films

The Essential British Films

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By Tom Jolliffe

Any film student worth their salt will tell you that absolutely essential viewing is Withnail & I. When I started at University studying film about 100 years ago give or take (actually it was 14 years ago) I hadn’t seen Withnail. Within two weeks of starting it became apparent that I had not actually lived, and thus needed to see it immediately. I watched it, I like it but upon that first viewing it didn’t quite inseminate me fully with its genius. The second time I got it. The third, fourth and beyond, the film just got better and better.

This is a film that represents Britain at its cinematic finest. Firstly it beautifully captures the [ . . . ]

Read Full List: The Essential British Films

Ken Loach Interview

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Fresh from his Outstanding British Film BAFTA win for I, Daniel Blake, Ken Loach tells me how troubled he is by the lack of working class voices at the ceremony. Typical of his quiet modesty, there is no mention of the film’s multiple successes or of the award itself, nor the second Palme d’Or of Loach’s career after The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Instead, he’s more interested in an issue that has been at the heart of his ground-breaking cinema for over fifty years.“The people who presented the prizes, never mind the people who won, there were more presenters from Eton than any working class voices. You heard no working class voices amongst the presenters. Where were all the voices from the regions? I didn’t hear one. Where are the voices from the working class Londoners? I didn’t hear one. I mean, just think about the image they’re projecting. Why does every presenter have to be posh?” [ . . . ]

Read Full Interview: The Quietus | Film | Film Features | The Voices From The Regions: Ken Loach interviewed

Hitchcock experts rush to defend director over Tippi Hedren’s claims of sexual harassment

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Actress says she repelled advances on The Birds set but film crew dispute story.

Cinema historians, former cast and crew and Alfred Hitchcock’s official biographer have rushed to the defence of the director after claims that he sexually harassed and bullied actress Tippi Hedren during the filming of The Birds in the 1960s

 

Source: Hitchcock experts rush to defend director over Tippi Hedren’s claims of sexual harassment | Film | The Guardian