Browse films by title with CW new film archive.

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.

Dread and existentialism

Alfred Hitchcock Presents: The Case of Mr. Pelham (1955), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

As always, Hitchcock is having a field day with one of America’s sacred cows, the business world. The guy who has completely lost his soul and is completely without meaning is by far the best businessman.

In hopeless emptiness

Revolutionary Road (2008), directed by Sam Mendes

The problem is that the Wheelers are an empty shell, remnants of a meaningful past of which they have no recollection. Their fight then is useless from the very outset, for it lacks any foundation.

Hitchcock’s choices

Rope (1948), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

To say that Stewart is miscast is to make him an unfair scapegoat for a script that sees him u-turn from espousing Nietzschean theories of superior beings being able to justly murder inferiors to an adoption of mainstream American values

A film without an expiration date

Chung Hing sam lam [Chungking Express] (1994), directed by Kar Wai Wong

Wong has commented that the film’s two stories are essentially the same. Motifs and images are repeated, binding the plots together. Distance, time and missed opportunities are recurring themes.

Paris 1936, 1968, 2007, today

Faubourg 36 [Paris 36] (2008), directed by Christophe Barratier

Needless to say, amidst the ever-playing piano accordion, Parisian skylines and distracting caricatures it is sometimes easy to forget the troubled times of Paris in 1936 were just as real as the recession we face today.

The rise and fall of an agent of change

Milk (2008), directed by Gus Van Sant

The film unpicks the complex dynamic in the American political system that lead both to the rise and the inevitable fall of this charismatic agent of change. It is laden with the complexity of social dynamics within modern society through its depiction of a tragic inevitability.

The first step?

The 39 Steps (1935), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

With the benefit of hindsight and study in a post-Hitchcock world, this tale of an everyday man thrust into a world of espionage, assumed identities and rom-com banter can be referred to and considered as part of a canon, rather than a stand-alone film.

Boy + Girl

Boogie (2008), directed by Radu Muntean / Hîrtia va fi albastră [The Paper Will Be Blue] (2006), directed by Radu Muntean

Muntean’s second film has featured in a few festivals throughout the last few years, but without much luck of finding distribution. His third found its way much quicker to the cinema screens. The question to ask is why a film about an ordinary couple having an ordinary holiday is deemed more appealing for foreign audiences than one about the social consequences of the 1989 revolution?

Wrapped around Ingrid Bergman

Notorious (1946), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

The power of the story lies ultimately in the portrayal of Alicia by Ingrid Bergman; a complex character who is trying to atone for her father’s guilt while also putting her own frivolous past behind her.

Obey the fist

Clubbed (2009), directed by Neil Thompson

Mel Raido makes a great Danny. Initially he is weak and pathetic; he gets beaten up by a thug in a pub in front of his children, and his life plunges into despair. Depicted actively self harming, Danny is ruled by his fear and depression until he learns how to use it to his advantage.

Choose life

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

Danny Boyle’s incarnation of the Mumbai slums is the main startling achievement of the film. Here we are not just spectators, for the director forces us to penetrate the depths of a community that is vibrant, full of colours and madness.

Unravelling a nation’s psychic damage

Spellbound (1945), directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Psychology was a way to make sense of the madness of war and God’s silence at the violence and carnage of the Nazis. Hitchcock was using the plot to provide the sort of assurance his audience needed at the war’s end - the massive sacrifice had been for a meaningful purpose.

Responsibility in popular culture

Role Models (2008), directed by David Wain

The Frat Pack films have enhanced the notion that the goofy geek is also cool, that the thirty-something stoner is tolerable and of course the best of the adages: that everyone has the capacity to achieve. In condoning these approaches, mainstream adults and other over-achievers are consistently shown up as the true social losers.