I wouldn’t normally use the title of a film as the heading for a blogpost about it. But how can you improve on Powertool Cheerleaders vs the Boyband of the Screeching Dead? It’s the best movie title I’ve come across for a long time. And the film is every bit as entertaining. It’s the latest … Continue reading
Category Archives: Romance
Nine festive romance movies for Christmas
Another Covid Christmas means less fun than we’d like, but for many of us at least there is a vast amount of entertainment at our fingertips. Following on from the Halloween horror list, compiled by her MetFilm School colleague, Pete Appleyard, romcom expert Dr Alice Guilluy, presents her top tips for midwinter viewing. Dr Guilluy … Continue reading
Short films project finds success in competitions
A series of short screenplays, known as The Annalium Project (featured in this blog earlier this year), has been finding success in international competitions. The project’s creator (my pal) Robert Lancey had been hoping to have started filming the first film ‘Sssss’ by now, but the continuing COVID-19 pandemic has kept that on hold until … Continue reading
Over the forest and into adventure – Annalium goes online
An intriguing series of short, dialogue-free screenplays, has now gone online. Annalium is the work of Cardiff-based writer (and my pal) Robert Lancey, who has created a website to showcase the screenplays and their potential to be realised on screen. Each opens with a flight over a forest, and then a descent through the treetops … Continue reading
When Daniel met Isla – a clever and engaging short film ‘One Another’
A boring and bored man, unhappily married and hating his job, unexpectedly encounters a beautiful woman. He’s captivated, and she leads him on an exciting adventure. It’s a familiar male fantasy, which has formed the basis for some memorable films – Edward G Robinson and Joan Bennett in Fritz Lang’s Scarlet Street (1945) and Gene … Continue reading
How Talking Pictures found the perfect nostalgic formula
The idea of a channel devoted to classic films isn’t new, but in the UK Talking Pictures TV has found what seems to be the perfect nostalgic formula. While TCM (Turner Classic Movies) has been around since the 1990s and more recently Sony Movies has launched a dedicated ‘Classic’ channel, these and others tend to … Continue reading
The Thief of Bagdad: a childhood spectacle of colour on a rainy day
Can you remember the first film you saw on colour TV? I can remember mine because, by pure luck, it was a spectacular timeless classic that had me glued to the screen – The Thief of Bagdad. It was a rainy August Bank Holiday in 1975. As a family, we were late adopters: for whatever … Continue reading
Rediscovering Sparrows Can’t Sing and its cast of future stars
It’s interesting to watch an old film and spot a future star in a small role. I noticed some of Hollywood’s biggest names when I rewatched Annie Hall, and recently I enjoyed a whole cast of soon-to-be-big actors in the British comedy-drama Sparrows Can’t Sing. This is a fascinating film in many ways. I hadn’t … Continue reading
The Story of 90 Coins – simple, engaging, and captivating
The Story of 90 Coins is a beautiful little film, marking the directorial debut of Malaysian film-maker Michael Wong. He tells me it is inspired by a true story, which just adds to its appeal – with a running time just over nine minutes and with only three characters, it’s a simple, engaging, and captivating … Continue reading
Meet Mhairi Calvey – the in-demand actress, whose career started, age 5, eating donuts with Mel Gibson!
From the role of Young Murron in Mel Gibson’s Oscar-winning Braveheart to in-demand lead in a huge range of features and shorts, Mhairi Calvey‘s career has come a long way in the last 25 years. As an actor, she has some exciting feature films on the way, and is also writing and directing her own … Continue reading