The Oscar Ceremony Awards

Notes on the Title Cards of The Lord of the Rings

It might be sacrilege for one who both considers The Lord of the Rings trilogy to be one of the greatest triumphs of cinema and has been an avid lover of the films since adolescence, to declare that the original theatrical cuts of the films are better than the much beloved extended editions. Easily it’s my most controversial opinion regarding these movies. Don’t get me wrong, I do like the extended editions quite a lot, especially as someone who just enjoys spending time in that universe. They flesh it out more, add extra flavour, and in increasing the length by about an hour really emphasize the epic quality of these films. But I find that the original cuts are generally more cleanly paced, more seamlessly edited, and much more accessible to audiences. All the stuff there is to love about The Lord of the Rings is there in the original versions, the plethora of new and extended scenes merely add to that for fans. And of those, they fall into three camps for me: 1....

The Subtle Sensitivity of the Cinema of Wong Kar-wai

When I think of Wong Kar-wai, I think of nighttime and neon lights, I think of the image of lonely people sitting in cafes or bars as the world passes behind them, mere flashes of movement; I think of love and quiet, sombre heartbreak, the sensuality that exists between people but is rarely fully or openly expressed. Mostly I think of the mood of melancholy, yet how this can be beautiful, colourful, inspiring even. A feeling of gloominess at the complexity of messy human relationships, though tinged with an unmitigated joy in the sensation of that feeling. And a warmth, generated by light and colour, that cuts through to the solitude of our very soul. This isn’t a broadly definitive quality of Wong’s body of work -certainly it isn’t so much true of his martial arts films Ashes of Time and The Grandmaster. But those most affectionate movies on my memory: Chungking Express , Fallen Angels , Happy Together , 2046 , of course In the Mood for Love , and even My Blueberry Nig...

Blackadder: A Reassessment of My Favourite(?) TV Show

The Foretelling: “Blackadder, Blackadder! With many a cunning plan. Blackadder, Blackadder! You horrid little man!” (Series One, End Credits Song) Though it’s still fairly little-known outside the U.K. and Europe, for the last forty years Blackadder has held a space as one of the great landmark comedies in British television history -consistently ranking high in assessments of the best British shows. It played a pivotal role in launching the careers of several prominent British icons -most notably Rowan Atkinson, but also Richard Curtis -the series’ creator, Stephen Fry, and Hugh Laurie. Across it’s canonical four series between 1983 and 1989 and three one-off specials between 1988 and 1999, it had a significant influence in the world of British comedy, and specifically became one of the defining works in the sadly largely untapped subgenre of historical comedy. It has also had a great influence on me personally, who at fifteen came across a rerun of it on a Canadian BB...

Reviews of the Bosch

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