantatas timeless, while Beyoncé‘s ‘Déjà vu’ was an ephemeral hit. Yet this distinction does not come naturally. An appreciation of music has to be fostered, perhaps by documentaries like this - alas, Goodall’s programme does not deliver.

Death and the author

Infamous Douglas McGrath, Running Stumbled John Maringouin, Stranger Than Fiction Marc Forster

Despite the abundance of death in film history, the intellectualisation of the concept of death and its cathartic power necessary to the creation of art is still essentially virgin territory for the medium. The London Film Festival showed that there are now serious attempts to make up for this.

The invention of sound

Dickson Experimental Sound Film (1894), directed by William K.L. Dickson

Dickson wanted to record a sound film, and devised a situation to show off the effectiveness of his apparatus. As the synchronisation failed, he had little use for the film, not because it showed gay characters, but because Dickson Experimental Sound Film lacked sound.

Defining the film image

Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), directed by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince

The three-lens camera was more suited for Le Prince’s idea of what film should be able to capture, primarily because it imitated human vision, capable not only of grasping three-dimensionality within a flat tableau, but also creating the illusion of an all-surrounding three-dimensionality.

Welcome into the world of film

Dickson Greeting (1891), directed by William K.L. Dickson

Judging from his body language, Dickson is clearly performing for the camera, aware of the effect this might have over the spectator. It is just then to assume that the greeting into the world of motion pictures was fully intended by the filmmaker.

More Stupid Gits

A short history of British Public Information Films (part two)

Many films reek of the desperation of forty years spent trying to get the message across to these idiots. But perhaps PIFs are one of the prices we pay for being relatively free. Or, as governments might see it, the price authority has to pay for letting people remain free.

Cold Mountain

Anthony Minghella

Cold Mountain is very much a product of its times. It is set during the final years of the American Civil War, one of the most important chapters in the history of the USA. It was a period of dramatic fighting between the North and South, and the Yankees’ victory led to the abolition of the slavery. Yet Cold Mountain is entirely indifferent to this grand narrative and the whole point of this momentous period.