Browse films by title with CW new film archive.

Darwin on the couch

Creation, directed by Jon Amiel (2009)

We pity Darwin, not because of the political, academic and religious challenges he faces in trying to get his ideas out, but because of his overwhelming need to gain emotional ‘closure’.

‘We were all right.’

Freefall, written and directed by Dominic Savage for the BBC

Perhaps the real tragedy is the lack of any channel for Jim’s aspirations other than a chance encounter with a dodgy salesman. But actually, the moment when this security guard starts looking in shop windows as a potential consumer, rather than just someone paid to guard stuff for someone else, is a moving one.

Theatre, Life, Death, God, Love and Faith - yet an un-Bergmanesque Bergman

A comparison of the film and television versions of Fanny and Alexander, by Ingmar Bergman

As with many Bergman characters, Helen’s profession as an actor is her life. Among the deleted scenes are several soliloquies where she says that her life is a masquerade, putting a shocking spin on what is seen in the film version.

Passing through

Wendy and Lucy, directed by Kelly Reichardt (2008)

Wendy’s car becomes an interesting symbol. Without it she can’t take her dog anywhere, and it’s devastating to find out that the cost of repairing it is more than she can afford. It is never seen being driven, and this combined with her dependance on it suggests it represents employment.

The birds and the bees on DVDs

The Joy of Sex Education (2009), various directors (BFI Video)

While individually interesting, viewed together the films provide a remarkable snapshot of images of personal and intimate life in Britain in the twentieth century and of changing aspirations and representations of the good life. They also provide an important record of government and quasi-government attempts at informing and regulating sexual behaviour.

A multifunctional gem

Fuck (2005), directed by Steve Anderson

Would you have thought a self-described ‘fuckumentory’ featuring Ice-T couldn’t be enlightening? Think again. Perhaps surprisingly, it is wordsmith Ice who provides some of the funniest and most convincing examples of when no other word will do. 

Metalheads

Anvil! The Story of Anvil (2008), directed by Sacha Gervasi

On the one hand the other set pieces are made to be real and they’re all real people even if they sometimes do unrealistically apt things. But on the other hand it’s completely insane in context and nearly too funny to be true.

This rotting metropolis

Akira (1988), directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo

There is enough going on with Akira, visually and intellectually, to keep it engaging. Perhaps its unique selling point is that it depicts a city that is both pre-and post-apocalyptic, cut off from its destructive past but consequently in fear of its future. Neo Tokyo is all too familiar.

Future un-presented

PHOTOCINEMA, Format International Photography Festival 2009, Derby, UK

Unlike a typical documentary photograph, making reference to an event which has already occurred, these images can be seen to inhabit a more flexible, perhaps even timeless, space, allowing the viewer to contemplate both a possible past and future.

Marines make do

Generation Kill, directed by Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones / produced and written by David Simon, Ed Burns et al (HBO)

What would it be like to find yourself in a humvee in the desert in the middle of Operation Iraqi Freedom, surrounded by grunts who speak in an impenetrable military argot littered with code words and acronyms, and who don’t know what’s going on anyway? It would be confusing, that’s what. Welcome to Generation Kill.

Real dogs

Slumdog Millionaire (2008), directed by Danny Boyle & Loveleen Tandan

CW’s second review of the box office smash Slumdog Millionaire argues it is neither Bollywood nor completely realist, yet holds uncomfortable truths about slum life.

Beyond the colonial us and them

Straits of Chosun, directed by Park Ki-Chae

By smoothly incorporating the familiarly American melodramatic romance model into the story of one man’s military enrolment, the Korean production team behind this film created a convincing, and implicit Japanese propaganda piece that challenges dichotomies between colonisers and colonised.

Dancing with depth

Who Killed Nancy? directed by Alan G Parker

If you want to know who killed Nancy then this is the film for you. If you want a humourous and interesting exploration of the eclectic lives of rock musicians then you could do worse, but they could do a lot better.

Emasculated murderers

Chugyeogja [The Chaser] (2008), directed by Hong-jin Na

Far from contemporary sleek action sequences or shoot-outs, the audience is privy to a sequence of slips, breathless chases, wrestles and slaps, which are distinctly ‘girly’.

Film Focus Alfred Hitchcock, -Jan

Film director of the month, January 2009

Culture Wars writers take a closer look at some of Hitchcock’s key works in order to understand both his artistic methods, but also the impact these films have on the modern audiences.